By the time the siblings finally dragged their utterly exhausted bodies to the warehouse, bringing with them a truckload of disguised “spoils,” they were stunned by the sight inside.
The several-hundred-square-meter warehouse was almost completely filled.
Bags of rice and flour were stacked all the way to the ceiling.
Boxes of canned food, instant noodles, and bottled mineral water were piled into small hills.
Barrels of cooking oil stood in rows.
There were heaps of toilet paper, laundry detergent, and soap.
And in one corner, dozens of enormous blocks of ice slowly dripped, water falling drop by drop onto the ground.
At that moment, Li Shulan was standing under the dim warehouse lights, holding a checklist and carefully counting and verifying the goods. Her face looked numb with exhaustion.
When she saw them, she finally seemed to come back to life a little.
“You’re back? Did the trip to the countryside go smoothly? Ah! Chickens? They’re alive?” She jumped when she noticed the chicken claws sticking out through a gap in the truck.
“Mom… this is… incredible!” Lin Yang stared at the mountain of supplies in the warehouse, completely dumbfounded.
“Quick, Wanwan, put all this away first! Especially the ice blocks! Don’t worry—this warehouse doesn’t have surveillance. I checked it thoroughly,” Li Shulan urged anxiously. “I don’t feel safe keeping things here. I’m afraid someone might notice. Once we finish moving everything today, we won’t rent this place anymore tomorrow.”
Lin Wan took a deep breath and focused her mind.
Her consciousness swept across the space like a giant whale sucking in water. The mountains of supplies in the enormous warehouse—along with everything hidden inside their truck—vanished completely within just a few minutes.
Seeing the warehouse suddenly become completely empty, Li Shulan’s legs went weak and she nearly collapsed to the ground.
“…S-so convenient…” she muttered.
But right after that, an even stronger sense of emptiness and urgency surged over her. So many things had just been thrown into Wanwan’s seemingly bottomless space.
Turning her head, she asked, “Wanwan, is your Space Dimension full yet?”
“Not yet. The Space Dimension isn’t very big, but it has no upper limit. It can still hold a lot more.”
After putting in so many supplies, it still wasn’t even close to being filled! And today alone they had already spent nearly two million yuan.
“Mom, where’s Dad?” Lin Wan asked.
“He hasn’t come back yet. He said getting the fuel was troublesome…” Li Shulan hadn’t even finished speaking when her phone rang. It was Lin Jianguo.
After answering, his voice came through the phone, filled with restrained excitement and tension.
“Shulan, I got it! I secured forty tons of diesel and eighty tons of gasoline, plus dozens of tons of coal and three hundred boxes of charcoal… The accountant at the coal factory was really nice. It’s the off-season now, so each ton was over a hundred yuan cheaper… How are things on your side? …Good, good… I’ll find trucks to haul the fuel first. I’ll also grab some purified water along the way. Wait for me at the warehouse—I’ll be back soon.”
After hanging up, Li Shulan looked at the empty warehouse and her equally exhausted children.
“Let’s go home later. Your dad bought a lot of coal, charcoal, diesel, and gasoline. He’ll be back soon. Once we collect those things… tomorrow… we’ll continue.”
More than an hour passed, and Father still hadn’t returned. Lin Yang called him and was told to let them go home first.
On the way back, the three of them remained silent.
Their bodies were exhausted to the extreme, yet their nerves remained tightly strung.
When they passed a supermarket, they wordlessly went inside together and bought a lot of things.
When they returned home, they saw that every window had been welded with thick steel bar mesh. The dense grid allowed light through but also radiated a chilling sense of defense.
The front door was even heavier, giving a deep sense of security.
After quite some time, someone knocked on the door. Lin Jianguo had returned.
He carried a heavy smell of diesel and sweat. His eyes were bloodshot, but they shone brightly.
“Dad!”
“Old Lin!”
Lin Jianguo waved his hand, grabbed a bottle of cold water from the table, and gulped down several mouthfuls before speaking between heavy breaths.
“I stored everything in an abandoned factory building in the suburbs. Wanwan, I’ll take you there early tomorrow morning to collect it.” He paused, a trace of lingering fear and relief appearing on his face. “Almost got checked. Luckily I was quick and took a detour.”
That night, Lin Wan once again stored the supplies they had bought on the way home, along with several barrels of water Father had brought back, into the Space Dimension.
The family of four sat on the floor again. In the middle lay their checklist and accounting book.
The numbers were shocking.
House sale money + online loans + their original savings had totaled more than four million yuan.
In just two days, they had already spent nearly two million.
How many more days could the remaining money support them?
There were still so many unfinished items on the checklist: medicine—though they had already bought some, they still needed more—batteries, solar panels, weapons, more warm clothing…
The air felt so heavy it was almost suffocating.
Outside the window, the night was deep. The weather forecast still calmly reported sunny intervals with clouds, as if everything were peaceful.
But inside this small apartment on the 16th floor, fortified like an iron fortress, the tension of fleeing the coming Apocalypse was suffocating every member of the family.
It felt as if they were fighting a silent war.
Their opponent was the approaching end of the world.
And their ammunition was rapidly disappearing money and nearly exhausted energy.
