End of the World Cycle

The next morning, when Xie Qin finished breakfast and arrived at the yacht, Miao Zhe was already waiting there. He took out his phone and checked the time. It was only 7:50. This guy was quite active.

"Good morning, boss!"

"Morning. Let's get on board and go."

"Okay. I found the information about Pei Yang."

"Let's talk on board."

The two of them boarded the boat, and Xie Qin automatically sat on the chair beside the cockpit. Miao Zhe was also smart enough to start the boat. The boat sailed away from the building, and many people watched from the window, but no one dared to offend Xie Qin. After all, not everyone had gold and jade lying around. Last time, he had borrowed money from several families to get those five people back.

"Pei Yang is 24 years old, a second-year graduate student in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Kyoto University. He is very impressive. His honor roll is three pages long, and he has eleven personal patents. He is definitely a high-quality academic. He mainly studies chemical raw materials and has been accepted by the Research Institute for a doctorate. I checked the trends of their entire department. The professors and some high-tech talents in their department were all transferred as soon as the rainstorm hit. The last system where his information was registered was the National Research Institute. I can't find anything further. But I'm sure he is safe."

"Okay. I get it. Where is the National Research Institute?"

"It's also in the capital, but I don't know the exact location. I haven't found it yet. I need to compare information from multiple sources to verify it. In short, I need electricity. I should be able to find it by restarting my operation room."

"No problem. Wait a while, I'll find a way for you."

"Okay! Boss, I see the natural gas is going to be shut off soon, do you want to prepare some firewood?"

"Hmm? Really? No need, my mom will. She'll find a way. I don't have to worry about food, clothing, housing and transportation."

"That's great." Miao Zhe's eyes were filled with envy and he sighed sincerely.

Xie Qin realized what Miao Zhe meant. After all, she had seen Miao Zhe's mother, who was unable to take care of herself. Basically, she could not help Miao Zhe.

"Is your mom okay being home alone?"

"No problem. I fished out a lot of adult diapers from the water earlier, and I used the vegetables you gave me last night to make a lot of vegetarian dumplings. They can be eaten cold. It'll be enough for lunch, no problem."

"Okay. Can you get rid of the surveillance system of Treasury No. 1?"

"Okay, I can just break it."

"Break it, and make sure no one else can see me through this surveillance system."

"Understood! Boss, you can trust me to do the job!"

The two had only been out for one day when the whole building changed. A group of people, more than a dozen adult men, appeared out of nowhere and began to rob supplies from house to house. These people had the master card of the building and specifically targeted the elderly, the weak, the sick, or the families without men. In just one day, 43 households were robbed.

The two arrived at the building at night. There were cries in the corridor, which made people feel upset. Miao Zhe immediately thought of his mother who was alone at home. Although Xie Qin didn't see what was going on, she followed Miao Zhe.

As expected, the door of his house was wide open, and the house was deadly quiet. Miao Zhe suddenly felt something was wrong. There was no one in the classroom. When he ran to his mother's bedroom, it was pitch black. He called his mother in panic. There was no one on the bed. He glanced around and saw the closed toilet door. He pushed it open with shaking hands, and saw his mother lying on the bathroom floor with blood all over her head.

"mom!"

Xie Qin came and saw this scene and couldn't help but frowned. Everything in front of her couldn't help but remind her of Dr. Lan.

"Is your mother still alive?"

"Yes! Yes!" Miao Zhe said after checking his mother's breath.

"Carry your mother on your back and come with me to find Dr. Lan."

"it is good!"

When they arrived at Dr. Lan's house, the door was closed. Xie Qin knocked on the door, but there was no response from inside. Xie Qin spoke.

"Doctor Lan? It's me, Xie Qin."

Xie Qin had very good hearing. She heard the faint footsteps behind the door slowly moving closer. Lan Yining, who was inside the door, looked out through the peephole. Although she couldn't see clearly, she had seen Xie Qin many times and was familiar with her. She recognized Xie Qin from her outline and blurred facial features.

Then, there was a sound of heavy objects being moved behind the door, and the door was opened again after ten minutes. Xie Qin took out the camping light from his backpack, and with the light in the room, Xie Qin could see clearly that one side of Dr. Lan's face was swollen, probably because he was beaten. The room was in a mess, completely different from usual, and it looked like it had been robbed.

