[Dolly Fu] Lily, you b*. Pick up my phone or I'll tell your Li family that you have drugs in your possession. In fact, I'll tell everyone at school that you're a drug dealer too. You've been avoiding me all week! Pick up the phone!

Lily angrily stared at Dolly's text messages and threw her phone across the room. Pushing her head down into the pillows, she screamed into it repeatedly. After a few minutes, she got tired, her face hot and damp from pressing into the pillow. Looking across the room where her phone lay sadly, Lily got up and grabbed it, getting angry again at the cracked screen.

Closing her eyes to calm her nerves, she breathed slowly and deeply. After getting a grip on her emotions, she responded to the text.

[Lily Li] Shut up! I was busy all week, alright? You're the drug dealer. Come on over. No one is home.

Rolling her eyes in annoyance after typing out her calm response, Lily flopped back into the bed again. After getting back from City PR, she went home and did some research on where to exchange the gold for money and came up with 2 ways to do it. Either the pawn shops where they take a 20% cut on the value of the items or the bank who doesn't take a cut at all if you have an account with them.

After some debate, she decided on going to the bank. No one knows where she got the gold bar from anyway. If anything, they will just think her family gave it to her- because her family is rich. So it won't be so suspicious. So she went to the bank this morning and exchanged 1 bar of gold for $500k which went directly to her account. After 6 months of only having $500 in there at a time, she finally felt rich again. Filthy rich. Richer than that stupid Dolly. And she got the money on her own too.

Ahh.. earning your own money is the best. Maybe there IS something to her grandfather and father working so hard to earn the family money.

Talking about earning money, she still has 1 bag of drugs that Dolly doesn't know about, 1 bag of drugs that Dolly will get 50% of and she'll get 50% of the gold bar Dolly has in her possession.

Either way, she has way richer than that stupid Dolly. But she just doesn't know where to sell the drugs. Hmmm. Maybe Dolly knows. That girl parties a lot and knows a lot of people. She clearly recognized it was drugs right away when she saw it. And she was the one that pointed out the danger which was why they fled.

Okay. Maybe Dolly isn'tt that stupid.

Dolly arrived and walked into Lily's room like she owned the place. Lily had no reason to complain since she acts the same at Dolly's house.

Lily: "Close the door. Quickly. Do you know how to sell off the drugs?"

Dolly: "Drugs? It's really hard. You either become a drug dealer to sell it off, or you sell to a drug dealer, but they take a sizable chunk. Oh, here's your gold money, $200K."

Lily: "... $200K? Isn't this a bit light of $50K? I checked. That bar of gold should be $500K at the bank."

Dolly: "Well, I had to get someone to exchange it for me so they took a 20%."

Lily: "Oh, okay. In that case, I'll go find a dealer myself and I'll give your portion after they took their cut. Sounds fair?"

Dolly: "... No, that means you'll do all the work. We'll figure out how to sell the drugs together. And you know what? I'll give you the $50K and swallow the service charge myself."

Lily: Hmph, you think you can be sneaky about this? Stupid.

Lily: "Okay, I won't do anything to the drugs until I find the right price."

Dolly: "I want to be part of the deal. You can't sell it off yourself or I'll tell people you're a real drug dealer."

Lily: "Ugh! Okay, already! I won't sell it without you."

As she thought, she couldn't get rid of Dolly's involvement. Now she can't even hand over the drugs to Dolly since Dolly obviously is not trustworthy. And Lily also has another bar of drugs she needed to sell off too. So it's good to make the right connections for the first bar.

At the beginning of October, she requested a break from mech training with instructor Apollo. She then notified the Chens that she will be flying back to Country M for a short visit. The only requirement would be for all the immediate family members of the family to be on site. Including their grandparents. The Chens are of course intrigued. It's been 6 months since they took on this super top secret project for their client. They are hyper on guard against any movements they made to draw attention. Luckily due to the two space rings that Aria gave them, there were no traces of anything that they're working on.

John picked her up from the airport.

A young man with a long ponytail walked out of the airport, drawing people's eyes. He wasn't too tall but due to his slim profile, he looked very attractive. He was dressed in layers since it is getting chillier than usual this time of year.

