Chapter 97: A New Mission
After leaving the theater, everyone maintained a tense, tacit silence. Within a few minutes, however, they began fracturing into small groups, whispering anxiously about the film’s dark foreshadowing. While a few skeptics harbored doubts, the pure mystique surrounding God’s Supermarket convinced the vast majority that the screen had truly granted them a terrifying ten-second revelation of the future.
Song Yuqing guided Xiaoyi, who still looked like a frightened deer, into the privacy of her bedroom.
Sitting on the soft edge of the mattress, Xiaoyi gradually stabilized her breathing. She began to tell the story of her history with Ruan Fanfan, painting a picture of a deep, unwavering sisterly bond.
Xiaoyi was an adopted child. Her biological father, a local fishmonger, had simply given her away as an infant. Her adoptive parents ran a small, modest business in a county town. By the time they took Xiaoyi in, they were already well into their forties, entirely determined to raise a daughter who would provide for them in their old age.
They treated Xiaoyi decently enough, ensuring she had adequate food and clothing and could attend school. However, their parenting style was heavily transactional, constantly drilling a strict education of “love and gratitude” into her head.
Ruan Fanfan was fifteen when she first met her younger cousin. The sight of the quiet, overly cautious child made her heart ache. Ruan Fanfan had recently moved back to the county town with her own parents from another province, and she was just beginning to unearth her own family’s secrets, realizing that not all parents raise their children unconditionally. Looking at Xiaoyi, she felt a vague, haunting sensation that she was looking at her younger self.
When Xiaoyi was in the third grade, the entire family had cornered the little girl, loudly accusing her of stealing money. Ruan Fanfan was the only person who bothered to ask her why she had taken it. Remembering her own turbulent childhood, Ruan Fanfan was extraordinarily forgiving. It turned out the third-grader had stolen a mere ten yuan just to pay her school class fees; she was the only student left who hadn’t paid, and her adoptive parents had bluntly told her she didn’t need to pay as long as she sat out of all class activities.
The moment she learned the truth, Ruan Fanfan handed over her own pocket money without a word.
Xiaoyi remembered every single detail of that day. She grew up actively imitating Ruan Fanfan’s kindness and generosity, trying her absolute best to suppress the timidity and cowardice she had developed as a child.
It was no exaggeration to say that Ruan Fanfan had single-handedly rewritten Xiaoyi’s future. In return, Xiaoyi became Ruan Fanfan’s fiercest defender within the family. Whenever petty rumors about her cousin cropped up, Xiaoyi would immediately step forward to shut them down. She was Ruan Fanfan’s most loyal little sister.
Once they reached adulthood, Xiaoyi was the only relative Ruan Fanfan kept in touch with. Because Ruan Fanfan had chosen a non-traditional path—eschewing the standard cycle of university, a corporate job, marriage, and children—she had naturally been branded as an unfilial daughter by the rest of the clan.
Ruan Fanfan hadn’t known if her agricultural project held a real future; she only knew that there was genuine life on the farm. It was a sanctuary where she could preserve her grand dreams and retain the possibility of achieving something great.
When the apocalypse struck, the old world order and traditional family dynamics shattered entirely. But the bond between Xiaoyi and Ruan Fanfan remained completely unchanged. After joining the ranks of Base 35, Xiaoyi utilized every connection she had to gather intel on her cousin’s whereabouts.
Learning that Ruan Fanfan had been staying at the farm prior to her apparent death, Xiaoyi began frantically digging deeper. When an information broker offered a scrap of data regarding her sister, Xiaoyi willingly exchanged every single crystal core she had painstakingly saved just to secure it.
On the morning of the delivery, Xiaoyi had woken up early to wait outside the base perimeter, anxious to meet the broker. Instead, she had watched a massive bird descend from the heavens, and riding proudly on its back was the very sister she had been longing to see.
“Manager… can the future be changed?” Xiaoyi asked softly.
Song Yuqing fell silent for a moment before offering a firm nod. Since God’s Supermarket had provided them with a glimpse of the timeline, it meant they had the power to act. Even a microscopic shift could completely alter the course of the future.
