Chapter 2

Compared with the two anxious people in front of him, Ye Jingyan was in an excellent mood. He even looked approvingly at He Yuning. Good girl. That was exactly what I was waiting for you to say!
Perfect. He had finished his steak, so he could take back the necklace and leave!
Ye Jingyan raised an eyebrow and swept an amused gaze back and forth across their faces. After a long moment, he nodded and sneered. “Oh… so he couldn’t afford one either, and that’s why you ‘knitted’ him a scarf… What a ‘kindhearted’ girl.”
After speaking, he wiped his hands with a napkin. Under their alternating red and pale expressions, he slowly stood, hooked the necklace out of the jewellery box with one finger, and slipped it into his pocket. Expressionless, he left them with a single sentence. “Enjoy your meal. I have something to take care of, so I won’t keep you company.”
Then, before either of them could react, he quickly left the restaurant.
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Sure enough, even the air smelled better when annoying people were nowhere around!
Once he reached the street, Ye Jingyan could not resist taking several deep breaths. The frigid winter air entered his lungs and returned to nature as white mist, somehow washing away much of the irritation he had accumulated while dealing with that man and woman.
Unfortunately, he probably would not get to enjoy such clean air for much longer. Soon, with the arrival of the apocalypse, the entire world would be shrouded in an atmosphere of filth, decay, and death.
Ye Jingyan remembered clearly that at around one in the morning tomorrow, a worldwide meteor shower would fall without warning. More terrifyingly, the energy contained within those meteors carried extraordinarily powerful radiation. Later scientists would call it gamma radiation, and it would violently transform Earth’s environment.
A devastating apocalyptic storm would then sweep rapidly across the entire world.
During that disaster, more than seventy percent of humanity would transform overnight, without warning, into slow-moving zombies that knew only how to consume fresh flesh and blood. They had no thoughts, felt no pain, and wandered tirelessly without ever being satisfied, chewing and swallowing their former relatives, friends, and fellow human beings. The entire world would descend into chaos.
Ye Jingyan looked up at the clock in the square. It was seven thirty in the evening, leaving less than six hours until the apocalypse. Thinking of his mother far away in B City, he hurriedly took out his phone and checked flights, only to discover there were no more planes travelling from S City to B City that day. Left with no other choice, he called his mother.
In his previous life, not long after the disaster began, the three of them had been fortunate enough to obtain an origin crystal while fleeing. But before Ye Jingyan could react, Feng Zijun, who was behind him, had taken advantage of his inattention and shoved him down a hillside swarming with zombies. Although Ye Jingyan had miraculously survived, his injuries and the fact that he became lost left him trapped in the forest outside S City for months. It ultimately took him more than a year to return to B City.
But when he finally reached home, he was shocked to discover that although his family’s house still stood, its owner had become his aunt.
From his aunt, Ye Jingyan learned that after the apocalypse arrived, his mother had fortunately neither become a zombie nor awakened an ability. However, her longtime assistant, Edison, had awakened an earth ability, so under his protection she had at least never lacked food or clothing. Unfortunately, her health had always been poor, and six months earlier Feng Zijun had brought news that Ye Jingyan had fallen from a cliff. His mother had spent her days weeping ever since and, according to his aunt, had died of cancer just over a month earlier.
Ye Jingyan had doubted his aunt’s explanation, but after Edison himself confirmed that “this was indeed what happened,” he believed them. In his grief, he developed a hatred for Feng Zijun that seeped into his bones. Yet when he frantically tried to find Feng Zijun for revenge, he discovered that Feng Zijun had not only become a Level-Four ability user through that origin crystal, but had also become a key member of Thunder Society, one of B City’s four major factions.
And at that time, Ye Jingyan was nothing more than an ordinary person.
The facts were laid out before him with brutal clarity. Ye Jingyan knew perfectly well that unless he increased his own strength, revenge would remain nothing more than a dream.
So, in order to close the gap between them, Ye Jingyan repeatedly ventured deep into dangerous forests and wildernesses, searching for some way to obtain an ability in the hope that one day Feng Zijun would pay the price he deserved.
Four years later, Ye Jingyan returned to B City. By then, he had become a Level-Six fire ability user, while Feng Zijun had used his powerful abilities and smooth social skills to climb step by step into the position of vice-chairman of Thunder Society. He and He Yuning had become a famously loving married couple envied throughout B City.
