Over the past few months, Mu Nan spent money lavishly, emptying out the savings he had accumulated over the years. Fortunately, he had the space and convenient transportation, allowing him to purchase large quantities of food directly from the source, cutting down on transportation costs, saving him a fair amount of money. Yet, no matter how he tried to save, the funds still felt insufficient. Given the known future, no amount of preparation could seem too much.

To facilitate receiving supplies, Mu Nan had rented a small warehouse and employed a retired worker at three thousand a month to help monitor the warehouse during the day and assist with receiving goods. At night, Mu Nan would come and act as though he was shipping things out, discreetly storing them in his space.

Today marked the final batch; the warehouse rental was nearing its end. For the remaining fragmented items, he planned to have them shipped directly to his home.

After finishing dinner, Mu Nan paid the caretaker with a mobile transfer, then left to return the keys at the rental office and reclaim his deposit. On his way back, he passed by a supermarket. Looking at the money in his hand, Mu Nan wandered through the store again. Although he had purchased most items he needed, he knew that soon, money would become worthless; while prices were still normal, he decided to buy whatever he could.

In truth, Mu Nan had already exhausted his own funds, and the money he was using now came from annual remittances from Qin Huai.

Qin Huai, the childhood friend who had seamlessly entered his life but had vanished without a trace.

Mu Nan and Qin Huai grew up together; Qin Huai was two years older than him. When Mu Nan's parents passed away while he was still young, he had no autonomy, facing the choice of either going to an orphanage or being fostered by relatives. However, he was unwilling to live under someone else's roof. Although his family was only considered moderately well-off, his parents had spoiled him, always catering to his needs, which cultivated his somewhat arrogant demeanor. He preferred to live alone and take care of himself rather than stay in someone else's home. Moreover, Qin Huai remained at his side, which made him feel he still had a home, so he couldn't bear to leave.

Fortunately, his relatives did not press the issue of fostering him. While there was compensation from the accident and insurance, the cumulative funds were sufficient to cover his living expenses and education, plus some surplus. However, taking in another child was ultimately a nuisance. After much stubborn insistence on Mu Nan's part, his relatives reached a compromise. They would adopt him in name, but he would continue to live in his own home with the neighbor across the hall, Qin Huai's grandmother, looking after him. After all, Mu Nan had basically grown up in the Qin household, and his relatives lived only ten minutes away, ensuring they could check in occasionally.

That year, when he was ten years old, it was a time when some adults might have seen him as a child who couldn't be away from others. But for a child who had just experienced a huge upheaval, it wasn't a matter of being able to handle things on his own. Besides his parents, he also had Qin Huai.

Qin Huai's grandmother passed away when he was fifteen. She was very old and left this world peacefully. That year, just seventeen-year-old Qin Huai, like him, became an orphan, but they had each other.

Qin Huai said that from then on, it would be just the two of them relying on each other. At that time, Mu Nan wasn't too afraid of the future. Even though his grandmother was gone, they still had each other.

However, not long after, Qin Huai's father, whom he had only seen in photos, arrived and forcefully took Qin Huai away. After that, Mu Nan never saw Qin Huai again for the rest of his life.

Qin Huai's father must have been quite wealthy and had settled abroad. At first, Qin Huai insisted that he wouldn't leave, that he would treat this so-called father as if he didn't exist. But eventually, despite his firm refusal to leave, Qin Huai did go. How could two underage children stand up to an adult? There was no choice but to compromise.

At that time, Mu Nan couldn't understand or accept it, and he was filled with the betrayal of Qin Huai's departure.

Initially, Mu Nan could only resist Qin Huai's departure with a resolute attitude, breaking off contact in a hardline manner, holding onto a shred of self-respect that was wounded even by a plea. But the ultimate goal was still to hope that Qin Huai would come back. He couldn't understand why someone who hadn't even shown up in the past dozen years could easily take Qin Huai away. Especially when he heard a neighbor's casual remark that "blood is blood," it felt like a knife twisting in his heart.

Facing the empty house, Mu Nan felt for the first time that he was truly an orphan, with no parents, no support, and not just an empty house but an empty heart as well. For a long time, he shut himself off, using the method of separating himself from Qin Huai's world as a form of revenge for Qin Huai's betrayal. He even chose a boarding school far away from there, as if to shed everything here and have no further connection with Qin Huai. Yet the fundamental reason for all this was simply that he hoped Qin Huai would come back using the most childish method.

These resolute actions were also just his way of escaping the confusion and helplessness of facing the future alone, and the fear of losing Qin Huai.

As he grew up, Mu Nan gradually understood Qin Huai's helplessness back then. He believed that if it were possible, Qin Huai would definitely not have wanted to go with his father. But life is like that; it doesn't always go as one wishes. However, Mu Nan's understanding didn't mean a thaw in their frozen relationship; in fact, he was even more afraid to contact Qin Huai.

In that unfamiliar country, Qin Huai's new life, new friends, and everything new had no connection with him. Perhaps Qin Huai had already started a new life, successful, liked by people, even possibly having a new close friend to replace him. Only he himself remained trapped in the past.

