Chapter 64: The Door Was Being Picked in the Middle of the Night

Xia Chaoyang wasn’t stupid. He looked at Jiang Yuan, feeling like he didn’t quite recognize her.
Sitting on the ground like that, he finally began to see things more clearly.

“You tell me, is there anything I could do that would make you forgive me?”

Jiang Yuan wasn’t fazed. She let out a cold laugh.
“You’re absolutely right. Even if you died, I still wouldn’t forgive you.”

“I just made the kind of mistake every man makes…”

“Stop right there.”

Jiang Yuan raised a hand, clearly annoyed.
“Don’t try to drag all men down with you. You’re an adult — you knew exactly what you were doing.
And clearly, you haven’t shown a shred of real remorse. I’m not your trash bin.
If you’re hoping we can get back together, don’t even say it — it’s disgusting.”

“Heh, I knew it. You never planned on letting me back in from the start.”

Xia Chaoyang laughed bitterly. He thought Jiang Yuan might soften when she saw him like this.
All beaten and bruised, with a look of fake heartbreak — but instead, he just looked ridiculous.

“I’m glad you know that,” Jiang Yuan said. “Let’s not pretend we can go our separate ways peacefully. From now on, we’re enemies. To the death.
If your family’s got nothing to eat or wear, then do what everyone else does — bring money and buy what you need.
Didn’t your mom have a stash of savings? That should be enough to feed your whole family.”

Half of that money had been earned by Jiang Yuan, so reclaiming it now was only fair.
Besides, Old Lady Xia didn’t trust banks or other people. She kept all her savings in cash, hidden at home.
Since they’d followed Bai Mengmeng’s group to Lushan Yayan, they’d definitely brought money with them.

“You knew something, didn’t you? That’s why you made sure to get all the money?”

Xia Chaoyang looked at her, his eyes clouded with suspicion.

“If I’d really known something,” Jiang Yuan replied, “I would’ve made sure you walked out with nothing.
Honestly, I trusted you too much.”

“I’ve been getting debt collection calls. At first I thought it was a mistake — but they just kept coming.
You were the only one who had the opportunity. And my ID card and credit cards — was it all you?”

At this point, it was clear Xia Chaoyang was getting suspicious.
But so what? Jiang Yuan didn’t admit anything. Let him doubt all he wanted.

“Don’t flatter yourself,” she sneered.
“Your credit cards have such pathetic limits. If I really wanted a payout, I’d buy a massive life insurance policy on you and then make sure you died.”

She shot him a sharp look.
“Get lost. In a minute, you’ll be the only one left here.”

Xia Chaoyang nervously looked behind him, then slowly struggled to his feet and limped downstairs.
Old Lady Xia had already run off. Even though she’d gotten hit, the people from Building 9 hadn’t gone too hard — she was just pretending she couldn’t move.

Clearly, Jiang Xingzhi had noticed that too.

“Sweetie, you think they’ll come back to cause trouble?”

“They definitely will.”

“Then you stay in the house. I’ll protect you.”

She thought he’d scold her for being reckless, but instead, he was just worried about her safety.

“It’s fine, Dad. Let’s go back in. I’m not afraid of anyone.”

What surprised Jiang Yuan was that Old Lady Xia and her family didn’t come back that night.
In the afternoon, a few more people came to buy stuff — she even brought out some alcohol.
Now that it was cold, strong liquor was popular again.
The network was spotty, so she couldn’t even check in with her group much.

She told her dad to keep an eye on things outside while she went back to sort supplies.
There were still a lot of items in the yard outside her space.
She couldn’t store the wooden furniture inside, but the rest she stacked neatly along the edges of the courtyard.

Night fell without any retaliation from the Xia family.
Maybe the old lady got scared. Maybe her family didn’t take Jiang Yuan seriously.
Either way, no danger came, and Jiang Yuan could finally relax.

Today’s events had taught her a lesson:
In the future, if it’s not a clean kill, don’t go too far.
She’d been training, but killing someone wasn’t easy.
And if it was more than one person, her odds dropped fast.

That night, the wind outside grew louder.
The rain pounded the windows violently — it felt like the storm could smash through at any moment.

“Mommy, why did Daddy come over?”

Little Nuan looked up at her mother, serious.

“Because Daddy wanted to take our things back to that lady and her child to eat,” Jiang Yuan said gently.
“But Mommy won’t give them anything — because all of this is for you.”

“I don’t like that lady. I don’t like Daddy either. I don’t want to give him any food.”

Jiang Yuan looked at her daughter. She was only three — how much could she really understand?

“Xiao Nuan, listen to Mommy. No matter what, don’t ever tell anyone that we have food at home, okay?
Promise Mommy.”

“Mm, okay!”

The little girl nodded seriously. She didn’t even ask why. Jiang Yuan rubbed her soft, fluffy hair.
She couldn’t explain what the apocalypse meant — Xiao Nuan wouldn’t understand.
But the lessons needed to be instilled little by little.

“Alright then, time to sleep.”

They had an electric heater by the bed. Jiang Yuan also filled two hot water bottles and tucked them under the blankets.
The house had duck-down quilts — light and warm.
Temperatures that night had dropped to minus sixteen degrees Celsius. Keeping warm was crucial.
She had plenty of medicine at home, but she’d still need to stock up more later.

Jiang Yuan was half-asleep when she felt something was wrong — but she couldn’t figure out what.
Was she getting sick? She tossed and turned, a deep sense of unease weighing on her chest.

“No, I need to get up and drink some water.”

She followed the instinct and got out of bed.
When she reached the living room, her eyes drifted toward the entrance.
On the hallway camera feed, she saw two men and a woman picking the lock.

“What the hell…”

They’d just started — clearly amateurs.

She couldn’t hold back anymore. She grabbed a weapon, but since she didn’t know who they were, she decided to play it safe and call her parents.

“What? Someone’s picking the lock?

Don’t worry, sweetheart. I’ll go check.”

Jiang Xingzhi started getting dressed. Jiang Yuan told Qin Yue to stay and watch over Xiao Nuan while she followed her dad out.

“Don’t worry, honey!”

Jiang Yuan didn’t bother changing either and followed him out quietly.

As soon as they opened the door, they saw a man and a dog across the hall.

Damn it — she only had a night light on and had barely made out a silhouette.
Holy crap, were they trying to scare someone to death?

Song Yi gave them a quiet “shhh” gesture and pointed outside.