Having seen all kinds of shady characters, Qin Wenfa could tell at a glance that Qin Wenbang was up to no good. The murderous look in his eyes just now was no different from that of a killer.
Qin Wenbang’s impulse to kill shrank back after Qin Wenfa’s warning. But he still glared viciously at Qin Sang.
Qin Sang: What are you glaring at? Brother Fa and I stopped you together. Why don’t you dare glare at him? Is it because you think I’m the softer target?
Did she look like someone who would be pushed around?
Without a word, Qin Sang picked up a red brick from the corner and snapped it in half with sheer force. The two broken pieces fell at Qin Wenbang’s feet, and the flying brick dust made him flinch.
“Stay away from my family from now on.”
With that, Qin Sang called to Brother Fa and continued walking out of the village.
——
“You shouldn’t have provoked him,” Brother Fa said with the sigh of someone who had been around.
“Brother Fa, you know him. He’s a piece of garbage. Even if I don’t provoke him, he’ll still keep jumping around in front of my house like a flea.”
Brother Fa thought for a moment, then clicked his tongue. “That’s true. He is a reckless bastard. But your family still needs to be careful. Although the authorities are cracking down harder on crime, their focus right now is on infrastructure and stockpiling supplies.”
“Our family wants nothing to do with his family.” Not wanting to continue talking about Qin Wenbang, Qin Sang asked Brother Fa, “So we’re really going to that pet store at the mall to pick up supplies? I thought this batch would be related to that small shop.”
Earlier, Dalinzi had asked Brother Fa to source another batch of supplies. Brother Fa had said it would take a few days to prepare. Just then, someone in the village group chat mentioned that a new store selling all kinds of goods had opened near the mall. Qin Sang had assumed Brother Fa would get the supplies from there, since the store had inventory and Dalinzi had plenty of money.
“No way. The owner behind that store is Chen Longji.”
Hearing that name, Qin Sang frowned. Chen Longji had been elementary school classmates with Dalinzi and Brother Fa. Dalinzi was the type of teacher’s pet academic star, while Chen Longji was the school bully who was always getting scolded for fighting. The two wouldn’t have had much to do with each other, but Chen Longji’s parents constantly compared him to Dalinzi.
That fueled Chen Longji’s hatred for Dalinzi. He often picked fights with him, but Dalinzi wasn’t just good at studying—he could also hold his own in a fight. So Chen Longji failed every time he tried to start trouble, and the grudge only deepened.
Everyone found this one-sided grudge ridiculous.
After junior high, Chen Longji left Huashan City. Word was he had gone out to join the underworld. No one expected him to be back now, running a shop nearby.
Hopefully, this guy wouldn’t disrupt their lives. Otherwise, Qin Sang wouldn’t mind taking action. And she was sure Dalinzi wouldn’t tolerate it either.
——
Seeing Qin Sang’s expression, Brother Fa knew exactly what she was thinking.
“Dalinzi said not to worry about him for now. Just have someone keep an eye on his movements. After we get this batch of supplies, it’ll probably be hard to source more in the future.”
Qin Sang understood completely. Today was already July 20th. There was a little over half a month until the disaster struck. Under current government policies, most supplies were already under official control. A couple of days ago, the authorities had started recruiting space holders precisely to better store these supplies.
The amount of supplies circulating outside would only dwindle. In a few more days, they’d likely have no way to spend their money at all.
Qin Sang had been keeping an eye on the mall feature in the Survival app, waiting for it to open. She suspected that once it did, supplies would shift entirely to online transactions.
Soon, the two arrived at the mall on their bicycles.
Yes, bicycles. It was past nine in the morning, but the temperature was already approaching fifty degrees. Driving was unsafe—risk of explosion and all that. Riding a bicycle was ironically safer. As long as you protected yourself from the sun and stuck on cooling patches, there was nothing to fear.
They rode straight to the mall entrance. Brother Fa stashed his bike in his space and led Qin Sang toward the pet hospital around the back.
