“Yes, fifty containers of frozen fish, not a single one can be missing!”
“Even if the shipping cost is high, forget about that for now. Make sure to arrange a fast ship to arrive at the port by the end of the month. Paying extra is fine; the timing has to be right…”
In a room whose decor looked very much like a study, a young, pretty, short-haired woman was on the phone, going back and forth with the supplier on the other end.
The supplier, persuaded by the woman’s willingness to throw money at the problem, asked out of curiosity, “President Lin, is your company planning to enter the food industry?”
Hearing the question, Lin Su laughed it off and brushed it aside.
After hanging up, Lin Su stared at the densely packed inventory data on her computer screen and calmly removed the red highlight from the frozen fish section.
Looking at the few red areas still remaining, she let out a long breath. With so much preparation, the days ahead would at least have some degree of security.
If possible, she truly hoped these supplies would never have to be used, because that would mean the world had already suffered a devastating blow…
However, the barrage of on-screen comments that had suddenly appeared before her eyes three days ago left Lin Su with no choice but to make these preparations.
That’s right, three days ago, Lin Su was still just an ordinary “second-generation rich,” the daughter of a family that ran a chain of supermarkets. But on that very morning, she saw one horrifying line of on-screen comments after another. Those comments pushed her onto the path of stockpiling all kinds of supplies.
To explain it properly, the story has to start three days earlier.
That day, the weather was as scorching as ever. Early in the morning, Lin Su drove from her residence to her family’s supermarket in the city center.
The supermarket was located on the basement level of a large shopping mall. On ordinary weekdays, there usually weren’t many people in the mall. But over the past two months, the temperatures had been excessively high, so many people came to the mall to enjoy the air-conditioning and ease the oppressive heat.
As soon as Lin Su entered the mall, she saw crowds of people coming and going. Most of them gathered together and moved very little. The topics of their conversations were all about the recent heatwave and the sharp rise in prices brought on by the high temperatures.
Sure enough, once she stepped into her own supermarket, the first thing she heard was complaints about the rising prices of vegetables and fruit.
“Good grief, why have vegetable prices gone up again? They were five yuan a jin just two days ago, and today they’re up by fifty cents. At this rate, we won’t even be able to afford vegetables anymore.”
“Not just greens, even scallions are becoming unaffordable for my family. Sigh…”
…
Hearing these conversations, Lin Su let out a sigh. The high prices of fruits and vegetables were normal. Because of the recent heat, many vegetables at produce farms weren’t growing well. In more severe cases, like in farmers’ own fields, large swaths of vegetables had even been scorched to death by the sun.
It was already August. Based on experience from previous years, once September arrived and autumn set in, with temperatures dropping somewhat and produce yields increasing, prices would naturally come down.
Listening to these complaints, Lin Su made a gesture toward the supermarket manager who was about to come over and greet her, signaling that he didn’t need to come over. After that, she wandered around the supermarket on her own.
After graduating from university, Lin Su joined her family’s company and was mainly responsible for the operations of nearly a hundred supermarkets across the country. However, her regular office base was in An City, where her family was located.
For the sake of convenience at work, Lin Su stayed in a high-end residential complex not far from this supermarket on weekdays. Only during holidays did she return to the family home in the suburbs, where her parents currently lived.
While Lin Su was walking around inspecting the supermarket’s operations, the manager who had received her signal was already preparing to return to his duties. However, he had barely taken a few steps before being stopped by a customer with delicate features and a gentle demeanor.
For the moment, Lin Su was unaware of these developments.
She walked past row after row of shelves, checking on the supermarket’s management.
The Lin family’s main base was in An City, and they had set up a total of five supermarkets of varying sizes there. This supermarket happened to be the one selected for a spot inspection today, so Lin Su had come over to take a look at its overall situation.
Before she could finish making a full circuit of the store, she noticed a woman standing in the frozen foods section some distance away, talking to the supermarket manager. The woman wasn’t speaking loudly, but Lin Su had very sharp hearing, so she caught every word clearly.
“If we’re buying in bulk, can these frozen dumplings and frozen buns be a bit cheaper?”
“How much salt and sugar can be purchased at most?”
“How much do you need to buy to get a discount? Can you deliver it to my home…?”
Just from hearing these questions, it was clear that the woman intended to buy a large quantity of goods.
The supermarket did have group-buying options. However, very few people used them to purchase rice, flour, cooking oil, or various frozen foods. Not to mention that salt and sugar, these two strategic commodities, although not subject to purchase limits in the supermarket, would not be sold if a private individual tried to buy an excessive amount.
That said, this kind of customer was something the supermarket manager could handle. Lin Su had no intention of stepping in. Still, she found the items the woman wanted to buy rather strange. If she wanted to purchase these goods, the wholesale market would actually be a better choice.
As these thoughts crossed Lin Su’s mind, countless ideas were already flashing through the woman’s head.
The woman did want to go to the wholesale market. But An City’s wholesale market was too far away, and the surrounding environment wasn’t conducive to her subsequent plans. Moreover, she was buying so many items to assess the warehouse situation of this supermarket, she needed to scout it out in advance to make things convenient for a “zero-yuan shopping spree” after a natural disaster broke out.
