"Ah? No, no need..."
Damn, she actually got nervous, even a bit shaky.
She quickly carried the groceries with her dad, all the food needing to be refrigerated right away because the temperature was way too high; it would spoil in no time.
Her mom hadn't slept either and came to the door to help them with their things. Hearing noise from next door, she too was quite surprised.
This building had two apartments per floor, but according to Jhiang Yuan's memory, no one had ever lived in the apartment next door, 2102.
Not even during the apartment inspections had anyone shown up; what was going on?
She then warned her parents to be careful recently and to try not to go out if it wasn't necessary.
That person didn't look like anyone nice, and he had such a big dog; the three of them probably couldn't beat these two.
Her parents agreed wholeheartedly. After a brief discussion, they all prepared to go to bed.
After all, they could still get a good sleep now, who knows about later.
The next morning, Jhiang Yuan was woken by a series of clanging sounds.
It's the damn apocalypse, and someone still feels like renovating, unbelievable.
Stepping outside, Qin Yue was fussing with a pot of orchids with a large bud about to bloom, seemingly out of touch with the world.
"Where did this flower come from?"
"The young man next door brought it over, said he'd be doing some renovations today that might be a bit noisy, and asked us to please bear with it."
What the hell, renovations?
The guy must be crazy!
Her mom prepared her breakfast, and Jhiang Yuan ate while checking her phone.
In the community chat group for building 13, there was a newcomer with the nickname "2102" who had sent out quite a generous red envelope, asking for everyone's understanding about the upcoming renovations.
She decided to meet this person. Living on the same floor in the midst of the apocalypse was fate, but it also meant potential danger.
Who knows what this guy was up to.
Pretending to take out some trash, Jhiang Yuan saw that apartment 2102 was indeed open; the door was obviously newly replaced.
A bulletproof one, similar to hers; a worker inside was busy with the window.
What, is this the same strategy as hers? Could it be that this guy also had some kind of superpower?
"Hey, hello, I'm the neighbor from next door; you guys are renovating, huh!"
"Ah, sorry for the disturbance."
"No problem, but I don't think I've seen you around before."
"I've been serving in the military and just recently retired; I haven't been around here before."
"I see."
A military veteran, he should have some sense of righteousness in him, hopefully, he wouldn't become an enemy.
"Yesterday I saw there were elders in your home; take this back for your uncle to drink!"
Damn, that's Maotai Liquor, and he's giving it away like it's just water.
"No, that's very kind of you, but you've already given us flowers."
"Take it, I have plenty more at home."
After speaking, he pointed to the four cases of liquor placed in the entryway, it was clear that this bottle was one of them.
Damn, she'd been outdone!
Jhiang Yuan smiled and said goodbye, then went back inside her own apartment and closed the door, dropping the fake cheerful expression.
"What's the situation, daughter?"
"Here, for you..."
Dad hesitated for three seconds holding the bottle of Maotai Liquor, then burst into ecstasy.
"I knew that guy didn't look like a bad person from yesterday; let's not be too tense about this."
Come on, Dad, you've got no willpower, buying you off with just a bottle of liquor? How can you withstand the sugar-coated bullets of capitalism?
Jhiang Yuan hastily took out her tablet and found an apocalyptic movie that shattered all three views of humanity's loss for her parents.
Take a look, after all, even the closest person to you might stab you in the back, let alone trusting a stranger because of a bottle of Maotai Liquor.
In the apocalypse, she only had one belief: don't be a good person, nor a saint.
Before the movie was even halfway through, a notification suddenly appeared in the chat group.
It was sent by the building manager, stating that starting from tomorrow, the community would begin to limit water and electricity supplies from 12 PM to 2 PM, and then again from 9 PM to 11 PM.
The reason was that a power plant in the South Suburb of Western City had exploded due to high temperatures, and as a precaution, all other communities would undergo water and electricity rationing.
Chaos ensued in the group chat with a barrage of laments and complaints, which she selectively ignored.
She hadn't known about the power plant explosion, so she opened Weibo and, sure enough, it was the top headline - this important news still needed timely attention.
Lack of water and electricity isn't good; you can store some water.
But no electricity is terrifying, especially at these temperatures, life depends on air conditioning.
After a barrage of complaints in the group chat, some people started to organize a supply run to buy generators.
Qin Yue and her dad filled every container they had with water, and then she went out for a run, doing physical training.
They weren't afraid of not having electricity; the solar panels weren't just for show, and had more than enough power for their household appliances.
The renovation noise from next door stopped only at 5 PM, but the workers didn't leave until after dark.
Today, she observed that the guy also had a generator and had installed air conditioning in the house; she could vaguely see the box of the air conditioning fan.
If he had stored food, his life probably wasn't too bad.
Suddenly she remembered his secure renovations; she had suspected he knew something before, but didn't have the nerve to ask. She doubted he would tell the truth anyway.
Could it be that like her, he was also reborn?
Of course, it made sense; if she could be reborn, why couldn't others?
At 9 PM, the renovator and the man from 2102 left together, and Jhiang Yuan watched them on the monitor as they waited for the elevator. In a pause, the guy from 2102 actually looked up in her direction.
He had noticed her, what a keen sense of surveillance; Jhiang Yuan quickly gathered her parents and tagged him as the number one dangerous person.
Fortunately, after a day's worth of apocalyptic movie indoctrination, her parents emerged from the allure of the proverbial sugar-coated bullets, now suspicious of everyone, which pleased her.
"Darling, you're worried he knows something about the abnormal weather, right?"
"Yes."
"Could it be that someone in his family works in a research institute and told him?"
She nearly forgot, her parents still didn't know she was reborn.
The reason she was so well-prepared was thanks to her good classmate, Jiang Yuan.
She hesitated about whether to tell her parents the truth, but if they knew the cause of her death in her previous life, she wasn't sure if they would go after Xia Chaoyang.
No, she couldn't let that happen.
After all, time was crucial now; it was not worth it to waste it for such scum.
At 11 PM, Jhiang Xingzhi called her to check the surveillance; the guy from 2102 had returned. Her cameras had 360-degree coverage with no blind spots, and the hallway one perfectly captured the door of 2102.
That guy had brought back a lot of stuff, making three trips to finish, and looking at the things he hauled in—rice, flour, instant noodles, toilet paper—everything one needed for daily life was there.
His preparations were so similar to hers; it was hard to believe there was no secret agenda with him hoarding so much food.
But who exactly was he!