The morning sun streamed through the villa’s floor-to-ceiling windows, spilling warm light across the coffee table in the living room.
Two self-heating rice meals had just finished warming up, filling the spacious room with the comforting aroma of hot food.
Li An shoveled a huge mouthful of rice into his mouth, chewing happily before giving Rong Yuxuan a thumbs-up.
“Bro Xuan, you’re unbelievable! I can’t believe this villa still had self-heating meals that hadn’t expired. I thought we’d be stuck eating dry compressed biscuits today.”
Rong Yuxuan didn’t answer.
He ate quietly, his movements calm and unhurried, but every few moments his gaze drifted out the window toward the villa across the street. His ears remained alert, listening for the slightest disturbance.
Li An had long since gotten used to his behavior and simply continued chatting.
“Seriously though, Bro Xuan, you’ve hidden this crush way too well. If it were me, I’d have confessed at least eight hundred times by now.”
He poked at the braised egg in his lunch box before suddenly remembering something.
“Actually… we’re sitting here eating instant meals, but what about Miss Lin? She grew up as a pampered young lady. Surely she isn’t surviving on emergency rations like us? Fresh food is almost impossible to find now. A girl like her can’t spend every day eating compressed biscuits.”
The words struck Rong Yuxuan like a needle through the heart.
His chopsticks paused in midair.
He looked toward the villa opposite them, his brows slowly knitting together.
He hadn’t thought this through.
Qingtang had been cherished her entire life. No one knew better than he did how much she’d suffered in her previous life just for a sip of clean water or a warm meal.
Even if she had stocked up on supplies this time…
Fresh ingredients, desserts, and all the snacks she loved couldn’t last forever in the apocalypse.
He quietly set down his meal and stood.
Walking to the window, he stared across the street.
“I’m heading out,” he said as he picked up his steel baton and fastened it to his waist. “I’ll clear out the zombies nearby.”
Li An immediately jumped to his feet, grabbing his sharpened steel pipe.
“I’ll come with you! The two of us can wipe them out much faster.”
“No.”
Rong Yuxuan shook his head, his eyes still on the opposite villa.
“You stay here and keep watch.”
Li An blinked before patting his chest confidently.
“Leave it to me, Bro Xuan! I won’t take my eyes off the place. If even one zombie gets close to Miss Lin’s courtyard, I’ll call you immediately!”
Rong Yuxuan nodded.
He reached into his backpack and pulled out two palm-sized black devices, handing one to Li An.
They were communication terminals designed to work with a local wireless network software the two of them had developed before the apocalypse.
They required no internet connection.
As long as they had power, they could communicate instantly within a twenty-kilometer radius, completely unaffected by the collapse of the cellular network.
“Take this.”
His voice was steady.
“It has a built-in solar charger. As long as there’s sunlight, it’ll keep working.”
He pointed to one of the buttons.
“If anything happens, press this immediately. No matter where I am, I’ll come back at once.”
Li An turned the device over in his hands, his eyes lighting up.
“Holy crap! You actually brought these? I’d completely forgotten about them! This is amazing! Even if the whole city loses power and internet, we’ll still be able to contact each other.”
He quickly tucked it into his pocket and patted it proudly.
“Mission accepted! The second anything happens around Miss Lin’s place, you’ll know.”
Without another word, Rong Yuxuan opened the door and left.
…
There weren’t many zombies left inside the villa district.
Scattered here and there, fewer than ten in total.
Rong Yuxuan didn’t waste his lightning ability.
Armed only with his steel baton, he moved silently through the neighborhood.
Every strike was swift and precise, crushing a zombie’s skull before it could make much noise.
In less than thirty minutes, every zombie along the main roads of the neighborhood had been eliminated.
But instead of returning home, he headed toward the property management garage.
There, he found a pickup truck with a full tank of fuel.
From there, he drove to the neighborhood’s imported supermarket, private restaurant, and fresh food convenience store.
He loaded every piece of fresh produce he could find.
Steaks.
Seafood.
Fresh fruit.
Desserts.
Snacks.
Drinks.
He packed the truck bed until it overflowed, then filled the passenger seat as well.
Only then did he drive back.
The pickup stopped quietly outside Lin Qingtang’s villa.
After shutting off the engine, Rong Yuxuan took a deep breath, trying to calm his nerves before gently knocking on the gate.
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
The sound was light, almost cautious.
