Chapter 43: Put Down My Stuff
Natural Disasters and the End of the World
She stared at him blankly for a while, then suddenly grinned wide:
“Hehehe! Hey, handsome! Hello, handsome!”
...
Bai Wenbin was exasperated, black lines practically appearing on his forehead.
“Yinger, snap out of it! Annan’s already gone!”
“Annan?” Qian Yinger mumbled, repeating the name: “Annan... Annan...”
As she muttered, her expression suddenly hardened. “That bitch Annan!”
Thinking she’d finally come to her senses, Bai Wenbin hurriedly grabbed her hand. “Yinger, are you awake now?”
But Qian Yinger just turned to look at him, drooling again. “Hehehe, handsome!”
Bai Wenbin let go in defeat, sighing helplessly.
He helped Qian Yinger onto the sofa to sit, thought for a moment, then decided to leave her be for now and went to fix the security door that Annan had broken.
At times like these, a broken lock was dangerous—someone could steal all the food he’d worked so hard to collect.
He’d gone through so much trouble, trading with a bunch of women just to get that food. Even his cousin Qian Yinger had cost him dearly.
Those men were no gentlemen.
They were all hardened types who’d risked their lives for food, living on the edge.
With the disaster looming, survival was tough, and the psychological pressure made people even more volatile.
So, in some ways, these men were extremely rough, venting their frustrations however they could.
He’d racked his brains to find girls willing to stick with him, and even his own cousin had suffered a lot...
Thinking of all that hard-won food, he instinctively glanced toward the kitchen.
That one look nearly stopped his heart.
“My food?!”
He dashed over like a madman, only to find that the twenty or so loaves of bread on the counter were all gone.
He opened the cupboards—empty!
The five bags of instant noodles, ten sausages, three bottles of mineral water—all gone.
These were the treasures he’d counted over and over again!
Staggering out of the kitchen, he rushed to the bathroom.
With trembling hands, he lifted the toilet tank lid...
“My compressed biscuits?!”
Seeing that even the two packs of compressed biscuits he’d sealed and hidden were gone, Bai Wenbin was on the verge of collapse.
He’d hidden those as a backup in case of a break-in, sealing his most important food in the toilet tank.
He’d thought, even if the house got robbed, at least he wouldn’t starve—he’d have a few days’ buffer.
But now...
He cursed inwardly: That Annan, she’s ruthless!
It wasn’t enough for her to break in and beat up him and his sister—she’d taken all their food too.
He and his sister had been rationing that food, one meal a day—it was enough for half a month!
And Annan, who had so many supplies she didn’t even need to go outside, still took their meager rations?!
His anger made his liver ache as he shuffled out of the bathroom.
Still reeling from the loss, his gaze fell on the TV cabinet in the living room—and he was shocked to find it was gone too!
His precious stash of candles and lighters had been in there!
He looked around in a daze.
Shoe cabinet—gone!
Wardrobe—gone!
All his tools and weapons—hammers, wrenches—gone!
Even the inflatable kayak—the one Qian Yinger had worked three nights to trade for—gone!
All his food, clothes, and essentials—gone!
Annan had swept through like a plague of locusts, leaving nothing behind. In the blink of an eye, his once well-stocked home was an empty shell.
She’d left the TV, computer, cell phone, game console, and so on.
But with no electricity, what good were those? He couldn’t even trade them for a sausage!
He slumped to the floor in despair.
The only thing left in the living room was the sofa, which at least he could still rest on.
But even the bed in the bedroom was gone. He strongly suspected the sofa wasn’t left for him, but for Annan to sit and rest after all her hauling.
He was so angry he couldn’t speak.
But no matter how mad he was, there was nothing he could do about her.
He couldn’t stand her! He couldn’t beat her! The anger was stuck in his chest, neither rising nor falling!
It was unbearable—truly unbearable.
He bitterly regretted provoking that woman today. Greed had gotten the better of him, and now he’d lost everything.
Regret—he could die of regret!
Counting his losses, Bai Wenbin couldn’t help but marvel—how was this woman so formidable? She’d moved all that stuff to her place.
But then he thought, wait, his place was on the eighth floor, hers on the fourteenth. How did she haul all those big, useless cabinets up and down six flights?
A sudden thought struck him. He jumped up and ran to the window, peering outside.
Sure enough, the shimmering water below was littered with all sorts of floating junk.
She’d thrown everything out the window!
A lot had already sunk, but the lighter things were still floating.
His eyes lit up—he could go out and fish them back!
But just then, the old lady who always rummaged through the neighborhood trash came paddling over in a big red plastic basin, eyes gleaming.
She picked up Bai Wenbin’s kayak, plopped herself in, and quickly started loading the other things into it.
Seeing this, Bai Wenbin shouted furiously, “Put that down! That’s my stuff!”
The old lady looked up at him, didn’t reply, and just sped up her movements.
“You old hag! I said put it down!”
He stormed downstairs, running to the seventh-floor landing window, but had no idea how to get across.
Whether it was Annan’s strength or the current, everything was floating far away, out near the building across from his.
He had no kayak, couldn’t swim, and could only stand there raging helplessly:
“Are you deaf, old woman? Touch my stuff again and I’ll kill you!”
The old lady shot him a look, then fished a few more clothes out of the water.
She didn’t even spare his boxers and thermal socks.
Bai Wenbin was both humiliated and furious, shouting himself hoarse, but it did nothing to stop her.
All he could do was watch as the old lady paddled away with his things.
Before leaving, she even grinned up at him, her mouth a mess of missing teeth.
“Bye, you chubby brat who doesn’t respect his elders!”
Bai Wenbin was about to explode with rage.
Chubby brat? He’d worked out for years, and had been starving lately—how was he fat?
After a while, he suddenly realized—Annan must have swollen his face with her beating.
In his anger, he’d almost forgotten he was covered in injuries.
Now that he noticed, his face was burning, and his whole body ached. The knife wounds on his arm and shoulder were still bleeding.
Clutching his wounds, he trudged home, dejected.
What now? The house was empty, not even any medicine left..."