The maximum flight speed of the hover car was only a quarter of that of the high-altitude airships, yet even so, it took them just half an hour to reach the villa on the outskirts of the city. Using ground transportation for the same distance would have taken over two hours.
The hover car flew across half the city, passing two more disaster sites where the ground had collapsed. These collapses caused water pipes to burst and gas leaks to occur, leading to small explosions and fires. Despite the car’s excellent sound insulation, the screams, cries, and calls for help below were still faintly audible.
Both collapse sites appeared to have occurred around the same time as the one near her apartment building. One had a diameter of nearly 200 meters, while the other spanned over 100 meters.
In the larger collapse zone, a stadium that had been hosting a competition was now a scene of hell on earth. From above, bodies lay stacked upon one another, scattered amidst the rubble of collapsed buildings. It was impossible to distinguish the living from the dead. Many had suffocated under the weight of those above them, blood and dismembered limbs painting a horrifying picture among the ruins.
Even someone as composed as Jian Shou, who rarely showed emotion, furrowed his brows at the carnage below and slightly slowed the hover car’s speed.
The large-scale collapses had mobilized all rescue teams in the city. Low-altitude hover rescue vehicles and traditional helicopters had been dispatched en masse. Outside the collapse zones, ers and relatives of the victims crowded the sidewalks, some crying in despair, others praying desperately for their loved ones to be rescued alive.
However, with such extensive collapses, far worse than an earthquake, many people were trapped beneath the rubble or even underground. Even with the full deployment of rescue teams, it was impossible to save everyone in a short time.
Yu Xi knew that from this moment, rescue efforts would never cease. The frequent collapses would soon overwhelm all hospitals and rescue teams. And later, when “Red Lotus” appeared, all collapse zones would turn into death traps.
As the sun set, the sky turned a foreboding blood-red hue.
The hover car landed steadily on the villa’s private parking platform. After disembarking, Yu Xi locked the car and walked down a set of stairs with Jian Shou.
The villa was built halfway up a mountainside, with a sprawling courtyard that featured dedicated parking spaces for both hover cars and traditional vehicles. The surrounding walls were only about two meters high. The villa itself was two stories tall with an attic. The attic’s roof had a unique curved design resembling an overturned bowl.
More peculiar were the eight massive steel columns surrounding the villa on all sides. Each column was about six or seven stories tall, curving inward at the top to form a semi-circle, mirroring the attic’s roof.
As Yu Xi looked at the strange and unique structure of the villa, her memories of the refuge began to clear.
This was a villa capable of vertical movement within the confines of the steel columns, essentially functioning as an elevator.
The secret behind this mobility lay in the extensive use of floating wood for the first floor. Research had shown that the anti-gravity properties of floating wood amplified when stacked.
It made sense that, contrary to Yu Xi’s typically extravagant taste, the villa was minimalist and practical in design. The doors were double-layered, explosion-proof alloys, and the windows were few, made of double-layered, explosion-proof glass. Entry required both retinal and voice verification.
The first floor consisted of a living room, a combined dining room and kitchen, a guest room, a bathroom, and a storage room adjacent to the dining area for supplies. The second floor had four rooms, including a south-facing master bedroom with an en-suite bathroom, fully stocked with clothing, skincare, and various daily necessities.
The attic housed the control room and the generator. Electricity was solar-powered, and water came from pipes built into the steel columns with connections at both the top and the villa itself. The wastewater system also had dual connections managed from the control room.
This design allowed the villa to elevate and suspend above the ground, isolating itself from potential threats below. The steel columns, each a meter square and buried seven to eight meters deep, were smooth and offered no handholds, making it impossible for intruders to climb. As long as one column remained standing, the villa could stay suspended.
Yu Xi sighed deeply, satisfied with the villa’s design. She proceeded to the storage room on the first floor to inventory the supplies.
Since the original Yu Xi didn’t have access to spatial storage, the stockpile was carefully curated within the villa’s weight limits. Supplies included small quantities of purified bottled water and large amounts of non-perishable food items: vacuum-packed rice meals, pasta sets, and pizza kits—each in boxes of 20, with 10 boxes per type.
There were 15 boxes of various instant noodles, each containing 48 packs, alongside vacuum-sealed meats, canned fruits, dehydrated vegetables, and energy bars—approximately five boxes of each.
Other essentials included cleaning products, hygiene items, and paper goods, with the latter stocked at around 20 boxes due to its lightweight nature. Clothing took up five boxes, and medical supplies accounted for two.
These supplies could sustain one person for about three years with normal consumption or stretch to four years with careful rationing.
For Yu Xi, the thought of surviving on vacuum-sealed meals, instant noodles, and canned fruit every day was unbearable; she wouldn’t last even a month. She decided to stock up while “Red Lotus” had yet to emerge.
