Chapter 1
In a luxurious and oversized KTV box, Chao Youqian was half lying on a soft sofa, drinking with an expressionless face, surrounded by his classmates' off-tune singing.
The dim and colorful lights flickered and flowed, and the spots of light hit everyone's face, appearing and disappearing, illuminating emotions of joy or sorrow.
"Youqian, let me have a drink with you. Congratulations on finally being able to travel around the world. See you at the class reunion in a few years!" The speaker was Wu Gu, a senior who was admitted to graduate school at this university. Although he was a bit busy during the summer vacation and had to stay in school to prepare for his future graduate career, he was in high spirits.
He raised his glass to Youqian, his lips twisted into a stiff smile. In this ridiculous world, he couldn't help but think of the line from the novel he had dreamed of:
[My senior brother Wu Gu was infected with the virus and has not been heard from since. It is said that he and his roommate who stayed on campus died in the dormitory due to lack of medication.]
Wu Gu's roommate was none other than the unfortunate Ben Dan Chao Youqian. Forget about getting together with classmates in a few years, who knew how many of the people in this room would be alive in a few months. His fate as a roommate ended in death brought on by the virus.
After guzzling a full glass of wine, Chao Youqian stood up with half-closed eyes and shouted as the people around him cheered him on, "Drink as much as you want today, I'll pay the bill. Let's drink while we can, don't leave any regrets for the future!"
The atmosphere became even more heated. It was rare for their class to have no major conflicts in the past four years. Those who were good at studying, those who were rich, and those who were comfortable all lived in harmony. At this time, they were all drinking, laughing and having fun together.
As a wealthy second-generation, Chao Youqian had a group of playful and playful friends in his class, all of whom were either playing cards or drinking. After a few more drinks, one of them said, "What? Who messes with our rich young master? Let Brother Lang know, and we'll definitely bring all of you to beat him to death with our money."
"Screw you." Chao Youqian forced a smile at his friends, "I just had a nightmare after a nap in the afternoon."
A blush had already appeared on his face. He was half drunk and half awake when he said, "If the world was about to end, what would you do?"
A few people replied with a playful smile, "Of course it's the Great River Crab who achieved life. Otherwise, even at the end of the world, he'd still be a great magician. Brother Qian, there are quite a few people asking for your WeChat. You're so chaste that you haven't dated anyone in four years."
Chao Youqian laughed and said, "Don't talk nonsense. If I dated him, I would be an outlaw. I was only 16 when I was in college."
His friends called him brother as a nickname, just like his name which sounds like "rich". Besides, he never received any friend requests from strangers.
"Honestly, Brother Qian, with your looks and wealth, it's a waste not to be in a relationship. Don't be bound by gender, just go for it if you like someone!"
He rolled his eyes at Youqian and didn't respond. The others weren't the type to push for a date, so they just kept drinking. He was drowning his sorrows in wine, while the others drank heartily, eventually becoming completely drunk.
Lying on the sofa, he heard a few words in a daze amid the music, "Brother Lang is here to pick up Brother Qian, please make way." Only then did he feel relieved and passed out completely drunk.
---
When Chao Youqian woke up from a hangover, he opened his eyes to see not a strange ceiling but a bedroom that was very familiar to him. It was the guest bedroom of his childhood friend Lang Xin's apartment in this city.
In his drowsy state, the surroundings were quiet and it was still dark outside. In the early morning, Chao Youqian did not feel the discomfort of a hangover. With a clear mind, he began to review everything that happened yesterday.
The graduation ceremony was yesterday morning, and at noon the trust lawyer appointed by his parents came to him to sign. Graduation means that he can have full control of the 60 million liquid funds and other real estate left to him by his parents, which is a great thing.
After finishing all of this with Lang Xin's company, Chao Youqian went back to school with peace of mind to take a nap and prepare for the graduation party in the evening. Their class had already planned to get together and no one could be absent.
