She wore a warm beige cardigan draped loosely over her shoulders. The fabric had a subtle vertical texture that caught the light softly. One side slipped just slightly off her shoulder, not in a careless way, but in a natural, elegant way, like she didn’t need to try to look good. Underneath, a cream colored long sleeve top with faint stripes peeked through, adding layers to her look without making it feel heavy.

Her jeans were a soft steel blue, fitted just right, clean and simple. Around her waist was a gold accented belt that added a quiet shine, pulling the whole outfit together. It wasn’t flashy, but it stood out in a refined way.

The overall look felt smart but relaxed. Like someone who was used to working in a professional environment but valued comfort just as much.

Round framed glasses rested on her nose, making her look even more gentle and intelligent. Her hair fell naturally around her face, neat but not stiff. Everything about her felt warm and approachable.

Bai Li realized she was staring.

She forced herself to breathe and straighten her posture. Inside, her thoughts were a mess. She had seen many people in her life, soldiers, officials, powerful figures. But this was different. This woman’s beauty didn’t come from sharpness or authority. It came from softness.

The woman blinked slightly when she noticed Bai Li standing there. For a moment, surprise flashed across her face too, then quickly faded into polite calm. She walked closer to Bai Li.

"Oh," she said softly. Her voice matched her appearance. Gentle and clear. "Hello."

Bai Li snapped out of her daze. "Hello," she replied, her tone steady even if her heart wasn’t.

The woman adjusted her grip on her bag, glancing briefly at Bai Li before offering a small smile. It wasn’t forced. Just natural.

"I think we met yesterday," she said after a second. "In the elevator."

Bai Li nodded. "Yes. I just moved in."

She seemed genuinely surprised to see someone standing there, but she recovered fast. Her expression stayed calm, her voice just as steady as before when she said, "You are my new neighbour then. Nice to meet you."

The tone was polite, distant, and unbelievably pleasant to hear.

Bai Li, still feeling a little muddle headed from the shock of seeing a face like that up close, answered almost without thinking,

"Ahh... yes. It’s a pleasure to meet you too."

Her voice sounded calm, but inside she was still struggling to process what had just happened. She wasn’t the type to get stunned by appearances, but that woman... her presence alone was enough to shake anyone.

The woman looked as if she was about to continue the conversation, her lips parting slightly, but at that exact moment a ringtone suddenly echoed softly through the hallway. She glanced down at her phone, her eyes shifting into something sharper and more focused.

She lifted it to her ear and said to Bai Li quickly, "I’m sorry, I’m in a bit of a hurry. It was nice meeting you, neighbour. We can get together for a meal sometimes later."

The words were polite, said with that same calm tone, but she moved with clear urgency. She gave Bai Li a quick nod, almost a tiny bow of courtesy, then stepped past her with light, quick steps.

As she walked by, Bai Li caught the faint scent that drifted from her. Something clean, soft, almost floral but not too sweet. It brushed across Bai Li’s senses for barely a second but left her feeling like she had been hit with a wave of something warm and pleasant. It was the kind of smell that lingered in the air even after the person had already passed.

While walking, the woman answered her call, her voice professional and slightly rushed.

"...Yes. Keep the patient ready. I will be there in a bit."

Patient.

So she was a doctor?

Bai Li only heard that much before the woman stepped into the elevator. Bai Li snapped out of her daze and turned around just in time to see a small gap between the closing doors. A tiny sliver of the woman’s silhouette. Then the doors slid shut completely, leaving the hallway silent again.

The faint scent still hung in the air, like a soft reminder that she really had been there.

It took Bai Li a whole few seconds to fully come back to herself. She blinked slowly and exhaled. She was not someone who got shaken easily, but that woman... she had a presence that made people forget how to think for a moment.

Still feeling strangely lightheaded, Bai Li turned back around and walked toward her own apartment door. She unlocked it, pushed it open, and stepped inside.

She closed the door gently behind her.

Only then did she let out a long, deep breath she didn’t know she had been holding.

What a morning.

..

..

