Chapter 29
Time for this little hamster to head home!
Having comforted Mu Feiyi, the little hamster behaved like a heartless scoundrel. Waving his paws in a breezy farewell, he turned on his heels and trotted away without looking back.
Reluctant to let him go, Mu Feiyi watched the cheeky creature leap from his palm and scurry across the floor—pat-pat-pat—straight to Yu Tianwei’s side.
With a light bat of his paws against her ankle, Yu Tianwei leaned down and scooped him into her hands.
She lifted the furball to her lips, gently blew into his dense fur to fluff it up, and patted his plush back, deliberately shooting Mu Feiyi a triumphant, provocative smirk. Settling the hamster onto her shoulder, she wore the expression of a victor claiming her prize.
She hadn’t truly been angry earlier, nor had she bothered to call the hamster back when he dashed across the room. Mu Feiyi understood why: she knew the little fellow would choose her in the end. He had only run over to offer a bit of comfort before returning to his real family.
Seeing the smug satisfaction in her eyes, Mu Feiyi clenched his fists in pure frustration. “Yu Tianwei!”
Qian Shan and his friends immediately pinned him by the shoulders, one on each side. “Calm down, man, calm down! The hamster belonged to the Yu family in the first place. You’re the one who snatched him.”
“You can’t just take the kid out without the mother’s permission,” Young Master Shao added, barely suppressing a chuckle. “Pfft.”
“He’s my younger brother~”
Yu Tianwei couldn’t care less what the onlookers thought. Leaning her cheek against her shoulder, she planted a firm kiss right on the hamster’s head. “Let’s go home, sweetie. Next time that thief comes near our house, we’ll teach him a proper lesson!”
Flashing an unapologetic middle finger over her shoulder, she spun around and strode out the door.
Meanwhile, the little hamster was frantically washing his face. “Squeak, squeak, squeak!”
Why did you kiss me?! A kiss is one thing, but how could you kiss me with red lipstick on?! Half my coat is snow-white! You’ve left a bright pink smudge on my fur! Ahhh, it won’t come off!
Furious, he reached up, grabbed a few loose strands of his sister’s hair, and gave them a sharp, practiced yank.
“Ow, ow, ow!” Tianwei winced in pain, hurrying toward the elevator while trying to soothe the agitated furball. “Let go, let go! Sister will wipe you clean the second we get into the car. Have mercy, my little ancestor!
“I swear, that fat calico cat downstairs was missing several whiskers the other day—you definitely pulled them out, didn’t you? You’re way too skilled at pulling hair!”
“Squeak, squeak, squeak!” None of your business! That fat bully started it! Instead of defending your little brother, you’re standing there laughing at me! Hmph!
The little hamster crossed his front paws over his chest, perching indignantly on her shoulder like a miniature general.
“Squeak, squeak!” Just you wait—I’m telling Uncle that you bullied me!
“Sigh.” Settling into the driver’s seat of her car, Tianwei looked at the puffed-up creature on her shoulder with fond exasperation. “Look at you, an angry little puffball.”
“Hmph!” The hamster turned his head away, refusing to acknowledge her.
“Why on earth did you run off with Mu Feiyi, huh?” Tianwei lifted him gently and set him into the center console’s cup holder. It was deep enough that he wouldn’t tumble out during turns, yet snug enough to make a perfect little seat.
“Well… he asked if I wanted to go on an adventure, and then he just scooped me up and put me in his pocket,” the little hamster mumbled, nervously licking his moist pink nose.
Oh dear… Mu Feiyi was a scoundrel for shifting the blame, but truth be told, the little hamster wasn’t entirely innocent either. He was simply taking advantage of the fact that Mu Feiyi didn’t know he was actually a human—and certainly had no idea he could speak!
“Is that so?” Starting the engine, Tianwei steered out of the parking garage with a cool, dry chuckle. “Aren’t you just the most obedient little pet? He grabbed you, and you just let him carry you off without a fight?
“Whenever your sister tries to cuddle you, you squirm like an eel and sprint across the room! I can barely lay a finger on you!”
The little hamster shifted awkwardly, struggling to find a way to appease her wrath. “I… I just sensed he was miserable,” he mumbled, rubbing his cheeks. “I felt bad for him.”
