Some classmates still wanted Zhang Lingling to refund their virtual coins, posting angry demands, but others, seeing the futility, gave up after a few curses and fell silent, the chat growing still. She finally exhaled, her shoulders slumping. This matter was over at last, the storm passed.
Jing Shu was stunned for a long time, staring at the screen, then could only give a mental thumbs up. That oath was spot on, eerily prophetic. When the time came next year, would Zhang Lingling's house really be flooded, would an earthquake really bring it down? They would wait and see. The irony was almost too perfect.
When that day came, how would she explain it to her furious classmates? "Look, the curse you swore years ago came true. What else do you have to say?" The thought was darkly amusing.
To be fair, Zhang Lingling the class monitor was good at changing the subject, diverting attention. "Classmates, I have sad news. Of the 59 students in our class, only 32 remain. I have changed the handles of the ones who left to 'deceased'. If you still have something to say to them, send it now. They will never see it." The message was somber, a masterful pivot to shared grief.
[Xie Zihao]:"Those who called me ugly back then are dead, yet I am still alive. I should thank the heavens for sparing me."
…
The water shortage that plagued everyone for half a year was temporarily resolved, a basic need met, but the authorities didn't relax, knowing stability was fragile.
They began enforcing new rules more thoroughly, with visible patrols and strict checks. As the saying goes, without rules, nothing can be set square. Order was the new priority.
Runaway inflation and grain shortages had wrecked traditional currencies around the globe, reducing paper to worthless slips. Other countries were a mess of barter and violence. We didn't need to worry about that here, because the system had switched decisively to virtual coins, controlled and allocated. It worked the same basic way as pocket money in WeChat, a familiar digital framework.
There wasn't even much research needed for the public to adapt. They simply changed the label from "pocket money" to "virtual coin" in the interface. Outstanding issues about converting old pocket money balances into the new virtual coins were all resolved by government flat, a reset.
On October 20, the authorities ushered in mandatory face-recognition payments for all ration distributions and official purchases, tightly linked to the big data identity system. Your face was your wallet, and every transaction was logged.
Even more shocking to the outside world was the earlier, decisive decision to recall all steel items and household cutting tools, knives, scissors, tools. From June until now, the rate of violent violations, of stabbings and armed robberies, plummeted to 0.1 percent, a statistic broadcast proudly. The reclaimed metal was smelted down in foundries and used to build parts for the artificial sun's infrastructure, a pragmatic recycling.
When news and images spread abroad via sporadic satellite feeds that regions here were distributing clean water purified by the artificial sun, and that people were lining up orderly, paying by facial recognition for meals and even ice pops, the whole world watching was stunned, the contrast brutal.
"Why do those people still have water to drink?" The question was one of sheer disbelief.
"Why do those people still keep order and queue for food?" The observation noted the absence of riots.
"My god, those people are blessed. They even have ice pops." The detail was a symbol of surreal normalcy.
"I can't take it. We have plenty of food here, but I still want to go there. It's so safe. No dangerous weapons in everyone's hands, no one getting clubbed from behind. You wouldn't have to live in fear." The sentiment was one of envy for security over plenty.
As someone who was reborn, Jing Shu paid attention to what was on the domestic news channels and to the foreign news snippets that filtered through.
It only went as far as attention, a habit of gathering information. Her abilities weren't enough to turn the wheels of history, to change the grand sweep. She only needed to know more to protect herself and her family, to anticipate.
All those big international events were far away, abstract. Her one immediate, practical worry was whether the RV she had already paid for, the huge Conqueror model, would end up screwed over by delays or confiscation. After asking Niu Mou, he said Yang Yang was confirmed still alive in this world and should be back soon with the shipment, a vague reassurance.
Based on signs found over the past days in official bulletins about "overseas procurement" and Jing Shu's own memories from the previous life, where a similar massive vehicle appeared later in a military convoy, she felt that Yang Yang was probably in the U.S. right now pulling a major job with Wang Dazhao and the others, a covert operation.
Judging by Yang Yang's look and cryptic words at their last meeting, he certainly wasn't going there for anything good, like tourism. If they could ship an entire armored RV back, never mind the other things the Americans had "recently lost" according to hushed international reports. She had wondered before what on earth they were doing in the U.S. that required such a big cargo ship and months of secrecy.
Back then Yang Yang also said that even in death they must not expose their identities, a spy's warning. She understood a little more now. If their identities were exposed and anyone caught proof, it would be over, an international incident.
Later, in her previous life, Jing Shu learned the truth through campfire gossip among soldiers. Those messy high-tech items, laboratory equipment, and precision instruments that went missing from secured facilities over there were indeed taken by Yang Yang leading a small, specialist team. He even made it onto their official blacklist, a wanted ghost.
The funny thing was that they still hadn't figured out the team's true identities or nationalities, only vague descriptions. That was awkward for them, and a testament to the team's skill.