Su Nian used to think that this man had a cold demeanor.
But now, watching his actions and listening to his words, she realized that "cold" was her biggest misunderstanding of him.
Su Nian lowered her gaze to the ring handed to her.
The ring was silver-white all over, about a centimeter wide, with a simple design and no carving or decoration on it.
When it wasn't glaring, no one would give it a second glance.
Just as the man said, if she wore it, others would only consider it an accessory, without any guard against it.
In peacetime, such things were unnecessary.
But in the end of the world where people preyed on each other, this could be considered an ace.
Su Nian was very tempted.
But the price...
The man said she could give whatever she wanted, but how much was "whatever"?
After some consideration, Su Nian quoted a price, "Fifty thousand."
This was the price the man had mentioned before.
"Deal!"
Upon hearing the man's agreement, without hesitation, Su Nian opened her crossbody bag and took out fifty thousand in cash.
Fifty thousand wasn't a small amount, and holding it in her hand as a thick stack made it very conspicuous.
Seeing the money handed over by Su Nian, Jing Mo was somewhat surprised. "Do you always carry so much cash with you?"
Su Nian nodded naturally. "Of course! Nowadays, no one accepts mobile payments anymore. Everything requires cash."
With the ongoing heatwave, water and power outages, and the suspension of classes and work, coupled with the increasingly intense doomsday rumors online, people became vigilant.
Except for large malls and supermarkets, most places only accepted cash.
Therefore, whenever Su Nian went out, she would carry a large bag to hold cash or items she bought.
Upon hearing Su Nian's explanation, Jing Mo nodded in understanding. He took the money handed over by Su Nian with one hand and handed over the ring with the other.
After the exchange of money and goods, Su Nian didn't linger any longer.
Nodding at the man, Su Nian turned around and left quickly, her figure soon disappearing into the darkness.
Watching Su Nian's hurried departure, Jing Mo touched his own face.
Was he really that scary?
Did she need to avoid him like that?
Su Nian had no idea what Jing Mo was thinking. After leaving, instead of immediately returning home, Su Nian wandered around the neighborhood.
She spent an hour doing so.
During this hour, Su Nian wasn't just aimlessly strolling.
One aspect was to adapt to the outside temperature. Whenever she passed by crowds, Su Nian would stop for a while to listen to what people were saying.
Even though she had stored so many supplies, Su Nian had never thought of isolating herself.
It was still very necessary to inquire about the situation around her and gather information.
However, she didn't hear anything particularly useful, just news about rising prices, someone being hospitalized due to the heat, and so on.
Finding no useful information and making sure no one was following her, Su Nian finally headed towards her apartment building.
When Su Nian returned home, it was already past eleven o'clock.
By this time, the water had already been cut off.
Su Nian went to the bathroom, took out a solid wood bathtub from the space, undressed, and sat in it.
The water temperature in the tub was just right, prepared in advance by Su Nian for such occasions.
After bathing in this water, it could also be used to flush the toilet, so it wasn't considered wasteful.
Su Nian wasn't dirty, just sweaty, and her hair wasn't long either, so it was easy to wash.
Twenty minutes later, Su Nian emerged from the bathroom wearing a camisole and shorts.
Her hair was not dripping wet, but Su Nian didn't care.
The weather was so hot that it would dry soon anyway.
Instead of going straight to the bedroom, Su Nian first took out all the ice from the ice maker and stored it in the space. Then she added water to the ice maker before returning to the bedroom.
Three air conditioner fans had been turned on as soon as Su Nian entered the house. After blowing for so long, the temperature in the bedroom had already dropped significantly.
Su Nian took out her iPad, found an end-of-the-world disaster movie, and started watching it while eating crayfish.
Eating crayfish required ice-cold beer.
Su Nian took out an ice bucket with half ice and half beer from the space. This was how she stored it after freezing.
With a sip of ice-cold beer, the taste of the crayfish was instantly elevated.
On a hot summer day, eating such a late-night snack made life feel worthwhile in an instant.
Su Nian ate and watched, continuing until two hours later when the movie ended, and then she began to tidy up the table.
Tying up the garbage bag tightly, Su Nian stored it directly in the space.
In one corner of the space, there was a logistics box specifically for garbage, which Su Nian had prepared.
When it was inconvenient to go out to throw away the trash, she would first put the garbage in here.
She would then secretly throw it away in the trash can when she went for a walk at night.
After all, there were no surveillance cameras anywhere after 8 o'clock at night, and she didn't have to worry about anything.
Only the street lights in the neighborhood were solar-powered. Otherwise, once it was night, the entire neighborhood would be pitch black.
After turning off the movie, Su Nian found some instructional videos to watch.
The instructional material she watched varied each day, but it was always related to various wilderness survival skills.
Even though she had struggled to survive for ten years in her previous life, Su Nian still believed that learning more skills was never wrong.
After studying for two hours, Su Nian turned off the iPad and took out dumbbells and other fitness equipment to start strength training.
The neighborhood where Su Nian lived had extremely high housing prices.
Not only because the location of the neighborhood was good and the greening was good, but also because the quality of the houses was good, and the sound insulation effect was excellent.
Even if she had a party at home, as long as she closed the door, it wouldn't disturb others.
In order to survive better in the end times, a healthy body and sufficient strength were indispensable.
Even though the living conditions in this life were countless times better than the previous one, Su Nian still trained harder.
Once one became content with the status quo in the end times and stopped striving for improvement, death would be imminent.
Until the sky was bright, the sun rose, and the water returned, Su Nian stopped.
After the sweat on her body subsided slightly, Su Nian took a shower, ate something simple, digested a bit, and then went to bed.
When she woke up, it was already late afternoon.
After opening her phone, Su Nian saw a post on Tieba immediately—"Surprise! I'm Surrounded by Flies!"
The post didn't have much text, and Su Nian finished reading it quickly.
But the pictures, one by one, made Su Nian furrow her brows.
In the pictures, swarms of green-headed flies were dancing in groups.
The dense green-headed flies, even through the screen, gave people shivers, and goosebumps instantly covered her body.