Her gaze fell on her phone. After hesitating for a moment, her trembling fingers typed “zombies” and “apocalypse” into the search bar. As the page loaded, countless articles, pictures, and videos about zombies and the end of the world flooded the screen. Mi Beibei’s eyes widened with every result she read. With each piece of information, the fear in her heart grew stronger, and she became more certain that what she had seen outside the storage room window was truly an apocalyptic world, just like the legends described.
But another question spread through her mind like creeping vines. If the outside of the storage room really led to an apocalypse, what exactly was the connection between that strange space and the real world she lived in? Could it somehow affect reality?
The more she thought about it, the more frightened she became, yet she couldn’t stop herself from thinking. Gritting her teeth, she searched the entire apartment for anything that could be used as a weapon. She rummaged through every corner of the house, but to her frustration, she couldn’t even find a decent stick.
Her eyes landed on the bag of garbage she had tied up yesterday but hadn’t thrown away yet. She hesitated for only a second before grabbing it and quickly carrying it to the storage room window.
Taking a deep breath, she used all her strength to throw the garbage bag out the window.
Bang! Crash!
The bag hit the ground with a loud noise.
The zombie that had already wandered farther away heard the sound. It slowly turned its stiff body and began shuffling mechanically toward the source of the noise, one step at a time.
Mi Beibei was so nervous that she barely dared to breathe. Her eyes remained fixed on every movement the zombie made.
Just then, a series of hurried footsteps suddenly echoed through the street.
Instinctively, she leaned farther out the window, trying to see whether the newcomers were people or more zombies.
A few people suddenly rushed around the corner.
Their clothes were filthy, covered with stains and tears, and their hair was messy and sticking out in every direction. Their eyes were filled with vigilance, and every one of them carried the weathered look of people who had survived countless hardships.
The moment they spotted the zombie slowly approaching the garbage bag, one of them—a tall, muscular man—immediately gripped the thick wooden club in his hands.
With a loud shout, he swung it with all his strength.
Thud!
The dull impact echoed through the silent street.
The zombie collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut, crashing lifelessly onto the ground and kicking up a cloud of dust.
After killing the zombie, a young woman with a ponytail and sharp eyes noticed Mi Beibei peeking out from the window.
Surprise flashed across her face. She nudged the companion beside her, signaling with her eyes, before turning and walking quickly toward Mi Beibei’s window.
Mi Beibei’s heart instantly jumped into her throat.
Her legs trembled uncontrollably.
A voice inside her screamed at her to run away from the window and hide inside the house.
But she forced herself to stay calm despite her fear.
Her hands gripped the windowsill so tightly that her knuckles turned white as she tried to figure out what these strangers wanted.
“Hello. Were you the one who threw that out just now?”
The ponytailed girl looked up at Mi Beibei and asked. Her clear voice sounded especially loud in the deathly silent apocalyptic street.
Mi Beibei nervously twisted the corner of her clothes with her fingers. After hesitating for quite a while, she finally stammered,
“Y-Yes… I threw it.”
Her voice was quiet and trembled with nervousness.
“Why aren’t you at one of the survivor bases? Are you here all by yourself?”
The ponytailed girl immediately asked another question, her eyes full of curiosity and concern.
Mi Beibei was momentarily speechless.
Her mind raced as she searched for an answer.
After a pause, she replied hesitantly,
“My family all went out. We… we don’t know where the survivor base is.”
It was only half true, but in such a strange and dangerous situation, she instinctively didn’t want to reveal too much.
The ponytailed girl frowned slightly upon hearing her answer, but she didn’t continue questioning her.
Instead, she said,
“Then… would you like to come with us?”
Her tone was sincere, as if she genuinely wanted to bring Mi Beibei along.
Mi Beibei bit her lip and instinctively shook her head without saying a word.
Her heart was filled with hesitation.
Although these strangers didn’t appear hostile for the moment, following them so casually felt far too risky.
Seeing her reaction, the ponytailed girl didn’t force the issue.
She sighed helplessly and was about to leave.
At that moment, the burly man who had killed the zombie with the club walked over.
He exchanged a meaningful glance with the ponytailed girl before speaking to Mi Beibei.
