Chapter 389: Chapter 389

At midnight, just as the clock on the wall reached the top, the familiar sound of a car horn came from outside the villa gate.

It was undoubtedly the hurried arrival of Shen family’s elderly couple. They had firmly refused their son-in-law’s insistence on running back and forth and had asked their driver to bring them over themselves.

Although over sixty, Grandfather Shen had kept himself well, had retired early, and practiced a round of Tai Chi every day. He still looked energetic now.

Grandmother Shen was the same. Like their daughter, she’d been born into comfort and had never known hardship. Dressed in a plain, traditional silk dress, she looked particularly elegant and poised the moment she stepped in.

Hearing the seriousness in their daughter’s voice, the elderly couple didn’t pry further. After a hurried phone call to their son with a few instructions, they urged the driver to hurry over.

Clearly, compared to their son, they trusted their son-in-law’s connections and abilities more.

As soon as they entered, Grandmother Shen’s gaze instinctively began searching for her granddaughter, and when she couldn’t find her anywhere, she turned to her daughter with a worried expression and asked,

“Is Ning Ning still asleep?”

“Don’t worry, Ning Ning is still in her room right now!”

“Ting-ge told Ning Ning to stay in her room these days, she should not come out for now!”

Is it really that serious?

The elderly couple exchanged a glance, thinking of their son-in-law lingering at the gate and looking busy; their faces darkened with concern.

Even so, the Shen elders tacitly didn’t ask many questions. Seeing the villa empty, without even a cleaning maid in sight, they only asked a few caring questions, confirmed that An Ning’s room had enough food and drink, gave detailed instructions to their son over the phone, and then went with their daughter to the newly prepared rooms.

For safety, everyone except An Ning, who slept on the second floor, would temporarily stay on the first floor: the couple and the Shen elders slept separately on the ground floor.

Even the only staircase leading upstairs had been half-blocked with heavy objects.

Fortunately, the villa still had spare rooms.

Looking at the neatly prepared bottled water, various convenience foods, medicines, solar panels, and so on in the room — supplies modest but enough to last a month — the Shen elders lay in bed with worry flickering again across their faces.

At the same time, once they were settled, An Ning, who had just finished meditating in her room, finally exhaled slightly.

What had happened to the original girl’s maternal grandparents in her previous life was already unknown. In any case, when the apocalypse began and the original parents tried to contact the house, the villa’s phone had long been unanswered.

When they returned later, besides a few wandering zombies, the villa was empty.

But that wasn’t entirely surprising. Setting aside the possibility of infected zombies inside, how could two elderly people escape such danger so easily?

According to the original girl’s memories, when the apocalypse first broke out, the streets already had very few elderly wandering about. Even in the bases, the elderly were rare.

Older awakeners of supernatural abilities were almost nonexistent; most were the physically stronger young.

So An Ning guessed that besides the elderly being harder to survive and more likely to be abandoned, the awakening of abilities and bodily mutations likely had a lot to do with one’s physical constitution.

This was one reason she had earlier urged Shen Qing and the scumbag dad to exercise more.

She had even dripped a few drops of spirit spring into the front-facing barrels of bottled water — not much, only a few drops per barrel.

To prevent accidents, An Ning had also hidden two high-grade spirit stones engraved with nurturing array patterns in the rooms of the two elders.

She didn’t know exactly how effective they would be, but if they could survive the apocalypse’s most intense day, things would likely become easier afterward.

After all, it was one of the few wishes the original girl had had, and if possible, An Ning wanted to try her best…

Seeing the two elders asleep, lying in her own big bed, An Ning couldn’t help but relax.

All that remained now was waiting.

Night passed quickly, and a new day arrived soon.

The next morning, through Dad Lu’s efforts, the villa’s defensive measures were fully activated.

But until evening, the Lu family villa remained quiet. The five family members stayed in their respective rooms, occasionally video-calling or playing games to pass the time. The news still reported nothing strange.

They all quietly munched on convenience food; even the usually lively Shen Qing had no intention of coming out.

The second day was the same.

The third day, likewise, no movement...

Just when everyone except An Ning — including Lu Ting — finally relaxed, the television reported a massive meteorite about to strike, and shortly after, messages about abnormal weather across regions flooded the internet.

Shen Qing, who had just relaxed: “!!!”

No, this is for real!

But the terror didn’t stop there. As if someone had hit the accelerator, intense heat arrived suddenly, electrical circuits started catching fire all over, and by evening the constant cries of cats and dogs sent chills through people’s bones.

Online, all kinds of apocalypse posts surged again.

Under the extreme heat, many schools and factories suspended operations. Idle netizens turned into seers and analysts, and there were even self-proclaimed “reincarnators” pontificating, but most of it ended up as jokes and “hahaha.”

Some alarmist posts nearly got their authors in trouble with the local cyber police.

From An Ning’s viewpoint, only a few people were truly worried.

Many lazy homebodies, seeing how bad the weather was outside, quietly stocked up on ice cream and snacks on their way home, planning to hole up and feast at home if things stayed bad for the next couple of weeks.

After scrolling through a few plausible survival guides, An Ning decisively closed her laptop and resumed meditating.

This spectacle continued until the next day, when the meteorites finally fell and the indoor and outdoor heat only intensified...

Under the massive energy radiation, even An Ning felt inexplicable irritability and heart palpitations while meditating.

“Ning Ning, Ning Ning…”

On the other end of the video call, Shen Qing seemed to be urgently saying something, but An Ning no longer had the strength to answer...

Accompanied by the crackling of the video feed, the image in the frame vanished again.