On the way, they passed Qin Sang’s family’s roast goose shop. She paused for a moment, reflecting. Who would have thought that not long ago, she had run into Qu Meijing here and first learned about the apocalypse, setting off her early preparations?
When they reached the pet store, it was just as deserted. The entire mall—only the underground supermarket was still operating.
“Part of this batch of supplies includes dog food, canned food, and freeze-dried stuff.”
Talking about supplies, Brother Fa started complaining. “I don’t know if everyone’s been reading apocalypse novels, but I couldn’t find any cat litter even though I wanted some. Good grief, it sells out faster than dog food!”
Hearing this, Qin Sang covered her mouth and laughed. When she was stockpiling supplies, she had also hoarded a lot of cat litter. Back then, it had been dirt cheap. Cat litter was practically a staple in every apocalypse novel.
As for the dog food, canned food, and freeze-dried items Brother Fa mentioned, Qin Sang figured that as long as they were from reputable brands, they were good stuff. They had long shelf lives and were easy to store. And many of them contained meat. Meat—a year or two into the apocalypse, people would probably look at meat the way they looked at handsome guys and pretty girls—their eyes would light up.
“No worries, Brother Fa. Dog food and canned stuff actually taste pretty good.” As long as they were certified products, Qin Sang wasn’t picky at all.
“Good to hear. When I got these dog foods, I heard that some people, unable to hoard enough grain, have started stockpiling rice bran.”
Rice bran was typically used as animal feed, for pigs and chickens. Out of childhood curiosity, Qin Sang had once tasted it. It was dry, scratchy on the throat, and had an indescribable weird taste.
Clearly, everyone knew that hard times were coming.
After finishing on the topic of food, Brother Fa pulled a plastic box from the corner and waved Qin Sang over.
Curious, Qin Sang walked over. Inside the open plastic box were ten neatly arranged large chopper knives—the kind butchers used to chop bones. Next to the choppers was a small safe, very small, the kind that required a passcode to open. But Qin Sang didn’t need to open it to sense what was inside.
“Dalinzi specially prepared these. He said you know the passcode.” With that, Brother Fa winked at Qin Sang.
Qin Sang shot him a dirty look, then picked up the small safe and weighed it in her hand. She confirmed it: inside was a handgun. She hadn’t expected to own a second handgun so soon. The first had been Qu Meijing’s “medical fee.” She had no idea where Dalinzi had gotten this second one.
Brother Fa didn’t tease Qin Sang any further. He told her to take good care of the weapons, then handed her the inventory list of her supplies. After she looked it over, he had her verify the goods while he stored his own portion in his space.
“Keep the list. When you put the supplies away at home, go through it again and check everything off.”
Brother Fa was meticulous about keeping transactions clear. And since the supply source came through Dalinzi, and Brother Fa and Dalinzi were close, he certainly wasn’t going to take advantage.
They quickly finished inventorying the supplies, got back on their bikes, and headed home.
But just as they exited the supermarket area, they ran straight into Qin Wenbang and Qin Wenqiang.
The two were walking out together, apparently heading somewhere despite the heat.
They looked deeply engrossed in conversation and didn’t even notice Qin Sang and Brother Fa. As Qin Sang passed them, she overheard them talking about jade.
Instantly, she was certain that Qin Wenbang’s interest in jade had a lot to do with Qin Wenqiang.
And what about Qin Wenqiang?
In Qin Sang’s impression, he was an extremely selfish person. After graduating from college and landing a job at a bank, he looked down on the villagers—even though they had helped him meet many of his work targets. Not long ago, he had ignored his parents’ wishes and insisted on buying a house. When he realized he’d been scammed, he sent his parents to demand supplies. When that failed, he sent them to work as laborers at a construction site to earn supplies, while he himself loafed around doing nothing.
In short, another piece of garbage.
What good could come out of two pieces of garbage getting together?
——
In fact, right now, Qin Wenbang and Qin Wenqiang were indeed up to no good.
