Five minutes earlier, Qin Sang had been walking along the scorching hot sidewalk. Passing by a few small shops that were open, she saw the people inside enjoying their air conditioning and wished she could step in for a cool-down before continuing. But she was afraid that if she did, she wouldn’t want to leave. So she endured and quickened her pace toward home.
The truth was, she hadn’t been paying any attention to her phone at all. But then her phone suddenly started vibrating incessantly. Thinking something major had happened, Qin Sang lit up the screen and saw it flooded with news notifications from various apps. The headlines read: “Qu’s Jewelry Warehouse Looted, Estimated Losses Exceed a Hundred Million.”
Ever since the existence of spaces came to light, these kinds of zero-yuan shopping incidents had been happening from time to time. At first glance, Qin Sang didn’t think much of it. But the surname “Qu” suddenly made her think of Qu Meijing. On a whim, she tapped to open the article. Good grief, it really was Qu Meijing’s family.
Although the news didn’t mention Qu Meijing by name, the residential address of the Qu family was the same luxury complex listed on Qu Meijing’s ID card. And Qu Meijing had facial features similar to those of the Qu family.
Now, combined with Qu Meijing’s gunshot wound and her frantic return, Qin Sang guessed that she had just been on a zero-yuan shopping spree at the Qu’s Jewelry warehouse.
And just like that, by showing the news, she bluffed the truth out of her.
“How did you know it was me…” As soon as Qu Meijing saw the phone screen, she gave herself away. But she quickly realized: “You tricked me?”
Qin Sang raised an eyebrow. “Yeah. So what are you going to do about it? Let me make this clear—if you want my help, fine, but first, you need to tell me the truth. And of course, I don’t work for free. Please settle the payment accordingly. Remember, pay first, then work. I don’t support zero-yuan shopping here!”
This made Qu Meijing’s pale face flush slightly. Qin Sang shrugged, indicating she didn’t care either way.
Qu Meijing wasn’t a good person either. After all, what good person gets shot?
“Fine, fine. I thought you were a good person!”
“Stop right there. I’m not a good person, okay? It’s too hot out here. If you have something to say, say it quickly.”
Enduring the high temperature and the increasingly strong stench of garbage in the air, Qin Sang was starting to consider leaving. If it weren’t for the words “Qu’s Jewelry” catching her interest, she would have run off already. Look around—no one else was outside.
Oh, wait, there were still plenty of “Brother Cockroaches” diligently eating garbage in the dump.
Qu Meijing had spent the entire night zero-yuan shopping. When she left, she was discovered and took a bullet. Then, under the threat of scorching heat, she drove alone for two hours to get back. She really didn’t have the energy to keep bickering with Qin Sang.
Gritting her teeth, she said, “You’re right. I’m the one who cleaned out the Qu’s Jewelry warehouse in the news. I want you to help me find an unlicensed clinic…”
Qin Sang: So she wanted her to find an unlicensed clinic. Did she have some misunderstanding about urban villages? What era did she think this was? Unlicensed clinics had disappeared from their area ten years ago.
“There are no unlicensed clinics around here.”
Qu Meijing’s breath caught. “How is that possible? I’ve heard that urban villages have lots of unlicensed clinics that perform abortions.”
Qin Sang almost laughed. This Qu Meijing really was a rich kid. Her impression of urban villages came entirely from melodramatic TV shows.
“Enough of that. Don’t just stand there turning pale. We really don’t have any unlicensed clinics. There are a few pharmacies, but for a doctor, people go to the nearby community hospital. The community hospital accepts health insurance—why would anyone pay out of pocket for some unlicensed clinic?”
Far from being reassured, Qu Meijing’s face turned from pale to green.
Seeing this, Qin Sang was genuinely afraid this woman might die right there. She quickly became serious. “If you don’t mind, I do have some skills.”
That was true. She did have some skills. But her patients had always been cute cats and dogs. She had never tried them on a living person.
