Chapter 17
If he truly wanted to stockpile grain, whole unhulled rice and raw wheat were by far the best choices.
The little hamster could simply dig an underground burrow and build a snug nest. Stored properly in a dry, subterranean cache, raw grains could easily keep for three to five years without spoiling. Better yet, unhulled rice and wheat could double as viable seeds whenever replanting became necessary.
However, an ordinary young man suddenly purchasing such colossal quantities of staple grains would inevitably trigger suspicion. Once word leaked that someone was sitting on mountains of food, ruthless opportunists would set their sights on him the instant civilization fell.
The little hamster certainly had to hoard, but he had to do it with utmost stealth.
Perched well-behaved on his uncle’s broad shoulder, the milk-tea-colored hamster gently tugged the older man’s ear with a pink paw. “Uncle, Uncle…”
“Mm.”
In public, Yu Yuanzhou always maintained a stern, intimidating demeanor. He was known across the corporate world as a formidable, unyielding executive. Yet on their way down to the executive garage, this powerful CEO had a round, clingy, softly squeaking hamster nestled against his neck.
Passing employees took a step forward, paused, and couldn’t help glancing back over their shoulders. Two department heads even bumped straight into each other, clutching their folders while frozen in place, staring in open fascination at CEO Yu and the pampered furball riding his shoulder.
Leaning close, the hamster whispered in his softest voice, “Help me source some high-yield seeds—the resilient, productive kind. I’ll keep them safe in my space, and once the world finds peace again, I can bring them out for everyone. And I can cultivate some in the dimension right away; if survivors run out of food later, we can quietly supply them.”
“Mm.” Stepping into the private elevator, Yu Yuanzhou couldn’t stop the corners of his mouth from curving upward. “Such a kind little heart.”
He lowered his hand to gently stroke the hamster’s soft tummy. “Aside from seeds, what else does your heart desire?” Securing agricultural seeds was child’s play for someone with his connections.
“Nothing yet. The little hamster can’t think of anything else right now.”
The hamster nuzzled his head against his uncle’s jawline, soft and light as down. Sprawling lazily across the wool suit, he let out a tiny, moist yawn. “Ah… the little hamster woke up far too early today.” He was so sleepy his eyelids felt heavy.
“Do you want to head home and sleep?” Yu Yuanzhou opened the vehicle door, gently cupping the creature in his hands and placing him inside. “Or would you rather head back upstairs to my lounge for a nap?”
The hamster shook his round head with absolute resolve. “No! We have less than two weeks left. How much could I possibly hoard if I slack off?”
[little hamster sighing.jpg]
Finding a blind spot away from the dashcam, the boy shifted back into his human form. “Uncle, let’s pick a secluded spot outside the city later on. I can dig an underground vault to stash the bulky gear we can’t fit into my personal pouches—the heavy equipment we won’t need on a daily basis.”
Their current inventory was already staggering: snowmobiles, all-terrain motorcycles, custom-armored Hummers, and expedition RVs—all prepped in sets of three, one dedicated unit for each family member. While redundancy was the cornerstone of survival, the little hamster’s cautious nature had pushed it to the extreme. Ordinary survivors barely managed a single car, yet here they were preparing fleets of three for everything, ensuring absolute fairness!
Add to that an endless supply of spare parts, replacement electric motors, specialized all-weather tires, and the industrial shipping containers of organic fertilizer his uncle had purchased today. It simply took up too much volume.
Burying those supplies deep underground in a reinforced earth shelter made far more sense. Whenever they needed something, the little hamster could slip away, tunnel inside, and retrieve the items as needed.
Admittedly, he commanded his two innate cheek pouches alongside the vast expanse of the Kuntian Jade. But the insatiable hoarder within him never believed he had enough. In fact, he hadn’t even bothered designing a residence inside the jade realm—his grand plan was to wait until the cataclysm erupted, and then sweep their entire suburban villa, complete with the basement and underground garage, directly into his spatial pocket!
That way, the little hamster would have a fully furnished, luxury home to lounge in, even in the depths of an apocalypse! Just imagining it made him giddy with anticipation.
“All right.” Yu Yuanzhou patted the roof of the small cargo truck he had arranged. “Drive carefully on the road.”
“Got it, Uncle!” Yu Xiaoyuan adjusted his grip on the steering wheel. “I’ll scout a suitable hillside tonight, but there’s no rush to bury anything just yet. My spatial dimensions still have plenty of room.”
The young man lifted his chin with unbridled pride. “Everything we’ve gathered over the past few days hasn’t even filled a quarter of my cheek pouches!”
“That huge?” Yu Yuanzhou was genuinely taken aback. “In that case, Uncle will find a way to secure fuel.”
Petroleum products were strictly regulated strategic reserves, impossible to buy in bulk through regular civilian channels. He planned to leverage his industrial logistics subsidiaries to import large shipments of crude oil under corporate manufacturing permits. Once the tankers docked at the deep-water terminal, he would bring the little hamster under the cover of night to siphon the crude away before society collapsed.
