Chapter 82: It Needs a Hundred Times

“What’s going on?”

She was confused. Last time, the space had only required ten sets of materials.

That was enough to upgrade from 500 square meters to 1,000 square meters. Why wasn’t it working now?

Could it be that more materials were needed this time?

Was it ten times, thirty times… or a hundred times?

She had already prepared ten sets, and now she was at the point of no return.

Jiang Yuan didn’t dare waste time and got busy right away.

The closer she got to the end, the more sweat poured down her face. It turned out—it really was a hundred times.

A hundred times! Would it be a thousand times next time? That was terrifying.

Luckily, she could finally continue adding more things now. She hadn’t lost too much time.

She immediately started the upgrade without hesitation, working quickly and decisively.

“Beep, beep, beep…”

The timer’s display was maxed out, and the flashing light on the field indicator was blinding.

Jiang Yuan started madly exchanging points, and only stopped once all the indicators dimmed.

She ran out and took a look. Sure enough, the space had expanded again—it looked to be double the previous size.

Now it was 2,000 square meters—about three acres. That was definitely enough.

Even if it never upgraded again, it would still be more than sufficient.

Her next goal was to fill this space completely and extend the usable duration of the space. That was the top priority.

She quickly got back to work. Following her original plan, she organized everything and stacked it in one corner.

All the edible and usable items had to be gathered as well.

By the time she finished with the 16th floor, the others still hadn’t come up—which felt a bit off.

After all, upgrading had taken a long time. Even so, they shouldn’t still be downstairs.

She felt uneasy, but wanting to collect more materials, she headed straight to the 15th floor.

Jiang Yuan was now in full-on work mode, practically running everywhere. That boosted her speed quite a bit.

And still—they hadn’t come up. What was going on?

She was getting nervous, so she pulled out her baseball bat and started heading down.

The 13th floor was where Song Yi was. She quietly opened the door to the emergency stairwell.

“Oh my god, what’s going on here? Why is there so much stuff? I thought something happened to you guys because you hadn’t come up in so long!”

Jiang Yuan finally felt relieved.

The three of them were still moving supplies, which looked like it had all been part of a “Mid-Autumn Festival gift package.”

Rice, flour, oil, mooncakes, and a mishmash of other gift boxes—there had to be over a thousand items.

“Yuan-jie, Song-ge found a ton of stuff. Look at this…”

Ye Mianmian’s face was flushed. Even though it was tiring moving everything, she couldn’t hide her joy.

“Wow, that’s a lot. If you’re all okay, I’ll go tidy up the upstairs too.

Only one more floor left. Once that’s done, we’re good.”

“Okay, go ahead!”

Jiang Yuan dropped off her two full bags next to the other supplies.

She was thrilled too. The 14th floor had a lot of national chain stores with plenty of goods.

Perfect for her. She quickly cleared the 14th floor, and her storage space still had plenty of room left.

She planned to regroup with the others, and ran into Song Yi coming up.

“All done?”

“Yeah, we’ll go up and bring the stuff from upstairs down. You go help Ye Mianmian on the 13th floor.”

“Right! Yuan-jie, you go down and help out. Song-ge and I will bring down the rest from upstairs.”

Zhang Kaiyang was beaming, especially when he saw Jiang Yuan carrying two full bags again.

“Okay, go ahead then.”

They figured that since Jiang Yuan and Ye Mianmian were girls, they should take on lighter work. In the apocalypse, women were incredibly rare and valuable.

“Mianmian—whoa! There’s so much stuff!”

Ye Mianmian was still organizing things and lit up when she saw her.

“Yuan-jie, these all still have packaging. I’ve been tearing them down to save space.”

“Let me help!”

Jiang Yuan joined in the effort.

Over on the 17th floor, they’d stacked everything together, including items found earlier at the flower market.

There was a lot to sort through and strip down here as well.

“Yuan-jie, this company sure gives good perks. Is construction materials a super profitable business?”

“Well, it’s the bosses who make the money. This place sells high-end furniture and appliances. Just the fridges here are five figures at least.”

Jiang Yuan pointed to a high-end brand store across from them. It was a state-owned brand that had created a luxury offshoot.

They used to help recommend these to customers—full home packages easily cost hundreds of thousands.

“Dang, that expensive? No wonder people spend so much when renovating a home.”

Ye Mianmian was amazed. She had always known there was a wealth gap, but seeing it firsthand—standing in front of things she could never afford—still made her feel overwhelmed.

“By the way, Yuan-jie, didn’t you work in construction too? You must’ve made good money.”

“We joined late—just caught the tail end of the boom.

Rich people are really rich. A couple who opened a shop around the same time as us bought a large duplex and six commercial units in one year.

Business hasn’t been as good these last couple of years.”

Ye Mianmian was stunned. If that was a downturn, how profitable had the peak been?

“Seriously impressive. With all this stuff, you could retire on the spot.”

“Exactly. The ones who got in early really timed it well.”

Jiang Yuan sighed. All her classmates and friends thought she and Xia Chaoyang had made it big.

But compared to others, there was still a big gap—and not a small one either.

“Mianmian, you’re amazing too. You bought a home on your own just from working.

I heard live streaming is quite profitable—some streamers have net assets in the hundreds of millions.”

Ye Mianmian nodded, not minding talking about herself.

“It does make money, but the pressure is huge. We only get paid based on sales.

When the metrics are bad, we have to fake traffic ourselves. It’s a real headache.”

Still, compared to most, it was a good income.

“But Yuan-jie, why did you and your husband split up?”

Ye Mianmian already knew about Jiang Yuan’s divorce. Last time Xia Chaoyang came looking for her, Zhang Kaiyang had gone up to listen in and later told her the gist of it.

“Ha! Because men get rich and then stop being loyal.”

“He cheated?”

“Yeah.”

Jiang Yuan didn’t hide anything—she didn’t see the point.

“Not just another woman—he even had a kid. The child is only three months younger than my daughter. I only found out when the woman showed up at our door. Isn’t that ridiculous?”

She gave a bitter laugh. Ye Mianmian, on the other hand, was furious.

“What a disgusting piece of trash! Scumbags like that aren’t worth a single tear.

Yuan-jie, if he ever comes back begging, don’t you dare go soft. I’ll help you curse him out.”

Girls really are the best at supporting each other.

“Definitely!”