CH 2

On the 3rd day of the apocalyptic outbreak, most of the citizens retreated and the urban public system was frozen. Buses, subways and high speed trains are no longer in operation.

On the 10th day of the apocalypse, everyone had escaped from the city and only zombies could be seen wandering on the streets.

On the 20th day of the apocalypse, the electricity and water systems were frozen. Food and corpses began to rot, the temperature increased and the air became nasty.

On the 30th day of the apocalypse, the suburban chemical factory exploded and a large fire broke out due to lack of maintenance. The fire spread to the downtown and burned nearly half of the houses in the city. It wasn't extinguished until the next day when it rained heavily.

On the 40th day of the apocalypse, nearly ten million zombies roamed the dilapidated city, some were still searching for survivors and some had gradually spread towards the periphery of the city.

At ten o'clock in the morning, Jiang Miaomiao woke up from her sleep.

She took off her eye mask and earphones, and opened the curtains to let the sunlight go in.

There are three zombies wandering under her window and haven't left for several days. She wondered if they could smell her through the air vents and was trying to come in.

Jiang Miaomiao ignored them and walked into the bathroom. She took a glass of purified water from the bucket and began to brush her teeth.

4

The apocalypse has already begun for almost a month and a half. According to the plot in the original book, other cities should be similar to here right now. The survivors followed the army and fled to a safety zone. There are about 600,000 remaining healthy human beings around the world.

12

Her food consumption is slower than she imagined. So far, she had only used 10 buckets of purified water, 80 buckets of tap water, 20 boxes of instant noodles, 10 boxes of hot pot soup base, 10 bags of bread, 6 bottles of chewing gum, 8 boxes of tissue paper, half a bag of rice and a number of snacks.

11

These things add up to only one tenth of her total inventory. The only thing that she relatively consumed fast was fuel. She knew that the natural gas pipeline would be damaged so she stocked up some gas cans, but she was afraid that if she bought a lot it would lead to an explosion, so she only bought three. She needs to cook every day at home and now she has already used up one can. After all of them are used up, they could only be replaced with alcohol and diesel.

3

But even so, her situation is much better than she expected.

These days she doesn't treat herself badly, she eats what she wants and drinks what she wants, but it only took her a little amount of food. This showed that a person who wants to live in this world doesn't need too much resources.

Life without work and school is also very comfortable that she wakes up naturally every day. After her meal, she would read books beside the window or look at the zombies to pass the time.

1

She made a mistake in the generator that she spent 3,000 yuan.

Previously, she only thought that it would be very hard without electricity and forgot that the sound of the generator is very loud when it's working.

The zombies in this world have a strong sense of smell, hearing and are very fast. Except for their appearance, other human aspects are enhanced versions, which made them difficult to deal with.

3

6

Since then, she no longer dared to use the generator and the 3,000 yuan big guy just left idle, making her heart ache.

What's more difficult is that the Villa has run out of electricity since then and she has no backup power source due to economic restrictions. After the few chargers have been all used up, her mobile phone and computer turned into furnishings, as well as the refrigerator and the air conditioner.

1

She threw the meat, fruits and eggs from the refrigerator directly out of the window, so as not to pollute the air in the house when it rots.

15

There are still two useful electronic products left at hand.

One is a solar flashlight with super power storage capacity and the other is the Kindle that she didn't care much about before. There are a bunch of e-books downloaded from Kindle that she started to read after she ran out of electricity and couldn't charge her mobile phone and computer anymore.

She only reads half an hour every day and turns on the flight mode. Now she still has half of the battery.

Since she's not dead then she should continue living.

Jiang Miaomiao went downstairs after washing up. In order to reward herself for living another day, she specially cooked a bag of river snail rice noodles and added two braised eggs.

The scent wafted through the gaps in the window, leaving the zombies a little further away.

4

After eating the river snail rice noodles, it was so spicy that her mouth turned red. She was sitting in a chair drinking water while arranging today's time table.

She took out her pen and paper and practiced calligraphy in the morning.

She made fried rice with ham sausage at noon. The fresh vegetables are gone, but there are dried ones that could be soaked in water and added to the fried rice.

She has plenty of time in the afternoon so she read an e-book for half an hour then played solitaire.

It's unbearable at night. Without the sun, the zombies would be more active and it's horrifying to listen to their strange howling in the neighborhood.

Before, Jiang Miaomiao used her phone to listen to songs while wearing her earphones to ignore the zombies outside.

Now, she couldn't listen to songs anymore or make any noise. If she wants to ignore them, she could only rely on her own concentration.

3

When she went shopping at the supermarket before, she bought some paint. So after dinner, she squatted in the living room and practiced painting.

She has no talent for painting and if she doesn't have any reference, she wouldn't be able to paint anything.

Fortunately, there are several paintings hanging on the walls of this Villa. Jiang Miaomiao continuously practiced for several days and now she could paint three similar pictures.

It was twelve in the evening when she leisurely finished painting. 

