Chapter 35
The little hamster finally managed to pull his delicate ears free from his sister’s reach. Aggrieved, he rubbed the reddened tips with tiny paws, sniffling as he shot his uncle a round-eyed look of quiet accusation.
Yu Yuanzhou felt a twinge of guilt, but the night had already worn thin.
“All right, all right. It’s late—head upstairs and get some sleep,” Yu Yuanzhou muttered, pressing a hand over his chest to calm his racing pulse. “First thing tomorrow, I’m replacing every single window in this house with reinforced bulletproof glass!”
“The apocalypse is practically knocking on the front door; there’s hardly any need to guard against common burglars,” Yu Tianwei remarked dryly. If they were going to waste time and labor refitting windows, it certainly shouldn’t be for a suburban villa they were preparing to abandon.
Yu Yuanzhou sighed, privately acknowledging the logic.
The little hamster, however, saw things quite differently. In fact, he had already devised a grand plan for their current residence.
“I intend to pack this entire villa into my spatial realm,” the hamster squeaked, his front paws fidgeting with the smooth jade talisman resting against his chest. “The Kuntian Jade only has one small pavilion inside, and it’s basically just a study packed with antique cabinets. Half of them are locked tight.”
He figured the seals would only lift once the dimension advanced in tier, or when his cultivation reached a higher stage. Or perhaps his status as a lower-tier spirit beast simply barred him from opening higher-level vaults.
Whatever the reason, that ancient wooden pavilion was far too cramped for comfortable living.
“The little hamster wants to move Master’s house right into the realm,” the hamster added, patting the plush Persian carpet beneath his paws. “This villa is exceptionally nice.”
Yu Yuanzhou blinked, caught off guard. “If we were to take it, we couldn’t do it now. We would have to wait until the collapse actually begins. During the opening chaos, plenty of residents will hole up here, and our community has a high occupancy rate. An entire multi-story mansion vanishing into thin air in broad daylight would incite outright panic. Besides… the foundation of a structure like this runs deep into the bedrock. Can your space swallow concrete pilings?”
The little hamster shook his head. “The realm can only accept self-contained structures severed from the earth, so I’ll just have to gnaw through the foundation whenever we’re ready to pack it up.”
Yu Yuanzhou: “…”
Yu Tianwei: “…”
“I’ve heard of mice burrowing through soil, but I’ve never heard of a hamster chewing through reinforced rebar and commercial-grade concrete,” Tianwei muttered.
This neighborhood was not an ordinary suburban development. The mansions were spaced generously apart, each compound featuring a sprawling private perimeter garden and a multi-level subterranean basement. For instance, the neighbors who had snooped earlier hadn’t just peeked through their curtains; they had literally needed high-powered binoculars to see across the lawns.
If the construction quality hadn’t been fortress-grade, Yu Yuanzhou would never have bought the property in the first place. The villa rose five stories above ground, dipped two stories below, and was crowned by an attic and an insulated glass solarium—not counting the subterranean pilings. Each floor spanned five hundred and sixty square meters; it was the sort of cavernous estate where domestic staff could drift apart simply from the sheer walking distance between rooms.
Yet even with such excessive space, Yu Yuanzhou and Tianwei had chosen to remain anchored here after learning of the countdown. The estate offered absolute privacy to hoard tons of supplies without prying eyes, and thousands of discarded shipping cartons could be quietly hidden in the basement vaults without ever alerting municipal trash collectors. In the past, the top two floors had sat largely vacant, but over the last week, they had been packed to the ceiling with logistical crates.
If the little hamster genuinely intended to swallow the whole building, those parcels would need to be sorted and consolidated immediately.
I’ll have to find time to clear the top floors tomorrow, Tianwei thought. Still, the timing remained an open question. When could they realistically make a move?
Yu Yuanzhou’s brow furrowed into a deep ridge. “Can you truly pull the entire structure inside? Are you certain?”
