After picking Xingxing up from Blue Sky Kindergarten, Su Nian had originally planned to head straight out and start stockpiling supplies.
But her legs were weak, her hands were trembling, and panic still gripped her heart. In the end, she took Xingxing home first to calm herself down.
After settling him in, she began taking stock of everything she owned.
She only had eighty thousand yuan in savings.
It was nowhere near enough.
She had to sell the house. Everything that could be sold had to be sold.
Su Nian opened a metal box hidden at the back of her wardrobe. Inside were many things, stacks of old photographs, some of herself from six years ago, and some of the men who had disappeared.
Lu Chen.
At the very bottom of the box, she found a ring.
It was a simple, ancient looking silver band. He had given it to her, saying it had been passed down through his family for generations. His mother had told him to save it for his future wife.
It should be worth something, shouldn’t it?
Lu Chen, don’t blame me.
Her fingers brushed over the ring. The edge was slightly sharp, and it accidentally nicked her fingertip.
“Hiss…”
A bead of blood welled up and dripped onto the ring.
The next second, the blood vanished.
Su Nian rubbed her eyes. She hadn’t imagined it. The surface of the ring was spotless, as though it had absorbed the blood.
A chill ran down her spine, and she nearly flung the ring away.
But at that same instant, a strange sensation washed over her.
She couldn’t quite describe it. It felt as though something inside her body had trembled gently, or as if something were pulsing beneath the finger wearing the ring.
The ring emitted a faint glow.
A ridiculous thought suddenly surfaced in Su Nian’s mind.
A storage space? Like the ones in novels?
Before she could react, her vision blurred. A dull ache throbbed faintly at her temples.
When she opened her eyes again, she found herself standing in a completely unfamiliar place.
Everything around her was shrouded in gray mist, but there were clear boundaries. She walked forward, and after about two hundred steps, she reached the edge. Looking up, the ceiling appeared to be roughly ten meters high.
A 200-square-meter storage space.
One section of it, about fifty square meters, was covered in rich black soil. It was soft and loose, crumbling between her fingers with the slightest squeeze.
The rest of the area was completely empty.
Su Nian stood there without moving for a long while.
Her heart pounded so violently it felt ready to leap out of her throat.
She crouched down and grabbed another handful of soil. It was dark, moist, and could easily be molded into a ball.
It was real. It was all real.
“Leave.”
The moment the thought crossed her mind, she was back in her living room.
The ring was gone.
In its place, a faint, ancient pattern had appeared on the middle finger of her left hand. It was so subtle that it was almost impossible to notice without looking closely.
She picked up a book and silently thought, Go in.
The book disappeared.
Then she thought, Come out.
The book reappeared in her hand.
Next, she placed an ice cream into the storage space. Ten minutes later, she took it back out.
It hadn’t melted. It was still icy cold.
It could preserve things!
Leaning against the wall, Su Nian’s legs nearly gave out beneath her. She clenched her fingers tightly to stop herself from shaking.
Two hundred square meters, and even farmland.
Then… could her body enter as well?
To test it, Su Nian placed her phone on the table, opened the camera, and started recording.
Then she silently thought, Go in.
About thirty seconds later, she came back out.
Excitedly, she opened the video.
The recording showed that her body had never disappeared. She had simply stood there motionless the entire time.
That was good enough.
Looking at the vast, empty storage space, Su Nian felt, for the first time, that surviving the Apocalypse with Xingxing might truly be possible.
“Mommy?”
Behind her came Xingxing’s sleepy voice.
She turned around to see her son standing in the bedroom doorway, rubbing his eyes.
“Mommy, where did you go? I had a nightmare… There were lots of strange people chasing me… I was so scared…”
Su Nian’s heart shattered.
She crouched down and pulled her son tightly into her arms.
“It’s okay, sweetheart. Mommy’s always here.”
“Xingxing, Mommy has a way to protect you now.”
She kissed his chubby little cheek. The ticklish sensation made Xingxing burst into giggles, and he quickly forgot all about the nightmare.
Once her excitement subsided, Su Nian began making calm, practical plans.
She didn’t have enough money.
She had to turn her assets into cash as quickly as possible.
One thing immediately came to mind.
The house.
