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

Jiang Qingyue, who was covered in sweat from exhaustion, had no choice but to take out her newly bought cotton-padded clothes and put them on.

The hailstorm lasted for more than three hours. When it stopped, everything outside was covered in white, not snow, but large, round hailstones that looked like pebbles.

Jiang Qingyue looked at the thermometer; the temperature had already reached minus twenty-three degrees Celsius.

I opened my phone, and the internet was buzzing with discussion.

Such large hailstones, falling for such a long time, are extremely destructive, causing power outages in many areas.

Amidst a flurry of shocked and worried comments, Jiang Qingyue came across a video posted by an acquaintance.

Wang Dawei.

This guy posted a video in which he looked at his chubby face. Although he was still chubby, Jiang Qingyue noticed that he had lost a lot of weight compared to a month ago.

Wang Dawei's video is short: "Family, this weather is not normal. I have a feeling that the end of the world is coming."

"I urge everyone to start preparing supplies now, especially food, water, and warm clothing. I feel these things will be very useful in the future."

There are more people talking about this online than ants, but Wang Dawei doesn't have many fans, so this video didn't get much attention.

Jiang Qingyue found him because they lived in the same city.

"Why?" Jiang Qingyue asked, her cheeks agape, her face full of confusion.

What seemed like a guess was actually quite specific; Wang Dawei had prepared large quantities of warm clothing, food, and water himself.

"Could it be out of kindness? No, that's not right." Jiang Qingyue dismissed her own guess.

If he truly meant well, Wang Dawei, as a reborn individual, would have had other ways to announce it, such as reporting it to higher authorities or announcing it online in advance. It would be easy for him to convince everyone that he could foresee what would happen on the 4th, and countless people would believe him.

But he kept quiet about it until now.

Before she could figure it out, a light screen the size of a tablet suddenly appeared in front of her.

At the same time, a grand voice came from the sky:

[Welcome to the extreme cold of the apocalyptic world of Planet Blue. The first cold wave has arrived, and the next one will arrive in seven days. Good luck to everyone.]

The world was silent for a few seconds.

Jiang Qingyue discovered that the world channel on the panel was already flooded with messages, so many of them were so numerous and overwhelming that they were impossible to read.

After a brief look, I opened the regional channel of my city, Spring Water City. There were still many messages here, mostly expressing concern about the future and curiosity about the emergence of the extreme cold apocalypse.

"You still have time to complain?" Jiang Qingyue didn't know what these people were thinking.

The apocalypse is here! Although this panel is novel, you should either study its functions to see if it can help you, or hurry up and grab supplies.

There were no results, and many people discussed and complained about it on the platform.

This left Jiang Qingyue completely dumbfounded.

This is the first time we've all faced the apocalypse. What you don't know, others don't know either. What's there to discuss?

Jiang Qingyue didn't participate in the discussion; she took out her phone and looked at it.

Wang Dawei posted a second video: "Family members, it seems my premonition was right. I had a feeling I was supposed to prepare things for the cold, and sure enough, I'm using them now, aren't I?"

"If you all believe me, then let's stop talking about this. I can study this panel whenever I have time, but it's uncertain whether we'll be able to buy supplies in the future, and money could become worthless at any time."

This time, his video was not ignored.

Anyone who watched his previous video went on a frantic scramble to notify their families and even leave comments in the comment section.

"Thank you so much!"

"Holy crap, there's a pro here who can predict the future!"

"Hey bro, can you help me out?"

Looking at the comments section, Jiang Qingyue vaguely understood Wang Dawei's plan.

"Wang Dawei plans to package his rebirth as an ability to foresee the future."

I must say, she's quite clever.

It took Jiang Qingyue a while to understand why Wang Dawei did this.

If he claimed to be reborn but didn't announce it beforehand, he would be attacked by countless people.

Moreover, the knowledge gained from rebirth is limited. For example, he only lived until the second year of the apocalypse, so he wouldn't know what happened in the third year.

But what if one had the ability to foresee the future?

That means he will always be a useful person. With this ability alone, he can gather many people to work for him.

After charging her phone, Jiang Qingyue turned around and grabbed a small saucepan.

I put in a hot pot base, added water, and some shiitake mushrooms, enoki mushrooms, and konjac.

After the water boiled, I added fresh vegetables, which are the hardest to preserve, and fresh beef.

I ate while keeping an eye on the control panel.

No one is spamming the chat anymore; only a sentence or two occasionally flashes by.

It seems that everyone has realized the importance of supplies, and even the slowest to react has rushed to grab them.

Haicheng Wang Defa: "Haha, luckily I always felt that the apocalypse would come sooner or later, so I built a safe house a long time ago."