“Mm-hmm!” The hamster nodded vigorously. “That way, if we run into extreme hazards out in the wild, Uncle and Sister can take shelter inside the Kuntian Jade. I can calibrate the localized temporal flow around the house so that time inside matches the outside world perfectly.”
Yu Yuanzhou saw the determination in those bright, beady eyes and realized the boy had settled on the idea. As a guardian, he had to assess the proposal from a macroscopic, strategic angle.
He had to admit, the temptation was staggering.
Regardless of location, this villa’s structural integrity, seismic resistance, and high-end thermal insulation were state-of-the-art. Being able to stow it away and deploy it at will meant having an impenetrable, fully furnished fortress in their back pocket.
“What if we swapped it for something smaller and more discreet?” Tianwei suggested, looking between her father and the furball. “What about our property on Huai’an Road? It has three stories above ground, one basement level, and a modest footprint of a hundred and twenty square meters. That’s more than enough room for our household of three—even if we bring home a live-in husband down the road.”
Yu Yuanzhou cast a cool, unimpressed glance at his daughter. “Two live-in husbands.”
On this particular point, his stance was unyielding. Anything else was up for negotiation, but not that.
The little hamster awkwardly ducked his head, using his front paws to vigorously wash his face. Washing my face… The little hamster is just an innocent, clean little pet washing his whiskers!
Tianwei rubbed her temples with a groan. “Fine, fine. Moving on. A smaller villa offers far greater tactical mobility. It wouldn’t draw nearly as much attention when deployed, right?”
“A villa is a villa; any private estate will draw eyes in a ruined wasteland,” Yu Yuanzhou countered. “It’s simply a matter of degrees. By that standard, we might as well haul an ordinary single-story apartment flat into the space—that would be truly inconspicuous. A standard three-bedroom flat has everything needed for daily life: bedrooms, a functional kitchen, and plumbing.”
He paused, considering the operational logistics. “Whereas a massive estate like this—or even the smaller Huai’an Road property—demands a colossal amount of electrical energy to maintain. Even if we forgo central climate control, running baseline circulation and appliances will burn through our fuel reserves at an alarming rate. Natural gas lines will be completely dead, forcing every system to rely on converted electrical circuits. The sheer power draw will be punishing.”
Yu Xiaoyuan had secured multiple commercial-grade diesel and gasoline generators, but keeping a five-story mansion powered would bleed their fuel reserves dry.
Still, Yu Yuanzhou was loath to abandon the estate entirely. He had grown fond of the property, and in terms of defensive security, ordinary apartments couldn’t compare.
“We also purchased two luxury motorhomes, didn’t we?” Tianwei pointed out. “If we need mobile shelter, why not rely on the RVs?”
“Mm-hmm, they’re stashed right here,” the hamster squeaked, lightly patting his left cheek. His pouch was comfortably packed, holding a reinforced off-road vehicle and one of the customized RVs, while the remaining heavy rigs were cached inside the jade dimension.
The reinforced truck was built to plow through streets teeming with the infected, whereas the motorhome was ideal for cruising open, paved highways.
Truth be told, although Yu Yuanzhou had arranged for the motorhomes, he had never placed much faith in them as long-term survival assets. Compared to fortified military rigs, civilian RVs were fragile tin cans on wheels. Driving a luxury motorhome through the wasteland would be like waving a freshly frosted cake in front of starving flies.
“Little Yuan, is part of your reason for wanting this villa because multi-story vertical space allows us to store vastly more cargo?” Yu Yuanzhou asked, hitting on the logistical core.
When he had toured the Kuntian Jade, he had observed that aside from the grassy hills, the interior was flat. Bringing a five-story building inside would multiply their usable floor space fivefold, creating an immense vertical warehouse.
“Exactly!” The hamster preened, proud that his uncle had caught on. “Though my current spiritual capacity is only enough to pull the villa inside; deploying it back out in the wild will have to wait.”
He scratched an ear, explaining the dimensional mechanics: “Swallowing a massive structural entity requires a tremendous surge of spiritual energy—er, demonic force. The Kuntian Jade’s current artifact tier balances my innate power, so hauling a structural mass of this scale into the void pushes my baseline to its absolute limit.”
