Chapter 9: Strange Neighbor

"Ah? No, no need..."

Damn, she actually got nervous, and even a bit shaky.

He and his dad quickly carried the stuff inside. The food and all needed to be put in the fridge right away, the temperature was too high, and it would spoil soon.

His mom hadn't slept either, she came to the door to help them with the things. Hearing the noise from next door, she was also quite alarmed.

In this building, there were two apartments per floor. But according to Jhiang Yuan's memory, no one had ever lived in 2102 next door.

No one had even come over during the inspection. What was going on?

He reminded his parents to be careful recently, and to try not to go out if it wasn't necessary.

The person didn't look like a good guy, and he even had such a big dog. The three of them might not be able to take on these two.

His parents agreed, after a short discussion, everyone prepared to go to sleep.

After all, if they could sleep soundly now, it might not be the case later.

The next morning, Jhiang Yuan was woken up by a clanging noise.

Damn, it's the apocalypse, and someone still feels like renovating? Truly bizarre.

Stepping outside, Qin Yue was fiddling with a pot of Orchids, boasting a big bud that was about to bloom, seemingly oblivious to the world around it.

"Where did the flower come from?"

"The young man next door brought it over. He said he's going to renovate today, and it might get noisy. Asked us to bear with it a bit."

What the hell, renovating?

This guy must be crazy!

His mom had prepared breakfast, and Jhiang Yuan ate while checking her phone.

In the residents' group of Building 13, there was a newcomer, the nickname was 2102, who had also sent a substantial red envelope, asking everyone for their understanding as he was going to renovate.

She decided to meet this fellow. Living on the same floor during an apocalypse was a kind of fate, but it also meant danger.

Who knows what this guy was up to.

Jhiang Yuan pretended to take out a bag of trash to the door. Sure enough, 2102's door was open, and it was obviously a new one.

Bulletproof, similar to hers. A worker was inside working on a window.

What? This is exactly like her setup; could this guy also have some kind of superpower?

"Hi there, I'm your neighbor next door. You guys are renovating, huh!"

"Yeah, sorry for the noise."

"No worries, but I haven't seen you around before."

"I've been serving in the military, only got discharged recently. I hadn't come by here before."

"I see."

A retired military man probably had some integrity, she hoped he wouldn't become their enemy.

"I saw you had seniors at home yesterday. Take this back for your uncle to drink!"

Man, this is Maotai Liquor, how could he just give it away like it's bottled water?

"No need, you're too polite. You already gave us a flower."

"Take it, I have plenty more at home."

Saying so, he pointed to the four crates of liquor by the entrance hall; clearly, this bottle was one of them.

Damn, caught by his generosity!

Jhiang Yuan said goodbye to him with a smile, then went back inside her apartment, dropping the sly expression.

"What's up, girl?"

"Here, this is for you..."

Dad hesitated for three seconds with the bottle of Maotai Liquor, then burst into a fit of joy.

"I knew that young man didn't seem like a bad person yesterday, let's not be too anxious."

Dad, your resolve is weak. A bottle of liquor swayed you; how could you resist the capitalist's sugar-coated bullets?

Jhiang Yuan quickly grabbed the tablet and found a movie for both Dad and Mom that depicted the loss of humanity in the apocalypse, which shattered all perceptions.

Watch it, after all, even the closest person to you might stab you in the back, let alone trust a stranger over a bottle of Maotai.

In the apocalypse, she had only one belief: not to be a good person, nor a saintly mother.

The movie wasn't even halfway when suddenly a notification popped up in the group.

It was sent by the building manager, starting from tomorrow, the community would begin limiting water and electricity supply from noon to 2 PM and from 9 PM to 11 PM for two hours each.

The reason was that a power plant in the South Suburb of Western City had exploded due to high temperatures, and as a precaution, all other communities would undergo water and electricity rationing.

A single stone stirred up a thousand waves, and the group instantly erupted in wails—there were all sorts of comments, but she selectively skipped over them.

She didn't know about the power plant explosion until she opened Weibo and, sure enough, it was the headline news—it seemed that this major event still needed timely attention.

Limited water and electricity was not a good situation, but she could collect some water.

Having no electricity was terrifying, especially since life at this temperature depended on air conditioning.

After a massive session of complaints, people in the group began to take initiatives, preparing to buy generators.

Qin Yue and Dad filled every container in the house with water, then began to run and do physical training.

She wasn't scared of having no electricity, their solar energy storage panels were not just for show, they were more than enough to power their family's appliances.

The noise from the next door's renovation stopped only at 5 PM, but the workers didn't leave until after dark.

Today, she noticed that the guy also had a generator and air conditioning installed in his house, and she could vaguely see the boxes for the air conditioning fans.

If he had stored food, his life must be quite comfortable.

Suddenly, she thought about his secure renovation and doubted whether he knew something but felt too awkward to ask since he probably wouldn't tell the truth.

Could it be that there were others like her who had also been reborn?

Of course, it made sense, after all, if she could be reborn, why couldn't others?

At 9 PM, the renovation workers and 2102 left together, Jhiang Yuan watched them through the surveillance as they waited for the elevator. In that moment, 2102 suddenly looked up at her.

He had discovered her, showcasing strong surveillance skills. Jhiang Yuan quickly called her parents to label him as the most dangerous person.

Fortunately, after a day of movie indoctrination, her parents had snapped out of their trust in sugar-coated bullets and now suspected everyone, which pleased her greatly.

"Sweetheart, you're afraid he's also aware of the abnormal weather, aren't you?"

"Yes."

"Could it be that someone in his family also works at the research institute and told him?"

She nearly forgot, her parents still didn't know about her rebirth.

The reason she could be so well-prepared was thanks to her good classmate, Jiang Yuan.

She hesitated whether or not to tell her parents the truth, but if they knew the cause of her death in her past life, she didn't know if they would go after Xia Chaoyang.

No, she couldn't let that happen.

After all, the current time was crucial, and it would be a waste to squander it over scum.

At 11 PM, Jhiang Xingzhi called her over to watch the surveillance footage—2102 was back; she had installed 360-degree, no dead-zone surveillance, perfectly capturing the entrance of 2102's door.

The guy had bought loads of stuff, making three trips to haul everything—rice, flour, instant noodles, toilet paper, he had all the necessary supplies for daily life.

This was eerily similar to her own preparation list. For a person to hoard so much food, it was impossible to believe there wasn't something fishy.

But who exactly was he?