5: Chapter 5 Shopping Spree

Qi Yin shook her head and looked directly into his eyes: "Brother Yan Xiu, do you believe me?"

Lu Yanxiu looked at the unprecedented, near-desperate fear in her eyes without a moment's hesitation: "Of course. Since we were little, you have never joked with me."

"Never mind the Apocalypse; even if the sky falls, your brother will hold it up for you."

This familiar sentence struck a soft spot in Qi Yin's heart. It was as if Lu Yanxiu had said these same words in her previous life, but she never saw him again until the end of the Apocalypse.

Qi Yin smiled, took a deep breath, and recounted the terrifying landscape of the coming Apocalypse, the virus outbreak, and the collapse of order in the simplest yet most horrifying language.

Of course, she wasn't foolish enough to reveal the secret of her rebirth and the jade pendant; she only told Lu Yanxiu that it was top-secret information obtained through special channels.

"This is not a natural disaster; it is more like a great purge targeting humanity. There isn't much time left, brother. When that time comes, the world will turn into a living hell."

"The prosperity we see now is all just an illusion."

"You also know that I sold all the shares my grandmother left me. Adding in my other assets, I have about 3 billion on hand. I'll invest it all, and if it's not enough, I'll find another way."

Qi Yin frowned; this was the first time since her rebirth that she had revealed her true emotions in front of someone else.

After listening, the color gradually drained from Lu Yanxiu's face, and a chill crept up his spine.

If the information Qi Yin brought was reliable, coming to him to hoard such a massive quantity of supplies was indeed the wisest choice at the moment.

The tentacles of the Xiao Conglomerate reached across the globe, naturally allowing it to access many people and information that ordinary people could not reach.

Coupled with the abnormal capital flows and supply controls of certain foreign organizations that that person had mentioned earlier, and with Qi Yin's reminder, he seemed to suddenly find the answer, forcing him to think of the worst-case scenario.

Lu Yanxiu grabbed Qi Yin's shoulders abruptly: "What about you, Yin Yin? Are you in danger?"

His first reaction was not to question the authenticity of the information, but to worry about Qi Yin's safety. They had grown up together, and Qi Yin was the granddaughter her grandmother cared about the most.

Qi Yin shook her head: "The information is absolutely reliable, but you also know that Qi Mingyuan won't let me access the resources of the Lu Group."

Meeting his gaze, Qi Yin's eyes became firm and cold once again.

"I can't do it alone. I need your help, I need the power of the Xiao Conglomerate! In exchange, I will provide you with all the information I know about the Apocalypse."

...

Having reached an agreement, Qi Yin left the Xiao Conglomerate and immediately rushed back to her villa.

She lifted the bed sheet, pulled a dusty box from under the bed, and took out the contents.

"Ding! Welcome back, Master!" A brand-new, modified folding computer appeared before her eyes.

Looking at her familiar old partner, Qi Yin felt wonderful.

After ten years of hardship in the Apocalypse, with no water or electricity, she had almost forgotten that she was once a hacker ranked on the international hacker leaderboard.

Qi Yin opened the folding computer. The device, originally as small as a mobile phone, transformed into a huge display screen, with data refreshing at a dizzying speed.

With Lu Yanxiu's intervention, the plan to hoard supplies was injected with new lubricant and fuel, and it began to operate beyond imagination.

Qi Yin played the role of commander, controlling the direction of the entire plan, while the specific procurement speed was efficiently executed by the powerful machine that was the Xiao Conglomerate.

The display screen showed the procurement locations and progress in sync. At convenient intersections, Qi Yin had Lu Yanxiu build several large, hidden warehouses to temporarily store the purchased supplies.

Of course, she couldn't just leave these hard-won supplies sitting out in the open. Qi Yin smiled; once the progress was sufficient, she would go over and collect the supplies into her space.

Lu Yanxiu, of course, did not know about this part of Qi Yin's plan.

At this moment, at the Xiao Conglomerate, Lu Yanxiu held his head high, his slender figure standing tall.

A simple black shirt neatly outlined his broad shoulders and narrow waist, with the cuffs rolled up to his forearms, revealing a lean wrist.

He simply walked toward an empty seat by the window with a steady gait. The floor seemed to become his runway, yet it did not look deliberate at all. The small red mole behind his ear was particularly eye-catching in the moonlight.

