Lin Bei

Lin Bei snapped his eyes open. The familiar chandelier, his unharmed arm. This wasn't a dream. Three years of survival in the apocalypse, his torn abdomen, his dead parents, the hunger, cold, and fear etched into his bones—all now seemed like distant illusions. He stood in his rented room on June 15, 2024, less than 72 hours before the apocalypse. "It's too late." He forced himself to calm down; panic was the number one killer in the apocalypse. The lesson of his previous life—the price of soft-heartedness was betrayal and death—he would never repeat it. He needed a plan, a ruthless and meticulous one. At his desk, he began to sift through the information: a virus leak, a minimum incubation period of four hours, rapid transformation, zombies retaining some muscle memory, and acute hearing. This was knowledge gained at the cost of his life. The twelve thousand yuan in his bank account was a drop in the bucket. He immediately dialed his richest friend from university, Zhao Yiming's number. "A business that will turn tenfold in three days, half the principal, and I'll take 70% of the profits." The other party was skeptical, but Lin Bei's cold tone and the assurance, "You know I never lie," finally convinced Zhao Yiming to come. The shopping list was quickly drawn up: compressed biscuits, purified water, medicine, knives, rope... The most scarce item in the early stages wasn't food, but survival necessities. The doorbell rang. Through the peephole, a woman of about twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old, wearing a black windbreaker, with a neat ponytail, and a backpack covered in mud, appeared. Lu Xinyan. In his previous life, she had saved him, and in the end, to cover his retreat, she was surrounded by zombies. She desperately shouted, "Don't look back, run!" The door opened, and Lin Bei's voice was hoarse: "What are you doing here?" Lu Xinyan went straight in, taking out an entrenching tool, a gas mask, medical alcohol, gauze, and even a crossbow from her backpack. "Do we know each other?" Lin Bei's heart was racing. “Lin Bei, twenty-two years old, a junior at A University…” Lu Xinyan described his information while pulling a notebook from her pocket, flipping to a page filled with writing, and handing it to him. It read: June 18th, 3:21 PM, the zombie virus outbreak. “I came back forty-eight hours earlier than you. I’ve been wondering if anyone else has returned besides me?” Lu Xinyan looked out the window, the setting sun casting a golden glow on her face. “I investigated all possibilities and finally locked onto you. Because in my past life, you were the most tenacious bastard I’ve ever met.” Lin Bei gripped the notebook tightly, smiling—a smile of relief after surviving a catastrophe. In his past life, he survived alone to the end. In this life, she stood before him. “So, what do you want from me?” Lu Xinyan zipped up her backpack, slung it over one shoulder, walked to the door, turned her head, and a cool yet bright smile appeared on her lips. “Let’s team up, what else? The apocalypse is coming, you don’t want to carry it all alone, do you?”