## Moving to a New Home
As she was pondering, she glanced at her phone and saw the time reminded her of the appointment with the agent, Sister Zhao, to view apartments. Lin Mo suppressed her confusion, grabbed her bag and keys, and drove to the designated complex.
Agent Sister Zhao was already waiting at the entrance of the complex, waving in a thick black down jacket. When she saw Lin Mo, she led the way while chattering: "Let's start from the nearest and go to the farthest. First, let's look at the first apartment. The owner originally wanted to sell it outright, but it didn't sell for half a year, so the place is empty."
Lin Mo followed her across the stone path in the complex and responded, "The 'Super Hassle-Free Rental' is your self-operated service—monthly rent, one month deposit and one month rent?"
Sister Zhao quickly nodded: "Yes, yes. No agency fee, but a 5% service fee every month to cover property management coordination, daily maintenance, etc."
Pushing open the door, the empty, rough-finished unit was visible at a glance. Sister Zhao added, "The owner was confident the place would sell quickly, so he cleared out all the furniture. But the price is really good—only 7,000 yuan a month. For the same layout with decoration in this complex, the monthly rent is over 10,000."
Lin Mo didn't mind the rough finish. She casually looked around: the living room, dining room, and north-south balcony of the flat were open concept, very airy. Stretching from the south balcony to the north balcony, the space was a full 11.5 meters long and over 3 meters wide. To the left of the living room were the master bedroom and a secondary bedroom. Opposite the bedrooms were the kitchen, bathroom, and a north-facing bedroom. The layout was very neat.
She calculated in her mind: the master bedroom for sleeping, the secondary and north bedrooms for storing her sundries, and the kitchen and bathroom for normal use. No more cramped conditions like before.
And the long area of the living room, dining room, plus the north and south balconies was spacious enough to hold the train and allow for future expansion. It was practically tailor-made for her.
What satisfied her even more was that this unit was on the first floor, making it easy to move things into the train. The building was newer than her current rental, so the water and electrical pipes should be in better condition. There were no illegally built sheds on the first floor; instead, there was a large enclosed balcony.
In front of the building was an abandoned swimming pool, and since the building was elevated, the lighting was still decent. Unlike her previous place, where the sunlight was blocked by the building in front and her own shed, making the room always gloomy.
Sister Zhao stood at the door, seeing Lin Mo silent for a long time, only looking around the empty room, thinking she was put off by the rough finish: "Let's go to the next one. That one has a fresh, minimalist decoration—you can move in with just a suitcase. Much more comfortable than this."
But unexpectedly, Lin Mo shook her head firmly: "I'll take this one. Short-term rental for one month first." For her, since she already had furniture and supplies, the rough finish didn't matter. Having enough space and a suitable location was what mattered most.
Sister Zhao was utterly bewildered, unable to understand why Lin Mo would choose an empty, rough-finished unit over a nicely decorated one. But as long as she could rent it out, she'd get her commission. She quickly smiled and said, "Great! I'll help you set up the electronic contract right away. Once you sign, I'll hand you the keys."
Even though Sister Zhao repeatedly stressed that the rent was very cheap, for the voluntarily unemployed Lin Mo, 7,000 yuan a month was a significant expense. She secretly calculated: she needed to find a way to replenish her funds. After the extreme cold passed, she had to be able to afford the rent for this flat.
But finding a high-paying job meant returning to a busy, dog-tired life...
Her mind drifted to the lockdown days when alcohol, cigarettes, and items like Lao Gan Ma and medicine were in short supply, with prices skyrocketing. She immediately had an idea: she could stock up on cigarettes and alcohol. If supplies became tight later, she could sell them at a high price to make a profit.
As for medicine, sanitary pads, and other daily necessities, her conscience wouldn't allow her to make dirty money off such essential items. But selling cigarettes and alcohol at inflated prices gave her no guilt.
Besides that, she also planned to stock up on some snacks that could be sold at a premium. After basic needs were met, people would be willing to pay a high price to satisfy their cravings. Thinking of this, she asked Sister Zhao, who was fiddling with a tablet to make the electronic contract: "Do you have a resident group chat for this complex?"
Sister Zhao nodded: "Yes, yes. I'll contact the landlord now and have him add you to the group. That way, group-buying and property notifications will be easier."
