Chapter 2 Blueprints

After breakfast, Jiang Rong took Jiang Xiaoheng to the daycare center. The daycare center was on Jiang Rong's way to work, a ten-minute drive away. Usually, Jiang Rong would leave half an hour early to drop her son off at the daycare center and then pick him up on her way home from work.

After watching Jiang Xiaoheng's figure disappear at the entrance of the daycare center today, Jiang Rong did not drive along his usual route to work. Instead, he turned his car around and headed south of the city.

Building a house is a complicated process, and he couldn't build it by himself. The first step in building a house is to have a set of standard blueprints. Only with the blueprints can he find a qualified construction team to carry out the work.

If he were a complete novice, just finding someone to draw the blueprints would have stumped him. Fortunately, he wasn't working alone.

An hour and a half later, Jiang Rong arrived at the agreed location. It was a coffee shop in the south of the city, and because of subway construction in front of it, the shop wasn't very busy. When Jiang Rong entered, someone was already waiting for him inside.

Seeing Jiang Rong enter, the man stood up and strode towards her. He was Chu Qiang, Jiang Rong's childhood friend. Chu Qiang worked at the Third Construction Bureau in City C and knew more people in the construction industry than Jiang Rong did. When Jiang Rong thought about building a house, Chu Qiang was the first person she thought of.

Chu Qiang was tall and burly, and his voice was loud and rough, a testament to his years of experience working on construction sites: "Is the road difficult to walk on? They're building a subway here, and I was worried you wouldn't be able to find your way."

Jiang Rong carefully examined Chu Qiang, his eyes slightly reddening. After the crisis in his previous life, he had lost contact with Chu Qiang. Seeing him now, Jiang Rong felt a surge of emotions, like a long-awaited reunion.

Seeing his suddenly reddened eyes, Chu Qiang looked at Jiang Rong with suspicion and asked, "Are you alright?"

Early in the morning, Chu Qiang received a call from his childhood friend, who said he was going to build a sturdy house in his hometown, one that met civil defense standards. Chu Qiang had many questions, but Jiang Rong simply told him not to ask and reminded him to go home, reinforce the house, and stock up on food. Out of respect and trust for his friend, he didn't pry.

Jiang Rong grinned, revealing a somewhat awkward smile. "Nothing. Has anyone arrived?"

Chu Qiang put his arm around Jiang Rong's shoulder. "Here you are. I found an engineer from the Civil Defense Design Institute for you. He's a good guy and very professional. I'll start construction as soon as I get the blueprints. I guarantee it will be fast and of high quality."

Jiang Rong patted Chu Qiang on the shoulder gratefully, "Thank you, Qiangzi."

Chu Qiang had skipped work to come out; his construction site was right outside. After introducing Jiang Rong to the person he had found, he left the coffee shop.

The researcher Chu Qiang found was named Li Bin, a refined man in his forties. He spoke and acted methodically, with meticulous thinking. The moment Jiang Rong saw him, she knew he was the person she needed. After exchanging a few polite words with Li Bin, Jiang Rong got straight to the point: "Engineer Li, I want to build a sturdy house."

As a researcher specializing in civil defense engineering, Li Bin's designs are always sturdy. Li Bin smiled and turned on his computer. "How big of a house do you want? Is the level of sturdiness of the basement sufficient?"

Although Jiang Rong is not a civil engineering major, she is not entirely unfamiliar with architecture. "Can it be any better than a basement?"

Li Bin roughly understood what Jiang Rong meant: "No problem, tell me your requirements first. I'll draw a sketch first, and we can adjust it if it's not good enough."

Jiang Rong has a house in his hometown that sheltered them for a year in his previous life. In this life, he wants to build another house in his hometown, and this time he wants to plan it carefully: "My house has a foundation of 400 square meters, and it is 20 meters long and wide. I want to build a three-story house, one floor above ground and two floors below ground. The first floor will be for living, and the two floors below will be for storage. If possible, the walls should be thicker and the ceiling height should be higher."

Li Bin is a good engineer who can fully meet the needs of his clients. He calmly said, "The concrete used in residential buildings is C30, but we use C50. The exterior walls of residential buildings here are generally 24mm thick, how about we make it 48mm? And then add double the amount of C25 steel reinforcement inside, that will definitely make it strong. Civil defense basements are generally no less than 3.6 meters high, how many meters do you need?"

Jiang Rong pondered for a moment: "Can the concrete grade be higher? Also, can you increase the basement ceiling height to six meters? And it would be best if the foundation could be dug deeper."

Li Bin laughed and said, "Okay, but I have to tell you, Engineer Jiang, you need to pay attention to your budget, otherwise it's easy to exceed it."

As Jiang Rong listened to her request, lines appeared on the screen. Li Bin first outlined the foundation, and as the mouse moved gently along the edge of the software, the drawn plane was stretched into a three-dimensional image.

The current 3D model looks like a bare cuboid, lacking any originality. However, it is being studied by a senior architectural engineer and a highly experienced interior designer.

The two professionals stared at the screen, eager to get started. Two hours later, the bare cuboid had been transformed into a house with a hidden world inside.