“And what about back in the lounge?” Tianwei glanced down at the cup holder at a red light. “You deliberately jumped down from my shoulder just to comfort him again?”
“Squeak, squeak…” Well… yes, that really was why.
Tianwei reached over and flicked his tiny ear. “I had no idea my little brother had such a soft, charitable heart.”
Cupping his ears with both paws, the hamster cast an aggrieved look upward before plopping down onto his belly. Curled tightly into the round hollow of the console, he looked remarkably like a plump, fallen dumpling made of sweet glutinous rice. Tianwei decided that once they arrived home, she would use a pair of chopsticks to pluck the little dumpling out.
“And another thing,” she continued, her tone turning dangerously sweet. “When I first kicked the door open… what exactly were you doing?”
“Sleep… sleeping.” The words caught in his throat as realization dawned on him.
His thin, velvety ears flushed hot pink beneath the fur. Swallowing hard, he turned his head away, staring intently at the leather upholstery and refusing to meet her gaze.
“Hah!” Tianwei’s voice rose with sharp amusement. “You were burrowed straight under his shirt, weren’t you?!”
Guilty as charged. But he would never dare admit that out loud.
Clamping both paws over his ears, he curled into a tight, seamless ball at the bottom of the cup holder, doing his best impression of a dessert pastry dusted with toasted soybean flour.
“Yu Xiaoyuan!”
The more he shrank, the more certain she was that her instincts were spot on.
“Squeak, squeak, squeak!” I can’t hear you!
“You little traitor! Always siding with an outsider!” She smacked the steering wheel in mock outrage.
“Squeak, squeak, squeak!” I am not!
“Yes, you are!”
“Squeak, squeak!” Am not!
“You definitely are!”
“Squeak, squeak, squeak!!” I said I am not!!
“If you have the courage to deny it, speak like a human! Argue with your sister properly!” Stopping at another red light, Tianwei leaned over and gave the bouncing, protesting puffball another gentle poke.
The little hamster held his head, feeling indignant, terrified, and thoroughly guilty all at once. Lacking the moral high ground to defend himself, he simply spun around and tucked his nose beneath his tail.
“Go on, speak up!” she teased as the light turned green. “Lost your tongue, did you?”
“Squeak…”
He muttered under his breath, utterly defeated. What could he possibly say? His sister wasn’t wrong.
Licking his paws, he began vigorously washing his face from whiskers to crown, determinedly ignoring every word she threw at him. He scrubbed his cheeks over and over until the car finally rolled into the villa’s private garage.
“Squeak?” We’re home?
“Mm-hmm.” Tianwei reached into her designer bag, retrieved a pair of clean wooden chopsticks, and snapped them apart with a flourish. “Hold still.”
little hamster: “…”
He had never felt so insulted in his entire spiritual existence.
Scrambling out of the cup holder under his own power, he swatted the wooden tips aside with an offended paw. “I’m not speaking to you anymore.”
“Pfft!” Tianwei burst out laughing. “Look at you, giving your sister the cold shoulder!”
Watching the little creature hop down onto the garage floor, she locked the vehicle and strolled casually behind him as he waddled toward the main door. Pulling out her smartphone, she recorded a brief video of the hamster’s swaying behind and sent it directly to Mu Feiyi.
The message was clear: look who came home with me.
Stepping into the front foyer, Yu Xiaoyuan was greeted by a towering stack of insulated shipping cartons dominating the living room.
“Inside are fifty catties of prime beef shank, fifty catties of pork, and an assortment of wild ocean fish and prawns,” Tianwei said, shifting back into pragmatic business mode. “Clear these out quickly; another delivery is arriving shortly.
“I split the orders across multiple addresses to avoid raising red flags. I had seventy catties of beef and fifty catties of pork sent to your old apartment, while our commercial warehouse is receiving two hundred catties of beef, five hundred catties of pork, and three hundred catties of fresh prawns. Processing and butchering large livestock like cattle and pigs is far harder than plucking a chicken, so buying prepared cuts in bulk is essential.”
It was a sensible decision. In their household of three, her father kept in decent shape, but he had spent decades living a comfortable executive life. Could he honestly slaughter a live hog or butcher an ox? And as for Yu Xiaoyuan—it would be a miracle if he wasn’t trampled by the livestock in the first place. Stashing live animals in the jade realm was a great long-term reserve, but ready-to-cook meat was what they would need on a daily basis.
