On the second day, after settling matters related to the space, Lin Su spent the rest of the morning working with her father to sort through and compile the inventory of all the warehouses belonging to the family’s supermarket chain.
The Lin family’s supermarkets were comprehensive in nature, selling goods that covered clothing, food, housing, transportation, and more, with a primary focus on food and daily necessities.
Food items included rice, flour, grains and cooking oil, seasonings, vacuum-packed cooked foods, snacks, pastries and bread, drinking water, and so on.
Daily necessities included cleaning products such as body wash, shampoo, dishwashing liquid, toothbrushes, and toothpaste, as well as commonly used paper goods like toilet paper, sanitary pads, and diapers. Of course, other categories such as bedding, furniture items, and small household appliances were also regular stock in the supermarkets.
Taken together, the total quantity of these goods was enormous. Not to mention supplying their family of three for a lifetime, even supplying half the population of a city would, in Lin Su’s view, be more than enough.
Therefore, from the very beginning, Lin Su was not worried about collecting food and daily necessities. What she needed to do was to categorize and consolidate these items, then, according to her plan, transfer part of the inventory to private warehouses in various locations. After that, Lin Su could fly out and, as planned, collect these privately stored goods one by one into her space.
Yes, Lin Su did not intend to empty out her family’s supermarket inventory. Instead, she planned to set aside only a portion to store in her space. She had other plans for the remaining supplies. After all, even counting relatives and friends, her family would never be able to use that much material.
Over the course of the morning, the father and daughter finalized the quantities and types of goods to be transferred, then notified supermarket managers across the country to make arrangements as soon as possible.
After finishing this round of work, Lin Su finally had time to check her phone. That was when she saw that, in the owners’ group chat, the property management had just posted a notice.
Lin Su’s mother came out of the kitchen after finishing cooking and saw Lin Su frowning.
Lin Su’s talk about a coming natural-disaster apocalypse the day before had left her mother anxious all afternoon. Now, seeing her daughter with that expression again, she couldn’t help but ask, “Did something happen again?”
Hearing her mother’s question, Lin Su said, “When I left the Jinxiu residential complex yesterday, there was an elevator fall there.”
At those words, both Lin Su’s mother and father became tense.
“No one was hurt, right?”
Lin Su shook her head. “No one was hurt. But do you know why the elevator fell?”
According to the notice, the elevator fell because during operation, the cables, due to excessive friction combined with the extremely high outdoor temperatures, melted at the points where they came into contact with the car, and then snapped.
At first glance, this cause sounded almost absurd. But as Lin Su looked at the blazing sun hanging high outside, she knew the result was not surprising.
【Is this plot falling apart? Why is cannon-fodder Susu still alive?】
The worry Lin Su had felt over the cause of the accident was instantly turned into an amused irritation by this suddenly appearing live comment.
What, then? Could it be that her time of death was yesterday? Hah, sorry to disappoint, you people’s so-called cannon-fodder Susu is still alive!
Lin Su snapped back at the live comments in her mind, but she didn’t say any of it out loud.
For some reason, Lin Su felt that these live comments were suspicious. Without being able to determine where they came from, she decided to stay put and observe for now. Moreover, judging from the content of the comments, whatever it was that was posting them didn’t seem to know that this “cannon fodder” could actually see the live comments.
That made things interesting.
Lunch was soon served, and the family ate while watching television.
The headline of the midday news was still a series of problems brought about by the recent extreme heat.
Urban asphalt roads melting, cars spontaneously combusting, prices soaring; crops withering in rural areas, reservoir water levels steadily dropping; and cases of heatstroke appearing in both cities and the countryside. These issues had dominated the headlines for the past two months.
Watching the vast stretches of hardened, cracked farmland and dried-up riverbeds on the screen, no one in the Lin family of three spoke.
If yesterday Dad Lin and Mom Lin still hadn’t had much of a concrete sense of what a natural-disaster apocalypse meant, then the scenes before their eyes now sent a chill down their spines.
