Chapter 10: The Lively WeChat Group

Chapter 10: The Bustling WeChat Group

After hanging up, Guan Pan called Dong Mingyue to check on her situation.

Dong Mingyue picked up the phone cheerfully. “Panpan, did you know? Our building’s owner group chat is going crazy today. Many families didn’t stockpile food, and quite a few don’t even have water to drink. Thanks to what you gave me, our family’s become the richest in the building. My in-laws even told me to thank you.”

Dong Mingyue had been married for two years and trying to conceive, but without success. Recently, her in-laws had come over to discuss IVF treatment. Since the cost was high, they had been quite critical of her. She hadn’t been feeling very well lately, which was another reason Guan Pan wanted to call.

Hearing the happiness in Dong Mingyue’s voice, Guan Pan felt relieved. “That’s good. Oh, Mingyue, I have a friend at the meteorological bureau who says this kind of weather might last a long time. You have a big family, so be sure to ration your supplies.”

“I understand. My mother-in-law is calling me now. I’ll head over first; we’ll talk when I have time.”

After hanging up, Guan Pan looked at Lu Ruisheng and smiled. “You know, we’ve never had to worry about being pressured to get married or have kids.”

Lu Ruisheng smiled, too. “True. I never thought about all those complications—I just want to be with you.”

Right now, their greatest asset was time. They talked a while about it, noting that three hours each day in the space was really too short. The interface said gold could extend the time, so they searched for their gold jewelry at home. They took a pair of gold bracelets they had worn at their wedding into the space to test if the duration would change.

As soon as they entered, the gold bracelet in Guan Pan’s hand disappeared instantly, and the space’s timer changed from three hours to three hours and fifty-eight seconds.

Those two seconds were what they had just used, meaning the bracelets had extended their time by about a minute.

Each bracelet weighed fifty grams, so a hundred grams of gold only added one minute. Since an hour has sixty minutes, to add a full hour, they’d need six thousand grams of gold. That was outrageously expensive.

Seeing Guan Pan’s expression, Lu Ruisheng rubbed her head and said, “Having the space at all is already great. We can’t ask for too much. Besides, in the apocalypse, with all our supplies, are we really afraid we can’t trade for gold?”

Guan Pan thought for a moment and nodded. “Yeah, in a few months, food will be worth more than gold.”

“Remember how we scoped out the mall’s location? Once we can go out, we’ll check out the jewelry stores first.”

“Right. That makes filling a whole day seem not so hard.”

“Nothing to do today anyway. Let’s tidy up the space, put up those shelves, and organize things so everything’s clearer.”

“Good idea. I was planning to sort through the boxes from Zhuang Jie. Maybe there’ll be surprises.”

“Let’s open those boxes first, then.”

With just three hours and a minute, there wasn’t much they could do.

Their moods lifted as they unpacked Zhuang Jie’s boxes, like opening blind boxes full of surprises. There were medicines—not just common remedies but treatments for elderly illnesses, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and so on. The pharmaceutical variety was far broader than what Guan Pan’s family pharmacy stocked.

Many of Zhuang Jie’s medicines required prescriptions, along with surgical instruments and even dialysis machines. A lot of the drugs were stored in temperature-controlled boxes. It was clear he had more experience than Guan Pan and Lu Ruisheng in this area—after all, his family had elders and children, whereas Guan Pan and Lu Ruisheng had only the usual medicines on hand.

Besides medicines, there were many children’s toys, which hadn’t been on Guan Pan and Lu Ruisheng’s radar but struck Guan Pan as quite interesting. Children’s toys nowadays were genuinely high-tech.

They also found a large supply of infant formula for different stages. The two exchanged a glance—were they planning to have a second or third child in the apocalypse? But the amount was huge; how many children could consume it all?

Alternatively, maybe it was for sale, since these would become precious commodities.

After three hours of unboxing, they had gathered many surprises. Beyond anything else, Zhuang Jie had plenty of money—there were dozens of boxes of imported fruits, including durians and mangosteens that Guan Pan had never dared buy in abundance before.

When they left the space, Guan Pan even carried out a durian.

Outside, the snow was falling heavier and heavier, the sky ominously overcast. The streetlights burned steadily, but there wasn’t a single person or car on the road.

Upon exiting, Guan Pan suddenly remembered she had forgotten to bring out the crochet hooks, yarn, sewing machine, and fabric from the space. These things were perfect for passing the time in moments like this.

Still, seeing the TV was on, they found themselves something to do. The news was all about the cold wave—at least for today, everyone still thought it was an abnormal cold snap that would pass quickly.

The weather anchors were mostly absent from the studio, so all reporting was done online.

After watching the news for a while, they switched to livestreams. In just over ten days, the internet would be gone, so these broadcasts were becoming memories.

Since they could still cook openly, the couple had hot pot for lunch—no need to wash vegetables, as they had previously ordered three sets of hot pot, each with a hundred servings. Three hundred servings of hot pot was definitely enough.

After lunch, they took a nap, only to be awakened later by the WeChat group notifications.

Looking at the messages, most were neighbors borrowing food and water from each other—quite harmonious.

Their neighborhood was considered one of the better ones in the city, so most residents had good manners. If there was anything they didn’t want to hear, they simply skipped it. Arguments were rare.

By evening, the snow had not stopped but grown heavier, and the group chat became lively again.

The timid expressed fear, while the braver joked that if they slept through the night, the snow might melt by morning, and then the grind of work would resume.

That night, Guan Pan and Lu Ruisheng fell asleep in each other’s arms without doing much. After all, the apocalypse had just begun, and knowing what was coming weighed heavily on their hearts.

Early the next morning, they were again woken by WeChat notifications. Guan Pan kept the group chat notifications on, fearing they might miss important information. After all, if they had a chance to redo everything, a butterfly effect could change some outcomes. The group chat remained the busiest source of information, and it didn’t hurt to keep it open.

They both understood that being trapped inside brought many inconveniences. On the first day, everyone thought it would pass if they just held on, but each day would grow harder.

She picked up her phone and, together with Lu Ruisheng, checked the owner group chat.

At that moment, two households on the first floor were complaining about a clogged toilet, asking everyone upstairs not to use theirs.

Others complained, saying, “We can’t go out now; where else are we supposed to use the bathroom?”

Fortunately, the floor captain from apartment 401 spoke up in time: “Everyone, let’s be understanding. We are one building, one family. As the saying goes, distant relatives are not as close as neighbors. The difficulties are temporary. We can use plastic bags for now.”

The owner of apartment 501, living with her grandson, responded: “Our garbage is piling up by the door and we can’t throw it out. If we use plastic bags to go to the bathroom, what if it suddenly warms up one night? Won’t the entrance become a cesspit?”

(End of chapter)