A deep sense of disillusionment suddenly washed over Lin Mingmei.
She no longer wanted to look for Gao Lang.
First, the cafeteria was packed with people. Finding him quickly would not be easy. Second, even if she did find him, what then?
In the end, it was her own foolishness that had allowed that scumbag to destroy her life.
Thinking of this, she turned around and left without hesitation.
There was no point dwelling on the past anymore. What mattered now was making full use of the forty minutes she had left before the apocalypse began.
Forty minutes was not much.
But it was enough to let her get ahead of everyone else.
Since heaven had given her another chance at life, she would protect herself properly this time. She would never again suffer humiliation, abuse, or torment.
She would survive.
Not only survive, but live well.
And one day, when the opportunity came, she would personally kill Gao Lang, or watch him get devoured alive by zombies.
As for Luo Xinxin…
Honestly, falling into Gao Lang’s hands, what good ending could she possibly have?
Lin Mingmei’s emotions became complicated, because only she knew how miserable Luo Xinxin’s final fate had been.
As memories from her previous life surfaced one after another, her pace grew faster and faster until she finally broke into a sprint.
Ignoring the strange looks from passing students, she rushed desperately toward the school gates.
She had to leave campus immediately and prepare for what was coming.
Less than twenty minutes later, Lin Mingmei arrived at a residential complex near the university.
She had rented a small apartment here for Gao Lang. It was only around thirty or forty square meters in size. Gao Lang had insisted he needed a quiet place to study, so although she paid the rent, she herself never lived there. Every few days, she still came over to clean the apartment for him.
The apartment was located in the attic on the sixth floor.
Though small, it had a reinforced security door and barred windows. Temporarily hiding here during the early stages of the apocalypse would be relatively safe.
Time passed quickly.
With only thirty minutes remaining before the viral outbreak, Lin Mingmei hurried into the convenience store at the entrance of the neighborhood.
Without the slightest hesitation, she maxed out the final one thousand yuan remaining on her credit card.
She bought all fifteen large barrels of purified water left in the store. At only twenty yuan each, they were cheap and could sustain her for quite a while.
With the money she had left, she bought two cases of bottled water, several bags of rice and flour, and as many cheap instant noodles as she could afford.
At that moment, her hatred for Gao Lang deepened even further.
If she had not wasted all her money supporting his studies and daily expenses, she would not be reduced to scraping together supplies with barely enough money.
“I bought too many things, and I can’t carry them all at once. Could I borrow the store’s flatbed cart?” Lin Mingmei asked anxiously, terrified she would run out of time before getting everything upstairs.
“Sure,” the young male clerk replied curiously. “But why are you buying so much water? Is the neighborhood cutting off the water supply or something?”
“Just preparing in advance,” Lin Mingmei answered vaguely.
The clerk pulled over the flatbed cart and started helping her load the supplies. As he worked, he muttered to himself, “Maybe I should tell the boss to stock more bottled water too…”
Lin Mingmei had no patience for idle conversation.
“Please hurry up. I’m really in a rush. I have less than ten minutes left.”
As she spoke, she hurriedly loaded the heavy water barrels onto the cart herself, practically supervising the clerk like a foreman.
Once everything was loaded, she pushed the cart toward her building with all her strength.
Her body was small and slender, making the overloaded cart look especially difficult to move. The clerk could not help feeling a little sympathetic.
Since business was slow, he offered to help carry the supplies upstairs for her.
But Lin Mingmei instantly rejected him, her guard completely up.
After surviving in the apocalypse for so many years, she no longer believed in human kindness.
People did not help others for no reason.
Anyone smiling at you today might stab you in the back tomorrow.
Even though every second mattered, she stubbornly relied on herself to drag the cart to the base of the apartment building.
Only then did she realize the fatal mistake she had made.
The apartment was on the sixth floor.
There was no elevator.
Relying solely on her own strength, there was no way she could carry fifteen heavy water barrels upstairs within ten minutes.
Damn it!
Lin Mingmei cursed herself viciously.