“Yes, please! And electric motors, heavy-duty generators!” For power!
Out in the city’s western outskirts, the discount surplus clearinghouse bustled with activity. Private sedans and commercial vans moved in and out of the industrial park. Most visitors were local shoppers looking for bargains, while others, like Yu Xiaoyuan, drove light trucks to source cheap stock for discount storefronts.
Stepping down from the cab into the cavernous concrete depot, Yu Xiaoyuan scanned the chalked price boards and instantly felt that everything he had bought at retail supermarkets had been an absolute waste of money.
“Twenty yuan for a whole carton of imported yogurt?”
He picked up a box to inspect the stamp; it still had a full month before reaching its expiration date. Placed inside his temporal-freeze dimension, expiration dates were completely irrelevant anyway.
Pulling out a notepad, the little hamster began jotting down item codes and pallet counts with feverish speed.
“Ten master cases of original-flavor yogurt; five hundred-gram bags of rolled oats at five yuan each—I need tons of this.” Turning to an approaching warehouse worker, he asked, “How many sealed bags and canister oats do you have on hand?”
Rolled oats were remarkably shelf-stable; even past their printed date, dry grains remained perfectly edible, and heavy-duty foil packaging kept pantry pests out entirely.
“Just what’s stacked here on the pallet—forty-eight bags per carton, three and a half cartons total.” The worker looked at him with raised eyebrows. “You taking the whole lot?”
“Yes, all of it.” Oats were an essential dietary staple. “I’ll take those vacuum-sealed sweet corn cobs beside them, too.”
Buying bulk rice through commercial suppliers risked raising flags, but in a clearance depot like this, the staff couldn’t care less; they practically prayed for customers to empty their pallets. The little hamster was in absolute paradise.
“The sweet corn runs about eighty cents per cob. Do you mind if they’re packed loose in crates instead of display boxes?”
“Loose is fine. Please help me load everything onto the flatbed once I finalize the ticket.”
Yu Xiaoyuan wandered deeper into the aisles, discovering full-fat milk cartons for three yuan fifty and skim milk for two yuan eighty, along with imported milk powder that had barely two weeks left on its commercial shelf life. Each one-pound foil pack ran between ten and twenty yuan.
Sterilized boxed milk sealed in aseptic cartons wouldn’t spoil even months past its recommended date, provided the seal held.
The little hamster planned ahead: if his family couldn’t finish the dairy, they could donate the surplus to reliable survivor bases down the road. When the human population plummeted, decent settlements would desperately need nutrient-dense rations to support nursing mothers and orphaned infants.
He was determined to do his part. A sprawling suburban warehouse like this wouldn’t survive the opening wave of the Seven Catastrophes anyway. Even behind reinforced metal shutters, the sweltering heatwave following the arctic freeze would ruin eighty percent of the perishable stock, and the subsequent torrential floods would submerge whatever remained. It would be an unforgivable waste to let such precious nourishment rot into sludge.
By dusk, Yu Xiaoyuan was humming cheerfully as he steered the loaded truck back toward the villa.
Then, cold reality dawned on him.
“Oh no… I forgot the drinks!”
He licked his lips sheepishly. He had specifically ventured out to buy cheap sodas and juices, but upon seeing how absurdly affordable the oats, vacuum corn, milk, and dairy powders were, he had lost his head entirely! He had purchased so much in one go that the truck bed was packed to the ceiling.
Yu Yuanzhou swung the warehouse gate open, rather impressed by the boy’s practical haul. “How much did you pay per carton for this milk?” he asked, hoisting a box to test its weight.
“Three yuan fifty for full-fat. The floor manager mentioned a fresh shipment of cream cheese, unsalted butter, and whipping cream is coming in tomorrow morning,” the little hamster chirped, scampering up his uncle’s sleeve to peer into the truck bed. “Should… should I hoard some of that too?”
“You certainly should. High calories, dense nutrition. Just remember dairy can only be stored inside your temporal dimension.” Otherwise, it would turn rancid the moment it left the cold chain.
“Mm-hmm!” Balanced on a cardboard carton, the hamster nodded vigorously. “Aside from bulk staples, I want to collect as much concentrated nutrition as possible to help vulnerable survivors later on. When civilization falls, industrial manufacturing will halt, and dairy processing won’t recover for decades.”
A sudden wave of practical dread seized him. “Wait… should I go hoard bolts of woven fabric too?”
“Raw cotton is fine, but finished cloth isn’t a priority right now,” Yu Yuanzhou advised gently, patting the fuzzy little head. “When the disaster strikes, food will instantly become a finite, non-renewable resource, so you must stockpile as much as possible. Clothing, on the other hand, is different. With nine out of ten people falling in the initial outbreak, there will be an enormous surplus of garments. Even if warehouse stock gets dampened by floods, clothes can always be salvaged, washed, boiled, and disinfected. You can stash a few bales of raw cotton for padding, but leave the fabric.”
