Chapter 23: Chapter 23: Jingjing Supermarket

Sylvia Lancaster was flanked by two girls her age, each carrying a paper bag with a high-end brand’s logo on it.

"Sylvia, is this your sister?" The girl who spoke had a simple ponytail and delicate features. Melody Summers recognized her as Sylvia Lancaster’s little follower, Wendy Sheffield.

The Sheffield Family wasn’t some prominent clan. Wendy Sheffield’s parents worked government jobs. They scrimped and saved to send Wendy abroad to study, where she happened to become classmates with Sylvia Lancaster.

Wendy Sheffield was very good at sucking up to Sylvia Lancaster. In turn, Sylvia was happy to bring her to parties as a foil to make herself look better. And just like that, Wendy gained access to Anworth’s circle of elites.

"Sylvia, is she that illegitimate sister of yours who was raised in the countryside?" the other girl asked, her tone hostile. She had long, wavy hair, was dressed in the latest ready-to-wear from iuiu, and wore a large ruby ring on her hand, exuding an air of arrogance. Melody Summers recognized her too—the eldest daughter of the Hayes Family, Clara Hayes.

’Illegitimate daughter?’

Melody Summers thought to herself, ’In my past life, after I returned to the Lancaster Family, Mr. Sutton insisted that I be the one to marry Ethan Sutton. At his insistence, the Lancaster Family issued a statement acknowledging that I was their biological daughter and Sylvia Lancaster was the adopted one they had raised by mistake.’

’This time around, since I refused to go back, Sylvia Lancaster is still the one in the marriage alliance. Naturally, the Lancaster Family doesn’t want to admit she isn’t their biological child. It seems that in the face of all the public controversy, the Lancasters have chosen to claim that I’m actually an illegitimate daughter, making both of us their biological children.’

Melody Summers thought that Clara Hayes should be thankful this was all happening before the disaster. If this were the chaotic late-apocalypse, Melody would have thrown her straight into the feed grinder in her dimensional space.

In her past life, Clara Hayes and Sylvia Lancaster had once invited Melody Summers to go swimming. At the pool, when Melody wasn’t looking, Clara had suddenly shoved her head underwater and refused to let go. Thankfully, Melody was a good swimmer and managed to break free. Otherwise, the consequences would have been dire.

Melody had immediately called the police back then. But when they arrived, Sylvia Lancaster testified that Clara Hayes hadn’t done anything.

There were no security cameras near the pool, and Melody couldn’t produce any evidence, so the matter was dropped.

When the Lancasters heard about it later, they all believed Sylvia Lancaster and thought Melody Summers was deliberately stirring up trouble.

Silas Lancaster had even tried to drag Melody Summers to apologize to Clara Hayes, only stopping when Melody resisted with all her might. Elaine Hughes then wailed about how disappointed she was in Melody, and Robert Lancaster said he regretted bringing her back to the Lancaster family.

Recalling all these events from her past life, Melody Summers sneered at Sylvia Lancaster. "I’m the illegitimate one? Then why do I look so much like your mother, Elaine Hughes? You’re the biological daughter? Then why don’t you resemble anyone in the family?"

Sylvia Lancaster’s face went pale. Clara Hayes and Wendy Sheffield were also stunned, apparently still processing the meaning behind Melody’s words.

Seeing this, Sylvia Lancaster didn’t dare say anything more to Melody. She grabbed her two friends and hurried away.

Her good mood ruined by the trio, Melody Summers no longer felt like shopping.

Melody Summers went straight to a specialty store for a certain brand and bought five high-spec laptops. She also picked up several large-capacity solid-state drives, planning to download some TV shows.

Thanks to the country’s robust infrastructure, the internet was still relatively stable for the first two years of the apocalypse, only going down intermittently a few times. But she didn’t know what would happen in the later stages. As the saying goes, it’s better to be safe than sorry.

Then she bought three gaming consoles from different brands so the whole family could play together—a decent pastime for the apocalypse.

Finally, Melody Summers bought a few spare phones and tablets for her family.

By the time she left the mall, Melody only had a little over eighty thousand yuan left.

It was already dark outside, so Melody took a taxi straight home.

*

After returning home and having dinner, Melody distributed the sunscreens and skincare products she had snapped up that day. She lied to her family, saying the mall was having a sale and she had stocked up on a three-year supply for everyone.

Her uncle and aunt insisted on transferring her the money, but Melody refused to take it no matter what.

Her grandmother looked at all the bottles and jars with curiosity while Winnie Summers and Miss Lowell taught her how to use each one.

After handing out the skincare products, Melody went down to the basement. There were still two empty rooms. Melody moved all nine freezers in, then took out all the meat, frozen goods, and ice cream from her dimensional space. She neatly packed them into the nine freezers, filling them to the brim.

*

The next morning, after breakfast, her aunt, Grace Sutton, left for work.

Winnie Summers said to Melody, "The house renovations are done, and your uncle and I have had nothing to do these past couple of days. We talked it over and want to go look for jobs. Right now, your aunt is the only one working, and that’s too much pressure."

Colin Summers chimed in, "Yeah, but it’s only March. I don’t know what I’d even do."

Besides helping out at Winnie Summers’s orchard, her uncle would also take on appliance installation jobs from the electronics mall. He’d only get busy around July and August when the weather got hot and people wanted to install refrigerators and air conditioners. With spring just beginning, he was worried about where to find work.

But watching his wife go to work every day while he sat idle at home made him feel restless.

Winnie Summers felt the same way. She had a personality that couldn’t sit still. For decades, her single-minded focus had been on making money and providing a good life for her family. Being idle now made her feel uneasy, as if she were wasting her time.

Melody thought for a moment before persuading them, "Mom, Uncle, there’s no rush. Let’s wait until April."

Seeing their disappointed expressions, Melody decided to find a task for her mother first. "Mom, why don’t you raise some fish and shrimp in the backyard pond today? That pond was originally for Grandma and the others to water the vegetable garden, but raising fish and shrimp in it can make us more self-sufficient."

"Uncle, you could buy some fruit tree saplings to plant in the backyard. It would be best to get ones that can bear fruit this year. Then we won’t have to buy fruit anymore."

Winnie Summers immediately perked up. "Okay, I’ll go buy fish and shrimp fry right now."

Colin Summers added, "Alright, I’ll go buy the saplings."

Watching the two of them happily preparing to leave, Melody thought, ’I can only stall them one day at a time. The tornadoes are coming on April first. I don’t want Mom and Uncle to go out looking for work.’

’Not only that, but I have to get my aunt to take time off work. I can’t clearly remember if the clothing factory where she worked in my past life was in the tornado’s disaster zone. To be on the safe side, it’s best if she stays home and rests in advance.’

*

After her mother and uncle left, Melody started wandering around the residential community. She saw renovation workers carrying wooden planks, glass panels, and other materials upstairs.

It seemed quite a few people had taken her advice and were preparing to replace and reinforce their windows.

The community was large, but the occupancy rate was low. There weren’t even many elderly people out for morning walks. Back when they lived in the school district housing, the open space in front of their building would be packed with seniors doing their morning exercises every day.

Melody strolled through the villa and residential areas, eventually reaching the commercial district.

Not many businesses had moved into the commercial district due to the low foot traffic. The ground-floor retail spaces only housed a few restaurants, some clothing stores, a temporarily closed pharmacy, a supermarket, a fresh produce store, a barbershop, a pet store, a gym, and a dry cleaner’s.

Melody arrived at the entrance of the supermarket. The sign read "Crystal Mart."

Seeing a "Prime Retail Space for Lease" sign taped to the glass door, Melody pushed the door open and went inside.