Early the next morning, after Xiao Kui shouted multiple times, Wu Xiaolan finally managed to drag herself up from bed.
Xiao Kui: “You humans are so strange. You told me to wake you up at 8:00, and now it’s already 8:30.”
Wu Xiaolan rubbed her eyes, still looking half-asleep.
She had stayed up late into the night listening to social news reports.
“Zombie-like disease breaks out in multiple foreign countries? Experts launch emergency studies!”
In the footage, several foreigners drifted aimlessly down the streets, their movements as stiff as robots running out of battery.
Yet the comment section was filled with mirth:
“Hahahahaha, a new kind of square dancing?”
“It must be another leaked biochemical experiment from Country M! Does anyone still remember the zombie deer from a few years back?”
“Zombies? I can take on ten!”
“Can they be eaten? Waiting online, quite urgent.”
What was bound to come would eventually arrive. Sighing, Wu Xiaolan clicked open the apocalyptic forum.
Sure enough, it was completely blowing up inside:
The “firm believer faction” was posting photos of their hoarded goods, starting with instant noodles.
The “wait-and-see faction” was agonizing over whether they should stock up on some rice.
The “non-believer faction” was frantically mocking everyone choosing to hoard grain as total fools.
Silently, Wu Xiaolan closed her phone.
The feeling of everyone else being drunk while she remained sober didn’t feel satisfying at all—it was actually somewhat sorrowful.
She wasn’t blind to the idea of notifying more people about the impending doomsday, but reason told her that very few would believe it.
Everyone in this world was quite busy—occupied with life, studies, and work—and accustomed to their individual comfort zones.
Hearing out of nowhere that the apocalypse was coming would only strike them as alarmist nonsense, a malicious rumor meant to disrupt their blissful lives.
Furthermore, in a society governed by law, any behavior triggering public panic faced strict regulation; she couldn’t afford to take risks.
All she could do right now was silently make preparations for the apocalypse on her own.
As Wu Xiaolan headed to the bathroom to wash up, the doorbell rang.
Workers delivering large equipment arrived to carry out their ongoing installation tasks as usual.
Since all her valuable possessions were tucked inside her spatial dimension, Wu Xiaolan had zero worries about things getting stolen while she was out.
Pressing the remote control to unlock the door, she changed into a fresh outfit and headed downstairs to attend the class reunion.
The address had been sent to her by Chen Chen a few days prior.
The only reason she hadn’t blocked Chen Chen was because she wanted to witness firsthand how pathetic that family of four would become when the apocalypse hit.
Stepping out to the courtyard gate, she paused her steps.
The tabby cat that had vanished for several days reappeared.
Looking somewhat dusty yet sporting a glossy coat, its amber eyes locked onto her with the tip of its tail twitching softly.
That gaze radiated excitement, as if it had just run into a long-lost relative.
“Meow.” It padded closer, rubbing back and forth against Wu Xiaolan’s trouser leg.
“Hey? Where on earth did you run off to these past few days?”
Wu Xiaolan remembered it sitting on the wall like a foreman just two days before construction started.
Zhao Guangsheng had joked about getting it a hard hat, only for it to abruptly vanish the next day.
Rummaging through her backpack, Wu Xiaolan found no small fish snacks suitable for a cat—only toasted bread from her hoarded supplies.
Tearing open the bag, she intended to break off a tiny piece for the kitten, but before she could react, the cat snatched it away directly.
Clamping the bread bag in its jaws, the tabby cat leaped atop the wall. Instead of diving into the meal right away, it tilted its head to observe Wu Xiaolan’s next move.
Wu Xiaolan had only meant to share a crumb, never expecting the feline to resort to outright highway robbery.
Still, she couldn’t bring herself to bicker with a cat, so she pulled another bag straight out of her space as she got into her car.
Rolling down the window before driving off, she casually glanced up at the cat on the wall, and the long-suppressed thought in her heart began stirring again.
If the apocalypse truly arrived, would staying alone in such a massive house feel a bit too lonely?
