Shi Qiao distributed the drinks Gu Cheng had given them to the property management staff. The staff were very happy—being cared for felt good. One of the young staff members even quietly reminded them:
“You should stock up more supplies at home. We’ve received news that this extreme weather will last at least a month. The more you store, the better.”
Shi Qiao was usually quiet, but very good at building rapport with people. With just a few words, she quickly got close to them and gathered all the information she could from the property management. After saying goodbye, the group dragged their camping carts back toward the villa.
On the way, when no one was around, Gu Cheng tried to store the items from her car into the Storage Space, but Wang Che stopped her.
“There are surveillance cameras. If you can’t carry it, put it in my car.”
He moved the heavier items into his own car and transferred lighter ones to Gu Cheng’s car, and they continued walking home.
When they returned, a wave of cold air hit them instantly from the air conditioning. In that moment, everyone felt like they had been saved.
They went to shower, changed clothes, and then gathered in the living room.
Shi Qiao shared what she had found out.
“The property management here is connected to higher-ups. They said this heat will last for a month, and the situation after that is unknown. Within three days, power restrictions will begin outside. Supplies are being distributed centrally now—once a day. We’ll take turns collecting them.
The troublemakers we saw earlier were people who just rented the place two days ago. They moved in yesterday with supplies, and the property management accepted them only because they paid a lot of benefits.”
The information from the property management further confirmed Gu Cheng’s prophetic dream.
However, Gu Cheng stared blankly at Wang Che. He noticed and asked,
“What are you thinking about?”
Gu Cheng spoke slowly.
“What’s happening now is slightly different from my dream. In my dream, Jiang Li and Ye Wen stayed in my grandmother’s house and survived the extreme heat. Ye Wen died before the extreme cold. And those two men didn’t appear this early—they only met us on the road after the zombies appeared. Why did they appear here so early?”
She felt uneasy about the changes in the plot. Everything was shifting now, and everyone’s fate was in her hands. After spending time together, she found that everyone was genuinely good people. She did not want them to end up like in the book, dying miserable deaths.
Wang Che noticed her tension and pulled her upstairs.
Gu Cheng followed him in a daze into his room. After closing the door, he helped her sit on a small sofa and then sat on the table opposite her, looking at her directly at eye level.
“What are you afraid of? Don’t carry everything alone and overthink things.”
“I’m just afraid they might appear here. I feel like things are deviating from what I know. I’m afraid I won’t be able to help everyone.”
“Gu Cheng, since we can be here, they can be here too. Among those four people, there must be someone like you.”
Gu Cheng looked at him but did not tell him the truth about transmigrating into a book. She only said that after waking up, she found herself here, and after having a dream, she went to verify it, took Jiang Li’s Storage Space jade bracelet, and everything that followed was known to him.
“I woke up and the first thing I did was verify it. I took Jiang Li’s Storage Space. You already know what happened after that.”
Hearing that she had died in the early stage of the extreme heat, a dull pain spread through Wang Che’s chest.
“You did well. You knew to take the Storage Space. According to what you’re saying, Jiang Li doesn’t seem to have been reborn. Otherwise, she would have gone straight for the jade bracelet Storage Space. If she couldn’t find it, she would never have let you go. It wouldn’t just be verbal provocation.”
He thought for a moment.
“And it’s not Chu Xiuyuan or Zhou Tong either—they don’t know me. So it can only be Ye Wen. She only survived until the early extreme cold phase. That’s why she looked unfamiliar to all of us except you and Wang Xin. So don’t be afraid. We are more prepared than them in many ways, and they don’t have Storage Space either. Their future will definitely be harder than ours.”
Gu Cheng felt slightly relieved at the thought of them having a harder life.
“I’m just afraid my information might be wrong and I won’t be able to protect everyone.”
“We are gathered here to survive the apocalypse together. Compared to your dream where we were unprepared, we’ve already made far more preparations. From now on, you can’t rely too much on your foresight. The moment you woke up, everything changed. You can’t fully follow the dream anymore.
My brothers are not people who fear death. Since they chose to follow me, they must trust me. No matter who dies, the rest will keep living. We will protect you and Wang Xin until the end. If everyone dies, then you two will just depend on each other and live on.”
Hearing this, Gu Cheng suddenly thought of her own cousins, who had always protected her like this. She felt a little homesick. Her hand unconsciously tugged at the dangling string on Wang Che’s clothes.
“I didn’t expect you could say so much to comfort someone. Tonight I want to eat sweet and sour pork ribs—I didn’t get to eat it yesterday.”
“Why didn’t you eat dinner yesterday?”
Gu Cheng continued fiddling with the tag on his clothing without answering.
Seeing her acting spoiled, Wang Che didn’t say more. He rescued his clothing string from her “clutches” and said casually,
“I’ll see what I feel like.”
He turned and walked out downstairs.
Gu Cheng could only grumble as she followed him down.
Dinner did not include sweet and sour pork ribs, but there were her favorites—crabs, grilled fish, and boiled spicy beef. At this point, Wang Che had basically become the “god” of the household—his cooking was too good.
Gu Cheng carefully ate her crab slowly. She had only managed two pieces when the last piece on her plate was taken by Fu Zhe and placed into Wang Xin’s bowl.
She watched the crab helplessly, feeling regretful.
But then a plate was pushed toward her—it contained two pieces of crab.
She looked up at Wang Che.
He continued eating without looking at her.
Gu Cheng smiled and happily took the crab. She continued eating.
“So good… my favorite.”
After dinner, they rested briefly, and then Gu Cheng joined the self-defense training.
Her physical fitness was extremely poor, so she started with half an hour of cardio with Wang Xin every day. After that, they practiced self-defense techniques.
Half an hour of cardio almost killed both of them. When they moved on to self-defense training, their limbs were too tired to lift.
Fu Zhe first had them practice punches and kicks to strengthen their arms and legs, which would be necessary for fighting zombies and escaping later.
Three days later, as the property management had said, an official notice was issued: citywide power restrictions were implemented.
Electricity would be supplied centrally for only three hours per day—from 12 noon to 3 p.m. Any further changes would be announced later.
On the first day of restrictions, temperatures outside continued to rise. Many people suffered heatstroke, and some even died from heat exhaustion.
Many people realized something was wrong and took flashlights, preparing to go out at night in groups to search for water and food.
The villa district, however, was still unaffected due to solar power systems installed in each house, leaving them somewhat unaware of the suffering outside.
At dinner, Wang Che suggested going out that night to check the real situation outside and to stock up on gasoline and frozen food. After the power outage, frozen food would spoil quickly, so it needed to be stored to avoid waste.
At 9 p.m., the group changed into quick-dry clothing and went out.
Fortunately, they were driving. The villa district was still brightly lit, but once they left the area, everything plunged into darkness—so dark that they could not see their own hands.
There were no streetlights, no glowing windows.
Only the sky remained unusually bright, with stars shining more brilliantly than ever before.