Chapter 5: The Great Stockpile

Xiao Yang scanned Mu Wanqing's fortress blueprints—reinforced concrete walls, underground aquifers, electromagnetic pulse-proof wiring. "Eight days," he repeated, tossing the documents onto a titanium desk. "Not fifteen."

Mu Guang mopped sweat from his brow. "Mr. Xiao, even with triple shifts—"

"Double the budget. 50 million."

The contractor's protest died in his throat. "We'll... manage."

As Mu Guang scrambled to call crews, Xiao Yang turned to the dark circles under Mu Wanqing's eyes. "Let me drive you home. You've earned sleep."

In the Brabus's armored backseat, the orphaned raven chick pecked at Mu Wanqing's designer handbag. "You're keeping a corvid?" she marveled, stroking its ink-black feathers. "Most men buy sports cars for midlife crises."

"Ravens thrive in disasters." He shrugged. "Smartest birds on Earth."

When they reached Haicheng Art Institute, students gaped at the matte-black war machine disgorging their campus belle. Mu Wanqing flushed under the stares. "Your doomsday shopping list—"

"Prioritize antibiotics and water filters," Xiao Yang interrupted. "And tampons."

Her eyebrow arched. "Tampons?"

"Best firestarters in the apocalypse." The Brabus roared away before she could retort.

 

09:47 AM - Haicheng Wholesale Market

Vendors scrambled as Xiao Yang's demands boomed through megaphones:

Vegetables: 100 tons each (garlic, chili, pumpkin) - ¥100M

Spices: Sichuan peppercorn stockpile - ¥50M

Rice: 10,000 tons - ¥500M

"Madman!" a wholesaler whispered as digital contracts flashed across Xiao Yang's tablet.

02:15 PM - Liangrun Meat Conglomerate

The CEO's son snorted when Xiao Yang ordered 14,000 tons of premium cuts. "You opening a cannibal buffet?"

Xiao Yang transferred ¥700M upfront. "Freeze the organs too. Blood makes good fertilizer."

04:03 PM - Portside Seafood Terminal

Workers gawked as live lobsters met industrial cryo-chillers. "Why kill them?" a foreman asked.

"My freezer doesn't like squirming." Xiao Yang tossed another ¥200M into the abyss.

 

By dusk, ¥12 billion had vaporized. Xiao Yang collapsed into his Brabus, fingers trembling over a dark web procurement list:

Antiretroviral drugs (Post-zombie bite mitigation)

CRISPR gene-editing kits (For when the birds stop singing)

Modular nuclear reactors (Backordered till 2035)

His raven chick pecked the screen, its obsidian eyes reflecting scrolling numbers.

Seven days left.