When the man heard Ye Xin’s words, his eyes immediately lit up.
“Please, go ahead. As long as there’s a way to get food, we absolutely won’t disturb your life.”
It seemed that he wasn’t an unreasonable person after all.
Ye Xin smiled faintly. “The floodwater is already almost up to the second floor. Even if the water recedes, the food in the shops and snack stores downstairs will no longer be fit for sale. So…”
Before Ye Xin could finish, the man understood what she meant. He hesitated for a moment.
“But with the rain this heavy, what can we possibly salvage outside?”
Ye Xin smiled. “That depends on your own abilities. Even a weak woman like me can salvage supplies, so naturally, you can too.”
After hearing Ye Xin’s words, the two men looked outside at the typhoon, which was much weaker than yesterday. A glimmer of hope appeared in their eyes.
Gu Siyan, however, panicked.
These men were young and strong enough to salvage supplies, but what was an elderly man nearing sixty supposed to do?
“Xinxin, look at me. I’m already this old. I don’t have the strength for that anymore.”
“The tornado also blew out all the windows in my house. Now not only is the entire place flooded, but even my refrigerator and sofa are gone. Look… could you lend me some food? I’ll pay you back once the rain stops.”
“If you’re worried about that, I’ll pay for it! You can name the price.”
Ye Xin glanced at the woman standing behind him and said coldly, “Mr. Gu may be old, but he’s clearly still quite vigorous. He can even manage to keep such a young and beautiful woman around. So what’s so difficult about salvaging some food?”
“Besides, even if you can’t do it yourself, don’t you still have this woman? You’ve supported her for so many years. It’s only natural for her to repay you now.”
After hearing Ye Xin’s words, everyone’s gaze toward Gu Siyan changed.
They had originally assumed that he was simply an elderly single man living alone with his daughter.
But now it seemed that wasn’t the case at all.
Tsk, tsk! At his age, he was keeping a woman like this around. Really…
Under everyone’s suspicious gazes, the woman’s expression changed.
“Ye Xin, I advise you not to get too arrogant. You’d better pray that this rain never stops, or that you never leave this room. You’ve offended so many people. Otherwise, you’re going to regret it!”
Ye Xin suddenly laughed inwardly.
I’m sorry, but if you’re thinking about getting revenge, I’m afraid you really won’t get the chance.
She couldn’t be bothered arguing with the woman. Ye Xin turned around and went back into her room.
The man and the chubby woman began discussing how they could salvage food. Since they didn’t have a small boat, they decided to use a door panel instead.
Even if they could only retrieve a little, it was better than nothing.
Gu Siyan stared at Ye Xin’s closed door, then turned to look at the young and beautiful woman beside him. His brows furrowed as an idea suddenly came to him.
When Ye Xin returned home, she realized that the typhoon outside had indeed weakened considerably.
Since she had already given the others an idea, she couldn’t afford to waste any more time herself.
She had to act tonight!
Around dusk, Su Jing came knocking on her door. She was accompanied by Bai Bing and his father.
“Xinxin, I’ve thought about what you said today. I’ve decided to go out and look for supplies too. Bai Bing came to me just now and said that although they don’t have a boat, they know how to dive and they’re strong. They want to team up with us.”
Su Jing knew that Ye Xin had bought an inflatable boat, so apparently, she had come to discuss working together.
Ye Xin hesitated.
“I do have an inflatable boat, but there isn’t enough room for so many people on one boat, especially since we’ll need space to carry the supplies.”
Su Jing suddenly said something shocking.
“My family has a speedboat.”
Ye Xin: “…”
“Where did you get a speedboat?”
Su Jing explained, “Jiang Chao likes this kind of thing. He bought this speedboat to go surfing with his friends. It isn’t very big, but it should be enough.”
The problem now was that Jiang Chao was downstairs.
If she tried to drag the speedboat downstairs, Jiang Chao would definitely try to take it back.
Ye Xin exchanged a glance with her father.
She had her own space, but they didn’t want to expose that secret in front of other people.
“You have a boat, and Bai Bing and his father have the strength. Isn’t that perfect? Let them drag the boat downstairs. As for how you divide the supplies you salvage, you can work that out among yourselves.”
Ye Xin wasn’t blind.
Ever since Bai Bing had entered the room, his eyes hadn’t left Su Jing.
