Reborn as the Doomsday Tycoon: My Zombie Apocalypse Harem

Frost patterns crawled across the boarded windows of Seaview Restaurant's second-floor lounge. Lu You tightened the threadbare mattress pad around her shoulders, watching her breath crystallize in the -25°C air. The teenage waitress beside her - barely older than her own daughter - shivered violently beneath their shared quilt.

"Manager Lu..." The girl's chapped lips barely moved. "Do you think...?"

"Conserve warmth." Lu You cut her off, eyes fixed on the reinforced steel door. Her chef's knife lay within arm's reach, blade dulled from portioning their last frozen dumplings three days prior.

Her memory replayed that cursed night with cinematic clarity: The abrupt migraine at midnight. The metallic taste preceding temperature plummet. Her fatal mercy letting those five drunken wolves take shelter. Now their bestial grunts echoed through floorboards as they smashed another liquor cabinet below.

"Should've let them freeze," she muttered, massaging frost-numbed fingers. The girl flinched at sudden crashes from downstairs - furniture being demolished for kindling they'd never light.

When the power died yesterday, so did civilization's last pretense. Lu You's inventory check haunted her - nine private dining rooms stripped cleaner than bones, save the final chamber's untouched Peking duck banquet. That miraculous feast had sustained them six days. Six days of listening to meat locker thuds from below as the men dismembered frozen... things.

A new sound sliced through her flashbacks - steel grinding against doorjamb. The girl whimpered as crowbar tips breached their sanctuary.

"Get behind me." Lu You's command carried thirty years of kitchen authority. She palmed the knife while kicking aside empty baijiu bottles - their pathetic armory against what came next.

The door exploded inward in an arctic whirlwind. Five silhouettes backlit by emergency exit signs swayed like hungered bears. Their leader's vodka-slurred voice dripped mockery: "Chef-bitch finally ready... to serve... hot meal?"

Lu You's knuckles whitened around the knife handle. "I'll carve your livers like foie gras."

Laughter erupted. The smallest thug staggered forward, frostbitten nose weeping yellow. "Still spicy! I'll take first-"

Her blade flashed. A crimson mouth opened across his forearm. The waitress screamed as blood steamed on frozen concrete.

"Next course?" Lu You bared teeth, shifting into the defensive stance she'd perfected against drunk customers. The men exchanged glances, momentarily sobered by this middle-aged woman's ferocity.

Their hesitation lasted precisely 3.7 seconds.

As they swarmed, Lu You's world narrowed to survival calculus: Broken bottle to carotid. Knee to groin. Teeth to ear. When hands pinned her wrists, she headbutted nasal cartilage with a wet crunch.

"Bitch!" The leader backhanded her across frozen cheekbones. "Hold her legs! I'll-"

Two thunderous horn blasts shook the building. Everyone froze mid-struggle.

Through broken windows came engine growls no civilian vehicle could produce. Lu You's bloodied lips stretched into a death's-head grin. "Your reservation," she spat through broken teeth, "just got canceled."