Chapter 9 – The Apocalypse Descends

Jiang Ning was driving.

In the back seat sat a pair of twin sisters.

The elder sister had a playful short haircut, her almond-shaped eyes glimmering with mischief.

The younger one had long, jet-black hair reaching her waist, her delicate face as soft as porcelain. She looked a little nervous as she clung to her sister, Ye Xinyao’s, arm.

They were exactly the names on Chu Xiao’s list: the sisters Ye Xinyi and Ye Xinyao.

“Ningning, where are you taking us? It’s freezing. Turn on the heater.”

The road was getting hard to drive, the tires slipping.

“You’ll know when we get there. By the way, Xinyao, how did you end up at the station?”

Jiang Ning wasn’t very close with the sisters, but they had crossed paths back in school.

They had been the campus beauties of the dance department.

“It’s all because of those filthy men. They saw Xinyi waiting alone for me at the entrance and started making moves on her.” Xinyao’s teeth clenched with anger.

“Oh, right—how did you even know we were at the station?” She suddenly realized and asked.

“Brother Xiao asked me to find someone at the station. I just happened to run into you two.” Jiang Ning, ever the straight-A student, was quick on her feet with excuses.

Along the way, the three of them grew more familiar. Xinyi slowly relaxed, even speaking a few words to Jiang Ning—mostly just thank-yous.

As soon as they got out of the car, the sisters were already shivering and huddling together.

“Come inside.” Jiang Ning swiped a card at the door, and a wave of warmth gushed out from within.

The house immediately became lively.

Two men, four women.

Plus two male cats on the verge of being neutered.

“Let me introduce you. This is Chu Xiao—our boss. This is Gu Yi, a veterinarian. This is Gu Wan, Dr. Gu’s younger sister. And these two are juniors in the dance department. The short-haired one is the elder sister, Ye Xinyao. The younger is Ye Xinyi.”

Jiang Ning stood behind Chu Xiao, dutifully playing the role of a secretary.

“Have a seat.” Chu Xiao glanced at the twin sisters across from him.

Just as in his previous life.

The elder, with short hair, would become an assassin with teleportation abilities. The younger, a healer with protective skills.

The twin sisters had risen to prominence in the apocalypse, sought after by every major faction.

They had eventually joined the Sirius Group. By the time Chu Xiao died, the sisters had already become eighth-tier powerhouses.

“By now, you must have noticed the extreme weather. The reason I’ve called everyone here is that the apocalypse is about to arrive. And you all… were once my best teammates.”

Chu Xiao studied their faces carefully.

Gu Yi looked doubtful. Among the sisters, the elder wore a playful expression, while the younger was thoughtful.

“Believe it or not, the apocalypse has come early.”

Chu Xiao noted how, within just one day, extreme heat and cold had already alternated twice. Proof that the end was nearly here.

In his previous life, the cycles of heat and cold had switched six times in a single day.

During the last extreme cold, snow began to fall from the sky.

Yet despite being called extreme cold, the temperature felt oddly mild—no different from a southern winter.

What killed people wasn’t that snowfall, but the preceding plunge to minus dozens of degrees, followed by scorching 60-degree heat. Those swings wiped out huge numbers before the snow ever fell.

The survivors, seeing the snowfall and the return of “normal” temperatures, rushed outdoors with relief.

But joy didn’t last. In less than ten minutes, some were infected and died instantly, some turned into zombies, and a rare few mutated. Others, like Chu Xiao in his past life, had been ordinary people who narrowly avoided the first infection and gained minor physical enhancements and mostly useless abilities.

Among those in the living room, only Jiang Ning trusted Chu Xiao completely—and Gu Wan.

“Meow!” Nuomi and Banban, the cats, grew restless, wanting to dash outside.

Jiang Ning held them close, calming them.

A sudden chill swept through the room. Even the central heating couldn’t keep up.

“Let’s head underground.”

Chu Xiao pulled his coat tighter and opened a door.

Jiang Ning, carrying the cats, went down first. Gu Wan followed.

Gu Yi tried to hold her back, but failed, so he went down too.

The sisters, seeing everyone else go, followed as well.

The moment Chu Xiao shut the door, frost froze the house solid.

All over the world, news stations reported the abnormal weather. But the temperature changes were so abrupt that power grids collapsed, signals failed, and those unable to adapt froze to death outside.

Inside, they relied on burning books and furniture for warmth.

It all happened far too suddenly. Out of A City’s 12 million residents, 3 million perished instantly.

The so-called underground wasn’t fully enclosed—there was a skylight open to the outside.

Jiang Ning had already lit the fireplace, pushing back some of the chill.

“When the first snowfall comes, we’ll head out.”

Chu Xiao held Nuomi in his arms, while Banban stayed stubbornly curled in Jiang Ning’s lap.

Everyone seemed bewildered by the sudden turn of events.

The blazing heat of August, the extreme heat of September…

Then a brief cool spell in October before temperatures plummeted.

By November, it was already minus twenty degrees.

Though experts on TV tried to explain the phenomena, many had already started preparing.

On Jiang Ning’s phone forum, the tone had shifted. Gone was the joking levity. What replaced it was raw fear of death—
and panic over food shortages.

Cold could be endured by layering clothes. Heat could be survived by soaking in water or lying on ice.

But without food, there was only death.

“Anyone got food? Jinyi Gardens, Building 12, Unit 5. I’ll trade supplies. I’ve stocked tons of hand warmers. Just want one bag of flour.”

“I’ve got extra potatoes, but only two. I’ll take 50 hand warmers for them.”

“Damn, robbery much? Two potatoes for 50 hand warmers?”

Scrolling further revealed pleas for medicine.

“Does anyone have fever medicine for kids? I’m begging you. My child’s temperature won’t come down. The roads are impossible—too icy.”

“I don’t have kids’ medicine, but I have adult fever reducers. Want them? Where are you? If it’s close, I’ll bring them.”

Others showed a different side.

“So what if we die? Better to be free sooner. I’ve had enough of this damned world anyway.”

“Exactly. I’m outside right now. Here’s a clip.”
(Video: smashing shops, looting supplies.)

Closing the phone, Jiang Ning looked at Chu Xiao anxiously.

There were still two people on his list they hadn’t found.

The heat-cold cycle—it was already the fifth round.

Now they sat in a room piled with ice, eating ice cream.

“Brother Xiao—guess I’ll call you that too. This apocalypse you’re talking about, what exactly do you mean?”

Ye Xinyao fanned herself and her sister.

“Zombies. And extreme weather.”

Chu Xiao took a gulp of ice-cold cola. Refreshing!

“Zo-zombies?” Ye Xinyi clung tightly to her sister’s arm in fright.

“All life on Blue Star will mutate. Plants included. But plants mostly just grow abnormally large. Animals too—they’ll become massive.”

As soon as he finished speaking, the temperature plummeted again.

They stepped out of the ice chamber.

Banban and Nuomi suddenly grew frantic, slamming against the skylight uncontrollably.

It was snowing.