“Yet you never seem winded when you’re vacuuming up food deliveries,” Tianwei noted, recalling the ease with which he swept away tons of cargo.
“Food arrives in loose bushels and individual grains; it isn’t bound as a singular, rigid mass,” the little hamster clarified with solemn precision. “A five-story villa is forged into a single unified whole; the realm registers it as one colossal entity. Moving it requires a massive, sustained dimensional anchor. Grains of rice, on the other hand, are drawn in through rapid-fire displacement. When humans pile supplies into crates or sacks, swallowing them barely consumes any spiritual energy at all.”
“So we pull it inside, but leave it there permanently,” Yu Yuanzhou summarized, having previously assumed the boy intended to drop the mansion onto open ground during wilderness treks.
“Mm-hmm!” The hamster nodded vigorously. “We can turn the upper rooms into clean coops for the chickens and ducks!”
“That’s viable. But have you factored in the power supply, or do you view it strictly as a dry-storage depot?” Yu Yuanzhou pressed. “With a footprint this vast, we could dedicate two suites for our living quarters and convert the rest into climate-controlled storage vaults.”
“We can wait and see,” the hamster replied, flopping onto the sofa cushions with a resigned shrug. “Perhaps humans will develop technology to refine evolution crystals into power cells down the line. If that fails, we’ll simply wire up one floor for living, keep the non-essential appliances disconnected, and use the remaining levels as pure warehouse space.”
Lying flat on his back, the creature exposed his plush, downy stomach to the ceiling. The soft pink flesh rose and fell rhythmically beneath his fur with every breath. Even a hardened, practical businessman like Yu Yuanzhou couldn’t deny that the little fellow’s plush belly was disarmingly precious.
It took immense self-control not to reach over and give it a squeeze.
“That’s sensible,” Yu Yuanzhou murmured. If they adopted that approach, they could theoretically swallow several other abandoned villas within the gated enclave later on, dramatically expanding their vertical storage footprint before heading to the official strongholds.
“However, there is a glaring flaw: if we stay behind to swallow this villa, we will miss our evacuation window on the final day,” Yu Yuanzhou said gravely. “We won’t be able to reach the mountaintop retreat at Mount Qingyan before the disaster strikes.”
The hamster froze, his beady eyes widening. “Wait… we won’t?”
“We would have to wait until every resident in the community evacuates—likely during the brief lull between the torrential rains and the catastrophic flooding—before we can safely dismantle the building. Only then could we attempt the trek to Mount Qingyan. By that time, the mountain villa might already be overrun by displaced refugees.”
Yu Yuanzhou had originally planned to have his security contractors secure the perimeter ahead of time, locking down the mountain stronghold before the zero hour arrived. Navigating suburban highways once the collapse began would be fraught with lethal peril.
“Can’t we just take the villa at Mount Qingyan instead?” Tianwei asked, looking down at the creature with hopeful eyes.
To her surprise, Yu Yuanzhou shot down the suggestion instantly. “Absolutely not. The mountaintop estate must remain an anchored, physical stronghold—both before we enter a safe zone and long after. Its high-altitude terrain makes it an irreplaceable geographical sanctuary.”
He rubbed his temples, weighing the strategic costs. “If we take any structure, it must be this suburban estate. Taking a modest suburban house offers negligible advantage. This is a critical pivot in our operational timeline; let me think on it carefully.”
“All right,” the little hamster squeaked softly, his whiskers drooping as he realized his simple idea had tangled their master plan. “Should we just drop the idea? We could always scout our way back here during future scavenging runs.”
“No. By then, the entire metropolitan basin will be submerged beneath floodwaters,” Yu Yuanzhou said firmly. “Returning to salvage a waterlogged ruin would be utterly pointless. Furthermore, once the waters recede, any surviving faction will immediately recognize this secluded, high-walled community as an ideal regional stronghold.”
If they moved the building, it had to happen during the initial societal fracture, precisely when the suburban enclave was emptying out.
