Early the next morning, Grace Sutton left for work. She had already taken several days off from the clothing factory, and her boss would start to complain if she didn’t go back soon.

Like Winnie Summers, Grace Sutton was a career-driven woman, full of energy when she was on the job.

Colin Summers and Winnie Summers were supervising the renovation team as they modified the house. Melody had already told them the day before: enclose the front and back yards, turn the back garden into a sunroom, and install a cooling system in the yard.

The solar panels wouldn’t be installed yet, but they needed to leave space for them. They would be put in after the tornadoes passed.

Grandma and Miss Lowell were in the yard, discussing how to best utilize the space for planting. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Meanwhile, Melody Summers drove to the local wholesale clothing market.

There were now six people in the house. Melody had asked for everyone’s clothing sizes the day before. First, she bought enough undergarments for all six of them, then several sets of pajamas for each person in winter, summer, and spring/autumn styles.

The second year of the apocalypse would be a long, blizzard-filled, frigid night. She bought over a dozen sets of fleece-lined thermal underwear and several military greatcoats—they offered the best insulation.

Thinking of how old Grandma and Miss Lowell were, Melody gritted her teeth and bought a few fur coats. They were the best for braving blizzards; apparently, everyone in frigid regions owned one. The only problem was the price. At over ten thousand yuan each, Melody felt her heart bleed with every purchase.

Hats, gloves, earmuffs, goggles... she bought several sets of everything. That way, her family could bundle up completely if they ever needed to go out during a blizzard.

Hardshell jackets were also a must-have.

Remembering the acid rain of the apocalypse’s third year, Melody bought a pile of raincoats and rain boots.

Making such a large sale first thing in the morning, the shop owner was ecstatic. He gave Melody a twenty-percent discount, and the total still came to over 200,000 yuan.

After storing all the clothes in her space, Melody drove around and visited nearly every pharmacy in the city.

She moved like an ant gathering food, buying a small number of medical supplies from each one. Medicine wasn’t like food; purchasing it in bulk from a single pharmacy would attract unwanted suspicion.

After six hours of driving around, she had stockpiled a massive quantity of medical supplies, including alcohol, gauze, Yunnan Baiyao, fever reducers, stomach medicine, antibiotics, nitroglycerin pills, antihistamines, insulin, and vitamins...

Fortunately, no one in her family had chronic illnesses. Both Grandma and Miss Lowell were quite healthy for their age, so these basic medical supplies should be sufficient.

After the medical supplies came the essential daily necessities. Melody went to a wholesale market for household goods and bought hundreds of bulk packs of toilet paper, facial tissues, and wet wipes.

She also bought hundreds of packs of sanitary pads and disposable period underwear.

She remembered how, during the pandemic, toilet paper had been completely sold out in other countries. Modern life was truly inseparable from it.

Next, she bought laundry detergent, bar soap, body wash, shampoo, dish soap, toothpaste, toothbrushes, towels...

When the heatwaves came, power shortages would force factories to halt production. Store inventories would plummet, the prices for these goods would skyrocket, and eventually, they would be completely out of stock.

Looking at all the supplies, Melody suddenly remembered that the Arcadian Warehouse had shelving units, allowing items stored in her space to be neatly sorted and categorized. ’But my house doesn’t have any!’

’It’ll be so inconvenient to retrieve things if they’re all just piled up.’

With that thought, Melody smacked her forehead. She drove to a furniture market, bought a pile of easy-to-assemble shelving units, and stored them all in her space.

By the time she finished, it was already evening. On the way home, Melody stopped by a tool shop.

She bought several fire axes and multi-tool shovels, along with three comprehensive toolbox sets that contained all the basic tools.

Seeing how much she bought, the owner not only gave her a discount but also threw in some pepper spray and survival whistles for free.

As her hoard of supplies grew, Melody bought several dozen fire extinguishers. She planned to place one in every room. If the villa’s built-in fire suppression system ever failed, these could be lifesavers.

Melody checked her account balance. She still had over a million yuan left.

*

By the time Melody got home, the sky was dark. Grace Sutton was also back from work, and the family was waiting for Melody to join them for dinner.

The dining table was laden with aromatic dishes: beef stew, fish-fragrant eggplant, stir-fried celtuce, scrambled eggs with tomato, braised fish, and fried shrimp.

"Melody, you’re finally back! We were waiting for you," Grace Sutton said, scooping a heaping bowl of rice for her.

"Thanks, Auntie Grace." Melody accepted the rice happily. "Mom, Uncle Colin, how did things go today?"

