The next day, construction materials arrived one after another.
Zhao Guangsheng handled things reliably and with extremely high efficiency.
Having served in the military, he had extensive connections and worked in the renovation industry, giving him certain channels for this kind of work.
All materials were procured according to Wu Xiaolan’s exact requirements.
The perimeter wall project began first.
The earth wall that had previously collapsed by half was torn down and rebuilt. Excavators dug out the foundations, and Zhao Guangsheng personally supervised the embedding of steel plates to ensure solidity and durability.
Although the Songshan District had already been designated by the city as a key planning project, the occupancy rate of the self-built villa area remained very low. None of the houses surrounding Wu Xiaolan were occupied, allowing construction to proceed 24 hours a day without disturbing residents.
After the first day of construction, Wu Xiaolan utilized her spatial system to inspect the materials and renovation status. Finding zero issues, she left everything in Zhao Guangsheng’s hands and went off to purchase supplies with peace of mind.
By the third day, the main body of the perimeter wall was completed.
A five-meter-high gray wall rose abruptly from the ground, looking exceptionally prominent in the desolate suburbs.
Simultaneously, all windows were replaced with heavy-duty bulletproof glass; this type of glass could not only withstand powerful impacts but also possessed stellar soundproofing.
Building on this foundation, Zhao Guangsheng had workers install sturdy security bars on the windows of every single floor.
The security bars were all forged from high-strength steel, welded securely without any weak points vulnerable to intruders.
Leveraging his personal connections, Zhao Guangsheng had the courtyard perimeter gate and the main entrance door of the villa directly replaced with doors made from the exact same materials used in bank vaults.
As long as Wu Xiaolan, the owner of the villa, didn’t open the door, absolutely no one would be getting in.
Wu Xiaolan had contacted a surveillance company in advance, having them install surveillance cameras on the exterior walls and perimeter fence of the villa, leaving not a single indoor room unmonitored.
The surveillance feed offered high-definition resolution equipped with night vision, providing all-around, dead-zone-free monitoring of the entire safe house and surrounding conditions. The surveillance system linked directly to Wu Xiaolan’s phone, computer, and the monitoring room equipment, making it convenient for her to check live statuses at any moment.
Considering winter heating or extreme weather conditions, Wu Xiaolan also had heating fireplaces installed zone by zone inside the villa.
Should a power outage strike, she could use the fireplaces for warmth.
The suburban back mountain consisted of a pine forest, meaning firewood was the least scarce resource.
Wu Xiaolan selected the absolute best quality for every material used in this renovation, whether electrical wiring or wall paint.
This safe house would be her home in the future; it had to leave zero hidden safety hazards behind.
For the majority of the furniture, Wu Xiaolan chose minimalist, practical stainless steel models.
Stainless steel furniture featured durability and resistance to damage, wouldn’t mold even when damp, took up minimal space, and was easy to maintain, fulfilling basic living requirements.
To ensure convenience during the apocalypse, items like range hoods, water heaters, and smart toilets were installed as standard by Wu Xiaolan, with independent bathrooms for every room.
Even living amidst the doomsday, she intended to live comfortably.
Out in the courtyard, Wu Xiaolan carried out a round of remodeling as well.
She had workers carve out a separate doorway in the courtyard leading directly down to the basement, connecting straight to the basement shelter to serve as a backup escape route.
The tunnel entrance sat hidden in a corner of the back courtyard wall, looking identical to ordinary ground from the outside.
The interior of the tunnel underwent reinforcement processing to prevent collapses, equipped with lighting and ventilation to ensure safe utilization.
Wu Xiaolan also executed a special renovation across the entire villa: each floor was individually sectioned into special zones featuring hidden doors, with vertical pipes connecting straight up to the attic or down to the basement shelter.
Embedded within the special zones was a secret room located inside Wu Xiaolan’s bedroom, outfitted with an invisible door that only opened via passcode or fingerprint recognition controlled exclusively by Wu Xiaolan.
The secret room stored certain supplies while doubling as a monitoring room to observe outside conditions covertly.
Once the villa faced danger, Wu Xiaolan could slip from her current floor into the special zone, and then retreat into the secret room.
Should the secret room prove unsafe, she could enter the basement shelter; if the basement shelter failed to be safe either, she could escape via the tunnel, hopping into the doomsday RV to seek out a safer refuge.
Naturally, these measures served as backups in case the spatial dimension ever malfunctioned. If the space continued operating normally forever, Wu Xiaolan could choose to relocate the safe house directly when encountering danger.
Zhao Guangsheng was a man of few words who disliked idle gossip.
