Inside the car, Wan Yinyin stared at the jade pendant that showed absolutely no reaction and began to panic.
“Impossible! Where’s my storage space?!”
Refusing to give up, she squeezed out another drop of blood and dripped it onto the jade.
The result was exactly the same.
Nothing happened.
“How could this be? Why isn’t it responding?”
“Is it fake?”
“No… that’s impossible!”
It looked exactly like the jade pendant Lin Lu had in her previous life, and it had even been purchased from the same shop.
Could it be that she was activating it the wrong way?
Wan Yinyin suddenly regretted something.
In her previous life, she had been so busy envying Lin Lu’s storage space that she had never bothered to ask how it had actually been activated.
What was she supposed to do now?
Frustration filled her heart.
The storage space was right in front of her, yet she couldn’t access it.
No.
She couldn’t give up.
If an idiot like Lin Lu could do it, why couldn’t she?
“I’m the chosen heroine! I’m the reborn protagonist! There has to be a way!”
She decided to go home and try everything—fire, water, and every method she could think of.
She refused to believe she couldn’t open the storage space.
Meanwhile, inside Yayun Pavilion.
Through the surveillance camera, Uncle Zhang happily gave Lin Lu an “OK” hand gesture.
Then, moving at lightning speed, he shut the front door, hung up a “Temporarily Closed” sign, and slipped out through the back entrance.
What a joke.
He had just pocketed two million yuan.
If he didn’t run now, was he supposed to wait for Wan Yinyin to realize she’d been scammed and come looking for him?
Uncle Zhang was a seasoned veteran of life.
He wasn’t about to make that kind of mistake.
Almost simultaneously, Lin Lu’s phone chimed.
[Alipay Notification: ¥1,000,000 received.]
A voice message from Uncle Zhang followed shortly afterward.
[Uncle Zhang: Girl, got the money?]
[Uncle Zhang: I’ve decided to take your advice and close the shop for a while.]
[Uncle Zhang: I’ll stock up on supplies and find somewhere peaceful with mountains and rivers to stay for a bit.]
Lin Lu smiled.
[Lin Lu: Good. Uncle Zhang, get some rest and stay safe.]
[Uncle Zhang: I know. You too.]
Looking at the additional million yuan in her account, combined with the one and a half million she already had, she now possessed over two and a half million yuan.
And that didn’t even include Pei Yanzhi’s black card.
She thought it over.
Although the black card was useful, everything purchased with it would be delivered to the villa.
There was a chance Pei Yanzhi would inspect the supplies himself.
Therefore, the black card could be used to buy rice, flour, cooking oil, and daily necessities, piling them up in the villa to ease his worries.
Then, before the apocalypse arrived, she could simply wave her hand and transfer everything into her storage space.
As for her own money…
That needed to be spent on things that could truly save her life.
Things Pei Yanzhi absolutely couldn’t know about.
For example…
A steel beast capable of charging through the apocalypse.
After finishing her meal, Lin Lu headed straight for the largest imported automobile dealership in City A.
Hummer Off-Road Dealership
The moment she entered, a black off-road vehicle displayed in the center of the showroom caught her eye.
It was a George Patton SUV.
Its matte-black armored body resembled a dormant steel rhinoceros.
The sharp, rugged lines radiated strength and power.
The massive off-road tires stood taller than Lin Lu’s waist.
A row of spotlights was mounted on the roof.
The front featured a reinforced crash bumper, while a winch was attached at the rear.
“Oh my God. This vehicle is amazing.”
Lin Lu circled it in admiration.
In the apocalypse, driving something like this would allow her to smash through even a city overrun by zombies.
“This one’s perfect.”
“I’ll take it.”
Just as she was about to call over a salesperson, a slightly surprised male voice sounded behind her.
“Lin Lu?”
Her body stiffened.
That voice was far too familiar.
Slowly turning around, she saw a handsome man wearing gold-rimmed glasses standing a short distance away.
Tall.
Elegant.
Refined.
Song Zimo.
Her childhood friend.
And one of the people who had personally pushed her into the abyss in her previous life.
At that moment, he was studying her suspiciously.
Lin Lu’s heart skipped a beat.
Their eyes met.
Song Zimo had already begun walking toward her.
He looked at Lin Lu.
Then at the George Patton SUV beside her.
Something wasn’t right.
Lin Lu normally found driving troublesome.
She preferred simplicity and comfort in every aspect of life.
