Chapter 1 – Sui City

Chapter 1 - Sui City

"Chapter 1: Sui City – Preparing for the Future"

"The Beginning – Stocking Up"

As the dull rumble of thunder rolled in from beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows, Shu Fu was standing in front of the tall shelves, picking out hot pot base ingredients of various flavors.

The loud rumbling sound drew the attention of others in the supermarket. Someone looked out the window and complained, "It was thundering yesterday, and it's thundering again today. It's just thundering without any rain. The weather forecast said it would rain today. When is it going to rain?"

"Exactly, this awful weather. It's already October, and we've had half a month of high temperatures. It's been so hot this whole month, and it feels like it's never going to end!"

"You know, with global warming, last winter barely felt like winter at all. If this keeps up, we might not even have winters anymore in China..."

...

On a weekday afternoon, the supermarket was not crowded. Other customers were probably there to enjoy the air conditioning, pushing empty shopping carts through the aisles, their attention focused on chatting. Someone passing by Shu Fu's cart couldn't help but do a double take.

The supermarket's carts were particularly wide, with an additional layer of shelves at the bottom, and Shu Fu's cart was already piled high with various items, arranged with considerable skill. Especially in the basket, the items were stacked high without falling over.

They didn’t want to gossip in front of her, so they lowered their voice once they were around the corner. "Wow, that young girl is buying so many things..."

"Wearing long sleeves on such a hot day and a mask too, is there something wrong with her?"

"Shh, mind your own business. Let's go, let's find another place to enjoy the air conditioning and I'll treat you to afternoon tea..."

Shu Fu ignored them and carefully added the 20 bags of hot pot base to the already towering pile in her cart.

In the shopping cart, there were five rolls each of toilet paper and boxed tissues, three boxes of 24 packs of instant noodles, over a dozen bags of various sausages, three boxes of canned luncheon meat, several bags of meal replacement energy bars, two sets of 50 fresh eggs, various fresh and yogurt milk, four cans of milk powder...

This was already her third cart of goods in this supermarket. Previously purchased fruits, vegetables, and various fresh and frozen meats had been checked out and placed in the trunk of the hatchback she rented.

While it wasn’t as cheap as buying from a farmers' market or wholesale, this supermarket was still reasonably priced. The items weren't too expensive, and most importantly, it was very close to the neighborhood where she rented her apartment, only one or two kilometers away in a straight line, making it convenient for her to quickly transport her purchases back home.

She pushed the cart to the checkout, passing by the snack shelves on the way, and grabbed many more beef jerky, pork floss, duck tongues, cookies, multigrain crackers, spicy strips, nuts, seaweed rice seasoning, chocolates, small bread and cakes, candies, and other snacks, piling them on top until there was no more space.

**

The neighborhood was an old one, directly behind the supermarket. To reach it, you had to turn off the main road into a narrow, two-lane street.

The street was lined with all kinds of small and large shops: breakfast stalls, hardware stores, water stations, noodle shops, convenience stores, barbecue joints, fast-food restaurants, bubble tea shops, appliance repair shops, phone stores...

The neighborhood’s security was practically nonexistent, with the gate always left open. It was quite large, with twenty to thirty residential buildings of various construction times, completely different in appearance and layout.

Her apartment building, located near the perimeter wall, was a long, open structure with no entry doors, just two staircases—one on the far right, an external safety staircase, and another in the center, an internal stairwell.

Her apartment was on the top floor—the fifth floor, on the left side facing east. If she had to haul all this stuff up five flights of stairs, she’d be wiped out.

Fortunately, her destination was just the electric bike storage room at the bottom of the building.

The storage room was small, only seven or eight square meters, with a height of about two meters. It had no windows and couldn't be lived in, used only to park residents' electric bikes, bicycles, delivery boxes, and such. Because she had signed a two-year lease at once, the landlord, seeing that she was a young girl living alone, had given her the key to the storage room along with her rental.

She backed the car up to the door of the electric bike storage room, got out, opened the door, and quickly transferred the large shopping bags into the storage room.

She rarely exercised and preferred to sit or lie down whenever possible. After this rapid transfer of a cart full of supplies, she was hot, tired, and panting, drenched in sweat, her back almost unable to straighten.

But Shu Fu didn't stop to rest. She locked the door of the small storage room, got back in the car, and this time headed to a nearby grain shop. She didn’t consume much rice, flour, and oil in her daily life, but these were staples, taking up little space and filling the stomach with just a little.

The grain shop had not only rice, flour, and oil but also various coarse grains and seasonings, with a very comprehensive variety.

To create more trunk space, she had already folded down the back seats of her hatchback. Now, the trunk, connected to the back seat space, was very large. She listed what she wanted to buy and had the staff help her load it into the car.

As she rattled off the list, the store clerk gave her a few more glances, but she was bundled up so tightly that not much was visible. These days, you see all kinds of people, and when it came to business, gossip took a back seat.

