Su Wanqing gripped the phone that seemed to have been "formatted" and "reinstalled and upgraded," listening to Assistant Xiao Lin's excited, incoherent report from the other end. Her whole being felt as though she were floating among the clouds, while beneath her feet lay the complete collapse and shattering of everything she had once believed.
The cyberattack had inexplicably stopped, and the crisis was over... All of it had stemmed from her utterly insane decision to throw the phone into the foot basin? And the big shot had merely waved his hand in his sleep, erasing every trace as though none of it had ever happened.
This had already gone beyond the realm of fantasy and entered some kind of domain of "rules" that she could neither understand nor describe.
She hung up. Her body still trembled faintly from lingering fear and excitement. She looked toward the corner at the Chaos Green Lotus Basin, which had once again become plain and unremarkable, seemingly nothing more than an ordinary work of art. Her expression was indescribably complicated. Awe, gratitude, fear, and a trace of... absurd dependence?
A clear rumble came from her stomach, reminding her that since last night, aside from licking down a few mouthfuls of noodle-slice soup and one noodle, she had eaten nothing at all. The double exhaustion of mind and body caused her hunger to surge like a delayed tsunami, sweeping over her with overwhelming force.
She needed food. Immediately. Right now.
Her gaze instinctively shifted toward the kitchen, where the door of the refrigerator still stood wide open, its interior a complete mess. Although the cooling system had been "muted" by the big shot, there should still be some things inside that could be eaten immediately... bread, ham, and the like?
She tiptoed around the sofa, trying not to make a sound, and slipped into the kitchen like a thief. With the power cut off, the temperature inside the refrigerator had already risen. The cold air had long since dissipated, leaving behind a stale, mixed smell of all kinds of food.
She searched quickly. Sure enough, on the door rack of the refrigerator compartment, she found an unopened bag of whole-wheat toast and several individually wrapped slices of cheese. Though they had lost their refrigerated crispness, they should still be enough to fill her stomach.
As though she had seized a lifeline, she tore open the toast bag, took out two dry slices of bread, placed a slice of cheese between them, and, without caring about appearances, opened her mouth and bit down hard!
However—
The instant the bread entered her mouth, Su Wanqing's brows drew tightly together!
Dry! Hard! Coarse!
It was like chewing sawdust! There was no trace of wheat fragrance, only the strange taste of industrial additives and the stale flavor of food left out too long! The cheese had also lost its proper smoothness and salty fragrance, becoming as difficult to swallow as plastic!
What... what was this stuff?!
In the past, she might have forced it down while starving. But now, her taste buds and body had long since been elevated to an entirely new level by that "godly noodle-slice soup" and Chaos Spirit Tea! Faced with such mundane, crude, and utterly spiritless food, her body instinctively produced an intense rejection—and even disgust!
"Urgh..." She could not help dry-heaving. She forced down the mouthful of bread mixture, which felt like gravel, and found that it scraped her throat raw. Her stomach churned violently.
The enormous contrast nearly made her cry. It was easy to go from frugality to luxury, but difficult to go from luxury back to frugality! After tasting such ultimate delicacies, returning to this kind of food was simply torture!
Unwilling to give up, she dug out a carton of yogurt that looked fairly decent, inserted the straw, and took a big sip—
Sour! Astringent! A strong taste of preservatives and flavoring shot straight into her brain! It was equally foul enough to make one furious!
It was over.
Su Wanqing realized in despair that her taste buds and digestive system had probably been completely spoiled by the big shot's "pig feed"! Ordinary food could no longer satisfy her body's instinctive needs. It had even become a burden!
Her hunger remained fierce, but her physiological disgust toward the "junk food" before her was even stronger! Looking at the food filling the refrigerator, she felt utterly desperate, as though she had no way to take a bite of any of it!
Could it be... that from now on, she could only survive on the scraps casually bestowed by the big shot?! How was she supposed to live like this?!
Overwhelming frustration and grievance welled up in her heart, making her nose sting.
Just as she stood staring blankly at the refrigerator, her heart filled with bleakness—
A faint, sleepy murmur came from the direction of the sofa.
