In her mind, the image of neatly arranged rows of goods grew clearer and clearer. Tang Mo suppressed her immense joy and focused on a bottle of coke in the mental image of a freezer. With a single thought, she suddenly felt a cold touch in her hand.
It worked!
Tang Mo opened her eyes to see a bottle of coke, still beaded with condensation, right in her hand.
Without a second thought, she twisted it open and chugged a large mouthful. The sweet, cool taste was all the proof she needed—this was real. She didn't have to wait for the apocalypse; the Space inside the Jade Pendant had already been unlocked!
Walking over to the freezer, Tang Mo observed it closely. She had just finished arranging the stock, and the row of coke was still completely full. It seemed the supermarket inside the Jade Pendant wasn't connected to the real one.
This was something Tang Mo had always wondered about in her past life, but she'd had no way to verify it back then. Thus, when she received the Jade Pendant in her previous life, she hadn't dared to immediately take out too many things.
She was afraid that if they were connected, her mother wouldn't have enough if she took too much. She had resolved to only take what she needed, but she lost the Jade Pendant before she could even do that.
Suddenly, an idea struck Tang Mo. She opened the shop door, ran to the supermarket across the street to buy a bottle of water, and then quickly ran back. She placed the purchased water on a shelf, then closed her eyes and entered the Space.
The shelves in the Space were unchanged; no extra bottle of water had appeared.
Tang Mo opened her eyes, held the water bottle in her hand, and thought about putting it into the Space.
Sure enough, when she entered the Space again, the water bottle had appeared in an empty corner of the supermarket where there were no shelves. This corresponded to the checkout counter's location in the real-world supermarket; clearly, the supermarket in the Space had no such feature.
Tang Mo mentally tried to move the water bottle, but it could only be moved within an area of about three square meters.
Tang Mo understood. 'It seems the areas with proper shelves are filled with ready-made supplies for me to use.'
'And the space left for me to store other things is only three square meters.'
'That's more than enough.'
Tang Mo was satisfied. Her family's supermarket might be small, but it had everything one could need.
The sacks of rice, flour, grain, and oil, plus all the sealed snacks and instant noodles, were enough for her to live on for several years. And that wasn't counting the two large freezers full of drinks, the cases of mineral water stacked up against an entire wall, or the various daily necessities like seasonings, cookware, blankets, and bedding.
'What is all this? It's a profound sense of security.'
Tang Mo wasn't a greedy person; this was more than enough for her.
The most urgent task at hand was to reinforce her Jade Pendant necklace. This was now her top priority—nothing was more important.
'If I lose the Jade Pendant again,' she thought, 'I'll want to cry myself to death.'
She checked the time. It was just a little past 10:00 AM. Mrs. Tang wouldn't be home until 6:00 PM at the earliest.
Tang Mo got dressed, grabbed her wallet and keys, locked the supermarket door, and left.
'In just seven days, Hell on Earth will arrive. At a time like this, who gives a damn about selling a few cans of coke or packs of cigarettes?'
Tang Mo's life had been smooth sailing. She'd attended the best high school and university, winning so many scholarships she'd lost count.
The small supermarket Mrs. Tang ran didn't bring in a large profit each month, but since both mother and daughter were frugal people, and Tang Mo always earned extra money on the side to help out, they had done more than just make ends meet over the years—they'd even built up a small nest egg.
Tang Mo didn't know how much money Mrs. Tang had, but she had twenty thousand in her own bank account and a few thousand in cash. 'I have to spend all of it on supplies in the next few days.'
It wasn't a lot of money, but it was all her own savings, accumulated bit by bit.
Tang Mo's heart ached for her past self when she thought about how she had scrimped and saved for so long, only for her money to end up as a useless string of numbers locked away in a bank.
But fortunately, Heaven had given her a chance to start over.
Her mother was still alive, and the Jade Pendant wasn't lost. Tang Mo felt her optimistic nature returning.
'As long as Mom is here,' she thought, 'no matter what happens, even if the next second brings Hell itself, I will have no fear.'
Taking a taxi to a nearby hardware store, Tang Mo found one with a professional-looking storefront and went inside.
An older man sat in a rattan chair inside the shop, wearing a vest washed so many times its original color was gone. He had his glasses on, his head lowered as he focused intently on the task in his hands.