After driving a short distance, Han Ying stopped the car and stored all the mini wontons and glutinous rice balls from the trunk into her space, leaving only three empty insulated foam boxes.
Once finished, she continued driving to her next destination—only about 500 meters from the wonton shop. This was a place that sold savory pancakes, stir-fried cold noodles, deep-fried dough sticks, and sesame rice balls. She had also ordered a full month’s worth here: 50 servings per day.
Each serving consisted of one thick pancake wrap and a double-portion stir-fried cold noodle dish, plus 100 stuffed sesame balls and 100 dough sticks.
They also sold soy milk for 3 yuan a cup, but Han Ying didn’t order any. Soy milk was too easy to make—she could just look up a recipe online. No need to waste money buying it here.
After collecting her pancake and cold noodle order, she went to a bun shop and picked up 100 big meat buns, 100 bamboo shoot buns, and 100 shumai.This bun shop was famous in the area. They sold well every day. It wasn’t that close to Pengcheng University, but many early-rising students still came here for breakfast.
Han Ying had to persuade the owner for quite a while before he agreed to make 300 buns in different flavors for her every day—sweet or savory, any filling was fine. Even if she couldn’t pick them up on a certain day, the owner agreed to freeze them for her until she had time.
The owner even hired an extra helper just to manage the workload.
By the time she collected everything, it was already past eight.Han Ying didn’t waste any more time and headed straight to Pengcheng University to process her leave-of-absence paperwork.
Normally, leave requests had to be submitted within the first week of a new semester. And this semester was nearly over. She wasn’t sure she could apply today, but even if she couldn’t, she didn’t plan to return next semester anyway.It was about to be the apocalypse; a diploma meant nothing.She also didn’t plan to rely on dancing to survive in the future. Whether she graduated or not no longer mattered.
Originally, Han Ying intended to go directly to the academic office, but after thinking about it, she went to her advisor first.
Her dance instructor was a man named Qin Qinghai, in his thirties.He was extremely skilled—had competed internationally and even won awards.He regarded Han Ying highly, always saying her dancing had a natural emotional resonance, that she was born for this art.
On the second night after her rebirth, Qin Qinghai had even called her, asking why she hadn’t attended class for two days.She told him she felt troubled and couldn’t find her “state.”Dance, like music, required not just technique but also emotional alignment. Without it, the performance would fall flat.
Qin Qinghai understood this well.
So, after meeting him today, Han Ying used the same excuse—saying she had been having bizarre dreams: the world being destroyed, everyone wanting to harm her… And she missed her deceased parents. Her mental state was unstable, so she wanted time off to clear her mind.
Qin Qinghai didn’t argue, but he did ask her to perform a short dance for him.Before she finished, he stopped her.
His expression turned heavy.
He never imagined his most promising student would have developed the will to die—filled with suffocating hostility—as if she wanted to drag someone into death with her.Feeling this from her dance shocked him completely.How could she have changed so drastically in just a few days?
If this continued unchecked, she would destroy herself.
Han Ying, of course, had no idea what he saw in her dance.While dancing, her mind had drifted back to the day she died in her previous life.
That day, she had just finished her shift at the base’s farm when Jian Qiutong, who often scavenged for supplies with her, came saying her friend found a house buried by snow in the outskirts. The house had a sealed cellar—one that seemed untouched.There was an 80% chance something valuable was inside.
But because the cellar was sealed too tightly, the friend wanted help opening it.Anyone who helped would get a 20% share.They only needed two extra people.
Since Han Ying had an electric chainsaw, they called her.The issue of electricity would be handled by Jian Qiutong’s friend.
Han Ying did not suspect anything. After all, she really did have a chainsaw, and she had scavenged with Jian Qiutong and her friends many times. Their distribution of supplies had always been fair.
But once she arrived, she realized it wasn’t just Jian Qiutong and her three friends—She even saw Wang Jianye, Zhao Meihua, and Wang Mingliang.
As for Wang Shiqi?
After Zhao Meihua sold Shiqi to the man downstairs, Han Ying had not only escaped but had stabbed that family during her escape.They had spent food and water to buy a girl, only for her to run away—of course they were furious.They threatened Wang Jianye and his son, Wang Mingliang, forcing them to hand over Wang Shiqi as repayment to cover for Han Ying’s escape.
Han Ying had heard all this from a neighbor at the base.No one knew what happened to Shiqi afterward, but judging from the murderous hatred in Zhao Meihua’s eyes, the outcome couldn’t have been good.
Clearly, Zhao Meihua’s family had come for revenge.And Jian Qiutong must have secretly collaborated with them to lure her out—to kill her.
When Han Ying arrived, she was surrounded at once.The moment she saw their eyes, she understood—
They didn’t just want to kill her.They wanted to eat her.
That hungry, crazed gaze was something only those who survived the apocalypse knew—the deep, desperate fixation on food.
Han Ying hadn’t realized Jian Qiutong and her group had fallen into cannibalism.
Her first reaction wasn’t fear.
It was disgust.
Because earlier, Jian Qiutong had mentioned her friend treated her to “meat.”She had recounted it with such satisfaction.Back then, Han Ying didn’t think too much—everyone was starving; anyone would savor real meat.
But she never imagined the “meat”… was human flesh.
And she had once been that close to a group of cannibals without knowing!