Ling Ye seemed to have been disturbed again by some subtle noise. His eyes remained closed, and his brows unconsciously furrowed. His nose twitched slightly, as though he had caught the scent of something unpleasant in his dream.
"...Inferior... fats... decay... carbohydrates..."
Several indistinct words, thick with disgust, drifted intermittently from between his lips.
Clearly, even in sleep, the smells of the "inferior food" emitted when Su Wanqing had opened the refrigerator, chewed dry bread, and drunk yogurt had polluted the big shot's sensitive olfactory environment and aroused his displeasure.
Su Wanqing instantly held her breath and froze where she stood, not daring to move. She did not even dare put down the half-slice of bread in her hand.
Fortunately, Ling Ye only muttered a few words and did not wake up. As though subconsciously trying to shut out the "filthy" odors, he turned over, facing the back of the sofa.
Then, under Su Wanqing's tense gaze, Ling Ye's hand, which rested by the edge of the sofa, casually... turned toward the kitchen refrigerator... and lightly... brushed through the air.
As though he felt a little hot in his dream and casually fanned himself.
There was no light and no energy fluctuation.
Yet the instant he brushed his hand—
The double-door refrigerator in the kitchen, standing wide open and emitting the smell of "inferior food," along with everything inside it... bread, yogurt, cheese, vegetables, fruit, meat, ice cream... even the refrigerator itself—
Like a pencil sketch being erased by a rubber, it abruptly and completely... vanished before Su Wanqing's eyes!
It was not invisibility!
It had truly disappeared on a physical level!
All that remained was an empty cabinet space embedded in the wall, along with an extremely faint ripple in the air, as though space itself had been smoothed away!
Su Wanqing: "!!!!!!"
The half-slice of bread in her hand dropped to the floor with a slap. Her mouth opened into an O, and her eyes widened so far they nearly popped from their sockets!
The... refrigerator?!
What about all the things inside?!
That enormous double-door stainless-steel refrigerator?!!
It was just... gone... with a casual wave?!!
What kind of ability was this?! If it was noisy, he muted it; if it was ugly, he kicked it away; and now, because he disliked the smell... he had simply erased it from the world?!!
Su Wanqing felt that her brain's CPU had completely burned out, smoke rising from it. She looked at the empty cabinet, then at Ling Ye on the sofa, whose brows had seemingly relaxed because the air had become "fresh" and who was sleeping even more soundly. A chill shot from the soles of her feet straight to the crown of her head!
This was no longer a matter of power. This was fundamentally... capriciousness on the level of a creator god!!!
At the same time.
In a basement beneath an unfinished building on the other side of the city, abandoned for many years.
The place was dark and damp, piled high with construction waste.
Suddenly—
"Clang! Crash—!"
A brand-new silver-gray double-door smart refrigerator appeared out of thin air, as though it had been thrown from the void, and slammed heavily onto the dusty concrete floor! It made an enormous noise!
The refrigerator doors sprang open from the impact. Various foods, drinks, and ice creams rolled across the floor, mixing with dust and trash in a complete mess.
Several homeless men who had been searching for food near the trash bins were startled by the sudden crash and "heaven-sent fortune." They cautiously gathered around and stared at the brand-new refrigerator packed with food, as though they had seen a ghost.
"My heavens... this... who threw this away? It's new!"
"There's meat! Ice cream! Look!"
"We're rich, we're rich! Hurry and move it!"
After their brief astonishment came wild delight. They began scrambling to snatch up the food scattered across the floor, as well as the refrigerator, which, despite taking a fall, still looked extremely valuable.
No one knew where the refrigerator had come from or why it had appeared there. It was as though some incomprehensible existence had casually "deleted" it from one coordinate, then casually "pasted" it into this forgotten corner.
Inside the villa's kitchen.
Su Wanqing was still immersed in the immense shock of the refrigerator vanishing from thin air, unable to recover.
Her hunger, stimulated by that mouthful of nearly inedible bread and yogurt, had instead become even more ferocious, scorching her stomach like fire!
What should she do?
The food was gone!
The only person who could make "food for humans" was asleep, and he clearly disliked her!
