“Ningning, I want to tell my family this weekend. If they believe us, they might be willing to give us more money.”
“We could buy more generators, construction materials, and other things that won’t be easy to manufacture again after the apocalypse.”
Xu Wanning thought for a moment and nodded.
“Alright. Then let’s tell them. I’ll go home on Saturday too and talk to my parents face-to-face.”
Smiling, Lu Zhiyu pulled out her phone.
“I’ll tell my brother and ask him to come home this weekend as well.”
By then, they would have finished stockpiling most of what they needed, so there would be no problem letting him know.
Just as Xu Wanning was about to book her train ticket, Lu Zhiyu suddenly let out a surprised sound.
“Huh? Why did my brother change his profile picture?”
Xu Wanning opened WeChat and took a look.
He really had changed it.
His old profile picture had been a fire truck.
Now it was a sun.
She said nothing, merely glancing at her own profile picture—a moon.
Was this man secretly setting up a matching couple profile picture?
Was it intentional or unconscious?
He was so hard to figure out.
Casually, she snapped a photo of a tree outside and posted it with the caption:
Spring has arrived.
He liked the post almost immediately.
The very first like.
The corners of Xu Wanning’s lips lifted.
Unconscious attention was often where attraction began.
Lu Zhiyu waved her phone.
“I told my brother. He said he’ll come home this weekend.”
Song Yunqing also held up her ticket booking page.
“I’ll go home Saturday too and tell my family about everything. If they believe me, great. If not, then once they come here before Labor Day, I’m not letting them leave.”
Wen Shuyang suddenly spun around and proudly displayed her account balance.
“Ta-da!”
“Look! I got three hundred thousand yuan from Jiang Lei!”
“I spent so much money on him over the past three years. Consider this compensation.”
Song Yunqing blinked.
“He’s so stingy. How did you get him to hand over money?”
Everyone in the dorm knew how miserly Jiang Lei was.
During their three-year relationship, Wen Shuyang had paid for most of their meals, bought his clothes, and even purchased his computer.
Wen Shuyang giggled mischievously.
“I told him I’d found an investment opportunity that could double our money in six months.”
“But I didn’t have enough capital and needed five hundred thousand yuan to get in.”
“He got greedy and immediately handed over the money.”
Xu Wanning, Lu Zhiyu, and Song Yunqing all gave her a thumbs-up.
Now that she was no longer blinded by love, her brain was working much better too.
Lu Zhiyu tapped her notebook.
“Alright, let’s figure out how to spend what we’ve got.”
Xu Wanning glanced at their supply list.
“Set aside part of it for food.”
“This time we’re buying canned luncheon meat, instant noodles, biscuits, bread, sausages, hot-pot soup bases, self-heating hot pots—things we can eat right away.”
“With the rest, we’ll buy durable clothes, pants, shoes, protective equipment, walkie-talkies, lighters, candles, repair tools, fuel, spare tires, motor oil…”
Every time Xu Wanning listed an item, Song Yunqing wrote it down.
Wen Shuyang suddenly raised her hand.
“Ningning, don’t you think we’re forgetting something?”
Xu Wanning studied the list again.
“What?”
Wen Shuyang grabbed a roll of toilet paper from the desk.
“This! Daily necessities!”
Lu Zhiyu and Song Yunqing immediately looked up.
“Sanitary pads!”
Xu Wanning paused.
“How did we forget something that important?”
She hurriedly added daily necessities to the list:
Sanitary pads, toilet paper, wet wipes, shampoo, body wash, and countless other essentials.
After writing for a while, she finally gave up.
“Zhiyu, why don’t you just have your family’s purchasing department make a complete copy of everything sold in your supermarket chain and buy all of it?”
“If supermarkets sell it, then people obviously need it.”
Lu Zhiyu nodded.
“Fair point. That’s definitely the fastest way.”
She sent a message to the purchasing department.
A short while later, a comprehensive inventory list arrived.
Another 2.6 million yuan disappeared instantly.
