“Were you a hamster in your past life?” Cong Yixing asked in shock after withdrawing from the space.
He simply couldn’t imagine how Jiang Ting had managed to stockpile such a massive hoard of supplies all by herself, bit by bit.
The corners of Jiang Ting’s mouth curled up, and she couldn’t hide her pride. “Impressive, right?”
“Beyond impressive.” Cong Yixing gave her a quick kiss on the lips and pulled her out of bed. “Quick, get up. Time to work!”
“Work? What work?” Jiang Ting flailed on the bed reluctantly, refusing to give in to his tugging.
“Aren’t you afraid of the water being cut off? I noticed your space is filled with food and drinks, but there’s no domestic water at all. That won’t do.”
Seeing that Jiang Ting seemed to be listening, Cong Yixing continued, “So, while the water supply in Yu City is still sufficient, we need to store some immediately. If the Lanjiang Reservoir really runs dry later, this will be life-saving water!”
Jiang Ting was always easily persuaded. She scrambled up energetically, kicked off her shoes, and headed straight for the bathroom to start collecting water.
Cong Yixing stopped her. “Wait a minute. We need to find a way to get a batch of containers.”
Jiang Ting was surprised. “What do we need containers for?”
“Otherwise, how will we store the water we collect?” Cong Yixing asked.
Jiang Ting gave a small wave of her hand. “Watch me!” As she spoke, she turned on the bathroom faucet and held her hand under the stream.
The moment the flowing water touched her palm, it vanished. The continuous stream seemed to pour into an invisible black hole, disappearing into thin air.
Only then did Cong Yixing remember that time was frozen and gravity was non-existent within her space; she could preserve things in any form she desired.
However, he still turned off the faucet and tapped Jiang Ting’s forehead with his knuckle. “Little dummy, how long do you plan on standing here like this?”
Jiang Ting wrinkled her nose. “Then what should we do?”
Cong Yixing found a clean plastic bucket and unscrewed the showerhead. He placed the open hose directly into the bucket and turned the valve on.
“Let it run like this,” he said. “Every time a bucket is full, you collect it. That way, you can do other things in the meantime.” He then asked, “You can bypass the bucket and just collect the water inside, right?”
After receiving an affirmative nod from Jiang Ting, he scrubbed the sink twice to clean it, plugged the drain, and started filling that as well.
Jiang Ting thought this was enough, but Cong Yixing led her into the kitchen. He placed their large-capacity stainless steel steamer pot into the sink and turned on the faucet connected to the water purifier.
“The other side is for domestic water; this side is for purified drinking water,” he explained.
Jiang Ting began running back and forth between the bathroom and the kitchen—collecting a basin of water, then a bucket, then a pot—falling into a repetitive cycle.
Cong Yixing also reminded her, “Remember to keep the drinking water and domestic water separate. Don’t mix them up.”
Jiang Ting: “…” Having stayed up all night only to become a human reservoir—she felt a bit like a literal beast of burden.
Fortunately, Cong Yixing soon called a halt. He said, “Let’s not rush the water storage for now. Eat breakfast first. After eating, you can stay home and collect water while I see if I can go out and get some other supplies.”
Jiang Ting thought: You were the one saying it was urgent, and now you’re saying it’s not!
She said gloomily, “I haven’t slept all night.” She added, “And you want to go out in this scorching sun?”
Cong Yixing froze for a moment. He looked at the sky outside and pressed a hand to his forehead. “I got a bit too excited. I’m sorry, baby. I’ll go make breakfast. You go to sleep after eating, and we’ll talk about everything else when you wake up.”
Living indoors for too long really dulled one’s perception of the outside world. Staying in a comfortably air-conditioned room, he had almost forgotten the extreme heat outside.
Sliced steamed buns, dipped in egg wash and pan-fried until golden brown, sandwiched with the beef Cong Yixing had braised overnight and a leaf of lettuce. Paired with chilled mung bean soup from the fridge, it was a simple breakfast.
Having pulled an all-nighter, Jiang Ting didn’t have much of an appetite. She took a few bites and went back to the bedroom to sleep.
Cong Yixing finished the leftovers Jiang Ting had left. Instead of rushing to wash the dishes, he went to the study to handle some work.
By the time he finished, it was nearly 11:00 AM. He stood up, did some stretches against the wall, and cracked the bedroom door. Seeing Jiang Ting sleeping soundly, he didn’t disturb her and went to wash the breakfast dishes and the frying pan.
