After making a list of the medicines she needed and sending it to Li Feifei, Zhou Jiayue leaned back against her seat and closed her eyes to rest.
Two hours later, the vehicle arrived in Fu City.
At least the air conditioning was running inside the car, so the heat was still bearable. But the moment she got out, a wave of scorching heat hit her. Zhou Jiayue felt as though she had stepped into a sauna, and even the scenery before her eyes seemed distorted by the heat.
Zhou Jiayue straightened her sun protection jacket and pulled down the brim of her sun hat before quickly taking shelter under the shade of a nearby tree.
She opened the ride hailing app on her phone and called a car to take her to Tiancheng Residential Community.
While waiting for the car, Zhou Jiayue received a message from her father, Zhou Lihua.
【Jiayue, I took the house and car to the bank and used them as collateral for a loan. The money should arrive today. If it still isn’t enough, make sure you tell the family. Dad will find another way.】
Seeing Old Zhou’s message, warmth spread through Zhou Jiayue’s heart.
She had originally given up on using the family home as collateral, but she had not expected her father to be even more decisive than she was. He had gone straight to the bank and borrowed money against their property.
It seemed she could temporarily save the points in the system.
A few minutes after Zhou Lihua sent the message, Zhou Jiayue checked the balance of her bank account and found that another 1.2 million yuan had indeed been added.
Forty minutes later, Zhou Jiayue successfully met with the landlords.
“Oh my, so the person renting our house is actually a young girl.”
The landlords were a married couple approaching sixty. They were going to take a flight abroad the following morning.
After signing the rental contract, Zhou Jiayue took out her phone.
“Uncle, Auntie, I’ve already transferred the rent for the next two months. Please check and make sure you received it.”
“Yes, we got it.”
Afterward, the couple briefly introduced Zhou Jiayue to the situation in the residential community.
Tiancheng Residential Community was considered an upper middle class residential development. There were eight buildings in the entire community, and the couple’s apartment was in Building 5.
Each building had between twenty five and twenty seven floors. The buildings were spaced relatively far apart, providing good natural lighting, and each floor had four apartments.
Only two households lived on the floor where the landlords’ apartment was located. The other household had gone to the countryside in July to escape the summer heat. Since the temperature had never dropped, they had simply remained there.
Hearing this, Zhou Jiayue’s eyes swept inconspicuously toward the neighboring apartment before she smiled and said goodbye to the couple.
She would stay at a hotel tonight and move in after the landlords left the next day.
At around six in the evening, Zhou Jiayue left the hotel and prepared to visit various stores selling doors and windows, electrical appliances, and outdoor equipment.
The highest temperature during the day had now reached 45°C. By six in the evening, the temperature had finally dropped slightly, but it was still around 35 or 36°C.
Faced with such extreme heat, businesses were among the first to make adjustments.
For example, some stores had changed their opening hours from the entire daytime period to 5:00 in the morning until 9:00 in the morning, and then from 18:00 until 23:00 at night. However, people whose work could mostly be done indoors without needing to go outside continued to maintain normal working hours.
After walking around for quite some time, Zhou Jiayue gained a general understanding of some of the stores in Fu City.
At five o’clock the next morning, it was still dark when the landlords finished packing their belongings and prepared to leave for the airport. Zhou Jiayue had arrived early to see them off.
After completing the necessary handover procedures and adding Zhou Jiayue to the residential building group chat, the couple prepared to leave.
Seeing that they were both getting older, Zhou Jiayue also helped them carry their luggage.
Because of Zhou Jiayue’s kindness and courtesy, the couple thought about it for a moment before offering her another convenience.
“Xiao Zhou, there’s an empty garage downstairs. Here’s the key. If you have a car, you can park it there. We won’t charge you anything extra.”
Zhou Jiayue accepted the key and immediately gave them a big smile.
“Thank you, Uncle and Auntie!”
To repay their kindness, Zhou Jiayue subtly reminded them, “Uncle, Auntie, I’ve heard that public safety isn’t very good overseas. Please be careful. If possible, it would be better to stock up on more supplies at once and avoid going outside too often.”
“Hahaha, thank you for your concern, Xiao Zhou. But the area where our son lives is considered fairly safe, and criminal incidents are quite rare.”
Zhou Jiayue pressed her lips together and said nothing more.
Her kindness was limited. She had said enough.
After the couple left, Zhou Jiayue immediately called workers to come and install security doors and security windows.
After measuring the dimensions, the workers gave her a quotation based on her requirements.
The doors and windows, including labor, were expected to cost around 240,000 yuan.
After all, Zhou Jiayue wanted materials made to the specifications used for bank vaults, so there was no way the price could be low.
Zhou Jiayue paid 50,000 yuan in advance and would settle the remaining amount after everything had been completely installed.
To meet the deadline, several door and window workers had the store deliver the materials and immediately began installing them. Zhou Jiayue watched for a while, reminded them to pay attention to safety, and then went out again.
At the property management office of Tiancheng Residential Community, Zhou Jiayue told the property manager, “I want to rent both apartments 2702 and 2703 in Building 5.”
“Miss, both of these apartments are unfinished units and haven’t been renovated yet…”
“That doesn’t matter.”
After spending 1,000 yuan to obtain the right to use apartments 2702 and 2703 for one month, Zhou Jiayue called the renovation workers and asked them to install security doors and windows in 2702 and 2703 as well.
The two apartments were completely empty. They did not even have basic water or electricity connections, but that was exactly what Zhou Jiayue wanted.
She had never intended to live in these two apartments. They were meant to serve as storage rooms for her supplies.
Half an hour later, Zhou Jiayue appeared at the largest outdoor equipment store in Fu City.
She handed the store clerk a list of everything she needed.
Twenty rechargeable high intensity flashlights, five tents, twenty sleeping bags, ten moisture resistant sleeping mats, five inflatable boats, two motorized inflatable boats, ten raincoats, fifty portable oxygen cylinders, twenty baseball bats, twenty multifunctional military shovels, ten medical first aid kits, twenty outdoor jackets, forty pairs of mountaineering shoes with anti slip soles, twenty pairs of snow boots, one hundred pairs of gloves, twenty sets of polar clothing, and many other items.
All together, she spent another 70,000 yuan.
Zhou Jiayue left her phone number and delivery address with the clerk. After paying, she immediately headed for the next location.
Not long after the torrential rains began, the power would be cut off. Most of the household appliances were already included in the newly rented house, but she still needed to prepare several generators.
The meat, vegetables, fruits, and other perishable supplies she was storing also needed to be kept cold, so she needed several large refrigerators as well.
“Boss, do you have any good quality household generators? Preferably ones that can operate quietly.”
Inside a large electrical appliance store, the owner yawned several times before forcing himself to stay awake.
“Little girl, if you’re buying generators, you’ve come to the right place. I dare say that if my generators are second best in all of Fu City, no one would dare claim theirs are first.
“But what power output are you looking for? Household generators usually range from 2 to 20 kilowatts. The lower the power, the lower the noise, but making one completely silent is still very difficult. If you think the noise is too loud, you can also buy a soundproof enclosure.”
Zhou Jiayue nodded and thought for a few seconds before saying, “Around 8 kilowatts. I want ten sets. And I also want ten of your largest commercial refrigerators.”
The moment he heard Zhou Jiayue’s words, the owner immediately perked up.
The ten generators and ten large capacity refrigerators cost another 90,000 yuan.
Since Zhou Jiayue had spent so much money, the owner even threw in several soundproof enclosures and a large number of spare parts as complimentary extras.
Naturally, Zhou Jiayue accepted them without the slightest hesitation.