2

Jiang Miaomiao brushed her teeth and took a bath. She changed into her pajamas and stood by the window to say goodbye to the zombies.

She regretted that she used the money to buy a generator instead of using it to buy two dogs. Living alone for ten days is freedom, twenty days is chic and thirty days is loneliness.

9

It's self abuse to live another day without electricity and the internet.

5

She got into the bed and closed her eyes. The howling of the zombies was isolated by her earphones.

Jiang Miaomiao has been dreaming in a daze.

All of a sudden, there was a sound of friction in the dark. Due to the close distance, even her earphones weren't able to block the noise.

She abruptly opened her eyes and looked at the ceiling to make sure that the sound was coming from above.

Did the zombies climb at the roof top and came in through the air vents?

This Villa uses central air conditioning. The room has air vents and it would only take a matter of minutes for the other party to find her bedroom.

Is she finally going to die? With her small arms and legs, she has no chance of fighting against zombies.

Jiang Miaomiao has been preparing for a month, but she was still a bit nervous to face death.

3

Should she hide or should she just open the gas tank so they could die together?

No way, she still has to eat two more delicious foods.

Jiang Miaomiao didn't bother to wear any shoes, she just grabbed a flashlight and ran downstairs. When Lu Qiming went down the stairs, he saw a beam of light in the living room that was being reflected from a bucket. A girl in pajamas was standing in the light while chewing and holding a bag of beef jerky.

7

The light from the bottom up made her look like a ghost and more terrifying than zombies.

The girl also saw him and her eyes widened in shock.

"You, are you human?"

She yelled, "Oh my God, are you hurt? Why is there so much blood on your body?"

Then she hid behind a chair.

"Are you infected? Don't come over!"

Lu Qiming: "..."

An awkward silence filled the air and Jiang Miaomiao lowered her head, and hid for a long time. She found that the other party had no intention to answer and she's the only one who's making a fuss then she poked her head out.

"Hey, are you still human?"

The other party glanced at her as if  disdaining to answer. He glanced around coldly and roughly saw the scene in the living room then asked:

"Is this your house?"

His voice sounds very tired like he had just experienced a fierce battle. His face was covered with blood that made it hard to see his facial features. She only knew that he's tall and had slender hands and feet.

Jiang Miaomiao nodded with caution in her eyes.

In an apocalypse, it's not uncommon for survivors to kill for food and materials. Who knows whether the other party is a good or a bad person?

She couldn't beat a zombie nor him. If he really wants to kill her and steal her food... She hoped he could at least let her finish her beef jerky.

The man asked again: "How many people are living here?"

Here it comes. Is he testing her?

Jiang Miaomiao answered without hesitation: "Four."

"What about the rest?"

"They went out to find some power source because our house has no electricity."

The other party became suspicious, "There are so many zombies outside and they just run out like that?"

Jiang Miaomiao smoothly replied, "My brother and dad used to be policemen. My mom was from the women's volleyball team. She has a good hand and a gun. She could move in and out from thousands of zombies. Besides, didn't you just come in from the outside? You're alive so why can't others also survive?"

1

The man was convinced by her and stopped asking.

3

Jiang Miaomiao saw that he didn't mean to use force so she became more daring.

"Where did you come from? Let me see if you have weapons on your body. Did the zombies bite you? Why are you covered with blood?"

The man ignored her. He turned and walked upstairs, and asked while walking: "Do you have a wrench? Give me one."

Jiang Miaomiao also prepared some basic tools. She took a wrench and found that he's in her bedroom.

After taking the wrench, the man put it in his trouser pocket. He easily jumped and grabbed the air vent with both hands. It only took him two jumps before he climbed up.

Jiang Miaomiao was curious about what he wanted to do. She also jumped twice, but unfortunately she was too short that her jumps were too low and she failed to touch the air vent.

She had no choice but to bow her head and listened to the knocking sounds that came from above.

Just when she was worried that the zombies would be attracted by the noise, the man came back, sealed the vent and threw the wrench back to her.

She caught it with her hands and asked in shock: "You're not leaving?"

She blocked the door on the first day of the apocalypse and the only way out is the air vent, but it's closed now.

This guy wouldn't want to stay here to eat and drink, right?

The man drew a cigarette from his pocket and smoked a half before saying, "Your brother and dad are both policemen, but they don't even know how to seal the air vent. The pipes of the central air conditioning on the roof could be climbed in at any time. You have lived this long while relying on your family or on your good luck?"

5

Jiang Miaomiao blushed while holding the wrench and didn't answer.

As the smoke curled, the man narrowed his eyes and looked at her for a while. He extinguished the cigarette butt and asked:

"Where's the bathroom? I need to take a shower."

She pointed to a direction and the other party carried two buckets of water from the living room as if it was his home.

3

The sound of the water was constantly heard and Jiang Miaomiao sat on the bed holding the flashlight then suddenly realized that her future might never be so comfortable.