Chapter 9: The Strange Neighbor

“Ah? N-no need…”

Damn, she was actually nervous—hands even trembling a little.

She and her dad quickly carried the food inside; all the dishes needed to go into the fridge right away.
At this temperature, they’d spoil in no time.

Her mom was still awake and came to the door to help.
Hearing noise from the apartment next door, she was also surprised.

This building had two units per floor, but according to Jiang Yuan’s memory, Unit 2102 had never been occupied.

Even during the inspection period, no one had shown up.
So what was going on?

She reminded her parents to be extra cautious these days—if there’s nothing urgent, don’t go out.

That guy didn’t look like a good person.
He even had such a large dog.
The three of them together might not even be a match for those two.

Her parents agreed wholeheartedly.
After a brief discussion, they all got ready for bed.

After all, being able to sleep peacefully at this point in time was already a luxury—who knew how long that would last?

---

The next morning, Jiang Yuan was woken up by the clanging and banging of construction work.

What the hell—the world’s basically ending, and someone still has the mood to renovate? Unreal.

When she stepped outside, Qin Yue was tending to a pot of clivia.
The plant had a big, tightly closed bud that was about to bloom—
As if it had nothing to do with the current state of the world.

“Where’d the clivia come from?”

“That young man next door brought it over.
Said he’s doing renovations today, so it might get noisy. Asked us to please be understanding.”

…Renovating?

Is he insane?!

Her mom had prepared breakfast, and Jiang Yuan ate while scrolling through her phone.

In the Building 13 residents’ group, a new member had joined—
Username: “2102”.
He had even sent a generous red envelope, apologizing for any noise due to renovations.

Jiang Yuan decided she had to meet this guy.

In a world gone mad, living on the same floor as someone was both fate and a potential threat.

Who knew what kind of person he really was?

She pretended to take out a bag of trash and approached the door.
Sure enough, Unit 2102 had its door wide open—
And it was clearly brand new.

A bulletproof door, similar to theirs.
A worker was fiddling with the windows inside.

Hold up…
This setup was exactly the same as what she had done.

Could it be this guy also had some kind of special power?

“Hi, hello! I’m your neighbor. You’re doing renovations?”

“Yeah. Sorry if it’s noisy.”

“No worries. But I don’t think I’ve seen you before?”

“I’ve been serving in the military. Just recently retired, never got a chance to move in.”

“Oh, I see.”

A retired soldier—he should have some sense of justice, right?

Hopefully, he wouldn’t end up as an enemy.

“I saw you had some elders at home yesterday—here, take this back for your uncle to drink.”

What the—was that Maotai liquor?

He gave it away like it was a bottle of mineral water.

“Oh no, you’re too kind. You already gave us a clivia.”

“Take it. I have plenty more at home.”

He pointed inside toward four boxes of liquor stacked in the entryway.
Clearly, this was just one bottle out of many.

Damn it.
He totally pulled that off.

Jiang Yuan gave him a bright, sweet smile and said goodbye.
Then closed her door and dropped the fake expression instantly.

“What’s going on, honey?” her dad asked.

“Here, for you…”

Her dad stared at the bottle of Maotai for three seconds,
Then instantly lit up with joy.

“I knew it! That young man didn’t seem like a bad person. We don’t need to be so tense.”

Dad, seriously?!
You’re that easy to buy off?
If you fall for this capitalist sugar-coated bullet, what would happen when faced with the real thing?

Jiang Yuan quickly pulled out her tablet and found a brutally cynical doomsday film to show her parents.
The kind that makes you question humanity.

Because even your closest loved ones might stab you in the back.
Let alone a stranger with a bottle of liquor—not enough to earn their trust.

In this post-apocalyptic world, she had only one belief:
Don’t be a saint, and don’t be a doormat.

---

Midway through the movie, a new message popped up in the community group.

It was from the building management:
Starting tomorrow, the entire complex would undergo scheduled power and water outages.

• Water & power would only be available 12pm–2pm and 9pm–11pm each day.

Why?

A power plant in the southwest suburbs had exploded due to high temperatures.
To minimize risk, all communities were now ordered to limit water and electricity usage.

This caused an immediate uproar.
The group chat exploded in grief, outrage, panic—everything.
Jiang Yuan skipped most of it.

She didn’t know about the explosion, so she opened Weibo.

Sure enough, it was front-page news.
Looks like she’d have to start checking headlines more often.

Water limits were manageable—they could fill containers.
But power loss was terrifying.
At these temperatures, AC was a lifeline.

After the wave of complaints, someone started a group order to buy generators.

Meanwhile, Qin Yue and Mom filled up every water container in the house,
Then went for a jog—part of their fitness training.

They weren’t worried about the outage.
Thanks to their solar power setup, they had plenty of electricity to keep their appliances running.

---

The renovation noises next door didn’t stop until 5pm,
But the workers didn’t leave until after dark.

During the day, Jiang Yuan noticed:

• That guy also had a generator.
• He’d installed air conditioning.
• She even saw portable A/C fan boxes.

If he also had food supplies, then his life would be pretty comfortable.

She couldn’t help but wonder again:
The way he was renovating for safety—
Could it be that he knew something, just like she did?

She didn’t ask.
He likely wouldn’t tell her the truth anyway.

Could it be that someone else had also been reborn like her?

It wouldn’t be impossible.
After all, if she could be reborn, why not someone else?

---

At 9pm, the renovation workers and the guy from 2102 finally left.
Jiang Yuan watched them on the monitor feed.

While waiting for the elevator, he suddenly looked up—straight at the camera.

He noticed!

Incredible observation skills.

Jiang Yuan quickly called her parents and officially labeled him:

Primary Threat No. 1.

Luckily, after a full day of anti-idealism training via movie,
Her parents were now fully on guard—seeing everyone as suspicious.
She was quite satisfied.

“Sweetie, are you worried he also knows about the abnormal climate stuff?” her dad asked.

“Yeah.”

“Maybe he has a relative working at a research institute, and they told him?”

Ah right—her parents still didn’t know about her rebirth.

The reason she was so well prepared was thanks to her top student self, Jiang Yuan.

She hesitated—should she tell them the truth?

But if they found out how she died in her past life,
They might actually go hunt down Xia Chaoyang.

No.
She couldn’t let that happen.

Time was too precious now—wasting it on scum like him wasn’t worth it.

---

At 11pm, her dad called her over again.

“Look at the camera—2102 is back.”

Thanks to the 360° surveillance, they had a perfect view of his door.

The guy made three full trips, carrying loads of stuff.

Rice, flour, instant noodles, toilet paper—everything you’d need to survive.

His priorities were exactly like hers.

For a guy living alone to be hoarding this much?
There was definitely something off.

But who exactly was he?