“I reached out to the equestrian breeding facility,” Yu Yuanzhou said, descending the central staircase with a folder in hand. “They’re prepping two Akhal-Teke horses, two Suffolk Punch draft horses, two Mongolian ponies, and a pair of sturdy domestic breeds. All young, matched breeding pairs, thoroughly broken and trained.”
Light breeds provided agile personal transport, while heavy draft horses offered immense pulling power and endurance for hauling cargo. If the world ran short on fuel and vehicles broke down, horses would become humanity’s most dependable lifeline.
“Mm-hmm!” The hamster nodded vigorously. That was a blind spot he hadn’t considered. “Do we need any other working animals?”
“Domestic water buffalo and standard yellow oxen,” Yu Yuanzhou noted from a long-term strategic perspective. “For rebuilding agrarian communities down the road, preserving hardy native cattle is vital. You mentioned that wildlife will mutate and turn feral, which will wipe out natural ecosystems.
“Domesticated livestock have zero survival skills in the wild, so the opening catastrophes will wipe them out almost entirely. Whether mutated animals can ever be tamed by ordinary humans remains an open question, so keeping pure breeding stock safe in your dimension is our best safeguard.”
“Oh!” The little hamster blinked, absorbing his uncle’s foresight with wide eyes.
Meanwhile, Tianwei began slicing open the heavy thermal tape. Every time a cooler lid was lifted, the hamster scurried over, opened his jaws wide, and swept the frozen meat into his cheek pouches.
The fifty catties delivered directly to the villa went straight into his personal, time-frozen cheek pouches for immediate family consumption. The larger wholesale shipments waiting at the warehouse, however, would be transferred into the vast storage chambers of the Kuntian Jade, utilizing its dedicated spatial vaults to keep the family’s secret fortress abundantly supplied.
The storage realm inside the Kuntian Jade possessed a unique attribute: it completely disregarded physical gravity and compressive force. A ton of solid steel rebar could be stacked directly on top of a bale of cotton without crushing a single fiber beneath it.
Once placed inside, temporal flow ceased entirely; perishables would never spoil, rot, or lose their fresh aroma. Its only real limitation was volume—the inert storage zone was substantially smaller than the living agricultural expanse.
To master and expand the realm, Yu Xiaoyuan needed to advance its core tier. With each breakthrough, he would be able to reallocate the spatial ratio between the active cultivation plots and the static storage vaults to suit his exact needs.
Licking his whiskers, the little hamster looked up. “So… what should the little hamster do right now?”
Yu Yuanzhou pondered for a few seconds. “We do our best with what we have. We do whatever is within our reach, without forcing the impossible.”
Having received advance warning, their primary pursuit was simply to act with a clear conscience.
“My dad means we should track down a few pairs of water buffalo and native yellow cattle to settle inside over the next couple of days. We won’t obsess over the rest; we’ll leave it in the hands of fate.” Yu Tianwei shot her father a warning glance, subtly hinting that he shouldn’t burden her brother with so much existential weight.
“Oh, got it! Uncle finds them, and the little hamster stashes them away in the Kuntian Jade. The realm is massive—it can hold plenty of cows!” His delightfully simple, smooth mind didn’t bother untangling the philosophical undertones.
As long as he understood his sister’s practical summary, everything was fine. Wasn’t it just a matter of collecting a few more head of livestock? What was there to worry about?
Yu Yuanzhou paused, then gestured for Yu Xiaoyuan to come closer. “Sit down for a moment, Little Yuan. We need to discuss some serious matters.”
Opening a leather-bound portfolio, he spread several dossiers across the table. “On the day of the outbreak, I will mandate a paid company-wide holiday. If our employees are resting at home with their families rather than crowded into an office tower, their odds of surviving the initial wave will be substantially higher.
“As for our household, the three of us will relocate here.” Yu Yuanzhou pointed a finger toward Mount Qingyan on the suburban map, his steady gaze resting quietly on his nephew.
The little hamster trotted over, resting his front paws on the blueprint. His obsidian eyes lit up instantly, and he nodded with complete conviction. “Yes! That’s the place! We should go there!”
