At six o’clock in the morning, Su Jinxiu splashed cold tap water over her face in the tiny rental apartment. The icy water jolted her awake.
She bought two pork buns from the breakfast stall downstairs and ate them as she walked. Her pace was noticeably quicker than it had been over the past few days.
Not because her health had improved—terminal liver cancer didn’t get better.
It was because every cell in her body was vibrating with excitement.
Back in the apartment, Su Jinxiu sat at the rickety folding table and opened her notebook to calculate the grand total.
The tip of her pen scratched across the paper.
Loans taken out under her own name: 4.6 million yuan.
Zhao Shiyu’s savings and online loans: 6.47 million yuan.
Zhao Zixuan’s savings and online loans: 7.33 million yuan.
Zhao Mingyuan’s savings and online loans: 26.67 million yuan.
Liu Wanqing’s savings and online loans: 13.87 million yuan.
She drew a thick line beneath the figures and wrote the final total.
58.94 million yuan.
Nearly sixty million.
Su Jinxiu stared at the number, unconsciously tapping the tabletop with her finger.
Sixty million yuan wasn’t an astronomical sum in 2018.
But if every cent were converted into supplies, stored inside her space, and brought back to 1970…
…it would amount to a national-level stockpile.
Combined with all the furniture, appliances, luxury goods, and household items she had already emptied out of Liu Wanqing’s and Zhao Mingyuan’s homes, her dimensional space was no longer empty.
But it was still far from enough.
What did 1970 lack?
Everything.
Medicine.
Food.
Seeds.
Machinery.
Fabric.
Tools.
Practically every product of modern civilization.
Closing the notebook, Su Jinxiu stood up and pulled a baseball cap low over her head.
Today marked the beginning of Phase Two—
Spending money.
Spending it like there was no tomorrow.
8:30 a.m.
Kangrui Medical Equipment Co., Ltd., Eastern Suburbs of the Provincial Capital
When Su Jinxiu pushed open the company’s front doors, the young receptionist looked up in surprise.
The plainly dressed, gray-haired elderly woman standing before her hardly looked like someone about to negotiate a major business deal.
“Good morning. Who are you here to see?”
“Your sales manager. I’m here to place an order.”
The receptionist hesitated before calling the sales department.
Five minutes later, a sharply dressed man in his early thirties hurried out with a professional smile.
“Hello, ma’am. I’m Zhang, the sales manager. May I ask—”
Without exchanging pleasantries, Su Jinxiu took an A4 sheet from her bag and handed it over.
“My purchase list.”
Manager Zhang glanced down.
His smile froze.
Complete surgical instrument sets — 100 sets.
General internal medicine diagnostic equipment — 50 sets.
Common medications (antibiotics, fever reducers, painkillers, anti-inflammatory drugs, trauma medicine, etc.) — 200 cases of each.
Sterilization equipment — 50 units.
Medical dressings — 500 cases.
Stethoscopes, blood pressure monitors, thermometers — 500 each.
Surgical sutures — 1,000 boxes.
Disposable syringes — 5,000 pieces.
…
The list filled two entire pages.
Manager Zhang slowly raised his head.
The way he looked at her had completely changed.
“Ma’am… are you planning to build a hospital?”
Su Jinxiu remained expressionless.
“Just tell me if you can deliver everything within three days.”
“With this volume…” He swallowed nervously while doing a quick mental calculation. “The total comes to around 5.8 million yuan. We’ll need—”
“A twenty percent deposit. One million one hundred sixty thousand yuan.”
She interrupted him calmly.
“I’ll transfer it immediately. The balance will be paid in full on delivery.”
Manager Zhang stood there in stunned silence for two seconds.
Then he sprinted back to his office faster than he had at any point during his ten years in sales.
Twenty minutes later, the contract had been signed and the deposit received.
Su Jinxiu tucked the contract away and left without wasting another second.
Manager Zhang hurried after her.
“Ma’am! Your delivery address?”
“Warehouse at No. 87 Yongfeng Road, South District.”
She didn’t even turn around.
“See you in three days.”
10:00 a.m.
Lüfeng Agricultural Technology Co., Ltd.
The process repeated itself.
When Su Jinxiu handed over her second purchase list, Manager Wang nearly sprayed coffee across the room.
Premium crop seeds (rice, wheat, corn, soybeans, vegetables, etc.) — 2,000 jin of each variety.
Compound fertilizer — 100 tons.
Pesticides — 200 cases.
Walking tractors — 20 units.
Water pumps — 30 units.
Sprinkler irrigation systems — 20 sets.
Drip irrigation systems — 20 sets.
Complete sets of farm tools (hoes, sickles, shovels, etc.) — 500 sets.
Manager Wang slowly lowered the list.
“Ma’am… are you planning to farm an entire county?”
Su Jinxiu took a sip of tea.
“What’s the total?”
“Around… 4.2 million yuan.”
“Twenty percent deposit. Eight hundred forty thousand.”
