Master Liu swallowed hard, his Adam's apple bobbing, while Captain Chen's jaw nearly dropped to the floor in sheer disbelief.
"Tempered glass on that scale costs far too much," Captain Chen said, recovering first and trying to steer her toward practicality. "Why not consider composite glass or even reinforced cement walls? They'd be strong and much more affordable."
In Jing Shu's mind, in the apocalypse, ultimate safety was everything. The key was also saving time. Once the steel frame was set up, adding the panels of tempered glass would finish the job quickly. It was like putting a massive, durable dome over the entire villa. Jing Shu had no time to waste on slower, heavier alternatives.
"For beauty," Jing Shu said after a deliberate pause. That reason, superficial as it seemed, was flawless in her eyes for her cover story.
"Well then," Captain Chen said, scratching his head and pulling out a notepad. "Our company happens to have a stockpile of tempered glass we haven't been able to sell for a project that fell through. Even at our cost price, it'll still run you over a hundred thousand."
"And while you're at it," Jing Shu continued, barely pausing, "replace all the existing windows in the villa with triple glazed glass. It'll look grand and modern, plus it'll be fully insulated and soundproof." She then pulled out her rolled up design sketches and began explaining all the ideas she'd gathered and refined over the past few days, pointing at the diagrams.
In the fourth year of the apocalypse, she remembered, frequent landslides and mudflows had rocked the mountains. Thunder cracked daily without a drop of rain, the explosions echoing through the valleys like the wrath of both heaven and hell. Sometimes a single, massive thunderclap could shake an entire house to its foundations. Soundproofing wasn't a luxury, it was absolutely necessary for sanity and safety.
The fifth year had brought endless, brutal blizzards. Jing Shu remembered it vividly. Countless people had frozen or starved to death in their own homes. Many had collapsed while desperately digging for frozen tree roots, their strength gone, unable to continue.
Jing Shu herself had been covered in weeping frostbite sores. They itched and burned, festered and scarred, ruining her skin. Yet she'd still been forced to labor daily just to trade for scraps of bark and rotten roots that were never enough to fill her stomach.
She clenched her fists at the memory. This life, she'd never again let frostbite disfigure her body. She'd be warm.
"I want to extend the villa with a dedicated boiler room at the back," she said, her voice firm. "Connect it to two large stoves, so even without firewood in the deepest winter, I can still cook. Add a traditional heated brick bed in an adjacent room for sleeping, and behind that, build a sealed coal storage room. With a built in grill for skewered meat and naan bread inside the stove, it'll be perfect." Jing Shu pointed at the back corridor of the villa, practically salivating at the thought of roasted naan and sizzling meat, flavors from a secure future.
In the north, modern houses were usually heated with underfloor hot water systems. Jing Shu's villa had originally been fitted with a wall mounted gas boiler, billing by usage.
But after the second year of the apocalypse, all public gas and grid electricity had been diverted to the national artificial sun project. The government only just managed to grow enough food in controlled facilities to keep people from total starvation. As for cooking at home, there was simply no energy allotted for it when even eating a basic meal was uncertain.
Building her own independent boiler room was essential. Coal or charcoal could be burned to heat water for both the underfloor system and to supplement the air conditioning. It was a non negotiable layer of survival.
Fortress Upgrade Step Two, she thought, Warm in winter, cool in summer, with water, with electricity, full bellies and comfort.
"That's easy enough," Captain Chen said, visibly relieved she wasn't asking to move load bearing walls. "We'll just add a reinforced door in the corner of your existing kitchen wall. The space is there."
Jing Shu then brought them outside to the front yard of the villa. "I'd originally planned to plant decorative flowers here, but now I want a small, deep pond on the left side, deeper than it looks, so I can raise lotus and fish. Install rows of full spectrum fluorescent lights above it on a timer to mimic sunlight. I'm worried the weak winter sunlight won't be enough for them.
The middle passage to the front door stays the same for access. On the right side of the yard, I want an underground water storage and circulation system installed, with raised soil beds for crops planted above it."
Captain Chen jotted down notes briskly, starting to see the scale of her hobby farm vision. "As long as we waterproof the underground tank properly and insulate the pipes, that'll not be a problem. Don't worry."
The pond would be about 8 square meters, while the water circulation system and crop beds would cover more than 20 square meters of the yard.
Next, Jing Shu led them to the inside of the yard gate. "Build a long, low storage shed right here along this wall, divided into four separate, sealed sections." In truth, this was her planned cover for visibly raising a few chickens and perhaps a pig or two outside the Cube Space.
With her outdoor requirements finished, Jing Shu guided them back into the villa itself.