When Ye Jingyan heard the news, he could only sneer. This was practically the protagonist’s route in an inspirational apocalyptic drama about a nobody rising to the top, while he had unfortunately become a sacrifice along the other man’s road to success—in short, cannon-fodder male supporting character.
After that, Ye Jingyan spent an entire year secretly investigating Thunder Society’s upper ranks in detail. Unexpectedly, he stumbled upon a truth that enraged him beyond measure: although his mother’s health had indeed been poor, she had not died of cancer. The reason she passed away before he returned to B City was that Li Xuemei, the wife of Thunder Society’s chairman, had repeatedly come to humiliate and beat her. In the end, his mother’s injuries were so severe that she coughed up blood and died.
Even on her deathbed, his mother had remained unable to stop worrying about her son, whose fate was unknown. In her final moments, she instructed his aunt and Edison that if her son ever returned alive, they absolutely must not tell him the truth, lest he impulsively go after the people responsible for revenge. By then Ye Jingyan had already struggled for survival in the apocalypse for seven years and had long forgotten what tears felt like. Yet when he heard this, he dropped to his knees and wept uncontrollably…
So the instant the call connected and he heard his mother’s voice again, Ye Jingyan’s nose stung and tears fell before he could stop them.
However, to avoid making his mother suspicious, he did his best to suppress his overwhelming emotions and keep anything strange from entering his voice. “Mom… it’s Jingyan… Mm, I’m fine… Oh, right, Mom. I just heard that a very dangerous infectious disease has appeared in B City. It may cause serious social unrest. Go out now and buy plenty of food that can be stored easily, along with clean water. Starting tomorrow, no matter what happens outside, don’t go out unless you absolutely have to, and don’t open the door for strangers you don’t know. Understand?”
“An infectious disease in B City?” Ye Wanyi was surprised by her son’s news. “Why haven’t I heard anything about it?”
Ye Jingyan did not know how to explain, so he could only continue lying. “It’s like this… I heard it’s a new type of virus, so they haven’t developed any effective suppressive medicine yet. The relevant authorities are afraid that publicising the news would cause social panic, so they’ve been handling it quietly. I only heard ahead of time because one of my classmates has a father who works at the Ministry of Health.”
Ye Wanyi had originally been doubtful, but as a mother, seeing her son so concerned about her filled her with warmth. Without thinking further, she agreed. “All right, Mom understands. I’ll go first thing tomorrow morning and buy some food to store.”
“No, Mom, that’ll be too late. I heard there are already sick people in B City. Go buy things in a little while. Remember to get plenty of large bottles of mineral water. As for food, it’s best to buy things that are easy to prepare and don’t need cooking, in case the water and electricity are cut off… In short, prepare as though you won’t be leaving the house for several months!” Seeing that his mother was not taking the warning seriously, Ye Jingyan became anxious. “Mom, I’m not joking. You absolutely have to listen to me this time!”
Hearing how serious her son sounded, Ye Wanyi had no choice but to promise she would immediately go shopping and follow everything he said. Then she changed the subject. “By the way, son, how has Zijun been lately? That child is sensible and hardworking. Studying all by himself isn’t easy… Why don’t you invite him to our home when you’re on holiday? We can’t let him stay at school alone over New Year.”
Ye Jingyan froze. There was simply no way he could tell his mother about his previous life, so he vaguely said that Feng Zijun seemed to have problems with his character and that the two of them had fallen out. He warned her never to believe anything Feng Zijun told her in the future and not to waste her kindness on someone like that again.
Naturally, Ye Wanyi sided with her son. Although Ye Jingyan had not explained clearly, she believed that for someone with his temperament to say such a thing, Feng Zijun must have done something serious. Not wanting to upset her son further, she changed the subject and began reminding him to take care of his health while concentrating on his studies, not to behave recklessly just because he was young, and so on. Only when Ye Jingyan reminded her that the supermarkets would close if she did not leave soon did she reluctantly end the call.
After finishing his call with his mother, Ye Jingyan began planning his next steps.
S City lay in a basin surrounded by mountains. He remembered that after the disaster began in his previous life, the meteor shower triggered a landslide in the northern part of S City, blocking the city’s only route toward B City. It was not until more than half a month later that S City’s stationed troops cleared the road. There were still six hours before the route would be blocked. If he left immediately, escape was not entirely impossible.
