Crack—
The sound of bones shattering rang out.
A piercing pain shot through all four of Lin Lu’s limbs.
She stared desperately at the tightly shut door in front of her.
Just seconds ago, her fiancé, Pei Yanzhi, the man who had sworn to love her for the rest of his life, had personally shoved her outside.
“Pei Yanzhi! Open the door!… I’ll die out here!”
The door remained closed.
From inside came voices she knew all too well.
Her stepsister, Wan Yinyin, cooed sweetly,
“Brother Yanzhi, you’re amazing! You pushed Sister out with just one shove.”
Her mother, Dai Ya, spoke ingratiatingly,
“Yanzhi, about what we agreed on before… as long as you pushed this wretched girl out, you’d give me half a case of canned food.”
Her stepfather, Wan Feng, spat on the ground.
“This useless burden is finally good for something. If we hadn’t pushed her out, that mutated zombie would’ve charged in.”
Her stepbrother, Wan Helin, mocked impatiently,
“Why are you screaming like someone’s dying? It’s just a couple bites from a zombie. Is it really that serious?”
Finally came the coldest voice of all—Pei Yanzhi’s.
“Lin Lu, you’re the one who’s too greedy. You insisted on competing with Yinyin.”
Before her consciousness faded away, only one thought remained in Lin Lu’s mind:
If evil spirits truly existed in this world, then even as a ghost, she would never let these people go.
“Haah!”
Lin Lu jolted awake from her nightmare and abruptly opened her eyes.
Cold sweat had soaked through her pajamas, making them cling uncomfortably to her skin.
She looked around in panic.
The teddy-bear curtains swayed gently in the breeze.
In the photo frame on the bedside table, her grandmother smiled kindly.
This was her room.
The hillside villa her grandmother had left her.
Trembling, Lin Lu reached up and touched her neck.
Her skin was intact.
There wasn’t a single wound.
“A dream…?”
But it had felt far too real.
Had she been under too much stress lately?
She had worked overtime for months on end. Was that why she had such a terrifying nightmare?
Subconsciously, she reached for her phone beside the pillow to check the time.
6:12 AM.
That was when she noticed something strange.
An unfamiliar app had appeared on her phone.
Its icon was a bizarre eye, half red and half black, giving off an indescribably eerie feeling.
Below it was the title:
“Apocalypse Survival Diary”
“Apocalypse?”
That dream had also taken place in an apocalypse.
“No, what am I thinking?”
“How could an apocalypse possibly happen?”
“What kind of nonsense app is this? Did my phone get infected with a virus?”
She was about to uninstall it when her phone suddenly vibrated.
Bzzzt!
Startled, Lin Lu nearly dropped it.
Caller ID:
Pei Yanzhi.
The moment she saw the name, the nightmare flashed through her mind.
After steadying herself, she answered.
“Hello?”
“Lulu, are you awake?”
Pei Yanzhi’s voice came through the speaker, as gentle as ever.
“Be a good girl and wait for me at home tonight. I have a surprise for you.”
A surprise?
“What surprise?”
“It’s a secret. I’ll come see you after work tonight. Make sure you’re there.”
Before Lin Lu could refuse, the call had already ended.
Holding her phone, Lin Lu suddenly felt uneasy.
As she was lost in thought, the screen suddenly went dark.
Then lines of text began appearing one after another:
June 12, 2122
Weather: Heavy Rain
Today’s Diary:
Your boyfriend, Pei Yanzhi, has just been reborn.
He will arrive at your villa at 9:00 PM tonight, holding a bouquet of roses.
He will kneel on one knee and propose to you.
He will say:
“Lulu, I want to give you a home.”
But what he’s really thinking is:
In one week, the world-ending rainstorm will arrive.
Lin Lu’s villa sits on the highest ground around. I have to get my hands on it.
Tonight, I’ll use the proposal to keep her under control. Tomorrow, I’ll move in.
When the apocalypse comes, I’ll lock her in the basement.
Once food becomes scarce later on, she should be worth at least fifty jin (about 25 kilograms) of rice.
Better that than letting the zombies get her for free.
Lin Lu’s hand trembled.
Smack!
The phone slipped from her grasp and landed on the blanket.
Reborn? The Apocalypse?