Raising a cat to pass the time wouldn’t be a bad idea.
With that thought, she called out to the kitten: “Hey, I’ve got things to do. Whether I decide to adopt you or not, we’ll talk when I get back.”
Seeming to understand, the kitten tilted its head and let out a “meow,” looking quite pleased.
Driving her small cargo truck toward the urban area, every time she thought about reuniting with Lan Xinran, the gloom clouding the class reunion vanished entirely.
Today, she was determined to persuade Lan Xinran to move in with her inside the safe house; come the apocalypse, she absolutely couldn’t let Lan Xinran face it all alone.
Less than an hour later, Wu Xiaolan arrived at the designated location for the reunion: the Chen Family Grand Hotel.
Back when Wu Xiaolan’s mother was alive, grand birthday banquets had been hosted here in her honor.
At that time, she had been surrounded like the moon cradling stars, treated like a little princess.
Later on, she returned here often as well, but only to serve as the background props for Chen Chen and Chen Yue’s annual birthday parties.
Just as she parked her small cargo truck into a corner spot, the sound of staccato high heels—tap, tap, tap—echoed from behind.
“Yo, I thought someone drove some utterly pauper-tier junk car to a class reunion, turns out it’s just Wu Xiaolan. Well, that’s not surprising—how much success can an unemployed freeloader possibly achieve anyway?”
Su Yao’s mocking sneer rang out from behind.
Standing beside her was her bootlicking lapdog Lu Yuxuan, both of them flashing matching looks of utter disdain as they stared at her.
Wu Xiaolan snorted coldly: “Look who’s talking about success. For all these years, you’ve either been chasing sugar daddies or plotting to be a homewrecking mistress, and in the end, you’re still crashing a class reunion carrying a fake bag.”
Su Yao’s complexion instantly shifted to an ugly shade of green.
Earlier, she had attempted to seduce Wu Xiaolan’s maternal cousin Wu Zhigang, only to be caught red-handed right on the spot by Wu Xiaolan.
That incident had turned into her greatest dark stain.
Since she was gunning for Gu Yichen today, letting anyone overhear that would spell total disaster.
Forcing a stiff upper hand, she could only snap back: “I couldn’t be bothered lowering myself to argue with you.”
Finishing her retort, she glared viciously at Wu Xiaolan and scurried off in a panicked retreat toward the hotel lobby.
Heading to the exact same destination, Wu Xiaolan was forced to trail behind Su Yao while keeping a deliberate distance.
As for Su Yao as a person, Wu Xiaolan genuinely loathed her.
Back in their school days, infatuated with Chen Chen, Su Yao had constantly harbored hostility toward her and other girls.
The tragic part was that Chen Tao was a classic social-climber, and Chen Chen had inherited every single one of his toxic traits—worshipping the rich and trampling the poor. No matter how slavishly obedient Su Yao acted, Chen Chen had always despised her humble background.
Staring at Su Yao’s retreating back, Wu Xiaolan found her simultaneously detestable and pathetic.
The moment Wu Xiaolan stepped into the hotel lobby, a security guard maliciously stepped into her path: “Miss, we suspect you might be carrying dangerous items on your person and need to subject you to a body search.”
Ahead of her, Su Yao witnessed the scene, a look of schadenfreude instantly blooming across her face.
“Wu Xiaolan, if you’ve got any contraband on you, hand it over now—getting caught by a search looks so pathetic, you know.”
Dressed simply today in a white T-shirt and jeans, carrying nothing besides an ordinary backpack and her phone, Wu Xiaolan possessed zero other belongings.
She knew clearly in her heart that this was merely Chen Chen sending someone to deliberately give her a hard time.
In that case, she simply wouldn’t go inside; she could easily wait outside the entrance for Lan Xinran, since she had never intended to participate in this damn class reunion anyway.
“I’m not going in. Search them instead.”
Turning on her heel, Wu Xiaolan made to walk out.
