During the day, Shen Hanyin focused on stockpiling supplies.
At night, she visited the rented property to collect the meals prepared by her hired chefs, then wandered through the night markets.
Candied chestnuts.
Boneless chicken feet.
Sweet plum-flavored sweet potatoes.
All kinds of grilled skewers.
Buy, buy, buy.
Afterward, she made her rounds through the city’s supermarkets.
Driving her small sedan, she started with the household goods section. She bought ten of every item she came across.
Large supermarkets usually carried a comprehensive selection of products, from daily necessities to food staples and seasonings. Shopping this way ensured that she wouldn’t accidentally overlook anything important.
Whenever she encountered something she needed in larger quantities, she simply ordered it online.
Each time she entered a supermarket, she systematically cleared one section before moving to the next.
Once she’d gone through the entire store, she moved on to another supermarket and repeated the process.
Before long, the custom shelving units she had ordered arrived.
She transferred them into the space and planned to organize everything when she had spare time.
At the same time, Shen Hanyin purchased tools used for removing manufacturing dates from packaging, along with machines capable of reprinting dates.
Most of the supplies she stored naturally carried production dates.
She knew that time inside the space was frozen and that nothing would expire.
Other people, however, wouldn’t know that.
If she ever needed to take those items out in the future, dates that were years or even decades old wouldn’t help conceal the truth. Instead, they would only create unnecessary trouble.
While passing by a power equipment store one day, she walked inside and bought a snowmobile and a helmet.
She had a feeling she might never use them.
Then again, who knew?
The Lunar New Year arrived.
Fireworks were prohibited within Nancheng’s urban districts.
Her uncle never called again.
It was almost as though he had forgotten she existed.
Shen Hanyin didn’t feel sad about it.
She had wanted to throw away those broken family relationships for a long time.
After the New Year holiday, she drove into the countryside.
Spring planting season was approaching, and farmers engaged in mechanized agriculture could legally purchase large amounts of diesel fuel using their identification cards.
Shen Hanyin visited numerous villages and paid double the normal price.
In return, she acquired another fifty tons of diesel.
The day before winter break ended, she settled the wages for both chefs and all four kitchen assistants.
She even gave each person an additional three-thousand-yuan bonus.
They had worked extremely hard.
Afterward, she terminated the apartment lease.
All of the water tanks and inflatable pools had already been filled.
The third floor of the building inside her space was packed to capacity.
Outside, the seeds she had planted had begun to sprout.
The yachts and water-filled inflatable pools occupied much of the open ground.
Checking her bank balance, she found that she had 53,136,574 yuan remaining.
The catastrophe countdown had fallen to 254 days.
Nancheng and Haicheng weren’t far apart.
Driving from home to the university took only about an hour and a half.
This time, Shen Hanyin chose to drive her Mercedes G-Class back to school.
Convenience wasn’t the only reason.
She also intended to siphon fuel.
There was no such thing as a permanently safe place during a catastrophe.
If she ever needed to relocate, she couldn’t exactly travel on foot.
Since there was no practical way to safely stockpile huge quantities of fuel, she could only rely on the simplest method possible:
Extracting fuel directly from vehicles.
The G-Class had a large fuel tank, allowing her to siphon a respectable amount each time.
It wasn’t much.
But every little bit added up.
As for the vehicle’s anti-theft fuel system, Shen Hanyin had already consulted professionals.
At her current pace, accumulating several dozen more tons of fuel before the catastrophe arrived wouldn’t be difficult.
After returning to Haicheng, classes resumed.
Shen Hanyin didn’t miss a single lecture.
As long as the catastrophe hadn’t arrived, she intended to continue living like an ordinary person.
If the countdown turned out to be fake, she didn’t want to end up with no degree and no savings.
While attending classes, she continued quietly stockpiling supplies.
The habit had become second nature.
Every day, she bought a little more.
Vegetables.
Fruit.
Snacks.
Beverages.
These ordinary purchases attracted no attention whatsoever.
Whenever nobody was around, she simply transferred everything into her space.
Her mixed martial arts training continued as well.
She also enrolled in an archery course next door.
In a catastrophe, survival skills and physical fitness were equally important.
Otherwise, what would be the point of having so many supplies if she couldn’t stay alive to use them?
She still occasionally ordered household necessities online.
Buying a little extra never hurt.
The warehouse she had rented before winter break remained in use.
Now she began placing orders for meat products.
Five hundred cleaned and processed chickens.
Five hundred ducks.
One hundred sheep.
One hundred cattle.
One hundred pigs.
Five hundred cartons each of sliced beef rolls and lamb rolls.
Two hundred bags each of chicken wings and drumsticks.
One hundred boxes of assorted meatballs.
As for vegetables, she ordered every variety available.
Green onions.
Garlic.
Eggs.
Vermicelli noodles.
Every type the market offered.
She also purchased mushrooms in bulk.
White beech mushrooms.
