At nine o’clock that night, Lin Wan waited until most of the residents in the neighborhood had already gone home before she drove back.
She had folded down the entire back seat and crammed the car full of supplies. The cartons were terribly heavy, making Lin Wan’s arms ache so badly they felt as if they were about to break.
Sweat dripped endlessly from her temples and neck, soaking through her clothes.
Gritting her teeth, she did not dare linger downstairs for even a second. Summoning every bit of strength she had, she dragged the final box of “treasure” into the elevator.
The iron doors slammed shut with a clang. In the narrow space, the air was filled with the smell of her sweat and the dusty scent of cardboard boxes.
This was already the fifth trip.
An entire carload.
Compressed biscuits, cases of bottled water, all kinds of canned meat and vegetables, and emergency medicine packed tightly together…
For these supplies, the savings she had carefully accumulated over the years were almost completely drained. Even her bank card was nearly empty.
Ding.
The elevator doors opened.
Panting heavily, Lin Wan dragged the heavy box toward home.
The moment she inserted the key into the door lock, the door opened from the inside.
“Wanwan? There’s more?”
Her mother, Li Shulan, was wearing a faded floral apron and still holding a spatula in her hand. She poked her head out of the kitchen with a confused expression.
When she saw her daughter drenched in sweat as if she had just been pulled out of water, struggling to shove a large box onto the small mountain of supplies piled on the balcony, her eyes widened.
“Oh my heavens! You… you bought so much? Was the supermarket having some massive clearance sale and you emptied the whole place?”
Lin Wan’s heart skipped a beat. She quickly forced a smile onto her face, though it looked worse than crying.
“Mom, it’s nothing! Didn’t I say our organization is going to have that… outdoor team-building drill soon? I’m one of the people in charge, so I… just borrowed some supplies ahead of time and brought them back to store here. That way we won’t be scrambling around when the time comes and unable to find anything!”
After a pause, Lin Wan added another sentence.
“Mom… I want to resign.”
Li Shulan suspiciously put down the spatula and wiped her hands on her apron before walking over.
“What did you just say? You want to resign? Why?”
“I… it’s nothing…” Lin Wan faltered again, not knowing how to explain it to her mother.
Li Shulan bent down and began looking through the pile of supplies.
Rows of compressed biscuits, neatly stacked bottled water, various kinds of canned food, and boxes labeled “iodine,” “alcohol,” and “gauze”…
This kind of scale… was it really just for a drill?
“Your organization… holds drills this big?”
Frowning, Li Shulan reached out to lift a box of water to test its weight. The box did not move at all, and its heaviness startled her.
“Oh my! It’s so heavy! Wanwan, you’re just a young girl—how did you carry all this up? Don’t tell me you hurt your back!”
“No… no. I asked some workers from a moving company downstairs to help carry it to the elevator.”
Lin Wan spoke vaguely, her heart pounding loudly.
She did not dare look her mother in the eyes, afraid that Li Shulan might see right through her.
Li Shulan sighed and did not ask further questions. Instead, she took a clean towel from the side and gently wiped the sweat from Lin Wan’s forehead and neck.
“You child… you’re just too sincere. If it’s work for the organization, push it off when you can. Don’t take everything onto your own shoulders. What if you exhaust yourself? And what about your research? Your proper job at the Botanical Garden is the most important thing. Don’t let it be delayed.”
Lin Wan’s heart suddenly tightened painfully.
She responded softly with a quiet “Mm,” without saying anything else.
Proper job?
She let out a bitter smile in her heart.
Soon… very soon, in this world, the only “proper business” left would be the words survive.
After their conversation, Lin Wan returned to her room to change clothes.
A moment later, the security door clicked open, and her father Lin Jianguo came back.
“You’re back? Go wash your hands. Dinner’s ready.
It’s already nine o’clock. Where did you go?”
While setting the bowls and chopsticks on the table, Li Shulan seemed to have found someone to rely on. She hurriedly poured out everything that had just happened.
“Old Lin, you have no idea. Wanwan carried back an entire balcony full of supplies tonight, saying they’re for an organization drill… and that’s not all. She also mentioned she wants to quit her job! When I asked her why, she wouldn’t say!”
“What did you say?!”
Lin Jianguo had only taken off half of his dark blue jacket when he froze in place.
He raised his head, his bloodshot eyes locking onto Lin Wan, who had just walked out of her room.
His voice suddenly rose, loud enough to make people’s ears ring.
“Quit your job?! Lin Wan! Has today’s scorching sun fried your brain?! Do you know how hard it is to find a decent job nowadays?! Huh?! You’re a master’s-level researcher at the national Botanical Garden! That’s an iron rice bowl! Countless people can’t even squeeze their way in there! And you want to quit just like that?! What on earth are you thinking?!”
His shout exploded in the small living room.