She set down her teacup.
“Bring me the contract.”
Manager Wang opened his mouth as if to ask questions, then wisely closed it again.
The money had already arrived.
Why ask any more?
The afternoon schedule was even busier.
1:30 p.m.
At the hardware and electrical machinery wholesale center, Su Jinxiu placed an order so enormous that the owner nearly dropped to his knees.
50 diesel generators.
200 solar panels.
100 energy storage battery systems.
5,000 meters of electrical wiring and cables in various specifications.
2,000 complete hardware tool kits.
…
Total value:
3.8 million yuan.
She paid a twenty percent deposit.
3:00 p.m.
Furniture wholesale market.
50 double beds.
100 single beds.
200 bedding sets.
400 pillows.
400 sets of sheets and duvet covers.
Total:
680,000 yuan.
Paid in full.
Same-day delivery.
4:00 p.m.
Fabric and clothing wholesale center.
1,000 sets of ready-made clothing (cotton jackets, shirts, trousers, underwear).
1,000 pairs of shoes.
2,000 towels.
3,000 pairs of socks.
Total:
450,000 yuan.
Paid in full.
5:00 p.m.
General merchandise wholesaler.
5,000 bars of soap.
5,000 toothbrushes and 5,000 tubes of toothpaste.
500 cases of sanitary pads.
500 bottles of shampoo.
100 towel blankets.
Total:
120,000 yuan.
Paid in full.
5:30 p.m.
Grain and cooking oil wholesale market.
50 tons of rice.
50 tons of flour.
20 tons of cooking oil.
20 tons of salt.
10 tons of sugar.
30 tons of dried goods and seasonings.
Total:
1.9 million yuan.
She paid a thirty percent deposit.
Every stop followed the exact same routine.
Hand over the purchase list.
Negotiate the price.
Sign the contract.
Pay.
Leave the delivery address.
Turn around and walk away.
No unnecessary conversation.
No hesitation.
Forty years of business experience had given Su Jinxiu an encyclopedic knowledge of market prices.
She knew exactly which supplier offered the best quality, which quoted the lowest prices, and which could deliver the fastest.
Her brain was a living database.
6:30 p.m.
No. 87 Yongfeng Road, South District
That morning, Su Jinxiu had rented an abandoned warehouse here for 3,000 yuan.
Five hundred square meters.
Corrugated metal roof.
Brick walls on all four sides.
No windows.
Just a single rolling steel door.
She had chosen it because it was remote and well hidden.
The first batch of goods had already arrived.
Furniture.
Daily necessities.
Clothing and fabrics.
Three large trucks were parked outside while workers unloaded boxes one after another.
Standing inside the warehouse, Su Jinxiu watched mountains of supplies steadily rise.
Finally, the last worker left.
With a loud metallic crash—
The rolling door slammed shut.
The warehouse fell silent.
She stood before the towering stacks of supplies and took a deep breath.
“Store.”
Fifty double beds—
Gone.
“Store.”
One hundred single beds—
Gone.
“Store.”
Two hundred bedding sets.
Four hundred pillows.
Gone.
“Store.”
One thousand sets of clothing.
One thousand pairs of shoes.
Gone.
Box after box.
Pile after pile.
Every time she spoke the word “Store,” the supplies vanished as though swept away by an invisible hand, disappearing from the real world and entering the boundless dimensional space within her mind.
Fifteen minutes later, the five-hundred-square-meter warehouse was completely empty once again.
Su Jinxiu closed her eyes and sensed the interior of her space.
Everything was perfectly organized.
The beds occupied one section.
The bedding another.
The clothes and shoes were neatly sorted by category.
Time inside the space was completely frozen.
The supplies could remain there for ten thousand years without gathering dust, growing moldy, or deteriorating in any way.
She opened her eyes.
A faint smile curved her lips.
For the first time in a very long while…
She felt secure.
Truly secure.
But she knew this was only the beginning.
Tomorrow.
The day after.
And the day after that.
Massive shipments of medical supplies, agricultural machinery, industrial equipment, and food would continue arriving.
And her shopping list still had many unchecked items.
Complete textbook sets, from elementary school through university.
Technical manuals covering agriculture, medicine, mechanical engineering, chemistry, architecture, and countless other fields.
Ten laptop computers, each paired with solar charging equipment.
Portable hard drives loaded with e-books, documentaries, and educational videos.
Entertainment items—playing cards, Chinese chess sets, radios…
She intended to bring as much of the achievements of 2018’s civilization as possible back to 1970.
Su Jinxiu pulled open the warehouse door and stepped into the night.
Looking up, she saw no stars.
Only the city’s lights reflecting against a hazy gray sky.
Six days.
Only six days remained.
“Not a single second can be wasted.”
Murmuring those words, she strode toward the roadside while pulling out her phone and dialing the next supplier.
“Hello? Is this the main warehouse of Xinhua Bookstore? I’d like to place a rather large order for books…”