On the afternoon of the third day after the second storm subsided, another tornado ford. This one was even more severe than the previous two, lasting for an entire day.
Outside, the wild wind howled, punctuated by the sounds of heavy objects crashing. lody Sumrs and her family were gathered in the first-floor living room watching the news when suddenly, the house was plunged into darkness.
The power was out.
lody Sumrs opened the neighborhood group chat and, as expected, saw everyone complaining:
"3-1007 Kiki, Mom of Two: I was in the middle of bathing my kids. Why did the power go out?"
"Property Managent Center: @All mbers, our apologies to all hoowners. The wind is too strong today. It likely blew down a power line sowhere. We have already reported it for repairs. Please do not panic."
"2-1908 Coco: It was definitely the strong wind. Our complex is actually lucky because all the equipnt is new. I heard a lot of communities downtown lost power during the first tornado and it’s still not fixed after a week!"
"4-2009 Nina: Where’s property managent? Hurry up and fix the power!"
"4-1209 Slacking Off: How are they supposed to fix it now? Look at this wind. The repairn would get blown away if they ca."
"Property Managent Center: Everyone, please remain calm. We have reported the outage. Soone will co to handle it once the wind dies down."
"2-1908 Coco: @4-2009 Nina, did you get your window fixed?"
"4-2009 Nina: Don’t even ask. I can’t get off the waiting list. The second tornado also broke my bedroom door, so it’s completely unlivable. I’m staying at 4-605 for now. Thank you to my kind neighbor for taking in. @4-605 Wenxin."
"4-605 Wenxin: @4-2009 Nina, we’re neighbors. Don’t ntion it."
"..."
Putting down her phone, lody Sumrs and her family went to start up the villa’s built-in generator system.
With the roar of the engine, the villa’s lights ca back on.
Miss Lowell took a close look at the generator’s model label and clicked her tongue. "A high-power generator like this must burn through a lot of fuel every hour."
lody smiled at that.
’Fuel? She had plenty of it—both gasoline and diesel!’
She led her family down to the basent.
Her family had only caught a glimpse when lody was stocking up on daily necessities, so they assud she had just bought so food.
But now, lody opened the doors to two other storage rooms.
Seeing the neatly organized outdoor equipnt, a pile of solar panels, several generators of various sizes, and dozens of barrels of gasoline and diesel, the entire family was stunned.
"How did you buy so much gasoline?" Winnie Sumrs asked in astonishnt. "Gas stations don’t sell it like this."
lody explained to her family how she’d driven around, buying up gasoline little by little, like an ant moving its ho. Her family was stunned all over again. Once she’d recovered from the shock, her grandmother couldn’t stop praising her cleverness.
lody then showed them another room with nine chest freezers. These nine freezers were connected to their own high-power diesel generator and were all running smoothly.
Her uncle looked at the diesel generator and marveled, "This thing must weigh a hundred kilograms. How did you get it in here?"
Feeling a little guilty, lody fudged the details. "I had the renovation workers help move it a few days ago."
’If she hadn’t used the Arcadian Space, lody really wouldn’t have been able to move sothing weighing a hundred kilograms.’
lody showed her family the stockpile filling the nine freezers, then led them to see the largest storage room for food and daily necessities.
"Over here is rice, flour, grains, and oil. I had the seller seal all the rice and flour in small bags, so we can just grab them as we need them..."
"We have dical supplies over here—alcohol, gauze, it’s all here. We can use it for ergencies if sothing unexpected happens..."
"And this section is for hygiene products and toiletries. If you run out of anything in your rooms, you can co and get more anyti..."
Like a personal shopping guide, lody led them past more than a dozen shelves. And this was only a fraction of her supplies; the bulk of it was in the Arcadian Space, and lody planned to replenish the basent stock as needed.
As they walked and looked around, the family marveled that even if the end of the world ca, the Sumrs Family would have nothing to fear.
*
「The Lancaster Villa.」
For the past few days, the Lancasters had been at their wit’s end.
Although the Lancaster Villa was only minimally affected by the tornado, when a previous tornado had struck the city, the coast was also hit by a massive typhoon and tsunami.
The Trinhai Seaside Resort, a key investnt for the Lancaster Family, suffered devastating losses. A landmark building that had just been completed was washed away, and a large portion of the resort villa area was destroyed. The newly installed communication and power systems were wrecked, and several employees were injured. They remained unconscious even after being rescued.
For the past few days, Simon Lancaster and Robert Lancaster had been busy running around, assessing the damage and consoling the employees’ families.
The Lancaster Family was suddenly facing cash flow problems.
To cover the funding gap, Robert Lancaster had no choice but to take out another substantial loan from the bank.
Sylvia Lancaster had also been treading on eggshells at ho these past few days. Ever since she ran into lody Sumrs at the mall, she’d been having nothing but bad luck.
Mr. and Mrs. Lancaster had instructed Sylvia to always present herself as their biological daughter. Therefore, when faced with Clara Hayes’s and Wendy Sheffield’s suspicious looks that day, Sylvia could only hint that lody Sumrs was actually Elaine Hughes’s illegitimate daughter.
Even though Sylvia had repeatedly stressed that the matter needed to be kept secret, those two idiots still spread it around.
Robert Lancaster was already displeased with her over this incident. Now that the Lancaster Family was having financial problems, he cut her and Silas Lancaster’s allowance to just one-tenth of what it was.
To maintain her refined and dignified image as a wealthy young lady, she needed a lot of money each month for beauty treatnts, skincare, and luxury goods. Seeing the asly twenty thousand that had been deposited into her account this month, she was both anxious and furious.
After mulling it over, Sylvia Lancaster hid in her room and secretly called Ethan Sutton.
"Ethan, I can’t go with you to the banquet next week. My father is blaming for the whole thing with lody, and he’s cut off my cards. I don’t have money to buy a new gown, and I don’t want to go and embarrass you," Sylvia said, her voice thick with tears.
"Sylvia, don’t be sad. I know you’ve been wronged. Don’t worry, once we’re married, no one will dare to question your identity again. I’ll send you so money right now. Use it to buy a gown first. From now on, I’ll have my assistant send you money every month," Ethan Sutton comforted her.
"How could I do that? I can’t take your money," Sylvia quickly refused.
"It’s fine. Once we’re married, what’s mine is yours. We’re already engaged, so it’s only right that the Sutton Family takes care of your expenses," Ethan replied. He knew the Lancaster Family had suffered huge losses from the tornado and that Sylvia’s lifestyle would likely be affected. As her fiancé, he couldn’t just stand by and watch her struggle.
Ethan comforted Sylvia tenderly over the phone for a while longer. After hanging up, he transferred a sum of money to her.
Sylvia glanced at the amount that had arrived in her account, but her mood didn’t improve. The seaside villa at the Trinhai Resort that Simon Lancaster had given her was destroyed. This little bit of money was nothing compared to that villa.
Rembering how she had sent photos of the villa to lody Sumrs just a few days ago to show off, Sylvia grew angrier the more she thought about it. She contacted a clerk at a luxury boutique, reserved two sets of the latest ready-to-wear outfits from the current season, bought two new handbags, and then booked a full-body spa treatnt for fifty thousand.
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