The family of four leaned against one another on the sofa and gradually drifted off to sleep.
They were jolted awake by a frantic pounding on the door.
Chen Qingqing sat up abruptly and instinctively pulled her daughter close.
Lin Bai glanced at the clock. It was three in the morning… Who would be knocking at their door?
He gave his wife a questioning look, but Chen Qingqing shook her head.
On the first night of the Apocalypse in her previous life, no one had come knocking.
“I’ll take a look.” Lin Bai’s voice was low and serious as he moved Xiaohuan over beside his wife.
“If there’s any danger, get into the spatial realm immediately.”
Chen Qingqing nodded.
Lin Bai picked up the machete from the dining table and went to the door, peering outside through the peephole.
The person standing outside was a neighbor from downstairs—a single man in his forties who lived off his mother. He had sent his mother away just last month and had recently been looking for a wife. As for how Lin Bai knew this, it was because the man had plastered the elevator with matchmaking flyers…
Lin Bai disliked this man intensely.
Chen Qingqing had told him that whenever she took the children outside to play, the man would come over to strike up a conversation and ask her all sorts of personal questions.
From the man’s expression in the peephole, it was obvious that his emotions were unstable.
He knew perfectly well that Chen Qingqing was home alone taking care of the children, yet he was pounding on the door so forcefully. What was he trying to do?
When the man raised his hand to pound on the door again, Lin Bai suddenly slammed his fist against it from inside.
The man jumped and began stammering. “M-Miss Chen, did you hear the noises outside?”
Lin Bai narrowed his eyes slightly.
Chen Qingqing had heard him too. She handed their daughter to their son and walked to the door, exchanging a glance with her husband.
“…I heard them. Do you need something?”
A smug smile spread across the man’s face, though his tone sounded extremely anxious. “I heard your daughter crying pretty badly from downstairs. Your nanny doesn’t seem to have come today, right? Do you need me to help?”
“…No, thank you.” Chen Qingqing frowned.
“Don’t be polite, Miss Chen. Just let me know if you need any help. It sounds pretty chaotic outside. People are already discussing it online, too. If you’re scared, just come find me. I’m right downstairs.”
“…”
Chen Qingqing took a deep breath. “I understand. You should go back now.”
The sound of footsteps gradually faded, but Lin Bai continued watching through the peephole.
A strange feeling rose in Chen Qingqing’s heart. A moment later, Lin Bai looked at her and solemnly shook his head.
…The man hadn’t left!
Lin Bai watched as the man deliberately paced in place, gradually lightening his steps before turning around and pressing himself against the door.
As soon as they opened it, he would be able to slip inside!
Lin Bai’s expression darkened.
Apparently, the man didn’t know that he had come home.
Because of his work, Lin Bai spent most of the year flying all over the country. Whenever he went on a business trip, he would be gone for one or two months, and even when he was home, he usually arrived late at night.
Normally, Chen Qingqing took care of the children, while Lin Bai would also hire a nanny to help.
That was why the man hadn’t realized Lin Bai was back.
Lin Bai didn’t dare imagine how his wife would have dealt with this pervert if he really hadn’t been home.
He turned to his wife and asked quietly, “How do you want to handle this?”
Chen Qingqing had survived three years of the Apocalypse through countless hardships. Kindness was not what had kept her alive.
After her rebirth, she had devoted all her feelings to her family. As for something that threatened her own safety and that of her family…
Chen Qingqing glanced at the machete in her husband’s hand.
If her husband hadn’t been home, she would have opened the door and dealt with the man immediately, eliminating the threat once and for all.
But the Apocalypse had only just begun. She didn’t want her husband to shed the blood of his fellow humans so soon.
Once a precedent was set, such incidents would only become more frequent, and a person’s character would be continuously affected by them.
Most importantly, she didn’t want Xiaohuan to see this.
Chen Qingqing met her husband’s eyes.
“Just drive him away.”
Lin Bai nodded. He gripped the doorknob and abruptly flung the door open.
The man standing against the wall beside the doorway was startled as well. He quickly put on a fawning smile and looked over, but the moment he saw Lin Bai, his expression stiffened.