A safe house? Trading her for rice?
And even… zombies?
Lin Lu watched as the diary’s message ended. The screen went dark and automatically returned to the home screen.
It was that strange app:
Apocalypse Survival Diary.
If this was some kind of prank, it was far too detailed and vicious.
But if it wasn’t…
Wouldn’t that mean the nightmare she had just experienced wasn’t a dream at all?
It had been her previous life?
And Pei Yanzhi had been reborn. He had returned with all those memories—and come back to kill her!
Buzz—
Her phone vibrated again.
This time, it was a WeChat message from her mother, Dai Ya.
Are you coming home for dinner tonight? Your Uncle Wan and Yinyin are here. By the way, didn’t you just receive your bonus?
Yinyin has her eye on a new LV handbag. Buy it on your way back.
Your Uncle Wan worked hard to raise you all these years. We should repay his kindness.
I’m not asking you to be especially filial. You can at least handle something this small, right?
Reading the shameless extortion that was presented as a matter of course, Lin Lu would normally have felt hurt and tried to explain herself.
Her father had died while saving someone’s life. Yet the compensation money paid monthly by the person he had saved had all been taken by her mother to support her stepfather’s family.
From childhood to adulthood, she had been nothing more than a tool for her mother to curry favor with that family.
It was as though her entire existence was meant to satisfy the endless demands of a family of parasites.
But now, after the nightmare and the shocking diary entry, she felt unexpectedly calm.
This wasn’t the time to waste energy dealing with those bloodsuckers.
The most urgent matter was tonight.
She threw off the blanket, got out of bed, and walked to the window, pulling open the curtains.
The sky was unnaturally dark.
Heavy black clouds hung over the city, and faint thunder rumbled in the distance.
A storm was coming.
She watched silently for a moment before turning around and dragging a dust-covered toolbox out from beneath the bed.
After rummaging through it, she pulled out a stun baton.
She had bought it when she first started living alone but had never used it.
Crackle—
She flipped the switch.
Blue-violet arcs of electricity burst into the air.
Holding the heavy baton, Lin Lu felt slightly reassured.
Whether the app was real or fake…
Whether Pei Yanzhi had truly been reborn or not…
At nine o’clock tonight, she would find out.
Time passed minute by minute.
Lin Lu made herself a proper breakfast and thoroughly inspected the entire villa.
The house was her grandmother’s inheritance, located halfway up Yun Mountain.
Back then, her mother and stepfather’s family had repeatedly tried to get their hands on it, only to be blocked by the will her grandmother had left behind.
Standing before the floor-to-ceiling windows on the second floor, she looked outside.
The rain was already pouring down in sheets.
The villa sat on exceptionally high ground with an open view of the surroundings.
Only a single winding mountain road led up to it.
If the diary was telling the truth and a rainstorm apocalypse was coming, this place would likely be one of the last areas to be submerged.
In the entire city of A, there were probably only a handful of locations more ideal than this.
She then checked the storage room.
There were some everyday supplies—rice, flour, cooking oil, several cases of bottled water, and a few boxes of snacks.
If she became trapped here, those supplies wouldn’t last long.
She needed to stockpile.
As much as possible.
Even if…
Even if the apocalypse turned out to be fake, there was no harm in storing extra food and necessities.
As nine o’clock approached, the rain not only failed to weaken but grew even more violent.
Lin Lu tucked the stun baton into the belt at the back of her waist and covered it with the loose hem of her shirt.
The clock on the wall ticked steadily.
20:59:50
Footsteps sounded outside the door, neither hurried nor slow.
20:59:58
The footsteps stopped in front of the door.
21:00:00
Ding-dong—
The doorbell rang.
Not a second early or late.
Lin Lu slowly took a deep breath and walked to the door, peering through the peephole.
Outside stood Pei Yanzhi, dressed in a tailored suit and holding a bouquet of red roses.
She opened the door.
“Lulu.”
Pei Yanzhi smiled.
His gaze lingered on her face for several seconds, as if confirming something.
Then he stepped into the foyer, bringing with him the damp scent of rain.
“I know this may sound sudden.”
Suddenly, he dropped to one knee.
Taking out a small box, he opened it to reveal a diamond ring.
“Lulu, I want to give you a home.”
“Will you marry me?”