Fang Yuqing wailed over her ruined sofa and despised Zhou Peng for being drenched in urine—he'd been the closest to the door and taken the full blast. She barked at him to get off the couch.
Zhou Peng felt profoundly wronged. He'd followed Fang Yuqing's orders, risked himself for her, and now he was soaked, shivering, wounded—and treated like garbage. Still, a simp is a simp. He rationalized: he'd failed her, so he deserved her scorn. The more he thought, the more contrite he became. "I'm sorry, Yuqing. It's all my fault. Please don't be angry," he insisted.
Fang Yuqing and Lin Caining waved him away. "Get out now—we need to change!"
He dared not argue and left. The two women changed out of their urine-soaked clothes as fast as they could, but the sour stench clung—hair, skin, and the innermost layers of their garments. Bathing in subzero temperatures would have been suicide, so they held their breath and endured the nausea.
Their failed raid and the humiliation of being doused only sharpened their hatred of Zhang Yi. "What do we do? He's too cunning." "No—he can't have that house. We must get it." "There has to be a weakness."
Zhang Yi, meanwhile, sent Fang Yuqing a single message: "This time it's urine—next time I'll dump shit on you! (≧ω≦)" He hadn't even prepared the latter; if he had planned ahead, it would have been a full load. Fang Yuqing and Lin Caining went pale—covered in excrement would be unbearable.
He closed the chat and ignored the avalanche of replies that followed. Even with notifications muted, the red badge swelled. He checked the owner group and found a farce in full swing.
Since Chen Zhenghao ransacked her home, Aunt Lin had unraveled. She flooded the group with voice messages, demanding supplies. "I'm the neighborhood committee director! Disobey me and I'll have you arrested when the snow melts!" "Reply now—send all your food to my house today!"
No one listened. After more than ten days, people had learned the truth: the authorities were useless and her so-called power was a joke. Mockery answered her instead of obedience.
"You old hag, just die!" one neighbor typed. "Don't forget you tricked us out of a case of instant noodles!" others spat. They remembered that at the start of the storm Aunt Lin had advised against hoarding because it would be over soon. Now they were trapped, and their anger found a target.
Rich second-generation Xu Hao barged into the chat with a desperate offer: "Buying supplies at high prices—10,000 yuan for instant noodles, 5,000 for water!" With noodles now at 10,000, even Xu Hao's cash felt worthless.
Zhang Yi shook his head. "What era is this where people still try to buy food with money?" he muttered.
A reply popped up: "I have food to sell you." Greed had not been chilled by the apocalypse. People still risked everything for profit, betting the storm would end. Zhang Yi knew better—the cold had no timetable. After the snow, the world would be broken for years. Money was worse than useless; it was as flimsy as tissue.
That thought sparked a smaller, nastier idea. His warehouse bulged with toilet paper—neighbors almost certainly had none. What would people do when they ran out? He pictured the fragile civility cracking: when food and basic comforts disappeared, people would stop being people.
The next day Fang Yuqing and Lin Caining returned to Zhang Yi's door. They pleaded and begged—freezing, starving, invoking past feelings—hoping for a scrap. Zhang Yi watched them on his surveillance and didn't respond. Their umbrellas, already bearing traces of the urine incident, made them look pitiful and ridiculous. He suspected they still hid knives beneath those umbrellas.
He opened his dimensional space. It was vast and uselessly stocked with junk he'd kept "just in case." Now the junk proved useful: from the toys section he pulled out two stink bombs—prank canisters that unleashed a vile, lingering stenchant almost impossible to wash away.
Listening to the women's pleading through the door, Zhang Yi smirked. He pocketed the stink bombs, stepped toward the peephole, and let the grin spread across his face.