Early the next morning, Chen Momo buckled her son into the child seat on the passenger side of her Wuling Hongguang minivan. The mother-son duo set off for the nearest junkyard.
"Are you sure you want to buy all this junk?" The junkyard boss looked Momo up and down, disbelief written all over his face.
Momo nodded. "I do want to buy some scrap, but I'm only interested in metal," she said firmly.
Hearing this, the boss led her to the piles of scrap copper and iron. After settling the bill, Momo pretended to load all the scrap into her van. Then, she drove around a corner and, making sure no one was watching, stored all the scrap metal into her spatial dimension.
She repeated this process at several other junkyards. Over the next two days, Momo scoured every scrap yard in the vicinity. Her space was now stocked with an abundance of various metals—copper, iron, aluminum alloy, and steel. That stockpile of metal would be more than enough to last them a long while in the apocalypse!
For the following few days, Momo continued to browse the major supermarkets nearby, gathering everything she needed. To avoid arousing suspicion, she kept all her newly purchased supplies hidden inside her space. Looking at the mountains of goods stored away, Momo felt an unprecedented sense of security. The lingering terror of her past life in the apocalypse was still etched into her mind. Glancing at her son beside her, she secretly vowed that, in this life, they would survive and live well.
Meanwhile, the fitness equipment she had ordered online arrived. Whenever they stayed indoors, Momo and her son would follow along with workout programs on TV. Back in her school days, Momo had studied Taekwondo. Though she hadn't practiced in years, she planned to pick it back up. Her son had also taken an extracurricular Taekwondo class, so whenever they had free time, the two would spar and practice together in the living room.
Chen Xiaobao practiced very seriously. It was almost as if he knew his mommy was training him to build up his strength against the impending natural disasters. Besides, having his mommy's company made it incredibly fun for him. Without realizing it, his physical fitness rapidly improved, making him much stronger than other kids his age.
Only ten days remained until the apocalypse.
Momo turned on the television to catch up on the latest news. Even now, the media was still immersed in a bubble of prosperity; no one had sensed the impending catastrophe.
Wang Liping, a warm and responsible middle-aged woman, was the building manager for Building 5. She had set up a WeChat group for the residents, which Momo had naturally been invited to join. So far, everything in the group chat seemed perfectly normal. The most active members were a bunch of enthusiastic older women—the same aunties who dominated the local square dancing scene every night.
Every time Momo opened her unread messages, it was just these ladies forwarding health tips: *The Right Way to Eat Yams*, *Did You Eat Right Today?*, *SHOCKING! The Hidden Benefits of Red Dates*. Or, they were sharing clickbait articles with titles like, *Forward if You're a True Patriot!*
The younger residents, on the other hand, were much quieter. Busy with their daily commutes and dropping off their kids at school, they rarely spoke up in the group. They only ever tagged Building Manager Wang Liping when they had a specific issue at home.
Nine days until the apocalypse.
Momo decided to get a better feel for the residents on her floor, especially her immediate neighbors. Although people were generally indifferent to one another these days, knowing the people around you was crucial for the coming apocalypse. If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.
Every day, Momo kept an eye on her neighbors' movements through the peephole.
To her right lived a tall, skinny man who wore gold-rimmed glasses and always carried a black briefcase. He was very punctual, leaving for work around eight in the morning and returning at seven in the evening like clockwork.
Across the hall lived a family of three. The man was middle-aged and overweight, with a sleazy, greasy look about him. The woman constantly sported a scowl and looked like someone you shouldn't cross. They had a teenage boy who wore thick glasses and had a dull, sluggish expression. He usually wasn't around during the week, only coming home on weekends.
To her left lived a young couple whom Momo had bumped into a few times at a nearby store. The girl had slightly mean-looking features and acted overly delicate—clearly someone who had been spoiled since childhood. She clung to her boyfriend's arm everywhere they went.
After observing these households, Momo felt she needed to stay vigilant. They might all seem relatively normal right now, but there was no telling what kind of crazy stunts they might pull when the world ended. After all, the apocalypse was an era ruled by the law of the jungle, a time that stripped humanity down and turned people back into wild animals.
Eight days until the apocalypse.
Momo logged onto the secondhand marketplace website. Almost all the items she had listed were already sold. Shortly after moving out of the old house she used to share with her ex-husband, Momo had discovered her spatial dimension. She had gone back to secretly store all the large furniture—cabinets, beds, vanity tables, and the like—inside her space. Since they had carefully picked out and bought high-quality furniture when they got married, she figured it would fetch a good price on the secondhand market.
Sure enough, it didn't take long for the listings to sell out. Her account balance grew by a neat sum—exactly fifty thousand yuan. Momo decided to spend every last cent of that fifty thousand over the next eight days.
Meanwhile, Momo heard that Yang Shunsheng and Huang Yuqing had bought a new apartment in their old residential complex, located right on the first floor. Huang Yuqing even went out of her way to add Momo on WeChat just to show off photos of their new home, along with a "happy family of three" portrait. It was a petty move, purely meant to disgust Momo.
Momo stared at the family photo. Yang Shunsheng was grinning with sheer bliss, looking as though he had completely forgotten all about his divorce. Momo let out a cold sneer. They loved first-floor apartments so much, but they probably had no idea that when the apocalyptic blizzard hit, the first floor would be the very first thing buried in snow.
But that was no longer any of her concern. Having survived betrayal once, she now knew what was truly important to her.
Momo looked back at her son. Xiao Bao was crouching by the table, fully concentrated on reassembling a toy car. The model car had been a birthday present from Momo, but she had accidentally broken it while cleaning the house one day. She had assumed her son had thrown the broken toy away a long time ago; she never expected him to have brought it along with them.
"How about Mommy buys you a brand new toy car?" Momo asked softly, seeing how obsessed he was with it.
Xiao Bao lifted his head, his big eyes sparkling, and shook his head. "Mommy, you don't need to buy a new one. Xiao Bao is almost done fixing this one!"