“Do you know how to locate my sister right now?” Xiaoyi looked at her intently, desperate for an answer. As the manager of the supermarket and Ruan Fanfan’s close friend, Song Yuqing held Xiaoyi’s absolute trust.
“I don’t,” Song Yuqing admitted, watching the light of hope instantly drain from the girl’s eyes.
Ever since the outbreak, her contact with Ruan Fanfan had been entirely one-way. Ruan Fanfan always knew where the supermarket was located, but Song Yuqing had no way of tracking where the wood-type mutant came from or where she disappeared to.
Xiaoyi lowered her head, her long eyelashes casting a shadow over the deep worry in her eyes. After a long beat, she snapped her head up. “What if we lure her out?”
Song Yuqing blinked, startled. Xiaoyi straightened her back, leaning in close to whisper her strategy directly into the manager’s ear.
Luring the snake out of its hole?
Song Yuqing wasn’t entirely certain the plan would yield results; she needed time to think it over.
Stepping back out into the main store, Song Yuqing called an emergency staff meeting, while Xiaoyi headed next door to consult her companions from Base 35. Xiaoyi’s proposed method carried a considerable amount of risk, but under the circumstances, it wasn’t impossible.
By now, Liu Xiaona had already securely packed the remote delivery orders and attached them to the homing pigeons. The four employees of God’s Supermarket gathered in a tight circle behind the checkout counter, trading heavy glances.
“I’ve overheard the whispers,” Liu Xiaona murmured. “The future looks exceptionally grim.”
“Gah-hahaha!” Gaha nodded solemnly.
Little Meat Bun looked up at Song Yuqing with immense worry in his big eyes. What if this world is completely destroyed? What if Song Yuqing, Liu Xiaona, and Gaha vanish into thin air? What if I’m forcibly ripped away and sent back to my original world?
Song Yuqing cleared her throat, preparing to address her staff, when Master Fu’s booming voice suddenly echoed through her mind.
“Is the whole crew assembled?! Excellent, because I have a massive announcement to make!”
Song Yuqing was speechless. I was actually about to ask you to explain those cinematic visions…
Before she could form the thought, Master Fu cut her off impatiently. “Oh, let me speak first. My business is far more urgent.”
The system conveniently omitted the fact that what he was about to say was intrinsically tied to the exact crisis Song Yuqing wanted to discuss.
“Listen closely,” Master Fu commanded. “Your sales quota for the upcoming month is being slashed directly in half. In other words, Song Yuqing, you only need to clear fifteen hundred transactions.”
Liu Xiaona shot her boss a surprised, ecstatic look, but Song Yuqing’s brow remained tightly furrowed. In her experience, whenever the system acted uncharacteristically generous, a massive catch was lurking right around the corner.
Sure enough, Master Fu’s next words shattered any illusions of an easy month.
“Simultaneously, I have officially upgraded your spatial permissions! You may now traverse into the parallel reality twice a month—provided you complete a specific tier of objectives.”
“What tier of objectives?” Liu Xiaona’s eyes widened. “Can the rest of us tag along to help the manager out?”
Song Yuqing rolled her eyes internally, mentally asking: What exactly do you mean by ‘a specific tier of objectives’?
“Naturally, you may all deploy together,” Master Fu paused, his tone shifting to a strictly businesslike register. “There are three core tasks in total. For every objective you successfully clear, I will grant you an answer to one of your questions and personally help you analyze the data from the future-predicting theater.”
“Wow, Master Fu, you’re an absolute lifesaver!” Liu Xiaona cheered, genuinely believing the system was throwing them a lifeline.
Song Yuqing gently nudged her employee’s arm, throwing her a warning look. Hey, don’t sing his praises just yet. There’s no telling what kind of insane labor he’s about to force us into.
“Objective number one,” Master Fu listed. “Locate and retrieve a specialized diagnostic machine from the parallel world capable of identifying disguised zombies. Objective number two: salvage plant seeds from the parallel world that are genetically viable enough to cultivate crops within the wasteland. Objective number three: clean up the aftermath left behind by Lin Han.”
Song Yuqing’s jaw dropped, shock crashing over her in waves.
“Wait a minute… what exactly do you mean by ‘cleaning up after Lin Han’?”
