Chapter 1

A week before the zombie outbreak, my filthy-rich boyfriend kicked me out of his villa.

He’d been sleeping with my supposedly sweet, innocent best friend.

He tossed me a check for a million yuan and swaggered off with his arm around her.

I used that million to buy an existing supermarket. It became the strongest fortress I had in the apocalypse.

I spent a day sorting, organizing, and cleaning.

Then I ordered some of my favorite snacks, ready to begin a life of doing absolutely nothing.

Before I started dating Xu Rong, my biggest dream had been to own a supermarket. That way, I’d never have to pay for spicy gluten snacks again.

For reasons known only to himself, the previous owner had even built a secret room underground. Its security was first-rate. If he hadn’t told me about it, I’d never have known it was there.

It was a full twenty square meters.

And full of assorted junk.

I cleared out the useless stuff, then splurged on a soft, comfortable bed.

I planned to live in my supermarket from then on. It would save on rent, too.

The only drawback was the lack of windows. There was just one tiny skylight. Fortunately, the ventilation system worked well, so it wasn’t too stuffy.

I never imagined that would end up saving my life.

With that in mind, I decided I might as well go all out and installed a solar generator.

That evening, I cooked myself a simple bowl of instant noodles.

The supermarket wasn’t open for business yet, so I’d locked the doors early.

I was watching a show when a notification popped up on my phone.

Riot Breaks Out in City A Square!

Those huge scarlet letters piqued my curiosity, and I tapped the story.

It contained just one video, less than thirty seconds long.

Through the crowd, I could just make out a man suddenly going berserk and knocking a woman to the ground.

She struggled a few times, then went still.

Helpful bystanders soon subdued the man.

But in the last second of the video, something caught my eye.

I slowed it down and watched it carefully all over again.

The woman who’d been bitten to a bloody pulp suddenly sat up.

An overwhelming unease washed over me.

City A was a long way away, but for some reason I couldn’t shake it.

Maybe I’d watched too many horror movies. Whatever the reason, I decided to be careful.

I didn’t dare tell anyone what I suspected. They’d think I was fearmongering.

The next day, I had a contractor add another security door made of bulletproof material outside the existing one. I even replaced the little skylight with thick bulletproof glass—the kind you couldn’t see through from outside.

Then I spent a fortune on dozens of large drums of drinking water. Luckily, deliveries like that looked perfectly normal at a supermarket.

Next, I hurried to the plant market and bought some full-grown orange trees, blueberry bushes, and strawberry plants, along with vegetable seedlings.

I gritted my teeth and took out a loan for two huge tanks. In one, I put dozens of fast-breeding fish.

In the other, more than a hundred crabs.

Even if my fears were unfounded, I could always sell them.

Once everything was done, I locked the supermarket tight. To be safe, I put up a sign outside: Closed Down. For Rent.

Then I hid inside alone for two days, terrified.

Just as I started wondering whether too many novels had given me an overactive imagination,

a piercing scream came from the news broadcast.

The next second, a blood-soaked figure tackled the pretty female reporter.

People were fleeing in every direction.

Just as I’d feared, the zombie virus had really broken out.

I slipped into the basement. After several days of work, I’d turned the little room into a cozy space.

I’d deliberately reserved half of it for fruit and vegetables.

I’d even fitted a daylight lamp above them.

It shone brightly.

Lying on my bed, I brought up the security camera outside the supermarket.

And saw what was happening on the street.

The neighborhood was in chaos. There weren’t many living people left.

I watched a mother clutching a little girl to her chest as she ran desperately toward my supermarket.

But four or five zombies caught up with her.

They tore into her flesh.

The mother soon stopped moving.

Three minutes later, her face a mangled, bloody mess, she bit her own daughter to death in her arms.

Tears covered the little girl’s face, but she didn’t struggle at all.

A terrible sadness came over me. Maybe it was because I’d grown up without parents.

The sight got to me.

Once people turned into zombies, they wandered aimlessly along the streets until they caught the scent of someone alive. Then they’d go berserk and attack again.

By now, there was no one alive outside my supermarket.

After three hours of silence,

the residents’ group chat on my phone suddenly stirred.

A woman asked if anyone was still alive.

A few people gradually replied.

I said nothing. I just watched them discuss things.

Until a man suddenly mentioned me. Or, more precisely, my supermarket.

He asked whether the owner of the newly opened supermarket downstairs was still there.

The woman from property management soon tagged me.

I still said nothing.

I simply stared at the messages.

I knew human decency would be the first thing to fail in a zombie outbreak.

Before long, they concluded that I must have been killed.

Which was exactly what I wanted.

I knew widespread power and water outages would begin a few days into the apocalypse. That was when the real disaster would start.

The residents seemed to have thought of that too. They began setting their sights on my supermarket.

Someone said I ought to have plenty of supplies and suggested everyone take refuge here.

I frowned. I doubted they could get through all my security doors, but I kept my guard up.

I watched the camera all night.

These zombies were strange. They became much less active at night.

I suspected their eyesight was poor and that they found people entirely by smell and sound.

So if anyone really wanted to get into my supermarket, they’d probably try at night.

That meant I was actually safer during the day.

I more or less reversed my sleep schedule.

I watched the cameras at night and caught up on sleep during the day.

And if anyone tried to break through the first security door, I’d have to prepare for the worst.

I kept watch for three nights in a row. Finally, someone made a move.

Five men were creeping toward me through the darkness.

Though it was summer, they were covered from head to toe.

They’d strapped cooking pots to their chests and backs.

They moved slowly, but soon reached the supermarket entrance.

One kept watch while the leader produced a crowbar and tried to pry open my security door. He quickly realized brute force wouldn’t do it.

Another man stepped forward and pulled a heap of tools from his bag.

Shit. One of them clearly knew how to pick locks.

Fortunately, I’d paid a great deal for that door. Its mechanism was complicated.

The man murmured something to the others, then looked sharply in my direction. It was as though he were staring straight at me through the camera hidden in the dark.

Cold sweat broke out all over me.

He seemed to have worked out the lock, but for some reason he didn’t open it. Instead, he led the others away.

They looked unhappy, but followed him anyway. Fortunately for them, they didn’t encounter any zombies along the way.

Once they’d gone, I left the secret room and quietly took a bag of cement from the corner.

I grabbed a bucket from a shelf and mixed the cement with water in the proper proportions.

I’d hoped never to do this unless I had no choice.

But now I had to seal the security door shut.

Summoning my courage, I opened the two innermost doors and packed cement into the gap around the outer one. I used all three bags to seal the entrance.

I knew that meant I wouldn’t be getting out anytime soon. But it would also keep people out.

And when those men came back, they’d know for certain that I was still alive.