The next day, the Summers family all woke up bright and early to prepare for the move.

Her grandmother and Miss Lowell woke up early and prepared a delicious breakfast for the whole family.

The flatbread sandwiches were grilled until crispy, enveloping a tender and juicy meat filling. Paired with steaming hot century egg and lean pork congee, where the rice was simmered until soft and sweet, the meal was utterly delicious and left a lingering taste.

The whole family had a hearty appetite and devoured the entire pile of flatbread sandwiches and the whole pot of congee.

After they had eaten their fill, everyone sat down to discuss the move.

Melody Summers spoke first. "Both apartments are already well-furnished. I’ve stored some supplies inside, so we just need to bring personal clothing and daily necessities. As for everything else, you can take a look once we get there, and we can buy whatever is missing."

Melody Summers thought for a moment and added, "We’re only living there temporarily, so there’s no need to move everything from the villa. We’ll be moving back once the snow melts. We just need to bring enough to last for the few months of winter."

Winnie Summers nodded in agreement. "Let’s move some daily necessities over first and get a feel for the place. We can move the rest of our things in batches later, once we have a better plan."

The family all nodded in agreement.

Knowing they had to move early this morning, they had already packed some of their things the previous night, so it didn’t take long for them to get ready.

The family then loaded their luggage into an SUV and an off-road vehicle, driving off toward the residential complex in the pitch-black night.

Due to the prolonged darkness, it was impossible to tell day from night, so not many people were out.

Melody and her family carried their luggage into the elevator and went up to the 16th floor without running into anyone.

Melody Summers opened the door to 1606. Instead of immediately giving her family a tour, she first led them to a hidden doorway.

She explained to her family, "I had the building management install a secret door here to connect apartments 1605 and 1606. It’ll make things much more convenient."

Seeing this, her grandmother smiled and nodded. "That’s wonderful. This way, we won’t have to go in and out of the main doors just to eat together."

Next, Melody Summers led them on a tour, showing them each room one by one. "There are five bedrooms in total between the two apartments," she explained. "Each one has a large bed, and I’ve already made them all. You can pick whichever room you like and put your luggage down."

The family happily explored the two apartments and quickly chose their rooms. Melody, Winnie, and Miss Lowell took the three bedrooms in 1606, while Colin Summers, Grace Sutton, and Grandma settled into the two bedrooms in 1605.

Grace Sutton happily stroked the thick blanket on the bed, saying with a smile, "Just feel this! It’s so thick and soft. Even if it’s forty or fifty degrees below zero outside, we won’t be cold tucked in under this!"

Colin Summers patted the space heater and the radiant heater in the room, chiming in, "This room will never get cold. With all this heating equipment, we’ll be fine even if the power goes out, as long as we hook it up to the generator!"

Grandma opened the closet and was astonished to see it stuffed with heavy winter clothes. "Why are there so many winter clothes in here?" she exclaimed. "I can’t possibly wear all of these by myself! You all should take some!"

Melody Summers chuckled. "Grandma, every room is like that. Feel free to wear whatever you like. We’ll be living here for several months, so it’s better to be overprepared!"

Melody Summers added, "I only put some clothes, appliances, and daily necessities in the rooms. You can all add some food later. That way, if it gets so cold that we can’t even get out from under the covers, we’ll still have something to eat close at hand."

Once everyone had settled in, Melody Summers led the family to see two studies that had been converted into storerooms.

Seeing the supplies Melody Summers had stockpiled in the storerooms, the family gaped in astonishment.

Ian Summers had never seen the stash Melody had hoarded in the villa’s basement, so the sight in these two converted studies left him dumbfounded. "When did you move all this stuff up here? And where did you get so much gasoline, diesel, and coal? How did you even manage that?"

’It’s so hard to buy these things now!’ he thought. ’Even my military unit has trouble getting this much!’ 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

Melody Summers rubbed her nose and answered vaguely, "I’ve just been collecting it for a while."

Grandma touched the stove in the corner and sighed nostalgically. "I haven’t seen one of these since we moved to the city. With a stove and coal, we can both stay warm and cook. We won’t have to worry even if the power goes out in the future."

Before the days of widespread electricity, this was how generations of people in the villages had gotten by.

Miss Lowell looked at the stacks of bottled water in the corner. "This is more than enough water. When the temperature drops in a few days, the pipes will probably freeze over. The government might have to use water trucks for distribution. With all this drinking water, we won’t have to wait in line to fetch any."

Melody Summers was taken aback. ’Wow, Miss Lowell actually guessed right,’ she thought. ’In my past life, the water mains really did freeze because of the low temperatures. The government sent water trucks to every neighborhood, and residents had to line up to collect water.’

After seeing the storerooms, Melody Summers led her family back to the living room, where numerous styrofoam boxes were placed around the spacious area.

Melody Summers said, "From now on, we can grow vegetables in these styrofoam boxes. We can dig up any of the seedlings from the villa’s garden and transplant them here. That way, we’ll have fresh vegetables every day!"

Hearing that they could grow vegetables, both Grandma and Miss Lowell nodded enthusiastically.

Grace Sutton also said happily, "Perfect, perfect! With all these supplies, our family will have no problem living here for a good few months!"

’From the first snow to the final thaw,’ Melody thought, ’it’s about half a year.’

’Once the snow melts, we can move back to the villa.’

Now that they had assessed the situation at the apartments, the family had a plan. They drove back to the villa and started moving more of their things over.

Grandma and Miss Lowell grabbed trowels and cardboard boxes and went to work on the vegetable garden.

They selected some plants that had just begun to bear fruit, carefully digging them up with the roots and soil intact. This way, they could be transplanted directly into the styrofoam boxes in the living room, which would be much faster than planting new seeds and would provide them with fresh vegetables right away.

Winnie Summers went to the pond in the backyard to catch fish. There were two large fish tanks in the living room of apartment 1605, and keeping the fish in them would provide food for several months.

In addition to the tanks in the living room, there was also the bathtub. They could plug the drain, fill it with water, and use it to raise fish too.

Meanwhile, Grace Sutton went to the kitchen. She packed up all the food from the refrigerator and gathered some kitchenware that the new apartment was missing.

Ian and Colin Summers went down to the basement, where several large chest freezers were still stocked with plenty of frozen meals and meat.

Since the cataclysm began, thanks to Melody’s constant replenishments and the fresh meat and seafood that Roman Rhodes occasionally dropped off, they hadn’t used up much of the meat in these freezers.

Even though the family had been doing their best to eat through it all, they had consumed less than half of their stock.

Ian and Colin Summers got some cardboard boxes and packed up several boxes of frozen meat and ready-made meals. These frozen goods could all be stored on the balcony of the study in apartment 1605.

The balcony of the study in 1605 wasn’t heated, making it the coldest spot in either apartment. When the arctic blizzard hit, it would become a natural freezer.

It took the family two or three trips to move everything, and with Melody secretly stashing some of it in her pocket dimension, they finally managed to get everything into their new home.

Luckily, because it was dark, most people stayed indoors, so they didn’t run into anyone during the entire process.