The large supermarket wasn’t far from the villa, only about a ten-minute drive by low-altitude hover car. Since no ground collapses had occurred in the vicinity, people were still discussing the disaster from the news but continued shopping as usual.
“President Yu, what do you want to buy? If you have a list, we can have them deliver it directly to the villa,” Jian Shou suggested after parking the hover car.
“I don’t want people to know I’m stockpiling supplies for the villa,” Yu Xi replied as she checked nearby facilities on her smartwatch. The smartphones in this world were more advanced than those in her original world but less sophisticated than in the Acid Rain world.
These phones resembled wristwatches when not expanded, featuring a slim band and a compact, narrow screen snugly fitting the wrist. Without extending the screen, users could check basic information like time, weather, and messages, or make calls. For detailed use, a semi-transparent, stretchable screen could be drawn out from one side of the device, providing functionality comparable to conventional displays.
Yu Xi quickly adapted to the watch-like interface and located what she needed, booking a rental room across from the supermarket for four hours via the internet.
“Let’s go,” she said, stepping out of the car first.
The hourly rental room was straightforward and ensured privacy, with no reception desk. Bookings were made online, and access codes were provided for entry. She had rented a suite of about 100 square meters on the ground floor, just a short turn from the main gate.
Once inside with Jian Shou, she noticed the room had a cozy atmosphere, dim ambient lighting, and a wall projector displaying some highly suggestive video scenes.
Jian Shou hesitated for a moment upon entering, glancing at her. Though he wasn’t resistant—having been her bodyguard for three years—he was slightly startled. As her Subordinate, any request from her would be an obligation for him to fulfill, but the timing of this situation baffled him. After the past two indulgent days, why now?
Jian Shou
“You stay here and move the chairs and sofas in the living room aside. Make more space. There’ll be deliveries soon, and whatever is sent, stack it neatly in the room.”
“President Yu?”
“It’s already dark, and I have a lot more to buy. Just do as I say,” she commanded, aware of Jian Shou’s habit of following her everywhere. “Don’t worry; I’m just across the street. I won’t get lost.”
Five minutes later, Yu Xi walked into the brightly lit supermarket.
The supermarket had ten floors, selling everything from food and household items to clothing, tools, and medicine. Despite being lively, most people were personal shoppers or proxies making purchases for others, thanks to the prevalence of online shopping.
Yu Xi hired a personal shopping assistant immediately after entering, listing the items she wanted to buy and letting them guide her to the appropriate sections.
She began with fresh produce, meat, and dairy—things the villa lacked most and that she loved the most.
The vegetables were already sorted, cleaned, and neatly packaged by weight. Scanning the shelves, she found the quality excellent and the variety similar to her original world.
“M12 ribeye steak… hmm, beautiful marbling. Pre-sliced, one-kilo packs. I’ll take 100 packs. Wait, are the boxes 30 packs each? Then make it five boxes. That’ll save them the trouble of repackaging.”
Assistant: …??
Yu Xi glanced at the assistant. “Place the order, don’t just stand there,” she said, activating the payment function on her smartwatch.
“Right now? Deliveries to that address incur separate fees per shipment. Would you like to consolidate your orders to save on costs?”
“I can’t finish all my shopping at once. Place the order for these five boxes first. Oh, and the chuck roll and short ribs look good too. M12 chuck roll and short ribs—three boxes each. That makes 11 boxes in total. Add 20 bottles each of ground rose salt, ground black pepper, ground cumin, and basil spice. Order now!”
This time, the assistant realized they were dealing with someone wealthy and immediately followed through, swiftly selecting the items on their device and placing the order.
As soon as the order was confirmed, Yu Xi paid the bill and continued shopping.
“Lamb racks… just four chops per pack? That’s hardly enough. A box of 40 packs? Make it five boxes. And the lamb skewers look great too, tender lamb with perfect fat-to-meat ratio. Twenty skewers per pack, thirty packs per box? Five boxes of those as well.”
“For cumin lamb, we’ll need more cumin—20 bottles of ground cumin. Also, ground salt, chili powder, black pepper, white pepper, five-spice powder, and curry powder. Twenty bottles of each, the largest size.”
Yu Xi paused for a moment. “Order it.”
While bagged spices were available and cheaper, they required manual transfer to shakers before use. With money still abundant—and soon to lose value—she saw no need to economize.
“Yes, ma’am.”
The assistant placed the order, and the supermarket’s warehouse quickly processed it.
“This chicken looks good. Fully processed, with soup ingredients included. Not bad—20 portions per box. Five boxes. And chicken wings and drumsticks—three boxes each!”
“Is this chicken breast already prepared, ready-to-eat, and low-fat? Five boxes!”
“The salmon is so fresh—are there fillets? Two hundred packs of filleted ones, please!”