"The renovation team said they’ll be done in a few days. They’re following all of your instructions," Winnie Summers replied.

Only then did Melody relax.

"Miss Lowell and I have also discussed it," her grandmother added. "We can plant vegetables in both the front and back yards. We’ve planned for a pond in the back to store water for irrigation, and we can even raise fish in it."

"Grandma, that’s perfect. I bought a lot of seeds. I’ll give them to you later," Melody replied with a smile.

After dinner, the family gathered to watch television, but Melody went down to the basement.

The basement had four empty sections. Melody planned to use the largest one for food and daily necessities, and an adjacent one for clothes, medicine, and tools.

First, she took the easy-to-assemble shelving units out of her space, put them together, and arranged them in neat, evenly-spaced rows, leaving plenty of room for walkways.

Then, Melody brought out a portion of her supplies and began stocking the shelves.

Seeing the shelves fully and neatly stocked, Melody felt a deep sense of satisfaction.

*

That night, Melody entered her space again to feed the animals and refill their troughs.

Albus occasionally let the farm animals out into The Arcadian Woods.

A flock of chickens was running wild on the hills, and it seemed their meat quality had improved significantly. They were even laying eggs faster.

The ducks were incubating their eggs. She believed there would be little ducklings soon.

Before bed, Melody glanced at her phone. Elaine Hughes had sent her another message.

Elaine Hughes wrote that she had taken Sylvia Lancaster shopping at luxury boutiques that day, and Sylvia had personally chosen a necklace for Melody. She hoped she could put it on Melody herself when she came home.

Every line of Elaine’s message was filled with praise for Sylvia, expressing her hope that Melody would let go of her prejudice and get along with her.

Melody opened the picture for a quick look. It was a new high-jewelry piece from "G Brand." The only reason Melody recognized it was because, in her past life, Sylvia had broken this very necklace herself and then framed Melody for doing it deliberately. A disappointed Elaine had grilled Melody, demanding to know why she was targeting Sylvia. No matter how long Melody tried to explain, Elaine refused to believe her.

A wave of disgust washed over Melody. She immediately set her chat with Elaine Hughes to "Do Not Disturb."

*

The next day was the weekend. After breakfast, her aunt suggested they go out and explore the neighborhood.

"The occupancy rate here is low, so there aren’t many shops in the commercial district," Melody replied.

Besides, she didn’t have time for a stroll. She had to continue stockpiling supplies.

Today’s target: outdoor equipment.

Melody had died in the apocalyptic floods. She had no idea what other disasters had occurred after her death.

Thinking they might have to evacuate at some point, Melody went to an outdoor survival gear shop. She bought helmets, goggles, a compass, binoculars, and gas masks.

She also bought a pile of waterproof matches. She didn’t dare buy lighters, clearly remembering how they would explode in the extreme heat of her past life.

She also got a few wood-burning stoves and some alcohol fuel to use as an emergency backup when the extreme cold and blizzards arrived.

She also bought plenty of batteries, power banks, and rechargeable battery packs.

On the shop owner’s recommendation, Melody also bought several sleeping bags, a tent, life buoys, life jackets, and an inflatable raft.

Seeing how thoroughly she was preparing, the shop owner laughed and joked, "Are you preparing for a simulated apocalypse?"

Melody asked, feigning casualness, "If there really were an apocalyptic flood, or a meteor strike on Terra, and we had to evacuate the whole city... what else would I need?"

The owner actually gave it some serious thought before replying with a smile, "Well, in that case, you’d at least need an RV and an off-road vehicle. You can’t just escape on foot, can you? And for a flood, this kind of raft wouldn’t cut it. It could easily get a leak. You’d need a proper yacht."

Melody sighed in resignation. She had over a million yuan left, but she still hadn’t bought the most crucial items: a generator and gasoline. After those purchases, there probably wouldn’t be much money left, and she still had to reserve funds for the villa’s renovation costs.

Forget an RV or an off-road vehicle; she hadn’t even been willing to buy a simple car for getting around. She had been renting one for her shopping trips these past few days.

Her uncle had bought a car for the family to use years ago, but it had started having problems this year. After two rounds of repairs that cost more than the car was worth, the family had reached a silent consensus: they left it behind for the mudslide to take care of when they moved.

The shop owner helped Melody load the supplies into her rental car. Once inside, Melody looked at her bank balance and sighed.

’Where am I going to get more money?’

Just as Melody was agonizing over this, her phone suddenly rang.