When the three of them arrived at the warehouse, Su Jin's youngest aunt and parents were not there yet, so Huang Yunxiang led Su Jin and Grandma to look around their temporary warehouses.
Rather than warehouses, the buildings were actually just a few empty, undecorated residential houses. Thankfully, they were two floors tall, so there was plenty of space to keep things.
Lu Hao, Lin Cheng, and Lin Xiuyuan carried the sacks of seeds from the car into the warehouses.
While Lin Xiuyuan was struggling to carry the goods, he asked Su Jin who was nearby, "Su Jin, why did you buy so many seeds? Are we gonna start tilling fields next?"
Su Jin and Li Xiuying exchanged a glance and a smile. The kid guessed right. They were going to have to plant these seeds later.
"Forget all that for now. I bought them, so of course I have something planned for them. Just keep working at it, 'kay?"
Lin Xiuyuan had no choice but to go back to his grunt work.
Both Su Jin and Li Xiuying liked their new warehouses. They were only about ten minutes away from home by foot, and people seldom came here. It was private and secret enough.
The houses had a simple layout, and they were quite empty since they lay unfurnished. As Lu Hao and the others brought in the goods, Su Jin's aunt Lin Tianzhen and Mao Zhihang arrived as well. Mao Qiqi was also in their car, having simply tagged along all day.
Mao Qiqi was relieved to jump out of the car and take a deep breath of fresh air. When she saw the large, empty houses in front of her, she was beside herself with excitement.
The newcomers took a spin around the houses and then began to join in the moving operation. Lin Cheng and Mao Zhihang looked at Lu Hao, who had been carrying things from the beginning without breaking a sweat. He was moving most items fastest, too. The older men were slowly starting to feel hurt.
Lin Xiuyuan had long since collapsed in a corner to rest, yet Lu Hao looked completely unfazed.
"Brother-in-law, just how much stamina do you have? Aren't you tired at all?" Lin Xiuyuan could not help but whine.
"If you want to be like me, just wake up every morning without fail for a jog and maintain a consistent training regime for a decade." Lu Hao did not want to hurt Lin Xiuyuan's pride, but he felt as though he could lift Lin Xiuyuan with just a finger. It was impossible for Lin Xiuyuan to catch up to him within ten years.
"Lin Xiuyuan, don't waste your time being jealous. You have a long road ahead of you." Su Jin and Lin Xiuyuan had grown up trading barbs and insults, but this time she was honestly only trying to encourage him.
To her surprise, Lin Xiuyuan did not snap back at her. After all, she was speaking the truth. If Su Jin had not had her premonition this time, he might have just kicked the bucket while he was still weak and helpless.
How could he let that happen? He had not lived long enough yet, and he still had the entire family to protect. He was not going to lose to a few sacks of rice! Lost in his childish fantasies of power, Lin Xiuyuan felt his spirit burning up! Hence, he silently walked to the remaining piles of rice and carried them into the house with a huff…
Huang Yunxiang nearly burst out laughing. It seemed Su Jin's reverse psychology worked.
By then, Su Jin's parents had arrived at the door as well. Her mother Lin Tianhui happily opened the door of the small truck. She and Su Xiangzhe had not taken their own car out that day, borrowing their neighbor's truck instead.
Everyone surrounded them to see what Lin Tianhui had bought.
The back of the truck had been stuffed to the brim, with absolutely zero space left between the goods. When she opened the door, two packs of toilet paper immediately fell out…
"Mom, what did you buy?" Su Jin asked as she helped to move the things in.
"Lil Jin, I bought a ton of toilet paper and sanitary napkins. That way, we women won't have to worry about running out," Lin Tianhui said in a whisper.
True, Su Jin would admit that she forgot about that. Forget sanitary napkins, she could barely find a few squares of toilet paper in her past life. Back then, those few days a month were straight-up torture to her. If she left the base, she had to use basic strips of cloth in place of sanitary napkins, and the smell would attract a trail of zombies behind her. If she did not go out, she would not be able to complete any missions, and that meant starving for a few days.
Sigh, those were truly painful memories.
"I completely forgot about that, Mom. I'll buy some online later too." These things could not be manufactured once the apocalypse struck. Every pack they bought would end up becoming limited edition…
Lin Tianhui bought a lot of shampoos, body foam, laundry detergent and other daily necessities too. Other than that, there were cotton blankets, clothes, pajamas, sleeping bags... and even a mosquito tent?
Su Jin's mouth twitched when she remembered the palm-sized mosquitoes during the apocalypse. She decided not to tell Mom about that just yet, since it would only put a damper on her mood.
Just then, the trucks Mao Zhihang had asked for arrived too.
When Lin Xiuyuan saw the goods packed in the trucks, he could not find the words to express his anguish. After all, Su Jin had said that these supplies would be their lifeline in the future. He just had to swallow his pain and join the rest of the 'movers' once more.