Yu Yuanzhou had pieced the location together from the scattered clues Yu Xiaoyuan had let slip earlier: in the previous timeline, the boy and his classmates had set out on a weekend hiking excursion outside the metropolitan core, inadvertently sparing them from the opening week of cataclysms. That isolated mountain ridge sat at a high elevation, far from urban congestion, making it incomparably safer than the city center.
“I have already secured a private mountaintop retreat up there,” Yu Yuanzhou continued, his tone turning measured. “Over the past week, I have been weighing whether we should isolate ourselves entirely during the crisis, or assemble a trustworthy team.
“Complete isolation is unrealistic in the long run. As you described, once the opening Seven Disasters pass, civilization will reorganize into fortified settlements. We will inevitably have to interact with other survivors, and to protect ourselves in that environment, personal strength and manpower are indispensable.
“That brings us to these candidates.” Yu Yuanzhou tapped the profiles. “They belong to an elite private security firm that has handled our corporate contracts for years. I personally vetted each man based on moral character, discipline, and operational reliability. Crucially, none of these men have elderly parents, spouses, or dependent children tying them down.”
Those with immediate families naturally needed to be at home guarding their loved ones. If hired hands were bound to a post during a global collapse, their loyalty would instantly fracture; they would abandon their duties to search for their families, potentially taking vehicles and arms with them. Yu Yuanzhou was far too sharp to let his hard-earned preparations fall into someone else’s hands.
Conversely, having an unattached professional operative present during the initial chaos provided a stabilizing pillar of defense.
“Of course,” Yu Yuanzhou added quietly, “if any of them fall within the unfortunate ninety percent, that is simply an unavoidable roll of the dice.
“Before the zero hour, I will send them to an auxiliary lodge in the foothills under the guise of an executive retreat, pre-stocking the facility with three months of survival rations. Positioned well outside the metropolitan basin, their immediate risk level drops dramatically.
“This gives them time to adapt to the new reality without cross-contaminating our location. If anyone harbors treacherous intentions, the initial societal collapse will weed them out naturally.”
He folded his hands over the desk. “In the opening days of a cataclysm, human panic is unpredictable. I have no intention of contacting them immediately, and your spatial secret must remain completely hidden from outsiders. Once the Seven Disasters conclude—after three to four weeks have passed—we will initiate contact.”
By that stage, the brutal environment would have filtered out the unstable elements. Those who survived with their moral compass intact would form a far more cohesive unit. Backed by abundant food stores, Yu Xiaoyuan’s logistical storage, and a disciplined tactical squad, they would possess the resilience to survive anywhere.
“At that point, we can evaluate whether to establish an independent base or negotiate entry into a regional stronghold.”
Ideally, Yu Yuanzhou preferred absolute autonomy, yet leading a massive sanctuary brought crushing administrative liability. That burden would inevitably bleed over onto his children—a reality he flatly refused to accept. Trading his family’s safety for the illusion of sovereign authority was a fool’s bargain.
If a community was to thrive, its leadership had to fight on the front lines. Yu Yuanzhou was not an ideological martyr; any power he pursued was strictly aimed at keeping his children alive and comfortable.
Throughout history, those who clawed their way to early prominence amid warlord eras rarely survived to see the foundation of a new dynasty. Fiction and historical record told the exact same story. Yu Yuanzhou was long past the age of youthful ambition; his sole priority was the survival of his daughter and nephew.
In a lawless wasteland, keeping a low profile was the true path to longevity. Maintaining reliable hands, securing food supplies, and building wealth in quiet obscurity was the golden rule of survival.
Reaching across the desk, he stroked the hamster’s velvety crown. The creature’s dazed, round-eyed expression brought a faint smile to his lips. Mu Feiyi had remarked earlier that the boy was hopelessly naive, which had annoyed Yu Yuanzhou to no end. Yet looking at the little furball right now… the boy really did look adorably simple.
A completely unwrinkled mind, the uncle thought, torn between amusement and exasperation.
Gently pinching the chubby cheeks, he murmured, “You really are a little blockhead, aren’t you?”
The little hamster licked his moist nose, his heart swelling with warmth beneath his uncle’s doting gaze. He adored the gentle, unreserved affection of this family. Letting out a soft, contented chirp, he pressed his tiny pink paws against the older man’s knuckles.
