Tang Xiaoman pondered for a moment and arrived at a conclusion.

In her previous life, the flood hadn’t breached the prison—so there had been no mass disappearance of thousands of inmates. Nor had it brought crocodiles, which meant there had been no reports of attacks.

But in this life, perhaps due to some butterfly effect, many things had changed.

Her eyelid twitched. A vague unease settled in her chest—this disaster might prove even harsher than the one she had endured before.

At this point, there was only one path forward: face whatever came.

No matter what happened, she would meet it head-on.

Just like in her previous life—when she had fought until her final breath, never once yielding.

—

By the time Tang Xiaoman woke the next day, it was already past one in the afternoon.

After washing up, she headed downstairs to the kitchen in search of food.

Each of the bodyguards had left a portion of their cooking for her. She gathered the dishes one by one, arranged them neatly onto a large tray, and slid it into the oversized microwave to reheat.

*Ding.*

The food was ready.

Carrying the tray out, she sampled each dish, rating them as she ate and sending feedback to the corresponding numbered bodyguard—ensuring their culinary skills would keep improving.

Once she was full, she stepped into the courtyard for a walk to aid digestion, casually pulling out her phone to check the latest updates.

A large swing had appeared in the yard.

It definitely hadn’t been there last night. Someone must have built it overnight out of sheer boredom.

She sat down on it and, looking up, noticed a humanoid target about fifteen meters ahead.

Practicing shooting while swinging?

Though tempered by the apocalypse, Tang Xiaoman was highly skilled—but she had never undergone formal military training. For a moment, she couldn’t quite grasp the purpose behind it.

Curiosity flickered briefly before she returned to more pressing matters.

She opened the group chat for Tiannai Villa—already flooded with over a thousand unread messages.

The group announcement from the admin remained pinned, confirming the authenticity of two alarming developments.

The residents were in an uproar, voices overlapping as they discussed the two most terrifying incidents.

“I heard the prison that got washed away is the biggest one in the neighboring city. Thousands of hardened criminals—and even hundreds on death row. Absolute monsters. The kind that wouldn’t be enough to execute even if you shot them multiple times!”

“What if they band together and come here to wreak havoc on Tiannai Villa?”

“Don’t jinx it! Those death row inmates must’ve been swept away and drowned. After all the evil they’ve done, heaven’s already claimed them.”

“But how are there crocodiles? That’s terrifying!”

“I’ve heard they’re extremely aggressive. They don’t just go after kids—even adults can be mauled or killed!”

…

Relentless storms, typhoons, and flash floods had battered people’s nerves again and again. Everyone was already exhausted, on edge at the slightest disturbance.

Though Tiannai Villa still held its geographical advantage and hadn’t suffered major damage, the constant stream of crises had left the residents deeply unsettled.

Huo Kai stepped in to steady the situation.

“Everyone, stay calm. This is exactly when we need to keep our heads. As long as we stand united, neither escaped prisoners nor crocodiles can do anything to us!”

His words gave people a sense of stability. Praise poured in, calling him righteous and dependable, and many began asking what they should do next.

One resident raised the most pressing issue:

“What are we supposed to do about the power outage?”

They could tolerate the network dropping back to 2G. Even losing cable signals could be worked around with satellite dishes. But electricity—there was no easy fix.

The most common emergency solution was solar storage batteries, but ever since the floods began, the sun hadn’t shown once. There was nothing to charge them.

After a moment’s thought, Huo Kai replied:

“I can donate three diesel generators to the property management. Anyone who needs power can bring their own diesel and use them. If you fully charge a battery each time and conserve at night, it should be enough.”

The complaints only grew louder.

“Three generators? That’s nowhere near enough!”

“Do we have to line up every day?”

“And even if we do, there’s no guarantee it’ll be our turn! Charging one battery isn’t even enough to run central air conditioning.”

“Central air? You’d be lucky if a wall unit works!”

“The food in my fridge is about to spoil!”

…

In the end, everyone reached a consensus: they wanted to buy diesel generators—at least one per household.

Huo Kai: “!!!”

Over a hundred households, each wanting one?

Where was he supposed to find that many generators?

With the floods knocking out the entire power grid, demand for electricity had skyrocketed. Diesel generators were now impossible to find.

Even if he could get them, where would he find enough diesel to keep them running daily? Even a full fuel depot wouldn’t last forever.

Huo Kai simply stopped responding.

—

Tang Xiaoman sent him a private message:

“I have a batch of diesel generators. I’d like to sell them under your name. You can set your commission.”

“You have diesel generators? Where did you get them? How many?” Huo Kai replied instantly.

“Stockpiled them. All legit sources. I’ll release twenty units for now—one kilogram of gold each, or equivalent in jewelry or jade.”

She knew how scarce electricity would become in the apocalypse. Not only had she hoarded generators herself, but she had also had Zhou Yichen acquire a hundred more in batches, along with over two hundred sets of noise-reduction equipment.

For now, she was only selling the generators. The silencing devices would come at a different price.

After a while, Huo Kai responded:

“Alright. I’ll announce it in the group. If anyone’s interested, I’ll have them send someone to pick them up from you.”

With the deal settled, Tang Xiaoman set her phone aside.

The moment she lifted her head, she found someone standing silently right in front of her.

A chill shot down her spine. When she recognized who it was, the tension slowly ebbed.

She was highly vigilant—very few people could approach her unnoticed. Zhou Yichen was an exception.

If he had fired a shot just now…

Her scalp tingled. For a second, she felt her paranoia creeping back.

“When did you get here? It’s broad daylight—don’t sneak around like a ghost without making a sound…”

Zhou Yichen seemed oblivious to the pressure he had just put her under. With an innocent expression, he handed her a kraft paper envelope.

“We came back together last night, and it wasn’t convenient then. I figured I’d give it to you now.”