Five days until the apocalypse!
Another sunset, seven in the evening.
Carrying his backpack, Su Jin returned to his rental apartment, having changed into a tank top and baggy shorts bought locally earlier that day.
It had been a genuinely fruitful day.
He had spent half of it buried in a bookstore, "quantum speed-reading" through countless encyclopedias to deepen his understanding of this world.
The other half had been spent scouting locations, researching market prices, budgeting expenses, and chatting up the neighborhood security guards.
After crunching the numbers every which way, his money was just barely enough... though of course, his supply calculations had been planned to a point of extreme oversaturation.
If it were strictly for food, calculated for a family of four, it would last several months.
Had he not needed to procure a vast array of other functional supplies, that amount of cash could easily have kept them fed for more than two years.
The purchasing power was truly astonishing!
The moment he stepped inside, he dropped the backpack and retrieved the handbag from within it.
From the handbag, he took out a pen and notebook, followed by two plastic bags.
One contained rice; the other, stir-fried sliced pork.
Having eaten some raw leaves the night before without issue, he had grown bold enough today to order a meat dish at a small local restaurant.
The flavor wasn't bad, and discovering that the restaurant served ordinary rice and provided chopsticks had come as a pleasant surprise.
As for the two bags on the dining table, they held the leftover takeout.
With one hand, Su Jin flipped open his notebook, while the other untied the plastic bag.
Before he had even opened it, a sensation of warmth brushed against his fingers...
Looking at the still-warm food, Su Jin froze.
He had read his share of web novels, and the power-fantasy ones always featured spatial rings or something similar, inside of which food enjoyed an infinite shelf life.
Yet seeing it with his own eyes—feeling that the meal was still warm—felt nothing short of magical... Wasn't this the equivalent of time stasis?
Skills like time stasis were considered bottom-tier in novels, dime a dozen.
The food felt just as fresh as when he bought it. It seemed he wouldn't have to worry about things brought from home expiring.
Having opened the plastic bag, Su Jin picked up a clump of rice with his chopsticks and popped it into his mouth.
After two chews, his expression shifted slightly. He immediately picked up a bite of the dish.
*It's not time stasis!*
The temperature hadn't dropped, but the rice had retrograded and hardened, and the dish's flavor seemed to have altered slightly as well!
That meant the space inside the bag was actually a thermally insulated environment... but molecules could still move.
Whether microorganisms and bacteria could survive was something he would need a petri dish to test.
*Man... if that's the case, even spirit pills kept in a storage ring would expire eventually!*
What were the physics behind this pocket dimension?
Su Jin smacked his forehead and let out a self-deprecating chuckle.
Why bother obsessing over that garbage? Trying to explain metaphysics with science was itself unscientific.
Ever since he transmigrated, not a single damn thing had been normal!
Yet on second thought, he felt a twinge of sorrow. He had spent half his life receiving a scientific education without learning anything else... If not science, what else was he supposed to believe in?
He couldn't very well place his faith in the ancient ancestors. After all, they had never even eaten their fill...
Suppressing his stray thoughts, Su Jin began organizing his notes as he ate.
Halfway through his meal, a knock sounded at the door!
Su Jin jolted, dropped his chopsticks, and covered the distance to the door in three quick strides.
Peering through the peephole, he saw Fu Qingdai!
She stood outside the door looking nervous and ill at ease, completely alone.
Su Jin quickly pulled the door open and yanked Fu Qingdai inside.
Startled by the sudden pull, Fu Qingdai gasped.
Only upon seeing Su Jin's face did she quickly calm down. "I'm out, Cousin," she said nervously.
"Brilliant work! When did you get discharged? Run into any trouble?" Su Jin asked pleasantly.
"Today... around noon, when I got home. My mom just left for work." Fu Qingdai kept her head bowed, not daring to meet his eyes. "No trouble at all. I don't know what got into that nurse, but she kept speaking up for me... Oh, right, she told me in private that my condition still needs rest and recuperation, and that you should call her to report on how I'm doing."