Lin Mo replied softly, "Okay, thank you for your trouble."
Now she had the owner groups for two nearby complexes, each with thousands of residents. If she could seize the business opportunity, it shouldn't be too hard to replenish her funds by selling cigarettes, alcohol, and snacks later.
At this moment, she had no idea that this impending disaster would last so long—long beyond any of her predictions. Nor did she expect that the potential consumers she envisioned would be reduced to almost none.
As someone who grew up in peacetime, Lin Mo subconsciously believed that no matter what happened, as long as the government had enough time, they would find a way to handle it properly. In her imagination, even in the worst-case scenario, this disaster would only last two or three years.
After the disaster passed, everything would return to normal. That was also why she had considered online loans but ultimately gave up, and why she planned to keep a balance of over a hundred thousand yuan in her bank card to cover credit card payments and job hunting after the disaster.
While Sister Zhao was lowering her head to contact the landlord and not paying attention, Lin Mo subtly raised her hand, her sleeve sliding down slightly to reveal a thin needle hidden in the cuff. She pressed gently, pricking her fingertip to squeeze out a bright red drop of blood, which dripped onto the living room floor.
According to the system's instructions, using the train conductor's blood as an anchor point would allow her to obtain accurate spatial coordinates and smoothly move the train. She had to do this step in advance.
The electronic contract was done quickly. After reviewing the terms and confirming there were no issues, Lin Mo signed with her fingertip on the phone screen.
The moment she got the keys to the new apartment, she immediately took out her phone, messaged the furniture store salesperson on WeChat, paid in advance, and bought a double bed and a wardrobe, with the address set for this newly rented flat. She arranged for delivery that evening.
After making arrangements, she drove back to her old rental apartment and started organizing supplies. She first unpacked the complex-packaged foods like flower cakes and egg yolk pastries, neatly placing them on the shelves in the train's storage room.
When storage bins were insufficient, she used unused express cardboard boxes. These boxes were sealed and clean, perfect for storing supplies after wiping them down.
After a major shuffle, she finally loaded all her personal belongings into the train. Then she activated the train's movement function.
[Train Movement Rules]: Space folding possible. Each movement consumes 15 kg of energy materials. Maximum movement distance per trip: 1 km. Cooldown time: 24 hours.
[Consume 15 kg of energy materials to move the train under space-folding state?]
Lin Mo did not hesitate and mentally said: [Yes]
The vision of that drop of blood faintly appeared in her mind. She focused her attention, accurately selected the location of the living room of the newly rented flat, and confirmed the placement of the train.
But immediately, a slight dizziness hit her. Her steps faltered, and she nearly lost her balance. She quickly raised a hand to support herself against the wall, rubbing her throbbing forehead.
After a moment, the dizziness gradually faded, but a noticeable fatigue settled into her body, even weakening her strength to lift her hand.
She frowned and murmured to herself, "Moving the train also consumes mental energy?"
When she had stored supplies earlier, she had also felt slight fatigue, but it was nowhere near as pronounced, and she had grown more accustomed to it.
It seemed that different train operations consumed different amounts of mental energy.
Once she recovered, Lin Mo took a photo of the old rental apartment and sent it to Sister Zhao. The early termination would need the agent to contact, but she would likely lose the one-month deposit.
On the way, she picked up the portable hard drive she had asked the shop owner to download content onto. The owner was reliable and didn't waste time. The drive was packed with various American TV series, anime, movies, documentaries, and variety shows—enough to pass the long, boring days ahead.
Passing by a gas station near her new home, Lin Mo pulled in. While refueling, she politely asked the station worker, "Excuse me, may I use the restroom? I'm in a hurry."
The worker pointed: "Sure, it's to the east. Go straight in."
Lin Mo quickly walked to the restroom, unhesitatingly pricked her finger again, and on her way back, casually wiped the blood on a pillar in front of the gas station.
Since at her pace, she couldn't collect enough gasoline no matter what, she needed to leave a backup route.
If things really became untenable, she could move the train here, use this blood anchor to get the coordinates, and take the gasoline from here. That way, she wouldn't be left without energy materials.
She also had some old jewelry and financial gold beans at home—scattered gold pieces bought in her county town, untraceable but inconspicuous and valuable. After refueling, quietly leaving a gold bean might be a way.
Author's note: