Quan Xiaoyu sat on the bed in a daze. The room looked exactly as he remembered it. Faintly, he could hear the noisy sounds coming from outside the window. Everything seemed so peaceful and serene, both unfamiliar and familiar.
The electronic clock on the bedside table made a soft “click,” and the time was displayed clearly: [2017 01.01] [AM:10:00].
New Year’s Day, 2017, exactly ten o’clock in the morning.
After everything he had been through, Quan Xiaoyu still remembered everything that had happened that day with perfect clarity, down to every single detail.
On New Year’s Day, Quan Xiaoyu had woken up alone. His boyfriend, Jia Lunxu, whom he had lived with for two years, had not come home all night.
During that period, he often stayed out all night. He had gotten a new job and always seemed terribly busy. Quan Xiaoyu understood him. Although he felt extremely disappointed, he still tried his best to support Jia Lunxu from behind the scenes and worked hard to maintain their home.
So, when Quan Xiaoyu came home carrying a bag full of groceries, his mind filled with thoughts about what he should cook for lunch to help his boyfriend replenish his nutrition, he saw a group of people gathered outside his home.
His belongings were being thrown out one item after another.
And the one directing them to throw everything out was a strange, beautiful young man.
In his confusion, Quan Xiaoyu checked the house number again.
There was no mistake.
This was his home—a detached little villa, the only thing his deceased parents had left him.
Quan Xiaoyu stepped forward and reached out to stop the small backpack that was about to be thrown away. He did not look angry. Instead, his voice and eyes were filled with bewilderment.
“What are you doing? This is my home.”
“From now on, it isn’t your home anymore.”
The beautiful young man turned around and smiled.
Quan Xiaoyu frowned as he stared at him.
The young man continued smiling, bright and radiant like the sun.
“Jia Lunxu sold the house to me. All the paperwork is in order. I’m the owner of the house now.”
The young man’s smile was beautiful, but his tone and eyes were filled with deep malice.
Jia Lunxu.
It took Quan Xiaoyu a moment to remember that two years ago, when they had officially started living together, Jia Lunxu had always asked him in a worried tone, “If one day you stop loving me, will you kick me out of the house and leave me homeless?”
His voice had been filled with insecurity.
Quan Xiaoyu had interpreted this as the dependence on a home of an orphan who had never experienced the warmth of a family.
Thus, the taciturn Quan Xiaoyu, after being asked several times, resolutely transferred the house into Jia Lunxu’s name. He also handed Jia Lunxu the bank card containing several million yuan in cash left behind by his parents, asking him to keep it for safekeeping in order to soothe his anxiety.
For two years, he had never once asked about the family’s financial situation.
As a columnist, Quan Xiaoyu rarely went out, and the income from his writing was enough to cover their daily household expenses. He had even only heard that his boyfriend worked for a foreign company. He had never asked for the company’s name.
So, two years later, he was inexplicably thrown out of his own home without a penny to his name.
After that, he was never able to contact Jia Lunxu again. His calls went unanswered, and he could not find him anywhere.
It was not until the evening two days later, when Quan Xiaoyu was wandering around the villa with nowhere to go, that he personally saw Jia Lunxu’s BMW stop in front of the villa.
Jia Lunxu then put his arm around the beautiful young man and walked inside.
At that moment, Quan Xiaoyu finally understood everything.
Three days after he was thrown out of his home—January 4, 2017—the apocalypse arrived.
The apocalypse that should have arrived in 2012 came five years later, descending suddenly upon humanity when everyone was completely unprepared.
That day, Quan Xiaoyu dragged his suitcase to a bench in a park and sat there in a daze. He had spent the last bit of loose change he had on him.
He was an extremely slow-to-warm person when it came to emotions. By the time he had fully realized what had happened and felt the overwhelming pain, that pain had already been defeated by an even more overwhelming hunger.
Therefore, when the strange red glow burned across the sky and humanity welcomed the apocalypse amid astonishment and terror, Quan Xiaoyu was sitting on a park bench when he fainted from hunger.
When he woke up, the city was deserted, zombies covered the streets…
And somehow, he had awakened a fire-type supernatural ability.
He struggled to survive in the apocalypse…
His memories abruptly stopped there.
New Year’s Day, 2017.
That meant Quan Xiaoyu had returned to three years before the apocalypse.
It took him a full hour to figure out his current situation.
He had died in a horde of zombies, yet he had been reborn!
Reborn three years in the past, on the very day Jia Lunxu threw him out of his home.
There were still three days before the apocalypse arrived!
So, what should I do now?
Quan Xiaoyu asked himself.
The quick reactions he had developed in the apocalypse immediately made him feel a sense of danger.
Hunger, viruses, zombies, monsters—they would all arrive three days from now.
If rebirth was an opportunity Heaven had given him, then he absolutely could not waste it.
What’s more…
The person who had pushed him straight into a horde of zombies…
Quan Xiaoyu’s pupils became bottomless.
He quickly rolled out of bed and looked around.