Lin Bai was six feet one, and he exercised regularly, so he had a well-built physique. To make it easier to move things around, he was wearing only a shirt, which stretched over the outline of his muscles. He looked tall and imposing.
The man looked at Lin Bai, who was a full head taller than him and holding a machete, and swallowed.
“Did you need something?” Lin Bai looked down at him intimidatingly.
The man opened and closed his mouth, retreating several steps down the stairs as he forced out an awkward laugh. “I-I wanted to ask if you needed any help.”
“I didn’t know you were home. So, so you definitely won’t need me now.”
“We don’t need any help, but if you have extra food, I wouldn’t mind accepting it.” Lin Bai gave him a once-over.
“You’re the only one living in your apartment, right? I imagine you must have plenty of food.”
The smile on the man’s face was about to collapse. His eyes kept darting toward the machete in Lin Bai’s hand, and he nodded repeatedly at those words. “Y-Yes, I do have quite a lot. So… should I bring some over later?”
Lin Bai tugged at the corners of his mouth without the slightest hint of a smile. “Then thank you.”
The man immediately turned and bolted down the stairs as though fleeing for his life.
Lin Bai closed the door and looked toward his wife, who was leaning against the wall with her arms crossed. He sighed softly.
“I didn’t even know you had a neighbor like that.”
“It’s my fault. I should’ve found out sooner.”
At that, the displeasure Chen Qingqing had felt toward the neighbor vanished completely. She smiled.
“Don’t blame yourself. I didn’t know he was that kind of person either.”
In her previous life, the man seemed to have died very early on. Aside from coming to her home to borrow things right after the Apocalypse began, they had never interacted again.
She hadn’t expected him to actually lurk outside her door.
The shouting outside continued without pause, but fortunately, the electric scooter downstairs stopped setting off its alarm, and the loudspeakers on the distant streets gradually fell silent as well.
Shuoshuo started crying again.
Chen Qingqing took Shuoshuo from Xiaohuan.
“Time to change your diaper.”
Lin Bai took Xiaohuan back to the bedroom.
Their home had four bedrooms and one living room. The couple occupied the largest master bedroom, Xiaohuan had the second bedroom, and another room had been decorated in advance as a nursery for Shuoshuo. The last room was a study.
Shuoshuo was only three months old and couldn’t be left unattended, so her crib had been placed beside the couple’s bed for convenience.
Shuoshuo had gradually grown accustomed to the noise outside, and after her diaper was changed, she fell back asleep.
Chen Qingqing and Lin Bai sat together on the bed, leaning against each other as they planned for the future.
“We can stay here for another month. After that, we can go take a look at the villa.”
The villa was neither in the city center nor in the countryside, but in a sparsely populated area. Its facilities were incomplete, and its occupancy rate was very low. There wouldn’t be many supplies to scavenge there, so it would most likely be very safe.
Chen Qingqing pulled the blanket higher. “It’s starting to get cold.”
“Yeah.” Lin Bai held his wife tighter.
“Once this week is over, we’ll go out and collect some clothes, quilts, and things like that.”
Lin Bai asked casually, “Will winter be difficult to get through?”
Chen Qingqing nodded seriously. “Very difficult.”
By the time the first winter of the Apocalypse arrived, the water and electricity would have completely stopped running, and both the cities and the countryside would have descended into chaos.
The south would fare somewhat better. In the northern cities, the loss of heating would be a true disaster.
Not to mention, this year’s harsh winter would be more terrifying than any winter in the previous several decades.
People in the countryside could burn firewood and coal, so many people would flee there, making the countryside even more crowded.
Many others would remain in the cities and gather wood and fuel to burn fires inside their buildings for warmth.
But burning many kinds of materials would produce thick smoke, making it easy to reveal one’s location and invite disaster.
By comparison, that villa really was the best choice.
A knock sounded at the door. Chen Qingqing immediately sat up, alert, only to realize a moment later that it was probably the man from downstairs coming to deliver the food.
Lin Bai patted her shoulder lightly.
“I’ll go.”
Chen Qingqing nodded, but as she watched her husband leave the bedroom, she couldn’t shake the ominous feeling rising in her heart.