Everything returned to silence, with only Wang Xin’s faint sobbing and Fu Zhe’s comforting voice lingering in the air.
At a little past five in the morning, as the sky was just beginning to brighten, the bedroom door was opened again. Gu Cheng poked her head out from under the blanket and looked at Wang Che in confusion. “What are you doing?”
Wang Che looked at Gu Cheng with a strange expression. “The rain outside is normal rain, not acid rain. The things I left outside weren’t corroded, and I tested it with litmus paper—it’s just ordinary rain.”
This time, Gu Cheng fell silent. “It’s different now, but we still can’t let our guard down.”
Gu Cheng and Lu Ning were temporarily “released” to move around.
The rain had already been falling for two days, extinguishing the forest fire.
The daytime temperature had dropped to 35°C. Aside from Gu Cheng, Jiang Li, and Guo Ye’s group, who didn’t go out to get soaked, the rest of the survivors in the villa district—and even those outside it—rushed out excitedly to bathe in the rain.
After so long, the long-awaited rain washed away the grime from their bodies. Everyone thought they had finally endured the disaster.
Little did they know that even greater calamities lay ahead.
Shi Qiao and Wei Jiawen reinstalled the diesel generator in the villa. The rain had reduced the solar panels’ output to almost nothing.
The sound of vehicles came from the entrance of the villa district—there were quite a few people judging by the noise.
Shi Qiao put on a raincoat and went out to check. “People sent from the Capital City have arrived—about fifty of them.”
Hearing that they were from the Capital City, Fu Zhe quickly put on a raincoat and went out. After quite a while, he returned with someone.
“Let me introduce him. This is my childhood friend from the compound—we practically grew up wearing the same pair of pants, Xue Chao. These people are also my good partners.”
Fu Zhe introduced everyone to each other and had already arranged for them to stay in empty villas, ensuring each person had their own room just in case.
After exchanging greetings and information, they learned that the Capital City had issued a notice: all cities had already begun preparing official safety bases.
Rescue teams were now being organized. Once the acid rain passed, they would do their best to notify and transport survivors to the safety bases.
The difficulty was extremely high, but they could only try their best. The safety bases had limited space, and conditions at the beginning would certainly not be ideal.
Hai City’s safety base was built near the villa district, far from the city center, on higher ground—easy to defend and hard to attack. The leadership command center would likely be set up within this villa district.
Fu Zhe also pointed out Chu Xiuyuan’s villa to Xue Chao. The letter had been written by them—this was Xue Chao’s main mission.
When Chu Xiuyuan and the others learned that Xue Chao’s team had come to pick them up, they were extremely excited and confident. They cleaned themselves up thoroughly—after all, there was finally water again.
After discussing with Fu Zhe and the others, Xue Chao decided they would set off after the extreme cold passed. For now, they still needed to stay here for some time, so the military had to go out daily to search for supplies.
The torrential rain showed no signs of stopping. By the third day, the drainage system for water ability users began to fail. Water had already flooded the first floor, making it uninhabitable, and residents moved upward.
The solar panels in the villa district were no longer usable, and the power was completely cut off.
The floodwaters outside made supply searches more difficult. Fortunately, the military had prepared inflatable boats and still managed to bring back large amounts of dry rations and bottled water every day.
Because Xue Chao was Fu Zhe’s childhood friend, he often came over to eat. Others had already been reduced to eating only dry rations.
By the fifth day of the storm, the water had risen to the height of four floors. Everyone from the lower levels moved upward. The floodwaters mixed with garbage, and a sour, putrid smell filled the air.
Just after the extreme heat passed, floods arrived. Many people suffered mental breakdowns. Some completely lost their humanity—becoming irritable, selfish, robbing food, committing assaults, making all kinds of transactions, and even resorting to cannibalism.
In the apocalypse, the most terrifying thing was still human nature.
At night, screams suddenly echoed through the villa district. Someone had gone out into the rain—it was corrosive. The raindrops caused unbearable stinging pain upon contact with the skin. Amid continuous screams, the person eventually collapsed, turning into a rotting corpse.
The acid rain had finally come—three days earlier than expected.
After coordinating with the Elder and Xue Chao, Fu Zhe returned to his room to wait.
Gu Cheng and Lu Ning were once again confined to their room. In the middle of the night, everyone developed a high fever.
Outside, some people turned into zombies and directly attacked their unprepared family members.
Screams and cries for help rang out endlessly. The villa district was no exception—several villas had also seen the emergence of zombies.
The awakening of abilities took a relatively long time, requiring two to three days. Gu Cheng, however, awakened earlier than most.
When she woke up, only Wang Xin had also awakened. The two hugged each other excitedly, crying and laughing at the same time.
After awakening, they felt extremely hungry. Sitting in the dining room, they ate food from the storage space, savoring the relief of surviving a disaster. They also gathered the scattered supplies back into the storage space.
The two curiously explored their new abilities. Gu Cheng was a water ability user—but not just that. In her consciousness, her water ability also had a special purification function, though she still needed to figure out how to use it.
Wang Xin had awakened a healing ability, which allowed her to recover quickly. Healing abilities were extremely rare, and it made Wang Xin’s complexion even more radiant, her skin fair and delicate.
Neither of them seemed to have much offensive capability, so they still needed to improve their physical strength and combat skills.
After eating, they felt uneasy about the others. Gu Cheng produced six small cups of water—her ability was still limited after just awakening.
The two first went together to Lu Ning’s room. From the storage space, they took out two Tang swords in case Lu Ning had turned into a zombie, so they could protect themselves immediately.
They crept quietly to the door, barely daring to breathe, pressing their ears against it to listen for any movement. In the entire villa, aside from their own pounding heartbeats, there was no sound.
Gu Cheng made a gesture for Wang Xin to open the door while she raised her Tang sword.
Wang Xin quickly opened the door and moved to the wall. Gu Cheng held the sword, ready to strike at any moment. A few seconds passed—aside from the sound of the door opening, there was nothing else.
The two exchanged a glance. Gu Cheng cautiously stepped into the room first, holding the sword. The lights were on, and Lu Ning lay quietly on the bed.
They both let out a sigh of relief and walked over. Lu Ning’s brows were slightly furrowed, her face flushed—she had a fever. One supported her while the other fed her purified water and fever medicine, then placed a cooling patch on her forehead.
Wang Xin carefully mouthed, “Is it okay now?”
Gu Cheng rolled her eyes. “You can talk. Why are you being so timid? It’s fine now. Let’s go to the next room.”
Only then did Wang Xin react. “Oh my, I was so nervous I forgot to breathe—I almost suffocated. Lu Ning isn’t going to turn into a zombie, right?”
Gu Cheng shook her head. “Not sure. I’ve never experienced this before. I don’t know how long zombie mutation takes. But having a fever probably means awakening an ability—she shouldn’t turn into a zombie.”
They closed Lu Ning’s door and went next door. Chen Chuan lived there. Unlike the others who had been together from the start, they weren’t very familiar with him.
Wang Che had said that Chen Chuan used to be a gentle and refined person. But after experiencing the darker sides of human nature—even within his own family—his temperament had become somewhat melancholic.
Only toward members of Wang Che’s team did he remain warm and soft-hearted. Toward outsiders, however, he had already built a “protective wall.”