In a frigid apocalypse, I went on a shopping spree with the reborn.

"My name is Jiang Qingyue, and I'm an assassin."

"Tens of thousands of fish and shrimp die at my hands every year; people call me 'Ginger the One-Cut'!"

"Recently, I've noticed something strange about my neighbor; it's like he's... been reborn!"

The story begins three days ago.

three days ago.

Fish Full Warehouse Seafood Store.

As Jiang Qingyue opened the door with a yawn, her neighbor Wang Dawei handed her a list.

"Boss Jiang, prepare everything on the list as soon as possible. Remember, everything must be scaled, gutted, deboned, and vacuum-packed."

Upon seeing the large order, Jiang Qingyue carefully checked the details with the client.

The closer the customer is to a neighbor or long-time client, the less you should treat them casually.

Surprisingly, Wang Dawei, who is usually picky and haggles over prices, was unusually generous today: "I'll charge whatever the price is. But one thing is for sure, it has to be quick. Get it ready and delivered to my doorstep before noon. My wife is home."

"Okay." Jiang Qingyue nodded with a smile. She was just about to say that she could get a discount for a large order and round it down when Wang Dawei had already left.

"Where did you make your fortune?" Jiang Qingyue was a little puzzled, but didn't think much of it and quickly started packing according to the list.

I didn't have time to attend to other customers all morning. I rushed around and finally managed to load the tricycle full and deliver it to Wang Dawei's house by noon.

The two families live in the same residential complex, separated by only one building and two units, with Wang Dawei's family living on the first floor.

When Jiang Qingyue delivered the package to the door, she discovered that she wasn't the only one delivering goods.

A butcher was pulling a cart full of meat; it looked like a whole pig was on it.

Wang Dawei's wife greeted them warmly: "Did my husband buy these? Come in quickly. We're going back to our hometown for a banquet, twenty tables in total. We bought a bit too much, and the house is a bit messy. You can put them in the living room."

Jiang Qingyue carried the items back and forth, and after settling the payment and returning home, she felt increasingly uneasy.

First of all, Wang Dawei is extremely stingy, and he is also a regular customer of her store.

He only buys affordable seafood. When buying a grass carp, he has to sit and chat for half an hour, and sometimes he has to watch the fish die before he can quickly scoop it up and buy it at the price of a dead fish.

He has never bought mid-range seafood like baby lobster.

Today, for the first time ever, we practically bought out all the seafood in the restaurant, without even haggling over the price.

Logically, if you buy a lot, you should be able to get a discount from the shop owner.

Secondly, there's his wife.

At the time, at the Wang family's house, neither she nor the butcher asked, but his wife took the initiative to explain, as if afraid they would overthink it.

Moreover, would someone who wouldn't even eat baby lobster himself invite twenty tables of people to eat baby lobster?

And his living room.

Jiang Qingyue recalled that when she was moving things, she seemed to see that the bedroom door was not closed properly, and the corner that was exposed was not a bed, but neatly stacked papers.

The Wang family consists of just the couple and has no children. With so much paper, how many years will it take them to use it?

Even when holding a banquet in my hometown, we don't need that much paper.

Just then, Jiang Qingyue, who was standing on the balcony, saw Wang Dawei exercising in the community garden, running around the community again and again.

Something's not right.

Jiang Qingyue raised an eyebrow and habitually touched her cheek with her tongue.

After the apartment was handed over to the residents, the Wang family and the Jiang family started decorating around the same time and even looked at each other's decorating styles. At that time, Jiang Qingyue was still in school, and the two families had been neighbors for more than ten years.

She had never seen Wang Dawei work out before, and his beer belly was so puffy and unhealthy that it didn't look like he had any signs of working out. Why did he suddenly start working out?

As a seafood shop owner who occasionally has some free time, Jiang Qingyue has a hobby: reading novels, especially post-apocalyptic novels.

Wang Dawei's unusual behavior almost instantly reminded her of the protagonists in post-apocalyptic rebirth novels.

Thump thump, Jiang Qingyue felt her heart beating faster and faster.

Was it fear, or the excitement of discovering a new secret?

Unaware of her surroundings, she ran without hesitation to her deceased parents' room and retrieved the binoculars she had carefully stored away as a keepsake since their passing.

He picked up the binoculars again and went back to the window, pulling the curtains shut, leaving only slits.

Like a lewd voyeur, she held binoculars and peered through the gaps at Wang Dawei, who was sweating profusely in the community.

After watching for more than ten minutes, Wang Dawei was still running.

He was very weak and had to walk slowly to calm his heart rate after running for only a few minutes.

Even so, he did not give up.

Half an hour later, Wang Dawei finally sat down to rest by the flower bed.

After catching his breath, he took out his phone.

With the help of the binoculars, Jiang Qingyue could clearly see Wang Dawei opening one loan platform after another and operating them with great skill.