“Oh, I see.” The little hamster nodded in daze. “Then I’m heading straight back to the clearance depot tomorrow morning!”
Ever since his uncle handed over the keys to the commercial cargo truck, the little hamster had been prowling the city’s wholesale districts like a busy neighborhood rover.
Before long, Senior Qian Mingtian called to let him know that his livestock and nursery saplings were ready for pickup outside the city, and the final payment could be settled on-site.
At dawn, Yu Xiaoyuan made a preliminary run to the clearance depot, sweeping up the fresh arrivals: heavy cream, European butter, blocks of cheese, twenty-five cases of cooking oil—four five-liter jugs per case—three cases of cold-pressed walnut oil, and an uninspected master crate filled with assorted imported seasonings. The crate was still banded shut, so neither he nor the vendor knew the exact contents, but judging by the brand logos, they were high-end culinary spices. The warehouse manager let it go for fifty yuan just to clear the floor.
To top it off, his luck held: he managed to secure half a truckload of vacuum-sealed specialty grains.
Settling the bill, Yu Xiaoyuan drove the loaded truck straight onto the northern expressway toward Senior Qian’s village.
Pulling into a service station halfway along the route, he locked the cab and slipped into the enclosed cargo bed. With practiced precision, he transferred the morning’s entire haul into the vast storage pavilion of the Kuntian Jade.
The greatest virtue of the jade’s storage dimension was that it was entirely immune to gravitational pressure. Crates could be interlocked, stacked, and compressed into towering columns without crushing the bottom layers, maximizing spatial efficiency to an astonishing degree.
Standing at the base of the stacks, the little hamster gazed up at the towering mountains of supplies—crates upon crates of milk powder, blocks of cheese, cooking oils, and spices soaring high above his head.
He rubbed his paws together in pure ecstasy. There was no creature on earth happier than a well-stocked hamster!
“It’s so full… this is wonderful.”
Looking up at the immense vertical space still waiting to be filled, he felt a surge of motivation. The knowledge that he would never lack for food or comfort during the apocalypse—that he could pull out whatever he desired at a whim—was enough to make him swoon with bliss.
The fuel nozzle clicked off outside. Shifting back into his human guise, Yu Xiaoyuan settled behind the wheel of his freshly emptied truck and pulled back onto the open road.
The expressway was wide and clear. Since it was a weekday, traffic was light. Hummed a cheerful tune, he watched the rural scenery roll past—stretches of fertile farmland and endless rows of plastic greenhouses brimming with fresh vegetables tended by hardworking farmers. He made a mental note to see if he could buy a truckload of fresh seasonal produce on his return trip.
Suddenly, a sleek, ultra-luxury sedan flashed past his left window like a dark arrow.
“Huh?”
Did my little hamster eyes deceive me?
Recognizing the plates, Yu Xiaoyuan pressed his foot down on the accelerator, tracking the sedan while leaning on his horn: Beep, beep!
“Chairman, the flatbed truck on our flank is pacing us,” the chauffeur remarked, accelerating smoothly while alerting the personal assistant and the passenger in the rear seat. His eyes flicked to the rearview mirror, wondering if he should notify their security detail. Could this be another desperate attempt by a rival faction to stage an accident?
Mu Feiyi had already been mildly irritated by the blaring horn. Frowning, he looked up from his quarterly review documents.
The moment his gaze pierced the tinted glass, his eyes landed on a youthful, fiercely indignant face glaring at him from the truck’s driver seat while furiously pounding the steering wheel.
Mu Feiyi’s cold scowl vanished, replaced by an involuntary snort of laughter.
“Where did you put that sack of peanuts from the other day? Find it for me.”
Instructing his assistant to retrieve the snack, Mu Feiyi lowered his window an inch, confirming that the young heir of the prestigious Yu family was indeed behind the wheel of a delivery truck.
Holding the hefty three-pound sack of roasted butter peanuts, Mu Feiyi leaned back, casually dangling the prize beside the open frame. “Young Master Yu, switching career paths again?”
Right before the boy’s eyes, he peeled the vacuum seal open, picked out a golden peanut, and popped it into his mouth. “If you ever tire of hauling freight, my door is always open. Perhaps you’d care to work for me as a quality inspector for nut procurement?”
Yu Xiaoyuan had been fuming a second ago, but the moment the words registered, his thoughts took a sharp turn: Does that mean unlimited peanuts, cashews, and roasted pistachios?!
The little hamster’s remarkably smooth, uncomplicated brain filtered out every drop of mockery, locking onto the single vital message: Eat nuts?
Without a second’s hesitation, he shouted back through the wind with absolute conviction:
“I’ll do it! Do I get all-you-can-eat access?!”