Old Donkey Loves Climbing Mountains: "Brothers, we're kindred spirits, me too. I've stockpiled enough supplies to last at least ten years, deep in the mountains and forests. Even in the coldest, most apocalyptic times, there's no shortage of firewood."

Sugar-roasted chestnuts (who doesn't eat sugar): "What's this? My family owns a supermarket. When the hailstones were the size of a baby's fist, I knew something was wrong. I forced all the employees to take the day off and locked the doors. Now I'm manually reinforcing the doors; I'm planning to weld them shut."

"As expected." Jiang Qingyue took a sip of soup: "Those who still have the leisure to send messages here are those who are not short of supplies."

I patted my stomach; I was only about 70% full.

In the past, she wouldn't have eaten it, since she needed to maintain her figure.

Right now, she doesn't care about her figure; all she wants is to be strong.

He got up, took half a bowl of shrimp and a flatbread, and put them into the soup to continue cooking.

Finally, she ate all the noodles, shrimp, and soup.

Looking at the empty pot, Jiang Qingyue hesitated for a second before taking out a piece of paper and wiping the pot and chopsticks clean.

This way, you don't need to wash it, saving water.

After eating her fill, Jiang Qingyue lay on the small wooden bed, curled up in the quilt, and began to think about what to do next.

Luckily, she made the right bet.

Otherwise, with hail everywhere outside right now, cars would be unusable.

Those supermarkets probably already considered closing down and were unwilling to sell at all.

If you want to buy supplies, you have to run yourself ragged and spend a lot of money, and you still might not be able to buy them.

Even if you manage to buy it, carrying it home in these road conditions is not something an average person can do.

It's not just tiring, the key is that the hail is slippery, and when piled up together, it's unstable, so every time you step on it you fall on your backside.

But we can't let our guard down.

Seven days later, Jiang Qingyue noted the date. Her supplies could last for many seven-day periods, but the key issue was not just the supplies.

The second cold wave will arrive in seven days, and it will definitely be even colder. It's already below minus 20 degrees Celsius now. How cold will it get after the second cold wave?

She looked around the small shelter; it was dark and damp. It was only minus twenty degrees Celsius, and even though she was wearing a cotton-padded coat and trousers and huddled under the covers, she still felt very cold.

In addition, due to poor air circulation, one must be very careful when burning coal for heating.

She did buy other heating equipment, but it required electricity, and generating electricity required oil. Although she had prepared a lot, every little bit used was a little less.

"It's still not enough."

I sighed and spent some more time studying the panel carefully.

After finishing the study, I was dejected.

This panel is only for communication; it doesn't offer any assistance to them at the moment. Both the world channel and the regional channels for each city only have a chat function.

There is no storage function, no trading area, and nothing that makes them stronger.

This thing seems to exist only to allow people to vent their frustrations on it.

I checked Wang Dawei's account again, but there was nothing there.

"No, you can't lie down like that."

Reluctantly crawling out of bed, Jiang Qingyue felt extremely uncomfortable; she had just warmed up the covers.

Putting on gloves and a hat, and picking up a hoe, Jiang Qingyue continued digging.

The bigger the shelter, the better. Once we've dug out some more space, we'll cut down trees and gather more firewood to build a shelter. This will not only keep the shelter from collapsing but also provide firewood and help us exercise.

Although she has some muscle in her arms from killing fish all year round, it's not enough.

Jiang Yidao is offline, Jiang the miner is online.

Novice miners may have average skills, but they have good perseverance.

Jiang Qingyue spent the entire afternoon digging up thirteen bags of soil. Fearing that hail would roll into the house if she opened them, she packed them up and put them aside, planning to drag them out and dump them after the area in front of the door was cleared.

"Phew~" To be honest, this is really not a job for humans.

Rubbing her aching shoulders, Jiang Qingyue decided to get something to eat.

It's the same pot I wiped but didn't wash this morning, with the familiar red oil broth.

This time, I changed the side dishes: bean sprouts, romaine lettuce, some kelp, beef, a chicken leg, and a flatbread. It was a whole pot full.

I picked up my chopsticks, took a bite of a fresh romaine lettuce, and before I could even taste it, the phone rang.

"Who will call me?"

Despite her confusion, she got up and picked up her fully charged phone.

It was an unfamiliar number, and since she was thinking about food, she casually swiped to answer, sat back down at the simple table, picked up a piece of beef, blew on it, and put it in her mouth.

That's when I realized there was no sound at all from the other end.

"Feed?"

Just as she was wondering if it was a bad signal, an incredibly annoying voice came through.

"Qingyue, it's me."

"Ye Hongyu?" Jiang Qingyue looked annoyed.

How unlucky! I got this thing's call while I was eating.

"Qingyue, time is of the essence, so I won't stand on ceremony with you. As you know, we're in the midst of an apocalyptic world, and things are in chaos outside."

