Ling Lan decided not to go to school anymore. Something had happened to her family anyway, and her instructor already knew about it.
It was already one in the afternoon, so she needed to get busy as quickly as possible.
There were still two bags of rice and half a bag of flour in the kitchen, along with a large bottle of cooking oil and several bags of dried noodles that she had bought recently.
The old refrigerator only contained some leftover dishes and a piece of pork that was no longer particularly fresh.
After locking the door, Ling Lan rode her grandmother’s three wheeled food cart to a large vegetable market a little farther away and began shopping.
At the grain store, she bought two hundred jin of rice, two hundred jin of noodles, two hundred jin of sweet potato starch noodles, two hundred jin of corn, two hundred jin of potatoes, and three hundred jin of sweet potatoes.
She used the food cart as cover. After buying one batch, she would find an empty place and put everything into her spatial storage.
It happened to be the season when vegetables were coming into the market. Cucumbers, tomatoes, eggplants, all kinds of vegetables, mushrooms, and peppers were available in abundance. Ling Lan bought them wholesale by the bag.
Eggs absolutely had to be stockpiled in large quantities, so Ling Lan bought ten thousand eggs. Once she returned home, she would boil them all. They were an excellent source of nutrition.
She bought fifty cleaned old hens, one hundred jin of pork, and one hundred jin of beef.
She also bought a large amount of various seasonings to use when processing the vegetables.
The food inside her spatial storage remained at a constant temperature.
Whatever food she put inside came out exactly as it had gone in.
Cooking in the apocalypse would be both troublesome and dangerous, so preparing the food in advance would make things much easier.
She bought batches of ingredients, processed them, and then stored them in her space. This saved room and was also convenient.
She could have gone directly to restaurants, but that would have cost much more, and she had limited money.
After buying the ingredients, Ling Lan purchased a large number of food containers as well, choosing the highest quality ones.
Once she finished shopping at the market, Ling Lan immediately returned to her apartment and took the ingredients out of her spatial storage. That way, she could make another trip and stock up on another batch of supplies.
After drinking a large glass of water, Ling Lan went out again to continue stockpiling.
She first went to a nearby fresh food market and bought plenty of fresh fish and shrimp. Her younger brother Ling Yun loved them.
At a bottled water wholesale shop, the shopkeeper’s wife hurriedly had her workers load the truck as soon as she heard that Ling Lan wanted three hundred cases of bottled drinking water.
Clean water was incredibly precious in the apocalypse. If not for the limited size of her spatial storage, Ling Lan would have wanted to stockpile an unlimited amount of water.
Those three hundred cases of bottled water alone occupied nearly half of the space.
After finishing the water purchase, Ling Lan ordered another twenty large containers of bottled mineral water and asked the shopkeeper’s wife to deliver them to her home the next day.
After finishing her purchases, Ling Lan checked the time and saw that it was already four in the afternoon. She needed to go to the kindergarten and pick up Ling Yun first.
At the entrance of Xiaolingdang Kindergarten, Ling Lan held a small puppy plush toy that she had just bought while waiting for her younger brother to finish school.
When the dismissal bell rang, a group of children followed their teacher out of the classroom.
Ling Lan spotted Ling Yun immediately. He was carrying his little schoolbag.
“Ling Yun!”
When little Ling Yun saw that his sister had come to pick him up, he obediently said goodbye to his teacher before running toward his sister on his short little legs.
The little boy had been feeling down these past few days and did not want to go to school at all. Ling Lan had practically forced him to go.
On the day she was reborn, Ling Lan had held her brother tightly for a long time and refused to let go. She had missed him so terribly that she had felt as though she would go crazy without him.
Seeing the little boy walking toward her, Ling Lan stepped forward, hugged her brother tightly, and kissed him affectionately twice.
Four year old Ling Yun had not developed very well. He was short and looked tiny.
His grandmother was gone, and the child was still confused about everything. At night, he kept crying for his grandmother and had become especially attached to his sister.
“Sis.”
“Yes. Was Xiao Yun a good boy today?”
“Yes.”
“Since Xiao Yun was such a good boy, Sis will take you somewhere fun today.”
He really was just a child. As soon as he heard that his sister was taking him somewhere to play, the little boy happily nodded while holding the puppy plush toy and wrapped his arms tightly around his sister’s neck.
On the bus, Ling Lan came back to her senses and gently rubbed her brother’s head. The next stop was Wanshun Commercial Street.
When the bus arrived, she immediately got off and followed the crowd toward Wanshun Commercial Street.
Many people got off at this stop. Ling Lan carried her brother toward the shopping mall ahead.
After walking for a short while, her sixth sense told her that someone was following her. When she turned around, she saw that it was indeed the man from the bus.
When he realized that she had noticed him, the man turned his head and pretended to look around casually.
Ling Lan narrowed her eyes as several thoughts flashed through her mind.
She whistled and deliberately changed direction, walking toward a deserted corner near a side street.
Seeing the siblings leave the crowd and head toward the corner, a sharp glint flashed through the man’s eyes. He quickly followed them.
When there was only about one meter between them, the man pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and quickened his pace.
