The restless refugees were stunned by the scene, and for a moment, silence fell over the crowd.
"Gentry Liu, is it?"
Ruan Yu's voice drifted through the air, soft and eerie, sending an involuntary shiver down the spines of everyone who heard it.
"Your pack of thugs and hired muscle are all gone now. Who exactly are you putting on this act for?"
Gentry Liu's face went pale as he looked at the refugees, their eyes gleaming with greed. It was as if Ruan Yu's words had snapped them out of their daze. The Gentry Liu they had never dared to provoke before now seemed like a tiger stripped of its fangs. And the carriage behind him—it was packed with treasures they wouldn't have even dared to dream of.
As for the young girl they had been hired to deal with, no one cared about her anymore.
That girl was far too vicious. The people lying on the ground—dead or alive, who could say? They had no desire to join them.
Besides, with Gentry Liu in his current state, why wait for him to toss them scraps when they could simply take everything for themselves, faster and more efficiently?
No one knew who made the first move, but suddenly the refugees surged forward like starving wolves descending on their prey, lunging toward the carriage behind Gentry Liu.
"Stop! Stop right now!"
"Ah! Help!"
Gentry Liu tried to stop them, but it was too late. In an instant, he was swallowed by the mob, and the carriages—horses included—were stripped clean in a frenzy.
In the chaos of that carnival-like looting, Gentry Liu was shoved to the ground by someone. By the time the crowd dispersed, he had been trampled beyond recognition, his eyes wide open in death, refusing to close.
Soon, other refugees noticed the clothes on Gentry Liu's body. In the blink of an eye, even his corpse was stripped completely bare.
After the commotion subsided, everyone instinctively kept their distance from the scene of the "carnage."
Ruan Yu was carried along by the crowd, following Ye Shi and the two little ones as they slowly moved forward.
Having gone too long without a proper meal, and after the fight she had just been through, Ruan Yu's vision went black. The last thing she remembered was Ye Shi catching her with a look of panic on her face.
…
In a daze, Ruan Yu felt her stomach burning with hunger, cramping painfully.
She could hear sobbing nearby. She could feel her body being supported and carried forward with difficulty, but her consciousness seemed to have returned to her villa space.
Nordic-style cozy decor, soft carpets and beige sofas, a grand chandelier and a projector screen… Wasn't this her villa space from her past life?
Back in the apocalypse of her previous life, Ruan Yu had awakened her Space Ability. Relying on her foresight, she had stockpiled a considerable amount of supplies.
Seven years into the apocalypse, the supplies she had collected first were nearly depleted. Fortunately, her Spatial Dimension had mountains and water outside the villa, along with a hundred acres of fertile farmland where she had planted plenty of grain.
So her warehouse still had a substantial stockpile.
Even the refrigerator on the first floor of the villa was packed to the brim with food.
Hungry and thirsty, the overwhelming pangs of hunger drove Ruan Yu to grab a carton of milk without hesitation. Tilting her head back, she gulped it down in a frenzy.
Then she pulled out a loaf of toast bread. The fragrant, fluffy aroma hit her, and she wolfed it down ravenously.
She devoured seven or eight slices of toast and a carton of milk, then retrieved a bowl of millet porridge from the warehouse. Only after finishing it did the gnawing hunger in her stomach finally ease.
The warehouse had preservation properties, so Ruan Yu had prepared a lot of cooked food in advance and stored it there for easy access.
She grabbed an apple and munched on it as she surveyed her villa space.
Soon, she discovered that only the first floor and the basement of her villa space were accessible. The villa's front door wouldn't budge, she couldn't reach the yard outside, and the second floor was off-limits as well.
What was going on?
Her eyes inadvertently caught sight of something above her head, and Ruan Yu sucked in a sharp breath.
The Merit Points she had painstakingly accumulated during the apocalypse—all wiped to zero!
A big, fat zero. The sight nearly made Ruan Yu faint.
Seven whole years of effort, gone in an instant!
Ruan Yu felt her heart clench with pain. But after the initial heartache, she quickly calmed down.
If the Merit Points were gone, then she would simply earn them back.
She, Ruan Yu, had dominated the world for so many years—what was a little setback like this?
After sorting out her thoughts, she confirmed once more that the first floor of the villa and the basement warehouse were fully usable.
The first floor held the living room, kitchen, dining area, and a liquor cabinet. The kitchen also had a small storage room—only about ten square meters—stocked with fresh rice, oil, vegetables, fruits, and some frequently used utensils and daily necessities.
As for the warehouse, it was in the basement level.
She took the elevator straight down to the underground level and entered the warehouse.
Fortunately, all the supplies in the warehouse were still there. Ruan Yu did a quick inventory: various grains, rice, and flour amounted to over a hundred barrels, roughly forty tons. Vegetables came to twenty-eight tons, and fruits twelve tons.
Drinking water still had over a hundred cases, plus three full ten-ton water storage tanks. The villa had running water and electricity, so water wasn't a concern.
Based on her memories, the third year of the Great Shang Dynasty she had transmigrated into was marked by consecutive droughts. Clearly, water was extremely precious.
Additionally, there were various seasonings. Ruan Yu had stocked up on plenty back then, and although some had been consumed over the years, they still occupied three full rows of shelves.
Salt, chicken bouillon, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, Laoganma chili crisp, cooking wine… everything one could need.
There were also various fresh meats, roughly a hundred tons in total.
Meat was the most abundant, because during the apocalypse, when Mutant Beasts ran rampant, she had killed many of them.
Some of these Mutant Beasts were edible, and their meat tasted quite good, so her warehouse stored a considerable amount of mutant pork, beef, and mutton.
There were still three tons of seafood left, with her favorites—sea bass, hairy crabs, and lobster—stocked in the largest quantities.
Ruan Yu had dug a pond in the courtyard and raised quite a few fish and shrimp there, but unfortunately, she couldn't go outside now, and she had no idea how the pond was faring.
Then there were medicines, clothes, daily necessities, and non-renewable fuels.
Unfortunately, her armory was on the second floor, which was temporarily sealed off. She couldn't get up there, nor did she know what the situation was above.
But thankfully, she had stored some weapons in a small room on the first floor: two Desert Eagles, three boxes of ammunition, over a dozen combat knives, one falcon compound bow, and twenty arrows.
Even if she encountered danger, she could handle it—not to mention she still had her Special Ability.
These supplies gave Ruan Yu confidence. Even arriving in this ancient, chaotic world, she had the capital to survive and stand on her own.
After a moment, Ruan Yu came to the prepared food section. Two full rows of shelves remained stocked.
Porridge, rice, steamed buns, flatbreads, and over twenty kinds of stir-fried dishes—both meat and vegetable—all easy to grab. There were also plenty of barbecue, hotpot, roasted meats, and sashimi.
She had made all of it in her Space whenever she had free time.
Seven years into the apocalypse, and with her love for good food, she had honed excellent cooking skills.
This food was more than enough to keep her, Ye Shi, and those two little munchkins well-fed and worry-free in this chaotic era.
Although she wasn't Ruan Yu'er, since she had taken over this body, she had an obligation to protect her family.
Ye Shi and the two little ones had just risked everything to shield her—Ruan Yu had seen it all.
Thinking of Ye Shi and the two little ones outside, she slowly opened her eyes.