At the sight of his strange condition, Fu Qingdai paled and immediately cried out.
"Cou-ugh, urk!"
Before she could call out, Su Jin shakily reached out to cover her mouth.
But he was in terrible shape and couldn't control his hand. One finger jabbed straight into the back of her throat.
Fu Qingdai immediately pushed him away, bent over, and began dry-heaving.
When she raised her head and saw Su Jin waving his hand, she understood at once. She clamped her mouth shut and pulled him toward the bed.
Su Jin stumbled and fell onto her fragrant bed.
His expression was terrifyingly contorted, his eyes wide and the veins on his forehead bulging.
His entire body writhed and convulsed on the bed like a maggot sprinkled with salt.
Poison! It's poisonous! The chocolate is deadly poison!
"Urgh... blegh." Panicking, Su Jin frantically shoved his fingers down his throat.
Fu Qingdai hurriedly picked up the trash can from the floor, ready for whatever came next.
After more than ten minutes of struggling, Su Jin lay flat on the bed, gasping for breath as his symptoms receded like the tide.
"Cousin... are you okay? What happened?" Fu Qingdai was beside herself with worry.
"I'm... haha... I nearly died." Su Jin waved weakly as his heart finally stopped racing.
Ever since crossing into this world, he had taken every precaution against food poisoning.
Yet he had still fallen into the trap.
Fortunately, the local chocolate's toxicity subsided as quickly as it struck.
After resting for another few minutes, Su Jin felt that his body was functioning normally and he could move again. He pushed himself up.
Fu Qingdai quickly asked, "Cousin, can't you eat chocolate? Have you ever had it before?"
"Yeah... I have, but I've never eaten the chocolate from your world." His voice somewhat hoarse, Su Jin got up, walked over to the table, and picked up his briefcase.
He took out a bar of chocolate he had bought at a supermarket back home.
After scraping off a little powder, he looked at Fu Qingdai and said, "Give me your hand."
Fu Qingdai held out her fair, delicate hand without hesitation, letting him smear the chocolate powder on its back.
"Ow!" A burning sensation spread across the back of her hand, and her skin began to redden. Fu Qingdai instantly pulled away and cradled her hand, asking fearfully, "Cousin, what are you doing? What is this?"
"Just a simple experiment... wipe it off." Su Jin took out a packet of wet wipes and tossed it to her.
It seemed that each world's chocolate was highly poisonous to people from the other.
Even mere skin contact produced a rapid reaction.
A severe allergic reaction, swollen airways, a burning sensation in the digestive tract-eating more than one piece could probably kill someone.
After tidying up a little, Su Jin headed for the door, saying as he walked, "I'm leaving. Get some rest, and remember to come out the night after tomorrow."
"I will!" Fu Qingdai nodded emphatically.
After exchanging a few pleasantries and instructions with Fu Hu and his wife outside, Su Jin hurried home.
The moment he got home, he mixed two glasses of salt water and gulped them down.
Then he kept making himself vomit, only stopping after throwing up until his head spun.
Leaning against the doorway of the bathroom, he tried to stand, but his foot slipped and he fell back onto the floor in a miserable heap.
Wiping away the tears squeezed out by the vomiting, Su Jin felt a surge of misery.
Even eating chocolate nearly got me killed. How the hell did I end up like this?!
Fuck, this was no way for a human being to live.
Every day felt as though someone held a knife to his throat.
But there wasn't much time left. He couldn't rest yet...
After monitoring his condition for an hour, Su Jin went downstairs, exhausted in body and mind.
The time he had arranged with the grain shop was approaching. A truckload of grain and cooking oil would arrive soon.
After he waited at the entrance to the residential complex for a little over ten minutes, a box truck slowly drove up.
Su Jin waved both hands, guiding the vehicle to the entrance of his building.
The truck stopped, and two men jumped out and began unloading.
The rice, flour, and cooking oil had all been packed into cardboard boxes, concealing their contents.
As he carried the boxes, one of the grain shop workers said, "Boss, I've never seen anyone buy grain like this before. Everything packed up tight, with delivery in the middle of the night, too. Is there some reason for it?"
Su Jin forced a faint smile and made up an explanation. "No special reason. Our organization does charity work, and our warehouse flooded recently. This grain is for children in poverty. The packaging makes it easier to put our logo on it, too. I work during the day, so I only have time to handle this at night."
"All right! You've got it tough, too. We'll waive the delivery fee this time. Consider it a small donation from the two of us."
The two grain shop workers grew respectful and picked up the pace, finishing a little over ten minutes later.
"Boss, everything's unloaded. We'll be off!"
"Wait!"
"What is it, boss?" The worker stopped.
After hesitating for a moment, Su Jin said, "It's... nothing major. I heard there was a pollution leak at a chemical plant in our city. The pollutants are floating pretty high up. Normally they won't affect you, but if it rains, don't touch the rainwater. Don't touch tap water, either. It can cause cancer!"
"Oh... really? It wasn't on the news. This is the first I've heard of it... thanks, boss!"
Only two days remained until the apocalypse!
After a night spent drifting between sleep and wakefulness, he got up with bloodshot eyes again.
The exhaustion on Su Jin's face had become impossible to hide.
He grabbed the notebook beside his bed, got up, and made a few quick preparations before heading straight out to buy supplies, without washing his face or brushing his teeth.
Even when he returned home near nightfall, he didn't stop working.
He completely sealed the gaps around the fourth-floor windows with tape and drew the curtains.
He built temporary little rain awnings over the fifth-floor windows, doing everything he could to keep the rain away.
He lined the edges of the windowsills with thin sheet metal and coated it with a thick layer of lubricating oil.
The first and second floors had security bars over the windows, and the zombies might be able to climb the walls.
But even if they could, it wouldn't help. Claws or not, they would slip right off when they reached this point.
Once everything was done, Su Jin knocked on the Fu Family's door.
Fu Hu answered again, wearing the same warm smile as always.
"Director Li..."
"Is everything ready?" Su Jin's voice was low and heavy with exhaustion.
He tried to force a smile, but his face was so stiff that he couldn't manage one at all.
Sensing that something was wrong, Fu Hu licked his lips. "Y-yes, it's ready. Please come in and take a look, Director."
Inside, three compound bows, over a hundred arrows, and numerous accessories were laid out on the floor in an array of colors.
The solar panels, batteries, inverters, and everything else were there as well.
The sight eased Su Jin's anxiety a little. He nodded and said, "Very good. Keep these things here. I'll head out the day after tomorrow and get our matter settled."
"Director... nothing's gone wrong, has it?" Seeing that he seemed off, Fu Hu asked cautiously.
Su Jin shook his head. "No. I just received word that one of my comrades died on a mission... forgive me, but I won't be able to treat Qing Dai for these two days. I'll come again the day after tomorrow."
The following night.
All the supplies had been inventoried and neatly arranged, and every bucket had been filled with water.
Su Jin sat beside the dining table, large patches of his skin stinging from how hard he had scrubbed himself in the shower.
But at that moment, he simply stared blankly at the cage on the table.
The exhaustion, worry, and fear in his eyes were impossible to hide. Although the weather was hot, his hands and feet were cold and trembling uncontrollably.
Inside the cage, more than twenty mice kept trying to squeeze their way out. Like those mice, he was trapped in this world, struggling to survive.
Have I prepared enough? Can I make it through this?
Su Jin slowly turned his gaze toward the clock on the wall. Its hands had just reached eleven.
After tonight, the apocalypse would begin...
Before you continue