"I heard you used the Xiao Conglomerate to do things for your sister?"

Bearing the pressure, Lu Yanxiu spoke slowly: "Yes, Boss."

The man smiled, his cold, thin lips parting slightly: "You admit it quite readily. Tell me, what do you think?"

Lu Yanxiu breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that the other party did not intend to hold him accountable for abusing his authority.

"Based on my understanding of Yin Yin, the information is reliable. The Apocalypse is horrifying, and perhaps we should make preparations early."

Lu Yanxiu did not know if this decision was correct, but a voice in the bottom of his heart kept telling him that Qi Yin was right.

However, the other party nodded. Regarding the outrageous claim about the Apocalypse, he did not seem to question its authenticity. On the contrary, there was a hint of agreement, which left Lu Yanxiu unable to gauge his attitude.

"Boss, what do you mean?"

"Whatever your sister wants, prepare five times as much. Also, doesn't the old man want the Xiao Conglomerate? Give it to him!"

Lu Yanxiu: ...

Was he really being this capricious? Such a big piece of fat, and he just gives it up like that? But since the boss had spoken, there was no reason not to do it.

"The efficiency of a big conglomerate is fast indeed!"

Qi Yin operated the computer. The screen was covered with a global map, and countless light points were lighting up with unprecedented speed. Each light point represented a supply collection team, which was now crazily converging through an invisible giant net.

The scene on the screen was incredibly shocking. Seeing this progress, Qi Yin was extremely excited.

If it were just her alone, she could only go to supermarkets or wholesale markets to place scattered orders, which would easily cause unnecessary trouble.

But it was different when Lu Yanxiu took action. The Xiao Conglomerate directly used the immense influence of its agricultural commodities futures market, united with several major global grain merchants to reach an agreement. Tens of millions of tons of high-quality rice, wheat, corn, and so on were transported directly to secret warehouses through the logistics network controlled by the Xiao Conglomerate, reaching the limit in terms of efficiency and scale.

At this speed, the 50 million tons of rice, flour, grain, and oil she wanted would definitely arrive within five days.

As for the rest, she would go to the offline wholesale markets in Kyoto to hoard another batch, and buy some seeds and the like while she was at it.

Although the blood rain at the beginning of the Apocalypse did not cause all water sources to be contaminated, the subsequent torrential rains ruined all clean water sources, including groundwater.

Therefore, hoarding a large amount of pure water sources was a must.

This time, the Xiao Conglomerate even invested in a company in the Southern Hemisphere that owned a huge underground freshwater lake. After simple purification at the company, the fresh water was loaded into specially made giant PVC flexible water bags, with each bag capable of storing thousands of tons of freshwater resources.

Due to the long distance, these water sources were shipped directly to a hidden coastline in the country after purchase, so Qi Yin wouldn't have to go abroad to collect them into her space.

In the Apocalypse, energy sources like fuel were essential. Without energy, no matter how many supplies she had, they would just be dead objects.

And the Xiao Conglomerate directly allocated 100,000 tons of fuel from supertankers on the high seas, injecting it into their specially modified transport ships for temporary storage.

At the same time, various models of solar generators, power panels, diesel generators, and other equipment were also gradually moving toward the warehouses.

Furthermore, the terrifying nature of the Xiao Conglomerate was most strikingly reflected in terms of medicine and medical care; the regulatory requirements for these items were effectively nonexistent here.

In addition to basic antibiotics, anti-inflammatory drugs, and the like, within less than twenty-four hours, Qi Yin received feedback that the top laboratory equipment and samples related to sensitive viruses she wanted had been secured.

The trouble was that due to the sensitive nature of these items, they would be targeted by certain special departments no matter where they were stored, so they had to find a suitable storage location within two days.

This was nothing to worry about, though; her space was the best choice.

On the screen, the progress of hoarding supplies accelerated bit by bit, and the 2 billion that Qi Yin had allocated to Lu Yanxiu was slowly bottoming out.

This did not even include cases where only a partial deposit had been paid for some supplies.

However, Qi Yin was not worried at all. After all, the Apocalypse was coming, and by then, the sellers would have to be alive to collect the remaining payments.

However, Qi Yin discovered an important point.

There didn't seem to be any progress on the weapons on the supply list!