Just as the man was about to grab Ling Lan around the neck from behind, the girl suddenly turned around. She was holding a Tang Dao against his neck.
The man was shocked that this girl was actually carrying a knife. Then he thought about it again. Perhaps it was only a toy knife belonging to a child, something she was using to scare people.
“Why are you following me?”
“Little sister, you have misunderstood me. I am just here traveling. I accidentally got lost.”
Ling Lan moved her hand slightly, and a red mark immediately appeared on the man’s neck.
Damn, the knife was actually real. The man’s expression changed drastically.
“No, no, no. Little sister, I was wrong. I will leave right now. I will leave right now.”
“I will ask you one more time. Why are you following me?”
Ling Lan did not mind doing something a little extreme. The apocalypse was about to arrive anyway.
Seeing the murderous intent in her eyes, the man quickly answered out of fear.
“Someone paid me to kidnap you and your brother and sell you to a foreign country.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know. A masked man came to me and gave me fifty thousand yuan.
He also said that I could keep the money from selling you two.”
“What else?”
“Nothing else.”
“Do you know where I live?”
“No. That person only told me to wait outside Xiaolingdang Kindergarten. He also gave me your photographs.”
Five minutes later, Ling Lan walked out while carrying her younger brother and whistling. There was a faint smile in her eyes.
There was another fifty thousand yuan transfer in her phone. She could stockpile even more supplies now.
Two hours later, the man finally woke up and touched his head. He discovered that he was lying naked on the ground.
A stream of curses poured from his mouth as he became furious and frustrated. He grabbed his phone and was about to call the police.
Call the police. Yes, he should call the police.
No, he could not call the police. He had plenty of shady things in his past, and going to the police station would not end well for him.
The man cursed under his breath and accepted his bad luck. He touched his head and slipped away.
Inside the shopping mall, Ling Lan was happily playing with her younger brother near the amusement facilities. She was not afraid that the scumbag would report her to the police.
That man was clearly not a good person. Would he really dare to call the police?
Ling Yun had never been to an amusement park before, so everything made him happy and everything felt new.
Before the apocalypse arrived, Ling Lan wanted to let her brother have a really good time. She hoped that he would still remember the happiness of this day during the difficult days ahead.
After the little boy became tired from playing, Ling Lan took him to eat at KFC.
Watching her brother obediently eat his fried chicken, Ling Lan’s heart softened.
Her younger brother was the only family she had left in this world, the only person who could still touch the softest part of her heart.
Seeing how much Ling Yun liked the food, Ling Lan decisively packed fifty meal sets to take home.
When they passed a pet shop, Ling Lan bought her brother a rabbit that did not make any noise.
Today, she wanted to satisfy as many of her brother’s wishes as possible and let him be happy.
After eating and drinking their fill, Ling Lan carried her sleeping brother home. She placed the child on the bed and then began working again.
If she wanted to survive for a long time in the apocalypse, she had to stockpile as much as possible. The more supplies she had, the better. That way, she could focus on dealing with the zombies instead of running around hungry in search of food.
Ling Lan took out her phone and quickly began ordering takeout. Anything that was difficult to prepare herself would be ordered from restaurants.
There were many food shops on the commercial street in front of her home.
After browsing for a while, Ling Lan chose several steamed bun shops.
Steamed bun shops in large cities were open around the clock, so buying from them was especially convenient.
Meat buns cost one yuan and fifty cents each, vegetable buns cost one yuan each, shaomai cost one yuan each, mantou and flower rolls cost fifty cents each, and tea eggs cost one yuan each.
From every shop, she ordered one hundred meat buns, one hundred vegetable buns, one hundred flower rolls, one hundred mantou, and one hundred tea eggs.
When the nearby steamed bun shop owners received the orders, their eyes widened in shock. The next moment, they frantically began preparing the goods.
Not long after the first delivery driver brought a huge bag of food to her apartment, the second one arrived as well.
Once all the takeout had arrived, Ling Lan put everything into her spatial storage and began processing the ingredients she had bought that day.
Her grandmother had run a food business, so there were two large cooking pots at home. She used one pot to stew chicken soup and the other to braise the beef.
It took the entire night before Ling Lan finally finished processing all the ingredients she had bought that day, packed everything up, and stored it in her spatial storage.
The next morning, Ling Lan had dark circles under her eyes and did not take her brother to kindergarten. What had happened the previous day meant that she had to keep her brother with her at all times.
Today, she would take him shopping with her. He knew nothing about her spatial storage anyway, and she could keep him occupied with cartoons.
When they came across a pancake shop, Ling Lan swallowed hard. She bought two pancakes to taste and then asked the owner to make three hundred more and pack them up.
“Three hundred pancakes? Oh my, little sister, are you sure?”
“Of course I am sure. Big sister, please hurry and make them for me. I will pay half the deposit first and come back later to collect them.”
When the sound of Ling Lan’s payment came through, the woman happily got to work. Good heavens, her sales today were going through the roof.
At a dumpling shop, Ling Lan spent fifteen yuan on a serving of fresh pork and celery dumplings. She and Ling Yun thought they tasted good, so she asked the owner to pack five hundred boiled dumplings for her to take away.