[Back in her apartment]

She sat down on the sofa couch in the living room and took out her phone a little absent mindedly and just then, a call came from an unknown number.

Bai Li suddenly broke out of her thought and answered the phone but in the back of her mind, she was still thinking of that woman, a strange curiosity about her seemed to arouse within her and it was only when the voice on the other end of the phone called her name the third time that she truly came to her senses and answered,

"Ahh... Yes... Who is it?"

There was a few seconds of silence on the other end of the line before the familiar voice of miss Shiao Kyan could be heard,

"It’s me, Miss Bai, Shiao Kyan. I kept calling your name and you didn’t respond. Is there something wrong?"

Bai Li quickly realised who she was and immediately put all her thoughts to the back of her head and said politely,

"Ahh.. yes, Sister Shiao. Sorry, I was spacing out a bit. What’s the matter?"

Shiao Kyan on the other end of the phone hummed slightly before saying,

"Well, Miss Bai, We are currently on our way to your apartment and we will reach there in about 30 to 40 minutes. Everything has been prepared on our end and we can immediately begin construction the moment we get there."

Bai Li again looked at the time and right now, it was about 11:45 am.

She quickly said,

"Okay then. I will be waiting for you guys."

Shiao Kyan said a few more words then hung up.

Bai Li stared at the phone screen for a moment before opening her bank account. She still had about a little over 5 million yuan left from the original 28 million yuan from yesterday. Even though she felt a bit pained just thinking about all that money that was spent in just 24 hours but thinking of the end result, she felt all that was worth it.

Right now, she still had 40 minutes Shiao Kyan came with the workers. Thinking of what to do, she first decided to take a good shower. Since she went out quite early in the morning today, she hadn’t had time to properly take a bath. She might as well do that.

She should also order her breakfast. She could feel her stomach growling from hunger.

Thinking of this, she placed an order for breakfast on her phone and went to take a bath in the meantime since the food would take 20 minutes to arrive.

..

..

On the other hand,

Yan Cijin stepped into the elevator, her phone still pressed to her ear.

"I will be there in half an hour," she said calmly. "Do not panic. If the situation gets out of control, call for a senior doctor immediately."

Her tone was steady, not rushed, not flustered. The kind of voice that made people listen. After finishing her sentence, she ended the call without waiting for a reply and pressed the button for the ground floor.

The elevator doors slid shut, and the small space became quiet.

As the elevator slowly descended, Yan Cijin leaned lightly against the wall. Her face remained calm, almost indifferent, but inside her mind, thoughts were moving fast.

It felt familiar.

’It’s just like that day before the apocalypse,’ she thought.

The air, the routine, the sense of something heavy approaching but not yet visible. She had experienced it before. Many times. Even though almost 24 hours have passed but she still feels a bit unreal at the thought of coming back alive again.

In those past timelines, this day had passed quietly. No signs. No warnings. Just another normal morning before the world cracked open.

But something was different now.

Her thoughts drifted to the girl she had just met in the hallway.

Bai Li.

In the past timelines, that name barely registered in her memory. A minor existence. A neighbor somewhere between the tenth and fifteenth floor. A software engineer, if she remembered correctly. Quiet. Unremarkable. Someone who likely died in the early stages of the outbreak when the riverside apartments fell.

She had never interacted with her before.

Not once.

But this time... things had changed.

Bai Li had not only moved floors, she had bought the duplex on the twentieth floor. The most expensive unit in the entire building.

Yan Cijin frowned slightly.

Even if Bai Li was earning well as a software engineer, buying that apartment outright would require years of savings. And from her appearance, she looked no older than twenty one or twenty two. Even if she took out a massive loan, the monthly payments would be crushing.

But Bai Li did not look like someone drowning in debt.

She did not look reckless either.

Her eyes were too steady. Her posture too controlled.

It did not match.

Yan Cijin quietly reviewed the possibilities in her mind. Was it inheritance? Family wealth? Lottery? Hidden background?

Or...

Was it something else?

Her expression turned thoughtful.