It wasn’t very large, but last year it had been designated as part of a sought after school district. The best elementary school in Sheng City was nearby, making homes in the area incredibly difficult to buy.
And Liu Wei’s son happened to be starting elementary school this year.
Su Nian stared at her phone screen for a few seconds before dialing the one number she had hoped never to call again.
“Su Nian, you bitch! You’ve got the nerve to call me?”
“I’m telling you, you’re fired! Tomorrow I’ll call the police and have you ar…”
“Liu Wei, do you want a school district apartment?”
The other end of the line fell silent for two seconds. She could even hear Liu Wei’s breathing change.
“… Xiao Su, I was in the wrong today. I’ll explain everything to the management about firing you. As for that apartment…”
“It’s eighty seven square meters, and the school enrollment quota has never been used,” Su Nian interrupted. “Six hundred thousand yuan, and it’s yours.”
“Six hundred thousand is too much. You’ve only been paying off the mortgage for a few years…”
“Do you want it or not? If not, I’ll find another buyer.”
“I do! I do!”
Liu Wei answered immediately, afraid she might change her mind.
“Good! Bring the full six hundred thousand in one payment. We’ll transfer ownership tomorrow.”
After hanging up, Su Nian felt conflicted.
The house had been her only source of security.
Now she was selling it.
But compared to staying alive, there was nothing she couldn’t let go of.
The next morning, Liu Wei arrived bright and early. Thanks to a few connections he had pulled, the ownership transfer was completed before noon.
Once the six hundred thousand yuan hit her account, Su Nian finally breathed a sigh of relief.
She paid no attention to the vicious glare Liu Wei shot her as he left, assuming he was simply holding a grudge because she had beaten him up the day before.
That afternoon, without wasting a single minute, she took Xingxing straight to the wholesale grain and oil market.
The previous night, she had rented a secluded warehouse on the outskirts of the city. Everything she bought would be delivered there first, and after dark she would quietly move it into her storage space. That was the safest approach.
Today, she only purchased part of what she needed. To avoid attracting attention, she spread her orders among several different stores.
Staples included fifty bags each of rice, flour, and noodles.
Ten cases of instant noodles in every flavor.
Two large containers of each type of cooking oil.
Compressed biscuits, they tasted awful, but they were essential emergency food.
Drinking water was just as important. What if the water supply became contaminated later?
Sixty cases of five hundred fifty milliliter bottled water.
Fifty four liter bottles of mineral water.
One hundred eighteen point nine liter water barrels.
Various dried goods, including black fungus, shiitake mushrooms, and dried green beans.
One hundred jin each of soybeans and mung beans, which could later be sprouted or used to make soybean products.
Every kind of preserved mustard greens, canned meat, and luncheon meat she could find.
Salt, sugar, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, and every other seasoning, ten large boxes of each.
By the time the sky began to darken, Su Nian had finished placing her last order. She drove her son toward the warehouse on the outskirts of the city.
She wouldn’t feel at ease until everything had been moved into her storage space.
It was fully dark by the time she left the warehouse with Xingxing and headed home.
“Mommy, there’s a car following us.”
Not long after they pulled onto the road, Xingxing pressed against the window and looked behind them.
“That same car was following us this afternoon too.”
Su Nian’s heart skipped a beat.
She glanced into the rearview mirror.
A black sedan without license plates.
“Xingxing, are you sure it’s been following us the whole time?”
“Mm…” Xingxing’s voice tightened as his little hand clutched Su Nian’s sleeve. “Mommy, I’m scared.”
“Don’t be afraid. Mommy’s here.”
Su Nian tightened her grip on the steering wheel, her palms slick with sweat.
She had bought too many supplies.
Someone had noticed.
Had they also seen her using the storage space?
She accelerated. The car behind sped up as well.
She slowed down. The car slowed too.
It wasn’t just heading in the same direction.
The surroundings were pitch black, with no streetlights and no pedestrians.
The black sedan suddenly closed the distance.
Its window rolled down.
Three burly men were sitting inside.
“You bitch, pull over!”
“Where’s everything from that warehouse? It all disappeared overnight. Where the hell did you make it all go?”
Su Nian’s heart clenched violently.
They had seen it.