King oyster mushrooms.
Fresh mushrooms.
Button mushrooms.
Two hundred pounds of each.
Naturally, she couldn’t acquire everything at once.
Instead, she visited multiple suppliers every week until her target quantities were met.
Deliveries also had to be staggered.
Only after she transferred one batch into her space could the next batch be sent.
After reviewing her inventory, Shen Hanyin realized several categories still needed attention.
Clothing.
Furniture.
Cosmetics.
And perhaps most importantly…
A permanent residence.
Ideally, she wanted a low-rise or low-occupancy residential complex.
The fewer people around her, the safer she would be.
After searching for an entire week, she finally chose a property in a development called Guli No. 1.
Unit 1701.
The top floor.
One apartment per elevator.
Two bedrooms.
Two hundred square meters.
The building quality appeared excellent.
She applied for a mortgage and paid only the minimum down payment.
If no catastrophe ever occurred, she could simply sell the property later.
The moment the contract was signed, renovations began.
Blast-resistant doors.
Bullet-resistant glass.
All of it had to be custom-made.
The interior walls were reinforced and lined with steel plates.
Money worked wonders.
Not a single construction worker questioned her unusual requests.
She also planned to secretly install a sliding security gate in the fire escape corridor.
That addition would be installed shortly before the catastrophe.
Doing it too early might attract attention.
Shen Hanyin purchased the most advanced lock cylinders available on the market.
According to the seller, the locks could resist professional lock-picking attempts for up to four hundred minutes.
If someone attempted to force them open, the mechanism would permanently lock itself.
Whether those claims were true or exaggerated, she had little choice but to trust them.
Hopefully the manufacturer wasn’t lying.
She also purchased several extra security doors, steel plates, and sheets of glass to keep in reserve inside her space.
Meanwhile, the seeds growing in the space had sprouted successfully.
Delighted by the result, Shen Hanyin immediately went out and purchased a huge variety of seeds.
Spinach.
Cilantro.
Lettuce.
Cucumbers.
Lettuce stem vegetables.
Anything displayed on the shelves.
She bought them all.
She also wanted rice and wheat seeds.
Unfortunately, her space lacked suitable conditions for large-scale grain farming.
Still, she purchased small quantities for peace of mind.
Next came potatoes and sweet potatoes.
Both stored well and could serve as staple foods.
Whether facing extreme heat or extreme cold, such crops would likely remain common.
If she ever needed to take them out in the future, they wouldn’t attract suspicion.
She also purchased fruit seedlings.
Watermelons.
Strawberries.
Mangoes.
Pomegranates.
Lemons.
Every variety available in the store.
Then a thought suddenly crossed her mind.
Fruit trees required pollination.
Would they even bear fruit inside the space?
Still, the question didn’t dampen her enthusiasm.
Even if they never produced fruit, the supplies she had already accumulated were more than sufficient.
To further disguise her preparations, Shen Hanyin quietly stockpiled dehydrated vegetables.
They tasted terrible.
But they were practical and easy to store.
She also purchased a mountain of farming tools for cultivating the land inside her space.
Although the space seemed not to require fertilizers or pesticides, she stocked those as well.
Her philosophy was simple:
It was fine if she never used something.
What wasn’t fine was not having it when needed.
Next came clothing and cosmetics.
Buying clothes turned out to be surprisingly difficult.
Some designs were unattractive.
Others didn’t fit.
Some colors were too bright and eye-catching.
Others were overly complicated and impractical.
For an entire month, Shen Hanyin alternated between physical stores and online shopping.
In the end, her inventory included:
Down jackets.
Sweaters.
T-shirts.
Long-sleeve shirts.
Underwear.
Sun-protective clothing.
Hoodies.
Thermal leggings.
Winter base layers.
Cotton-lined boots.
Canvas shoes.
Slippers.
Two hundred pieces of each category, covering every season of the year.
She also purchased thirty thousand pairs of disposable underwear online.
In addition, she bought one hundred military-style overcoats.
As for cosmetics and skincare products:
Toners.
Serums.
Face creams.
Facial masks.
Hand creams.
Body lotions.
Lip balm.
If extreme cold really arrived, those items would prove incredibly valuable.
Eventually, the apartment renovation was completed.
Shen Hanyin had no idea how long the carefully chosen building would survive once the catastrophes began.
Next came furnishing the interior.
One-way privacy window film.
Blackout curtains.
Drones.
Solar panels.
Every household appliance she could think of.
Rice cookers.
Ovens.
Electric kettles.
Air conditioners.
Water heaters.
Refrigerators.
Buy, buy, buy.
The beds and carpets were all replaced with brand-new ones.
Besides furnishing the apartment itself, she purchased extra supplies to store in her space.
Mattresses.
Curtains.
Household appliances.
And five ice-making machines.
When everything was finally finished, Shen Hanyin still didn’t move in.
The reason was simple.
Formaldehyde.
She valued her life too much to risk it.