The two of them loaded the stolen cases of mineral water into the trunk.
The fat rich man and the sharp-tongued woman were driving a van-type car.
The trunk was packed full of mineral water—roughly more than fifty cases.
It seemed they hadn’t just grabbed from this supermarket; they had also bought large amounts from other places.
Because of the angle, the two didn’t notice Su Yu and her father.
From their point of view, they thought they were the only ones in the underground parking lot.
“These mineral waters still aren’t enough. My little brother said we need to stock up a few hundred more cases at least.”
The empty parking garage amplified the sharp-tongued woman’s voice.
Her words fell clearly into Su Yu and Father Su’s ears.
If someone was stocking up just because of the heat, normal people would buy enough for a week or two at most.
No one would ever stock up in the hundreds like they were doing.
But who could have guessed that this extreme heat would last a year and a half?
The sharp-tongued woman didn’t talk much more. After loading the van, they left.
The supermarket was three kilometers from Mingyue Huafu.
The route they were driving on was exactly the road back to the residential complex.
Sure enough, Su Yu watched the fat man’s van enter Mingyue Huafu.
Mingyue Huafu had sixteen buildings in total.
The community was huge, with long distance between buildings.
Based on the parking spot, Su Yu judged they were residents of Building Nine.
Before getting out of the car, Su Yu stored half of the items from their vehicle into her space.
One reason was the weight. The other was that carrying too much would attract attention.
By contrast, the fat man and the sharp-tongued woman were extremely showy.
Moving more than fifty cases of water was indeed a hassle, so the fat man made a phone call.
“Huzi, get a few guys over here to help me move stuff. Money’s not an issue.”
His loud, rough voice drew everyone’s attention.
He even displayed all fifty-plus cases openly in front of everyone.
People nearby muttered:
“Why did he buy so much water?”
“I heard on the news that because of the extreme heat and drought, water resources are getting tight.”
“Worst case, we can buy some from him later. They have plenty anyway, haha.”
The fat man and the sharp-tongued woman didn’t care at all.
To them, it was just moving goods.
Indeed, on a normal day, no one would think twice about hauling dozens of cases of water.
But at this moment, Earth had already entered the phase of extreme high temperatures.
Soon, people would be fighting each other over water.
Displaying so much water out in the open…
Was basically like writing “COME ROB ME” on his forehead.
After finishing the call, the fat man and the sharp-tongued woman climbed back into the van and turned on the air conditioning.
Su Yu and her father, each carrying a bag, quietly took the longer route toward their building.
But the important part was—they had to pass the fat man’s van.
Su Yu lifted her fair hand and made a closing motion in the air.
In an instant, more than forty of the fifty-plus cases disappeared into her space.
If she took all fifty-plus at once, the two inside the van would instantly feel the trunk become empty.
So Su Yu was already being merciful by leaving ten cases.
Around ten minutes later, Huzi and his men arrived—only to be dumbfounded.
There were only ten cases of water left.
Their boss weighed over 200 jin (100+ kg); carrying five cases himself wouldn’t even be a problem.
Did they really need to come all the way here?
The fat man was completely stunned.
He had clearly filled the trunk with more than fifty cases.
How were there only ten left now?!
The fat man went to the property management office, complaining that someone had stolen his stuff.
After causing a big fuss, the property staff showed him the surveillance footage.
Two familiar figures appeared.
It was Su Yu and her father taking the alternate route.
“It’s them! Those two bastards dared to steal our water!”
The sharp-tongued woman pointed at the screen and cursed.
Even though the water wasn’t expensive, stealing was still stealing.
She immediately planned to copy the surveillance video and use it as evidence to report Su Yu and her father.
But in the footage… Su Yu and Father Su simply walked past the van.
They never touched it.
Because their van was completely black, including privacy-tinted windows, the surveillance cameras couldn’t capture what was happening inside at all.
And besides Su Yu and her father, plenty of other people had walked past their van during that time.
No one could prove that Su Yu had taken the water.
They still couldn’t find any clues about how the mineral water disappeared, but the sharp-tongued woman clearly saw Su Yu walking toward Building Six.
At that moment, over in Building Ten, Su Yu suddenly sneezed.
It felt like someone was talking about her behind her back.
After showering, Su Yu wiped the droplets from her skin.
She then casually took a cup of milk tea and a bag of original-flavor Shile potato chips out of her space.
Turning on the projector in her room, she took advantage of still having internet and watched the currently trending drama Lan Cang Jue.
Su Yu also prepared bananas for the little monkey.
Although the monkey would eat human food, it still preferred bananas.
In the previous ten years, Su Yu lived a completely reversed day-and-night schedule.
Early on, she drifted around for survival due to scarce resources; later on, she stayed in the lab long-term to heal her mother.
Now, Su Yu was truly living a “lying flat” life.
It felt great.
She hoped her whole family would stay safe.
Su Yu drifted into sleep with sweet dreams.
…
“Ding-dong.”
“Ding-dong.”
Another day of being woken up early.
This time, what woke Su Yu was the notification tone on her phone.
She picked it up—it was full of high-temperature warnings from major platforms.
“Extreme heat approaching. Citizens are advised to avoid unnecessary daytime outings.”
“Experts suggest workers can directly take leave during high temperatures to avoid going outside. Mortgage payments can be made with the balance in the bank. The average balance per Huaxia citizen is three million.”
“According to temperature monitoring, today’s high will reach 48°C.”
Such temperatures were suffocating.
The phone display showed 6 a.m.
Su Yu pulled open the curtains, and sunlight blasted into the room.
Outside was unusually bright—like midday in June or July.
But it was already October—early autumn.
Strange. Too strange!
Looking at the rising temperatures day by day…
Her parents finally experienced what a true natural disaster felt like.
If Su Yu hadn’t been reborn…
They couldn’t imagine how hard the coming days would be.
When Su Yu got up, breakfast was already set on the table.
Today’s breakfast was made by her father.
Mung bean, lily, and millet porridge, served with pan-fried bread squares.
And a special banana milkshake prepared just for the little monkey.
Since they still had electricity and water, everyone agreed to cook fresh meals for now.
When conditions became more difficult later, they would eat the ready-made food stored in Su Yu’s space.
At the same time, Father Su cooked two extra dishes.
So they could always pull out homemade meals from her space later on.
The atmosphere during breakfast was a bit heavy.
Finally, Father Su spoke:
“Xiaoyu, there should still be two vials of the JJ001 reagent left, right?”