“How many live Australian lobsters are in stock? Fifty-two? Great, I’ll take them all.”
“Oysters, scallops, bamboo clams, mantis shrimp, prawns, crabs, abalone… How many packs per box? Thirty? I’ll take two boxes of each!”
“Hot pot section? These are complete hot pot sets with soup bases, vegetables, meat rolls, mushrooms, and even the pot, fuel, seasonings, and utensils? Perfect! Twenty sets of spicy beef and lamb hot pot and twenty sets of seafood and mushroom hot pot!”
“Fresh milk in 1.5-liter bottles—fifty bottles of each of these three brands!”
“Five boxes of eggs—the 100-egg packs.”
“Autumn Leaf Fragrant Rice? What variety is this? At this price, it must be excellent. Sixty bags of ten kilograms each!”
“Beverages section… they have cola and Fanta? Ten boxes of 48 cans each. And iced black tea, iced green tea, canned coffee, and bottled milk tea—ten boxes in total.”
“Bottled mineral water, thirty boxes; jugs, twenty boxes.” She estimated this still wouldn’t be enough but felt reassured, knowing she had two boxes of metallic ice in her spatial world, enough for emergencies.
“The vegetables are so convenient, already washed and chopped. How many portions per box? Fifty? I’ll take one box of each variety. The fruit is also neatly cut and so fresh—ten packs of each variety. What’s that? A box contains twenty packs? Then one box of each kind.”
With her 888-cubic-meter starhouse storage, barely thirty cubic meters filled, she had more than enough space to stock up.
While Yu Xi enjoyed her spree of “mouth shopping,” on the other end, Jian Shou couldn’t hold up any longer.
She received a call from him: “President Yu, the room is full. How much more do you plan to buy?”
Yu Xi: …
**
Faced with reality, Yu Xi paused her spree, telling the shopping assistant she’d be back and that they could attend to other customers in the meantime.
“No, no, no! I have no other work. Will you be back? I’ll wait here for you!” The shopping assistant responded with an enthusiastic, dazzling smile.
As Yu Xi walked back across the street, she operated her extended screen, renting out several adjacent hourly rooms.
When she reached the suite door, she saw Jian Shou standing outside, with no room left for him inside.
“President Yu…” he looked at her, his expression slightly conflicted.
“You can wait at the door of one of the other rooms. When more items are delivered, have them sent to the neighboring rooms. I’ve also rented three more suites nearby. When one room is nearly full, let me know, and I’ll input the next room number when I order. Here are the access codes for those rooms.”
After giving quick instructions, Yu Xi sent Jian Shou to the adjacent room and entered her own, swiftly locking the door behind her. Confirming there were no cameras, she transferred all the boxes into the starhouse .
She stepped out, locked the door, and saw that new deliveries had already arrived. Jian Shou was directing the workers to the next room, cross-checking the delivery lists. Yu Xi approached to confirm the order numbers before quickly heading back to the mall.
The shopping assistant, still waiting eagerly by the entrance, beamed as soon as he saw her: “You’re back! Were you tired walking? I bought you coffee earlier—please have some if you don’t mind.”
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome! So, what’s next? Where shall we head?”
“Snacks. Then clothes, daily essentials, medicine, bedding, polar gear… By the way, are there restaurants in the mall?”
The guide’s grin nearly reached his ears. “Of course, absolutely! Follow me to the elevator. Restaurants are on the eighth to tenth floors. Coffee shops, tea shops, dessert bars, and bakeries are on the fifth to seventh floors. If you have any preferred brands, let me know, and I’ll take you straight to them.”
Over the next three hours, Yu Xi purchased all the remaining supplies she needed, transferring everything safely to her spatial storage.
Jian Shou followed every instruction without question, moving items between rooms as needed. He never once inquired about the vast amount of supplies she had ordered. Even when the two of them left the mall with only a few takeaway dishes, coffee, and bread, he didn’t ask about the rest.
Yu Xi was satisfied with Jian Shou’s performance. Once their low-altitude hover car took off, she directed him not to return to the apartment but to head toward the city’s outskirts.
“Where are we going, President Yu?”
“To the company’s warehouse district outside the city. I recall a few warehouses there storing a considerable amount of hover car fuel.”
She had been intrigued by these flying cars from the start. The anti-gravity properties of floatwood would also work in her original world. The challenge lay in the unique mineral fuel needed to control the car’s movements. A single fist-sized piece of this mineral fuel could power a hover car for nearly twelve hours.
The company, having purchased several hover cars for business purposes, had naturally stockpiled a significant amount of fuel.
Not wanting to waste time, she decided to retrieve the fuel that very night.
What Yu Xi didn’t expect was that she would witness the first appearance of “Red Lotus” on the city’s outskirts.
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