She took 20 bags of 20-kilogram rice, 5 bags of 20-kilogram flour, and various small bags or bottle-packed grains such as noodles, millet, oats, black rice, and barley. Each of these weighed about 1 to 2 kilograms, and she took 5 to 10 of each.

Cooking oil was also a necessity, and she grabbed 15 bottles of 4 liters each.

For seasonings like salt, chicken essence, sugar, soy sauce, pepper, and chili powder, she had the clerk pack three large cardboard boxes of them. Her cooking skills were just average, but without oil and seasonings, the taste of boiled vegetables would be unbearable, so she had to buy them all.

While the clerk was helping her load the items into the car, she didn’t sit idle. She continued to use her phone to place more orders at several large supermarkets nearby, making purchases through multiple channels and not wasting a single moment.

She didn’t even opt for same-day or half-day delivery. She went straight for immediate delivery options.

The delivery orders could be sent straight to her door, suitable for purchasing boxed items that didn’t require much selection, such as bottled water, beverages, boxed milk, coffee, underwear, towels, toothpaste, toothbrushes, shampoo, body wash, laundry detergent, alcohol disinfectant, and paper towels—basically, daily necessities for living and cleaning. And, of course, the most essential item for a young woman—sanitary pads.

When she ordered bottled water at the supermarket, she quickly realized that the delivery fee for overweight items was too expensive. Remembering that there was a water station on this street, she canceled the water purchase from the supermarket and used the weight allowance for other beverages and milk instead.

After the grain store finished loading the car, she paid via her phone and, on the way back to the residential area, stopped by the water station.

Since she was nearby and had placed a large order, the store was willing to deliver for free. Shu Fu left the address of the electric bike storage room. The store had a vehicle to help deliver to the door, but there was no way they would carry the items up the stairs for her.

For convenience, she chose the smaller 5L bottles over the larger 19L ones. The smaller bottles came in a box of four, making them easier to stack.

Compared to other supplies, clean drinking water was the most important. She didn’t try to save money and, estimating the size of the electric bike storage room, asked for 30 boxes of water. Each box contained 4 bottles. If she rationed one bottle per week and used the water sparingly, 30 boxes would last her a long time.

Of course, one bottle per week would be tight, but in an emergency, it would be enough.

Although she was ordering a large quantity of water, the destination wasn’t just for residential customers. The old neighborhood had a good location, and many small companies, live-streaming operations, and food delivery services rented places there.

So, the store didn’t ask too many questions and just assumed she was an errand girl for some company.

The water delivery would take more than an hour to prepare and load. While waiting, she went to the pharmacy across the street.

There were two pharmacies nearby. Except for restricted antibiotics like Amoxicillin and Cephalexin, she bought as much as she could of everything else.

For cold and fever medications, anti-inflammatory drugs, and gastrointestinal medicines for treating diarrhea, she bought 8 to 10 boxes of each. Even if she didn’t need that much, they would be useful in the future.

In addition, she bought many vitamin supplements, such as Vitamin B, Magnesium Calcium tablets, Vitamin A, Vitamin E, and effervescent Vitamin C tablets for drinking. These could help maintain health and would be particularly useful if certain foods became scarce.

The pharmacy also sold outdoor first aid kits, which contained more items than the small first aid kit she had at home—various basic medicines, bandages, tourniquets, alcohol wipes, heat packs, whistles, scissors, self-powered flashlights, safety hammers, multi-function knives, first aid manuals, and more.

The kit contained over 130 components across 39 categories. Although the kits were small, they were fully functional and reasonably priced at just over 100 yuan each. She bought five.

Finally, she saw water purification tablets. Even if she wasn’t comfortable drinking it directly, the tablets could be used to purify water for other purposes.

A bottle of 120 tablets cost just over 20 yuan, and a box of 100 bottles could be purchased at a discount.

She checked her account balance and bought two boxes from two different pharmacies, spending 4000 yuan in total. Along with the water purification tablets, the medicines took up little space, though she had to pile the remaining items on the passenger seat and in the front of the car.

When Shu Fu returned to the electric bike storage room with a car full of supplies, a dull thunderclap rolled across the sky above her.

**

The bright sun had disappeared, and the sky had darkened, with clouds gathering. The air seemed even more stifling.

It looked like a storm was brewing.

She glanced at the sky briefly, then continued unloading the car into the storage room.

With the storage room already filled with supplies from her earlier purchases, she thought about the water, drinks, and other supplies that were still on their way. Ignoring her sore back and waist, she reached out to close the door, turned on the light inside, and then rolled up the sleeve of her sun-protective jacket with her left hand.

On her fair wrist, she wore a bracelet about a finger wide.

The bracelet had a matte silver texture and felt warm to the touch. It appeared seamless, without any clasp or decorative patterns, looking quite understated. Though it seemed like an ordinary bangle, it clung to her wrist so snugly that it seemed impossible to remove. She had no idea how it had been put on.