“I saw an empty self-heating rice container in your trash. Do you still have any food? We’d like to trade for it.”
His voice was deep and hoarse, filled with exhaustion and urgency.
Hearing that, Mi Beibei’s heart skipped a beat.
She instinctively took half a step backward, but still forced herself to remain calm.
“I still have a little… W-What are you going to trade for it?”
In a world where supplies were scarce, food meant life itself. She had no choice but to be cautious.
The moment Mi Beibei asked that question, the eyes of the ponytailed girl and the man named Liu Jingming lit up with unconcealed excitement.
The two exchanged a glance before answering almost simultaneously,
“We’ll trade you gold!”
Their voices trembled with excitement, and they looked at Mi Beibei with hopeful yet nervous expressions.
“Gold?”
Mi Beibei was surprised, but then quickly understood.
Since it was already the apocalypse, money was probably worthless. Besides, the currencies of their two worlds might not even be the same.
“If not, zombie crystals are fine too… although we don’t have many.”
Liu Jingming quickly added.
The words “zombie crystals” filled Mi Beibei with confusion.
A trace of puzzlement flashed across her eyes, but in such a bizarre and dangerous situation, she didn’t dare ask too many questions.
Based on what she had read in novels, zombie crystals were probably something found inside zombies.
After hesitating for a moment, she nodded.
“I’ll take the gold. Wait a moment.”
After saying that, she closed the window and hurried out of the storage room.
She quickly walked over to the corner where the supplies were stacked.
Just as she reached out to carry the entire large bag of instant noodles and self-heating rice into the storage room, her movement suddenly stopped.
She frowned slightly.
After thinking it over, she changed her mind.
Instead of taking everything, she carefully picked out four boxes of self-heating rice and four packs of instant noodles, hugged them tightly against her chest, and returned to the storage room.
Outside the window, Gu An’an and Liu Jingming were startled when they saw Mi Beibei suddenly close the window.
The man opened his mouth as if he wanted to stop her, but swallowed the words before they came out.
He turned to the other two companions, lowered his voice, though unable to hide his excitement, and said,
“I saw food inside with that girl. Let’s trade something for it. If we don’t eat soon, we won’t be able to hold on.”
The other two men’s eyes immediately lit up with excitement.
All four of them stared eagerly at the tightly shut window, hoping it would open again.
When Mi Beibei finally reopened the window, she found that there were now two more strong men standing behind the ponytailed girl and the muscular man.
All four of them stared directly at her.
The longing in their eyes made her scalp tingle.
Her hand trembled involuntarily as she quickly said,
“I have self-heating rice and instant noodles.”
Before she could finish speaking, Liu Jingming moved like a starving wolf spotting prey.
He swiftly pulled out a tangled bundle of gold necklaces.
Stretching them toward Mi Beibei, he asked eagerly, his voice shaking with excitement,
“We’ll trade these. Is this enough?”
Mi Beibei looked at the gold necklaces in his hand.
They were twisted together into a tangled mess, making it impossible to tell how many there actually were.
Dark brown dried blood still stained their surfaces.
The sight alone made her uneasy, and she hesitated, not daring to reach out.
At that moment, Gu An’an seemed to notice her concerns.
She slowly raised one hand.
A stream of crystal-clear water suddenly flowed out from her palm.
The water gradually formed into a shimmering sphere that completely enveloped the gold necklaces.
The water sphere floated up and down, as though invisible hands were carefully washing every inch of the necklaces, rinsing away all the dirt and dried blood.
Mi Beibei stared in shock.
Her eyes widened, and her mouth hung open for quite some time before she could react.
Soon, the necklaces were completely clean.
They sparkled brilliantly under the sunlight.
Only then did Mi Beibei cautiously reach out and accept the cleaned gold necklaces before handing over the self-heating rice and instant noodles.
Liu Jingming immediately grabbed them, unable to wait another second.
A satisfied smile spread across his face.
Gu An’an smiled and said,
“Thank you so much. My name is Gu An’an. He’s Liu Jingming, and these two are Li Long and Zhang Zeyu. We haven’t been able to find any food for several days now. The little rations we had ran out long ago. We were almost starving.”