Chao Youqian, napping in his dorm, was in an uneasy dream. A novel, shimmering with black light, automatically turned pages, flooding his brain with information. Waking up in a sweat, Chao Youqian's years of good manners vanished, and he cursed out loud in the deserted dorm, "What a trick of fate!"
Chao Youqian is now 20 years old, a combined 40 years across his two lives. In his previous life, he was a test-taker from a well-off family who died suddenly while reviewing in the library. His next revelation was a new life, a reincarnation into a wealthy Hong Kong family. Aside from not having drunk Meng Po's soup, nothing in the world seemed out of the ordinary.
This world's family ties are distant, with the complex relationships common among wealthy families. The old man, though old at heart, has four wives. Chao Youqian is the posthumous child of the second wife's youngest son, whose mother died in childbirth.
His grandmother in this life was not an easy person to deal with. She took advantage of the fact that he lost his parents at birth to make the old man who was in charge of the family feel more sympathetic towards him and take him to live in the main house.
The eldest family also lived in the main house, and the other two families often mocked his grandmother for staying in the main house under the name of a child. However, with the memories of his previous life, he was smarter than the average child, showing his superior intelligence to please the old man, and his grandmother took advantage of the situation and established a firm foothold in the main house.
With the help of his grandmother, the property left by his parents was placed in trust for management, so that he could control it himself when he graduated from college.
When he was 16, his grandfather passed away. To avoid the turmoil of the family inheritance and to leave the oppressive intrigue of his old home, he chose a university in mainland China over the University of Hong Kong. With the wealth and trusts left to him by his grandfather and his parents, he lived a life of ease and comfort, with more money than he could spend. While his family affection was shallow, he had experienced it in his previous life. It could be said that he lived a life of absolute success.
Perhaps fate had been unkind to him for missing out on the Meng Po soup, and had him dreaming that this world was a serialized apocalyptic novel, with the end coming a month from now! He, Chao Youqian, was the unfortunate background fodder infected with the virus as the protagonist reminisced about the past after escaping school.
Chao Youqian rolled over in his soft bed, wrapped in the quilt, trying to recall every word from the book. The cause of his death was simple: a virus would break out in a month, heralding the end of the world. Because his graduation thesis was randomly inspected, he returned to school for two days and checked out, trapped in the school dormitory with his roommate Wu Gu.
There was no test of humanity; it was simply a lack of initial concern. Wu Gu, who insisted on reporting to his advisor at the start of the outbreak, accidentally became infected, and the airborne infection spread to him. Without effective treatment, the two developed severe illness and died in their dormitory, becoming one of the highest-risk fatalities from the virus.
Chao Youqian is now trying hard to recall whether his childhood friend Lang Xin in this life has appeared in the novel. Don't say he is narcissistic. If Lang Xin hadn't had an accident, he would definitely come to the school to find him even if he had to climb over the wall.
The search yielded no results. Chao Youqian angrily despised this apocalyptic novel for not being a group portrait, and decided to keep a close eye on Lang Xin for the next month.
The description of the apocalypse in that novel is very simple. The main plot is that the protagonist and his roommate stayed on campus during the holidays, and after the virus broke out, the school was quarantined and closed, and then they faced the apocalypse together.
But there's a serious problem: this novel is unfinished. The author abandoned it before the conclusion of the volume about the virus closing the school! There's absolutely no mention of the subsequent natural disaster! The synopsis simply states that the protagonist will leave the school and join the base as a key figure, but there's no further context for the story.
The noise outside the bedroom interrupted his angry thoughts in time, and before he knew it, it was already daylight. There was a gentle knock on the bedroom door, and it opened. Lang Xin opened the door and saw Chao Youqian's eyes were slightly red. Startled, he walked quickly to the bedside, "Chao Chao! What's wrong? Did you drink too much and have a headache?"
Chao Youqian rolled over and put his legs on Lang Xin, making up a random excuse: "I'm not prone to hangovers. It's okay. I'm just a little bothered by the graduation thesis. Yesterday, the teacher said our class might have a spot check, so I shouldn't travel too far for the next month or two."
