Chapter 4 – Major Indoor Renovation
At night, the city center of A was always livelier than during the day.
In a bar, men and women reveled wildly in the hazy glow of the night.
A seductive woman, wearing a tight mini-skirt, showing off a waist of barely fifty-five centimeters and an S-shaped figure, strutted like a catwalk model toward a sofa in the corner.
“Handsome, may I buy you a drink?” she winked at a man—but the moment he looked at her, her soul nearly flew away.
The man had extremely alluring, peach-blossom eyes, with a tiny tear mole under the corner of his left eye that made him even more captivating. He leaned lazily against the sofa, his looks and aura so overwhelming that no woman in the entire bar—no, even all of them together—could compare.
His eyes narrowed slightly, as if smiling, but a cold light flashed within them. His thin lips parted and mercilessly spat out one word—“Scram.”
The woman froze, unsure if she’d heard right. Before she could say anything more, a large hand patted her shoulder: “Miss, this isn’t your spot.”
Irritated, she turned her head, only to see a man in his forties or fifties standing with several obvious bodyguards behind him. Her heart skipped, and she quickly got up and left—what bad luck tonight!
“There’s a million in this card. Give it to your mother.” The middle-aged man sat beside the young man and placed a bank card on the table between them.
“What’s it got to do with me? Can’t you transfer it yourself?” The young man shot him a sideways glance, sneered, and said, “You called me out just for this?”
“It’s better if you hand it to her directly. At least it’s something physical, so she won’t claim, like last time, that the money never arrived.” The man rubbed his temples. “Tell her your uncle’s matter has been settled, and he’d better keep a low profile now—it’s stricter these days.”
The young man pinched the card between two fingers, twirled it with a mocking smile, and waved it in front of him: “You two aren’t even divorcing. Do you really need me to run errands over trivial crap like this every day? Yan Han, I’m not your subordinate. I’m not handling this. Send whoever you like!” With that, he flung the card onto the table, stood, and strode toward the exit.
Yan Han’s face darkened. “I just wanted to see if you—”
“I’m still alive. No need for your concern.” The young man walked straight out of the bar without looking back. Only after leaving that suffocating space did he finally breathe easier—the outside air was far better.
*
The next morning, Luo Xun was woken up by the sound of the doorbell.
His same-city delivery had already arrived? So fast!
As he signed for it, he marveled. Back when he lived in City M, he had never experienced local shipping with online shopping. Deliveries from a little farther away often dragged on for ten days or even half a month. But in a big city, same-day local shipping was so efficient!
Checking his phone for order statuses, he found that most of his purchases had already been shipped, and two more local ones were even out for delivery.
Good. Today he would stay home and organize everything properly.
Some of the items he ordered that needed DIY modifications hadn’t yet arrived. He walked through the rooms, confirming their conditions, then began allocating functions.
Naturally, the large balcony on the lower floor and the rooftop terrace of the duplex would be used for planting. The kitchen would remain the kitchen. The storage room next to the kitchen, which had no windows, could easily be converted into a seedling nursery, a darkroom, or even a livestock room. The living room on the first floor was large enough to later partition off areas for storing supplies.
The two bedrooms on the second floor could be divided up—one used as a storage room for tools, food, and supplies, the other as his own bedroom. The second-floor bathroom already had a bathtub and shower installed, so there was no need to touch it for now.
Holding the sketched floor plan in his hand, Luo Xun casually scribbled notes and marks on it—after all, it wouldn’t be of any use later, and nobody was going to ask him for it anyway.
Just as he was jotting things down, the doorbell rang again—more deliveries arriving one after another.
*
“Zzzz—zzzz—”
The sound of a power drill buzzed repeatedly, enough to give anyone listening a headache.
For more than half a month, the drilling noises at Building No. 7 hadn’t stopped. On the 16th floor, in the easternmost unit, the entire room was packed with tools, boxes, crates, and all sorts of strange contraptions from renovations.
By October 22nd, all the goods Luo Xun had ordered online had finally been delivered to his home.
Now, he had divided the living room into two sections: the area near the balcony was filled with modification tools and equipment, while the section near the entryway was stacked with furniture and other purchases.
All food, seeds, emergency supplies, and instant goods had been neatly sorted into the first-floor storage room and the small upstairs bedroom.
Furniture still had to be bought—at the very least, the living room needed a table, chairs, and a sofa, while the bedroom needed a bed, right?