From the outside, this house looks like an ordinary country cottage. The roof is flat and covered with solar panels. Through the virtual solar panels and the roof, the interior layout of the ground floor is revealed.

When Jiang Rong was working before, he was often amused by the bizarre apartment layouts of his clients. Now that he has the opportunity to design his own house, how could he pass it up? The nearly 400 square meters of usable space is more than enough for him to unleash his creativity.

Upon seeing the completed house plan, Li Bin was full of praise: "Jiang, if I ever go back to my hometown to build a house, can I ask you to design it?"

Jiang Rong felt a pang of bitterness in her heart. After such a major crisis, how could she possibly design houses anymore? Facing Li Bin's sincere eyes, Jiang Rong said seriously, "Okay, if Engineer Li ever needs my help in the future, please come to me."

Through the first floor slab, the layout of the first and second basement levels came into view. Civil defense projects usually use walls for support, but Jiang Rong said that the two basement levels of his house were used for storage, so Li Bin abandoned the walls and columns and used additional reinforcement in the roof slab.

The entire building has only two doors on its exterior, one large and one small. The large door is located on the southwest side of the first floor, allowing vehicles to drive directly into the first and second basement levels. The small door is located on the south side, and opening it reveals Jiang Rong's living room.

The entire house, including electrical equipment, is estimated to cost 12 million yuan, with the main structure alone costing 10 million yuan. Li Bin said that a house of this strength is comparable to a military fortress, and that's exactly the kind of house Jiang Rong needs.

In their past lives, people with superpowers lived in houses like this, which were made of reinforced concrete and had three layers of bulletproof glass in the windows. As long as the windows were closed, mutated plants and animals could not get in.

Jiang Rong also longed to live in a house like that. His three years of experience surviving in ruins told him that he needed sunshine, rain, and to see the blue sky and green trees, even if the sun became blinding and the plants became ferocious. Compared to the endless darkness before him, he yearned to see blue skies and white clouds.

The house that belongs to the father and son is now on the screen, and if things go smoothly, he will be able to see it soon.

Jiang Rong stared intently at the 3D model, wishing the house on the screen could appear before him right now. He asked anxiously, "Engineer Li, when can the drawings be completed at the earliest?"

Li Bin pushed up his glasses. "Generally speaking, it takes a month to produce a set of blueprints. If we want to be more certain, we also need to go to the construction site to take actual measurements..."

Jiang Rong frowned. "Engineer Li, can you hurry up a bit? My house doesn't need such complicated plumbing and electrical work. Don't worry, I definitely won't skimp on the design fee."

Li Bin pondered for a moment in front of the computer: "Engineer Jiang is an industry insider, and he was introduced by Engineer Chu. Well then, let me give you the truth: I can produce the drawings for your house in as little as a week."

Jiang Rong breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you, Engineer Li."

Li Bin said after careful consideration, "If the construction period is tight, I will finish the earthwork drawings first, and you can start digging."

Just then, there was a knock on the door of the private room, and Chu Qiang pushed it open and entered: "Have you two made up your minds? It's noon, let's have lunch together?"

Li Bin packed up his computer: "No, I have to go back and work on the drawings. Let's have dinner together another time."

After seeing Li Bin off, Chu Qiang pulled Jiang Rong along, saying, "Come on, let's go eat. Speaking of which, it's your birthday today. There's a nice restaurant in the south of the city. Let's go and have a meal to celebrate your birthday."

Jiang Rong smiled, and just as he was about to say something, his phone rang. He took out his phone and saw that it was a call from Xiao Zhou, a real estate agent.

As soon as the call was answered, Xiao Zhou's anxious voice came through: "Mr. Jiang, our boss really likes your house. He's very interested in buying it, and he's offering 15 million without any negotiation. What do you think? Are you free this afternoon? If so, we can sign the contract, and then we can make the payment."

Jiang Rong replied, "Okay, but I'm not home right now, I'll be there later. I'll call you when I get there."

As soon as the call ended, Chu Qiang's eyes widened in astonishment: "Jiang Rong, what happened to you? Were you scammed? Why did you even sell the house?"

Jiang Rong said seriously, "Do you trust me or not? If you do, then don't ask any more questions. Go back to your hometown, reinforce the house, and stock up on food."

Chu Qiang chuckled coldly: "What's wrong? Is it the end of the world? Don't want to live anymore?"

Jiang Rong: ...

What humanity will face three months from now is far more terrifying than the end of the world.

Author's Note:

Something funny happened while I was writing this chapter. There's a premise: my friend Lao Mao is a civil engineering major, specializing in budgeting, so I asked her for help with some professional questions.

Old Cat: Honey, I want to build a house. Can you help me calculate what I need? I want...blah blah blah...

My lover diligently drew up plans, models, and reinforced concrete for me. A few days later, he told me: "Lover, I've calculated it according to your requirements, and the main structure will probably cost around 200 million."

Old Cat: ...How about we change the image?

After Lao Mao's meddling and his mistress's foaming mouth, the main structure of Rongrong's new house cost ten million, which was already the limit.

Thanks to my partner for providing technical support for this article.