Lin Wan stood there like a wooden stake, letting her father’s anger splash over her like boiling oil.
She knew clearly that anything she said right now would be useless.
In her father’s eyes, she was just a daughter who had suddenly gone crazy.
She simply clenched her fists tightly, her fingernails digging deeply into the tender flesh of her palms. Only that sharp sting allowed her to barely maintain her calm expression.
“Dad,” she finally said.
Her voice was hoarse, yet carried a stubborn firmness that allowed no doubt.
“I have a feeling… a huge disaster is really coming.”
At the dining table, the air froze instantly.
It became heavy, suffocating.
Just then, Lin Yang, her younger brother who had just come back from outside, looked from one person to another. His eyes rolled mischievously, and he laughed while trying to lighten the atmosphere.
“Big Sister, did you read too many apocalypse novels lately or something? A huge disaster? What is it—zombies surrounding the city? Or aliens flying over in spaceships to blow up Earth? Hahaha!”
His joke made Li Shulan laugh, and even Lin Jianguo’s tense, gloomy expression relaxed slightly.
The whole family laughed along.
The tense atmosphere from earlier seemed to dissolve in an instant, as if the previous storm had only been an illusion.
They all sat down around the dining table.
But the laughter sounded like cold needles piercing into Lin Wan’s heart.
Her gaze moved past the table and through the glass window, staring fixedly at the heavy, blood-red sunset outside.
She remembered it too clearly.
In her previous life, it had been exactly this kind of deadly, abnormal heat—so hot it seemed ready to bake the land dry and crack it open.
Then what happened?
Only a few days after the heat began, large-scale power restrictions started. Soon after, the entire city lost electricity.
Air conditioners became useless decorations.
Refrigerators turned into steamers.
Social order?
Under the heat that could cook people alive and the increasingly scarce food and water, it became as fragile as a sheet of paper.
She had seen it with her own eyes.
During the second week of the heatwave, the bodies lying on street corners—too many to be dealt with in time—had begun to rot and stink.
That stench, strong enough to make people faint, still haunted her nightmares even now.
Clack.
The chopsticks in her hand trembled from being gripped too tightly and lightly struck the edge of her bowl.
That small sound cut through the family’s laughter like a pair of scissors.
Everyone’s gaze immediately focused on her.
Her face was deathly pale.
Not a trace of blood remained in it.
Her lips were pressed tightly together.
In her eyes churned a terror they had never seen before—thick and suffocating—along with a determination bordering on despair.
“Yangyang… this isn’t a novel.”
She spoke slowly, word by word, her voice quiet but clear enough to reach everyone.
“Dad, Mom, do you remember? Last month the news kept reporting about abnormal global heat waves? That… that was only the beginning. Soon this heat that can melt people will sweep across the entire country. Then it will bring super torrential rain. After the rain will come floods powerful enough to drown everything. And when the floods recede… what will wait for us is extreme cold that can freeze people alive for months on end.”
“We… we won’t survive this winter.”
The living room fell into deathly silence.
The forced smile on Lin Yang’s face froze awkwardly.
“Big Sister, are those torrential rains, floods, and extreme cold something you dreamed about last night? Don’t scare yourself. Dreams are fake.”
Li Shulan’s eyes were filled with worry.
“Nonsense! What ridiculous talk is this!!”
Lin Jianguo suddenly slammed his hand on the table.
Bang!
The bowls and plates jumped, and soup splashed out.
He trembled with anger, his chest heaving violently. His finger nearly jabbed at Lin Wan’s nose.
“You studied so many years—was it all for nothing?! Huh?! Is the country useless?! Are all those experts, professors, and meteorologists just decorations?! Since when does it become your turn—a girl who spends her days dealing with plants and flowers—to predict what heaven will do?! I think you’ve really lost your mind!”
“Wanwan…” Li Shulan’s voice even carried a hint of tears now.
She hurried over and tried to grab her daughter’s arm.
“Stop saying these things. Be good. Don’t keep thinking about such imaginary nonsense. Dreams are fake. Just focus on your job, okay? Mom is begging you…”
Her tone clearly carried a deep worry about her daughter’s “mental state.”
Lin Wan’s eyes turned red instantly.
Her parents and younger brother did not believe her.
Hot tears swirled in her eyes, but she used every ounce of strength to keep them from falling.
A huge sense of grievance and helplessness surged over her like icy water.
She understood.
Completely.
Before the bloody reality slapped everyone across the face, no one would believe a daughter who had suddenly “gone crazy.”
If she said even one more word, her parents would only think she was even more ill.
They would only become more worried and frightened.
Slowly, she stood up.
Without saying another word, she turned like a puppet and walked back into her room.
She gently closed the door.
The muffled sound of her father’s heavy breathing, her mother’s tearful pleading, and her younger brother’s helpless silence were all shut out on the other side.