For the moment, Lin Su was unaware of the woman’s shameless thoughts. Even if she knew, she didn’t have the energy to deal with them right now.
Because just as she was about to walk past the area where the woman was standing, a flurry of snow-like static suddenly appeared before her eyes.
It was like the dense black-and-white static that would fill the screen when the television signal suddenly cut out in her childhood.
The sight made Lin Su think there was something wrong with her eyes.
However, just as Lin Su was about to go to the hospital to have them checked, the snow-like static in front of her eyes vanished without warning.
At the same time, Lin Su saw lines of text appear above that woman’s head.
【This cannon-fodder is really pitiful. So what if her family runs a chain of supermarkets? Once the natural-disaster apocalypse arrives, everything will end up cheap for the female lead, Cheng Jiajia.】
【Take more stuff now, if you don’t take it, it’ll just end up benefiting outsiders anyway.】
【Such a pretty girl, and she’s actually cannon fodder. Damn that author for not being human!!!】
The three lines of text appeared abruptly and vanished just as quickly. Lin Su stood there blankly, staring at the spot where the live comments had appeared. It wasn’t until the woman followed the mall manager toward the office area that Lin Su finally came back to her senses.
What cannon fodder? What natural-disaster apocalypse? What Cheng Jiajia? What “damn author”?
With all these elements put together, Lin Su could think of only one deeply unsettling possibility.
That was that this world was one created by an author. In this world, the female lead was named Cheng Jiajia, she—Lin Su, was merely cannon fodder, and this world was about to be hit by a natural-disaster apocalypse.
After arriving at this conclusion, Lin Su was horrified. At the same time, she immediately picked up her phone and called the supermarket manager.
After giving a few instructions over the phone, Lin Su hastily wrapped up today’s inspection. She casually bought some food at the supermarket and hurried back to her nearby residence.
After entering the apartment, already drenched in sweat, Lin Su didn’t even bother wiping it off and went straight to fetch her laptop.
On the screen was unmistakably her reader’s favorites folder on Green River Net, filled with countless post-apocalyptic novels.
As an avid reader of apocalypse fiction, Lin Su had read countless novels about natural-disaster apocalypses. She naturally knew what she should do.
Although she still harbored doubts about whether the live comments she had seen were real, Lin Su didn’t dare gamble on it.
She immediately opened the company’s management software on her computer and clicked on the inventory section. Countless figures scrolled past her eyes. This inventory recorded the total stock of all the Lin family’s supermarkets.
If a natural-disaster apocalypse really did occur, these supplies would become the foundation for her family’s survival in the future.
Especially when she thought about how the live comments had mentioned the female lead, Cheng Jiajia, waiting to take over her family’s supplies, Lin Su felt her fists clench. She would not just stand by and let something like that happen.
However, with so many supermarkets nationwide, how to relocate and store all that inventory was a major problem. Moreover, those few fleeting live comments hadn’t mentioned the exact date the disaster would occur. As a result, there would be many complications in the process.
Just as Lin Su was pondering these issues, her phone rang. The caller was the supermarket manager.
“President Lin, the other party wants to purchase a considerable quantity of goods and proposed going directly to the warehouse to pick them up. I’ve already refused that in accordance with your instructions. After being turned down, they took a step back and asked us to provide delivery. Since some of the items need to be transferred from other locations, they’re requesting that everything be delivered by the end of this month…”
Before leaving the supermarket, Lin Su had specifically instructed the supermarket manager to stall as much as possible with the woman named Cheng Jiajia and see whether he could extract any useful information from her. Now, after hearing the manager’s report, Lin Su had gained another important piece of information.
【Holy crap, I just got disconnected. What did I miss?】
【Upstairs, the cannon-fodder Susu just got some intel out of the female lead…】
【Why is the plot deviating like this…】
Seeing the live comments suddenly pop up in front of her, Lin Su froze for a moment. Unlike the first time, when the comments had appeared above the female lead Cheng Jiajia’s head, this time the live comments slid directly across her field of vision. Their content, however, made her even more certain that the information she had extracted from Cheng Jiajia would be reliable.
On the other end of the phone, the supermarket manager was still reporting the situation, but Lin Su had already recovered from the shock of the live comments appearing again. “Manager Zhao, I understand. Over the next few days, prepare the goods and deliver them to her.”
After saying this, Lin Su hung up the phone and immediately opened the company system to check the details of this distribution order.
When she clearly saw the recipient’s name and address, her heart tightened slightly. Then she closed her laptop, went back to her room to pack a few things, and headed straight to the underground garage to drive home.
However, at the very instant her car left the garage, a tremendous crash sounded from behind. Even the ground seemed to tremble. The noise pierced her eardrums and shot straight into her brain, making her whole body shudder.
She didn’t turn back to check what was happening in the garage. Instead, she slowly drove to an open area beside the garage exit. After parking the car, a persistent ringing still echoed in Lin Su’s ears.
Yet Lin Su didn’t feel distressed by the ringing. On the contrary, amid the continuous buzzing, she made a startling discovery.