Chapter 6: Extreme Heat

When Jiang Linhai saw her clearly, he hurried over, grabbed her luggage, and beamed with joy.
“Si-Si, let’s go home first!”

He had come to pick Jiang Si up, but after the plane crash, he got so flustered he completely forgot.

As Jiang Si stepped through the front gate, she swept her gaze around the courtyard.

Insulation panels, bricks, guardrails, and safety nets were all piled in a corner. The foundation had only been half-raised, the doors and windows hadn’t been replaced yet…
The apocalypse had come early, and yet only a tenth of the house had been fortified.

She had her space ability and could hide there anytime—but her family couldn’t!

Staring at the blood-red sun on the horizon, Jiang Si felt her anxiety spike instantly.

Shen Baoying came out smiling. “Are you hungry? Dinner’s almost ready.”

Jiang Si dropped her suitcase and spoke in a grave tone, as if something major had happened.
“Mom, I’m not hungry. Everyone, go to the room. I have something important to tell you.”

Her expression was even more serious than on her college entrance exam day. Everyone grew worried and followed her upstairs.

Once inside, Jiang Si closed all doors and windows tightly. Her eyes scanned each of their faces, and her eyes slowly began to mist.

After all these years, she had finally seen them again.

But—more important things had to be dealt with now.

Shen Baoying had already noticed her daughter was different the moment she walked through the door. Her gaze was filled with something heavy and complicated, like she carried a mountain of untold burdens.

Cautiously, Shen Baoying asked, “Si-Si, what exactly happened?”

Jiang Chengwu also sensed something was wrong. He had never seen his granddaughter so tense—like the world was ending.

Zhang Qingzhi assumed she must have suffered something awful out there. She walked over kindly and said,
“Don’t be afraid, Si-Si. The whole family is here. If it’s money you need, Grandma still has her pension. No matter what, we’ll find a way to help.”

Their concern gave Jiang Si renewed strength.

She took a deep breath and began,
“Mom, Dad, Grandpa, Grandma—the apocalypse has already begun. The global blackout is just the start. Much greater disasters are coming soon. While we still have time, we must prepare immediately!”

“Apocalypse?”

Everyone was confused. It was just a blackout and a plane crash—how could that mean the end of the world?

Guessing they wouldn’t believe her easily, Jiang Si stretched out her hand—and produced a washing machine, a fridge, a motorbike, a mountain bike, and gold bars from thin air.

The entire family stared in shock.

There was no way all this could’ve been hidden in her room.

And Jiang Si definitely couldn’t have done sleight of hand right in front of them.

Jiang Linhai, who had always believed in science, rubbed his eyes.
“I’m not dreaming, am I?”

Shen Baoying pinched him hard. He grimaced in pain.

Not a dream.

Jiang Si’s expression turned serious again.
“Do you want to know how I got this ability?”

Everyone shook their heads.

“This version of me… is reborn. In my previous life, our whole family died in the apocalypse.”

“After the global blackout, the drought lasted for almost half a year. All the food in the house was looted.” Her eyes reddened as she looked at Zhang Qingzhi. “Grandma, you got caught in a sandstorm trying to pick up a single ear of corn. We could only watch helplessly.”

“When we had nothing left to eat, we left Longquan Village to find help. On the way, a sudden torrential rain came, followed by a tsunami hundreds of meters tall. Our boat capsized. I barely made it to shore and found Mom and Dad, but Grandpa got separated from us again.”

“To survive, we wandered from place to place. We finally reached a survivor base, but since we didn’t have two catties of grain to trade, they locked us out. Then the zombies came.”

“Dad, to give Mom and me a chance to survive, drew the zombies away by himself… and was torn apart alive.”

“The people who rescued us had bad intentions too. They treated us like livestock—cutting flesh from us.”

“I found a chance and escaped with Mom.”

“Later, we reached the northern base. But while I was out on a mission, Sun Xiu and Shen Fu cut off one of Mom’s legs to trade for 20 catties of millet. When I returned, they told me Mom didn’t want to drag me down… so she committed suicide. I was the only one left.”

“Ten years in the apocalypse! I wanted to give up so many times—but I kept going because of you all.”

“When people fought over power stones, I swallowed one, just to end it all.”

“If I had known dying sooner would let me see you again, I wouldn’t have hesitated for a second.”

“Si-Si—” From the moment she revealed the supplies, everyone had no choice but to believe her. Shen Baoying stared at her daughter’s pained eyes and couldn’t imagine how she endured such a tragic life alone. She pulled Jiang Si into her arms and gently patted her back like when she was a child.
“It’s over now. It’s all over… we’re all still here…”

Jiang Linhai was overwhelmed with guilt. He blamed himself for not protecting the family in their past life, causing Si-Si to suffer so much.

Jiang Si wiped away Shen Baoying’s tears and looked around.
“Don’t cry anymore. Heaven has given me another chance—and a dimensional space to store supplies. This time, we’re going to survive—peacefully and safely. So we can’t waste time.”

“Based on the past, after the blackout, all city infrastructure collapsed. Soon, people from the city will flood out, looking for food and water. We must fortify this house into a fortress before that happens.”

“The second and third floors—seal all windows except the bedroom with bricks. Leave no openings.”

Then Jiang Si pulled out several coils of barbed wire.
“Dad, seal all the windows and doors. Get the insulation panels on the roof. Cover the walls with broken glass and barbed wire. We can install safety nets after the solar flares—right now the temperature’s too high; they’ll melt.”

“This time, if we prepare well, we may not have to relocate like before.”

Thinking of how people in the village went mad when food ran out, Jiang Si warned again:
“If anyone asks, do not mention anything about the apocalypse! If they find out, they’ll assume we have supplies.”

“And don’t get involved in other people’s problems. That’s how you get killed.”

Jiang Linhai nodded firmly. “Okay, we’ll start right now!”

Shen Baoying panicked a little.
“Food! We need to stockpile enough food. The early rice, sweet potatoes, corn—we can still harvest a few thousand catties.”

“Oh! And the pigs! We need to slaughter them now, make preserved meat. And pickle vegetables! Without salt, you’ll get sick. Without veggies, you’ll get inflamed. We need salt and beans too—we can sprout them or make tofu.”

“But ten years of apocalypse—that won’t be enough! We need more!”

Grandma added anxiously,
“We also need life jackets, lifeboats, medicine for injuries and pain, and more axes and Tang swords for defense!”

But as they talked, they realized—buying so much stuff would definitely attract attention.

Jiang Si couldn’t help laughing.
“Mom, Grandma, don’t worry. My space can grow crops—it’s already sprouting. We’ll have food in the future. I’ve already stocked most supplies from the city. Just pack whatever essentials you want to keep, and I’ll store them in the space.”

Shen Baoying and Grandma were overjoyed—they never expected Jiang Si’s space to be so vast.

While they gathered things, Jiang Si helped Jiang Linhai mix cement.

She thought they had at least a few more days of buffer time.
But at 10 p.m. that night, the sky was still as bright as day. The temperature suddenly soared to 40°C (104°F), waves of heat rolling in.

The whole world warped in the suffocating heat.

And panic over the apocalypse began spreading through the village…