In fact, Yu Yuanzhou’s ambitious mind was already calculating whether they could pull multiple neighboring mansions into the Kuntian Jade’s rolling hills. It would reduce their immediate arable farmland, but modern architectural framing of this caliber would be completely irreplaceable once the world’s industrial grid went dark.
Having structural fortresses stored in reserve would give them immense leverage. Yu Yuanzhou had no intention of keeping Yu Xiaoyuan’s dimensional abilities hidden forever.
Once a stable, formidable regional safe zone emerged, Yu Xiaoyuan—as the world’s premier spatial transcendent—deserved to stand proudly in the light, commanding absolute respect and reverence from every major stronghold across the continent.
As for carrying the weight of the world? At that level of influence, raw prestige was the ultimate shield.
Yu Yuanzhou refused to force his nephew to live like a frightened sewer rat, cowering in the dark under the guise of “protection” while his monumental contributions were erased from history.
And if Mu Feiyi truly built a legendary empire out in the wasteland, Yu Yuanzhou had no intention of letting that young wolf exploit Little Yuan’s abilities to stabilize his sovereign territory for free.
Even having watched Mu Feiyi grow up and trusting his baseline character, Yu Yuanzhou placed zero trust in the cruel, corrupting nature of the apocalypse.
By then, he wanted Yu Xiaoyuan and Mu Feiyi to stand as absolute equals—or for his nephew to hold the upper hand—rather than spending his life tucked quietly in Mu Feiyi’s shadow.
The Yu family had learned that lesson the hard way. Yu Yuanzhou looked down tenderly at the little hamster sprawled flat on the carpet. The fond smile on his lips softened as he reached out, gently rubbing the plump tummy of the yawning creature. “Go to sleep, little one. Your uncle has some serious thinking to do.”
“Squeak, squeak~”
The little hamster could barely keep his eyes open. He rubbed his face with two tiny paws, too exhausted to make the long climb up the stairs. Instead, he waddled toward the plush acrylic habitat his sister had set up on the credenza, patting along on stubby legs.
His chubby behind wiggled from side to side. Bracing one hind paw against the clear acrylic wall, he stood on his tiptoes with the other, reaching up with both front paws to hook his claws over the rim. He grunted with effort, determined to heave his round body over the edge and drop inside.
Watching the creature struggle, Yu Yuanzhou reached down and gently cupped the plump rear, hoisting the fat little hamster over the barrier. He shot an exasperated glare at his daughter, who was watching the show with pure delight. “Next time, put a ramp in for him!”
Tianwei rubbed her nose, unrepentant. She had omitted the ramp entirely on purpose; watching the little hamster huff and puff, sticking his round behind in the air as he scrambled over the edge, was the highlight of her evening.
Hehehe~ Big Sister just likes teasing him.
“Goodnight, little hamster,” she said, picking up the enclosure and carrying it into the adjoining ground-floor room, leaving the door cracked an inch so he wouldn’t feel isolated.
“Squeak, squeak, squeak~”
The little hamster vanished into the fragrant shavings of his miniature wooden house, chirping a polite goodnight.
Yet the moment Tianwei’s footsteps faded down the hall, the hamster poked his head back out. He rubbed his cheeks with both paws, produced his smartphone from his spatial pocket, and propped it against the inner wall of the habitat. Facing the lens, he held up two tiny paws in a cheerful victory sign—click!
He tapped the screen and sent the snapshot straight to Mu Feiyi.
little hamster: Goodnight~ [little hamster V-Sign.jpg]
In the VIP cabin of his private jet, Mu Feiyi had just stepped out of the lavatory, drying his hands with a linen towel.
Seeing the message notification, he rubbed his temples and sank onto the leather lounger with a low chuckle. He had almost texted to ask if the little rascal had an upset stomach. That boutique milk tea had sat horribly heavy in his gut.
Curious, Mu Feiyi picked up the discarded plastic cup from the cup holder and checked the printed label.
Sure enough: Brew Time: 10:30 AM.