Though Wu Xiaolan’s requirements leaned somewhat unconventional, he hadn’t avoided executing similar projects in the past.
Plenty of clients favored installing hidden doors and the like at home—some to curate expansive living spaces, some for the convenience of holding confidential discussions, and others to store antiques.
Wu Xiaolan’s approach was merely a single young woman’s method of personal safety defense for living alone; he understood it completely.
Half a month later, Wu Xiaolan’s safe house reached formal completion.
Zhao Guangsheng remembered Wu Xiaolan’s request to install an electric grid.
Selecting an evening, he followed the blueprints to pre-embed insulation brackets along the top of the perimeter wall, then began stringing the electric grid wires.
Though the electric grid served merely as “window dressing” for now, the moment power was connected and the switch flipped, it would transform into a lethal line of defense.
Should that family of four attempt to dispatch people inside, they would likely expend a hefty amount of effort.
Standing in the courtyard, he recalled his years serving in the military and guarding the borderlands.
Back then, electric grids and warning signs surrounded the perimeter, but those served to ward off foreign enemies and wild beasts.
Yet presently, he had installed an electric grid for a twenty-something girl’s home, purely to fend off her own family.
Sometimes, this world proved even more absurd than a battlefield.
Shaking his head, he packed up his tools to prepare for departure.
Wu Xiaolan’s vehicle happened to park right at the main entrance. Stepping out of the car, she was holding a small pink flowerpot in her hands.
“Brother Zhao, just finished up?” Wu Xiaolan stepped into the courtyard to greet him.
“Yeah, the project is wrapped up, got your electric grid installed. Here to inspect the work?” Zhao Guangsheng asked.
Glancing at the electric grid on the wall with complete satisfaction, Wu Xiaolan shook her head: “No, I’m staying here starting today.”
“Staying here?” Zhao Guangsheng looked startled: “Xiaolan, the paint hasn’t even dried yet; no matter how good the materials are, there’s still formaldehyde. You need to wait at least half a year before moving in, otherwise it’s bad for your health.”
“It’s fine.” Smiling, Wu Xiaolan showed Zhao Guangsheng the flowerpot in her hands: “I have a divine artifact—air purification.”
Nothing grew inside the flowerpot yet; it sat completely bare. Glancing at it, Zhao Guangsheng noted: “Are you planning to grow pothos? That stuff has minimal effect; even if you filled the whole building with it, it’d be useless.”
Catching Zhao Guangsheng’s disapproving gaze, Wu Xiaolan didn’t argue.
“I was just joking earlier; actually, I’m just here to check out the electric grid today. Look, I didn’t even bring any luggage.”
Hearing Wu Xiaolan put it that way, Zhao Guangsheng finally breathed a sigh of relief.
“You scared me; I thought you were actually moving in right now.”
“I wouldn’t, Brother Zhao.” Denying it, Wu Xiaolan suddenly seemed to recall something: “I want to give you something.”
With that, she fumbled around inside her backpack, pretending to pull items out.
In reality, this served as misdirection to prevent others from thinking she could conjure objects out of thin air.
Extracting a purification seed from her space, she turned and handed it to Zhao Guangsheng.
“Brother Zhao, I bought this a few days ago; the vendor said it grows very pretty flowers whose scent benefits one’s health. Once your little darling gets discharged from the hospital, plant this and keep it by his bedside.”
Taking the seed and inspecting it, Zhao Guangsheng found its size indistinguishable from normal flower seeds, so he accepted it.
“Thank you. If flowers actually grow out of this, my wife will be thrilled—she loves flowers the most.”
Exchanging a few more pleasantries, Zhao Guangsheng packed his tools and headed out the door.
Yet Wu Xiaolan called out to stop him.
“Brother Zhao…”
She wanted to suggest that Zhao Guangsheng hoard supplies because the apocalypse was coming.
Yet the words stopped short at her lips, left unvoiced.
She couldn’t gamble her life on the absolute benevolence of Zhao Guangsheng.
Should her words spark any covetous thoughts in Zhao Guangsheng toward her safe house, despite having a system, she couldn’t beat a trained special forces veteran.
So she smiled instead: “Wishing your son a speedy recovery.”
“Thanks. If anything in the project acts up down the line, give me a call.”
Finishing his sentence, Zhao Guangsheng stepped out of the courtyard.
Once he left, Wu Xiaolan locked the courtyard gate shut and walked straight toward the third-floor bedroom.
She would sleep right here tonight.
Before making her bed, she pulled out the purification seed and planted it carefully inside the flowerpot.
