“Ningning, run! I’ve been bitten by a zombie. I’m not going to make it!”
Lu Chengyue shoved a dagger into Xu Wanning’s hand. His blood-soaked back blocked the doorway leading to the rooftop as he reluctantly pushed her away.
Xu Wanning clung tightly to his arm, shaking her head desperately.
“A’Yue, I’m not leaving! If we die, we die together!”
It was the third year of the apocalypse.
Another wave of dark crimson acid rain swept across the entire safe zone. A massive zombie horde erupted almost instantly. Family members and friends mutated into monsters, and the city was transformed into a living hell with nowhere left to hide.
Lu Chengyue glanced at the rescue helicopter drawing closer in the distance and shoved her again.
“Go!”
Xu Wanning barely steadied herself. When she looked back, Lu Chengyue had already been swallowed by the advancing tide of zombies. Blood sprayed through the air.
Even then, his eyes—filled with love—remained fixed on her.
Tears streamed down his face.
“If there’s a next life… will you be the one to chase me first?”
Because of his inferiority complex, because he had always felt unworthy of her, they had wasted so much time. They had only just gotten together, and now they were about to be separated forever.
He couldn’t accept it.
“No!”
Xu Wanning charged toward him.
“A’Yue!”
A rescue soldier grabbed her arm.
“Don’t go! We can’t save him anymore! Move!”
She struggled wildly.
“No! I’m not leaving! A’Yue!”
Breaking free from the soldier’s grip, she rushed headlong into the zombie horde without a moment’s hesitation and wrapped her arms around Lu Chengyue.
Activating the crystal core inside her body, she whispered:
“A’Yue, wait for me. If there’s a next life…”
The crystal core exploded.
Holding Lu Chengyue tightly, Xu Wanning perished alongside the zombies in a devastating blast.
“Ningning, wake up. You’re going to be late.”
Hearing Lu Zhiyu’s voice, Xu Wanning’s eyes flew open.
She turned toward the familiar voice.
The moment she saw the healthy, living Lu Zhiyu, tears burst from her eyes.
She flipped out of bed, rushed forward, and wrapped her friend in a tight embrace.
“Zhiyu… Zhiyu…”
The image of Lu Zhiyu being dragged down by zombies, torn apart, and left lifeless in a pool of blood still lingered vividly in her mind.
It hurt.
It hurt so much.
Startled, Lu Zhiyu nevertheless hugged her back and gently patted her shoulder.
“Ningning, what’s wrong? Did you have a nightmare? Hurry up and get ready—we’re running out of time.”
At that moment, Wen Shuyang and Song Yunqing walked in carrying washbasins and toiletries.
Seeing Xu Wanning crying her heart out while hugging Lu Zhiyu, they froze.
“What happened?”
Xu Wanning looked up at them.
The instant she saw their faces, she cried even harder.
“Yangyang… Qingqing…”
Wen Shuyang and Song Yunqing had died even earlier than Lu Zhiyu in her previous life.
One had been pushed into a zombie horde by her own boyfriend.
The other had been stabbed to death by a classmate she had once rescued.
Seeing Xu Wanning sobbing so miserably, both women panicked.
They quickly put down their things and rushed over to hug her.
“Don’t cry! Tell us what’s wrong!”
But Xu Wanning could only cry.
Her mind knew the truth.
She had been reborn.
Reborn three months before the apocalypse.
In her previous life, the four of them had relied on one another to survive the early days of the disaster. Later, they met Lu Chengyue and his rescue team and joined forces to fight zombies.
They had thought things would finally get better.
Instead, one teammate after another died.
In the end, only she and Lu Chengyue remained.
And eventually…
Everyone was wiped out.
Heaven had given her a second chance.
This time, she would never repeat the same mistakes.
She would never again watch her loved ones die before her eyes.
By the time she finally calmed down, her eyes were swollen from crying.
Lu Zhiyu rubbed her head.
“Ningning, what exactly happened? Don’t tell me you’ve secretly fallen in love and gotten your heart broken.”
Wen Shuyang and Song Yunqing immediately nodded in agreement.
Xu Wanning shook her head.
“No. I had a very long dream.”
“In the dream, three months from now, a strange acid rain falls. A zombie virus breaks out, the apocalypse begins, and all of you die one after another right in front of me.”
“In the end, I die too.”
Wen Shuyang burst into laughter.
“Haha! You’ve definitely been reading too many apocalypse novels.”
Song Yunqing agreed.
“Exactly. How could the apocalypse suddenly happen?”
Only Lu Zhiyu frowned.
Unlike the others, she didn’t think it was merely a dream.
“Ningning, can you tell us how each of us died?”
Wen Shuyang and Song Yunqing looked at her in surprise.
Why was she taking this seriously?
Xu Wanning lowered her gaze.
“Yangyang was pushed into a zombie horde by her boyfriend, Jiang Lei.”
“Impossible!”
Wen Shuyang immediately objected.
“My boyfriend loves me. He’d never do that! If zombies came, he’d sacrifice himself to protect me.”
Xu Wanning showed little reaction.
She had once believed the same thing.
No one had expected Jiang Lei to ultimately use Wen Shuyang as a shield to save himself.
“If you don’t believe me, there’s nothing I can do.”
Some lessons could only be learned the hard way.
Wen Shuyang wanted to argue further, but Song Yunqing stopped her.
“It’s just a dream anyway. So how did I die?”
The image surfaced instantly in Xu Wanning’s mind.
“You were stabbed by Wu Na from our class.”
“After you helped her when she was being bullied, she killed you… and then killed herself.”
Song Yunqing blinked in shock.
“Wu Na?”
They barely interacted with her beyond being classmates.
Would she really do something like that?
Lu Zhiyu’s expression became even more serious.
“What about me?”
Fresh tears spilled down Xu Wanning’s cheeks.
“When the zombie horde came, you fell while running. The zombies caught you… and tore you apart.”
She kept telling herself not to cry.
The Xu Wanning who had survived three years in the apocalypse no longer cried.
But the Xu Wanning of three years earlier couldn’t stop.
Wen Shuyang rubbed her arms uneasily.
“Your dream is way too tragic. So how did you die?”
Xu Wanning looked at them.
“I detonated my crystal core and took the zombies down with me.”
Song Yunqing sucked in a sharp breath.
“That’s hardcore.”
She stood up.
“Come on. Once a dream is told, it won’t come true. Let’s go eat breakfast.”
“Yeah, exactly,” Wen Shuyang added. “Let’s go.”
But neither Xu Wanning nor Lu Zhiyu moved.
Their expressions remained solemn.
Seeing this, Wen Shuyang raised an eyebrow.
“Zhiyu, you actually believe the apocalypse is coming? You believe her dream?”
Lu Zhiyu neither confirmed nor denied it.
“Being prepared never hurts.”
“We should start stockpiling supplies.”
Wen Shuyang and Song Yunqing exchanged glances before finally nodding helplessly.
“Fine. Let’s stockpile.”
“Even if the apocalypse never comes, it’s not like we’ll lose anything.”
As Xu Wanning and Lu Zhiyu headed to wash up, Xu Wanning kept staring at her profile.
Through her, she seemed to see another face.
A man who resembled her.
“Zhiyu, aren’t you delivering something to your brother’s fire station this afternoon?”
The quickest way to get close to Lu Chengyue was through Lu Zhiyu.
In her previous life, she and Lu Chengyue had never even met before the apocalypse.
It wasn’t until zombies appeared and he came to rescue Lu Zhiyu that their paths truly crossed.
But this life would be different.
She would keep her promise.
She would approach him first.
Pursue him first.
Tease him.
Win his heart.
And make him hers.