He had gulped down iced milk tea that had been sitting at room temperature for nearly twelve hours! No wonder his digestive tract felt like it was staging a small rebellion. Dairy spoiled rapidly in the summer heat, and the heavy layers of brown sugar and roasted peanut butter had masked any sourness before he noticed.
His deduction was entirely logical.
Mu Feiyi: Next time, can we buy it fresh and drink it right away?
little hamster: Hehe~ Did you finish every drop?
Curled in a fluffy pile of cotton bedding, the hamster kicked his little paws in delight as he waited for the reply.
Mu Feiyi: Yes. Finished it.
The little hamster rubbed his cheeks, his heart swelling with pure warmth. He’s so sweet~ He actually drank the whole thing!
He had assumed a stern corporate executive like Mu Feiyi would take a single polite sip and throw the rest away, especially since powerful men rarely had a sweet tooth. But the man had finished it purely out of affection for him!
little hamster: I’ll tell you a secret later! Did you steep the special tea leaves?
Mu Feiyi laughed under his breath, thoroughly charmed by the boy’s playful mystery.
Mu Feiyi: Tomorrow. I’ll brew it when I formally introduce your situation to my partners.
little hamster: [little hamster Blushing.jpg] [little hamster Rolling Over For Belly Rubs.jpg]
Mu Feiyi let out a quiet sigh, glancing at the flight monitor overhead. The jet was already beginning its descent.
Mu Feiyi: Get some proper sleep. You need your rest.
This trip wasn’t a casual vacation with old friends; he had operational goals to achieve. The Mu family board wanted to strangle his independent venture, but they had vastly underestimated his reach.
little hamster: Mm-hmm! The little hamster is going to sleep now~ Goodnight!
Mu Feiyi: Goodnight.
Locking his screen, Mu Feiyi looked out the cabin window at the approaching skyline of City D. For reasons he couldn’t name, the sprawling city lights didn’t look as sharp as they usually did. Instead, the metropolitan grid seemed smothered beneath an eerie, suffocating gloom.
“Is there a heavy fog rolling into City D tonight?” he asked, frowning. If visibility was compromised, air traffic control should have placed them in a holding pattern.
“Not at all. The weather report called for clear skies tonight and all through the coming week,” Qian Shan replied from across the aisle, looking up from his tablet with a teasing grin. “Could it be that the bad milk tea gave you such bad cramps that your vision is going black?”
“Shut up,” Mu Feiyi shot back with a quiet chuckle. Yet as he turned back to the window, the unease in his gut deepened.
Drifting between the high-rises below, he could distinctly see wisps of an unnatural, ink-black mist.
Back in the villa, the little hamster turned off his phone screen and obediently drifted off to sleep.
He missed the faint emergence of that same dark mist coiling into the lower atmosphere outside, but it hardly mattered; he would witness it for himself by sunrise.
The hamster slept deeply and peacefully.
Downstairs in the study, Yu Yuanzhou sat under the warm glow of the desk lamp, agonizing over whether to abandon their immediate retreat to Mount Qingyan for the sake of the villa.
Tianwei set a freshly brewed cup of black tea beside his elbow. “You should get some rest, Dad. We have to continue clearing wholesale markets at dawn.”
She glanced at the luminous countdown suspended in her vision. “There are only two days and a handful of hours left.”
When they woke in the morning, their window would be down to two days flat. The final afternoon would be consumed by an emergency run to secure corporate fuel tankers, retrieve heavy trucks, and escape the valley.
“I need to think this through from every angle,” Yu Yuanzhou sighed heavily, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “Every property in this gated enclave is an architectural marvel. If they weren’t built like fortresses, I would never have bought our primary residence here.”
“But Little Yuan is talking about chewing through reinforced concrete pilings,” Tianwei countered gently. “No matter how well-built it is, does it justify changing our survival plan?”
“I’ll ask him in the morning if he can pull the entire structural foundation into the realm as a single unit,” Yu Yuanzhou murmured. “If we preserve the pilings intact, once we reach a safe zone, we can deploy these villas directly onto open ground as pre-built, earthquake-proof bastions.”