Immediately following, a magical scene unfolded.
The soil inside the flowerpot shifted slightly, a slender, tender green bud pushing aside the surface dirt, slowly crawling out wrapped in a faint, shimmering micro-light.
As the tender shoot kept growing, through the unfolding of its branches and leaves, the pungent chemical odor of construction materials inside the room instantly evaporated into absolute freshness, a cool and hydrating current drifting into her nasal cavity that refreshed the heart and cleared the chest.
Staring closely at the plant that continued to sprout, a tender yellow flower bloomed right between the two emerald-green leaves.
What defied imagination was that the flower possessed what looked like a nose, eyes, and a mouth, resembling a sunflower while its leaves mimicked an aloe vera plant.
Just as Wu Xiaolan assumed the flowerpot was too small, her plant endowed with purifying energy finally finished its full growth cycle.
“Hello, Master.”
The plant actually spoke out loud, its bright eyes staring unblinkingly at Wu Xiaolan.
[Ding! Congratulations to the Host for growing a Light Domain energy plant: Hui Xiaokui. As its growth progress advances, this plant can balance indoor humidity and purify harmful substances in the indoor air. Upon reaching maturity, it resists dark-domain erosion and isolates all negative energies carrying mind-infecting properties.]
This powerful?
Wu Xiaolan couldn’t believe such magical plants existed in the world.
“Then… how should I raise it?”
The system didn’t respond, but Hui Xiaokui piped up.
“Master, Kuikui wants to eat light.”
“Light?”
Yet it was nighttime right now.
Pondering for a moment, Wu Xiaolan gazed out the window: “Is moonlight okay?”
“Yes, Master, any light works.”
Cradling Hui Xiaokui, Wu Xiaolan headed up to the fourth floor. The family of owls that had found the renovation too noisy had already packed up and flown away with their chicks earlier.
retracting the fully automatic folding glass sunroom on the terrace, she fully exposed the terrace to let Hui Xiaokui absorb the moonlight.
Wu Xiaolan had expected the scene to feature moonlight cascading over the tender yellow blossoms, flower petals slowly unfolding, wisps of lunar essence seeping gently into the plant’s tissue, wrapped in a faint pearlescent soft glow like a fairy herb in a television drama.
Instead, the literal reality featured Hui Xiaokui opening its massive mouth to gulp down the moonlight directly, emitting a prolonged “Ah” sound from its mouth.
“Ah… so delicious… ah… smells so good~”
Sighing inwardly, Wu Xiaolan thought: How should I put this—it’s a bit noisy.
Before Wu Xiaolan could speak, a child’s voice suddenly erupted from inside the flowerpot: “So noisy! Can’t you just eat quietly? Have a shred of manners, will you?”
Following the sound instinctively, Wu Xiaolan peered into the flowerpot: right at the base of the aloe-like leaves sat another facial visage.
“Who are you?” Wu Xiaolan asked.
“I’m Xiao Hui; that unmannered glutton is Xiao Kui, otherwise what did you think gave it so many functions all on its own?”
Dawning realization hit Wu Xiaolan: “So that’s how it is. I thought you two were a single plant; turns out there are two.”
“We’re symbionts. There are many symbiotic plants in the Light Domain; we nourish each other, forming functions far more powerful than a single energy source. For instance, filtering harmful substances via me, followed by Xiao Kui releasing fresh air filtered and infused with purification energy.”
Understanding now, Wu Xiaolan smiled and asked Xiao Hui: “Then what do you eat?”
“I drink water. Don’t bother me unless necessary, and make that guy shut its trap.”
Amused, Wu Xiaolan asked: “Why don’t you tell it yourself?”
At that moment, Xiao Kui was still holding its massive maw wide open absorbing moonlight, even humming a cheerful tune, entirely unbothered by Xiao Hui’s words.
Seeing Xiao Hui offer no further response, Wu Xiaolan sighed and said tactfully to Xiao Kui: “Kui, care to take a break?”
“Take a break? Why? No way!” Xiao Kui’s petal-head shook like a rattle-drum: “The night has just begun, yoo-hoo-hoo, let’s get hyped! Sing loud together with me, Xiao Kui is the absolute best!”
Meanwhile, Zhao Guangsheng had already returned to the neighboring city.
Accompanying his son at the hospital, tomorrow the boy would enter the operating room.
After his wife lulled the child to sleep, the two of them sat on a hallway bench, opening their mobile banking app to gaze at the account balance, which, alongside the final payment, contained an extra 200,000 yuan—surpassing Wu Xiaolan’s original promise by a full 100,000.