She pretended to close her eyes, hugging her backpack tightly, trying her best to disguise herself as a harmless “small fry.”
But in reality… she was a small fry—except for the fact that she had a hundred billion worth of supplies. Tsk, nothing worth mentioning.
Soon, Su Ruanruan’s breathing evened out, making it look like she had fallen asleep.
At 4 a.m., the hour when humans are least alert, even the standing soldiers on guard couldn’t help but doze off.
The scorching heat, combined with the long journey, left everyone exhausted. They all wanted to rest as much as possible at night so they could continue traveling during the day.
Suddenly, a man who had been sleeping opened his eyes.
He quietly stood up and, taking advantage of everyone else being asleep, removed his shoes and stepped barefoot onto the scorching ground.
His face twisted in pain, but he endured it and tiptoed carefully.
In an extremely light, sneaky, yet cautious manner, he quietly stole the loosely held bottles of mineral water from the people nearby.
After stealing from a few people, he secretly drank one bottle empty with satisfaction and stuffed the remaining bottles into his backpack.
Then he returned to his original spot, hugged his bag tightly, and went back to sleep.
He thought his actions were flawless.
Little did he know—everything had already fallen into Su Ruanruan’s eyes.
Su Ruanruan was a very light sleeper. Even the slightest movement would wake her up.
When the man took off his shoes and grimaced in pain from the hot ground, she had already cracked her eyes open slightly, observing him quietly.
A faint smile tugged at her lips.
Then she closed her eyes again, pretending to sleep.
At 7 a.m., the military began waking everyone up using loudspeakers and noise-making devices, ordering them to continue the march.
Su Ruanruan rubbed her eyes, stretched lazily, and took a sip of water, rinsing her mouth before swallowing it—treating it as brushing her teeth.
“Aah—my water is gone!”
A sudden scream shattered the morning calm.
This instantly woke everyone up. People hurriedly checked their backpacks.
“My water is gone too! Who stole it?!”
“Mine is missing as well! Which damn bastard did this?!”
One after another, angry shouts erupted.
The disturbance quickly attracted two soldiers from the unit.
“What happened?” one of them asked sternly.
A man who had lost his water immediately said, “Our water is gone!”
He looked around and declared firmly, “It was definitely stolen! The thief is still here!”
Su Ruanruan stood quietly in a corner, sensing something was off. She took out a thermometer and casually checked it.
35°C.
Today was October 30th—the final day of the extreme heat disaster.
Just like in her previous life, the temperature would soon drop sharply today.
After midnight, it would continue falling until reaching 0°C, or even below.
The argument continued.
The victims of the theft grouped together and demanded a search of everyone’s belongings.
The soldiers, unwilling to tolerate internal theft, ordered everyone to open their backpacks for inspection.
“Why should we? We didn’t steal anything!”
“Exactly! Go find the thief!”
The crowd became restless, unwilling to expose their remaining supplies.
The soldier’s expression darkened. He slammed the butt of his rifle onto the ground with a heavy thud.
Then he grabbed the loudspeaker.
“Those who are clean have nothing to fear. The bottled water issued by the military has special markings!”
“Only one bottle is distributed per day. If someone has more, they know exactly what that means.”
“Hand it over now, and you may still be forgiven.”
No one stepped forward.
So they had no choice but to search one by one.
“Open your backpack!”
“Yours too—open it!”
Under military pressure, many people reluctantly complied.
When it was Su Ruanruan’s turn, she calmly opened her bag.
Inside were only two bottles of water—one issued yesterday and one she had brought herself.
As the soldier finished checking and was about to move on, Su Ruanruan subtly gave him a look.
The soldier understood immediately and glanced in the direction she indicated.
It was a man in his thirties—around 1.7 meters tall, disheveled, and looking rather gloomy.
A trace of suspicion instantly formed in the soldier’s mind.
The two of them exchanged a brief glance. Su Ruanruan’s gaze was calm and firm, completely unlike that of an ordinary young woman in her early twenties.
Without a word, the soldier continued the search as if nothing had happened.
When he reached the man, the backpack was opened.
Inside were four to five bottles of mineral water.
Four of them clearly bore the military’s star-shaped marking.
The soldier’s expression turned cold instantly.
“Do you have anything to explain?”
“I… I didn’t steal them… I don’t know why they’re in my bag…” the man stammered weakly.
The victims rushed forward and reclaimed their water, arguing fiercely over the bottles.
The thief was eventually expelled from the convoy and blacklisted by the military.
Afterward, Su Ruanruan approached the soldier.
“I have something important to report.”
The soldier recognized her as the one who had helped earlier and responded more patiently.
“What is it?”
“Tonight, the temperature will drop sharply. It may reach as low as -10°C. Please prepare cold-weather supplies and wake everyone every hour.”
“This sudden drop in temperature could cause many people to fall asleep… and never wake up again.”
She had thought long and hard before deciding to warn them.
She wasn’t a saint who cared for the whole world, but she also couldn’t ignore innocent lives.
She could watch the wicked die—but not the innocent suffer needlessly.
She would only give this warning. Nothing more.
Especially not about her space.