Yan Yuansi woke up feeling much lighter, though his mood wasn’t very good. After getting up, he caught the aroma drifting from the kitchen, which made his mood even worse. He drank two tubes of nutritional fluid—his stomach was no longer hungry, but his mouth was still craving food.
He sighed, knowing he wouldn’t be able to hold out for long.
Ning Xinyue was sweating it out on the treadmill. Yesterday’s events had hit her hard.
She glanced at the weak-looking Yan Yuansi and thought to herself that she would have to train him properly later. They were a team—no one was allowed to fall behind.
Yan Yuansi noticed Ning Xinyue staring at him from the treadmill and asked in confusion,
“Sister Ning, why are you looking at me?”
Ning Xinyue tried to steady her breathing.
“Yesterday, Yaoyao reminded me of something. If you die, I’ll be saddled with five hundred billion in debt—so you’d better train hard later.”
Among the three of them, Yan Yuansi, the fragile one, was the most likely to die.
Yan Yuansi felt as if he’d been struck by lightning.
“No—Sister Ning, do you even know what you’re saying?”
Ning Xinyue nodded calmly.
“You are my five hundred billion in debt.”
Yan Yuansi collapsed straight onto the sofa. Ah—this world was truly unfriendly to him.
“Sister Ning, I just suffered a huge blow yesterday. Why do I still have to go through this today?”
His posture on the couch looked exactly like a dead fish.
Ning Xinyue slowed down the treadmill and shot him a disgusted look.
“I never thought before that you’d make me owe five hundred billion.”
Li Yao glanced at Yan Yuansi a few more times. He really was fragile. She turned to Ning Xinyue.
“If he dies, is it five hundred billion each, or do we split it?”
Ning Xinyue replied,
“Assuming the worst—five hundred billion each. I wouldn’t earn that much money in a hundred lifetimes.”
“Yan Yuansi, you can die in many ways—but please don’t die in front of us. I’m begging you.”
She spoke earnestly, though her hands were anything but gentle as she directly hauled him onto the treadmill.
“You don’t need to learn anything else. Just run fast enough to escape.”
That was Ning Xinyue’s requirement for Yan Yuansi.
Li Yao thought it made sense. She pulled out leg-weight sandbags from her space and handed them to Ning Xinyue.
“Strap these to his legs.”
Ning Xinyue weighed them in her hands and, without another word, tied them around Yan Yuansi’s ankles.
Yan Yuansi officially began a training regime that was utterly miserable and beyond suffering. No matter how much he begged, it was useless. In Li Yao’s and Ning Xinyue’s eyes, he was nothing but a walking five hundred billion.
Li Yao had put it bluntly:
“If Yan Yuansi dies, we owe five hundred billion. If he lives, we don’t. That means we earn five hundred billion.”
Ning Xinyue, who had been starting to soften because of his crying, immediately hardened her heart after hearing that.
No one knew how Yan Yuansi survived that week.
Outside, the rain was still pouring. The power had gone out yesterday, though the internet was barely holding on. All three of them knew—it was only a matter of time before the network died too.
Li Yao sat at the dining table, eating while reading messages in the residents’ group chat.
【It’s been raining for two weeks straight. Even the fifth floor is flooded. We have no food or water. The power went out yesterday. Can anyone help us?】
【Same here. We have nothing left. My child has a fever—does anyone have fever medicine?】
【I’m willing to trade food at a high price.】
Li Yao narrowed her eyes. It was Su Xiao. He was still alive.
Someone in the same building asked him:
【Didn’t you go out to look for supplies earlier?】
【Don’t even mention it. The supermarket that was being renovated had nothing—not even the warehouse behind it. Everything was empty. It must have been moved in advance.】
Su Xiao complained bitterly. In reality, on the third day of rain, they had already gone out to look for supplies. Their first target had been Li Yao’s supermarket warehouse.
Their plan had been perfect—those supplies could be resold for a tidy profit.
They were familiar with the warehouse, having scouted it many times. They even knew exactly where the surveillance cameras were.
But after avoiding the cameras and getting inside, they found the massive warehouse completely empty.
Su Xiao’s murderous gaze immediately turned to Li Xiang, the blond-haired guy.
Li Xiang hurriedly protested, “I don’t know! I was watching the place the whole time. That woman always received deliveries here—she rarely moved things out!”
Seeing his panic, Yan Wantong quickly intervened.
“Now’s not the time to argue. The key is figuring out where she put the goods. Let’s find them and go back—I’m soaked and miserable.”
Since Yan Wantong said so, they had no choice but to change targets.
Su Xiao said,
“Li Yao’s supermarket was supposed to open in one day. With the rain, it must be delayed—but there should still be supplies inside.”
The group braved the storm and headed to the supermarket. Along the way, Yan Wantong was knocked down by wind and rain several times. If not for Su Xiao holding onto her, she would’ve been blown away.
By then, her emotions were on the verge of collapse.
They pried open Li Yao’s supermarket with anticipation—only to find it already flooded.
And when they saw the empty interior, their mental state completely collapsed.
Where was everything?
Wasn’t it supposed to open soon?
Then why was there nothing inside?
What was the point of renovating it so nicely?
“Ah—!”
Yan Wantong screamed,
“Where is everything?! That bitch Li Yao—where did she hide it all?!”
After missing out twice in a row, Su Xiao refused to leave empty-handed.
“Check nearby supermarkets. Focus on sealed, easy-to-store goods.”
He also wanted to know where Li Yao had hidden everything. And they truly had no food—this trip had to yield results.
Because of the heavy rain, they didn’t make it back until late at night with what little food they managed to scavenge.
Those supplies kept them alive for two weeks. When they wanted to go out again, the water level was too high to leave.
They discussed prying open the apartment across the hall—only to find it empty as well. Everything in the fridge had already rotted.
“What exactly is that Li Yao doing?”
Even Su Xiao couldn’t stay calm now. Li Yao felt like a character they’d imagined—someone who didn’t really exist.
They returned home, all of them in terrible spirits. The fat prize they’d been eyeing was gone—and now they had no food either.
Left with no choice, Su Xiao turned to the residents’ group to ask for food. But they’d been overly optimistic—by this point, most households were already out of supplies.
And the rain outside showed no sign of stopping.
Meanwhile, Li Yao watched as Yan Yuansi fed the last mouthful of cat food to Mimi, staring at the cat with worry.
“I thought this would last you longer. Turns out my calculations were wrong.”
Li Yao looked outside. The rain was still heavy, but the wind seemed to have stopped.
She asked Yan Yuansi and Ning Xinyue,
“I’m planning to go out tonight to look for supplies. Do you want to come with me?”
Yan Yuansi asked,
“Don’t you already have plenty of food? Why go out?”
Li Yao replied calmly,
“If we stay inside too long, people will realize we have plenty of supplies. That’ll bring endless trouble later. Going out occasionally also helps us adapt quickly to the apocalypse’s disasters. Natural selection—survival of the fittest.”
Her reasoning was sound and well thought out.
At the same time, the high-ranking military officials on Capital Star received urgent news—their people had been attacked by interstellar pirates, and their status was now unknown.