Before it was time for lunch, Cong Yixing made a phone call home.
Since the last incident, his younger brother, Cong Yi’an, had not contacted the family again.
Cong Yixing, however, called his eldest brother frequently to ask about the progress of their shopping, allowing the two of them to coordinate and fill any gaps in their supplies.
The call was picked up quickly.
Cong Yixing chatted with his eldest brother for a while and then video-called his parents. He learned that most of the items for the family had been fully prepared.
The freezer had been bought offline from the appliance mall in their county town.
They hadn’t just bought the largest freezer available; they had also purchased three of the latest high-power air conditioners—one floor-standing unit and two wall-mounted units—replacing the old ones that very day.
Because the power consumption was so high, they had specifically hired someone to inspect the wiring, replacing some of the lines and old valves.
They had bought enough rice, flour, oil, and grain to last the family for a year. Additionally, they had filled one freezer and an entire refrigerator with fresh vegetables and meat. They also bought plenty of baby formula, milk powder for the elderly, and stocked up on common medicines.
Cong Yixing told his parents, “Big brother said gas canisters are hard to find in the county. Although I bought a batch online to be delivered to the house, you should still spend your free time cooking some food to freeze. Reheating it later will be much more convenient than cooking from scratch.”
Seeing his parents agree, he added, “Even though you shouldn’t eat instant food all the time, you should still prepare some. Buy a few more boxes of instant noodles and bread; in an emergency, you can eat them dry.”
Mother Cong was a bit reluctant. “We’ve bought so much stuff, but Yi’an hasn’t even said what’s actually going to happen. If nothing happens, isn’t this a waste of money?”
Cong Yixing turned serious. “Mom, Yi’an definitely has some internal information. For him to risk warning us to stockpile food, it’s certainly no small matter. Plus, with the weather being this abnormal, we’d rather be over-prepared than rely on luck and have no way to cope when the time comes.”
Father Cong stepped in to defend his wife, saying, “Your mother is just talking. In reality, she’s been very proactive with the shopping. She bought several crates of eggs alone. I even told her that in this heat, eggs won’t keep.”
Mother Cong rolled her eyes at the old man. “If they won’t keep, I’ll turn them into salted eggs.” She asked her son, “I want to make some salted eggs to mail to you both, but I don’t know if the delivery is fast right now. What if they spoil on the way?”
Cong Yixing declined. “Don’t mail them to us. Make them for yourselves.” He then remembered something else. “Right, I heard the reservoir water levels are dropping significantly. The Qingshan Reservoir back home is smaller than the Lanjiang Reservoir here. Your water might get cut off too, so remember to store water.”
Father Cong replied, “We know. Your big brother went out and brought back a whole tricycle-load of bottled water yesterday.”
Glimpsing Jiang Ting walking out of the bedroom out of the corner of his eye, Cong Yixing made sure he hadn’t missed anything and said, “That’s all for now. Did you remember to avoid people while you were hoarding things?”
“We did, we did. We go out to buy things late at night. Even after buying them, your brother won’t move them in right away; he waits until there’s no one outside to carry them up floor by floor.”
“That’s good then. If there’s nothing else, I’ll hang up. It’s time to make lunch.”
Mother Cong asked, “You’re still the one cooking?”
Cong Yixing laughed. “Can’t be helped. Who told me to inherit your talent? My cooking is just that good.”
Mother Cong laughed too. “You brat. Next time you come back, I’ll teach you another of my signature dishes so you can make it for my daughter-in-law.”
Cong Yixing glanced at Jiang Ting, who was standing at the edge of the living room watching him, and said to his mother, “I’m not learning it. You can cook it for her yourself. When the weather gets cooler, we’ll come back together.”
“Alright, alright…”
After hanging up, Cong Yixing stood up and asked Jiang Ting, “What do you want for lunch?”
Jiang Ting yawned and rubbed her eyes. “I want a ‘signature dish’.”
“You got it.”
When Cong Yixing opened the fridge to get the vegetables, he called out to Jiang Ting. She was halfway through washing up and ran over with her face covered in foam. He said, “Even though this mung bean soup is in the fridge, it’ll spoil if it stays there too long. Put it into the space.”
Jiang Ting took the stainless steel basin and all. Just as she was about to leave, Cong Yixing added, “And this—the leftover braised meat from last time. I made too much to finish; put this in too.”
Jiang Ting put the plate into the space.
Cong Yixing started again, “And this…”
Jiang Ting interrupted him, “Let me finish washing my face first!”
