The sun sank behind the western hills, and the sky gradually darkened.
But the temperature was still high, outside, it was still over forty degrees Celsius.
Outside the city, a mother and son were struggling forward, running toward the city, their clothes already soaked with sweat.
“Mama, I can’t run anymore…”
With a thud, the little boy fell to the ground.
“Come here, Mama will carry you!”
Yang Liu helped her six-year-old son up, crouched down, quickly hoisted him onto her back, and kept running.
They’d already been running for over an hour straight.
She could barely hold on herself, but a zombie dog was still chasing after the mother and son, so Yang Liu didn’t dare stop.
She could just barely handle the slow, low-level zombies, but a zombie dog was truly beyond her.
After all, she had no supernatural abilities, and zombie dogs moved far too fast, one moment’s carelessness and she could get bitten. With Xiao Hang in tow, all she could do was run.
A week ago, her family’s food supply had run out again, and her husband had decided to join a small group heading into the city to search for supplies.
But three days ago, only two members of the group had come back, her husband wasn’t among them.
Apparently, they’d run into a huge wave of zombies along the way, some died, some were injured, and a few got separated from the rest in the chaos, and the group had disbanded after that.
Yang Liu waited two days, but her husband never showed up. Frantic with worry, she decided to take her child out to look for food, holding onto a small sliver of hope that maybe, just maybe, they’d run into her husband along the way.
It had been three years since the apocalypse began.
Usable supplies were hard to find out here.
Yang Liu and her son had been walking for a whole day, their legs going weak, and they’d run into a zombie dog on top of it. Her vision was growing blurrier and blurrier, her steps more and more unsteady beneath her.
She hadn’t eaten anything in two days, she’d given the last small pack of compressed biscuits to her son.
‘Thump.’
Yang Liu’s strength gave out and she collapsed to her knees on the ground. She forced herself to glance back, thankfully, the zombie dog hadn’t kept chasing.
“Mama, what’s wrong with you… Mama…” Xiao Hang pushed at his mother, who had fallen to the ground, his heart filled with fear and worry.
His father had told him once that if he wasn’t home, Xiao Hang was the man of the house and had to protect his mother!
Thinking of this, Xiao Hang tried to drag his mother forward, but no matter how many times he tried, he couldn’t budge her.
Anxious, he looked all around, wishing desperately that someone would come save his mother.
He didn’t dare wander far, so he just turned in a circle around the area, and then, quite by accident, Xiao Hang seemed to spot a shop sign lit up somewhere.
He rubbed his eyes, thinking he must be seeing things. His father had told him that electricity was something very rare now, that it could only be generated in special ways.
But he was quite sure now, not far ahead, there really was a glowing sign.
He ran back to Yang Liu’s side, a little excited. “Mama, wake up… There’s a light on up ahead, does that mean there’s someone there!!”
Xiao Hang kept calling out to the figure lying face-down on the ground.
Yang Liu hadn’t fully lost consciousness, she was simply too exhausted and starved, her body giving out from the strain.
As a mother, hearing her son’s anxious cries, and terrified that a zombie might show up here, Yang Liu forced her eyes open.
“Xiao Hang, don’t be scared, Mama’s fine.” Yang Liu forced herself up, propping her body upright.
The ground had been baking in the sun all day and was scorching hot.
In just that short moment, half her body had already gotten burned.
Yang Liu followed her son, taking one difficult step after another, looking in the direction he was pointing.
There really… really was a shop with its sign still lit up.
It was unbelievable!
This discovery instantly cleared Yang Liu’s mind.
Whatever the situation was, she decided she had to go take a look, after all, they were already at the end of their rope.
Yang Liu pulled her son along, walking toward the shop.
The closer they got, the more clearly she could make out the sign over the door, it really was a small shop.
“Luc-ky Su-per-mar-ket, Mama! Look, there’s someone in there! Alive!”
Xiao Hang ran ahead to the entrance first, looking up at the sign over the door, then pressed his face against the glass door and saw a figure moving back and forth inside, overwhelmed with excitement.