John waved to attract his attention. Aria sat in the car and they left the airport to arrive at the Chen's family home since it is more secure than the office. The four family members warmly welcomed the young man into their house, the servants were all dismissed.

Aria: "Hello, everyone. I have two purposes for this visit. One is to get an update on our projects, and the other I'll discuss in detail afterwards."

Joseph: "We are ahead of schedule. All of the houses are finished and stored inside David's ring. We are 40% done with the customizations of the Cruisers. I estimate we will need another 10 months to completion."

Aria: "Thank you for your hard work. I've just transferred 5M into your accounts. I believe I'm up to date on the labor and parts bill, but please let me know if that is not the case. Anyway, I would like to share with you some bad news that ties into my second purpose."

Melanie: "What's the bad news? Did they find you? Are you in danger? Oh my g*, was it us? Did we somehow slip up? Come and hide here in Country M, we can help you."

Immediately after hearing about the bad news, the Chen family's hearts jumped. The secret that they tried so hard to keep for the young man was found out, and now he's going to go on the run. Aria's heart slightly warmed at their obvious concern. She smiled at them charmingly and calmed them down. The Chens were surprised at how calm the young man was... and how gorgeous his face became after he smiled.

Aria: "No, it's nothing like that. It's about global warming. I have a few close friends who work for some important department somewhere in multiple countries that focus on the weather and earth's changes. There have been large amounts of earthquakes happening, which will continue to occur more often. I've got top secret news that something bad will be happening in mid October throughout the whole world."

David: "Like what? Wait, you said global warming... Like earthquakes? Bigger earthquakes? We can survive that; we had one a few months back."

Aria: "Like aggressive drops in temperature throughout the whole world."

John: "... how aggressive? What temperature are we talking about here?"

Aria: "-35 degrees Fahrenheit."

David: "What?! That's ridiculous. I'm not saying you're ridiculous, Aries. I'm just saying that would be too outrageous."

Aria: "That's in Country C. It will be colder in Country M."

Melanie: "How long will this cold front last? Do your friends know?"

Aria: "They don't have a good estimate. It could be as short as 1 month or as long as 1 year. Needless to say, it will happen. However, not everyone knows about it."

Melanie: "... 1 year."

John: "So you're here to warn us since it will not be made public for some reason? How long have you known this news?"

Aria: "For 6 months. I was skeptical and didn't think much about it. But as more and more of my friends from different parts of the world are sharing the same conclusion, I decided it's better to be safe than sorry. I have money so why not spend it? Heck I'm already here spending billions of dollars, what's another few millions to prepare. If the governments are covering this up, my one little voice will not make a difference in the sea of skepticism and ignorance. I also do not want another target on my back.

I'm not here to warn you. As for why I'm telling you this... it's because you are important to me. Your work is incomplete and I need you all alive in order for the projects to be completed after this global catastrophe. I want to invite your whole family, those you hold close and dear to you, to Country C to live with me during this catastrophe."

Joseph: "Why should we believe you?"

The air stagnated with that sentence. Why should they believe this young man? Because he has money? Because he hired them? Because he said so?

Aria: "Because out of everyone in the whole world who knows about this, I am the most prepared. I've built a bunker specifically to survive this type of event. Millions of dollars were not spared to ensure the safety and wellbeing of those who will live in the bunker with me. I can with complete certainty that if you come with me, there is a 100% chance that you will survive.

So far, I haven't hidden anything from you that you needed to know. I've always shown you my hands and explained to you my purpose, from the space ring to this dangerous climate change. Believing me is up to you. There are 2 ways this can play out.

One is that the Deep Freeze doesn't happen. You get a free visit to Country C to relax. We laugh it off and I pay you for wasting your time, embarrassed at crying wolf.

The second is that everything I've just said is true. The world will freeze to death. You can stay here and half heartedly prepare for something that might or might not happen, wasting millions of dollars in a limited amount of time. When it does happen, you'll panic and live in uncertainty. You bought a lot of food, but will it be enough? You have a fully secure location, but would you be a target by others when people get desperate? You prepared enough to keep warm but the temperature continues to drop so that you start burning off your furniture and heirlooms. Your older and weaker family members die in their sleep. Someone gets sick and there's no help. You find help but they attack you. You have enough weapons to defend yourselves but you forget others have more weapons to continue to attack you to take your resources. Etc. etc."