As the supplies piled up in the house, Su Jin truly understood their strength in numbers. In barely half a day, they had already managed to accumulate so many things.
Lu Hao was surprised too. He remembered how Su Jin had worked so hard for so many days by herself only to gather a few resources in the dimension, and she had looked so pleased with herself too. Thankfully, Lu Hao was wise enough not to mention that now.
By the time the family was done moving everything inside, it was already two in the afternoon. Su Jin's grandfather had long since started asking them to go back home for lunch.
Man, it sure was nice to have Grandpa's home cooking after a long day of work, Su Jin sighed to herself.
Lin Xiuyuan was half-dead from exhaustion, and he wanted to give Su Jin a snarky comment about how she had not done anything. However, he suddenly remembered that Su Jin was the entire family's favorite child right now, so he quickly changed his mind. He still wanted to eat Grandpa's cooking too~
The family happily returned to their home base, eager to have a nice meal. However, they soon found an unwelcome guest in the living room.
"Su Xiangmei, why are you here again?" Lin Xiuyuan was feeling rather frustrated. Was she haunting them or something?
"What are you saying, boy? What's wrong with me coming to visit Su Jin?" Su Xiangmei ate sunflower seeds from the table as she spoke. When Su Xiangzhe saw the husks all over the living room, he instantly lost his temper.
"Look at you! Are you trying to tick us off?" Su Xiangzhe took the plate of sunflower seeds away without a moment's pause.
"Aw, why are you so mean to me, Brother? I'm just here to see Su Jin. S-Su Jin? Why do you look so different?" Su Xiangmei forgot all about her argument with Su Xiangzhe when she saw how Lu Hao, who stood next to Su Jin, was looking at her like she was a suspect to be interrogated.
"Aunt Xiangmei, it's because you haven't seen me for too long. You missed me so much, but you can barely even recognize me, can you? I hear you said you saw Lu Hao with another woman, huh?" Su Jin raised a brow as she looked at Su Xiangmei.
"T-That's right. I saw him trying to sell your house with another woman!" Su Xiangmei held her head up high. No matter what, she had to keep up her bravado.
"You sure have a good eye, Aunt Xiangmei! Did you see what the woman looked like?"
"I was too far away at the time, so of course I couldn't see her clearly." Su Xiangmei had only spotted them from a distance. She knew that the woman looked very beautiful, but that was the only real impression she got.
"Then let me tell you, that woman with Lu Hao was me. Sorry to disappoint you~"
"How could it be you? Weren't you on a business trip at the time?"
"I came back early. Is that so hard to believe? I'll show the date on my plane ticket, if you like. Or I could call the manager from the property agency that day to prove it to you."
Lu Hao walked over to them too, saying, "You're still my aunt, so I feel obliged to tell you that there's a crime called libel, and you can be arrested for that. I'm sure you know what libel means, right?"
His tone was respectful, but his words made Su Xiangmei tremble. She looked around and saw that she was surrounded by people glaring at her angrily, and Lin Xiuyuan was still next to her, clearly enjoying the show. All of a sudden, Su Xiangmei realized that this family was not to be messed around with. They were way too protective of their own!
"I guess my age must be catching up to me. I must have been mistaken. I'm glad you're fine, Su Jin! This is a happy ending, isn't it?" Su Xiangmei hurriedly tried to get herself out of this mess, but the others were not going to let her go so easily.
"I'm warning you, Su Xiangmei, don't keep trying to badmouth my family members. The others aren't idiots, no one believes you anymore. We don't want to see you here ever again." Lin Tianhui finally lost her temper. She was never going to invite the fox into her chicken coop again.
"Y-You guys are ganging up on me! Fine, I'll go. I'll go right now! I never wanted to come anyway." Su Xiangmei left, ranting as she went.
The tension in the living room immediately deflated. Lin Xiuyuan was so tired that he collapsed onto the couch, his eyes rolling back in his head. It felt like he had used the last of his energy just now to enjoy the show, though he had to admit that it was some pretty fine popcorn.
"You were so cool just now, Brother-in-law. Did you see how Su Xiangmei's voice turned quiet after you scared her like that? Hahahahaha!"
"I wasn't scaring her." Lu Hao reminded him that it was no empty threat. Libel was a real thing, and she could definitely get arrested for it.
"Dad, why was she in here?" Huang Yunxiang asked as she swept the floor.
"I bumped her on the way back, and she insisted on coming with me. I couldn't exactly refuse her." Lin Yunguo was upset too. His trishaw was too slow, so he could not shake Su Xiangmei when she ran behind him.
"What a coincidence, we bumped into her today when we were looking at the warehouses too. Why does she have so much free time?"
"Aunt Yunxiang, you say you saw her at the warehouses today?" Su Jin asked.
"That's right, Lil Jin, but all three of us ignored her. We told we were busy and left," Lin Cheng replied.
Su Jin nodded. It seemed like she had to keep an eye on the warehouses after this, but they should be safe for now.
Lin Yunguo used to be a chef at a restaurant. Although it had been a small establishment, his food was still delicious to eat and wonderful to behold. The entire family loved eating his cooking.
Li Xiuying noted that it was a shame they did not have her signature soups to go with the meal, though.
Everyone froze for two seconds in the middle of shoveling food into their mouths and exchanged looks. Su Jin laughed so hard that she leaned on Lu Hao's shoulder, trembling.
Lin Yunguo was trying to hold back his laughter too, constantly telling the others, "Go on, eat more. Have as much as you want."
"Dad, your cooking is as wonderful as ever. Why didn't Tianzhen inherit your skills?" Mao Zhihang put some food into Mao Qiqi's plate as he ate. Furious, Lin Tianzhen smacked his head with her chopsticks. "Don't talk with your mouth full, especially if you have nothing good to say."
"Sigh, sorry about my sister just now. Just forget about her, I misjudged her before. It's probably best if we go no-contact with her from now on." Su Xiangzhe took a sip of his wine, put down his glass, and sighed. She badmouthed everyone, sure, but this time she had turned her sights to his daughter and son-in-law. In fact, she made it obvious that she would have loved it if Lu Hao was having an affair.
"Don't blame yourself too much, Dad. We know what she's like now, so we just gotta be warier of her." Su Jin comforted Su Xiangzhe. In any case, she never thought of Su Xiangmei as one of her own.
Su Jin remembered an interview with a successful businessman she had read somewhere. The man said that not all of your relatives necessarily had your best interests at heart. Some of them would love to see you crash and burn. To Su Jin, Su Xiangmei was precisely that kind of relative, so they should be careful around her from now on.
After the meal, the whole family was satiated and satisfied. Lin Yunguo looked at the empty plates on the table with pride. Nothing made a chef as happy as empty dishes, since they were proof of his skills.
Now that they were full, everyone lounged on the couches scrolling through their phones. What were they doing on the phones? Buying more things, of course. Even the men purchasing things because Su Jin made it clear that they should buy whatever they wanted right now. They would not get the chance later.
"What do you want, Lu Hao? I'll buy it for you." Su Jin shimmied up to Lu Hao and asked him. After all, all of his money was in her hands now too, so it was only natural for her to buy things for him.
Lu Hao thought it over then shook his head. What did he want? Her, of course, and nothing else.
"Alright, alright. I'll decide for you then. Don't worry, your satisfaction is guaranteed."
"Yeah. I'll like anything you buy for me."
Lu Hao always had a way, Su Jin thought, of saying things that made her heart pound with a straight face. Blushing, she went to an online shopping portal and bought some male toiletries, such as facial wash and body lotion. Hmm, might as well buy some briefs as well. What was Lu Hao's size, though?
"Lil Jin, if you and Lu Hao have time, you should help us put our house up for sale at the agency too." Lin Tianhui sat next to Su Jin. She had talked it over with Su Xiangzhe, and there was no time for reluctance anymore.
"Sure, we'll drop by the agency later." Su Jin figured that the sooner they put the houses up for sale, the sooner they could be sold.
"Our house too, Su Jin. We want to sell as well." Lin Tianzhen ran over to them too.
That afternoon, Su Jin and Lu Hao went to another two property agencies. After all, if they used the same agency for all three houses, they might arouse suspicions. Lu Hao was the one who suggested that they go to different places to avoid unnecessary trouble.
Once they returned home, Su Jin collapsed onto the couch with a plop. She felt as though they had done way too many things in that one day, but at least they had the fruits of their efforts to show for it.
"Lu Hao, shall we go inside to rest?" Su Jin looked at Lu Hao, her eyes sparkling.
"Yeah, let's go together." Lu Hao caressed her chin and teleported into the dimension together with Su Jin.
There were a few fruit tree saplings, Su Jin's potted plants, and a few bags of seeds on the stone platform.
Su Jin used her mind to move them into Lu Mansion.
"If only you could take things out of the dimension like I can," Su Jin muttered.
They had tried that before, but it seemed that only the owner of the dimension, Su Jin, could move things in and out of here.
"There's no reason for me to. It's good enough that you can do it," Lu Hao said as he walked.
He was right, Su Jin realized. If anyone who made a contract with the jade tablet could take things out of the dimension as they liked, everything would be in utter chaos. It would not be safe either, since all of them would be in trouble should one person accidentally expose the dimension to outsiders.
The two of them arrived at Lu Mansion. Looking at the seeds and saplings in front of her, Su Jin decided to start by trying to sow the seeds with her mind.
