68: Chapter 68 The Apocalypse Is Not a Charity Event

"Hah."

Sun Hao tossed the dish brush into the sink, gritting his teeth with a cold sneer.

"When the extreme weather news was released, these people all pretended not to see it, and they were too lazy to run to the supermarket sales. Now that they see us eating and living more like human beings than they are, they're all getting desperate?"

"Human nature—that thing mutates as soon as you get hungry," Zhou Cheng replied calmly.

"And it's the cheapest kind of mutation, too," Zhao Wei said, his mouth twitching.

It was nearly 1:00 AM. Outside the Phoenix City building, everything had fallen into complete silence, save for the howling wind that whistled through the gaps between the high-rises like a low, mournful cry.

The air on the top floor, however, had completely solidified.

Zhou Cheng's voice rang out again, his tone slightly changed: "...In the group chat, they've already started with personal attacks."

Sun Hao turned around abruptly: "...What are they saying?"

Zhou Cheng looked up, his voice dropping lower.

"They're saying... a woman is living with four men, refusing to let anyone else inside, and that the relationships aren't clean."

"They're also saying things like 'The rules don't apply in the apocalypse' and 'We're all going to die eventually anyway.'"

Zhao Wei's face turned completely dark instantly: "Have they lost their minds?"

He slammed his hand on the table, knocking over a drink bottle.

"They can't get food, so now they want to eat people?!"

Sun Hao laughed in extreme anger: "Damn it, just because we didn't share our food, they've started making up this trash!"

Zhang Tianjin also stopped what he was doing, slowly sliding his cleaned knife back into its sheath, his expression turning icy.

"If we don't control this, they'll eventually crawl to our door and act as a jury."

[306 Teacher Ma]: I said it! A young girl living with four men—that's not normal anywhere!

[302 Auntie Li]: Men in black are going in and out of their door every day, and they keep the curtains drawn day and night. Aren't they afraid of corrupting the atmosphere?!

[308 Sister Liu]: To put it bluntly, she has no self-awareness. In this apocalypse, others survive on their own ability, but she relies on men.

[304 Ms. Sun]: What's the difference between living without morals and being a zombie?

[307 Sister Wang]: I suggest we film a video and upload it so everyone can see what 'living in luxury and immorality' looks like!

Zhao Wei was furious, standing up to rush outside.

"I'm going down there right now to show them at the property management office who is living in groups! And who is immoral!"

Sun Hao jumped up and grabbed him. "Calm down—"

"Calm down, my ass!"

Zhao Wei gritted his teeth. "You want me to watch them insult our boss like this and keep pretending to be civilized?!"

Zhou Cheng calmly adjusted the door lock data to A1-level countermeasure mode.

"They're starting to incite mob attacks."

He pushed up his glasses. "If you go down there now, it will only make them think 'we really are guilty'."

"Do you know? Human beings, once they can't get food, their first reaction isn't to solve the problem—"

"It's to eat those who are living better than them."

Zhang Tianjin spoke quietly: "If it happens once, it will happen again."

"If we don't put a stop to this tonight, we'll be hearing knocks on our door every snowy night from now on."

"And the people knocking... won't be bringing food." After saying this, his fingers slowly stroked the hilt of his knife.

Zhao Wei's eyes were bloodshot, but he finally stopped and didn't rush out, turning to look at Ye Nanxing.

"Boss, aren't you going to say something?"

Everyone looked at her in unison.

Ye Nanxing paused at the door of the study, her tone low and calm:

"The first time they knocked, I opened the door."

"The second time—if anyone comes again—" She paused, her eyes sharp as a knife, "it won't be as simple as just closing the door."

Zhang Tianjin didn't speak, only slowly wiping his dagger, the blade glinting with a cold, blue light under the lamp.

"But from now on."

Ye Nanxing raised her head, her gaze bone-chillingly cold.

"Block the property management system completely and embed tracking lock codes into the surveillance nodes."

"They want to film? They want to talk? They want to mob us? They want to expose us?"

"Then they better be prepared to be attacked."

"Zhao Wei." She called his name.

"Place a voice-activated mine system at our door. If anyone gets within a meter, it will automatically record their voiceprint—don't blow them up, just record the audio."

"Zhou Cheng, pull up all the surveillance for the stairwells and elevator entrances. Set up heat source identification; if you detect a gathering of more than five people, mark it in red."

"Sun Hao, you're not sleeping tonight. Keep watch on the first floor and the top floor photosensitive systems. If they're triggered, sound the alarm."

"Zhang Tianjin."

"You teach them—"

"What it means to 'want to watch others starve to death.' First, ask yourself how many lives you have to pay for it."

At 3:00 AM, inside the top-floor Shelter of Phoenix City, an alarm sounded.

[Warning: Heat sources gathered outside the door. Acoustic sensitivity system triggered.]

Zhou Cheng's fingers paused, and he immediately pulled up the surveillance footage from outside the door.

"They're here. Seven people in total."

Zhao Wei leaned in, squinting as he clearly saw the man crouching in front of the door wearing a tool bag.

"...Is that the locksmith who just moved into 402? They say he's a retired technician from some municipal public security system."

"Old Zhang." Sun Hao chimed in. "He only moved in three months ago. Today, everyone in the group chat was saying he can open any security door."

Ye Nanxing didn't speak, her gaze sweeping calmly over the screen on the terminal.

The locksmith was wearing a headlamp, holding a pry bar, a wrench, and freezing lubricant. His lock-picking process was clean and efficient, as skilled as if he were fixing a drawer.

"Click, click, click—" The precise sound of impact came from the door gap.

A minute later, his movements slowed.

Two minutes later, he stood up, staring at the door gap with a strange expression.

"...What kind of door is this?" He frowned. "It's not a steel core; it's a titanium alloy frame? Triple locking bolts + electromagnetic induction?"

"I... I can't open it." He said it very directly.

"It's not a technical issue; it's the material and structural limitations."

"This isn't a residential door; this is—a heavy-duty tactical storage door."

"...Are you trying to seal yourselves inside armor?"

As soon as he finished speaking, Auntie Li's expression changed: "Didn't you say you could pick locks?! If you can't do it, why the hell did you say you could!"

The locksmith didn't want to burn bridges, so he shrugged: "I'm not a god."

"Besides..." He glanced at the door and lowered his voice. "For a household that can install this kind of door, if we really were to pry it open, can you guarantee they don't have guns?"

Auntie Li snorted with dissatisfaction. After the locksmith, Old Zhang, stepped back a few paces, she instantly put on her "kind neighborhood sister" smile, her tone loving and aggrieved:

"Miss Ye—Miss Ye, you're home, right? We know you are!"

"We're not here to cause trouble; we just want to borrow some rice, or even hot water. A bowl of rice, a cup of water, even a spark of fire would do..."

Her voice became increasingly choked with sobs: "My old man hasn't eaten in two days, and the rice cooker at home is broken... I'm begging you, Miss Ye, we've been neighbors for so long..."

Her words were spoken with apparent sincerity and were extremely miserable.

Ye Nanxing stood behind the door, watching that poorly acted face with cold eyes.

"Is that so... Was the braised pork delicious tonight?"

"Did you have it with potatoes or carrots? I couldn't quite see."

"You're at such an advanced age, yet you can still eat two bowls of rice—your appetite is truly better than mine!"

Silence fell outside the door.

"...What are you talking about?" Auntie Li's expression changed abruptly.

Auntie Li outside the door stiffened, the expression on her face shattering instantly!

She opened her mouth, but couldn't utter a single word. Only one thought remained in her mind:

—How does she know?