Chapter 24: Woman, Where’s the Soft, Squishy Little Jelly I Had at Home?! Part 1

Time was limited. Shang You had a generous balance of Survival Coins, but as she looked at a Shop interface that stretched over two thousand pages, her priorities remained clear.

Money should be spent where it mattered. And if she had plenty of money, she could spend it in plenty of places that mattered.

First, she bought the essentials she needed to stay alive: food and water.

She stocked up on ten thousand barrels of Pure Water and mineral water in various sizes, plus water-purification tablets, disinfectant tablets, filter straws, and brand-new water tanks and bladders. Clean water was the Source of Life, and Shang You spent a full 400,000 coins stockpiling it.

As soon as she bought the supplies in bulk, the Shop prompted her that they had been sent straight into her spatial storage.

For filling meals, she started with prepared foods. She bought everything from the easiest options to grab and eat—canned goods, sausages, ham, cured meat, biscuits, powdered milk, honey—to instant noodles, instant porridge, self-heating rice meals, and dehydrated vegetables, which only needed a little preparation. They were cheap and offered the best value as emergency rations, so Shang You bought them by the thousand cases.

And if she had hot water and a heat source… Shang You bought a hundred tons of rice and flour, too. She spent 1 million coins on fresh meat and seafood that could be eaten after a quick boil, then added a modest amount of seasonings for another 10,000. She figured she’d bought enough to feed an entire village.

The next most important thing was having a way to treat injuries in a dangerous environment.

She’d seen far too many people die in extreme conditions from festering wounds and infections that should never have been fatal.

Antibiotics, first-aid medicine, medication for chronic illnesses, common remedies, Chinese medicinal herbs… Shang You bought every drug in the Shop, anywhere from a hundred to a thousand of each, depending on how widely it could be used.

She didn’t skimp on medical equipment, treatment devices, or disposable supplies, either. Since she could afford them, she bought four or five of each and stored them in her space.

Food, water, and medicine were enough to get her through most hardships. The third step was buying heat sources.

Shang You picked up portable heat sources and supplies for building campfires, all of which could be used in any environment. Next came electric heaters, space heaters, and other appliances, along with generators to power them in more stable surroundings.

These basic supplies were simple, versatile, inexpensive, and plentiful—more than enough to keep her alive.

She spent a total of 4.5 million Survival Coins. Only then did she turn her attention to everything else.

She resorted the Shop by price, from highest to lowest.

The most expensive items were vehicles and weapons.

Tang Danqing had already bought the priciest off-road vehicle, which was still stored in her space. Shang You added a snowmobile, an icebreaker, and a speedboat. All three came to only 800,000 Survival Coins, and they would prove extremely useful.

Next…

Shang You set aside a budget of 8 million for other weapons.

This was where she was most willing to spend. She knew exactly which weapons were useful, which packed the most punch, and which offered the strongest protection.

Crates of dangerous supplies poured into her space…

Only after she had the means to defend herself did Shang You start buying gasoline, diesel, construction tools, hardware, technical equipment, and other modern products that could improve human productivity.

Otherwise, all that productivity would just end up benefiting someone else.

Scenes from the fourth year of the apocalypse returned to Shang You’s mind. She knew how many different hardships had been caused by shortages, and experience gave her purchases a clear order.

She bought hundreds of sets of cold-weather and protective gear, from the warmest socks to full-coverage windproof goggles.

She also added reference books and encyclopedias to her preparations. Even if she bought them all, the total would be negligible—not with a remaining budget of 29 million.

As she shopped, Shang You wondered: Had Shan Qing bought the supplies she gave me from this same Shop?

Was this 29 million her remaining balance?

She really was rich…

Could she be dead? Was this some kind of inheritance she’d left me…?

But the Shop’s countdown had only twenty-eight minutes left. Shang You couldn’t afford to let her mind wander.

She kept shopping.

Once her basic supplies were in order, she expanded her budget and began buying energy sources and tools in bulk: generators, solar panels, steel, building materials, machine parts…

When she still had 12 million Survival Coins left, she finally grasped—clearly, unmistakably, and with shock—just how far 29 million could go.

Only then did she start buying things to make life more comfortable: furniture, bedding, clothes, complete sets of personal care products… There was no time to browse, so she bought a huge pile of everything without looking too closely.

It was like walking into a department store and saying, “Not this, this, or this. Everything else? Wrap it all up and send it home!”

Only after that did Shang You think about more refined pleasures of the palate.

She stopped buying basic food and started loading up on finer ingredients: wagyu, black pork, lamb, caviar. She could afford high-quality produce, too—mealy tomatoes, crisp ice plant, chocolate strawberries, Musang King durians. Macarons, ice cream, mille crepe cakes, potato chips, nuts. Tea, wine, milk, coffee.

Roast duck, mala beef offal, braised beef, sushi, foie gras, cold dishes, hot-pot casseroles, stir-fries, soups… They cost more than instant meals, but she could buy them!

Otherwise, she’d just be wasting any Survival Coins she didn’t use.