Blinking, his eyes caught the glowing digital readout hovering in his vision: 4 days, 22 hours, 14 minutes, 35 seconds.
The timer had appeared out of nowhere this morning, yet neither his uncle nor his sister seemed capable of seeing it. Could he share the perception with them?
He pressed his front paw firmly against his uncle’s skin.
“Hmm?” Yu Yuanzhou blinked in surprise.
“Can Uncle not see it?” the little hamster squeaked softly.
In truth, he had sensed that while his family was cooperating with his hoarding plans, they lacked a genuine, visceral sense of impending doom. They were doing their best, yet as civilized people living in peacetime, an instinctual thread of denial still lingered in their hearts.
Even so, their support had been remarkable. Operating within their existing reality, they had mobilized staggering amounts of wealth, sourcing emergency rations, off-grid generators, fuel reserves, and heavy tactical hardware. Today, his uncle had even planned out post-apocalyptic manpower and genetic preservation for working livestock!
Still, as the leader of a multi-billion-dollar enterprise, Yu Yuanzhou was naturally hedging his bets. He was preparing for the worst using his surplus resources while maintaining business as usual, operating under the prudent assumption that society might continue unbroken.
Tianwei was no different. She hadn’t thrown herself into the hoarding process immediately, only stepping in over the last couple of days. Yet once committed, her efficiency was staggering. The ready-to-eat meals she had commissioned from private catering firms could easily feed their household three meals a day for an entire year, while her ice cream reserves would last at least three summers.
“Sister, let’s pause on the boxed lunch sets,” the little hamster squeaked, looking over at the kitchen counter. “Can we order charcoal-grilled meat skewers and crispy street snacks instead?”
Tianwei glanced at the plump furball, her fingers giving his soft tummy an affectionate pinch. “Hah.”
The implication was crystal clear: You’re already shaped like a baseball, and you’re still demanding fried street food?
“The stray calico cat downstairs has been looking for you, little hamster,” she added dryly.
What she kept to herself was the practical reason behind her mountain of takeout orders: this silly furball had entirely overlooked the fact that not a single member of their household possessed baseline culinary skills!
Who was supposed to cook raw wholesale ingredients during an apocalypse? Her? Her corporate executive father? Or this round little rascal who spent his mornings burrowing into Mu Feiyi’s shirtfront?
“Squeak, squeak, squeak!”
The little hamster waved his paws in passionate protest. He couldn’t read her mind, but his spiritual instincts told him she was silently slandering his dignity!
Scrambling out of his uncle’s palm, the hamster hopped onto the counter and placed a tiny paw directly over his sister’s wrist. Looking up with wide, expectant eyes, he asked, “Can Sister see it now?”
Tianwei gasped, the color draining from her face in an instant. “What on earth is that?!”
She spun toward her father, whose expression darkened as the glowing digits resolved before his eyes.
“Is that… the apocalypse countdown?”
“Mm-hmm!” The little hamster hopped across the opened styrofoam coolers, systematically vacuuming up slabs of vacuum-sealed meat. “It materialized above my head this morning.”
Letting them witness the countdown was essential. It would replace lingering complacency with a sharp, productive urgency. With the end of the world barely four days away, acute vigilance was far better than false security.
Yu Yuanzhou stared at the ticking numbers, a critical, unresolved question rising in his mind.
“Little Yuan… how can you guarantee that your sister and I will be among the ten percent who survive the change?”
The initial airborne pathogen carried a ninety-percent infection rate! If he and Tianwei turned into mindless ghouls within the opening seconds of the cataclysm, what would become of Yu Xiaoyuan?
Perched on the edge of an insulated cooler, the hamster froze. “Squeak?”
He tilted his head, his wide eyes turning completely blank. His tiny mind hadn’t even begun to process that horrifying possibility.
“Don’t play dumb, Yu Xiaoyuan,” Tianwei said, dropping cross-legged onto the kitchen floorboards, her face grim as she gently poked his belly. “According to your past memories, our family was scattered when the outbreak hit. Right up until the very end, you never crossed paths with us again, did you?
“So tell me: what happens if Uncle and I end up among the ninety percent and turn into monsters right in front of you?
“Can you truly survive this damned world completely alone?”