There were plenty of delicious things at the vegetable market. Whenever Ling Lan saw ready made food, she bought it. Rice balls, fried dough sticks, savory pancakes, sticky rice cakes, and other foods were all stockpiled in large quantities.
When she saw fresh spare ribs, sea bass, grass carp, and shrimp, Ling Lan quickly bought some as well and planned to process them that evening.
After finishing her trip around the market, Ling Lan went back to the commercial street to continue shopping.
When she passed a down jacket shop holding a clearance sale, Ling Lan bought two sets of thick down jackets in neutral styles without hesitation.
She also bought several down jackets for Ling Chen. They were cheap, but more importantly, she needed them.
At the pharmacy, she bought some first aid supplies, povidone iodine, disinfectant, cold medicine, fever medicine, gauze, and hemostatic medicine. She especially bought children’s medicine and vitamin tablets.
These purchases alone cost nearly two thousand yuan.
At the hair salon, Ling Lan cut off her long black hair and left herself with short hair reaching her ears. She looked like a pretty little boy. Water resources would be scarce in the apocalypse, so short hair would be easier to manage.
Of course, she also had Ling Yun’s hair cut. He looked incredibly adorable afterward.
After getting their hair cut, Ling Chen hurriedly found several fast food restaurants and ordered five hundred boxed meals from each one. Each meal cost fifteen yuan and contained one meat dish and two vegetable dishes. The food tasted quite good, and the boxed meals alone cost her seven thousand five hundred yuan.
Time was limited, so Ling Lan tried to save the food she prepared herself for Ling Yun and eat the ordered boxed meals herself.
After paying the deposits, Ling Lan first went to the supermarket to buy some daily necessities. Toothpaste, toothbrushes, shampoo, cheap soap, moisturizing cream, towels, mosquito repellent water, insect spray, toilet paper, and sanitary pads all needed to be stockpiled.
Most importantly, she bought food. Instant noodles, ham sausages, bread, milk, chocolate, biscuits, bottled water, drinks, canned fruit, brown sugar, salt, and fresh fruit all went into her shopping cart. After filling one cart, she would go outside to pay, then put everything into her spatial storage when nobody was watching.
She made several trips back and forth, leaving the cashier completely stunned.
When she passed a bedding shop, Ling Lan bought five thick down comforters and a high quality electric blanket.
Seeing that Ling Lan was buying so much, the owner gave her two pillows and a down sleeping bag as well.
Once a person started buying things, it felt as though everything was missing. Whenever Ling Lan saw something, she wanted nothing more than to stuff it all into her spatial storage.
However, she had limited money and could only buy what she remembered needing from her previous life, spending as much as possible on food and drinks.
More than one hundred thousand yuan disappeared incredibly quickly. She had only thirty thousand yuan left, yet there were still many things she had not bought.
After collecting the food she had ordered, Ling Lan decided that she would stop there for today and continue stockpiling tomorrow.
By the second afternoon, Ling Lan had filled both her spatial storage and her home. She had less than twenty thousand yuan left.
At two in the afternoon, there was a knock at the door. Ling Lan looked through the door and saw that it was the workers who had come to install the new door.
Before returning home, she had ordered a new door and replaced the old wooden door of her apartment.
She gave each of the two workers two packs of cigarettes. They happily accepted them and worked quickly and efficiently. They finished installing the new door in less than half an hour.
While they were replacing the door, Grandma Tian from downstairs came over to take a look. Using sign language, she praised Ling Lan for being so thoughtful and brought some pastries for the siblings to eat.
Xu Laotai was quiet by nature and did not like visiting other people’s homes. She spent all day making snacks to support her granddaughter, and the neighbors were also afraid of getting involved in trouble, so their relationships were not particularly close.
She had a good relationship with Grandma Tian downstairs, however, and the two families often visited each other. Grandma Tian also doted on Ling Yun and often brought food over for him.
Ling Lan accepted the pastries and then brought some oranges from inside the apartment and handed them to her.
“Thank you, Grandma Tian. These are oranges I just bought. Please have some.”
Grandma Tian accepted the oranges with a smile and looked at Ling Lan with pity before letting out a soft sigh.
She gestured with her hands for a while. Ling Lan guessed that she was telling her to come to her if she ever needed anything.
Grandma Tian was mute and lived alone. She had no children, and her husband had passed away many years ago.
Ling Lan felt a warmth in her heart. She thanked Grandma Tian for her kindness and reminded her that the weather had been changing recently, telling her to stockpile as much food as possible at home.
After the door was installed, Ling Lan went outside again. She planned to walk around a little more and spend the rest of the money she had.
The food was already taken care of, so she bought some other supplies as well. She bought three helmets, several sets of raincoats and rain boots, insecticide, pepper spray, an extra large insulated thermos, and a high definition telescope.
Ling Lan did not stop until nine that evening.
Looking at the apartment filled with water and food, with her spatial storage packed full as well, she finally felt especially secure.
At that moment, she sat quietly on the sofa, welcoming the arrival of the apocalypse with both fear and excitement.