Shang You bought more fresh ingredients and prepared dishes than she could count, from a ten-coin bunch of leafy greens to a two-thousand-coin pot of lamb spine. When she finally snapped out of it, she still had 8 million Survival Coins left.

18:55… 18:54…

Time waited for no one.

Shang You steeled herself and hurried on.

Apart from renovation materials, which she couldn’t buy, she split the remaining budget into four portions—1 million, 1.5 million, 2 million, and 3.5 million—and spent them on luxuries, daily necessities, combat power, and production tools and energy. Then she went over everything once more, filling in gaps and adding a few finishing touches.

With just seventeen seconds left, she finally spent every last Survival Coin!

[The Shop has closed.]

The next second, the world spun around her.

Shang You felt as though her brain had been wrapped in a tight layer of bubble wrap… She drifted farther and farther from the air, her vision growing blurrier. The bubbles rubbed against her ears, and a shrill sound came in wave after wave.

The world crushed her consciousness, then suddenly let go.

Like a fish returning to the water, she sucked in a great breath. When she opened her eyes, everything looked normal—but then a horn blared in her ears.

A truck’s horn…?

Shang You froze.

After a moment, she went to the window, pulled the curtain aside a crack, and looked out—

Her expression changed.

In the dark, the lights of a fire engine still shone, illuminating the contours of the fresh snow. The roadside barriers, traffic lights, and rows of low buildings were still standing beneath the snow, their shapes intact.

Across from her residence stood another hotel in the same chain. It was still bright and new beneath its snowy coat, and lights shone from several floors.

The old, ruined, silent world seemed to have suddenly come back to life…

At least, to Shang You in that moment, the world had gotten better.

A sudden heat prickled her finger. Shang You looked down at the silver ring on her middle finger. Tiny specks of light drifted around it like mist.

A thought flowed into her heart.

…

Tang Danqing lay curled up in a dormitory building, half-conscious, until the cold roused her.

The wound on her arm had stopped bleeding. Her blood vessels felt almost frozen solid.

She had no idea the temperature outside had fallen to -76°F. The temperature had plummeted overnight, and no one had seen it coming.

All she knew was that she was so cold. So terribly cold. If she lay there any longer, she’d turn into an ice sculpture with only her thoughts still moving.

Tang Danqing breathed out a cloud of white mist and staggered to her feet. She gripped the doorknob to steady herself, gathered her wits, then shuffled outside.

Her ragged breathing echoed down the empty school corridor.

The hall seemed to stretch on forever…

Her mind barely worked. Slowly, one step at a time, she made her way along it.

She stepped out into the snow. The sky was just beginning to lighten, and the world was clean and white.

There wasn’t a single car or person in sight. Not even one rescue rope had been left behind. They’d taken everything.

Tang Danqing: “…”

The biting wind brought some of her thoughts back. Had someone set her up? Why had they evacuated everyone and left her behind?

She tried to keep going, but the snow and wind seeped through her, chilling her to the bone. She shrank back and retreated into the corridor.

As if things weren’t bad enough, her attacker had taken her warmest winter clothes. At least she had her phone inside her windbreaker… No, that wasn’t any good, either. The phone was too frozen to turn on!

Tang Danqing gave up after pressing the power button over and over. She let out a despairing breath, backed farther into the hallway to escape the cold, and rubbed her temples to ease her dizziness.

Sometimes…

The sky still seemed to be holding up, but really, the whole world was about to collapse.

What am I supposed to do…?

Tang Danqing realized she was trapped here, alone.

What am I supposed to do…?

The brick building offered a little protection from the cold, but Tang Danqing sat against the hallway wall with her arms wrapped around herself, shivering so hard her teeth chattered.

Everything had gone to hell!

After struggling for another hour, she accepted one thing: if rescue didn’t come soon, she would freeze to death in the snow.

Tang Danqing didn’t know how long she’d been unconscious. But no one had come to look for her or wake her during that long stretch. If she waited another two or three hours, would anyone really show up?

She couldn’t just sit there and wait to die. The school had been built on a slope, and everyone above her had evacuated. That meant she had to go downhill, out through the school gates. Maybe someone would be waiting outside.

…

Shang You pried open an electric car in the underground garage. It was the only one that still ran, barely. She floored it and shot out, plowing through a bank of snow.

…

Following the pull of the ring, Shang You arrived at a school.

The car barreled through the gate and sped up to the stairs, where it could go no farther.

She grabbed a windproof umbrella and jumped out.

She climbed into the blizzard, her face mask and goggles shielding her.

Good thing there was gear like this at home. I can use it right away.

Shang You took two or three steps at a time, racing up the spiral staircase. Even in a world frozen in time, she was desperate to find someone.

When she reached the platform overlooking the basketball court, the view opened up again. A staggering figure was coming toward her from a distance, lurching forward one uneven step at a time… moving slowly… but growing nearer, and more familiar, with every step.

Tang Danqing finally saw someone coming toward her.

Someone… There’s someone…

The two tiny figures stood out against the boundless snow.

And they kept drawing closer.

Tang Danqing had gritted her teeth and forced herself out into the storm, but the first rush of determination had already begun to fade. By the time she’d carefully made her way down all the stairs, her thoughts were growing muddled.