Only 320,000 yuan remained.
Since they still needed money to bring their parents to the city, they decided to keep the remaining funds in reserve and spend them during the final days before the apocalypse.
Stretching lazily, Lu Zhiyu said,
“I’ll have purchasing start placing orders. Tomorrow we’ll go buy anything they can’t source.”
“Mhm.”
Just as they were about to wash up and get ready for bed, Lu Zhiyu’s phone rang.
It was her father.
“Hello, Dad.”
Her father’s roar exploded through the speaker.
“What are you trying to pull?”
“Why are you ordering so much stuff?”
“You ordered one huge batch this morning and now another one!”
“Are you planning to open your own supermarket?!”
Lu Zhiyu dug a finger into her ear.
“Dad, I’ll explain when I come home this weekend. It’s something important.”
“Just have purchasing place the orders and store everything in our warehouse. Let me know when it arrives.”
Her father grumbled and cursed a few more times, but ultimately agreed.
After all, his precious daughter was the one making the request.
After showering, Xu Wanning took a photo of her hand stretched toward the moon.
Long fingers.
Neatly rounded nails.
The caption simply read:
Good night.
It was pure bait.
Lu Chengyue was absolutely obsessed with hands.
She refused to believe he wouldn’t take the hook.
Sure enough, not long after she climbed into bed, someone liked the post.
Not only that, he left a comment beneath it:
Good night.
Xu Wanning happily put away her phone and went to sleep.
Hehe.
Things were progressing pretty smoothly.
The next morning, they attended classes as usual.
At lunchtime they planned to visit the warehouse and collect supplies.
Unexpectedly, as soon as they entered the classroom, they ran into Wu Na and her roommates from the neighboring dorm.
Song Yunqing instinctively took a step backward.
Wen Shuyang shot Wu Na a glare and pulled Song Yunqing into the room.
Wu Na, who had been about to greet them, froze.
“Did Wen Shuyang just glare at me?”
Xu Wanning immediately put on a polite, insincere smile.
“Of course not.”
“She had a fight with her boyfriend and is in a bad mood.”
Wu Na instantly relaxed.
“Oh, that’s good.”
“For a moment I thought I’d done something to offend her.”
Lu Zhiyu rolled her eyes.
A woman who stabbed the person who saved her life acting like an innocent little rabbit.
What a joke.
During class, Xu Wanning’s mind wandered completely.
Wen Shuyang nudged Lu Zhiyu’s arm.
“Zhiyu, your birthday is tomorrow.”
“How about we invite your brother and his teammates out for a meal?”
“It’ll probably be our last chance before the apocalypse.”
“If we build a good relationship now, they can team up with us later.”
“They’re firefighters and rescue personnel. Just having them around makes me feel safer.”
Lu Zhiyu considered it.
“Sounds good.”
Then she looked at Xu Wanning.
“Ningning, in your previous life, did you ever meet my brother and his team?”
Wen Shuyang and Song Yunqing looked over curiously.
Xu Wanning nodded.
“Yes.”
“After the apocalypse began, your brother brought his teammates to the university to find you.”
“They rescued us and got us out safely.”
“After that, we formed a team and carried out missions together.”
“People gradually died along the way.”
“Then another acid rain event arrived.”
“More survivors inside the base mutated into zombies.”
“The base fell.”
“The remaining survivors died one after another while trying to escape.”
“No one survived.”
Wen Shuyang immediately wrapped her arms around Xu Wanning.
“Ningning, you must’ve suffered so much.”
“You watched all of us die right in front of you…”
Tears welled in her eyes.
Xu Wanning hugged her back.
“Luckily, we’ve been given another chance.”
“This time, none of us are going to die.”
Three years later, when the deadly acid rain arrived, the best way to avoid mutating into zombies would be to shelter underground.
They needed to start building an underground safe zone as soon as possible.
And for that, Xu Wanning would need enough influence and authority to make people listen.
One of the most important steps toward that goal was building an exceptionally powerful team.