“But she’s just a little girl. How could she even tell we swapped her renovation materials?”
“Exactly. Who knows what’s wrong with her brain, insisting on using such expensive anti-corrosion materials on the walls. What a waste.”
…
Xia Sisi took out her phone and recorded the conversation between the two men. She didn’t continue walking toward the house. Instead, she directly called the renovation company.
“Within two days, restore my house using the materials I originally purchased. Otherwise, I will post this recording online—and you can deal with the consequences yourselves!”
The renovation company’s boss immediately told Xia Sisi that this had nothing to do with the company and that the workers had done it privately. He promised to give her a satisfactory resolution.
Xia Sisi rolled her eyes. She didn’t want to waste time arguing with them and simply took Dahei to choose a stove instead.
Dahei was extremely obedient when outside. He basically stuck close to Xia Sisi—she walked, he walked; she stopped, he stopped.
So even after visiting several building materials markets, nothing unusual happened.
Xia Sisi also bought some practical items like folding chairs, folding tables, and some camping equipment.
Although these things wouldn’t be needed immediately, once the harsh weather ended and she prepared to leave the house, they would likely come in handy.
In the afternoon, when she returned to the renovation site, she saw that the walls were indeed being repainted. Only then did she finally feel relieved.
The workers’ attitude toward her had also changed. They were no longer contemptuous and were working much more seriously.
In the afternoon, Xia Sisi took Dahei to a slaughterhouse in the suburbs.
Just as she remembered, there were slaughterhouses for pigs, cattle, sheep, and poultry here.
What pleasantly surprised her even more was that she also found an egg production factory.
Not only chicken eggs, but also quail eggs, goose eggs, and duck eggs!
Xia Sisi told the factory manager that she was opening a chain supermarket. From now on, she needed three baskets of chicken eggs, two baskets of quail eggs, and one basket of duck eggs every day. Even salted eggs and braised eggs—these processed products—she would also take some, and she placed a one-month advance order.
Egg products could be used for egg drop soup, steamed egg custard, scrambled eggs, puddings… and many more dishes.
All of them were delicious.
Xia Sisi was very straightforward and paid the deposit on the spot.
She gave them a vague delivery address near her newly rented house.
After all, that area was the largest commercial district in the city, full of businesses, so it wouldn’t raise suspicion.
From then on, she could simply push a small cart there every day to collect goods and later transfer them into her spatial storage when convenient.
Then came the slaughterhouses.
Using the same excuse of running a supermarket, Xia Sisi ordered 50 jin of pork, 50 jin of beef, 50 jin of lamb, and 50 jin of chicken per day.
Also for a period of one month.
At this point, she had plenty of money, so she could stock up however she wanted.
Before going home in the evening, Xia Sisi also went to a nearby supermarket to buy a batch of vegetables and daily necessities.
She estimated that she already had most of what she needed for daily consumption.
However, to live comfortably, she still needed more time.
The generators and solar panels she had ordered online had also been shipped.
Some cold-weather and sun-protection clothing was also already on the way.
That night, Xia Sisi took out her laptop and started watching online novels, movies, and TV series.
Dahei sat beside her, occasionally getting excited whenever a small animal appeared on the screen. He would pace around the room, ears perked up, sniffing constantly as if trying to find the scent of those animals.
Xia Sisi found it amusing and even downloaded a bunch of animal documentaries.
She thought that in the future, when she had nothing to do, she could watch them with Dahei—it would be quite interesting.
Not only that, but she also discovered that Dahei liked cartoons.
Whenever characters in cartoons made exaggerated movements, he would widen his eyes in excitement, as if he couldn’t understand why such things would happen.
So Xia Sisi ended up downloading even more cartoons.
The next day, the anti-corrosion renovation was completed. Xia Sisi went to inspect it and even tested it with acidic substances she had prepared in advance. Seeing no issues, she paid the remaining balance.
Among the workers, one burly man glared at Xia Sisi before leaving.
Xia Sisi looked at him, slightly frowning, and recognized him as one of the men who had been talking in the corner about how she was just a little girl.
She felt that this worker was not of good character and decided she needed to keep an eye on him.
In the apocalypse, she had seen too many people like this. She had to stay cautious.
Thinking about it, she realized she had given these workers the house keys during the renovation period.
But today she would be moving in, so she immediately bought a high-quality lock and changed it.
During the day, the stove installation was also completed.
Originally, she had planned to install only one stove.
But in the end, she still bought four of them.
Three were placed in the living room alone, and the remaining one was installed in the bedroom.
The living room of this house was extremely large, and Xia Sisi planned to place her bed right next to the floor-to-ceiling window.
That way, it would be convenient to observe the situation outside.
As for why she still installed one in the bedroom, Xia Sisi was thinking that Dahei’s movement shouldn’t be limited to just the living room—he should also have another room to move around in.
With these four stoves, dealing with the upcoming extreme cold should not be a problem.
She simply moved some of her belongings from the other house over, and just like that, she officially moved in.
All the renovation materials she had bought were the best available, labeled as zero formaldehyde, so it was safe to move in immediately.
Exhausted from the day, Xia Sisi quickly fell asleep that night.
She didn’t know how long had passed when she was suddenly woken up by a wet nose nudging her.
Opening her eyes, she saw Dahei under the moonlight shining through the window. His eyes were bright and alert, even carrying a sharp, almost dangerous glint.
Under Dahei’s gaze, Xia Sisi instantly became fully awake.
At that moment, she also heard faint sounds coming from the direction of the door.
Someone was tampering with her lock.
Xia Sisi quickly put on a piece of clothing and quietly made her way toward the door.
Dahei followed closely behind, even lifting his paws carefully so that he made no sound at all.
After fiddling with the lock for a while, the person outside cursed under their breath and began complaining.
It sounded like, “Why won’t it open?”
A sudden image of that malicious renovation worker’s face flashed through Xia Sisi’s mind—she realized immediately that she had been targeted.
After failing to open the door with a key, the person outside actually started trying to pick the lock.
Dahei beside her had already bared his teeth and assumed an attacking stance.
It was as if the moment that person broke in, he would immediately pounce and pin them down.
Xia Sisi gestured to Dahei to “shh,” then quietly moved to the next room to call the police.
But unexpectedly, the person outside turned out to be experienced—the lock was picked open in just a few moves.