Ignore interest rates and amounts; as long as there's available credit, I'll take it all.

Hiss! Jiang Qingyue gasped.

Then look at Wang Dawei's resolute yet hateful gaze, a look rarely seen in an ordinary person.

The probability that Wang Dawei is a reincarnated person is as high as 99%.

As for that one percent, we'll find out tomorrow morning.

That night, Jiang Qingyue tossed and turned in bed all night, making pancakes.

At five in the morning, an hour before she was supposed to go to the store, she got up early, took her binoculars, and went to the balcony of the laundry room, which faced Wang Dawei's unit.

She was very patient, and stayed there with her binoculars for more than two hours.

At seven o'clock in the morning, some people were dropping off their children, others were going to work, some were buying groceries, and others were taking a walk.

The door to Wang Dawei's house opened.

Jiang Qingyue unconsciously tightened her grip on the binoculars.

Wang Dawei came out, carrying a deflated hiking backpack, and left alone.

Jiang Qingyue did not follow, but kept looking at the Wang family's door.

Wang Dawei returned around noon carrying a bulging bag, but his wife hadn't left the house at all. The meat and seafood they'd delivered the night before hadn't been taken out.

The door was closed, and the curtains in Wang Dawei's house were drawn.

Jiang Qingyue took a deep breath and put down the binoculars.

Sure enough, holding a banquet is just a way to fool people.

Wang Dawei's personality changes, his desperate loan, his hoarding of various foods, and his use of banquets to cover up his unusual large-scale purchases...

All the anomalies pointed to an incredible yet highly probable answer: Wang Dawei was a reborn person, preparing for the impending apocalypse.

What kind of apocalypse?

Extreme heat? Extreme cold? Zombies?

Jiang Qingyue picked up her phone and checked global weather, hoping to find something unusual.

However, she was disappointed.

That's true. Even the National Weather Service couldn't see anything unusual, so what could she possibly see?

What should we do? Report this discovery? Tell the higher-ups that Wang Dawei bought a lot of pork and seafood, so they suspect he's a reincarnated person, and urge them to arrest him and investigate him immediately?

At this moment, two small trucks entered the residential area, which Jiang Qingyue did not pay much attention to at first.

Their community is very large, with a large population. In today's fast-paced life, it's common for neighbors to live across two buildings or even just door to door without ever knowing each other or exchanging a single word.

It's not unusual to see small trucks coming and going frequently when people are buying refrigerators or washing machines, or moving house.

However, when the two small trucks stopped at Wang Dawei's house, Jiang Qingyue subconsciously picked up the binoculars again.

The deliveryman rang the doorbell, and Wang Dawei came out and directed the deliverymen to carry the items inside.

Jiang Qingyue could see clearly that there were six large freezers, not household upright refrigerators, but large freezers that are usually used in stores that sell frozen goods, and they could hold a lot.

She has two large ones in her seafood shop.

Needless to say, this is definitely meant to hold the meat and seafood that were delivered yesterday.

Jiang Qingyue pondered, "So, Wang Dawei believes that staying at home is safe after the apocalypse, which is why he's stockpiling food? At least it's safe in the early stages?"

"That's not right." The more Jiang Qing analyzed it, the more problems she felt there were: "It's also possible that he's temporarily freezing these things that can't be stored, so he can take them with him after the apocalypse, like storage equipment?"

Jiang Qingyue stood frozen in place, stunned for a moment.

When the deliverymen came out of Wang Dawei's house, she didn't hesitate at all. While looking at Wang Dawei's door from the balcony, she took out her phone and started contacting the real estate agent.

She needs money now, the more the better. She can rent a place temporarily after selling the house, but she needs money to prepare supplies.

"Hello, I'm selling my apartment in Xingfu Community..."

She contacted the real estate agent, and before the house was sold, she started to learn from Wang Dawei and borrow as much money as she could.

Anyway, her parents are gone, and she's all alone. Even if she makes the wrong judgment, at worst, her comfortable life will be wiped out. Even if she has to deliver food, she won't starve.

But if she bets right, she will have the means to survive in the early stages of the impending apocalypse.

Wang Dawei didn't go out that day, and Jiang Qingyue didn't go to open the shop either.

A real estate agent came to look at the house, took photos, and gave an estimate.

Jiang Qingyue claimed that she urgently needed money for medical treatment, and offered only 800,000 yuan for a house in the neighborhood with an average price of around 1.2 million yuan. She just wanted to sell it as soon as possible because she was unsure how many days were left in the apocalypse countdown.

It could be a year from now, or a month, or even tomorrow. The longer it's delayed, the more likely the house will become worthless.

In the evening, a food delivery girl stopped downstairs at Wang's house, delivering two boxes of canned food, two boxes of eight-treasure porridge, and one box of ham sausages.