She was willing to try because Qu Meijing’s injury was on her calf. Plus, she could still move around, but the strong smell of blood suggested it was likely a through-and-through gunshot wound. The main reason she would need a doctor was to get the wound stitched up.
After hearing this, Qu Meijing became agitated: “I’m not one of your roast geese.”
“Roast geese don’t even need my treatment,” Qin Sang said, exasperated. “I majored in veterinary medicine in college. I’m especially skilled at dissecting little white mice, little frogs, and little rabbits. Do you want to try my skills? Oh, and it’s too hot and smelly out here. If you make up your mind, just knock on my door. I’m leaving now…”
With that, Qin Sang really did leave. But after two steps, she turned back to the still-hesitating Qu Meijing and said, “For payment, just give me one-third of what you stole. I’m a very reasonable person.”
Then she was gone, waving her hand without a trace, leaving Qu Meijing there to weigh the pros and cons.
Back home, Qin Sang didn’t mention any of this to her parents. It wasn’t a big deal anyway. At most, she would stitch up Qu Meijing’s wound and leave the rest alone. As for whether Qu Meijing would be arrested by the police—she couldn’t care less.
Today was July 15th. There were still more than twenty days until the disaster struck. It seemed like a short time, but Qin Sang felt that the past two days had passed especially slowly.
——
Meanwhile, Qu Meijing quickly made it back to her own place. She tried stitching the wound herself. She had been reborn at the end of June. After coming back, she immediately sold her house, car, and securities. Then she started stockpiling supplies. Unfortunately, even after selling everything she owned, she only had about five million in hand. Who would have thought the heiress of Qu’s Jewelry had so little to her name?
Just thinking about the Qu family filled Qu Meijing with hatred.
In her previous life, when the disaster struck, because her family was in the jewelry business, they hadn’t stockpiled much food. And after the apocalypse, jewelry became worthless. So the entire Qu family lived a very hard life. If it weren’t for her repeatedly risking her life to grab supplies, her dear father, stepmother, and stepsister would never have survived into the second year of the apocalypse.
But after all her efforts to feed and support the family, what did she get in return? Her father sold her to human traffickers.
Yes, even in the apocalypse, there were human traffickers. The fate that awaited her after being sold was a hundred times worse than before the apocalypse. Thinking back to those dark days, Qu Meijing felt like she wanted to kill again.
And indeed, when she went back to the Qu family to clean them out this time, she had wanted to kill. Because with the disaster announced early, rich people like the Qu family would stockpile a lot of supplies ahead of time and live well afterward. That was something she couldn’t allow.
Unfortunately, the scumbags of the Qu family were all out. Short on time, she could only completely empty their warehouses.
The truth was, she didn’t have access to the warehouses. But before her rebirth, she had learned their location and passcodes from her father. Plus, with the apocalypse announced early, the warehouses contained not only a lot of jewelry but also a great deal of grain.
In that respect, Qu Meijing was grateful that the disaster news had been released early.
To gain and then lose was far more devastating than never having had anything at all. Just like her—she had thought she had her family’s love, but in the end, it was all lies and trampled underfoot.
She had swept all the supplies from the warehouses clean. She stuffed them in until her space was nearly bursting. That many supplies must have cost a fortune. The Qu family probably didn’t have the resources to prepare again—their fixed assets were unsellable, and their loans had been cut off.
Just thinking about the despair of that family made Qu Meijing cackle with laughter.
The only imperfection was that as she was escaping, she ran into someone else who was also up to no good. That person had tried to kill her without a second thought, which was how she got shot.
If Qin Sang knew how melodramatic Qu Meijing’s backstory was, she would have sighed and said it was straight out of an apocalypse heroine novel.
Wronged in her previous life, reborn with a space, cleaning out her family’s resources, and planning to take down the villainous family in revenge.
Does that plot sound familiar?
Well, Qin Sang didn’t know any of this yet. She only heard her door being knocked on, listened to Qu Meijing’s request, then picked up her toolbox and headed upstairs.
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