Chapter 15: Food Runs Out

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Meng Ran sipped her hot porridge and glanced at the QR code. In the end, she decided to scan it and entered the group with a secondary account, also taking the opportunity to update her address. The group had thirty-two members including her, and just as she joined, a user named "Ten Years Sharpening a Sword" with a matching avatar appeared.

"A newcomer has experienced something similar to us. Everyone, feel free to continue sharing," came a voice message. It was clearly a young man’s voice.

Meng Ran browsed through each member’s profile to get a basic understanding of the group.

“Favorite Tomato Egg Noodles: [Zombies have appeared again?]”
“Meteor Passing By: [The intervals between these incidents seem to be getting shorter.]”

The group members eagerly discussed and soon tagged Meng Ran, asking her to share the details. She copied and pasted her previous message and asked about their situations as well. They didn’t hide anything and described their experiences too.

Whether true or not, the gist was that starting from the day heavy snow began to fall, they too encountered corpses that had been dead long ago but were now moving as if reanimated. More seriously, some group members saw these bodies scratching people.

“Do scratches mean they get turned into them?” Meng Ran asked. She noticed most believed these corpses had become zombies, but since she hadn’t witnessed any attacks, she couldn’t confirm.

“Ten Years Sharpening a Sword: [We don’t know yet. The heavy snow makes contact difficult. Even if someone is infected, they wouldn’t be able to message us anymore.]”

That made sense. Meng Ran finished her porridge, feeling a bit disappointed that she hadn’t gotten any useful information. But soon, "Ten Years Sharpening a Sword" sent a video.

“This was recorded by a group member,” he said.

Meng Ran clicked the video. The image shook violently but was still clear enough. It showed a morgue where a corpse covered with a white cloth suddenly sat up. Its expression was blank, but its eyes stared straight at the screen, as if it had noticed someone filming secretly.

“Wash Your Hands: [I took this. It’s where I work. I was so scared I thought it would chase me and bite, so I ran away immediately. It didn’t pursue.]”

The morgue door was tightly locked. The video ended abruptly after loud banging on the door.

Meng Ran only realized what had happened when she heard Nian Nian watching her curiously.

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“Mom, what are you watching?”

Meng Ran shook her head. “It’s the thing I told you about last night. It’s too scary. You shouldn’t watch it for now.”

This video was much clearer than the one she saw last night. The corpse’s blank face was unsettling, but its eyes were even more frightening.

Though nothing major had happened yet, she resolved to stay vigilant.

Meng Ran looked at her self-defense tools. She wasn’t sure if they would be effective, but only an encounter with those creatures would tell.

She went to the small garden to water the vegetables. She had planted watermelon seeds earlier, but no sprouts had appeared yet. After finishing, she suddenly heard a knock at the door.

Inside the space, she could hear outside sounds. She looked up and walked to the living room.

There was no response from outside. The power outage had disabled the surveillance, so she could only press close to the door and listen.

After some knocking, a man’s voice came through.

“No one’s answering.”

Meng Ran recognized it as the voice of the young couple next door.

“It’s impossible they’re not home. I saw her earlier before the snow blocked the roads. Where else would she go?”

The woman trembled anxiously, rubbing her hands nervously. She tried to peek through the door crack but saw only darkness.

Meng Ran frowned. What did these two want from her?

“Is anyone home?” the man continued knocking. Meng Ran stepped back, giving no response.

Suddenly, the door beside them creaked open and Grandma Liu appeared, her face dark.

“Stop knocking. Meng Ran’s as stingy as ever; she’s not opening the door!”

Grandma Liu snorted coldly. Last time she knocked, Meng Ran hadn’t come out; these two were even less likely to get a response.

The couple looked at each other helplessly.

“We’ve run out of food and wanted to see if anyone could sell us some. We mean no harm.”

Meng Ran leaned against the door, listening to the three of them.

Grandma Liu’s tone was sharp: “Don’t expect her to be generous. She only bought a bit of fruit the day the snow started. She didn’t bring any food or drink back. Considering how much she has stored, she’s probably frozen or starved by now!”

The couple hadn’t anticipated that.

Meng Ran’s eyes flickered. She had indeed only bought a little fruit openly. For other supplies, she always stored them directly in the space as soon as she got to the car, never letting anyone in the neighborhood see.

No wonder Grandma Liu thought that way.

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“Fine then. She probably has nothing left to trade. Let’s go back and think of other plans.”

The man took his girlfriend away, and Grandma Liu slammed her door shut heavily.

As the noise outside faded, Meng Ran sat on the sofa, looking at the kitchen. She had moved all the food inside, leaving only a few frozen vegetables.

Confirming there was nothing else in the house, she decided to stay in the space permanently.

The property management group chat was bustling with people desperately requesting medicine and food. After the power outage, the situation worsened and tensions flared.

Someone offered two hundred just to buy a bag of bread, but others immediately raised the price, angering the first person, leading to a heated argument in the group.

13—406: “[Property management, you have plenty of food. Please help us.]”

Seeing the familiar number, Meng Ran recalled it was Zhao Weijie’s family.

Zhao Weijie stared at his phone screen. He privately messaged property management, but they never replied, clearly not caring about their survival.

So he decided to escalate the issue to make everyone aware.

His words drew everyone’s attention, and they bombarded property management with messages, using every tactic to plead. Some even volunteered to clear snow.

But after the power cut, property management never mentioned it again.

As the conflict intensified, those managing the group transferred ownership and left, seeking peace.

Meng Ran thought uneasily that without property management in the group, the quarrels would only worsen.

Many residents had run out of food before the outage. Now knowing property management had supplies but refused to share, resentment was inevitable.

Meng Ran turned off her phone, refusing to read the coarse messages.

After tidying the last clothes in her wardrobe, she returned to the space, where it was warmer.

Nian Nian sat in the rocking chair, gently touching the unripe tomatoes.

“These tomatoes grow so fast.”

Meng Ran agreed. Plants inside the space grew at a different, much faster rate than outside. The green tomatoes were already blushing red and would likely ripen in a few days.

She went to check on the cucumber seedlings when suddenly a loud crash sounded downstairs.

Bang—