There were too many things, so Wang Dawei gave them two red bills.

Jiang Qingyue wrote down the canned food, eight-treasure porridge, and ham sausage in her notebook.

Wang Dawei went out early the next morning.

Jiang Qingyue's eyes darted around, and she took out a set of her mother's old clothes, put on a sun hat and a mask, and looked like a middle-aged woman around fifty years old.

This one followed from a distance.

After having breakfast, Wang Dawei went into a gym, which was located opposite a dessert shop.

Jiang Qingyue went inside, ordered some of her favorite dishes, and pretended to play on her phone, but in reality, she was waiting.

Two hours later, Wang Wei came out of the gym.

She quickly went into the gym.

After spending three banknotes at a loss and leaving the gym, Jiang Qingyue received the information she wanted: one month.

Wang Dawei bought a monthly pass.

This greatly alleviated her anxiety, indicating that even if the apocalypse was not a month away, it would not be within the next two or three days; otherwise, there would be no need to get a card.

In the following days, Jiang Qingyue tried everything she could to keep an eye on Wang Dawei and his wife, especially Wang Dawei.

Her little notebook also had a lot more entries.

Wang Dawei bought one box of ham sausages, and she bought ten boxes.

Wang Dawei bought two large bags of vitamin pills, which made Jiang Qingyue's heart skip a beat. This meant that there was a lack of vitamin supplements in the apocalypse, such as vegetables.

Then we definitely have to buy it.

Jiang Qingyue increased the quantity of meat, seafood, and various canned goods tenfold, just like Wang Dawei.

Wang Dawei bought two large bags of clothes. Jiang Qingyue didn't see the specifics, but she saw the store Wang Dawei went into. After he left, she went in to take a look as well.

Goodness, it's an off-season clearance sale, and it's all winter clothes.

Artificial fur, down jackets, thick cotton-padded coats, and snow mountain windbreakers, etc.

Therefore, it is an extremely cold apocalypse!

With a guess in mind, Jiang Qingyue quickly wrote down all kinds of winter supplies in her notebook.

Then there's water.

Jiang Qingyue saw Wang Dawei bringing water home—bottled water, bottled water, and even several large buckets, which he guessed were for storing tap water at home.

"Even in this extremely cold apocalyptic world, is there a shortage of water?" Jiang Qingyue didn't quite understand, but that didn't stop her from doing as instructed, and she increased the amount of water by more than ten times.

What puzzled her was that Wang Dawei had bought a gas mask and several kinds of antiviral and anti-infective drugs.

"Tsk~" Jiang Qingyue rubbed her cheeks, lost in thought. She could understand the need for antiviral and anti-infective drugs, since the weather was too cold and it was easier to get sick.

But gas masks are useless in an extremely cold apocalypse, right? Could it be that a zombie virus has appeared again in the extreme cold weather?

Despite not understanding, it didn't stop her from buying even more.

For three days in a row, Wang Dawei's wife was organizing various supplies and hardly left the house, while Wang Dawei moved a lot of things into the house.

He was quite cautious, sometimes entering through the main gate, sometimes through the garage, and sometimes through the north gate.

I usually deliver things when everyone is at work or school, so I don't run into many people.

Apart from Jiang Qingyue, who is extremely suspicious.

Wang Dawei's commotion surprisingly went largely unnoticed.

Three days later, Jiang Qingyue discovered that Wang Dawei had stopped buying supplies and instead took his wife to the gym.

I spend almost the entire day at the gym.

Jiang Qingyue stopped monitoring because her house had been sold, the money was in her account, and she was going to start stockpiling supplies.

She not only made a list of supplies, but also learned from her mistakes.

She could tell from Wang Dawei's abnormality that he was a reincarnated person, but what about others?

If she also buys a lot of supplies, won't that attract other people's attention?

"Therefore, we need to buy them in small batches, and not in the surrounding area."

Unlike Wang Dawei, almost everyone in the nearby neighborhood buys their groceries at the same market where she runs her shop, and most people know her.

She has many familiar people around her, which makes her more likely to arouse suspicion compared to an unfamiliar place.

"I can't stay at home either." Jiang Qingyue looked around her living quarters.

The thirteenth floor, neither too high nor too low.

However, it would be a problem if the elevators were unusable after the apocalypse.

In addition, the houses in Xingfu Community are not expensive, but precisely because they are not expensive, those who buy houses in Xingfu Community are all people with essential needs. For example, her family bought a house on mortgage because her parents needed her to go to school.

Almost every house is occupied by at least three people, and it's normal for some to have five or six.

The entire community has about 40,000 people. What if they all turned into zombies...?

Jiang Qingyue got goosebumps just thinking about it, so she couldn't stay here and had to find another place.

As for where to go... she thought of the shelter her father used to take her to.