Lin Bai had an excellent capacity for taking things in. He immediately understood that this was the space inside the jade pendant.
Now he believed his wife even more when she said she had lived through the Apocalypse.
“You said the Apocalypse will arrive tonight, so we can use this ‘space’ to go to the supermarket and collect a lot of supplies in advance!” Lin Bai immediately came up with a plan for dealing with the end of the world.
Chen Qingqing smiled and nodded. “That’s right!”
The two of them immediately began carefully measuring the room’s length, width, and height, making thorough plans for this hard-won utopia.
Lin Bai worked in construction and could make use of every inch of space in the room as efficiently as possible.
After a brief discussion, the couple quickly finalized their shopping list.
“There are only a few hours left before the virus breaks out,” Chen Qingqing said. “We don’t have much time, so we’ll buy the necessities first this time.”
Things like the infant formula their daughter drank, the diapers she used, and enough food for the two of them and their son.
The rest would be hard currency and medicine.
Although cigarettes and alcohol were not worth much during the early stages of the Apocalypse, the various major and small bases would gradually begin to form half a year after the Apocalypse began. By then, the cigarettes and alcohol in their possession would definitely be hard currency comparable to gold in the present day.
The couple decided what they needed to buy.
Lin Bai paused, then asked tentatively, “Then where did this jade pendant go in our previous lives?”
His wife had never mentioned the jade pendant when she described what she had gone through.
Chen Qingqing’s smile froze.
“…Someone took it.”
She still remembered the second day after the Apocalypse arrived. Lin Bai had gone out to check the situation, and a self-organized group happened to be passing through their residential complex.
Someone in the group was injured, but all the pharmacies along the road had closed.
Out of kindness, Lin Bai settled them in a relatively quiet pharmacy before returning home alone to get medicine.
However, that group had secretly sent someone to follow Lin Bai.
Before Lin Bai could enter the house, the other person pressed a knife against his waist.
Chen Qingqing and the children had been terrified when they came out to meet Lin Bai. In their panic, they said they were willing to give the intruders anything.
So the group took everything valuable in the house, along with all their food.
…Including this jade pendant.
As Chen Qingqing spoke, her expression gradually grew solemn.
Lin Bai also sensed that something was wrong. “How did they know about the jade pendant?”
The jade pendant had been worn by Shuoshuo and wrapped up tightly. How had they even seen it?
The couple exchanged a glance.
After her rebirth, Chen Qingqing realized that because everything had happened so suddenly in her previous life, she had not had time to think carefully when it happened.
Only now, as she recalled the events in detail, did she realize that she had overlooked many things.
Seeing that his wife was about to become lost in her memories, Lin Bai quickly patted her back. “Wife, don’t think about those things anymore. The most important thing is for our family to live well together now.”
Chen Qingqing raised her head again.
That was right.
This time, their entire family had to remain safe and sound. Not one of them could be lost, and they had to live happily, too!
Once they had gathered most of the supplies, she would carefully recall everything that had happened in her previous life and find ways to avoid the risks.
Xiaohuan was brave. He walked back and forth around the spatial realm, and when he grew tired, he plopped down on the floor. “Mom, are we going to live here from now on?”
Chen Qingqing’s heart stirred.
This place could be considered an absolutely reliable safe house. Could she hide the children in the spatial realm while she and her husband went out alone?
She told her husband her idea, and he immediately asked her to try it.
She called Xiaohuan over, and the family of four held hands and tried several times.
Chen Qingqing was a little disappointed. “It doesn’t work.”
Only Chen Qingqing could control this spatial realm. In other words, her family members could enter and leave it only if she accompanied them.
After Chen Qingqing took the children into the spatial realm, the jade pendant would remain in Lin Bai’s hands. Through the jade pendant, Chen Qingqing could bring Lin Bai inside from outside.
Once all four of them entered the spatial realm, the jade pendant would disappear as well.
However, when they returned to the real world, they could only appear at the place where they had entered.
“It’s all right. It’s already incredibly fortunate to have this spatial realm.”
“If we encounter danger, you can bring Xiaohuan and Shuoshuo inside. Isn’t that wonderful?”
“This time, we’ll all be more careful. Our family will definitely stay safe.”
Chen Qingqing rallied her spirits and lowered her head to look at the daughter in her arms.
Her Shuoshuo was an exceptionally good baby. As long as she was fed, she hardly ever cried or fussed.
In her previous life, when Chen Qingqing could not find infant formula and fed Shuoshuo thin rice gruel instead, Shuoshuo had never cried or wailed.
Only at the beginning, when artillery fire had thundered outside and zombies had roared, did she cry a few times. Once she got used to it, Shuoshuo hardly fussed at all.
