Chapter 1

Chapter 1

“Xia Nuo, I forgot to tell you-my family didn’t have much food to begin with. We only survived for over a month because we killed some of those food-wasters in the building.”

In the early hours of the morning, I jolted awake from a dream. The searing pain of blades tearing through my flesh seemed to linger still.

But when I opened my eyes, that heartless couple was nowhere to be seen. A sudden thought struck me, and I immediately grabbed my phone to check the date.

Month X, Day 9.

This was… fifteen days before the apocalypse began!

I could hardly believe it! I had been reborn! Like a madwoman, I sprinted into my mother’s bedroom and threw my arms around her in an emotional embrace.

Startled from her sleep, my mother asked in a panic, “Nuo Nuo, what’s wrong? Did something happen?”

I quickly reassured her. “It’s nothing, I just-I had a nightmare.”

As I spoke, the tears began to flow.

After the apocalypse broke out, our family had lived relatively comfortably. That was all thanks to my mother, who had spent half her life suffering.

Back then, my “father” was a compulsive gambler who had racked up a mountain of debt and was physically abusive. After my mother divorced him and took my younger brother and me, we were constantly hounded by loan sharks. They plugged our locks with glue, hammered on the door in the middle of the night, and threw dead cats and dogs into our home. Their various tactics forced our family to move constantly.

Because of those experiences, my mother was neurotic about security to an almost obsessive degree.

We lived on the top floor, the 24th floor.

The windows and security doors were all blast-rated, and she had even installed expensive soundproofing cotton throughout the house. My mother even had a habit of stockpiling food at home.

Her original intention was just to prevent us from being trapped and starving if loan sharks ever cornered us, but these preparations were exactly what allowed us to survive for quite a while in a world of man-eating zombies. If only I hadn’t been so soft-headed as to open the door for Liu Jinjin!

I was crying so hard that my mother didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, though her heart ached for me. “How old are you, still crying over a dream? It’s just too much work pressure. You need to take a break once in a while.”

I nodded. “It really is time for a vacation.”

And I needed to prepare for the end of the world.

Returning to my room, I found a pen and paper to list the supplies we needed. Meanwhile, I sent a message to my brother, telling him to call me as soon as he woke up tomorrow morning.

But my brother, Xia Yang, called me back instantly.

“Listen to me!”

“Xia Yang, listen to me!”

We both spoke at the same time. Realizing something, we both fell silent for a brief moment before saying the same five words simultaneously: “The apocalypse is coming.”

My brother had actually been reborn too.

Was it because we were twins?

I didn’t know.

According to him, he hadn’t been able to make it home before his rebirth and had to hide in his apartment. But as a shut-in, his neighbors all knew he had food. Only a few days into the apocalypse, the property management led several thugs to break in and steal his food, then threw him into a horde of zombies.

After hearing what happened on my end, he couldn’t help but fume over the phone. “Sis! My dear sister! In the apocalypse, the ‘saints’ are the first to die! Remember, we can only look out for ourselves!”

Having learned my lesson firsthand, I understood that logic all too well. “Let’s not talk about that for now. Get back here quickly. We’ll stock up on supplies together. It’s much safer at home.”

Before I died, I witnessed six zombies slamming against our door without being able to break it down.

“I’ll be back tomorrow. I’ll transfer my money to you first. Use it to buy supplies, Sis. And remember, don’t let anyone see you, or they’ll start targeting you like they did me.”

I agreed and began planning how to smuggle supplies into the house.

The next day, I sat down with my mother. If I told her directly about zombies and the end of the world, she definitely wouldn’t believe me-especially since there wasn’t even a shadow of news about zombies yet. However, I could frame it differently.

I made up a story on the spot, saying I had offended someone at work and feared they would use dirty tactics to retaliate. I told her the company had given me time off and that we needed to buy some things and stay low at home for a while.

As soon as she heard the word “retaliation,” my mother grew tense. “Do we need to go out? We have plenty of things at home; we can just stay inside.”

As she spoke, she grabbed me, wanting to check our supplies. I knew we had a lot; even I had been shocked by her hoard when the apocalypse first started, but it was still far from enough to survive the end of the world.

But there was another problem. “Mom, do the neighbors know you’ve stored this much food?”

My mother blinked. “Ever since you taught me how to shop online, I’ve always had things delivered to the door. As for the neighbors…”

My heart chilled. Thinking of Xia Yang’s situation, I felt we had to guard against everyone, including the neighbors and the property management. Wasn’t my brother’s door swiped open by the property management staff?

“Mom, I don’t think it’s safe enough. Starting today, let’s not use the lights at night. Let them think no one is home.” This was a trick my mother had taught me. Back then, the loan sharks had bribed neighbors to spy on us, so our family had to learn how to deal with it.

My mother agreed, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

I had to go to the office today to request leave, but that was secondary. My main goal was to mislead Liu Jinjin-at the very least, I couldn’t let her target my home after the apocalypse started.

Before leaving, I made sure to stop by the property management office. Using the excuse of paying my fees in advance, I pretended to casually mention that we were moving to my brother’s place in a couple of days and would be renting this apartment out.

I also used the excuse of renovating the rental to get a master elevator card from them.

The staff member, hearing that I was moving out and renting the place, even suggested I make a note of it in the homeowners’ group chat.