Sure enough, seeing Wu Xiaolan prepare to leave, the security guard panicked for a split second.
His orders instructed him to search Wu Xiaolan, with an extra cash bonus attached upon mission completion.
Desperately, he blocked her path: “Stop right there, you can’t leave!”
Without a shred of politeness, Wu Xiaolan shoved him aside: “Touch me again and I’m calling the police.”
By this time, a large crowd of classmates had already gathered in the hotel lobby. Back during their school days, most of them had served as Chen Chen’s lackeys.
Normal people would never dream of attending a class reunion primarily organized to stroke Chen Chen’s ego.
Standing off to the sides, they pointed fingers and whispered, thoroughly treating the scene as a spectator sport.
“You guys are pushing it too far!”
At that moment, an angry roar erupted from behind Wu Xiaolan, instantly drawing the gaze of everyone present.
Turning around, Wu Xiaolan saw Gu Yichen standing behind her.
Back in school, Gu Yichen had served as class monitor while doubling as a member of Chen Chen’s bullying clique.
In normal times, Gu Yichen would suck up to Chen Chen and join them in picking on Wu Xiaolan, yet in private he would offer her endless comfort.
He would always cry, claiming he had no choice—if he didn’t join that bunch in bullying her, he would become their target instead.
Wu Xiaolan had no desire to make things hard for anyone, but a hypocritical phony like Gu Yichen failed to elicit a single shred of favorable feeling from her.
Just then, Chen Chen appeared on the second-floor spiral staircase, watching the farce unfold on the ground floor with great interest.
“Class Monitor Gu has a crush on my sister? Too bad my sister doesn’t seem to care for you at all.”
Gu Yichen stood his ground with full confidence this time: “You still remember she’s your sister? Why aren’t you letting her inside?”
He used to lack the courage to cross Chen Chen, but times had changed.
The Gu family business was expanding rapidly while the Chen family was perpetually on the decline, and with him and Chen Chen gradually reaching equal footing, his attitude naturally turned less deferential.
Without refuting him, Chen Chen simply waved a hand to dismiss the security guard.
Inwardly, he thought: What kind of big shot do you think you are, Gu Yichen, trying to ride over my head?
He had rented out the entire hotel today precisely to humiliate Gu Yichen and make Wu Xiaolan lose face alongside him.
Too lazy to watch their play any longer, Wu Xiaolan turned to leave, only to spot Shi Gu standing right outside the hotel entrance.
Shi Gu still sported his psychiatric hospital patient uniform, looking slightly dusty as he peered through the glass doors, head tilted and eyes locked unblinkingly onto her, his characteristic amber pupils revealing utter confusion.
“What is Sister doing?”
At that instant, the air surrounding Wu Xiaolan seemed to freeze solid.
She couldn’t fathom how Shi Gu had tracked her down.
With zero prior contact between them, it was impossible for Shi Gu to have planted a remote tracker on her out of thin air.
Yet given how massive City A was, this marked their second consecutive chance encounter.
The system had stated Shi Gu possessed Light Domain energy—did Shi Gu possess a system of his own as well?
Why on earth would Shi Gu, hailing from the Light Domain, keep pestering her? And calling her sister?
Instinctively fleeing unknown conspiracies and potential hazards, Wu Xiaolan chose not to head outside, turning instead to march toward the class reunion private room.
By this point, she could no longer tell which side gave her a worse headache.
Compared to the stalker-like alien Shi Gu, at least these classmates she detested lacked supernatural energies.
Reuniting with Lan Xinran today had become her sole remaining conviction.
Watching Wu Xiaolan turn around and stride inside, Gu Yichen curved the corners of his mouth in satisfaction, projecting the posture of a victorious champion.
He figured he had finally played the role of a proper knight in shining armor, and Wu Xiaolan’s actions must signify complete acceptance of him.
As for why Wu Xiaolan hadn’t uttered a simple “thank you,” he reasoned it was probably due to a young girl’s thin skin making her too shy.