However, first, S City was not the only place blocked by landslides. Nearby cities were said to have encountered the same situation, so escaping would accomplish little—and he might even end up buried alive. Second, he had a reason that required him to remain here temporarily.
At that thought, he could not help gently rubbing the jade pendant against his chest…
Ye Wanyi had obtained this piece of jade by chance while gambling on uncut stones. Although only a small piece emerged when the stone was opened, it was a lush, watery green, so she had it made into a teardrop-shaped pendant and kept it in her collection. Later, Ye Jingyan had given it to He Yuning as a birthday gift. No one could have imagined that this inconspicuous pendant could, under particular conditions, transform into a rare storage treasure that could be upgraded using crystal cores.
And what was the greatest shortage in the apocalypse? Origin crystals? Crystal cores?
No!
Having experienced the darkest days of desperate flight, Ye Jingyan knew perfectly well that what the apocalypse lacked most was supplies! Food, everyday necessities—even a piece of mouldy bread was worth hungry people risking their lives to obtain.
In his previous life, Feng Zijun and his wife had accidentally discovered the jade’s secret and used it to store enormous quantities of supplies. Those supplies won them special attention from Lei Ming, chairman of Thunder Society, and they used the opportunity to rise steadily until they eventually became people who held power within the organisation.
The most important reason compelling Ye Jingyan to stay was that the item needed to activate the jade space happened to be in S City. If he missed this opportunity, he would have to expend enormous effort collecting enough material to open the space, just as that married couple had in his previous life. So he decided to remain in S City when the apocalypse arrived and wait for his chance.
Before that, however, he needed to choose a relatively safe and comfortable place to stay.
Since he had no desire to become entangled with that man and woman again in this life, returning to the university was completely out of the question. Furthermore, according to rough statistics compiled by researchers in his previous life, about seventy percent of humanity would become zombies within the first twenty-four hours of the disaster. That meant densely populated city centres and residential communities were also poor choices.
Just as Ye Jingyan was privately struggling with the problem, he suddenly remembered that one week after the zombie outbreak in his previous life, the government had consolidated its forces and established a temporary safe point in the development zone north of S City. The area was broad and sparsely populated, and many buildings there were reinforced concrete, making them extremely secure against early-stage zombies. As long as one had enough stored food, it could be considered an ideal refuge.
Because the development zone had only recently been completed, nearly half of its empty houses had never been rented out. Ye Jingyan quickly rented a small single-storey house. It was roughly forty square metres, with one bedroom and one living room, and because it had been rented before, the furniture, kitchenware, and other everyday items inside were fairly complete. He was very satisfied.
The next problem was a weapon.
Compared with evolved zombies, zombies at the beginning of the apocalypse were relatively fragile. Guns, machetes, wooden clubs, and similar weapons could all damage them. But to eliminate one completely, its head had to be destroyed. Otherwise, even if only the head remained, as long as it was intact, it still possessed terrifying attacking power. Ye Jingyan had once personally seen a severed zombie head bite a little girl who accidentally passed too close to its mouth. In the end, that girl also became a zombie just like it.
So during the early apocalypse, a suitable weapon was extremely important.
Before awakening his ability in his previous life, Ye Jingyan had used a Tang saber forged from alloy. But time was too short now, so he could only temporarily substitute something else. Fortunately, abandoned steel lay everywhere in the development zone, and it did not take him long to find an iron rod that suited him.
The rod was less than a metre long. When swung, it could inflict major damage to a zombie’s head, and its weight was just right—heavy enough to strike effectively without tiring him.
Ye Jingyan was very satisfied with how well the weapon fit his hand. After returning to the rented house, he ate something casually to fill his stomach, then found waterproof tape and carefully wrapped the handle of the iron rod many times. Once he was sure there were no problems, he practised swinging it inside the house, trying to make his body recover the movements and instincts he had developed while hunting zombies in his previous life, thereby increasing his chances of surviving the apocalypse that was about to arrive.
Just as Ye Jingyan was working hard to familiarise himself with his new weapon, the phone lying on the bed abruptly rang. Three words were displayed clearly on the screen: “Feng Zijun”…