Two hours later, Ye Jianhua returned.
He jumped down from an agricultural three-wheeled vehicle and directed the others to unload everything into the courtyard.
After seeing the delivery people off, he went inside and called out to Ye Xin, “Come quickly! I practically bought every kind of seed the seed shop had. Hurry and put them away!”
“The supermarket will also be delivering another batch of supplies later.”
“Meimei, quickly contact the pharmaceutical representative who usually supplies your hospital. I’m worried that buying too much medicine directly from the pharmacy will attract attention.”
Mother Ye immediately understood. “I’ll call him right now and have him deliver the medicine to Xin Xin’s place!”
“Xin Xin, give me your address.”
As a doctor, Mother Ye knew all about commonly used medicines. Before the supermarket had even finished unloading its goods, she had already taken care of this matter.
Anti-inflammatory medication and medicines for bruises and injuries came first, followed by cold medicine, heat-clearing and detoxifying medicine, blood-pressure and blood-sugar medication, insulin, heart medication, and so on.
Although no one in the family currently needed these medicines, who could guarantee they wouldn’t need them in the future?
From what her daughter had told her, this apocalypse might not end for ten years or even eight years!
Ye Xin was secretly anxious. At this rate, who knew what things would be like by the day after tomorrow?
They didn’t even have time to cook lunch. Ye Xin took ready-made food out of her space, and everyone hurriedly filled their stomachs.
After completely emptying the little courtyard, they immediately got into the car and headed back to the city.
The moment the car started, raindrops as large as beans began pounding against the windows.
Ye Xin was anxious. She stepped on the accelerator, and the car sped away like an arrow released from a bow.
At first, the raindrops hitting the ground were quickly evaporated by the hot surface, and the rising moisture carried the fresh scent of earth.
As the rain became heavier and denser, the ground gradually became wet, and puddles began to form.
Along the way, Ye Xin saw many people rushing out of their homes and cheering as they stood in the rain.
She sighed and pressed the accelerator all the way down.
The rain became increasingly heavy. Even with the windshield wipers operating at full speed, she could barely see the road ahead.
She didn’t dare stop, but she had no choice but to slow down.
Because she knew that this rain would continue for more than a month without stopping!
If they didn’t hurry home now, the roads would only become more difficult to travel later.
She turned on the fog lights and hazard lights and slowly followed the lane markings.
There was no wind. The rain fell straight down, as though an invisible giant hand were tipping an enormous basin of water from the sky.
The trees along the roadside were battered by the downpour, their leaves drooping helplessly.
Their SUV was like a tiny beetle in the torrential rain, slowly but steadily making its way toward its destination.
The owner of the restaurant who sold her beef tripe called her several times, but she didn’t have time to answer.
Eventually, she simply handed the wheel over to her father and squeezed into the back seat with her mother to make phone calls.
Father Ye was a much better driver than Ye Xin. Although he still couldn’t drive very fast in such heavy rain, he was at least much faster than Ye Xin had been.
When Ye Xin finally returned the call, the beef-tripe vendor told her that the train carrying the coal had arrived in A City ahead of schedule. However, with rain this heavy, there was no way to unload the cargo.
The driver and the accompanying workers had already gone somewhere to take shelter from the rain.
Ye Xin asked for the train’s current location and said there was no hurry—they could wait until the rain stopped before unloading it.
After hanging up, she opened the navigation app on her phone and handed it to her father.
“Dad, let’s go here first. I’ll take care of the coal before anything else!”
This torrential rain had arrived at exactly the right time.
Her pork, chicken, beef, and mutton had all arrived early that morning. After paying for the meat, she simply didn’t have enough money left to pay for the 300 tons of coal.
So now, she would start her free shopping spree!
And this trainload of coal would be the beginning!
Ye Xin put on a face mask and raincoat, then sprayed waterproofing spray over her mask. She hurried into the torrential rain and began frantically absorbing the coal into her space.
She climbed over the train cars one after another, and the coal smoothly disappeared into her space.
But little by little, she began exhausting her physical strength.