She had never shown the slightest interest in hardcore off-road vehicles like this.
Yet now…
What was she doing here?
Moreover…
Song Zimo narrowed his eyes as he stared at her.
“Lulu, Yinyin said she urgently needed to borrow money from you earlier, but you didn’t give her a single cent.”
“You’re family. Shouldn’t family help one another?”
Lin Lu raised an eyebrow.
In her previous life, although Song Zimo knew Wan Yinyin at this point, he had never liked her because of her spoiled and arrogant personality.
He had even warned Lin Lu multiple times to be cautious around her stepsister.
But now?
The moment Wan Yinyin failed to borrow money, Song Zimo learned about it almost immediately.
And he had come here to question her.
The answer seemed obvious.
He had been reborn too.
Looking at Song Zimo, Lin Lu ignored his question and smiled instead.
“It seems you’re keeping in pretty close contact with my sister.”
“You found out awfully quickly, didn’t you?”
Song Zimo’s expression froze briefly.
A trace of guilt flashed across his face.
“Don’t get the wrong idea.”
“Lulu, Yinyin is your sister. It’s only natural for me to care a little.”
“I know you have grievances against Aunt Dai and the others, but between family members…”
“…there’s no such thing as a grudge that lasts overnight.”
“Family?”
Lin Lu almost laughed out loud.
She looked at the man standing before her—a face both familiar and strangely foreign.
They had been childhood friends, growing up together.
Back when his grandmother had been critically ill, it was Lin Lu who had taken out the scholarship money and internship wages she had painstakingly saved for years and lent them to him.
She had even swallowed her pride and gone to Dai Ya to borrow part of the money, finally helping him gather enough for the surgery.
Because of that, she had continued to tolerate Dai Ya’s behavior for years afterward.
Yet to this day, Song Zimo still hadn’t fully repaid that debt.
Once upon a time, she had believed that even if the whole world betrayed her, Song Zimo never would.
But in that dream of the apocalypse, he had stood by coldly and watched as zombies tore her apart alive.
What had he said back then?
“Lulu, don’t blame me. You never awakened any powers. You’re just an ordinary person. Bringing you along would only make you a burden.”
How laughable.
After being reborn, he still had the nerve to talk about family?
“Zimo.”
Suppressing her disgust, Lin Lu let out a sigh.
“It’s not that I don’t want to lend Yinyin money. I really don’t have any left.”
Song Zimo clearly didn’t believe her.
“No money? How could you possibly be out of money? Your grandmother—”
“I’ve already spent it all,” Lin Lu interrupted.
“Yanzhi was seriously injured last night and is still in the hospital.”
“But he doesn’t want to stay there, so he asked me to stockpile supplies in the villa and prepare it for his recovery.”
“All my money has already gone into deposits and supplies. How would I have extra money to lend Yinyin?”
“What?!”
The amount of information packed into those few sentences was overwhelming.
Song Zimo was completely stunned.
He didn’t even have time to wonder why Lin Lu was shopping for an off-road vehicle.
Only a few key phrases remained in his mind:
Pei Yanzhi was injured?
Pei Yanzhi was stockpiling supplies?
Pei Yanzhi wanted to move into Lin Lu’s villa?
A cold sweat instantly broke out across Song Zimo’s back.
Since returning to the past, he had been secretly making plans, convinced he was the only reborn person.
But now…
Could it be that Pei Yanzhi had been reborn as well?
Lin Lu carefully watched the changing expressions on his face and immediately understood.
It seemed that although both Pei Yanzhi and Song Zimo had been reborn, neither knew about the other’s rebirth.
Each believed he was the chosen one.
Now that was interesting.
Since that was the case, she might as well add more fuel to the fire.
Pretending not to notice anything unusual about Song Zimo’s reaction, Lin Lu continued with a worried sigh:
“And you don’t even know what Yinyin wants the money for.”
“She says she wants to buy some kind of jade.”
“But what would a student know about jade?”
“The moment she opened her mouth, she asked for two million yuan. I’m worried she’s being scammed.”
“There are so many fraudsters these days. What if she buys a fake? Wouldn’t all that money go down the drain?”
Jade?
Song Zimo froze again.
Instantly, he thought of the jade pendant from his previous life—the one that had allowed Lin Lu to store enormous quantities of supplies.
And Wan Yinyin…
Borrowing money to buy jade?
A shocking possibility suddenly surfaced in his mind.
Could it be…
Wan Yinyin had been reborn too?!