Three days later.

Shen Xiaoxiao got up early, planning to go downstairs to pick up the last batch of deliveries.

It was Saturday, and the morning sky over the neighborhood was gloomy.

The retired grannies were all busy at home watching their grandchildren. The plaza was quiet, without the usual early morning loudspeakers for square dancing. The silence was almost eerie.

She dragged along a little blue cart, its flatbed stacked high with dozens of cardboard boxes, and struggled to pull it into the elevator lobby.

Just then, she ran into Auntie Wang, who was also waiting for the elevator.

Holding her grandson in her arms, Auntie Wang eyed the mountain of parcels and said mockingly:
“Well, Xiaoxiao, look at you buying so many deliveries. Must be nice to have money to burn. You young people just throw money around like it’s nothing, can’t even save up a proper family foundation. If it weren’t for your parents, do you think you’d be living so comfortably?”

“I’m telling you, once you get married and have a mother-in-law, you won’t be able to spend money so recklessly anymore!”

Shen Xiaoxiao was already exhausted from dragging everything all the way here, and Auntie Wang’s nagging made her even more irritated.

This old woman was always so gossipy, bossing people around just because of her age, pointing fingers at every household. Since Xiaoxiao was a young woman, she often took advantage of her “senior” status to lecture her.

Shen Xiaoxiao had held her tongue a few times, but this time she couldn’t take it anymore.

She snapped back:
“And what are you to me? You want to control the sky, the earth, and even the air? I’ve got money, I want to buy things, my parents are happy to support me—none of that is your business.”

Just then, another delivery she ordered from the supermarket arrived, so she reached out to take it as well.

The delivery guy left, and Auntie Wang curled her lip in disdain, still refusing to let it go:
“My, my, my, what bad tempers young people have nowadays. Can’t take a word from their elders without blowing up. No respect at all for the old or love for the young.”

“No wonder you’re this old and still unmarried. If my son brought home someone like you, I’d never agree. Who would want a disrespectful, overaged daughter-in-law?”

Shen Xiaoxiao let out a sharp laugh.
“Auntie, you’re a little too confident. Look at my degree and your son’s. I’m a postgraduate with a career, your son barely graduated high school and still mooches off you at home. Tell me, who’s really ‘worthy’ of who? Frankly, only a blind girl would marry into your family to be mistreated.”

That hit Auntie Wang right in the sore spot. Her face darkened as she glared at Shen Xiaoxiao, clutching her grandson tightly.

But Xiaoxiao wasn’t afraid in the least. As soon as the elevator arrived, she went in, leaving Auntie Wang and her grandson to wait for the next one.

Her grandson tugged at her arm, whining, “Grandma, I want yummy food too. I just smelled some delicious barbecue.”

Auntie Wang glared at him.
“Eat, eat, eat—that’s all you know! Don’t be like that wicked woman and get greedy, or you’ll never get married when you grow up.”

She kept muttering, “Buying piles of food when nothing’s wrong, what a waste of money.”

---

As soon as Shen Xiaoxiao got home, she saw her father heading out for his morning exercise.

“Dad, help me carry these deliveries in,” she called.

Father Shen looked at the cart full of parcels, puzzled.
“Xiaoxiao, what on earth did you buy? Why so many things?”

Shen Xiaoxiao lowered her voice, mysteriously:
“Emergency supplies. Flashlights, candles, fire starters, a hand-crank radio, compressed biscuits, water purifiers, portable stoves, solar charging panels, medical kits… all for preparedness.”

Father Shen stared in surprise.
“What do you need all this for? It’s not like some disaster is about to happen.”

Xiaoxiao’s face was solemn.
“I read an expert online predicting that today is the first day of the apocalypse. So I prepared early. If disaster really happens, it’s better to be ready than not.”

“Oh, and I already had all the windows in the house replaced with typhoon-resistant glass, and the doors with reinforced ones with cameras.”

Father Shen chuckled helplessly and carried the supplies inside for her.

He could already tell—his daughter must have been swayed by some online chatter.

Young people were easily swept up in internet hype. The craze would pass eventually. So he didn’t take it too seriously, nor did he dampen her enthusiasm.

After all, while he was away on business, she had even taken the initiative to renovate the house. A little disaster awareness wasn’t a bad thing.

But Xiaoxiao could tell from his face that he didn’t believe her.

She touched the hard black card in her pocket, pouted, and continued sorting supplies.

She had always been a fan of apocalypse survival games, novels, and dramas. A few days ago, her online group had introduced her to a new mysterious website. She happened to snag a spot in the “rescue” section when it opened.

On that strange site, the admin had only ever made one post and then disappeared.

Everyone assumed it was some company’s marketing stunt for a new game, so they joined in for fun.

But then a skilled analyst cracked open some “truths” about Snowell City, claiming that Country A had encountered an unknown crisis and was trying to cover it up.

That revelation seemed to prove the admin wasn’t just fearmongering, and many netizens started to believe the prediction of an approaching apocalypse.

At first, Xiaoxiao stayed neutral, only buying some emergency supplies and stockpiling rice and flour as her group suggested.

But yesterday at dawn, a mysterious black card had appeared on her desk.

She rushed to check the forum, and indeed, everyone was talking about suddenly finding a black crystal card by their side.

On it were the words: “Base Identity Confirmation Card.”

Only then did Xiaoxiao realize—this website might be something extraordinary.

As she sorted her supplies, she kept glancing at the sky outside.

She lived in the coastal city of Shen City, which hadn’t been hit by typhoons in years.

But some netizens had analyzed that her city was most likely to face a tornado, so it was best to prepare.

Today the sky was cloudy, but it didn’t look like it was going to rain. Could the apocalypse really come?

---

At noon, Su You stood at the floor-to-ceiling windows of her mountainside villa, holding the fat orange cat in her arms.

She stared at the ominous sky. Though it was daytime, the world outside was so dark it was almost pitch-black, as if ink had been poured over it.

Then, with a deafening crack of thunder, giant raindrops began pounding down, and in an instant, torrential rain engulfed the entire city.

Everything was exactly the same as in her previous life.

That day, she had been off work and by sheer luck avoided the worst of the storm.

But through her local social circle, she had seen the disaster unfold with her own eyes.

This sudden deluge had dumped a staggering 700 millimeters of rain in just 24 hours.

Low-lying areas and ground-floor shops were completely submerged. The sheer volume of water flooded underground structures. Cars that had been driving normally were suddenly swamped up to their doors.

Everything had happened in the blink of an eye.

In this life, reborn, she had already done all she could—leaving warnings, preparing for the disaster.

But her voice was too small to change the tide.

This rainstorm would still claim many lives.