Setting aside the newly built racks made from non-toxic PVC pipes, Luo Xun let out a long breath, rubbed his sore lower back, and headed to the bathroom to wash up. Coming back out, he went to the microwave, pulled out the hot meat pancake, and took a big bite.
On the second day after buying the microwave, once he had confirmed the machine had no quality issues, Luo Xun had opened it up and removed the sound device—so it wouldn’t make noise and attract attention when used in the apocalypse.
Looking around at the messy room with satisfaction, he slouched against the sofa. All the modifications were finally done. The next couple of days could be spent cleaning up and preparing for other tasks—like seedling cultivation, and pre-processing some of the rice and flour. After all, cooking openly every day wouldn’t be wise in the apocalypse.
He tossed the empty plastic wrapper into the trash can, clapped his hands, and stood up again to tidy the room. Apart from scraps and truly useless waste, everything that might come in handy was gathered into the small upstairs bedroom.
Hydroponic racks, seedling boxes, and other equipment were moved out to the balcony and terrace. Immediately, the place looked much cleaner.
After pushing the sofa into its proper place, Luo Xun wheeled several huge fish tanks into the living room, then collapsed back onto the sofa, pulling out his phone with a frown, deep in thought again.
He had just over fifty thousand yuan left. Sure, he could use that to buy another batch of food, supplies, and medicine—but he also had other ideas. For example… should he raise animals at home?
When the apocalypse first hit, not only humans but also some animals turned into zombies. Later, there were also mutant animals—far more numerous than zombie animals, and in many cases even more dangerous than human zombies.
But animals that had first been domesticated, and then mutated without losing control, developed extremely strong combat abilities.
At the very least, if he raised a dog at home, it could guard the place when he went out scavenging.
He still remembered—back when the apocalypse first began, many animals had turned into zombies, and their threat level was even higher than human zombies. Most people avoided them at all costs.
Back then, he had still been in City M. An elderly couple there had a little pug. That pug never turned into a zombie, and when chaos broke out and looters stormed homes for supplies, nobody dared enter that house—because of the dog!
He really wanted a dog too, but… first, raising one meant preparing dog food, chew toys, and other things. Second, what if the dog zombified early on? And even if it didn’t at first, what if it went mad during a secondary mutation? He’d be in trouble—or worse, dead.
“…Sigh, better wait a few more days.” It was the same for other animals. Raising chickens might give him eggs and meat in the apocalypse, but their clucking would just draw unwanted attention. Luo Xun had no interest in inviting trouble. Still, he really did want a dog.
In the seedling room, Luo Xun placed seeds into the seedling trays. After the modifications, the room’s temperature and humidity were stable enough that the seeds would sprout in just a few days.
Since winter was coming, he didn’t dare grow too many crops. Even if he could maintain indoor conditions, there were two problems: one, he couldn’t eat that much himself, and it wasn’t practical to sell; two, it wasn’t only animals that mutated—plants did too.
If a plant mutated while still a seedling, he could deal with it quickly. But if it grew too large before mutating, he might not even be able to touch it, and would have to find a way to destroy it completely.
Although the terrace was convenient for planting, Luo Xun preferred to prioritize hydroponic crops. Of course, he also planned for soil-grown plants—tomorrow or the day after, he’d dig up some soil from nearby fields to bring back.
Hydroponics had two major advantages: easy maintenance and space efficiency. As long as the nutrient solution was prepared correctly, they thrived. For now, he could just buy nutrient solutions online, but once the apocalypse began, he’d have to mix them himself. Thankfully, he was fairly experienced in this.
He started small—cilantro, cabbage, and rapeseed seedlings. He also had citrus, apple, and cherry saplings he’d bought online earlier, now potted and growing indoors.
The rest, he decided, could wait until right before doomsday—things like mung bean sprouts and soybean sprouts would be quick and enough.
After holing up at home for several more days, most of the seeds in the seedling trays had sprouted. Those that hadn’t could be written off as dead.
Carefully wrapping each sprout in strips of cut sponge, Luo Xun transplanted them into his modified hydroponic circulation pipes, hooked up a small aquarium air pump for oxygen, added a precise mix of nutrient solution, and—just like that—a small hydroponic system was up and running.
Since these were all crops planted before the apocalypse, he deliberately chose smaller racks, each holding only a dozen or so seedlings, with several racks sharing one water tank.
After checking the fifth fully charged solar battery, and glancing around at the now neatly organized house, Luo Xun paced the rooms four or five times before finally confirming… it looked like, for now, there was nothing more to do.