"Where is Xu Nuo?" Xie Qin looked around the room and saw that Xu Nuo was not there.

"I was lying in the bedroom with a broken leg. Although I did some simple treatment, I'm afraid there will be sequelae as there are no conditions for surgery."

Xu Nuo was a lively and cheerful child with a sweet mouth. Although he was only two years younger than her, he still had a childish mentality. Xie Qin wanted to help, and because he called her Sister Qinqin every time he saw her, she promised that she would help.

"Doctor Lan, please check on Mu Zhe's mother's condition first, then give me a list of what Xu Nuo and Mu Zhe's mother need, and I'll find it and send it to you."

"Okay." Lan Yining didn't know why, but Xie Qin's words were very convincing. Even though she knew that this was just a child, she had seen what Xie Qin had done these days. She had plenty of food, a boat, and guns. And she was useful to her, and she was willing to help her, which was enough.

Ten minutes later—

"This lady is fine. She just fainted due to long-term bed rest and malnutrition. She should wake up on her own in a while. She just needs to take some vitamin supplements normally. And here are the things Xiao Nuo needs for the surgery. You can get the tools at the hospital where I work. I have written the specific locations and names above."

"Okay. It should be okay to do it later, right?"

"Three days, any less than three days is fine."

"it is good."

Xie Qin first followed Miao Zhe to his home, bought a new lock from the system and handed it to Miao Zhe.

"Here are the instructions. Let's see if it can be changed. What tools are needed?"

"Sure. Just a drill and a screwdriver will do."

"Okay. This is an iris lock. After you change it, go get another one for Dr. Lan's house. Come with me to the 55th floor tomorrow morning and get another one for my master's house. We can also recognize the people there. Both of these families are family. However, you are the only one who knows about my special things, understand?"

"Understood! Don't worry, boss!"

It was almost ten o'clock when Xie Qin returned home. The house was almost dark, if for no other reason than to keep a low profile and make his family look as normal as possible. But tonight, Zhang Mingfang surprisingly pulled the blackout curtains tight and waited for Xie Qin to come back with the lights on in the living room.

"What's wrong, Mom?"

"You'd better not go out recently. Fortunately, our locks have been changed, otherwise something bad would have happened today."

“Who has been here?”

"Well, I've observed that they are all men in their thirties, coming from two ships. There are more than a dozen of them, all wearing hoods, and they have knives, iron pipes, and two homemade shotguns. They know our situation very well, and the room cards are stolen by those who don't have many young and middle-aged people in their families. They only robbed the rooms below the 50th floor. I guess they will come again."

"Oh? Looks like there's a traitor?"

"The traitor? Who is it?"

"Who else could it be? The property management. They have our basic information and universal room card."

"Then what should we do?"

"It's okay, you and Ranran will be fine as long as you don't go out."

"how about you?"

"I still have my own things to do. Don't worry, I will protect myself."

Calculating the time, there are only four days left before the rainy season stops. When the flood recedes, there will be a zombie tide. It will not be so convenient to move around by then. She has not been to the medical equipment in the hospital, the remaining jewelry in Treasure House No. 1, and the oil depots of several gas stations. She has not been to these places yet. She doesn't have much time.

The next morning, Xie Qin told her mother not to open the door and went directly to the 16th floor. The several households on this floor were all property management. Before the network was disconnected, this group of people were still responsible for managing the sanitation of the building. But after the network was disconnected, there was no movement.

It is impossible for the property management to hire someone to rob the house alone. Everyone must be involved, including contacting outsiders, room cards, and resident information. So these people are not innocent.

There were eight property managers in total, all of them were in their forties. Xie Qin had seen them all before so he wouldn't mistake them. The elevator had long been out of service, and there was only one exit for the entire floor, which was the emergency passage. After Xie Qin came in, he locked the door with a big lock.

This floor is the employee dormitory left by the person in charge of the building. There are ten houses on one floor, and many people live there, including eight property managers and their families. Basically, there are people living in every house, so compared with other floors, this place is quite lively.

There were even two adjacent doors that were wide open. Four children, aged seven or eight, were playing in the public passage. When Xie Qin arrived, the children ran back to their homes in panic.