She didn’t want to get caught between the two of them and become a third wheel!
Besides, she didn’t want anyone else finding out about her space.
Hearing Ye Xin say this, Bai Bing nodded firmly.
“Sis, leave this to me. If that guy dares to try taking the boat, I guarantee I’ll beat him until he’s begging for mercy!”
“Bai Bing!”
Bai Bing’s father seemed to have noticed something as well. He frowned and angrily shouted at his son.
Ye Xin awkwardly chuckled twice.
“Hehe, then it’s settled! And, uh… Uncle Bai, do you have any objections?”
Faced with the floodwater outside that had nearly risen above the second floor, he had no other choice.
“Fine! Su Jing provides the boat, my son and I provide the labor, and we’ll split the supplies equally. How does that sound?”
He was a straightforward man.
Naturally, Su Jing had no objections.
Since Su Jing had someone to accompany her, Ye Xin was more than happy to have some peace and quiet.
She preferred for her family to operate independently.
After dinner, once it was completely dark outside, Ye Xin left some weapons with her mother and told her to stay home and look after Xuanxuan. Then she went out with her father.
Their first destination was the largest supermarket nearby, less than one kilometer away from Jinxiu Garden.
They dragged their inflatable boat downstairs.
Once they reached the outside, they watched as Su Jing and Bai Bing and his father drove away in the speedboat.
Ye Xin then took a speedboat out of her space as well.
Just kidding. Although the typhoon was much weaker than it had been over the past two days, it was still frighteningly strong. Traveling by inflatable boat would be such a waste of time!
Once they started up the speedboat, the less-than-one-kilometer journey was over in the blink of an eye!
Besides, the power was already out, leaving the entire ground floor in complete darkness. No one could see who they were anyway.
The news that Ye Xin and Bai Bing had dragged an inflatable boat and a speedboat downstairs quickly spread throughout the entire building.
No wonder they had food stored away—they had such good equipment!
The typhoon was still so strong that it was difficult to keep their eyes open. Ye Xin took out two pairs of night-vision goggles, giving one to her father and keeping one for herself. They then drove the speedboat toward the supermarket.
The supermarket was much taller than an ordinary residential building. At this point, the floodwater had barely submerged more than half of the first floor, and there was still some distance before it reached the second-floor windows.
This was no problem for Ye Xin.
The grappling launcher she had scavenged for free from an outdoor equipment store was still with her. She aimed at a second-floor window and easily fired the rope up, securing it to the second floor.
Ye Xin’s father had been a reconnaissance soldier. Although he had been discharged many years ago, he had never stopped exercising and keeping himself in shape.
He didn’t dare let his daughter take the risk, so he climbed up first. After Ye Xin put the speedboat back into her space, he pulled her up to the second floor.
Once Ye Xin was pulled up, she retrieved the rope and climbed into the supermarket.
The first floor of this shopping mall consisted of an amusement area, cosmetics, gold and silver jewelry, various handbags, and other luxury goods. The second floor was the supermarket, while the third and fourth floors sold various appliances, clothing, and other items.
For the apocalypse, the things on the first floor were far less valuable than the supplies upstairs.
As soon as she entered the supermarket on the second floor, Ye Xin began collecting everything into her space—daily necessities, food, milk, and anything else she could find.
Unfortunately, the power had been out for several days, and with the weather being so hot, all the fresh meat in the supermarket’s refrigerators had already spoiled.
She had no choice but to abandon it.
Seeing all that wasted meat made Ye Xin’s heart ache.
Fortunately, the frozen meat had only just thawed. There were still bits of ice clinging to it, meaning it was still safe to eat.
Take it all!
There were also all kinds of premium pickled vegetables. Their packaging was beautiful and their quality excellent. They would be perfect with a bowl of plain rice porridge—and they were Mom’s favorite.
There was no way Ye Xin was going to leave them behind.
Ye Xin had left home early, so the supermarket still looked almost exactly as it had before the apocalypse.
All kinds of food, daily necessities, milk, chocolate, and countless other goods were still neatly stocked on the shelves.
This was practically a gift to Ye Xin.
She frantically swept everything into her space.
There were even Boston lobsters being kept alive in the supermarket’s tanks. They normally sold for more than 300 yuan per half-kilogram, yet somehow, they were still alive!
What was there to hesitate about?
Take them all!