Left with no choice, she carried the lighter boxes of instant noodles upstairs first before rushing back down for the water.
She was panting so hard that breathing hurt, yet she still could not move everything upstairs in time.
Three minutes remained.
Lin Mingmei forced herself to give up on the remaining water barrels downstairs. Using every ounce of strength she had left, she grabbed a case of bottled water and staggered upstairs.
The moment she entered the apartment, she locked the doors and windows tightly, pulled the thick curtains shut, then crouched beside the window and peered outside through a narrow gap.
The ticking of the second hand echoed heavily in the silent room.
Tick.
Tick.
Tick.
It sounded like the countdown to the destruction of the world.
Then suddenly, piercing car horns exploded outside.
On the main road, vehicles crashed into each other one after another in a chaotic chain collision.
People angrily got out of their cars, shouting curses as they yanked open the doors of the vehicles ahead.
But the people emerging from those cars were no longer human.
Their movements were stiff and twisted, their bodies swaying unnaturally as they lunged at the living and sank their teeth into flesh.
The trapped drivers and pedestrians screamed and fled in terror, but they could not escape.
Those bitten quickly collapsed to the ground, only to rise moments later as zombies themselves, joining the hunt for fresh prey.
Within moments, the streets became a blood-soaked hell.
Screams echoed endlessly through the air.
It was not just the roads.
The sidewalks descended into chaos as well.
Panicked crowds fled desperately while staggering zombies chased after them.
Even though Lin Mingmei had already experienced this once before, her body still trembled uncontrollably.
She bit hard into the back of her hand to stop herself from screaming.
The apocalypse had arrived.
Order was gone.
Law was gone.
Morality was gone.
Humanity had fallen into a living hell.
Everyone would do whatever it took to survive.
And Lin Mingmei wanted to live too.
She had died once.
She had returned from death.
She had witnessed the true horror of the apocalypse.
This time, she would live for herself.
She would treasure her own life above all else.
A drop of blood slid down the back of her bitten hand and landed on the jade bracelet wrapped around her wrist.
The blood disappeared instantly.
A sharp pain suddenly pierced Lin Mingmei’s mind.
Then, her face lit up with overwhelming joy.
The jade bracelet her grandmother had left her before passing away was actually a treasure.
Inside it was a ten-square-meter storage space.
When zombies tore her apart in her previous life, the bracelet must have gotten stained with blood as well. So why had the space never activated back then?
Could it be because infected blood was different?
Because once bitten by zombies, her blood had already mutated with the virus?
Thinking of this possibility, Lin Mingmei immediately grabbed a fruit knife and sliced her wrist without hesitation.
Fresh blood flowed onto the bracelet and was rapidly absorbed.
It really was different.
In her previous life, blood could simply be wiped off the bracelet’s surface.
But now, no matter how much blood it absorbed, the bracelet remained spotless and translucent.
Even more strangely, it seemed to glow faintly.
Glow?
The instant the thought crossed her mind, a dazzling flash burst before her eyes.
When she opened them again, the jade bracelet had disappeared.
In its place, a vivid crimson ring encircled her wrist.
Lin Mingmei touched it repeatedly.
The red mark felt completely natural against her skin, as though it had always been there since birth. No matter how hard she rubbed, it would not come off.
Ecstasy filled her heart.
This meant she no longer had to worry about the bracelet being damaged or stolen.
No one could ever take it from her again.
But the moment she thought of theft, her expression darkened.
Back in her previous life, before the apocalypse began, Gao Lang had repeatedly pressured her to sell the bracelet to pay his tuition fees.
She had hesitated for a very long time, but ultimately refused.
Because deep down, she still hoped that one day she would find her missing father.
Even after more than ten years apart, she believed he would recognize her through this bracelet.
It had been the only thing she absolutely refused to compromise on with Gao Lang.
Later, after the apocalypse began and Gao Lang awakened his fire ability, he brought Luo Xinxin to meet her.
Claiming Luo Xinxin was his sworn younger sister, he shamelessly demanded that Lin Mingmei hand over the bracelet as a welcoming gift.