Traces of the two of them living together could be seen everywhere in the room. What had once looked like such a warm and cozy scene now…
Quan Xiaoyu sneered inwardly.
He remembered that one hour from now, Wen Tong would bring people here and have all his belongings thrown out of the house.
Wen Tong.
By the time Quan Xiaoyu learned the beautiful young man’s name, it had already been a year into the apocalypse.
Quan Xiaoyu shook his head. There was no time to dwell on the past anymore.
He quickly ran toward the basement and opened the tightly locked basement door.
The basement was a fairly large storage area, normally used to pile up old household items. Ever since Quan Xiaoyu’s parents died, he had rarely come down here.
Quan Xiaoyu walked directly to an old, worn cabinet.
He opened the cabinet door and moved the partition at the bottom.
Another hidden space suddenly appeared before his eyes.
Quan Xiaoyu’s father had been a low-key antique dealer during his lifetime. After his death, besides a villa and several million yuan in savings, he had also left behind an antique shop he had operated for many years.
Although Quan Xiaoyu had already been an adult and was attending university when his parents died, the antique shop still did not escape being divided up by those relatives.
Only through the efforts of a lawyer and Quan’s father’s close friends had the house and savings managed to escape their clutches.
In the face of that ugly inheritance dispute, Quan Xiaoyu had always remained indifferent. His only request to the lawyer had been to keep the house.
He had also always been rather careless about the money.
For one thing, he believed he did not need it.
For another, he knew that his father’s most precious possessions had always been hidden in the basement of their home.
Perhaps Jia Lunxu had never understood what Quan Xiaoyu had entrusted to him when he wrote those three words—Jia Lunxu—on the property deed.
Quan Xiaoyu walked inside.
The secret room was very small, yet it was filled with treasures.
These were the life’s work of his father. All the items he had collected and cherished most dearly were kept here.
Quan Xiaoyu silently apologized to his father.
Originally, he had intended never to touch these things for the rest of his life.
In his previous life, he really had done exactly that.
After being thrown out of the house, he had never had another chance to touch them.
But now, he needed money.
He needed supplies.
He needed a safe environment.
He had to make sufficient preparations to face the apocalypse that would descend three days later.
He selected several valuable yet lightweight items and put them into his backpack.
After thinking for a moment, he opened a hidden compartment in the secret room and took out a jade square plaque carved with a coiling dragon, made from glass-grade Imperial Green jadeite.
It had been his father’s favorite possession during his lifetime.
Back then, Quan Xiaoyu had not even been allowed to look at it whenever he wanted.
He had once been furious with his father over it.
But his father had merely smiled and told him, “This is our family heirloom. Sooner or later, it will be yours.”
Taking it with him could be considered a way of preserving his memories of his father.
Quan Xiaoyu’s gaze dimmed.
He hung the small square plaque around his neck and turned to leave the secret room.
He locked the secret room exactly as it had been before.
After thinking for a moment, he piled some inconspicuous old household items in front of the cabinet door before leaving the basement.
He then locked the basement door as usual.
Although antiques would become completely worthless after the apocalypse, he still did not want Jia Lunxu and Wen Tong to see them.
Quan Xiaoyu returned to the bedroom with his backpack on his back.
He changed into a set of sturdy, lightweight clothes and casually took some personal belongings with him.
After thinking for a moment, he took some food from the refrigerator as well.
When he reached the front door, he turned back and gazed at the house one last time.
This was the house that carried all his memories from childhood to adulthood, and at the same time, had buried his love.
He resolutely took large strides and left.
Never…
Would he come back again, right?
When Quan Xiaoyu knocked on Li Shunwei’s door, Li Shunwei was having lunch with his son, Li Nan.
“Xiaoyu? Why are you here?”
Seeing Quan Xiaoyu standing outside the door, Li Shunwei was extremely surprised.
“Mm, Uncle Li.”
Quan Xiaoyu stood outside and nodded.
Li Shunwei hurriedly pulled him inside.
Ever since his close friend had died, he had rarely seen his friend’s son.
This child had never been very talkative, and after his parents died, he had become even more withdrawn.
Li Shunwei’s ten-year-old son, Li Nan, happily stood up when he saw Quan Xiaoyu.
“Brother Xiaoyu, you’re here!”
Quan Xiaoyu gave him a faint smile and nodded.
Li Shunwei had been Quan Xiaoyu’s father’s best friend during his lifetime. He was also one of the people who had worked hard alongside the lawyer to help Quan Xiaoyu preserve his inheritance after his parents died.
The two families had often interacted while Quan Xiaoyu’s parents were alive, so they were by no means strangers to one another.
“Xiaoyu, did something happen to you?”
Li Shunwei asked carefully.
The way Quan Xiaoyu looked now was like a child who had run away from home.
Quan Xiaoyu shook his head.
After thinking for a moment, he nodded again.
“Uncle Li, I want to sell a batch of antiques. It has to be fast. Can you help me?”
As he spoke, he casually opened his backpack.
Li Shunwei was startled.
