Shen Hanyin checked the balance in her bank account.
Perhaps fate really did work in mysterious ways.
Back then, she had accidentally made what now seemed like the perfect decision. By giving up her ownership stake in the company, she had received a massive cash buyout from her uncle. Combined with her parents’ insurance payouts and savings, she now had just under ninety million yuan in her account.
Pressing her palms together, she silently thanked her parents.
Money she might never have needed in her entire lifetime had finally found a purpose.
After some thought, Shen Hanyin took out a notebook and began making a list of everything she wanted to buy.
Winter break was only two months away.
Although the space contained a catastrophe warning, there was still no way to verify whether it was real. Shen Hanyin had no intention of neglecting her studies. If the countdown turned out to be fake, she would end up making a fool of herself.
As for reporting it to the government?
She was afraid they would lock her up in a psychiatric hospital.
And if she ended up in a psychiatric ward, then nothing else would matter.
The first thing Shen Hanyin did was rent an apartment and a warehouse outside campus.
Her space was enormous, capable of storing huge quantities of food and daily necessities. There was no way she could manage such preparations while living in a university dormitory. Renting a place and a warehouse was the best option.
She spent a weekend searching and signed a lease agreement the same day.
Afterward, she began ordering daily necessities online.
Sanitary pads.
Toilet paper.
Urine collection bags.
Disposable face towels.
Laundry detergent.
Body wash.
Shampoo.
Toothpaste.
Toothbrushes.
Anything she could think of, she bought.
She even calculated the quantities.
Assuming she lived to be a hundred years old, she still had eighty-one years ahead of her. Based on her normal consumption over that period, she estimated the required amounts, then added a little extra.
Like most people, she always worried she might not buy enough.
Many sensitive goods in China were subject to purchase limits. Fortunately, she had plenty of time.
She could buy smaller quantities from multiple stores and make several trips, reducing the chances of attracting attention.
Every item and quantity was carefully recorded in her notebook.
Whenever she purchased a batch, she crossed off the corresponding amount.
Then, each weekend, she transported everything to her rented apartment and transferred it into the space.
One of the first things Shen Hanyin ordered for the space was a set of custom storage shelves.
They would make organizing supplies easier while maximizing storage capacity.
While waiting for the shelves to be completed, she continued stockpiling.
The space had one huge advantage:
She never had to physically move anything.
As long as she touched an object, she could instantly place it wherever she wanted inside the space.
The very first resource she prioritized was fresh water.
After all, a person could survive three days without food, but not even a single day without water.
She visited five different bottled-water suppliers and ordered five different brands.
Thirty large water containers from each supplier.
All delivered directly to the warehouse.
That allowed her to stockpile one hundred and fifty containers of water every week.
By the time winter break arrived, she would have accumulated more than a thousand containers.
That should be enough.
The rest would come from bottled mineral water.
Mineral water was much easier to acquire.
Supermarkets.
Wholesale warehouses.
Online shopping platforms.
There were countless sources.
With two months to prepare, accumulating five thousand cases of bottled water wouldn’t be difficult.
Even when there were no purchase restrictions, Shen Hanyin remained careful about quantities.
The less attention she attracted, the fewer questions people would ask.
While nobody could possibly imagine that she possessed a dimensional space and a catastrophe countdown, the curiosity of ordinary Chinese citizens was legendary.
Too many people had been exposed simply because someone became curious.
It was always better to be cautious.
That weekend, Shen Hanyin visited Haicheng’s wholesale market.
Apples.
Bananas.
Mangosteens.
Durians.
Every fruit available from the vendors.
Once a week, she purchased two crates of each and had them delivered to the warehouse.
In a massive wholesale market like this, her purchases barely attracted any notice.
What seemed like a large quantity to her wasn’t even considered a major order by the vendors.
The next priority was medicine.
This was considerably more troublesome.
Every week, Shen Hanyin visited several pharmacies, purchasing anti-inflammatory drugs, antiviral medications, fever reducers, bandages, alcohol disinfectants, mosquito repellents, masks, protective suits, blood pressure medication, vitamin supplements, and anything else she could think of.
Nobody knew what would become useful after a disaster.
Buying large quantities of medicine was difficult.
Fortunately, modern society was overflowing with pharmacies.
Some medications could even be ordered online.
By winter break, she expected to have accumulated a sizable stockpile.
Since time didn’t pass inside the storage building, she wasn’t worried about expiration dates.