"I went out immediately to buy supplies, but all these unscrupulous merchants raised their prices, and some even refused to accept cash, insisting on gold."

"Many supermarkets have closed down, so you can't buy anything even if you have money."

"It's freezing outside. I came out in short sleeves and shorts, and I'm almost freezing to death. I'm right here at your seafood shop. Please come over and open your shop. I can't buy anything else, so I'll just take some fish and shrimp back with me, otherwise I'll go hungry tonight."

Jiang Qingyue's lips twitched; she had underestimated this guy's shamelessness.

"You've got the wrong number. I'm not Jiang Qingyue. My surname is Gu, and my name is Auntie."

After hanging up the phone, Jiang Qingyue began to focus on preparing the pot of delicious food.

The beef wasn't synthetic; it was from local yellow cattle, and with Jiang Yidao's extraordinary knife skills, it was sliced ​​as thin as cicada wings.

On such a cold day, the combination of a numbing and spicy hot pot broth is so delicious that it's almost tempting to swallow your tongue.

And this fresh, tender romaine lettuce is only available at this time of year. After that, seeing any greenery again will be harder than climbing to heaven.

The phone rang again; it was Ye Hongyu again.

"Damn it, is this never going to end?"

Jiang Qingyue was extremely annoyed. She wanted to turn off her phone but was afraid of missing any updates from Wang Dawei. After thinking about it, she simply blocked him manually.

Actually, she had done this once a few years ago.

At that time, she had just graduated and was working for a large company with a promising future.

Ye Hongyu was the same.

The two discussed getting married once their jobs were more stable.

Before the wedding, came the devastating news that my parents were sick.

She rushed back, only to find that both of them had to have limbs amputated due to a car accident. She chose to quit her respectable job and return to Quanshui City, a small third-tier city, to take over the family's seafood shop, so that she could earn money while also taking care of her parents.

Ye Hongyu made a huge fuss and vehemently opposed it. Even years later, Ye Hongyu's words still seem to echo in my ears.

"Jiang Qingyue, don't act rashly. Your parents only had their limbs amputated; they can still move their hands. They're not paralyzed from a stroke."

"They're not in a vegetative state, so there's no need to worry about them being abused by the caregiver. You can hire a caregiver to take care of your parents, and if they abuse you, they can call you."

"You've studied for so many years, graduated from a prestigious university, and now you're going back to a third-tier city? Are you content with that?"

"What decent job can you find in that small town? Work as a fish butcher at your family's seafood shop?"

"Wouldn't my friends and relatives laugh at me to death if they knew I had a girlfriend who cleans fish?"

"Besides, what good can a long-distance relationship possibly do? Do you expect me to give up my future and go with you to a small city like Quanshui City, where I can live a miserable life forever?"

Jiang Qingyue said, "I didn't ask you to come back with me. My parents don't need a nanny, they need companionship. The seafood shop earns more than I do. If you really can't accept that, then... let's break up."

Ye Hongyu was stunned for a moment, then flew into a rage: "Why should we break up? You are my girlfriend, and we are going to get married in the future. The relationship between husband and wife is closer than that between parents and children. You should take care of me first."

"If you go back to Quanshui City, who will help me with the rent? Who will do my laundry and cook for me? Who will let me sleep here?"

Pooh.

Every time Jiang Qingyue thinks about it, she feels nauseous.

They started dating in college. Their parents had a pretty good impression of Ye Hongyu, thinking that boys on campus were more innocent and sincere than greasy old men in society.

When the accident happened, he kept comforting them, saying that the family had some savings over the years and had enough money for the surgery, so they hadn't gone into debt.

The seafood shop is doing well. Apart from the initial care being a bit troublesome, after recovery, both of them can use wheelchairs and don't need 24-hour care at all, so they won't be a burden on the young couple.

These were the exact words I had spoken to Ye Hongyu on the phone.

Neither her parents nor Jiang Qingyue herself ever suggested that Ye Hongyu quit his job at the factory and come to Quanshui City, nor did they ever suggest that he take a single penny.

If Ye Hongyu could just say frankly, "I don't want a long-distance relationship, your family's burden is too heavy, let's break up," Jiang Qingyue would understand.

After all, adult love is realistic, and marriage should be even more realistic.

But he didn't want to break up. Instead, he wanted to force Jiang Qingyue to give up going back to Quanshui City to take care of her parents and stay in Haicheng willingly to maintain a decent job, do his laundry and cook for him, and satisfy his physical needs.

That guy is a complete scumbag.

Without hesitation, Jiang Qingyue checked out of the hotel, packed her things, blocked the hotel, bought a plane ticket, and returned to Quanshui City overnight.

I thought it was all in the past, but it turns out this guy still has her number.

What a blunder! We'll have to disgust her again a few years from now.