The interior of the dilapidated Wuling Hongguang van, parked haphazardly in a temporary roadside spot, was deathly silent. No one spoke; only the sound of several heavy breaths interlaced in the cramped space.
The woman in the back seat widened her eyes in disbelief, her mind consumed by nothing but sheer terror.
However, she quickly forced herself to suppress her fear, adopting a nonchalant tone. “Wh-what are you talking about? This isn’t a novel. How could there be ‘reborn’ people? And a spatial dimension… you’ve been reading too many apocalypse stories, haven’t you?”
Her gaze flickered, desperately trying to hide the truth.
Xu Jiao couldn’t be certain who these people were or how they knew her secrets. She had only been reborn for three days—how could she have been exposed so quickly?
Recalling research videos she had seen in her past life, Xu Jiao felt that if she admitted to it, she would likely be snatched away and taken to a research institute for live human experimentation.
No!
She absolutely could not admit it!
“Xu Jiao, showing abnormal behavior starting three days ago. Specific actions include: suddenly divorcing a husband who appeared friendly on the surface, making frantic orders for food on shopping platforms, and purchasing massive quantities of supplies that subsequently vanished into thin air.”
Ling Lan recited the facts calmly. Finally, she added, “Since you claim you don’t have a spatial dimension, do you dare take us to your home for a look? One hundred bags of rice, fifty barrels of cooking oil, and dozens of outfits—if there is no space, they should all be in your house, right?”
Two questions hit her in rapid succession, leaving Xu Jiao speechless.
She opened her mouth. “I…”
Li Sang hadn’t thought there was anything wrong with Jiang Tai’an’s team before, but now she realized these people didn’t quite understand how to interact with others.
They were a bit too aggressive.
She coughed twice again. “Let me jump in for a second. Xu Jiao, we really aren’t the bad guys. Since we can obtain this much information so easily, who do you think—besides those closest to you—could possibly achieve this?”
Li Sang spoke in a persuasive, leading tone.
Hearing Li Sang’s words, Xu Jiao didn’t stray from her fixed line of thinking. “A hacker.”
“…”
Li Sang’s lip twitched, but she quickly followed up, “Try a different perspective.”
The space inside the van was narrow, and the temperaments of most of the occupants were cold and unapproachable. Only the beautiful girl in front of her, with her gentle smile, seemed accessible. Being a fellow woman, Xu Jiao found it easier to be guided by her words and began to think again.
Besides someone close to her or a hacker, who else could it be?
The people who processed her records!
But… was that kind of data accessible to just anyone?
She knew the answer was no.
A hint of suspicion entered Xu Jiao’s eyes. She stared at Li Sang and subconsciously asked, “Are you… people from the State?”
As she said it, it felt absurd even to her.
In such a vast nation, how could the high-level authorities notice someone like her?
However, the answer she received was:
“Yes.”
This time, it wasn’t the girl who answered, but the leader of the man who had kidnapped her.
The man’s face was stony and hard—not exactly handsome, but possessed of a visible, unshakable grit.
He was looking directly at her, his pitch-black eyes unblinking. “Six months ago, a strange virus began appearing in countries across the ocean. Initially, it only infected livestock and didn’t affect humans.”
“But at some unknown point, humans suddenly began contracting the virus. Once infected, humans lose their reason and become the walking dead, capable of nothing but biting. Using the term often found in movies, they became zombies.”
From the moment this virus appeared, the State had locked down the borders.
No one was allowed in except for citizens of the country.
And even when citizens returned, they underwent a series of rigorous inspections to ensure there were no issues before being released.
Because the State was not only responsible for the safety of those individuals but also for the safety of everyone else.
To the public, the State’s official response was simply that customs entry and exit procedures had become more stringent.
As for leaving the country?
Unless absolutely necessary, visas were no longer being issued.
To avoid inciting panic, the matter had to be suppressed.
Such a strict exit policy caused many people to give up on their plans for international travel. When getting a visa took months or even a year, who would still want to apply?
“If you had any friends who wanted to go abroad in the last six months, you would know the State has strictly controlled outbound travel. For the safety of our citizens, the State must eliminate every possibility of the virus being brought back into the country.”
“For these past six months, no food products from abroad have been allowed in. The State wants to cut off the possibility of infection at the source until this virus is resolved.”
This was indeed the plan devised by the upper echelons of the State.
But the situation changed one week ago.
The observatory noted that in the near future, a massive comet would disintegrate. This comet is extremely close to the Blue Planet. Once it truly breaks apart, meteorite fragments of all sizes will hurtle toward the planet, shattering the equilibrium that every nation has fought to maintain.
Many countries had adopted policies similar to China’s, hoping to wait until the virus vanished.
But once that comet disintegrates, all balance will be broken.
At that point, whether the border protections can even hold remains an unknown. If customs cannot be completely sealed, the virus will inevitably spread inward. Then, a society already suffering from collapsed order will descend into even greater chaos.
That was the apocalypse Xu Jiao had witnessed.
Hearing this, Xu Jiao took a deep breath, yet she still felt as though she were dreaming.
“So you found me… for what?”
If the State knew all this, why didn’t they do what a government is supposed to do?
Why let so many people die in that meteor shower?
Xu Jiao felt her emotions rising. She tried hard to calm herself.
Ultimately, she failed. Surging emotions drowned out her logic. “If the State knew all this long ago, why didn’t you do what you were supposed to? Why did you just watch as so many people died in that cataclysmic disaster?”
Even though Li Sang had transmigrated as a “cannon fodder” character, and even though she would have been one of the victims of that disaster had she not intervened, she had to say something upon hearing this.
“How do you know the State did nothing?”
She had finished reading the entire novel, so she knew exactly what the State had done after learning about the situation.
“After observing this phenomenon, the State began building survival spaces for the post-apocalyptic era all over the country. In just one week, hundreds of underground air-raid shelters were completed simultaneously. They used the national treasury to repurchase and stockpile grain. The current stockpile is enough for hundreds of millions of people to survive for several years.”
“But how is the State supposed to predict the trajectory of hundreds of millions of meteorites? Do you know how many underground shelters were smashed to pieces by direct hits? Do you know how many were actually able to be put into use in the end?”