The Shen family’s private winery was located halfway up a hill in the western suburbs, surrounded by mountains and water.
Not only was the scenery beautiful, but more importantly, it had an underground wine cellar built to bunker standards.
In her previous life, Shen Hongwei had relied on the tens of thousands of bottles of fine wine in that cellar to secure early access to an official base at the start of the apocalypse. He had even traded a few bottles of Lafite to get Lin Wan’er a favorable job at the base.
And Shen Xingdu? Back then, she had knelt at the winery entrance for an entire day and night, begging Shen Hongwei to spare some fever medicine for her orphanage companions—but in the end, she only got a single bottle of expired mineral water.
“This time, I won’t leave even a bottle cap for you.”
Shen Xingdu parked her car in the woods about a kilometer from the winery. She changed into a tight black combat suit and put on her night vision goggles.
With her enhanced body, she ran through the forest as if walking on flat ground.
The winery had security cameras and guards.
But Shen Xingdu knew this place too well. To please her father, she had worked here as a free assistant manager for half a year in her previous life. She knew every camera blind spot like the back of her hand.
She avoided the patrolling guards and easily climbed over the three-meter-high wall.
At the entrance to the cellar was a thick electronic keypad door.
A password?
Shen Xingdu sneered. The password was Lin Wan’er’s birthday. Shen Hongwei really did love this adopted daughter to the bone.
She typed in: “0618.”
“Beep—” A green light flashed, and the door swung open.
A rich aroma of wine wafted out.
The underground cellar was huge, with constant temperature and humidity. Row after row of oak wine racks were filled with fine wines from around the world.
Shen Xingdu stepped inside, feeling like she had entered a treasure vault.
“Lafite ’82, collect.”
“Romanee-Conti, an entire wall? Collect.”
“Fifty-year Maotai original liquor—hard currency, collect.”
“And these boxes of specially supplied vodka… perfect for extreme cold or making Molotov cocktails, collect.”
Wherever she went, the shelves emptied instantly.
Not just the wine—she even took the solid wood racks, the climate-controlled cabinets, and even the few valuable oil paintings on the walls into her space.
After all, her space was large enough, and the wood could later be used for firewood in the extreme cold.
Having cleared the main wine storage area, Shen Xingdu moved to the deeper part of the cellar.
There was a separate small storage room that was usually locked.
She used the hydraulic bolt cutters she had purchased in her space to snip the chains.
Pushing the door open, Shen Xingdu’s eyes lit up.
Inside were a batch of smuggled goods Shen Hongwei had hidden to evade taxes!
Several dozen boxes of imported cigars, hundreds of packs of Golden Leaf cigarettes, and even two imported high-power diesel generators and dozens of barrels of spare diesel.
“What a delightful surprise,” Shen Xingdu said without hesitation, smiling, “Thank you for the gift, Mr. Shen.”
With these two generators, plus the fuel she had previously stockpiled, she could guarantee three years of electricity in the apocalypse.
Just as she was about to leave, she noticed several dozen boxes of old, spoiled cheap red wine in a corner, emitting a sour smell.
These were leftover waste from the winery renovations, never thrown away.
In her previous life, Shen Xingdu wouldn’t have looked twice at them.
But now…
“System, recycle this spoiled wine.”
[Beep! Recycled 500 liters of spoiled alcoholic liquid, gained 50 Survival Points.]
[Detected trace toxic gases from fermentation, bonus 10 Survival Points.]
Shen Xingdu nodded in satisfaction.
Finally, she stood in the now-empty cellar, looking at the space that had once been lavish but was now stripped bare, and clapped her hands in satisfaction.
“Since I’m here, I should leave a little something behind.”
She took out a red spray paint bottle she had bought for a few bucks from her space and sprayed a huge smiley face on the most conspicuous wall.
Next to it, she wrote a line:
“Thanks for the hospitality, the wine’s great — S.”
After finishing, she slipped away silently, leaving no trace she had ever been there.
The next morning:
Shen family villa.
Shen Hongwei was having breakfast when he suddenly received a call from the winery manager, voice trembling.
“Mr. Shen! Bad news! The winery… the winery has been robbed!”
“What’s the panic? A few bottles missing? Call the cops,” Shen Hongwei said impatiently, taking a sip of milk.
“No… not a few bottles…” The manager stammered.
“It’s empty! Completely empty! Even the racks are gone! The thief even… even stripped the wiring from the cellar!”
“Pfft—” Shen Hongwei sprayed milk out of his mouth. “What did you just say?!”
When he arrived at the winery, he saw a cellar reduced to four bare walls, not even a mouse hole left, with the bright red, glaring smiley face on the wall. His eyes rolled back, and he fainted on the spot from rage.
Meanwhile, the culprit Shen Xingdu was lying on the sofa in her new home, sipping Evian she had taken from the winery, while directing her renovation team to finish the final touches.