He thought they still had a lot of time, that one day he would gather the courage to face Qin Huai, who was no longer the same as in his memories, perhaps unfamiliar, even like many adults who, with a touch of nostalgia, casually talked about the past. Mu Nan thought that when he could accept a Qin Huai who no longer had any connection to him, just a former neighbor, it would be the right time to contact Qin Huai again.

But in his past life, he never found that courage before he died.

Although Qin Huai left, he still sent Mu Nan living expenses every month, including annual tuition fees. But in his past life, Mu Nan never used a single penny of that money. The compensation money after his parents' death was enough for him to finish college. He didn't know whether Qin Huai's money came from his own earnings or from his father. Regardless, he didn't want to use it.

But this time, Mu Nan spent all that money. He thought that perhaps Qin Huai would worry if he saw his account empty and might come back to check. Now, finding Qin Huai was very easy for him because he was right here, never having left. But finding Qin Huai was very difficult for him because he had no idea where Qin Huai was now.

At first, he had aggressively cut off contact with Qin Huai, but the monthly living expenses gave him the illusion that Qin Huai was still in touch with him. This illusion led him to mistakenly believe that he could always find Qin Huai when he was ready. It wasn't until he was reborn and tried to find Qin Huai that he realized he couldn't find anyone with the remittance account, especially since the account was with an overseas trust fund.

In his rebirth, Mu Nan panicked when he couldn't find Qin Huai. He searched for anyone who might be able to contact Qin Huai, but most had lost contact over the years. The only person he could still reach was Jiang Xuan, who had never moved. After rebirth, Mu Nan went to find Jiang Xuan, but Jiang Xuan said he hadn't been in contact with Qin Huai for a long time, and the network accounts they once used were long lost. He also didn't know where Qin Huai was.

Even now, Mu Nan continues to stockpile supplies while searching for Qin Huai, suppressing the fear of possibly never finding Qin Huai in this life. He tries to stay calm and prepare for the future apocalypse. He doesn't know how he would cope if he still couldn't see Qin Huai in this life; it might be even more devastating than he imagined.

Looking at the card handed back by the cashier, which contained Qin Huai's living expenses, Mu Nan had spent the last amount today. He carried the big and small bags home, sorted and put everything away, calculating what he still needed, and habitually opened the old contact group. Unfortunately, it was silent inside, and all his inquiries and searches received no response.

Early the next morning, workers came to knock on the door. Mu Nan had specially ordered hollow thickened tempered glass to replace everything in the house that could be replaced. In his previous life, the drafty windows and doors had worried him during the smog, so this time he had prepared early with protective measures.

Besides replacing the glass, Mu Nan also replaced the air conditioner in the house. The air conditioner was a custom-made unit he flew abroad to get. Although there are high-temperature air conditioners in the domestic market that can withstand up to eighty degrees, most of these units are large and designed for factories and high-temperature work environments, making them unsuitable for home installation.

In some foreign countries with consistently high temperatures, air conditioning technology is often used in homes. Although these units are much more expensive than those in China, they are compact and easy to install. He ordered two high-temperature-resistant air conditioners for home use, installing one in his house and keeping the other in reserve for future needs.

In his previous life, once the smog cleared and the intense heat set in, almost all home air conditioners broke down. The government temporarily set up several cooling centers, but even though there was air conditioning, it was largely ineffective with so many people.

At that time, Mu Nan stayed at home, and the high temperatures made the air conditioning unusable. He relied on the water stored in his space to get through the first grueling summer. This time, with experience and ample preparation, he hoped not to face such a dire situation again.

When the windows in his home were being replaced, Mu Nan stayed next door at Qin Huai's house. Although Qin Huai hadn't returned, Mu Nan had never left. He would hire a cleaning service at least once a month for a thorough cleaning. Since he couldn't stay in his own house, he simply moved his things over to Qin Huai's place.

Mu Nan had considered selling his own house to live at Qin Huai's, but he later decided against it. Their houses were directly across from each other, so selling the house could inadvertently reveal some secrets. Additionally, selling the house and leaving would be one thing, but living so close could lead to disputes in the event of an apocalypse. It was more practical to keep the large iron gate closed and enjoy the peace of living quietly.

While the workers replaced the windows, Mu Nan carefully supervised the work, insisting on perfect sealing. In his previous life, he hadn't lived there long. Private shelters opened before government-run evacuation centers, where you could secure a cool and warm refuge with just a bit of food.

Many people in his community were tempted to move there. Initially, Mu Nan wasn't interested, but after a minor earthquake hit the area—a small aftershock by the time it reached them, but still causing many buildings to collapse—he reconsidered. Thankfully, his own place was not affected, but he was wary of potential future quakes.

Moreover, frequent water and power outages during that time were unbearable, with power often out for almost a week and water unavailable for days. In such scorching conditions, outages were extremely tough to endure. Private shelters, on the other hand, at least provided several hours of power each day.

Mu Nan thought that with his space, he wouldn't starve no matter where he was. Since many others decided to move there, Mu Nan joined them.

Not discussing how much he suffered in those private shelters, Mu Nan's decision to stay this time was driven by his desire to wait. He was afraid of the changes in Qin Huai but instinctively believed that the Qin Huai he knew would never change towards him. This conflicting feeling was complex, but no matter what, he wanted to stay in his own home a little longer this time.