Chapter 58: The Silent Preparations of the Group Members

Turning her basement into a regular fortress, she had stocked it with a massive quantity of compressed biscuits, canned goods, and similar supplies.

A short while ago, she had joined a rather interesting online chat group.

Noticing that the group only had two or three members, she had wanted to leave immediately.

However, upon learning that the group owner lived in the United States, she realized she could ask the owner to help her purchase things abroad, especially skincare products. As for cosmetics? She owned some, but rarely used them.

Which indoor-dwelling otaku girl who rarely stepped outside even once a year would actually use makeup?

Since the group owner remained silent, she contacted the group moderator instead. Once they grew familiar with each other, she immediately had them purchase some niche imported items and skincare products.

Although her family was well-off, why spend money foolishly when you could save a buck?

Most importantly, she had managed to acquire her long-dreamed-of doomsday rations and survival water—food famously guaranteed to last for thirty years without spoiling.

Of course, these items could also be bought domestically, but she felt that having them imported directly might be more authentic.

In the beginning, Lu Mengfan treated the chat group almost exclusively as a personal purchasing agent, even having the moderator buy designer bags for her. Relying on these bags, she had also made a decent profit.

After a few transactions, she discovered something magical: the items sent to her by the other party were remarkably inexpensive. Unsure, Lu Mengfan took them to be authenticated, and the luxury boutique's official verdict was: authentic!

Ever since then, she had fallen in love with this chat group. Not only could Lu Mengfan buy the things she wanted and earn a little pocket money on the side, but she could also discuss doomsday stockpiling preparations with like-minded group members.

Then one day, for reasons unknown, the group owner posted an announcement complete with a countdown timer. Lu Mengfan hadn't paid much attention to it.

Who could have guessed that what the group owner said actually came true the very next day? Before Lu Mengfan could even react, the group owner posted another message claiming that Bitcoin was about to skyrocket.

Hesitating for a moment, Lu Mengfan casually tossed in some idle money just to see what would happen.

Yet, to her astonishment, the moment she bought the Bitcoin, the price surged all the way up. Refusing to believe her eyes, she kept watching the charts. A day later, seeing profits exceeding 15%, Lu Mengfan's face lit up with joy as she wondered if she could add some more equipment to her basement.

To be fair, the group owner's prediction had hit the mark, but so what? Doomsday? How could that possibly be true!

However, when Lu Mengfan opened the group announcement again, the face that should have been celebrating turned completely pale. In the scorching heat of summer, she felt a chill run through all four of her limbs!

Because right there in the online news feed, a headline had abruptly appeared:

[Today, the Mega Millions jackpot of 1 million dollars was won by a single individual in Houston, Texas, USA.]

Lu Mengfan felt her entire scalp tingle with horror!

That's right, she enjoyed doomsday survivalism, but that didn't mean she actually wanted the world to end!

If Yang Jie were here, he would probably understand her mood quite well: having no worries about food and drink, plenty of money, and the freedom to buy whatever she wanted—her life couldn't possibly be more carefree.

This was already the peak of human existence, yet now someone was telling her that the end of the world was coming. This had to be some kind of sick joke!

After hesitating over and over again, Lu Mengfan gritted her teeth and called her parents, claiming she had a terrible stomachache.

Hearing that their precious daughter was in agony, her parents immediately dropped their work and rushed over in a panic.

Before long, Mr. and Mrs. Lu arrived at the villa.

Half an hour later.

Lu Mengfan's bedroom was thick with haze. Both her mother and father were smoking cigarettes, completely disregarding their daughter's known aversion to the smell.

Under normal circumstances, the two of them would never smoke inside their daughter's bedroom, and Lu Mengfan wouldn't have allowed it either.

Yet at this moment, all three of them were silent.

A makeshift disposable cup was already filled with seven or eight cigarette butts, and cold sweat beaded on all three of their foreheads.

Some things simply bear no deeper thought; especially for smart people, once you start thinking too deeply, it becomes terrifyingly uncanny.

"Could it just be a coincidence?"

After a long silence, Mr. Lu asked in a somewhat raspy voice.

Mrs. Lu also looked at her daughter. Judging by the faded tattoos peeking out from her collar, Mrs. Lu had clearly been a woman with quite a past in her younger days.

Now, with her parents by her side, Lu Mengfan felt a bit braver. She took a deep breath and said,

"I don't know either. Anyway, I’ve told you everything about how I joined this chat group and what has happened!"

Mrs. Lu took a vicious drag from her cigarette and asked,

"What if someone working at Bitcoin headquarters leaked the information? Is that possibility out of the question?"

"There is!"

Mr. Lu nodded and looked at his wife. "But what would their motive be?"

"This—!"

Mrs. Lu froze. Indeed, in this day and age, nobody does business at a loss; everything is driven by strong hidden motives.

After pondering for a moment, the couple once again turned their gaze toward Lu Mengfan.

Mr. Lu said, "Mengmeng, you had us buy this villa because of your doomsday hobby, which clearly shows how much you love this kind of stuff. You must have researched it extensively. If things are really as that chat group claims, what should we do?"

Lu Mengfan gave a start and hurriedly rattled off everything she had learned, heavily emphasizing a final point to her parents.

"Mom, Dad, there are a few absolute rules in a doomsday scenario that must never be broken. Break them, and people die!"

The couple immediately pricked up their ears. They had no choice; when it came to this field, their daughter was the expert. The two of them knew absolutely nothing about doomsday movies or prepper culture.

Lu Mengfan immediately began reciting:

"Rule number one: Never, ever tell anyone where we live or what we've prepared, not even our closest blood relatives."

Mrs. Lu said with some dissatisfaction, "Not even your uncle?"

Lu Mengfan replied helplessly, "What if Uncle gets caught by other people, and they torture him harshly or threaten the lives of Aunt and my cousin? Do you think Uncle would hold back from saying, 'I have a niece whose house is hoarded with lots of food'?"

"Hiss—!"

The couple instantly sucked in a sharp breath of cold air. Well, that wasn't entirely impossible. A niece wasn't nearly as precious as a biological son!

The two of them, who had initially been somewhat dismissive, now took the matter extremely seriously from the bottom of their hearts.

"Mengmeng, keep going!"

Lu Mengfan nodded. "In the past, my stockpiling was limited to emergency gear and food and drink. If the outside world truly becomes unsafe, we'll also need to prepare weapons. If—and I mean *if*—we can get our hands on firearms, that would be best."

Her words frightened the couple considerably. This was no joking matter; the Chinese state's enforcement against firearms was hardly any weaker than its stance on illegal drugs—that was a capital offense!

"Why would we need guns? That's illegal, don't you know that?" Mrs. Lu said, feeling deeply uneasy. What if the doomsday didn't arrive, but their own daughter ended up behind bars first?

Lu Mengfan rolled her eyes. "Mom, there's a saying in the doomsday community: 'While neighbors hoard grain, I hoard guns; my neighbors become my granary.' There's another one: 'Hoard grain but no guns, and your home is just a granary; hoard guns but no grain, and every place is a granary; hoard both guns and grain, and you're the king of the mountain!'"

After thinking it over carefully, the couple realized it actually made a lot of sense!

Mrs. Lu nudged her husband with her elbow.

"From back when you were young, do you still have any of those connections?"