Seeing the bracelet, Shu Fu sighed and touched it with her finger, holding it for two or three seconds while slightly moving her thoughts. Instantly, the surface of the bracelet lit up like a touchscreen, displaying two icons—one shaped like a bottle and the other like a backpack.

She tapped the backpack icon, and the bracelet changed immediately. The matte silver surface split into metallic particles, flowing over her wrist and hand, wrapping around her fingers until it formed a glove.

The process was extremely fast, taking less than two seconds after she tapped the icon.

The glove was made of soft metal, connected to the bracelet, and still had a matte, muted texture, so it didn’t look too conspicuous. Unless someone saw the glove forming from the bracelet, they would think she was just wearing a silver-gray glove.

If not for this scientifically impossible scene, she wouldn’t have spent so much on supplies today.

With a thought, any item she touched with the gloved hand would vanish, and at the same moment, Shu Fu could clearly “see” them appearing in the invisible backpack space of the bracelet.

She called it the bracelet backpack space, but the name wasn’t because the space was categorized like a game inventory that allowed stacking; it was simply because of the backpack-shaped icon that appeared on the bracelet.

In fact, this space was integrated, and she could sense its size—around 150 cubic meters, where time stood still.

It wasn’t very large, but it was enough to store all the supplies she needed.

Storing items required the glove, but retrieving them only needed a thought, and items appeared instantly.

This space bracelet had suddenly appeared on her wrist after her consciousness awakened that morning.

The awakening of consciousness felt sudden and eerie, as if a fog had lifted from her mind, clearing away years of forgotten memories. She realized she wasn’t from this world at all!

She had been in this world for several years but had lost the memories of her original world during the first few years, inheriting the background and memories of the “original body.” She had completely regarded herself as a native here, living a quiet life while studying diligently.

The moment she came to this world was when she started college in this city. The “original body’s” parents had passed away unexpectedly, leaving her a house.

To avoid relatives who were trying to claim her house, she sold it and moved here to start anew.

She had been living in a dormitory, and the money from selling the house was enough for her tuition and living expenses. Now that she had just graduated and found a job, she chose to rent a house instead of buying one with a loan—which was why she had enough money to purchase supplies today.

The “her” in this world was also named Shu Fu. She was certain she hadn’t taken over the “original body” because she still looked like her original self from her home world. It was her own body, after all, and she couldn’t be mistaken about the details, such as the mole on the inside of her elbow or the small scar by her ear.

But the “her” in her memories looked almost identical—of course, due to the age progression and changes in style over the years, their figures and temperaments would differ slightly.

She didn’t know where the “her” from this world had gone. Both worlds had similar developments, and both Shu Fus looked almost the same, except for their vastly different ages and experiences.

As she lay in bed analyzing whether she had entered a parallel world, she noticed a silver matte bracelet on her wrist that hadn’t been there the night before.

Touching the bracelet, she inadvertently unlocked it and touched the icon shaped like a “bottle,” and a somewhat familiar glass bottle appeared in her hand.

The glass bottle was only palm-sized, like a miniature version of an ordinary wine bottle, but it was colorless and transparent. The bottle’s mouth was sealed, and inside there was a deep blue liquid that resembled the ocean.

A small raft floated on the water, with a tiny wooden house with a flat roof sitting atop it.

When she shook the bottle, the blue water moved, but the raft remained steadily floating on the surface, never sinking.

It resembled a decorative drift bottle that could be easily purchased online. When she tried to unscrew the cap, she failed. A line of text appeared on the bottle:

["Unsinkable Drift Island House" has not been activated.]

Seeing this message, she felt like she had been struck by lightning.

“Unsinkable Drift Island House”—that was unmistakably the setting from the animated series she had created.

Good news: she’s a screenwriter, and she just finished outlining the entire plot of the story!

Bad news: it’s an apocalyptic survival adventure animated series…

Author’s Note:

—For new readers—

1. I started writing apocalyptic stories in July 2021 because I couldn’t find any decent apocalyptic novels or TV shows, and there was a real drought of good content in this genre.

2. I decided to write about preparing for the apocalypse because I couldn’t imagine my characters surviving on just cookies, instant noodles, a few bags of salt, and tons of rice. Even in the end times, my girls (or “my characters”) deserve to live comfortably.

3. I write romance because I can’t stand how strong, capable women in other stories suddenly turn into blushing, love-struck fools the moment a guy shows up. My girls are independent, calm, and rational, whether in modern-day stories or apocalyptic settings. Family and friendship always come first. If a man wants to be with them, he has to be 100% loyal—no strings attached—and he doesn’t get to influence or control her in any way.

4. I take my writing seriously and never pad my stories with unnecessary filler or leave them unfinished. All my finished stories prove that.

For more “reading guidelines,” check out the pinned comment.