Aria paused for them to absorb what she just said, then continued.

Aria: "I have limited space in my bunker and have already allocated 8 tickets to your family, which includes both the grandparents.

If you want to bring your close friends and families with you, there are a few rules. You cannot tell them about what I've just told you. Please remember we are still under an NDA since I'm inviting your family to my Country as a guest on a business trip. You can make a short list of people you trust or cannot bear if they freeze to death and provide their contact number. You cannot contact them ahead of time or they will automatically be disqualified. I will contact them under my company name asking them to take a quick evaluation questionnaire in order for them to win a trip to Country C for them and their immediate family. You will pay for each of their tickets, and their families, since you chose them to be your burden. How you get that money back is up to you. You cannot tell people where you are going to prevent our base from being discovered and overrun. The news should be out after we leave so you can remind them to be careful then.

The questionnaire will determine whether or not they are qualified to live in my bunker. If they are selfish or troublesome, they will automatically be disqualified. If they come to the base and make trouble, they will automatically be forced to leave. At that time, please do not blame me for being heartless. It was you who decided to choose these people knowing their true nature. If you know they or their family would cause trouble, and they come to Country C and get kicked out of the base, you have to live with the fact that you chose them to come to Country C and die there instead of perhaps living selfishly and surviving cruelly in Country M.

These people should be an extension of your family. If you trust your family to not harm you in any way or get kicked out of the base, then you need to have the same mentality when you choose those who you would like to help give a better chance of surviving this disaster.

(Sigh) It's weird that I care about your family this much. I haven't spoken this much to anyone in 6 months. Anyway, I am tired and you all need to talk."

Aria rubbed her face as she sat in another room, thinking about the coming disaster. In her last life, she almost forgot how she survived the Deep Freeze. She remembered she had only enough CFPs for 1 month. Then she had to go out and find food. All the grocery stores and places that would sell food were either locked down tight or had been wiped clean already. She ended up breaking into her neighbors' houses to search for food.

What she found was a family frozen together. They died hugging one another because they were so cold. That was the first time Aria saw a dead body. It was scary and depressing.

There was still food left in their pantry.

She took all their food and shuffled back to her apartment in the dark, afraid that others would see her and take her stuff or know where she lived. She had to burn her furniture and things. Anything that can be burnt for warmth was burnt. She had nothing left in her apartment afterwards.

She heard a cough in front of her and opened her eyes, not surprised to see John standing in front. He looked at the chair next to her and she waved her hand in invitation. It's his house. He sat down, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees, fingers together busying the simple ring she gave him.

Aria: "Done?"

John: "Not yet. I wanted to ask you a question. Why us? If this is really true, then you should be taking care of yourself and your family. Why are you offering to save us?"

John stared at Aries. His eyes deep and intense, with a hint of puzzlement. He doesn't understand what makes their family so special to Aries.

The silence stretched comfortably as Aria looked at him, her quiet gaze calm and contemplative. She is so very tired of preparing for horrible things to come.

Aria: "6 months ago, I had a dream about the end of the world. A man named John Chen who looked like you showed up briefly and saved my life. I'm returning the favor."

John looked at Aries, his heart complicated.

John: "So base on that dream, you found me?"

Aria: "Yes."

John: "Okay."

---

Hours later.

Joseph: "We have decided to accept your invitation to visit your home in Country M. This is a list of people we would like to recommend to you to join us."

David handed over a list with 8 names on it. Each family member decided to place only 3 names on the list. They gave them a chance and will be paying for their passage. Passing the test is up to them.

Aria: "Thank you for trusting me. I will give you 1 week to make your arrangements. We leave next Friday. Take these to store your belongings. Pause construction and pay the contractors and give each of them 6 months worth of CFP. I would suggest the same goes with your employees, 2 weeks vacation so they can be with their family. If you want to keep your wealth, I suggest you liquidate your investments ASAP."

Aria paused as she looked around the beautiful home and then gave them a hint.

Aria: "If you disconnect the water line, gas line, and electricity, I can store it."

Aria placed 4 rings gently on the table, and 8 metallic cards with a large A engraved on it next to the rings. Each card has a number on it. She then smiled tiredly at the 4 family members and left.