Meanwhile, Chen Xiaobao often stayed in the living room by himself, either playing with his toys or taking online classes. Strangely, seeing her actions, Xiao Bao never asked why, as if he already understood what was going on. In the past, Chen Momo would keep a close eye on her son's studies, but now that she was busy hoarding supplies, she temporarily couldn't focus on him.
At the same time, the second and third batches of water buckets Chen Momo had ordered were arriving one after another. However, she began to worry. She had so many supplies to hoard—how could this small house fit all of them?
That night, Chen Momo was curled up on the sofa, filling buckets with water while reading a post-apocalyptic novel on her iPad. Suddenly, a bright light flashed before her eyes, and a pocket dimension appeared!
The space was massive—easily the size of ten basketball courts!
Chen Momo was overjoyed. This was great! She hadn't expected to awaken a spatial inventory just like the female protagonists in novels! Furthermore, the space could preserve the temperature and freshness of items. Whatever went in would come out in the exact same condition. Pleasantly surprised, she realized that with this space, things would be much easier; she could store all her supplies inside it!
She no longer had to worry. Every time she filled ten buckets of water, she transferred them into the space at once.
With the space, Chen Momo confidently launched into a shopping frenzy, repurchasing the necessities she had already bought. Ten more sets of padded jackets and pants in her and Xiao Bao's sizes! Since Xiao Bao was still growing, she bought his clothes a size larger. Ten more sets of scarves and hats! Fifty more pairs of socks! Plus winter shoes, down jackets, sweaters, woolen pants, thermal underwear...
In addition, she bought fifty solar-powered batteries, five coal-briquette stoves, five thousand coal briquettes, and twenty flashlights and light bulbs each. Even after this insane shopping spree, she had only spent 500,000 RMB from her account. Chen Momo decided to keep shopping to her heart's content!
The following evening, holding her son's small hand, Chen Momo arrived at a snack street near Guan Shan Kou University. The area was extremely bustling at night, with the majority of the customers being university students. Chen Momo and her son bought five lamb skewers each, eating as they strolled down the street. Xiao Bao ate until his mouth was completely smeared, making him look absolutely comical. Seeing her son acting like a total little foodie, Chen Momo couldn't stop laughing.
"Xiao Bao, tell Mommy whatever you want to eat, and Mommy will buy it for you," she couldn't help but say with a smile.
Holding a lamb skewer in his chubby little hand, Xiao Bao said in a sweet, milky voice, "Mommy, Xiao Bao hasn't finished his lamb skewer yet."
Chen Momo burst into laughter. "Then eat slowly. Finish your lamb skewer first."
Xiao Bao nodded, repeating her words. "Yeah, Xiao Bao will finish his lamb skewer first."
The mother and son continued to eat and stroll. Whenever Chen Momo saw something she wanted to eat, she bought it without hesitation. Once she had the food in hand, she would subtly store it in her space when no one was looking. They wandered around the snack street for over an hour, and her space was soon filled with a wide variety of street food—grilled lamb skewers, roasted Wuchang fish, grilled clams, steamed crabs, spicy rabbit heads, grilled gluten, roasted pork belly, soy-sauce braised duck, five-spice beef, braised pig ears, braised pig face, and braised pig tails.
These snacks would be more than enough to satisfy her cravings or enjoy while binge-watching shows during the apocalypse.
After exploring the snack street, Chen Momo took her son to a nearby supermarket to find some inspiration and see if there was anything else she needed to stock up on. Scanning the shelves one by one, she realized that there were indeed many items she could still add to her space. For example, fermented black beans, Lao Gan Ma chili crisp, green pepper sauce, numbing pepper sauce, and canned beef, fish, and oranges. There was also flour, sweet rice, glutinous rice, cornmeal, sweet potato flour, peanut oil, soybean oil, sesame oil, fruit candies, ice cream, and cold drinks.
As she browsed, she took out her small notebook and quickly jotted things down, her pen making a SCRATCH SCRATCH sound against the paper. The supermarket staff looked at her with bewildered eyes.
Before leaving, Chen Momo bought some vegetables and fruits. They still had extra at home, so since they couldn't finish these for the time being, she stored them all in her space. She decided to visit various major supermarkets every day to buy fresh produce to store away. This way, she wouldn't have to worry about running out of vegetables and fruits in the apocalypse!
After returning home, Chen Momo and Xiao Bao had dinner. Once the boy fell asleep, she turned on her computer and started a new round of online shopping. After another crazy purchasing spree, she stretched her back. Seeing her space packed to the brim with food, a sense of security gradually welled up in her heart. But these supplies were still not enough; she had to store even more!
Failing to stockpile supplies in advance in her previous life was her biggest regret. In this life, she definitely wouldn't repeat that tragedy!
Chen Momo took inventory of the items in her space. Snapping back to reality, she suddenly realized she had forgotten something incredibly important—self-defense weapons! In the apocalypse, law and order would collapse, and the world would plunge into chaos. She and Xiao Bao couldn't be without weapons to protect themselves. Thus, she logged back into the online shopping mall and bought ten paring knives and ten bottles of pepper spray.
To protect their personal safety, a strong physique was also essential. So, Chen Momo bought fitness dumbbells, an exercise ball, and a yoga mat, along with two tiny dumbbells for Xiao Bao. After placing the order, she searched for "Swiss Army Knife" on a secondhand trading app and purchased two sets from a user named "Dongfang Bubai 678".
The house they were currently living in had a security door uniformly installed by the property management. Not feeling entirely at ease, Chen Momo went to a nearby hardware store the next day, bought five sets of deadbolts, and firmly installed them on the inside of the door. This way, even if the security door was unlocked from the outside, there would still be five deadbolts on the inside. Forcing the door completely open would take a considerable amount of effort!
Having finished the foundational preparations, Chen Momo breathed a sigh of relief. She had bought almost everything she needed. Now, only a few minor details remained.
Over the next couple of days, she decided to wander around the nearby junkyards to see if there was any scrap metal she could salvage. In the apocalypse, the rules of trade would be rewritten, and RMB would become equivalent to wastepaper. Inside the survivor bases, metal would be the primary currency—especially copper, zinc, steel, gold, and silver. Whoever possessed metal would be able to exchange it for more resources. While the value of metal hadn't skyrocketed yet, she decided to stockpile it in massive quantities in advance!
Time ticked away day by day.
It was already 2:00 AM. Chen Momo glanced at the calendar on the desk. There were exactly fifteen days left until the apocalypse descended. She had to hurry!
Early the next morning, Chen Momo drove her Wuling Hongguang minivan, settled her son into the child seat in the passenger side, and the mother and son set off for the nearest junkyard.