Lin Wan looked at her family’s weary yet determined faces and quietly clenched her fists.
They had to be faster.
They needed more.
The extreme heat was coming.
Late at night, the only sounds in the empty room were the heavy, suppressed breathing of the family.
The glaring number in the accounting book—less than 2.4 million yuan remaining—pressed on everyone’s hearts like a massive stone.
The checklist was still long.
And time seemed to have grown wings, flying by at incredible speed.
“No! The money we have left might not be enough!” Lin Yang suddenly slammed his fist against the floor, his eyes red. “There must be some way to get more money! Those online loan platforms—”
“That’s enough,” Lin Wan shook her head. Her voice sounded tired but calm. “We’ve already maxed out most of the platforms. If we keep going, it’ll attract attention. If something explodes early, it’ll be even more troublesome. With the money left, we must spend carefully and buy only the most critical items.”
Li Shulan stared silently at the checklist before suddenly saying,
“Solar charging panels, large storage batteries, and the gasoline and diesel your dad mentioned—those are the biggest expenses, and they’re ridiculously expensive… And medicine—we need to stockpile more, especially prescription drugs. They’re hard to get and cost a fortune. We also need more cold-weather supplies.”
She raised her head and looked at Lin Jianguo.
“Tomorrow, I’ll go check out the gold shops again.”
“Mom?” Lin Wan froze.
“I’m selling the three pieces of gold jewelry your father gave me when we got married, and those gold ornaments your grandmother gave me before,” Li Shulan said firmly. “Gold in chaotic times? Nonsense! When the time comes, it can’t be eaten or drunk. It’s better to exchange it for a few more bags of rice!”
Lin Jianguo let out a heavy sigh but did not object. He simply reached out and squeezed his wife’s shoulder firmly. Everything was understood without words.
“Dad, Mom…” Lin Wan’s nose stung.
Her parents were cutting flesh to patch a wound—trading away precious memories for a slim chance at survival.
“Alright! Tomorrow Yangyang and Wanwan will go to the countryside again to collect goods. I’ll see if I can get some weapons for self-defense. Shulan, try renting another warehouse and buy supplies from different wholesale markets. Don’t buy too much in one place—spread it out across several stores. We’ve already bought far too much these past few days. We can’t let people notice. That’s it. Go to sleep. Tomorrow will be another tough battle.”
Lin Jianguo waved his hand decisively.
The family once again lay down fully clothed on the makeshift bedding on the floor, but no one could sleep.
Lin Wan felt a heavy knot in her chest. Her consciousness unconsciously sank into the Space Dimension, trying to find some illusion of safety among the mountain of supplies.
However, at the exact moment her mind fully immersed itself in the Space Dimension—
“Ding!”
A faint hum sounded, as if it came from deep within her soul.
Then she saw the gray, boundless Space Dimension undergo a tremendous transformation.
The once chaotic sky and piles of disorganized supplies seemed to be sorted and divided by an invisible force. The gray fog along the edges churned violently and retreated, revealing clearer and larger areas. The numbered regions she had previously divided disappeared completely, replaced by newly revealed territories.
Originally there had only been two areas.
Now the entire Space Dimension had been divided into four regions.
To the north lay a vast stretch of flattened land, emitting a faint dark-brown sheen. The area covered more than twenty mu, and the soil looked extraordinarily fertile, faint mist rising from it.
Nearby lay a small pile of sweet potatoes and potatoes she had previously stored. They had already sprouted when she bought them. There were also many sealed seed packets resting quietly along the edge of the land.
—Planting Area
To the south was an open field enclosed by a low wooden fence—something she had no memory of ever collecting. The ground was covered in grass, about half the size of a basketball court.
—Breeding Area
“Holy—can it raise living animals now?”
Between the northern and southern edges flowed a small river, slowly winding across the Breeding Area and ending in a small pond.
Meanwhile, the vast area where supplies had originally been piled now looked far more orderly. It was as if an invisible shelving system had appeared, automatically categorizing different types of goods.
Rice, flour, grains, oil, and meat were neatly stacked.
Hardware tools hung on virtual walls.
Medicine boxes and daily necessities were arranged separately.
Even the dozens of ice blocks occupied a corner of their own, releasing faint waves of cold.
This region was the largest, resembling a gigantic ultra-modern warehouse.
—Living Storage Area
The Dormancy Area on the right side looked relatively empty. Inside were only a few chickens and ducks collected earlier that day, along with two sheep. Its size didn’t seem to have changed.
The Space Dimension… had upgraded?
Had it happened because the total amount of supplies stored had reached some critical threshold?
Lin Wan was so shocked by the sudden change that she abruptly sat upright. Her heart pounded wildly, and her breathing became rapid.
“Wanwan? What’s wrong?” Li Shulan immediately noticed and asked nervously.
Lin Jianguo and Lin Yang also sat up at once and looked toward her.
“My Space Dimension… my Space Dimension…” Lin Wan stammered excitedly, her fingers trembling. “It—it changed! There’s… there’s land for farming now! And a place where we can raise chickens and ducks! All the supplies are automatically organized!”
“What?!”