If nothing else, the knife in Xie Qin's hand was very scary. The long knife rewarded by the system was emitting a cold light. In addition, Xie Qin's pure black windbreaker was pulled up to the top, covering half of his face. The hood of the windbreaker also covered the upper half of his face, leaving only a pair of eyes exposed. It was scary.

When the child ran back home, before the adults could react, Xie Qin walked straight into the nearest suite with the door open.

The house was filled with smoke. Three men were playing Landlord in the living room. Two women were knitting on the sofa. Two children who had run in were already hiding behind the sofa. Two elderly people were making breakfast in the kitchen.

The three men playing Landlord were three of the eight properties. Xie Qin raised his knife and knocked on the wall of the entrance porch. The sound attracted everyone's attention, and the three men stood up first. They looked at Xie Qin and were stunned for a moment.

"Who are you? What's the matter?" asked the tallest man.

"Residents, I want to ask you something. Where is the man who came to rob yesterday?"

"You, what are you talking about? We don't know. We can't do anything if an outsider robs us. You should go back quickly, close the door and hide."

"Oh? Really? The smell of spinach coming from your kitchen does sound like that of Dr. Lan's." Xie Qin smiled and said lazily.

"If you are the one who is telling the truth, get out of here right away. If you keep talking nonsense, don't go back."

The thinner property manager standing on the left spoke in an aggressive tone. After seeing that Xie Qin had spoken the truth, he stopped pretending and pointed at Xie Qin and started threatening him.

Xie Qin was extremely fast and reached the thin man in just two seconds. Although the sound of the knife cutting the flesh was not loud, several people nearby heard it.

Then, a whole palm fell to the ground. Before the man could scream, Xie Qin kicked him against the wall of the living room and he fainted. The tall man reacted the fastest and flipped over the table to cover Xie Qin. There was another sound of a knife, and the wooden table was split in half. The knife was directly against the tall man's neck.

The woman on the sofa screamed in fear, and the child huddled behind the sofa, also terrified.

"Shh." Xie Qin held the knife against the man's neck with one hand and used his other hand to make a silencing gesture towards the women.

But these people couldn't control themselves at all. Xie Qin looked up at another property manager who was almost scared to death.

"It's so noisy, go and tell them to shut up."

The man felt as if he had been granted amnesty. He was afraid that Xie Qin would kill him if he moved, but now that he had heard the words, he rolled and crawled to the sofa and covered the woman's mouth.

"You...what do you want to do? Killing people is against the law." Two old men appeared at the kitchen door and said tremblingly.

"Don't make a sudden noise. I'm a coward. I like to kill people when I'm scared."

Then the knife that was against the tall property manager's neck seeped a little deeper, and blood flowed down the blade. The people around were shocked again. The two old men didn't dare to speak for a moment, for fear that if Xie Qin's knife went in an inch further, the person would die.

"53-2," said the tall man whose neck was cut, enduring the pain.

"What's the meaning."

"Those people live at 53-2."

"Go, call all the people here, no one of the eighteen can be missing. If one is missing, I will take the people from the first floor to fight them one by one." Xie Qin took back the knife, took out a key and threw it to the man, then pulled out the chair next to him and sat down. The knife in his hand fell straight down and stabbed into the ground steadily.

The two men stumbled out of the door. The one who fainted by the wall was breathing evenly, but blood was oozing out of his broken palm, which made an old man at the kitchen door cry.

The old man knelt on the ground with a thud, begging Xie Qin to let him bandage his son. Xie Qin said nothing, but just leaned against the back of the chair, fiddling with a piece of Ice Sun Green Pixiu in his hand that he had taken out of Treasure House No. 1.

Seeing Xie Qin didn't say anything, the old man tried to move towards his son a minute later. Xie Qin didn't move, so the old man quickly dragged his son to the sofa. He pushed the frightened woman, and the woman hurriedly found the medicine box to bandage the man's palm.

The two of them were gone for an hour, and Xie Qin was getting a little impatient. Just as he was about to get up, he heard a sound in the corridor. There were dense footsteps, and Xie Qin closed his eyes and listened, then smiled. There were more than eighteen people.