He looked up, a sharp thought striking him. “Did your brother say anything about the sequence of disasters? Is there an earthquake during the Seven Catastrophes?”
“Yes!” Tianwei’s breath caught in her throat. “We definitely have to secure this structure before the tectonic shift hits.”
“Exactly,” Yu Yuanzhou agreed, his tone measured and firm. “This building was engineered with military-grade waterproofing, thermal barriers, industrial firebreaks, seismic dampening, and automated dehumidification systems. Its structural integrity—the concrete density and the gauge of the structural steel—is vastly superior to standard commercial developments.”
He looked at his daughter, his expression softening with nostalgia. “Your grandfather built this entire community. When this specific villa was finished, it was meant to be his retirement home—a place where multiple generations could live under one roof.”
He looked down at his teacup, his voice growing quiet. “What a tragedy that he passed away before the landscaping was even finished.”
At the time, the Yu Corporation had faced severe liquidity pressures following the patriarch’s death, forcing them to sell off the remaining residential plots and retain only this central estate. For Yu Yuanzhou, this community—and this villa in particular—carried deep sentimental weight.
Watching these master-crafted structures drown beneath apocalyptic floodwaters felt like an unbearable waste.
“This was your grandfather’s final project before he closed his eyes,” he said softly. “I’ve carried the guilt of failing to hold onto the development for decades. To sit here and watch it wash away into the mud when we have the power to save it… I simply can’t do it.”
He hadn’t possessed the strength to save his family’s legacy back then, but with Little Yuan’s spatial realm, he had a fighting chance today. Even as a seasoned businessman with a grown daughter, some part of him remained his father’s son, desperate to honor the old man’s memory.
Tianwei reached across the mahogany desk, clasping her father’s hand tightly. “Then we stay.”
“Staying behind in the valley carries immense risk,” Yu Yuanzhou warned, his eyes searching hers. “The lowlands will become a death trap.”
“Then we adapt and take the risk,” Tianwei said with quiet conviction. “Where there’s a will, there’s a way. We give it everything we have. Even if we fall short, we face it with our heads held high. Isn’t that how you raised Little Yuan and me?”
She smiled warmly. “Let’s try, Dad. Little Yuan and I are both ready to stand by you.”
Yu Yuanzhou felt a surge of pride and warmth in his chest. “All right. We’ll take the risk.”
The original plan to race directly to Mount Qingyan on the final day would have to be delayed. They would hold their ground in the suburban estate until they swallowed the villa, and only then navigate their way toward the mountain bunker.
How would they make the mountain crossing?
What was the precise order of the environmental disasters?
When would the neighboring residents begin evacuating the enclave?
Yu Yuanzhou’s strategic mind began running through operational scenarios. If necessary, he could subtly encourage the community’s wealthy residents to flee toward Mount Qingyan en masse. Once the neighborhood emptied out, Tianwei and the little hamster could stay behind under the cover of “securing the rear,” using the quiet window to pull the estates into the jade realm.
He never underestimated the brutality of a global collapse, but he had faith in human resilience. Once regional order was restored, these master-built residences could stand proudly before the world again—a testament to his father’s architectural vision.
“There are only eight luxury villas in the entire development,” Yu Yuanzhou murmured, rising from his chair.
He headed upstairs to his study archives to retrieve the original blueprints. The project had been sold off midway through development, and subsequent contractors had cut corners, swapping out structural materials. He had no intention of wasting spatial volume on substandard buildings; he would focus exclusively on the core structures his father had personally overseen.
As he reached the landing, another critical thought struck him.
“Maps! We need high-resolution topographic and transport maps of the entire nation!”
Both digital navigation databases and physical cartographic atlases were essential. Mobile phones and laptops were vulnerable to grid collapse, while properly preserved paper maps could survive for decades.
“We need multiple sets,” he called down to Tianwei, his voice buzzing with fresh purpose. “And laminate every single sheet—that way, they’ll survive the floods completely untouched!”