This timeline had already shown small differences. Subtle shifts that most people would not notice. But she noticed.

She always noticed.

This was her final timeline. The last chance she had.

In every previous life, she had struggled, escaped, suffered, lost, and finally awakened too late. She had burned the world down in rage more than once.

But not this time.

This time she remembered everything from the start.

Every betrayal. Every trap. Every face of those bastards who had hunted her like prey.

She remembered the day her niece died.

The pain.

The helplessness.

The scream that tore her apart from the inside.

Her hand curled slightly at her side.

Maybe fate was playing another trick on her.

Or maybe fate was giving her a new piece on the board.

Either way, she would not be a puppet anymore.

"This time," she murmured under her breath, her voice almost inaudible, "I will decide my own ending."

The elevator dinged softly as it reached the ground floor.

The doors opened.

Yan Cijin stepped out, her heels clicking lightly against the polished tiles. Her face was calm again, unreadable. Anyone who looked at her would only see a composed doctor on her way to work.

No one would see the storm hidden inside.

As she walked through the lobby, thoughts of the coming apocalypse mixed with another thought.

Revenge.

A slow, precise, carefully planned revenge.

The bastards who had cornered her in every timeline.

The ones who thought obsession was love.

The ones who destroyed everything she cared about.

A faint chill passed through the air around her.

For just a second, if someone had been staring carefully at her fingers, they would have seen it.

A flicker.

Blue and black light dancing faintly at her fingertips, like smoke made of electricity.

It appeared and vanished in the blink of an eye as she flexed her fingers slightly.

No one noticed.

Yan Cijin walked out of the building, the sunlight falling over her calm face.

This time would be different.

She would make sure of it.

...

...

On the other side of the building, Bai Li stepped out of the bathroom, her hair slightly damp from a refreshing shower.

Warm water had washed away the morning’s tension. She felt lighter, cleaner, more grounded.

She wrapped a towel loosely around her shoulders and walked into the living room. The faint scent of shampoo lingered around her.

At the same time, her phone buzzed.

The food had arrived.

She quickly authorized entry for the delivery woman through the building system and sat down on the couch, stretching her legs out comfortably.

There was a faint smile on her face.

She had no idea that the woman she had just met was the female protagonist of this world.

In fact, she did not even know what Yan Cijin looked like.

The god and the system had only given her a rough outline of the plot. Names. Key events. General personalities. They never showed her pictures.

They never told her exact addresses.

So even if fate pushed them face to face, she had no reason to connect the dots.

A few minutes later, the doorbell rang.

Bai Li stood up, walked to the door, and collected the neatly packed breakfast.

Today’s meal was simple but filling. A warm box of stir fried noodles with vegetables and sliced beef, a boiled egg, and a cup of fresh soy milk.

She carried everything back to the couch and opened the containers.

Steam rose gently from the noodles.

She picked up her chopsticks and started eating without hurry.

The noodles were savory and slightly oily, the beef tender enough. The soy milk balanced the flavor nicely. It was nothing special, but it filled her stomach.

While eating, she opened her phone again and checked her bank account one more time.

Five million and a bit more left.

From twenty eight million yesterday to this in barely twenty four hours.

She let out a quiet breath.

It did hurt a little.

Money was hard earned in any world.

But she quickly adjusted her mindset.

Once the apocalypse started, money would become paper.

Food, water, weapons, shelter.

Those would be the real currency.

And she had already secured the most important parts.

Her apartment was turning into a fortress.

Her caravan was turning into a mobile bunker.

All of it was an investment into survival.

After finishing her meal, she cleaned up quickly and washed her hands.

She glanced at the time.

11:58 AM.

It’s almost noon.

Right on schedule.

As if responding to her thoughts, her phone buzzed with a message from Shiao Kyan.

"We have arrived downstairs."

Bai Li walked to the balcony and looked down.

Several vans were parked near the entrance of the building. Workers in uniforms were unloading equipment.

She felt a small sense of satisfaction.

Everything was moving exactly as planned.

She headed toward the door, and also granted them permission for entry.

To be continued.