She gave it a shot, and it actually worked! She could actually scatter the seeds into the field one by one. It was such a convenient and energy-saving ability too, since it would take the two of them ages to sow all those fields.
Still, they had to manually plant the saplings. Su Jin could transport the trees over with her will, but she could not bury the roots properly.
Lu Hao told Su Jin to rest while he went to plant the trees himself.
"Aww, you're the best. Mwah!"
Perfect, she was planning to test her special ability out on these potted plants anyway.
"Aren't you gonna kiss me for real?" Lu Hao could not be satisfied with just the sound of a kiss.
After he got a nice sweet kiss from Su Jin, Lu Hao finally walked out of the mansion, satisfied. Su Jin had already moved the saplings to the stream, so he just had to walk over there.
Once Lu Hao was gone, Su Jin looked at the pots on the table and decided to start with the Venus flytrap. These plants could eat smaller creatures like insects, and they took a while to digest their prey. However, they resembled the man-eating rafflesia Su Jin had encountered back then the most, so she chose to start with them.
Su Jin tried making them grow with her special ability, and the small flytrap grew rapidly, at a rate the naked eye could see. The tiny bristles on the edge of the leaves became hard shells with sharp hooks after Su Jin made them grow! The Venus flytrap became something more like a 'Venus bear trap', with teeth now large enough to catch something at least the size of a mountain goat.
Su Jin lifted her right hand and the bear trap opened in cue. Inside, it was filled with a sticky liquid that the flytrap had used to catch and digest their prey.
When Su Jin put her right hand down, the Venus bear trap closed with a snap.
It worked!
Ooh, she really wanted to test it right now. If only there were zombies around.
Since there was nothing she could really experiment on right now, Su Jin blinked out of the dimension and ran to the freezer in the living room. She grabbed a frozen chicken and teleported back into the dimension.
She tossed the frozen chicken into the air with her left hand and controlled the flytrap with her right. When the chicken fell, the flytrap opened its bear-trap jaws and held it firmly in its grasp. After that, the flytrap rapidly closed its leaves. Within ten seconds, Su Jin could peek through the leaves and see that the chicken the flytrap had eaten was reduced to bones!
Amazing! Su Jin wanted to applaud the flytrap, but then she remembered that this was all her doing, so she bounded off to ask Lu Hao for praise.
What she did not hear was how the giant Venus flytrap at they right side of the stone table burped loudly after she left…
Lu Hao patted Su Jin's head. Her hair was soft and her eyes sparkled as she looked at him, her expression clearly asking for praise.
…
Oh no, why was she so cute?
After Lu Hao listened to Su Jin describe what she had done, he asked her a question that immediately put her deep in thought again.
"Lil Jin, have you ever wondered how you'll keep the plants you grew with your special ability after you're done using them? Wouldn't it be a waste to dispose of them each time?"
"Could I keep them into the dimension?" Su Jin suggested.
"What if there are outsiders around?"
True, that way she would end up exposing the existence of the dimension.
"Why don't you try using your vines? Since you can summon your vines in and out of existence with your abilities, maybe you can do the same with other plants." Lu Hao did not want to see Su Jin disappointed, so he gave her an idea.
"Oh yeah, why didn't I think of that? You're so smart, honey! I'll give it a try." Su Jin skipped away again.
She connected the vines to the flytrap with her ability just as Lu Hao said. Then, she watched as the flytrap linked to the vine gradually shrank until they were gone altogether.
Huh? Did that mean it worked?
She tried summoning the vine and flytrap again, and they really did appear as she wanted. The flytrap could even grow on the vine!
This was incredible! Lu Hao's idea was truly flawless!
Once she was done, Su Jin went looking for Lu Hao again, but all she could find was a neat row of saplings, all planted into the ground. Lu Hao must have left in advance.
After Lu Hao was done with the trees, he had gone to the courtyard where he saw Su Jin focusing hard on her special ability. Rather than disturbing her, he thought he should go out for a shower before coming back in here. Once he left the dimension, however, he heard his phone ringing endlessly.
It was a call from his team.
Lu Hao answered it and heard Shi Jin's anxious voice in his ear. "This is bad, captain! Lw, h-he suddenly became really strong! He broke his hand- and foot cuffs, and now he's trying to barge out of the door! We don't know how long the door will hold!"
"Don't open the door under any circumstances, you hear me? I'll head there right now," Lu Hao said with a frown.
Su Jin was still hard at training in the dimension, so Lu Hao did not call her along. The girl had been working tirelessly all day, so he did not want her to risk herself by going with him.
After Su Jin was done with her training and left the dimension, she realized that the house was empty.
Had Lu Hao gone out?
There was a note on the table that said, 'Something came up with the team. I'm going to check it out.'
As she read his forceful handwriting, Su Jin vaguely felt a bad feeling rise in her chest.
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