“Xiaoyu, these are all your father’s collections… What happened to you? Can’t you tell your uncle?”
He looked somewhat anxious.
He had watched this child grow up and could be said to understand his personality.
He had always been completely indifferent to money and worldly possessions.
For him to act this way today, something must have happened.
Moreover, this child was cold on the outside but warm on the inside, and he was not good at expressing himself.
When his parents had died unexpectedly, he had appeared extremely calm. Those relatives with ulterior motives had used this against him more than once, criticizing him for being heartless.
But Li Shunwei knew that losing both parents had dealt Quan Xiaoyu a huge blow.
He had not even finished his studies. Then he shut himself inside his house and never met his parents’ old friends again.
Li Shunwei had been extremely worried about him, but there was nothing he could do.
It was not until later, when he heard that someone had moved into Quan Xiaoyu’s house and that the child finally had someone to take care of him, that he felt slightly relieved.
Quan Xiaoyu frowned.
He did not know where to begin explaining everything, nor did he know what he should or should not say.
After thinking for a moment, he repeated, “I want to sell them. Quickly. Can you help me?”
Li Shunwei sighed.
This child was always like this.
If he did not want to talk, there was nothing anyone could ask out of him.
“Xiaoyu, these things are extremely valuable. I’m afraid they won’t be easy to sell in a short time. It will take at least half a month. Your uncle will do his best to help you. If you urgently need money, you can take some of mine first.”
Like Quan Xiaoyu’s father, Li Shunwei was also an antique dealer with considerable assets.
Yet he still lived in an old building in a residential neighborhood.
He said it was because he wanted to remember his deceased wife.
His son, Li Nan, was also unwilling to move.
This place held the unique memories of their family from when his mother was still alive.
Quan Xiaoyu shook his head.
His tone was somewhat stern.
“Sell them. Quickly.”
He thought for a moment and added, “Uncle Li’s things too. It would be best to sell them.”
Li Shunwei was greatly shocked by these words.
Quan Xiaoyu had never been a child who talked nonsense.
On the contrary, if he was willing to say something, it was certain to be something extremely serious.
“Why?”
He asked in astonishment.
Quan Xiaoyu wanted to warn him about the apocalypse.
He did not want this father and son, who were like family to him, to meet with disaster.
In his previous life, after leaving, he had never had another chance to come here.
He did not know what had happened to them.
But now that he had been given another chance, he hoped they would be safe.
However, he truly did not know how to explain how he knew what the future held.
After struggling with it for a long time, he finally spoke.
“Dad said so!”
Quan Xiaoyu once again apologized to his father inwardly.
Although this reason sounded extremely flimsy, he really could not come up with anything better.
Li Shunwei was stunned for a long while.
He wanted to ask more questions, but when he saw Quan Xiaoyu press his lips tightly together, clearly refusing to say another word, he thought about the child’s personality and realized that he probably would not be able to get anything else out of him.
He could only fill in the blanks himself, thinking that his deceased friend must have been worried about his child and had returned in a dream to warn him.
Xiaoyu was not a child who lied, nor did he have any bad habits.
If he really needed money, then naturally, Li Shunwei would do everything he could to help him.
After thinking for a moment, he asked Quan Xiaoyu, “When is the earliest you need the money?”
“Today?”
Quan Xiaoyu answered hesitantly.
He knew this would be difficult, but he did not have much time left.
Li Shunwei sucked in a breath.
Several tens of millions worth of goods…
Then he gritted his teeth.
“All right! You wait here. I’m going out for a while!”
Quan Xiaoyu shook his head.
“I still have things to do. I’ll come back tonight.”
Indeed, there was still a pile of problems to deal with.
Even if he had money, how should he gather the supplies?
Where should he store them?
All of these were problems.
It would have been better if the villa were still his.
But if he went back now, he would inevitably have to clash with Wen Tong.
That person had always been good at putting on an act. With Quan Xiaoyu’s personality, he probably would not gain any advantage against him.
There were only three days left.
He should not waste time on certain people or certain matters.
It was said that in his previous life, at the beginning of the apocalypse, Wen Tong and Jia Lunxu had survived precisely because they had hidden inside the basement of their home.
Sometimes, Quan Xiaoyu even viciously thought that it would have been better if he had sealed the basement door shut back then.
Li Shunwei could do nothing with Quan Xiaoyu.
Seeing him leave after deliberately leaving behind a bag of antiques, he could only hurriedly stuff a piece of paper into his hand.
“Take this first. The password is Xiaonan’s birthday.”
Quan Xiaoyu hesitated for a moment, but still accepted it.
He then, for once, repeatedly reminded Li Shunwei to sell as much of his own property as possible, exchange it for supplies as much as possible, and not go outside.
Regardless of what he thought in his heart, when facing Quan Xiaoyu, Li Shunwei agreed to everything.
As Quan Xiaoyu left, Li Nan called out from behind him,
“Brother Xiaoyu, come back early tonight!”
Quan Xiaoyu turned around and smiled as he nodded.