That was exactly the result I wanted.

I knew that once the apocalypse arrived, people would start taking inventory of everyone’s supplies. The best strategy would be to quietly disappear into the crowd and stay silent-and I needed a legitimate reason for that silence.

In the end times, it isn’t just the zombies you have to fear; it’s human nature.

However, another thought occurred to me. I reached out to property management and told them I’d seen a man carrying a knife near Building 11, where Liu Jinjin lived. I added that I often saw a muscular thug loitering around and felt it was dangerous, suggesting they should notify the residents.

I didn’t know how much weight my words would carry, but if I could do anything to prevent Liu Jinjin and her boyfriend from slaughtering the entire building, it was worth a try.

On the other hand, I also didn’t want that couple to have such a smooth time surviving the first month of the apocalypse.

While I was out, I saw a notice posted by property management.

They didn’t mention me, but they did warn the residents there to be careful. I even saw a resident comment that they were going to install a better security door.

I was beyond satisfied.

When I went to the office to request a leave of absence, I inevitably ran into Liu Jinjin. I repeated the same story I’d told property management. She didn’t suspect a thing, even hypocritically remarking what a shame it was that we wouldn’t be living in the same neighborhood anymore.

I felt nothing but disgust and a cold shiver down my spine.

Leaving the office, I let out a long breath of relief. Now, the real hoarding could begin.

I had bought a house, so I didn’t have much in savings, but combined with my brother’s money, we had about 400,000 yuan.

For a pair of single siblings who had been working for five years, it would be pathetic if we hadn’t saved at least that much.

Before anything else, though, I had to prepare our energy sources for the end of the world.

Our home already had solar panels. The complex was on the edge of the under-construction University Town; since it wasn’t finished yet, the surrounding area wasn’t very developed. In the beginning, property management had been incompetent, and the water and electricity had been cut off for a few days.

To ensure a stable power supply and save on future utility bills, I had installed solar panels on the roof.

Since almost everything in our home ran on electricity, I immediately ordered over a dozen large storage batteries. I also bought a treadmill generator just in case. I requested next-day delivery for everything, to be dropped off in the 19th-floor corridor downstairs.

Because I usually got off work late, often after dark, I knew for certain that only the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 6th, 10th, 14th, and 15th floors of our unit were occupied. Until University Town and its infrastructure were finished, the occupancy rate here was incredibly low.

Next, I ordered daily essentials like toilet paper, sanitary pads, heat packs, and cooling patches. I started with a base unit of 400 for each.

Then there was water. With more people in the house now, I ordered 700 barrels right off the bat.

As for food, I worked in the food industry myself, so I was familiar with wholesale.

For items with long shelf lives like self-heating hotpots, self-heating rice, instant noodles, and canned fruit or meat, I chose to order them online. I ordered a hundred cases of each, all sent to a fake address.

For the rest, I went straight to the wholesale market. Grains and oils were the priority. I started with 700 pounds each of rice and flour. Then came cases of fruits and vegetables. Considering that some were perishable and hard to store, I bought a maximum of sixty cases of each variety. For things like pumpkins, winter melons, beans, and radishes, which were relatively easy to store, the more the better.

I also ordered large quantities of seasonings, and arranged to pick up fresh meat, sausages, and cured meats tomorrow.

With such a large transaction, the owner was all smiles as he took my money. Seeing that I was a new face, he hinted that he could offer a discount and hoped we would do more business in the future.

I smiled back and told him we would certainly see each other again.

After that single trip, money was flowing out like water. The next step was to move everything into the house in several trips without drawing attention. Fortunately, my brother lived on the other side of the city and made it back quickly. We had the delivery trucks drop things off near the complex, and then the two of us worked together to ferry everything home in a rented Wuling Hongguang van.

When I got home, I realized just how capable Xia Yang was. As soon as he arrived, he had bought seeds and soil, planning to grow vegetables during the apocalypse. He also told me he had quietly disabled the security cameras on the first floor and in the elevator.

I hadn’t even thought of that! Although it was unethical, it was vital for our survival. This complex was already poorly managed; the last time a camera broke, they dragged their feet for an entire month before fixing it. With these broken now, they wouldn’t even dream of repairing them before the world ended.

I praised his competence repeatedly and promised to take him out for barbecue before the end came.

But the surprises didn’t end there. My brother pulled out the rest of his savings-an amount that made me turn green with envy. He usually spent his time gaming, streaming, and buying equipment; I hadn’t expected him to have saved so much.

More than anything, I felt relieved. At the very least, I didn’t have to worry about my brother’s ability to take care of himself. Plus, we now had even more funds for our apocalyptic hoarding!

I took out the list I had made and sat down with my brother to check for any gaps.

Our food reserves were basically set. I added one-way privacy film for the windows to the list, along with blackout curtains.

My brother suggested buying two layers of curtains just to be safe. I readily agreed and added them to the shopping plan.

I left the procurement of self-defense items to Xia Yang while I handled the food. By splitting up, we could get everything ready in the shortest time possible.

That night, we kept the lights off in our home. We drew the curtains tight and moved about the rooms using only a small desk lamp set to low brightness. First, we packed one room full of today’s supplies and locked the door.

We spared no effort in creating the illusion that no one was home.