By the time Ye Xin was panting heavily and finally collapsed into the car, she shouted at her father:
“Quick! Let’s go home!”
The rain was simply too heavy!
The drainage system was already operating at full capacity, yet the streets were still covered by nearly half a foot of water.
By this time, there were very few vehicles traveling through the city.
However, many cars had stopped along the roadside, their drivers waiting for the rain to ease before continuing their journeys.
But Ye Xin knew that those vehicles parked along the roadside would never have another chance to start again.
By the time their owners realized what was happening, the cars would already be submerged by the floodwater and would never start again!
Ye Xin stopped the car at the entrance of their apartment building. Only after seeing her parents and son run inside did she find an empty place and put the vehicle into her space.
When she returned home, Ye Xin first hugged Xiao Lang.
Father Ye exclaimed, “What a beautiful German Shepherd! Where did you get him?”
Ye Xin didn’t dare hide the truth. While her son hugged Xiao Lang around the neck, she explained to her parents how the dog and the boy had come to know each other.
It turned out that Xiao Lang had originally been a stray dog. Unfortunately for him, he had caught Xuān Xuān’s affection.
So, Ye Xin often took Xuān Xuān to feed him. Over time, they had practically become his half-owners.
In her previous life, Ye Xin had rescued Xiao Lang from a group of starving people and kept him by her side ever since.
Xiao Lang was extremely intelligent. Not only did he protect the mother and son many times, but during the extreme cold, he also often helped them find food.
However, after the zombies appeared, Xiao Lang was beaten to death by a group of utterly deranged people while trying to protect Xuān Xuān. They turned him into dog-meat hot pot.
Hearing this, Mother Ye crouched down and hugged Xiao Lang, then rewarded him with a sausage.
Xiao Lang seemed almost human. He stretched out his long tongue and licked the back of Mother Ye’s hand.
Ye Xin took out some ingredients and asked her mother to start cooking. Since the apocalypse had only just begun, the smell of cooking wouldn’t attract trouble yet, so they should make as much food as possible.
She and Father Ye began reinforcing the security door and windows.
It was only raining for now, and the typhoon hadn’t arrived yet, so there was still time to install the windows.
The two of them spent the entire afternoon working and finally managed to replace the windows.
The car salesman called. The rain was simply too heavy, and there was no way to deliver the diesel and gasoline to the designated location.
He also gave Ye Xin an address and told her to pick up the fuel herself once the rain stopped.
Ye Xin shook her head.
It seemed she wasn’t going to get that fuel after all!
Mother Ye cooked a huge pot of clay-pot chicken, another huge pot of braised spare ribs, and a third huge pot of spare ribs stewed with winter melon.
The vegetable dish was simple—just a plate of cold cucumber salad. That was enough for one meal.
They set aside enough meat for the four members of the family to eat, then packed all the rest into disposable food containers and stuffed them into the little wooden house inside Ye Xin’s space.
Ye Xin’s space absorbed the security door, explosion-proof glass, pork, mutton, beef, chicken, the seeds, and even the small courtyard back home.
The system rewarded her with another 5,820 points.
Adding the points from absorbing the 300 tons of coal along the way, she now had a whopping 21,854 points!
Ye Xin happily used them to exchange for two AK assault rifles—one for herself and one for her father.
The advantage of these things was that they required very little maintenance. The downside was that they were huge! They were really inconvenient to store and use.
If only she could get two pistols as well!
Unfortunately, Ye Xin searched through the mall from top to bottom but couldn’t find a suitable pistol.
Outside, the torrential rain continued to pour. Looking down from the eighteenth floor, everything outside was a vast blur of white.
The vertical sheets of rain barely seemed to wet the glass. They fell straight to the ground, splashing into countless little flowers of water.
Rainwater carrying leaves and garbage swirled toward the storm drains. Most of the water couldn’t drain away fast enough and accumulated on the roads, where the falling raindrops repeatedly splashed against the surface.
There was no wind.
There was no sign of anyone outside.
The entire world was silent except for the sound of rain.
Suddenly, sensitive to even the slightest change, Ye Xin felt that something about the sound of the rain wasn’t right!