"Then stay in China for a while." Lang Xin laughed instead. "My company recently had a meeting abroad. I was planning to travel with you, but since you can't go, I have to go alone."
Chao Youqian sat up suddenly, his vision going dark for a moment, but he still spoke with full energy: "You are not allowed to go!"
Lang Xin quickly supported his unsteady body and gritted his teeth, saying with a hint of joy, "Why, you can't bear to leave me? The meeting has only been open for three days, and it's almost a month away."
Pulling Chao Youqian's arm and placing it on his shoulder, Lang Xin turned his head to look at the blush on his fair cheeks after he woke up. He felt as if his heart was scratched by a cat. He couldn't help but lament that he had always been a coward in front of him, and only dared to secretly test him by saying something.
Chao Youqian didn't have so many thoughts. He finally understood why Lang Xin didn't have a clear destination. He was attending a meeting abroad. When the end of the world came, transportation was paralyzed, and Lang Xin couldn't swim back to City B across the vast ocean.
"Don't worry about it. Just listen to me. Don't go abroad for the next few months. Stock up on food and drinks at home. Don't move. I have something to remember." He said this unhappily. Chao Youqian felt the contents of the novel in his dream becoming increasingly faint in his memory. He took out his phone and hurriedly typed keywords into the memo: one month later, virus, airborne transmission, natural disaster...
He finally managed to write down the important things he knew before his memory completely disappeared. He looked up at Lang Xin, who was being ordered to stay still, and couldn't help but chuckle at Youqian: "You're so good, Xiao Xinzi. Come and massage my shoulders. I'm feeling swollen and sore from drinking too much."
Lang Xin finally dared to move, staring at the mischievous young master and saying bitterly, "I'm just a eunuch steward. I owed you in my past life." He pressed Chao Youqian's shoulders, feeling a pang of bitterness in his heart. He didn't know what had happened at their class reunion last night, but they got drunk. Graduation time is a high-frequency place for singles to find love. Although he had gotten drunk and was picked up by him early, and all the peach blossoms had been secretly extinguished by him, there was no guarantee that someone would stop him in person...
Thinking of this, the strength in his hands increased, and Chao Youqian started to yell at him coquettishly: "You are so strong, you will break my shoulder soon. Be gentle, or I will find someone outside to do it."
"You dare!" Lang Xin replied softly. He'd ask everyone at last night's party later. Chao Youqian, this emotionally clueless guy, should be kept under his watch. Anyone who bothered him would be dealt with just like before. He was still a child, not quite sane.
While Lang Xin was thinking about how to attack the non-existent imaginary enemy, Chao Youqian began to ponder under the appropriate pressure: When the end of the world comes, the first thing to be affected is supplies. Even if you have never eaten pork, you have seen pigs run. After reading so many apocalyptic novels, they all illustrate the importance of supplies.
After taking inventory of the properties I currently own, I found that I own two large flats and a villa in this city, as well as fixed hotel rooms and villas in several famous tourist cities.
In terms of liquid funds, he had more than the entire family of the old house, even though they were fighting each other. Besides the 60 million he had just received, only Lang Xin knew that he had spent all his cash on virtual currency as soon as he started college. He had bought it at a low price of 4,000 yuan per coin, even though he hadn't bought it at the bottom. He even borrowed money from Lang Xin to buy 500 coins in total.
After I made a profit and started investing in stocks, I had more money on hand. As long as the price was below 10,000, I would keep buying. I would sell high and buy low. Now I have nearly 1,000 virtual coins. The market price of one coin is at least 20,000 US dollars. If I sell them all, I can get several hundred million.
However, if he wanted to sell all the virtual currencies he had, or stock up on goods for some big move, he would have to explain to Lang Xin.
Would he believe what he said? Although they had known each other since childhood, and Chao Youqian had been in the same class with him after skipping a grade, and Lang Xin had followed his lead in choosing a university, and usually went along with him in everything, the reason that the world was about to end was too ridiculous!
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