“We made it through the previous life. This time, we’ll only live better.”
Lin Bai tenderly brushed away the stray hairs by his wife’s ear. It was hard to imagine that she had endured so much alone.
He wished the one who had been reborn were him instead. He would have rather borne those painful memories himself.
Chen Qingqing handed Shuoshuo in her arms to her husband, then cupped Xiaohuan’s face in both hands. “Xiaohuan, Mom has something important to tell you.”
At that moment, Xiaohuan’s little face was plump and round. He looked nothing like the child who had died in his previous life.
“There are many monsters outside. They have human faces, but they eat people.”
Xiaohuan froze.
Chen Qingqing did not want a six-year-old child to accept such things, either. But if he did not accept them, he would die.
Gritting her teeth, she continued, “For our family to survive, we have to help one another.”
“Just like we always do,” Xiaohuan suddenly said.
He blinked his dark, shining eyes. “Help one another, like we always do, right?”
“That’s right!”
Perhaps all children had an amazing ability to accept things, or perhaps Xiaohuan had inherited his father’s personality.
He asked Chen Qingqing, “Mom, what do I have to do?”
Chen Qingqing rubbed his little cheeks. “We have to guard against those monsters, and we also have to guard against bad people.”
“Most importantly, we have to make sure we stay alive.”
“And staying alive means having food and water. We’re going to the supermarket to collect lots of supplies and put them in the room we were just in.”
“If we can’t find food outside, we can eat the food in that room.”
Xiaohuan nodded repeatedly. “I know!”
“Very good.”
Chen Qingqing rubbed Xiaohuan’s cheeks.
“Also, that room is a place only the four of us can enter, and it’s where we’ll go to save our lives. So you can’t tell anyone about it. Do you understand?”
Xiaohuan looked at Chen Qingqing, then at Lin Bai, and nodded with his little lips pursed.
He had never seen his parents look so serious before.
“Xiaohuan understands!”
“Xiaohuan won’t tell anyone! Xiaohuan will definitely protect Dad, Mom, and Little Sister!”
Chen Qingqing pulled her son into her arms.
Lin Bai glanced up at the clock. “Qingqing, we should get going.”
Xiaohuan immediately rushed to the door, stood on tiptoe, and reached for the coats hanging on the coat rack.
“Let’s go!”
The family of four quickly got dressed and ready.
They not only planned to fill the spatial realm, but also brought more than a dozen courier transfer bags they had used during their previous move. Each bag was nearly as tall as a person.
The elevator was still running.
Their apartment was on the fourth floor, though, so even if the power went out, they were not worried about being unable to climb the stairs.
They took the elevator down to the garage. Their family had bought an SUV with a relatively large trunk, which was perfect for loading supplies.
Lin Bai put the bags into the trunk, while Chen Qingqing settled Shuoshuo into the safety carrycot. An infant car seat?
Once everything was ready, Lin Bai first drove to the bank and withdrew all the money in their household accounts. Then he drove to H City’s largest shopping mall.
Chen Qingqing took Shuoshuo and Xiaohuan, while she and Lin Bai split up.
Lin Bai went to a wholesale cigarette and alcohol distributor to buy hard currency for the Apocalypse. He would then visit several pharmacies and stock up on as much medicine as possible.
Chen Qingqing, meanwhile, took the children shopping in the mall.
First came infant formula. Shuoshuo was three months old and was exclusively formula-fed. She had a large appetite, going through more than four 900-gram cans of formula every month.
That came to forty-eight cans a year.
After Shuoshuo turned one, she could gradually begin eating supplementary foods.
However, supplementary foods were not easy to prepare during the Apocalypse, so formula would be more convenient.
Chen Qingqing bought two hundred cans of the imported formula Shuoshuo drank most often in one go. In any case, the entire family could drink it.
She took out a measuring tape from home and measured the cans. They were approximately thirteen centimeters in diameter and 16.5 centimeters high. With a two-meter ceiling, twelve cans could be stacked.
Even two hundred cans of formula, stacked neatly, would not take up much space.
The baby-food section also had fruit and vegetable purées and millet powder that could be used as supplementary foods. However, products like fruit and vegetable purées had short shelf lives, and Shuoshuo was still some time away from eating supplementary foods, so Chen Qingqing bought only millet powder.
After buying food for her daughter, it was time to buy food for herself, her husband, and their son.
Chen Qingqing went straight to the grain section and bought dozens of bags of flour and rice. These took up the most space and were also what they would eat the most.
She hesitated over whether to buy even more, worried that there would not be enough room in the spatial realm. Just then, she received a call from her husband.
“Qingqing, I just rented a villa. It has a basement that can hold a lot of things.”