Ten minutes earlier, Qin Wenbang had brought a fake jade piece to Qin Wenqiang.
But Qin Wenqiang didn’t fall for it. Unfazed, Qin Wenbang directly asked why Qin Wenqiang wanted jade in the first place.
Qin Wenqiang just scoffed and was about to push him out the door. Then Qin Wenbang said something he couldn’t refuse.
“Do you want a space?”
Of course Qin Wenqiang wanted one. Wasn’t the whole reason he was looking for jade to get a space?
“I have an idea. I want to test it out.”
Intrigued, Qin Wenqiang asked what it was.
Without beating around the bush, Qin Wenbang asked, “Do you play video games?”
Qin Wenqiang shook his head. He worked at a bank, spending his days networking and his free time dating. He had no time for games.
Qin Wenbang chuckled darkly. “Too much studying isn’t good either. You don’t even know about gaming. Let me tell you—in some games, if you kill a character, they drop equipment!”
Qin Wenqiang wasn’t stupid. He immediately grasped what Qin Wenbang was suggesting. “You want to kill someone who has a space and see if their space drops?”
Qin Wenbang nodded smugly. “Spaces are so mysterious, and so many people suddenly have them. I refuse to believe the two of us are that unlucky. So if the heavens won’t give us spaces, we’ll just go take one. Let’s try killing someone and see. Who knows—maybe the space will drop like in a game for us to pick up.”
At that thought, Qin Wenbang laughed out loud. “And even if no space drops, what about the supplies inside? Let me tell you, I wasn’t going to share this idea. I’m only telling you because you’ve been scammed and I feel bad for you.”
In truth, Qin Wenbang felt it was too risky to go it alone. He had already been stopped by Qin Wenfa and Qin Sang once. So bringing Qin Wenqiang along would increase their chances of success. After all, the guy was pretty sharp.
Thinking about his current situation and his original goal, Qin Wenqiang’s eyes filled with malice. “Alright, since you’re being so straightforward, I’ll come clean too. Help me kill Manman. Not only will we see if a space can drop, but I’ll also tell you the secret about jade!”
“Manman? That bitch was arrested by the management bureau, wasn’t she?”
Qin Wenqiang chuckled coldly. “Yeah, she was arrested. And she’s still denying the supplies. But yesterday, a colleague told me that Manman somehow got out of the bureau. I’m going to call her and lure her here.”
As for how to lure her, it was simple. He would tell her he still loved her, didn’t mind that she had run off with the supplies, and that he had acquired some new jade pieces of very high quality.
Yes, Manman’s space had come from blood-binding a jade pendant. And that jade pendant had originally belonged to Qin Wenqiang.
Thinking back to what happened that day made Qin Wenqiang’s blood boil.
It was a very ordinary morning. Manman was sitting on him, popping a pimple on his face, while he held a mirror for her.
The pimple was huge. After the pus came out, it started bleeding profusely. A single drop of blood happened to land on the jade pendant hanging around his neck.
Then a flash of light spread out. Qin Wenqiang’s vision blurred, and he heard Manman scream.
She shouted, “I have a space! I have a space!” Meanwhile, Qin Wenqiang noticed that the jade pendant he had worn since childhood was gone.
In that moment, he knew his opportunity had been stolen by Manman.
In that moment, he truly wanted to kill her.
But at the time, he still had feelings for her. And Manman hadn’t yet run off with his supplies. Then the authorities announced the impending disaster. The two of them decided to pool their money to buy supplies and go to his village.
The village was better than the city—a standalone house with its own yard. When the apocalypse really came, daily life would be a hundred times easier than in the city.
He never expected Manman to betray him like this in the end.
Thinking of this, Qin Wenqiang clenched his fists, his gaze growing darker. “Qin Wenbang, let’s not beat around the bush. Manman has a space, and she’s a woman—easy to kill. Hardly anyone knows she’s out. She’s a perfect target.”
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