Chapter 183: Chapter 183
"Are you paying now, or will you pay in a few days?" The young man wiped the rain from his face and, incidentally, his bald head. He’d found it unexpectedly convenient since shaving it.
Mr. Jing hesitated. This was something he needed to discuss back home. Jing Shu sneered from the side. Go on, keep acting, all of you. I’m just waiting to see your true colors.
Director Zhang stopped the young man again. "Don’t rush them; let them think about it. Whether they pay now or later, they still have to pay. It’s just that if it’s delayed... well, let’s calculate it based on about two hundred square meters of land."
"We’ll definitely need a receipt to prove the payment, right?" Mr. Jing finally asked.
"Of course! You see, the internal documents already state that self-built houses require payment. When the time comes, your records will show the payments for illegal and self-built constructions," the young man said.
Mr. Jing felt it was a bit expensive. But it was indeed written that way; it couldn’t be fake, could it?
Director Zhang maintained a patient smile. If I get an extra 100 Virtual Coins each month, with a share for those involved, I’ll give my two subordinates a tenth. The rest will be just enough to afford a daughter-in-law without being financially constrained.
Jing Shu saw that the act was over, so she didn’t wait for Mr. Jing to hesitate any longer. She stepped forward and said, "Dad, let’s wait a few more days until the official charges are implemented before we pay."
"Hey, you ungrateful girl! In a few days, you’ll have to pay 200 Virtual Coins a month," the young man blurted out urgently.
"Ha, pay two hundred? If you have the guts, demolish all of this," Jing Shu scoffed. Only fools who don’t grasp the concept of Virtual Coins and money, and don’t know how to negotiate, would fall for this. If Mom were here and knew about the 200 Virtual Coins, she would definitely freak out.
"You think I don’t dare demolish it? Just wait, I’ll find someone to tear it all down," another young man boasted hotly.
Jing Shu rolled her eyes. "Originally, I didn’t want to expose you. You’re just a housing allocation officer and a housing distribution director, deciding where everyone lives. Indeed, people beg you for a good location. But what right and qualification do you have to collect Virtual Coins? Don’t think I don’t know. The state first opened the trading system to a batch of officials for a pilot operation, and now you’re acting all high and mighty, as if you’re the government itself collecting money?"
"Pilot... pilot operation?" Mr. Jing, who also worked at the animal husbandry farm, knew nothing about it.
Jing Shu covered her face. As a prophet, there’s a certain helplessness. It’s like knowing the secret behind a magic trick and then watching a magician perform. At that point, you’re not watching the magic; you’re watching the magician earnestly deceiving people, putting on a show. The thought that flashed through my mind was: ’Their expressions are still a bit off. There’s a flaw here. If they tweaked it, it would be much better.’
Jing Shu nodded. "Yes, they’ve only opened the transaction system in the big data network to certain officials for a pilot run. It won’t be long before it’s open to everyone. Insider info: future unpaid mortgages will be payable directly through the big data system."
Hearing they were exposed by someone in the know, the three men felt extremely ashamed and resentful. Director Zhang’s face stiffened. He blustered, "Even so, if you build on public land, you still have to pay Virtual Coins! You think you can escape?" Follow current novels on N0veI.Fiɾe.net
Jing Shu laughed in anger, having never seen such shamelessness. "You’re in charge of Banana District’s allocation, right? Inside the district, if you declare it an illegal construction, then so be it. The state says one Virtual Coin per square meter, and we’ll pay. As for the back hill, haha, do you have any authority there? Or why don’t you go ahead and sue us?"
Sue? The courts are flooded. Criminal courts don’t even handle cases anymore; criminals are just directly caught by police officers and taken away as free labor. So what? I build a house in the middle of nowhere, and you think you can get an officer to come arrest me? Go ahead and try.
As for the structures built in the district, like the coal shed, we’ll definitely follow the rules. The coal shed naturally needs to be built beside the villa. By then, any resource that could be used as Fuel will be extremely precious. Building it on the back hill would probably result in someone prying away the coal along with the shed.
Mr. Jing’s mouth fell open in surprise. Sometimes he also wondered how his daughter, who was just a young girl, always seemed to be better informed than they, her parents, were. Then it hit him.
"So, you mean we just pay four Virtual Coins for the coal shed rent each month?"
Jing Shu nodded. "They can’t control the back hill." Fine, let them think I have a lot of insider information. It’s out there now anyway.
Mr. Jing was furious, grinding his teeth. He’d never imagined these government people would dare to scam him. "Aren’t they afraid we’d report them for doing this?"
"You paid one hundred Virtual Coins and think you got a bargain; would you go blabbing about it? They certainly won’t talk either. Besides, the national rule is one Virtual Coin per square meter, paid to the local government. But because management is chaotic, they’ve made a rule that each collects their own and doesn’t overstep boundaries. Even if you find out later and stop paying, they can’t do anything about it."
In the second year of the apocalypse, many such things happened. There were opportunistic government personnel, and they indeed held certain power in housing allocation.
Director Zhang was completely dumbfounded. How can someone understand the inner workings so well? Come on, you take this position then!
"Oh, so you want to meddle in things that aren’t your business too? Still thinking of extorting more of my Virtual Coins? I’ll give you something to really manage today! Damn it, all my life I’ve had to carefully hide every hundred yuan of my private savings, and you bastards think you can con me out of it?"
Mr. Jing’s sheepish temperament instantly transformed into that of a raging bull. He swung his sandbag-sized fists, one punch sending saliva flying, a second sending teeth dancing, a third beating them until they wouldn’t recognize their own parents, and by the fourth, they were cowering and scrambling away.
Mr. Jing had his sore spots too.
If anyone dared to target his private savings, it was like striking the most tender flesh of his heart.
What man doesn’t hide some private money? If his wife were to take it, he’d feel like a deflated ball, as if life had lost all meaning—let alone being swindled out of it by con artists.
Jing Shu hissed through her teeth, thoroughly enjoying the spectacle. The Spiritual Spring is truly amazing; look how it’s given Dad this fiery temper!
The three were no match for Mr. Jing. At first, they were still making threats like, "You just wait, I’m going to get people!" but soon they were just whimpering. The two young men finally managed to drag Director Zhang away as they fled.
"Ah, looks like my Virtual Coins won’t even get a chance to warm up before I have to hand them over to your mom," Mr. Jing said ruefully.
It would be great if the trading system never opened. Sometimes, just looking at the numbers is a kind of happiness in itself.
Regarding offending the director of a lucrative department, well, offense given was offense taken. They really had no way to deal with Jing Shu’s family. However, when it came to such unscrupulous people, Jing Shu generally preferred to resolve things civilly.
That meant pulling them down from their positions and then making them watch as her family ate well and lived comfortably. Jing Shu loved it: You clearly despise me to death, yet you have to watch me thrive and can do nothing about it.
I guess I’m the main villain, huh??
It was now 4:00 PM on January 5, 2024. The temperature was 36 degrees. For Jing Shu, it had been an extremely complex and long day.
Jing Shu looked at the bustling crowd at the villa’s gate and muttered, "Damn it, can they really bring over a thousand people to cause trouble? What’s going on?"