Was she going to starve to death here?!
Her extreme hunger and despair drove her overloaded mind to suddenly produce a flash of inspiration!
Her gaze abruptly shifted toward the floor in the corner of the kitchen island.
Two empty ice-cream cartons that Ling Ye had casually tossed aside lay there quietly.
And... the plastic spoon he had used to eat the ice cream before disdainfully throwing it away!
Some melted and re-solidified ice cream residue remained on the carton walls. It still gave off a faint milky fragrance and an extremely, extremely thin trace of the chill of "Myriad-Year Ice Marrow"!
Su Wanqing's eyes instantly lit up, as though she had discovered a lifeline!
Although it was merely the big shot's leftovers, it was probably the only thing she could eat right now without her body rejecting it!
She no longer cared about dignity or hygiene. Driven by hunger, she pounced over like a starving wolf, carefully picked up the two empty cartons, and used her trembling fingers to scrape off the congealed milk residue bit by bit before eagerly putting it into her mouth!
A faint taste carrying milky sweetness and a chilly sensation melted across her tongue. Although there was pitifully little and she could barely taste it, her body did not reject it at all! In fact, nourished by that faint chill, her hunger seemed to ease ever so slightly!
It worked!
It really worked!
As though she had discovered a new continent, Su Wanqing scraped at the residue on the cartons even more vigorously. She even picked up the plastic spoon and licked it clean!
She looked disheveled and pitiful, with a kind of madness born from being driven into a desperate situation.
Just as she was wholly focused on "licking the cartons"—
"Grrrroooowl..."
A louder, more urgent rumble came from the direction of the sofa. It was not from her, but from Ling Ye!
Su Wanqing's movements abruptly froze. She raised her head in terror.
A clear roar of hunger came from Ling Ye's stomach. The sound was so loud that it even echoed through the silent living room!
The big shot... was hungry too?!
Ling Ye's brows drew tightly together. Even in his sleep, he seemed troubled by this intense physiological need. He smacked his lips unconsciously, turned over, and even raised one hand to cover his stomach.
Then, under Su Wanqing's tense gaze, Ling Ye's hand, which covered his stomach, began to feel around, completely naturally and unconsciously, on the tattered cloth bag he had always kept beside him.
Was he trying to find something to eat in his dream?
Su Wanqing's heart instantly leaped into her throat! What on earth was in that cloth bag?! The Buzhou Mountain rolling pin? The Chaos Green Lotus washbasin? What if he pulled one of those things out and gnawed on it like a biscuit?!
Just as she was so frightened she could scarcely breathe—
Ling Ye's searching hand suddenly paused, as though it had touched something.
His brows relaxed slightly, and a trace of dreamy satisfaction appeared on his face, as though he had found the "snack" he wanted.
Then, under Su Wanqing's dumbfounded gaze—
With his eyes closed, Ling Ye naturally took something out of the tattered cloth bag... a lump of... something?
The thing looked gray and limp, like a lump of... moldy dry dough that had sat around for too long and lost all its moisture?! There were even several suspicious dark mold spots on its surface! It gave off an indescribable smell, as though it had crossed endless years—stale and rotten, yet carrying a trace of some strange primordial aura!
Holding the lump of something that resembled a prehistoric fossil—the "dry moldy dough"—he brought it naturally to his mouth, opened wide, and bit down with a crisp crack!
The sound, like a dead branch snapping, was especially jarring in the living room!
Ling Ye kept his eyes closed and chewed several times. A satisfied expression appeared on his face as he mumbled dreamily, "Mmm... old dough... authentic flavor..."
Then he bit down several more times with crisp cracks, eating with great relish, as though he were enjoying the most exquisite delicacy in the world.
Su Wanqing: "..."
She watched the big shot gnawing on that lump of "old-dough fossil" that looked like even a dog would refuse to sniff. Then she lowered her head and looked at the empty ice-cream carton in her hand, which she had licked completely clean, without leaving even a trace of milk residue...
At that moment, she developed a deep and despairing doubt about the standard of her future "meals"...
Her taste buds and digestive system were probably not far from "failing" either...
Before you continue