Shan Nai had just finished changing into new clothes when she heard a noise at the entrance, and she turned around. “A customer’s here!”
She quickly straightened her outfit and went to open the door, after all, this was her very first customer, so she should be a bit more dignified and proper.
“Ding-a-ling~” The glass door was pushed open, the wind chime on it ringing out crisp and pleasant.
“Welcome.”
Shan Nai smiled, narrowing her eyes, putting on what she believed was a perfect smile.
But inside, she was a little nervous. “System, system, am I doing okay?”
【Mm-hm, perfect.】
Xiao Hang stared, dumbfounded, at the beautiful older sister standing at the door. “Ma… Mama, look, this big sister is so pretty, and she’s alive! A living person!”
Yang Liu came over as well, pulling Xiao Hang back and tucking him behind her, her eyes filled with wariness.
The girl wore a pale apricot-colored waist-cinched dress, clean and lovely.
That was Yang Liu’s first impression of her.
But she was simply too clean, too beautiful, it clashed terribly with the devastated street scene behind them.
This supermarket, and Shan Nai herself, left Yang Liu a bit dazed, as if she’d been suddenly transported back to before the apocalypse.
The bright, glowing sign over the entrance hadn’t drawn a single zombie or mutated beast, utterly bizarre.
“Don’t be afraid, you two. My name is Shan Nai, and I’m the owner of this supermarket. We sell food and drinks here, if you need anything, please come in and take a look.”
Shan Nai tried to keep her voice as gentle as possible.
The mother in front of her looked utterly exhausted, her lips cracked dry, she definitely needed water.
“Food? Drinks?” Yang Liu licked her cracked lips, somewhat suspicious.
At a time like this, would anyone really have extra supplies to open a shop? Surely this wasn’t some kind of scam.
“Yes, the shop just opened, everything is twenty percent off for the whole week!” Shan Nai stepped aside, gesturing “please” toward the door.
She remembered that shops used to run promotions like this when they first opened, it was a great way to draw customers in.
Yang Liu glanced at her son. The little guy hadn’t had a drop of water all day either, and he was already unable to resist peering into the shop, his head tilted.
Since Shan Nai didn’t seem to pose any threat, she took her son’s hand and slowly followed Shan Nai into the supermarket.
The moment they stepped through the door, the rush of cool air hit them, and the mother and son were utterly stunned.
Air conditioning!
Yang Liu had no supernatural abilities herself, but her husband did, and she understood well how precious electricity was in the apocalypse, yet this shop actually had electricity to run an air conditioner!
Even some of the large bases wouldn’t dare run air conditioning like this, at most they’d only run it during the hottest part of midday.
The supermarket wasn’t large. The shelves were stocked full of bottled water, cookies, instant noodles…
“Mama, it smells so good! What’s that?” Xiao Hang pointed at the serving tray by the food window.
Yang Liu caught the scent too. If her eyes weren’t deceiving her, the tray was filled with piping hot dishes, with steamed buns off to the side.
Xiao Hang had hit the apocalypse before he even turned three, in all these years, he’d never had a single proper, fresh meal.
“That’s the prepared food section over there. Today’s dish is braised vegetable stew with white steamed buns, 15 points buys you one serving of stew plus a bun, and it’s also twenty percent off.”
The system had said the prepared food section refreshed its offerings randomly each day.
“Points? I don’t have any points…” Yang Liu’s expression turned embarrassed, her face flushing slightly. She had no idea what points even were.
“Mm-hm, it’s like this, customers can exchange crystal cores or rare items for points.”
Shan Nai pointed at a round, cat-head-shaped scanning device next to the checkout counter.
Yang Liu patted herself down, but she didn’t have anything valuable on her.
Crystal cores…
She actually had two of them, her husband had saved them up before.
But with her husband’s whereabouts unknown now, the supplies this supermarket sold were something she desperately needed. Being able to buy supplies in the middle of the apocalypse felt like something she wouldn’t even have dared to dream of.
“Here!” After a moment’s thought, Yang Liu took out two gray crystal cores and handed them to Shan Nai.
“Please come this way, customer.”