Lin Ba and Lin Ma lay in bed, simultaneously opening Tomato Novel to read the apocalyptic story recommended by Lin Ze.
Lin Ze practiced a set of martial arts exercises in his room. Though he possessed no superpower, he wanted to be in peak condition to protect the family when the apocalypse arrived.
As for Lin Ran, she had been lying down for a while, but just as she was about to fall asleep, she suddenly remembered the several bags of free seeds from the Seed Shop Owner still sitting in her dimension. She had originally planned to gather the family to plant them tonight.
But she had completely forgotten.
Since she couldn’t sleep anyway, she decided to enter alone and plant some, just right testing the growth speed of her Level 5 dimension.
The dimension had been generous to her – at Level 5, it allowed her to stay inside for five hours daily.
Besides their family, Lu Yu was also staying up late tonight.
He repeatedly watched the surveillance footage retrieved from Jinlan Mall on his computer screen, attempting to identify the “familiar face” that Jiang Chen had stared at for so long.
“Jiang Chen, who exactly were you looking at?”
Was it this young woman in the white dress?
Or this voluptuous mature woman in red?
Could it be this sunny young man?
Or perhaps this white-haired elderly person?
Which one was it?
Jiang Chen, that man cold to the point of being almost pathological, was nevertheless the primary heir of the Jiang Corporation.
Having lost his parents in childhood, he possessed formidable capabilities – accomplished in both literary and martial arts, perfect without a single flaw.
When he returned from studying in America at age twenty, he astonished everyone, including the Jiang family patriarch.
Thus he became the primary successor to Jiang’s super commercial empire.
Such an important position, occupied by this young upstart, made countless people green with envy.
Particularly his wolf-like relatives, yet despite employing every scheme, they couldn’t find the slightest weakness in him.
All these years, Jiang Chen’s position as primary heir remained as solid as bedrock.
Thinking of this, Lu Yu’s lips curled into a cold smile.
His gaze fixed intently on the computer screen, he finally exhaled: “Jiang Chen, do you truly have no weaknesses? I don’t believe it. I’ll investigate every person who appears in this footage.”
Ring-ring-ring—
Lu Yu’s phone on the desk suddenly shattered the room’s silence. He glanced at the flashing name.
Ye Lan.
Was the Ye family this impatient, already coming to probe him for information?
As one of the few who could move in Jiang Chen’s circles, he, Lu Yu, was a hot commodity in Cloud Metropolis’s business world. Even the Ye family, wanting to approach Jiang Chen, had to build good relations with him, using him as a stepping stone.
But how could he be content with merely being Jiang Chen’s stepping stone?
Aside from family background, where exactly was he inferior?
Lu Yu waited until the phone had rung twice before leisurely pressing the answer button.
“Hello~”
“Lu Yu, have you decided you no longer need our Ye family?”Ye Lan’s low voice came through the receiver, carrying palpable pressure.”
Lu Yu chuckled: “Ye Lan, Young Master Ye, how would I dare? I was just bathing. You know how exhausting it’s been accompanying you and Jiang Chen in negotiations all day.”
“If you’re tired, we wouldn’t mind replacing you.”
Lu Yu hadn’t expected the young Ye Lan to possess such forceful presence.
He set aside his probing and began speaking earnestly with this scion of the Ye family: “Since we’ve already started with you, why trouble someone else? Regarding your current collaboration with Jiang Chen, I have some minor suggestions here.”
“Your suggestions had better be useful. Jiang Chen isn’t an easy man to deal with. Of course, if we can successfully cooperate this time and secure the Jiang family’s project, the return we offer your Lu family will definitely satisfy you.”
Hearing the answer he wanted, Lu Yu’s face regained its faint smile: “Then let’s wish us a pleasant cooperation.”
Lu Yu knew perfectly well how unpredictable and difficult Jiang Chen could be, but fortune favors the bold. For the glory of the Lu family, he had to take the risk.
He absolutely had to facilitate this collaboration between the Jiang and Ye families, but how?
Jiang Chen looked down on the Ye family – no one understood Jiang Chen’s attitude better than him.
But only by pursuing the impossible could one find fortune in danger.
Perhaps the key to solving this problem lay among the people in this surveillance footage.
Lu Yu reexamined the video, then picked up the phone again.
That night, besides Lu Yu, Jiang Chen had also obtained the surveillance footage from Jinlan Mall.
Jiang Chen’s handsome features gazed almost reverently at the lively girl walking beside the sunny boy in the footage.
As time passed, his brow furrowed tighter and tighter.
How strange.
This girl felt so familiar to him, familiar as if he’d just seen her yesterday.
He had a feeling that this girl seemed to be an extremely important person in his life.
So important that it felt like they had lived and died together.
But after scouring every corner of his memory, he found no trace of this girl ever appearing before.
“Just who are you?”
“And who is that boy beside you?”
Jiang Chen suddenly crushed the mouse in his hand, the faint electric current jolting him slightly awake.
He let out a soft breath and curved his lips into a determined smile: “No matter who you are, I will find out.”
Meanwhile, Lin Ran remained unaware that her unintentional appearance had stirred waves in her former companion’s calm waters.
She was busy working hard, loosening the soil in a small plot of land. She was just conducting an experiment and didn’t plan to plant much.
After sowing Chinese cabbage seeds in the prepared soil, she carried several buckets of Dimensional water to irrigate the plot.
By the time she finished all these tasks, two hours had passed. Lin Ran glanced at the vast expanse of untouched grassland and let out a long sigh.
“It seems the supplies list needs to include a plow, seeder, harvester, and water pump. Otherwise, who could handle cultivating all this land?”
After completing everything, Lin Ran took another bath.
When she emerged from the Dimension again, it was already 3 am.
Remembering she needed to go to the supermarket with her mother first thing in the morning, Lin Ran hurried to bed and fell into deep, dreamless sleep.
The next day, Lin Ran was awakened by her mother’s knocking.
Checking the time, it was already ten o’clock.
“Mom, why are you only calling me now?”
Lin Ma smiled apologetically: “I had insomnia last night.”
“Not insomnia – she stayed up late reading novels,” Lin Ba exposed her.
“You did too! You were laughing loudly in the middle of the night, you scared me to death.”
“I was studying post-apocalyptic survival techniques.”
“Who wasn’t?”
Watching her bickering parents, Lin Ran didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. She walked over and patted Lin Ze’s shoulder, saying, “My dear brother, did you stay up late reading novels too?”
Lin Ze yawned and smiled sheepishly, “No, I practiced boxing for half the night. I want to protect you all when the apocalypse comes. Getting in shape should start now.”
Lin Ran: “…”
Alright then.
It seemed everyone was preparing for the impending apocalypse in their own way.
Excellent!
Life was becoming more hopeful by the day.
Lin Ba smiled and said, “Come get your breakfast quickly. One bread and one carton of milk each. Take it to eat on the way. We should head out soon.”
“That’s right, we have lots to do today. Let’s go, let’s go.”