Father Jing had used only the finest, most expensive materials in the original renovation of the villa, including high grade security doors and windows. Even the basement had a concealed panic room with reinforced steel doors. Those features needed no changes, they were perfect.
"Move the formal dining area into the main hall to open up space," Jing Shu instructed, walking through the ground floor. "Then connect the old dining room directly with the kitchen to make one big, open kitchen. Build another full row of floor to ceiling cabinets here for pantry storage, and add a door right there leading directly to the new boiler room." This expanded space would finally give her room for the large commercial freezer and systematic storage of dry goods and supplies.
The thought of a vast, well stocked kitchen overflowing with food and resources filled Jing Shu with a deep, visceral sense of security.
"Upstairs, convert the second floor living room into a sealed, temperature controlled greenhouse." That would require extensive work, redoing the water lines, electrical wiring, and drainage pipes, adding insulation, installing plant racks, and setting up dedicated grow lights.
Lastly, Jing Shu took them up to the 40 square meter rooftop terrace. Unfortunately, it was already filled with the newly installed water tanks and the arrays of bacterial solar panels. She'd once dreamed of planting crops there too, but remembering the desperate water shortages of the apocalypse's first year, she decided it was wiser to prioritize storing as much water as possible first. She could always add small container gardens in later years when things stabilized.
Fortress Upgrade Step Three, she cataloged in her mind, Grow food, raise poultry, eat eggs, drink milk.
After a solid hour of detailed discussion, Jing Shu finalized the work contract with Captain Chen and Master Liu. The villa's comprehensive remodeling was officially entrusted to their team.
"Fifteen days," Captain Chen promised, slapping his chest. "Guaranteed completion! We'll work in shifts."
That afternoon, Master Liu accompanied Jing Shu to various building material warehouses to select everything. By the end of the day, all the tiles, pipes, glass, and fixtures were chosen and signed off on. The estimated total cost came to four hundred thousand yuan. Even Jing Shu herself was momentarily startled by the sum.
At dinner that night, Father Jing looked as though he had bitter words stuck in his throat. Watching his daughter wolf down her food with a single minded focus, he said nothing in the end. He'd noticed his daughter had smiled less lately, had spoken less, and had gone days without changing her clothes, when she once loved dressing up and never wore the same outfit twice. What had happened to her? He worried, but blamed it on the stress of her new venture.
On November 7th, a small milestone was reached. The first quail chicks hatched inside Jing Shu's Cube Space. She fed the ten newly hatched, fluffy chicks a carefully diluted drop of Spirit Spring and numbered them with tiny leg bands, marking a new set of eggs for hatching as well. She also collected another large batch of chicken and duck eggs from the nesting boxes.
Unfortunately, the chicken and duck eggs she'd set aside five days earlier had failed to hatch. Jing Shu wondered if perhaps the Spirit Spring affected fertility, or if she should've specifically incubated eggs from Chicken No. 1, the alpha hen.
Chicken No. 1 had grown even larger and more majestic, now laying an astonishing ten eggs a day, a truly unnatural rate. At this rate of accelerated production, it should've been entering biological decline, but it remained vigorous and dominant, the undisputed queen of the flock.
Jing Shu decided to observe the hen for another seven days. If there were still no adverse effects like sudden collapse or illness, she'd begin cautiously consuming minuscule amounts of Spirit Spring herself. After a personal trial period without side effects, she'd then allow her parents to start drinking a heavily diluted version too. It was a risk, but the potential for enhanced health and resilience was too great to ignore.
The pigs, sheep, and cows were all thriving, already half grown. At this accelerated rate, in about twenty days, the female pig, sheep, and cow would reach maturity. The males would need another month or so. It was clear that their growth speed was directly tied to how much Spirit Spring they received, with the females on the stronger dose outpacing the males.
The past few days had kept Jing Shu busier than ever. She'd just finished overseeing the installation of the central air system and the complex solar power system on the roof. The remaining large appliances, like the freezers and water system, would wait until Captain Chen finished renovating and reinforcing the new kitchen space.
The four massive water tanks now occupied nearly all the remaining rooftop space, their sloshing contents a comforting sound. They finally eased her deep seated fear of reliving the first year of the apocalypse, when she'd been so parched she could only lick her cracked lips and swallow dust.
Outside, the steel frame for her inverted triangular tempered glass walls was already erected, a skeleton of metal against the gray sky. The mechanism for the retractable roof was in place. Tomorrow, once the custom panels of tempered glass were fitted and sealed, her primary fortress shell would be complete.
With a rare half a day free from supervision duties, Jing Shu turned her attention inward, to the Cube Space, and the most satisfying task yet, harvesting the first crops.