Volume One, Chapter Four: Where Does the Warehouse Door Lead?

Wang Xin once again summoned the boss.

Without hesitation, he produced twenty gold bars, each weighing 100 grams.

The manager pondered for a long while.

In the end, he agreed to buy the gold bars at a price 100 yuan below the market rate.

Qiao Yuan didn’t mind; after all, the gold bars had come without any effort.

After signing the papers, within minutes,

over a million yuan appeared in the account.

Including the money from the jade pendant, the total reached 1.6 million yuan.

That night, Qiao Yuan did not return to the village but went to the mall instead.

She bought clothes she had never been able to afford before, along with several pairs of branded shoes.

Finally, she went to the Japanese buffet restaurant where her foster parents often took her younger brother.

Sitting alone in a private booth, she leisurely ate sashimi.

Suddenly, a familiar voice came from behind her.

“That little brat has blocked me. When she comes back, I’m going to make her regret it!”

Qiao Yuan narrowed her eyes. That voice… it was Qiao Zhenyun.

“You too? Why yell so harshly on the phone? As long as we coax her home, there are plenty of ways to make her marry Wang Tianqi.”

“Wang Tianqi’s father said that if Qiao Yuan marries him, they’ll give us an 800,000 yuan bride price.”

“Mom, Dad, what’s so great about Qiao Yuan? She’s worth 800,000 yuan?” came the disdainful voice of Qiao Qiu, Qiao Yuan’s younger brother.

Qiao Yuan was two years older than him, but their foster parents favored Qiao Qiu.

Growing up, all the best food was given to Qiao Qiu.

All the fun toys went to Qiao Qiu first; Qiao Yuan only got them after they were broken.

Whenever Qiao Qiu made a mistake, it was Qiao Yuan who was punished, with the excuse that as an older sister, she hadn’t taught her brother properly.

After enduring all these years, she had finally managed to get into university and escape this suffocating home.

But to her surprise, they had started scheming about her marriage.

“Isn’t Wang Tianqi somewhat mentally challenged? His father wants a smarter girl so that their children will be smart. Qiao Yuan at least graduated from a prestigious university, right?”

Hearing this, Qiao Yuan lost her appetite.

She had been working at a design company in the city, but somehow her parents found her and repeatedly urged her to go home for blind dates.

After all these years, Qiao Yuan knew exactly what kind of people they were.

So as soon as she discovered the grocery store system, she immediately hid back in her rural hometown.

No matter how hard her parents tried, they would never guess she had returned to the countryside.

But this wasn’t a permanent solution; sooner or later, they would find out.

Luckily, every booth in this Japanese restaurant had bamboo curtains, so the three of them couldn’t see Qiao Yuan.

After they left, Qiao Yuan also left the restaurant.

She took a taxi back to the village, arriving after 10 p.m.

Before returning to her bedroom, she stopped by the side room grocery store.

When she turned on the lights, she was delighted to see that the items Ning Jue had bought today had been automatically restocked on the shelves.

She walked around the shelves several times but still felt there was too little variety.

[ Ding! Task 2 completed ]

[ Reward: 100 square meters of space, a row of garment racks ]

Perhaps because Qiao Yuan had taken the gold bars and rushed out, the system only issued the reward now.

At the back of the grocery store, a new row of shelves had appeared, filled with hanging clothes.

Sigh, all these useless things. The villagers all preferred going to the city to buy clothes; who would care about a grocery store?

Qiao Yuan touched the fabric; the quality was actually quite good.

Tomorrow, Ning Jue was scheduled to pick up the goods at 5 a.m.

Though early, Qiao Yuan understood.

In the apocalypse, everyone fends for themselves; carrying so many supplies would easily attract envy.

Yawning, Qiao Yuan turned off the lights and headed for bed.

After she left, the warehouse door of the grocery store suddenly emitted a flash of white light.

The light flickered and disappeared unnoticed.

To avoid oversleeping, Qiao Yuan set an alarm.

At 4:30 a.m., she rubbed her face and turned on the grocery store lights.

[ Ding! Grocery store system meets upgrade conditions ]

[ Is the host ready to upgrade? ]

[ Yes or No ]

Qiao Yuan looked at the two words on the screen and decisively chose "Yes."

She waited quietly for a few seconds, but the system gave no response—not even the store changed.

Is this some kind of prank?

Minutes passed, and Qiao Yuan finally confirmed that the system was bugged.

She leaned on the counter, bored, scrolling through her phone.

5:00 a.m.

5:15 a.m.

5:30 a.m.

By 6:00 a.m., the sky had brightened.

Ning Jue still hadn’t appeared.

Qiao Yuan glanced at her watch again.

Could something have happened on the road?

She paced back and forth inside the grocery store until finally stopping in front of the warehouse door.

What’s going on?

Although she had only known Ning Jue for a day, Qiao Yuan had a good impression of him.

He was humble and polite, and from his words, even starving enough to eat leaves hadn’t made him consider robbery.

In short, a good person.

On impulse, Qiao Yuan gripped the warehouse door handle.

She knew the warehouse inside was still empty.

Ning Jue wouldn’t suddenly appear just because the door was opened.

But at that moment, she did it anyway.

The moment she stepped inside, a sudden heat flushed through her body.

Then Qiao Yuan was dumbfounded.

Before her was a vast empty hall, bathed in the pale morning light.

Through the floor-to-ceiling windows, she saw countless glass display cases.

Inside the glass domes were porcelain, bronze artifacts, and even ancient gold relics.

Qiao Yuan struggled to calm her racing heart.

The door! My warehouse door!

She spun around sharply.

No trace of the old wooden door remained.

Behind her stood a four-meter-high vintage camphor wood door.

On the side, the words “Ancient Treasures Exhibition” were inscribed.

Qiao Yuan’s first thought was that she had traveled through time.

This was clearly a large museum.

But why did it look so desolate?

Even if it wasn’t open yet, there shouldn’t be not a single staff member.

“Is anyone here?” Qiao Yuan called out.

Only her echo answered back after a few seconds.

She wandered aimlessly through the museum.

Not a soul was in sight.

At the window, when she looked outside, she gasped in terror.

On the third floor of the museum, through the glass, Qiao Yuan clearly saw the murky yellow floodwaters outside.

In the distance, the skyscrapers were pitch black, without a single light on.

What was even more horrifying was that human corpses continually floated to the surface of the floodwaters, as if they had been devoured by giants.

Could this be… Ning Jue’s world?

She recalled the apocalypse Ning Jue had spoken of—it matched this scene exactly.

Only now, the floodwaters were not very high, just reaching the first floor of the museum.

After some thought, Qiao Yuan decided to return to the grocery store; this place was too dangerous.

She sprinted back to the ancient treasures exhibit door and pushed it open without hesitation.

But the familiar grocery store did not appear before her eyes.

Instead, the vast exhibition hall remained.

What was going on?

Ning Jue said that opening the exhibition hall door would lead straight to the grocery store!

Qiao Yuan wanted to cry.

No! Are you messing with me?

She tried several times back and forth, finally confirming she really couldn’t return.

As Qiao Yuan gradually processed her emotions, the system’s electronic voice suddenly burst through her mind.

[ Ding! ]

[ Grocery store system upgrade activated ]

[ Items required for upgrade: 5 rare minerals. ]