Ever since the first extreme heat alert, Father Su had given all employees of the Su Corporation a special heat leave.
Now, while the employees were still on break, they received another notice extending their vacation.
They cheered—Father Su really was an amazing boss.
Little did they know…
This would be the last time Father Su ever directed the company’s staff.
Before long, society would collapse.
People would soon begin the era of “zero-yuan shopping.”
No one would be choosing to go to work.
At this time, every TV channel was reporting the bizarre heatwave.
In previous years, people in the north would already be wearing winter coats.
But this year, they wished they could cool down wearing just tank tops and shorts.
Office buildings began implementing electricity restrictions.
Central air conditioning could not be set below 26°C, and office workers suffered miserably.
Just walking the short distance from an office building to the subway after work was enough to scorch a person until their skin peeled.
Downstairs in the neighborhood, more and more people appeared.
They carried bags filled with groceries.
The temperature outside was indeed much lower than during the day.
Su Yu also planned to go out.
Currently, the conditions for upgrading her spatial ability were unknown.
Going out and using her space might trigger some kind of clue.
Su Yu and Father Su went down to the underground parking lot together.
Along the way, Su Yu held onto Father Su’s arm—at a glance, they looked more like siblings than father and daughter.
They drove to the shopping mall near their home.
Although Mingyue Huafu was a high-end residential community, there were plenty of cheaper neighborhoods around the edge of the city.
As a result, the mall was packed with people seeking free air conditioning.
The crowding made the entire building feel stuffy and oppressive.
Both the elderly and children were fanning themselves desperately.
Su Yu squeezed out from a group of old ladies with great difficulty, only to discover that the mall’s elevators were down to just one working unit.
Dozens of people were lined up waiting.
As for the escalators—they were all out of operation.
She had spent these past few days busy hoarding supplies and organizing Mingyue Huafu…
She had forgotten that the city had already begun power rationing.
Once rationing began, full blackouts would follow in less than a week.
At that time, people would truly start wailing.
To escape the suffocating mall, Su Yu and Father Su hurried toward the supermarket.
Aside from searching for ways to upgrade her spatial ability…
They also needed to look like normal people buying supplies.
Otherwise, if anyone thought about it carefully, they might realize the Su family already had stocked-up provisions at home.
As Su Yu passed each aisle, she picked up one item from every section and put it into the cart.
At the same time, she quickly swept each item into her space— always turning her back to the security cameras, completing the action in the blink of an eye.
No ordinary person would be able to catch what happened.
After two hours of attempts,
Su Yu and Father Su each pushed a fully loaded shopping cart.
Originally, Su Yu thought her space might react to some specific item.
Yet the space remained completely unresponsive.
Since the experiment failed, the two headed to checkout.
A huge crowd surrounded the area.
It was noisy and chaotic.
One sharp female voice rose above the rest:
“You all go buy water somewhere else! All the water here belongs to me!”
Through the crowd, Su Yu spotted a sharp-tongued woman standing beside a very large man.
The flesh on his face piled up, several layers of double chin hung down, and his round beer belly stretched his shirt taut.
He was over 1.8 meters tall and weighed nearly 100 kilograms—his size alone intimidated many people.
Even more eye-catching was the thick gold chain around his neck.
A classic nouveau riche.
He was blocking shoppers who had bottled water in their carts, forcing them to hand it over.
Perhaps due to the persistent heat, people had been drinking more than usual.
As a result, the supermarket’s mineral water supply was strained.
Plus, it was already 9 p.m.— most people had come between six and seven.
Now the bottled-water shelves were completely empty.
Someone finally spoke up:
“There are so many drinks left in the supermarket. If you’re thirsty, buy those. Why are you robbing our bottled water?”
“That’s not stealing! You haven’t paid yet, so these things aren’t yours.”
The sharp-tongued woman rattled on confidently. The two of them had lined up several shopping carts to block everyone from leaving.
“Miss, sir, the supermarket will restock mineral water tomorrow. You can place an online order, and we’ll deliver it to you directly.”
The supermarket staff also tried to reason with them, but they simply refused to listen.
Many customers were unwilling to keep wasting time with this pair of troublemakers.
They abandoned the mineral water in their carts and left.
Su Yu and Father Su happened to have two cases of mineral water they had placed in their cart an hour earlier.
They didn’t lack water.
But Su Yu and her father were not people who could be pushed around by these two shameless bullies.
The two planned to walk straight past the nouveau riche man—if he blocked them, they’d just step right over him.
Seeing them approach, the fat rich man thought Father Su was going to hand over the mineral water. He sneered:
“With your looks, you think you can keep a mistress? Coward!”
As soon as he said this, Su Mu’an’s whole expression darkened.
The aura of a natural superior that he carried was something the crude, arrogant man could never compare to.
Father Su pulled Su Yu slightly behind him.
Even though Su Yu was more capable than he was physically, as her father he instinctively shielded her.
The sharp-tongued woman beside the fat man wanted to add more insults.
After all, they were both “kept women”—so why did the girl next to Su Yu get to be accompanied by such a handsome, charismatic man…
While she was stuck with this fat, greasy lump?
But Father Su’s icy stare made the sharp-tongued woman swallow her words instantly.
“Acting all high and mighty…” the fat man grumbled unhappily.
In the very next second, the fat man—along with his shopping cart—was kicked over and slammed onto the floor.
Father Su withdrew his foot and looked down at him from above. “It’s all yours.”
Then he lifted the two cases of mineral water and dropped them straight onto the man.
His fat belly dented under the impact.
The two of them pushed their carts forward and stepped right over him.
“Arrogant is one thing, but blind too.”
“This young lady is obviously a well-bred daughter from a scholarly family.”
“That’s right, totally different from that ugly creature who only knows how to slather on makeup.”
“They look alike—even their temperaments match. I’d say they’re definitely siblings.”
There had long been people in the crowd who couldn’t stand the pair.
Now that Father Su had crushed the fat man’s arrogance, everyone finally started talking back.
Seeing that things were turning against them, the sharp-tongued woman hurriedly pushed several cases of mineral water to the checkout.
The fat man, still collapsed on the floor, used his huge body to block the others.
The supermarket staff could only keep apologizing to customers, promising that there would be more mineral water tomorrow.
After all, dealing with shameless people like this was the hardest.
The exhausted office workers didn’t want to waste any more time here.
But just as Su Yu and Father Su were about to leave from the mall’s parking area, Su Yu once again spotted the fat man and the woman.
The fat man was rubbing his sore waist and shouting:
“Don’t let me run into them again, or I’ll make sure they regret it!”