Western medicine wasn’t enough.
She also purchased traditional Chinese medicine.
Visiting several herbal pharmacies, she commissioned pre-packaged remedies for common conditions such as cold-induced illnesses, heat-related illnesses, viral infections, eczema, hives, and other everyday ailments.
She knew almost nothing about Chinese medicine.
Even if she stored raw herbs, she wouldn’t be able to identify them properly or prepare the correct prescriptions.
Pre-made medicinal packets were much more practical.
As for the various herbs, she bought small quantities of each according to her best judgment.
Outside of class, Shen Hanyin also joined a mixed martial arts club.
In an extreme survival environment, physical fitness was one of the most important assets a person could have.
At university, she didn’t have any especially close friends.
Her dormitory housed four students, none of whom were from the same department.
Originally, she had maintained a fairly good relationship with her roommates.
However, during her freshman year, she had taken a two-month leave of absence after her parents passed away.
When she returned and her roommates learned about her family’s tragedy, she could clearly sense their caution whenever they spoke to her.
They were constantly afraid of saying something that might remind her of painful memories.
Shen Hanyin had repeatedly told them there was no need to treat her differently.
In fact, being so careful all the time made interactions exhausting.
Yet even after a long period, their obvious restraint never disappeared.
Eventually, through Shen Hanyin’s subtle distancing, their relationship settled into a lukewarm balance once again.
They were all kind people.
But if every interaction felt awkward, perhaps it was best to leave things where they were.
Shen Hanyin had always been quiet and reserved.
When her mother was still alive, she regularly inspected Shen Hanyin’s “assignments.”
To maintain family harmony, Shen Hanyin had been forced to sacrifice a great deal of personal time cultivating relationships with classmates.
As a result, she joined numerous clubs and organizations.
She knew many people.
Yet she was close to none of them.
She understood that the problem lay with her own personality.
As a child, she had never truly received her parents’ affection.
Years of pretending to be someone else had left her unable to open her heart to others.
She also lacked trust almost completely.
Friendship required effort from both sides.
If only one person kept giving, the relationship could never last.
Fortunately, Shen Hanyin no longer expected too much from life.
What belonged to her would eventually be hers.
What didn’t belong to her could never be forced.
Truthfully, her current situation wasn’t bad.
She was alone.
Unattached.
Free of burdens.
This week, Shen Hanyin visited an outdoor equipment store.
She purchased assault boats, inflatable rafts, trekking poles, raincoats, rain boots, protective goggles, night-vision devices, climbing ropes, snowboards, bicycles, portable gas stoves, ice axes, compasses, tents of various sizes, moisture-proof sleeping mats, binoculars, waterproof lamps, quick-dry clothing, outdoor water purifiers, and waterproof jackets.
Anything she could think of.
Anything the store owner recommended.
She bought one hundred units of each.
She also purchased alcohol fuel tablets and thirty inflatable swimming pools that could be used for water storage if necessary.
Everything was delivered to the warehouse she had rented beforehand.
Naturally, buying such enormous quantities drew questions.
Shen Hanyin casually fabricated a story about a company team-building event.
Whether the owner believed it or not didn’t matter.
No business owner would turn away a customer spending that much money.
And even if they were suspicious, the catastrophe was still a year away.
By then, who would be able to track her down?
Next came emergency equipment.
She purchased one hundred units of every type of fire extinguisher.
Electric batons.
Life jackets.
Window-breaking rescue tools.
Thermal emergency blankets.
Lifebuoys.
Gas masks.
Emergency breathing devices.
Hand-crank power banks.
Disaster-preparedness candles.
When she finally stepped out of the store, Shen Hanyin checked her bank account balance.
83,056,952 yuan.
She couldn’t help but sigh.
She really did need to spend carefully.
The money looked substantial, but there were simply too many things she needed to buy.
She still needed water storage tanks.
Claiming that her family’s rural home was undergoing renovations, she purchased fifty large water tanks in one order.
Personally, she felt it still wasn’t enough.
Unfortunately, there was no alternative.
Even when stacked vertically, the tanks occupied nearly a quarter of the third floor of the building inside her space.
There were still countless supplies she hadn’t purchased yet.
Fortunately, her drinking water reserves were already sufficient.
If things became truly desperate, she could simply stop bathing.
Being dirty was better than dying of thirst.
She also bought several automated pumping systems.
Every two days, she returned to the rented apartment, filled the storage tanks with water, and then transferred them into her space.