Cong Yixing finally turned to look at her and laughed. “Alright, go wash your face. We’ll finish organizing the fridge together after lunch.”
For lunch, Cong Yixing indeed made his specialties: Scallion Braised Ribs and Mapo Tofu.
While eating, he said to Jiang Ting, “Tofu doesn’t last long. Before, we could only buy enough for one meal at a time. Let’s go to the supermarket again tonight and buy more for the space. Or we could buy some soybeans and make our own tofu later.”
Jiang Ting asked, “Won’t it be too conspicuous if we go to the supermarket every night to buy a mountain of stuff?”
“True…” Cong Yixing pondered for a moment. “Actually, the food stored in your space is already quite a lot. We’ll go one last time tonight to fill in the ingredients the space is lacking, and then we won’t go back.” He added, “Prices are rising for a lot of things at the supermarket anyway; let’s save some money for other things.”
Jiang Ting was a bit confused. “Huh? What else do we need to buy?”
Cong Yixing replied, “Daily necessities—food, clothing, shelter, transportation. We can’t just prepare food; we need to prepare other essentials as well.”
Jiang Ting was stunned. “The heat just makes food hard to preserve; other things won’t spoil that easily. Why hoard them? Can’t we just buy them when we need them?”
“It’s called planning for a rainy day. Although my brother didn’t say much, even the troops in the capital have been mobilized. At best, it’s just a weather issue. At worst, what if the world falls into chaos? Even though we have the space and won’t lack food or drink, being over-prepared allows us to face whatever happens with composure. Even a little preparation is better than none at all, don’t you think?”
…Once again, Jiang Ting was easily persuaded.
Since they couldn’t go out during the day, no matter how much they planned, they couldn’t act on it immediately. After lunch, the two of them began organizing the refrigerator.
Cong Yixing took the beef he had braised the night before out of the fridge, sliced it all, and had Jiang Ting put it into the space in divided food containers. He told her, “We need to buy more food containers and freezer bags. I’m going to prepare a batch of cooked food next; once it’s done, we’ll put it in the space so we can grab it and eat whenever we want.”
Jiang Ting opened her phone to search for food containers and bags.
“In that case, I won’t throw out this pot of braising liquid yet. Tonight, we’ll buy another batch of ingredients suitable for braising. Think about what other braised dishes you want to eat.”
Menus began floating through Jiang Ting’s head.
“I was wondering why you stopped me from buying a freezer before; it turns out you have a better, natural freezer. Since that’s the case, we can buy much more meat. Even though you already have a stock, you like eating it, so we can never have too much. It’s a pity the space can’t hold living things, but we can go buy some freshly slaughtered chickens and ducks to put in there. Later, I can make you hen soup and old duck soup.”
Jiang Ting thought of the taste of Cong Yixing’s bamboo shoot and duck soup and practically salivated.
“Right now, seafood and fish are hard to transport. The quantities at the supermarket are too small and get bought up early every time. If we could find a way to get a batch of fish, that would be great. You like fish head tofu soup and griddle-cooked fish, don’t you? By the way, check if that griddle fish place on the delivery app is still delivering. Their portions are large and the taste is good; we could order several portions to store.”
Jiang Ting remembered that she had secretly hoarded some delivery food from that place, but probably not much. She opened the app to check and found the shop was “Temporarily Closed.”
“Are there a few salted duck eggs left? Put those in too. Salted duck eggs with porridge are delicious, but you don’t like the ones sold in supermarkets. It’s a shame the weather isn’t right for pickling them now, otherwise, I’d pickle a whole jar for you so you could taste authentic country-style salted eggs.”
A classic line from a TV drama echoed in Jiang Ting’s mind: How many more surprises do you have that I don’t know about?
Just by organizing the fridge, Cong Yixing had managed to make the recently-fed Jiang Ting hungry again.
As a result, they went to the supermarket that night and aggressively hoarded a final batch of ingredients.
After hauling everything home, the two went out again to the courier station to pick up their packages.
There were quite a few—self-defense items Jiang Ting had bought online, along with gas canisters, portable stoves, and some outdoor gear Cong Yixing had ordered.
After unpacking the deliveries, Cong Yixing went to the side cabinet on the balcony and dug out the camping tent they had bought last year.
Watching him inspect the tent, Jiang Ting said in shock, “You’re making me think the end of the world is coming.”
Cong Yixing glanced at her while busy and said, “You don’t get to rest either. Go store some more water.”