Su Jin nodded repeatedly and guided her toward the dining table.
"Sit. Let's sit down and talk."
"Okay..." Fu Qingdai replied softly, perching on the edge of the chair.
"Cousin, what should we do next?"
Su Jin walked over to the kitchen, poured a cup of tap water, and slid it over to Fu Qingdai.
Sitting down across from her, he said, "You can leave pretty much everything from here on out to me. Otherwise, you just do whatever I tell you to do. But before I give you instructions, we need a three-point pact that you must take to heart. Understand? Do you know what a three-point pact means?"
"I understand... Tell me, Cousin," Fu Qingdai said in a soft, gentle voice.
"Excellent! First, absolutely no letting emotions cloud your judgment! Second, never leave out any detail, no matter how small! Third, whatever task I give you must be completed cleanly and flawlessly. Can you do that?!"
"I can!" Fu Qingdai lifted her head, finally looking straight at him.
"Good! That's the spirit!" Su Jin gave her a thumbs-up. "You're clever—I can tell. I believe you can do it!"
"Even though I'll be assigning you tasks down the line, in reality, you only need to follow one rule: trust me whole-heartedly. I know you're still uneasy inside, but I'm not boasting when I say this—I never ask my clients to judge me by my win rate. Please, measure me by my losses, because I have never lost!"
"Really, big brother?" Fu Qingdai's eyes lit up at once, shimmering with hope.
"Of course. Only Trisolarans lie; we Namekians always tell the truth."
"Why are Trisolarans so wicked!"
Seeing that Fu Qingdai had livened up considerably, Su Jin felt much more at ease.
Since this mission had to be carried out no matter what, he needed to maintain his professional spirit.
His own mindset couldn't break, and the psychological well-being of his young client needed guarding even more.
"Big brother... what should I do next?" Fu Qingdai asked.
"Well..." Just as Su Jin was about to answer, his gaze swept across the electrical outlet in the corner of the wall.
Only then did he suddenly realize that he hadn't looked into the electricity situation all day. Although he had brought two power banks, relying on them for several days would be difficult.
His phone was quite useful right now and would be of even greater use later on.
The wall outlet was a standard two-prong socket. His charger would physically fit, but he hadn't dared plug it in for fear of frying the device. This was the perfect chance to ask.
"Let me ask you something first. What's the voltage of that outlet?"
"Two hundred and twenty volts."
"Do you have a scientist here named Volta? What's the unit of voltage called?"
"We don't have a scientist named Volta. The unit of voltage was named after a physicist from our country, Li Songxi."
"So the unit of voltage is called..."
"It's called the volt."
"A-l-r-i-g-h-t then."
Su Jin was rendered speechless, marveling at how absurdly powerful the company's translation feature was. It truly adapted automatically and converted cultural context... except, of course, that no one else could read his handwritten notes.
Regardless, that meant his phone should charge normally. He would test it with a power bank first before plugging in the phone.
A voltage of 220V matching most countries on Earth was unlikely to be a pure coincidence.
Adopting such a voltage was probably a rational compromise struck between economy and transmission efficiency.
Which meant that science had never ceased to function, and his own experience and common sense remained entirely applicable.
"What's wrong, Cousin?" Fu Qingdai asked curiously.
Su Jin shook his head and pulled out another notebook. "Nothing. Now, tell me about your parents. It must be detailed, without leaving anything out. This part is critical to whether we can interact openly and legitimately. If we handle this properly, I'll be able to visit your home freely, making it far easier to help your parents. Go ahead and start."
Fu Qingdai nodded, but just as she was about to speak, she hesitated. "Big brother... after I finish telling you, could you tell me about Planet Namek?"
"No problem. You first."
An hour later.
"Big brother, I've told you everything I know," Fu Qingdai said, gripping her now-empty water glass. "Is there anything else?"
Su Jin closed his notebook. "Nothing more to ask. I'll head over to your house tomorrow, and you have two tasks."
"What tasks?"
"Get your mom to whip up a few hearty meat dishes, and steal two thousand yuan for me."
Chapter 12