Chapter 18: Jadeite Rough Stones

Always staying cooped up at home meant you had plenty of supplies, which easily attracted attention.

Although no one was bothering her now, there was still a long road ahead—when people got desperate enough, they’d do anything.

So, An Nan decided to go out for some fresh air.

To prevent anyone from breaking in, she brought the dog along.

Even though the reinforced door was sturdy, who knew if there were any lock-picking experts like Liu Lao’er left in the neighborhood?

It wasn’t safe to leave Fugui home alone. Luckily, he was small enough that carrying him in a backpack wasn’t a burden.

Fugui had never been in a backpack before and resisted, pawing at it.

An Nan threatened him, “If you don’t hide, someone might catch you and turn you into dog stew!”

“Awooo!”

Fugui’s eyes went wide, and he darted straight into the open bag.

He even turned around and pointed at the zipper with his paw:

Sister Nan, close the door for me!

“You little rascal!” An Nan laughed, zipped up the bag—leaving an air hole—and slung it on her back before heading out.

She took an inflatable raft out from her space ahead of time and carried it as she made her way to the seventh floor.

Since the floodwaters had submerged up to the sixth floor, the seventh floor was now effectively the ground floor, and everyone entered and exited through the stairwell window on the seventh floor.

When she stepped out, she happened to catch the other residents of her building heading out in a group.

Now that society had fallen into chaos, fights over supplies were common outside.

To protect their scavenged goods, most people had formed small teams by building, searching together.

At first, there was some distrust because of past incidents of sneaking into each other’s apartments and picking locks.

But after a few solo outings ended with people getting robbed clean by outsiders, everyone decided to set aside their grudges for now and team up to search for supplies.

Aside from An Nan, who had never left her apartment, and Zhao Ping’an and his mother from the 15th floor, everyone else was present.

An Nan’s inflatable raft stood in stark contrast to the others’ random assortment of basins and tubs.

She was the only one with a proper kayak—everyone else had cobbled together makeshift “boats.”

Some people eyed her raft enviously, but seeing it was An Nan holding it, and remembering the bloodstains on the stairwell walls, they quickly gave up any ideas.

The chubby uncle from 1302, however, came over with a friendly smile.

His eyes gleamed, but his face was all warmth.

“Hello, I’m Sun Peng, the temporary building leader. You’re An Nan, right? Welcome to our team—let’s search for supplies together.”

An Nan sized him up.

Everyone else had gotten noticeably thinner from hunger, but Sun Peng still had a greasy, plump face.

Clearly, his stash of jerky at home had kept him well-fed.

An Nan declined his invitation without hesitation. “No need, I’ll go out on my own.”

She had no intention of mixing with them.

Not only would it make using her space inconvenient, but this group was unlikely to find anything valuable anyway.

In her previous life, An Nan had joined a team, but the meager supplies they found each time were never enough to go around.

Bai Wenbin and Qian Yinger were also in the group.

Bai Wenbin wanted to say something to her, but Qian Yinger tugged him back, eyeing An Nan quietly.

An Nan caught their looks and chose to ignore them completely.

What surprised her more was that the buzz-cut guy from 1301 was there too.

He was holding his wife’s hand, staying at the very back of the group, keeping his distance from Sun Peng.

Things outside must be truly dire, or else he’d never team up with Sun Peng—he’d been scared out of his wits last time.

An Nan thought to herself: The apocalypse really opens your eyes—killers and witnesses teaming up to hunt for food.

Sun Peng watched her expression and invited her again, “It’s chaotic out there. If you join us, it’ll be safer.”

He smiled sincerely, but inside he was thinking: If I could ride her raft, it’d be so much easier than paddling myself!

And with her fighting skills, she’d be a huge asset to the team!

So what if she killed two people? Look how scared these cowards are! What’s there to be afraid of? I’ve killed before too—they just don’t know it.

An Nan refused again, bluntly. “Thanks for the suggestion, but I’m not joining any team.”

With that, she ignored the various looks from the crowd, stepped out the window, and set off in her raft.

Sun Peng, snubbed in front of everyone, felt a bit embarrassed and annoyed.

But he kept up his friendly demeanor, calling out to the neighbors, “Since she’s not joining, let’s head out too.”

Bai Wenbin and his sister watched An Nan’s back, their gazes dark.

“Bro, look at her—she hasn’t lost any weight. Her skin even looks better than before,” Qian Yinger said jealously. Why? I’m gaunt and sallow from all this suffering, but she’s still fair and rosy-cheeked.

Bai Wenbin thought for a moment. “She must have a lot of food stored at home…”

The siblings exchanged a greedy glance.

No matter what the others were thinking, An Nan quickly paddled her raft out of the neighborhood.

There were lots of people outside, most moving in groups, breaking into any high-rise they came across.

An Nan avoided the crowds, steering toward quieter areas.

With enough supplies in her space to last a lifetime, her goal was different from everyone else’s.

An Nan was here to look for jadeite.

Since her space could be upgraded, she wanted to max it out. The area was enough for now, but she had a feeling there was more to discover about its uses.

All the malls were underwater now, and searching each jewelry counter for jadeite would be too much work.

She had diving gear, but without proper training, repeated dives were risky.

So she planned to find a spot where she could grab a big haul all at once.

There had been a jadeite stone-gambling expo in Kuancheng District this year, and the event hadn’t ended when the torrential rain hit.

There must still be plenty of jadeite rough stones left in the plaza, unsold.

An Nan headed straight for Mingxing Plaza in Kuancheng District.

It was a long journey, and the water was full of debris—she paddled for hours before reaching the area.

Kuancheng was low-lying and one of the oldest districts, with most residential buildings only six stories high, so the whole area was almost completely submerged.

No one came here to look for supplies; the water’s surface was eerily quiet.

An Nan found the general location of the plaza, left Fugui on the boat, geared up, and dove in.

Once underwater, she realized she was still a block away from the plaza, so she quickly swam over.

The east side of the plaza was where the jadeite expo had been held, complete with ticket booths and security gates.

An Nan swam over the top and reached the area where the rough stones were displayed.

She didn’t know much about jadeite, so to her, these grayish stones looked no different from river rocks—there was no way to tell from the outside what was inside.

So she didn’t bother looking—she just put them all into her space.

If a stone had good jadeite inside, her space would expand a lot; if not, the change was minimal.

Some stones didn’t have any jadeite at all and weren’t absorbed by the space.

An Nan sighed—so there really was risk in stone-gambling; you had to be careful with your money!

She didn’t bother tossing out the stones her space wouldn’t absorb—she could always use them as weapons to throw at people in a fight.

Nothing like the element of surprise.

An Nan collected every last rough stone into her space.

The space grew larger and larger, quickly surpassing a million square meters. The bracelet became more and more translucent.

An Nan was thrilled—this trip had definitely been worth it.

But as she kept collecting, suddenly, her space stopped expanding…

What was going on?!"