A moment later, Lin Shaoan’s guarded voice came from inside.
“Who’s there?”
“It’s Rong Yuxuan, Uncle.”
His voice was gentle, careful not to frighten anyone inside.
“I’ve brought some food and daily necessities for Qingtang.”
Almost immediately, Lin Qingtang answered through the thick gate.
Her voice remained distant and wary.
“We don’t need anything. Take it back.”
Exactly as he’d expected.
She refused.
He wasn’t surprised.
Nor did he try to force the issue.
Instead, he spoke softly through the door.
“Qingtang, I know you don’t lack supplies.”
“But these fresh ingredients and desserts won’t last long. They’ll spoil if nobody eats them.”
“I’ll leave everything outside.”
“If you ever decide you want them, you can come out and take them whenever you like.”
Without waiting for a reply, he walked back to the truck and began unloading.
He deliberately didn’t leave everything.
He didn’t want to overwhelm her.
Instead, he carefully selected the freshest steaks, seafood, and fruit, along with several cases of her favorite drinks, snacks, and desserts.
He packed everything neatly into clean cardboard boxes and lined them up under the shelter of the front gate.
After finishing, he backed away more than ten meters before quietly saying,
“Qingtang, everything’s here.”
“It’s all clean.”
“Don’t worry.”
“I’ll head back across the street.”
…
Inside the villa, Lin Qingtang stood before the surveillance monitor.
She watched his retreating figure.
Then she looked at the neatly stacked boxes outside the gate.
Her emotions became a tangled mess.
“Tangtang…”
Lin Shaoan looked at the monitor before turning to his daughter.
“Should we bring them inside?”
She bit her lip and slowly shook her head.
Her eyes remained full of caution.
“No.”
“We don’t need them.”
“If we accept them… then we’ll owe him.”
In her previous life, Long Juanli had trapped her with four years of so-called friendship and favors.
In the end, she’d been betrayed and pushed into a horde of zombies.
She would never again owe anyone anything.
Lin Shaoan nodded.
He didn’t try to persuade her further.
…
The boxes remained untouched the entire afternoon.
Not once did Lin Qingtang open the gate.
As the sun gradually sank below the horizon, warm orange light spread across the lake while darkness slowly settled over the neighborhood.
The wind grew stronger.
In the distance came the endless howls of zombies.
Three motorcycles rumbled into the villa district along the lakeside road.
Each rider carried steel pipes or machetes.
Their faces were hard and ruthless.
They were local thugs from a nearby urban village.
When the apocalypse began, they’d taken advantage of the chaos to rob countless homes.
Today they had wandered into the villa district in search of more supplies.
As the Scar-faced Man rounded the corner, his eyes immediately landed on the neatly stacked boxes outside the gate.
His eyes lit up.
He slammed on the brakes.
“What is it, Boss?” one of the others asked.
The Scar-faced Man pointed excitedly.
“Look over there!”
“Holy hell!”
“Food!”
“There are fruit and drinks too!”
In the apocalypse, fresh food and snacks were worth more than gold.
The other two followed his finger.
Their eyes instantly turned red with greed.
“Damn! It’s real!”
“We’ve hit the jackpot!”
“Don’t rush.”
The Scar-faced Man grabbed them, scanning the sealed villa and its surroundings.
“The windows are reinforced. The gate’s locked. Even the walls have electric fencing.”
“Someone definitely lives here.”
“And if they’ve got this much sitting outside…”
“There has to be even more inside.”
“We’ll take everything outside first.”
“Then we’ll see if we can break in.”
The three exchanged greedy smiles.
Weapons in hand, they quietly approached the gate.
Just as one of them reached toward the boxes…
Across the street, Li An, who had been keeping watch from the second floor, suddenly widened his eyes.
He snatched up the communicator from his pocket and slammed the call button.
“Bro Xuan! Bro Xuan!”
“We’ve got trouble!”
“Three thugs just showed up!”
“They’re trying to steal Miss Lin’s supplies!”
“They’re even planning to break into the villa!”
Almost simultaneously—
The front door downstairs burst open.
Rong Yuxuan gripped his steel baton.
His eyes turned as cold as frozen steel, murderous intent surging from him in an instant as he sprinted toward the opposite side of the street.
Anyone who dared touch the things he’d prepared for Qingtang…
Anyone who dared lay a hand on her home…
Would pay with their life.