"Donât get greedy. Know when to quit while youâre ahead."
"Exactly." Song Youâai ran up and patted Annieâs hand. "Stop grabbing. That plastic bag of yours canât hold any more."
These survivors from the Song Family Pavilion hadnât even brought backpacks. They had been forced onto Xie Ningâs vehicle, and Ji Taixian was the one whoâd kindly given them the plastic bags!
Annie and the man resentfully pulled back their hands. Picking up their bulging plastic bags, they muttered as they walked away, "This is only because he wouldnât give us more bags."
"Exactly."
"Tch." Song Youâai was speechless. âHow can people be so insatiably greedy?â
"Ignore them." Xie Ning glanced at the sweat-drenched Ji Taixian and cleared her throat. "Are you okay? Need a break?"
"N-No! Iâm just putting some things away. Why would I need a break?" Ji Taixian nearly lost his composure under the girlâs meaningful gaze.
âSince when was he so weak?â
"Zong Xuan, go tell the others to be extra careful. This place is strange. We havenât even seen a few stray zombies. Somethingâs not right."
"Right, Ms. Ning."
Annie and the others put their precious plastic bags, filled with medicine, onto the vehicle before running over to Xie Ning empty-handed.
By now, Xie Ning had already pried open the metal door to the back warehouse of the instant noodle factory.
The group followed her cautiously inside.
"There are instant noodles!" Annie cried out, her face lighting up with surprise.
Everyone turned to look and saw she had already torn open a bag of instant noodles and started eating.
Probably because she hadnât eaten much while rushing around all day, Annie ate incredibly fast, stuffing her face with large mouthfuls, completely devoid of decorum.
Xie Ning glanced over. Seeing that everyone else had run off to move boxes, she couldnât help but frown slightly.
âSomething feels off about this place, but I canât quite put my finger on whatâs wrong.â
"Whatâs wrong?"
"Letâs split up and look around. Groups of two or three." The warehouse area was quite large, with piles of raw materials stacked to the side.
"Shijun, you go with Brother Zongxuan and Tai Xian."
"Got it, sis."
Xie Ning took her motherâs hand and led the way toward a corner of the warehouse.
"Are you going to store things? Ningning, how much can that little storage space of yours hold?"
"It should be able to hold about a hundred boxes of raw materials," Xie Ning whispered, while consciously tidying up the living room area of her general store Space.
Then, she unconsciously switched her focus to the two-square-meter small Space and froze.
âDid the small Space suddenly get a lot bigger?â
âWh-Whatâs going on?â
A faint realization dawned on her, and Xie Ningâs heart pounded with excitement, leaving her frozen in place for a moment.
Song Youâai muttered under her breath as she walked ahead, "Ningning, that little Space of yours isnât so little after all. I donât think itâs much smaller than Tai Xianâs Space anymore."
Turning her head, she found Ningning standing there, completely still. Song Youâai quickly doubled back. "Whatâs wrong?"
Xie Ning turned her head stiffly and looked at her mother. "Mom, I think the small Space got bigger."
"Bigger?" Song Youâaiâs eyes flew wide open. She quickly lowered her voice, "How much bigger?"
Xie Ning estimated it visually. The originally two-square-meter small Space was now about fifty square meters, and its height had increased significantly.
The 1.2-meter cot, various tools, maps, and other miscellaneous items she had originally piled inside the small Space were now clustered together in the very center.
This meant her small Space had expanded in all directions!
"Itâs... it seems a bit big!" Xie Ningâs eyes sparkled as she looked at her mother. "V-Very big. Itâs several times its previous size."