Although such phenomena hadn’t yet appeared nationwide, it was clear that the extreme heat showed no signs of stopping.
“Ah…”
Hearing her father’s sigh, Lin Su could only shake her head along with him. If temperatures didn’t drop but instead continued to rise, scenes like this would sooner or later spread across the globe. When that happened, it would be the true arrival of the apocalypse.
“Dad, don’t sigh. I already spoke with Uncle Wu yesterday. Today he’ll be bringing workers over to get the job done.”
For now, based on Cheng Jiajia’s actions, Lin Su tentatively estimated that the outbreak of the apocalypse would be around the end of the month. It was August 3rd, leaving only a little over twenty days until then.
That was far too little time. Lin Su decided that starting today, she would spend a large sum of money to thoroughly reinforce their villa.
She didn’t know what kinds of natural disasters would follow, but they would certainly include extreme heat, extreme cold, floods, earthquakes, mudslides, thunderstorms, and even infectious diseases.
These disasters were beyond human power to stop, but it was still possible to survive in the cracks between them.
Since Cheng Jiajia, the female lead who knew the future, also lived in this residential community, Lin Su could be certain that at least in the early stages of the apocalypse, the safety of their neighborhood would be guaranteed.
“Old Wu is a solid guy, there shouldn’t be any problems. But after he’s done with our place, I’m thinking of having him make some preparations for himself as well.”
When their villa was originally renovated, the construction team they hired was Old Wu’s. Old Wu was a fellow villager of Dad Lin’s; both had come from a small mountain village in the northwest to make their way in the world. The two families weren’t particularly close, but they had some degree of friendship. Old Wu was a reliable worker and tight-lipped, so having him handle the reinforcement project was ideal.
Lin Su planned to reinforce the two floors of the villa along with the basement. She didn’t intend to make major changes to the exterior, but the interior would undergo low-temperature modifications: triple-layer walls, triple-layer windows, and underfloor heating, all would be installed.
In addition, just like the female lead Cheng Jiajia, Lin Su planned to install sturdy anti-theft grilles on all the windows. For all the doors, since the ones bought during the original renovation were already high quality, she would add a heavy steel door. The floor-to-ceiling glass doors were trickier, so she planned to install invisible iron-bar doors for those.
Lin Su also prepared cement blocks, steel bars, glass windows, tiles, and other building materials. She planned to purchase these in large quantities from other channels and then store them directly in her space.
Of course, the iron fence around the villa would be torn down and replaced with a two-meter-high wall. On top, she would add decorative iron bars connected to her home’s power supply, so that once chaos arrived, the bars could be electrified as the first line of defense for the house.
Over the years, Dad Lin had met many good and influential people through business, and he wanted them to be able to prepare in advance as well.
This wasn’t a strange thought, nor was it some kind of “do-gooder” fantasy. Even Lin Su herself had a few friends she was close to and naturally hoped they’d be safe in the future.
“Dad, don’t worry about this. If my plan goes smoothly, maybe everyone can be a little prepared by then.”
Thinking of the plan Lin Su had proposed yesterday, Dad Lin finally allowed a small smile to appear on his face.
【Why do I feel like this family is preparing for an apocalypse?】
【Newcomer upstairs! Yesterday, Susu already got some info from Cheng Jiajia.】
【I don’t understand this plot…】
【+1】
…
Lin Su found these suddenly appearing live comments extremely annoying. She hoped they would give her some hints, like what type of disaster might come, but the comments seemed purely sarcastic. They appeared like a faulty radio signal, only occasionally spitting out a word or two.
She sat there waiting for the comments to refresh, but nothing happened. Since she was full from lunch, she decided to get up and head out to buy some supplies that were rarely found in supermarkets.
At three in the afternoon, in a farm on the outskirts of An City.
Although this farm was in the suburbs, it was in the exact opposite direction from the villa district. Lin Su had driven nearly two hours on the city ring expressway to get there.
The farm was large in scale, raising not only chickens, ducks, geese, cows, sheep, and pigs but also had a fish pond stocked with freshwater fish and shrimp.
