Countdown: Day 26.
Morning sunlight streamed through the floor-to-ceiling windows of the presidential suite, spilling across the carpet as Lin Qi woke up on a two-meter-wide luxury bed.
There was no piercing cold from the frozen apocalypse.
No fear of being torn apart alive over half a moldy biscuit.
Only the faint calming scent of expensive aromatherapy and the distant hum of city traffic outside the window.
“Being alive… feels good.”
Lin Qi stretched lazily, though a trace of cold ruthlessness flashed through her eyes, completely out of place with the luxurious surroundings.
She walked over to the massive floor mirror and looked at the girl reflected within.
She appeared somewhat slender, but her eyes were as sharp and vicious as a starving wolf’s.
In her previous life, because she foolishly trusted her scumbag fiancé and stepmother, she had handed over all the inheritance her father left behind. When the apocalypse arrived, she didn’t even have a single pack of instant noodles. She could only wag her tail like a dog and beg for scraps.
But now—
There were a full fifteen billion yuan in liquid cash resting in her anonymous overseas account!
Lin Qi changed into a low-profile black tracksuit, put on a black baseball cap and face mask, revealing only a pair of unfathomably deep eyes.
Today was the first day of her疯狂 shopping spree.
Before the apocalypse descended, she intended to drain this entire city of supplies as thoroughly as possible!
…
At nine in the morning, a black Porsche Cayenne quietly drove out of the underground garage of the five-star hotel and headed straight toward the high-tech industrial zone on the outskirts of the city.
Half an hour later, the Cayenne stopped in front of a gigantic warehouse logistics park that covered an area equivalent to five standard soccer fields.
Lin Qi stepped out of the car and nodded in satisfaction as she looked at the enormous steel warehouse buildings.
This place used to be the South China regional distribution center for a major e-commerce company. After the company went bankrupt, the site had been abandoned for over half a year.
The location was remote, with almost no residential areas nearby.
Most importantly—
The interior space was huge, and there were no internet-connected surveillance cameras.
She came here to rent a “cover location.”
Over the next twenty-plus days, she would be purchasing tens of thousands of tons of supplies. If suppliers delivered goods directly to her in the city and those goods later vanished into thin air, it would inevitably attract suspicion.
She needed a giant “transfer station” where all suppliers could unload their cargo. Then, in the dead of night, she could use the Absolute Stasis Space to absorb everything.
“You must be Miss Lin? You’re really punctual!”
A balding middle-aged agent carrying a briefcase jogged over, drenched in sweat, his face plastered with a flattering smile.
“What do you think of this place? Fifty thousand square meters of elevated single-story warehouse space, plus the hardened open area outside. Heavy trucks can move in and out without any issue at all. It’s just that the rent…” The agent rubbed his hands awkwardly. “The owner urgently needs money, so he refuses short-term rentals. Minimum lease is one year, and the rent is at least—”
“Five million in cash. I’m only renting for one month.”
Lin Qi interrupted his endless chatter without hesitation.
She pulled five thick bundles of hundred-yuan bills from her black backpack and slammed them onto the rusty iron gate with a loud bang.
“This five hundred thousand is the deposit—and your tip.”
“The remaining four and a half million will be transferred directly to the owner this afternoon.”
“My only conditions are these: before noon today, clear out all security personnel and irrelevant staff from the premises. Replace the electronic lock with the model I specify. And cut every single surveillance camera cable.”
The agent stared blankly at the five hundred thousand yuan in cash.
His eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.
Five million for one month?!
And she wanted all the cameras disabled?!
No matter how he looked at it, this didn’t seem like legitimate business. Was she planning to store smuggled weapons? Drugs?
Cold sweat appeared on the agent’s forehead. Just as he was about to probe further, he met Lin Qi’s ice-cold gaze.
It was the kind of look one gave a corpse.
“Don’t ask questions you shouldn’t ask. Just do your job and take the money. Can you handle it?”
Her voice was soft, yet carried a chilling pressure that made his spine go cold.
“Yes! Absolutely! Don’t worry, Boss Lin!”
The agent no longer dared say another unnecessary word. He stuffed the cash into his bag in one swift motion and nodded frantically.
“By noon today, not even a female mosquito will be left in this place! I’ll send you the keys and password shortly!”
After securing the warehouse, Lin Qi glanced at her watch.
10:30 AM.
Time was tight.
She slammed on the accelerator and headed toward the true battlefield of the day—
The province’s largest agricultural distribution hub:
Wanhui International Grain & Oil City.