This farm was the largest supplier of fresh meat for Lin Family Supermarkets. Lin Su had come here to take all the market-ready poultry and livestock, as well as freshwater produce, and transport them away.
She parked at the farm gate. As soon as she got out of the car, the sun overhead made her scalp ache, and the air was filled with the farm’s characteristic stench. Under the intense heat, the smell was even stronger and more pungent.
Tightening the mask on her face and putting on her sun hat, Lin Su followed the farm owner who had come out to greet her.
“Little Boss Lin, why aren’t you sending Manager Zhao today? What goods are you picking up?”
The farm owner, Old Yang, was a middle-aged man over 1.8 meters tall and weighing more than 200 jin. But he looked much thinner now, his face lined with worry. Even his tone when speaking to Lin Su carried a trace of exhaustion.
As Lin Su walked, she noticed she barely heard the animals making any noise, which immediately told her something was wrong.
Sure enough, Old Yang confirmed it.
“The temperature’s too high. The animals inside aren’t energetic at all. Since we’ve known each other for a long time, I won’t sugarcoat it. If your supermarket buys everything in the farm right now, I can give you a discount…”
Lin Su understood the effect of high temperatures on a farm. Poultry and livestock do not tolerate extreme heat. At nearly forty degrees Celsius, all these animals could only stay indoors with air conditioning or large fans, and these cooling measures consumed a lot of electricity.
For a farm of this size, the electricity bill alone easily ran close to ten thousand yuan a day. Add the high temperatures, and the mortality rate of the animals increased.
Old Yang offering to sell everything at once without her even asking showed just how badly the farm was struggling.
“Old Yang, selling everything is fine, but our supermarket won’t take any sickly animals!”
By the time Lin Su said this, she had already entered one of the poultry barns.
Industrial fans surrounded the barn, their power strong enough to blow a strong current of air. Even so, the chickens in the cages looked lethargic, sickly, and weak.
Seeing this, Lin Su hesitated for a moment.
Although fresh poultry and livestock were more nutritious, Lin Su still preferred to buy frozen goods from an import company if there was any risk involved.
Seeing Lin Su’s hesitant expression, Old Yang immediately realized this deal might fall through. If he could have held on, he wouldn’t have wanted to sell all his stock right now.
Just a few days ago, a friend’s farm had a serious problem: excessive electricity use due to the heat caused the circuits to fail. On top of that, the farm’s backup generator also malfunctioned. In just one night, over 4,000 pigs and more than 10,000 grown chickens died from the heat.
The loss almost drove his friend to despair.
On top of that, the extreme heat ruined many crops, causing feed prices to skyrocket.
After careful thought, Old Yang realized that if he didn’t sell this stock soon, his own farm might face disaster. If the Lin Family Supermarket team didn’t come today, he’d have to go to them himself tomorrow to discuss sales.
“Little Boss Lin, don’t worry. It’s hot this afternoon; people are drained, let alone these little animals. If you’re concerned, you can come check tonight, every single one will be fine.”
Hearing this, Lin Su immediately laid out her plan: “Alright, I’ll take all the market-ready animals now, but we need to negotiate the price. Also, all the animals must be properly slaughtered and then delivered to my home freezer.”
In addition, she required random inspections before delivery. If any animal failed quarantine, she reserved the right to reject it.
These demands sounded strict, but Lin Su knew that even at the negotiated price, Old Yang could still make a profit while preventing further losses.
Many farms across the country had recently lost livestock to the heat, so Lin Su was confident that most suppliers were eager to sell.
Old Yang was no fool. After thinking it over, he agreed to Lin Su’s terms. Together, they toured several of the farm’s facilities and then went to the office to sign the contract.
After paying the deposit and arranging the delivery schedule, Lin Su was ready to head home. The sky was getting dark, and driving at night alone was unsafe.
Just as Lin Su started the car, her phone rang. When she answered, the person on the other end spoke anxiously: “Susu, what exactly happened? Why do you suddenly need so much coal?”