…
Wanhui International Grain & Oil City covered thousands of acres and was the largest wholesale market for grain, cooking oil, and seasonings in the entire southern region.
The amount of goods moving through this place daily was measured in tens of thousands of tons.
The moment Lin Qi stepped through the entrance, the rich fragrance of rice and mixed grains rushed toward her.
In peaceful times, it was an utterly ordinary scent.
But to Lin Qi, it smelled more intoxicating than the world’s most expensive perfume.
In the third year of the extreme cold apocalypse, she had once witnessed a starving mob beat a pregnant woman to death over half a handful of moldy sorghum rice.
In that hell without order, carbohydrates were harder currency than gold itself!
Without carbs, people couldn’t even generate enough body fat to maintain warmth.
They could only freeze to death in despair.
Lin Qi took a deep breath and suppressed the violent emotions surging within her before walking directly toward the most famous store in the center of the grain market—
Wang’s Grain & Oil General Distribution.
This business practically monopolized one-third of the province’s grain and oil wholesale trade. Its owner, Fatty Wang, was a well-known grain merchant with enormous influence.
At that moment, Fatty Wang was reclining in a traditional armchair outside the shop, sipping premium Da Hong Pao tea from a purple clay teapot while checking stock prices on a tablet.
He didn’t even bother glancing at Lin Qi when she entered.
“If you’re buying rice, go to the retail section outside. Don’t bother me with ten or twenty pounds. I only do wholesale here. Minimum order starts at five hundred bags.”
Without saying a word, Lin Qi walked directly up to the expensive golden nanmu wood tea table in front of him.
She slowly unzipped her backpack.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Ten neatly bundled stacks of fresh, sequentially numbered hundred-yuan bills were slammed onto the table like bricks.
A full one million yuan in cash!
Fatty Wang’s half-closed eyes snapped wide open. His teapot trembled violently in his hand, splashing scorching tea all over his lap, but he didn’t even notice.
He shot up from the chair and stared uncertainly at the tightly covered young woman before him.
“This… Boss? What exactly do you mean by this?”
Fatty Wang had spent twenty years in business and seen all sorts of situations.
But someone walking in, saying nothing, and immediately slamming one million yuan in cash onto the table?
That was a first.
“A tea fee.”
Lin Qi casually pulled over a chair and sat down, crossing her long legs elegantly. Beneath the baseball cap, her gaze remained cold and calm.
“Boss Wang is a smart man, so I won’t waste time beating around the bush.”
“My employer is a partner in a large international venture capital institution. Recently, we accepted a major international humanitarian aid contract for a war-torn African country. At the same time, we’re also procuring supplies for a massive classified strategic reserve project within the country.”
Lin Qi casually fabricated a completely unverifiable yet extremely intimidating identity.
“Time is short, and the mission is urgent. I need to purchase a massive quantity of living supplies within one week. Dealing with small retailers is too inefficient. I heard Boss Wang has the best connections and strongest supply mobilization capabilities in several southern provinces, so I want to hand this business deal over to you.”
The moment Fatty Wang heard words like “international institution” and “strategic reserve,” then glanced again at the one-million-yuan “tea fee” on the table, his breathing immediately quickened.
A huge client had arrived!
“Oh my! Boss Lin, you definitely came to the right person!”
The fat on Wang’s face nearly bloomed into a chrysanthemum-like grin as he hurriedly wiped the tea from his pants and personally poured Lin Qi a fresh cup of top-grade Da Hong Pao.
“I’m not bragging, but in this entire Wanhui Grain & Oil City, as long as you can name the quantity, I can absolutely gather it for you within three days! So… how much are you looking for?”
Looking at Fatty Wang’s calculating expression, a nearly imperceptible cold smile appeared at the corner of Lin Qi’s lips.
She didn’t touch the tea.
Instead, she pulled a neatly folded A4 sheet of paper from her pocket and gently slid it toward him between two fingers.
“This is just the first batch on the supply list. Boss Wang, you’d better prepare yourself mentally first.”
Fatty Wang snorted inwardly in disdain.
Prepare himself mentally?
He handled annual transactions worth billions. What order hadn’t he seen before? Even the New Year stockpiling orders from major supermarket chains were only a few thousand tons at most.
What could possibly shock him?
He casually picked up the paper and glanced at it lazily.
But the instant he saw the first line—
The smile on his face froze completely.
His pupils contracted violently.
His hands trembled as if struck by electricity.
Even his breathing stopped for half a second.
Because written boldly at the top of the page was a terrifying number:
【Premium Wuchang Daohuaxiang Rice: 50,000 Tons!】