Because this year's earthquakes are full of uncertainty, even people who have been reborn don't know which places will shake and which won't. She doesn't even know if her parents' workplace will get hit by a major quake.
The thought of leaving her parents in an unknown danger zone makes Jing Shu restless. Her fingers twisted the hem of her shirt as she walked. What is a reasonable way to keep her parents from going to work for at least five days, while making them realize how serious things really are? If she can make sure they're safe first, then she will have the mind to deal with everything else.
Of course, she can't just say she dreamed of a disaster. That's too ridiculous. The idea would be dismissed before the words even left her mouth.
Right now, she could call them back immediately, but what about the next few days? An earthquake might shake things up, but aftershocks are usually all that follow. Life still has to go on. The apocalypse is already here, and with the rain finally stopping, it's the perfect time for sixty days of hard work. Even if there's a quake, people would just need to stay cautious at work, run outside when it shakes, and that's that.
No, that won't do. At the start, nobody understands just how terrifying this year's quakes are. There will be sinkholes everywhere. On the surface, the ground might look fine, but step on it and you're gone, swallowed by the earth without a trace.
Jing Shu paced back and forth in the living room, her footsteps rhythmic against the floor. Grandpa Jing was rare in his leisure this morning, reclining in his massage chair. His eyes were half-closed as he listened to the soaring notes of a Peking opera aria while the TV played the news in the background.
Right, the TV only had two channels now: CCTV-1 and the local live news station. Both streamed twenty-four hours of updates, and you could also check everything through the mobile big data network. The screen flickered with a constant scroll of text and emergency broadcasts.
Ever since Jack Ma launched big data, it basically monopolized every bit of information, merging with WeChat into one massive super-platform for livestreaming, personal records, finances, and more. The wildest part was that it could customize different dashboards based on your access level.
There were two types overall: the civilian version and the VIP version. Jing Shu was lucky enough to be VIP Level 1, which was a clear status symbol in this new world. Even so, the government still insisted on providing electricity. Every evening from 7:00 PM to 7:30 PM, people got thirty minutes of power. It was mainly for watching the news, turning on the AC for heat, or charging phones and power banks.
Later on, Jing Shu learned the real reason: they were letting people absorb a little light element from the lamps. Without sunlight for too long, people would start getting sick. It also gave their eyes a chance to adjust to the brightness. Otherwise, when the light returned in the future, people would go blind.
The news reported both Wu City and international updates. The storm had finally ended, and countless people were cheering outside, their voices carrying through the damp air. Many wept tears of relief. At the same time, the floodwaters in the city center were visibly retreating, leaving behind layers of grey silt.
According to reports, once the flood subsides, the government will arrange for residents to return to their homes in batches. This will ease the severe housing shortage in areas like Xishan, Xiangjiao, and the new districts, where one house squeezes in over twenty people, families live in a parking spot, or three share a basement.
With the flood retreating, district governments will provide tens of thousands of jobs to build a new city. In the worsening cold, the government must prepare for survival. Experts predict the next year will be a 'delayed seasonal winter,' with spring not arriving until the year after. Wu City has decided to provide central heating once temperatures drop below minus ten degrees Celsius. For details, see the new regulations.
Jing Shu sighed. The experts only got it half right. Next year really would be winter, but compared to the extreme cold to come, it was nothing more than a drizzle.
Grandpa Jing clapped his hands and laughed. "Finally, the government is arranging people's lives!" Good, now everyone will have a place to live. I'm sick of the crowding, so noisy every day. I can't sleep at night, not with all that howling and ghost-like wailing. And don't even mention how people keep shitting and pissing at the villa wall, I have been cleaning that up daily!
Jing Shu just gave a dry laugh and kept quiet. The truth was, the city center of Wu City was about to vanish. These people wouldn't get to move, and neither would her family. They would have to keep dodging danger like everyone else.
Suddenly, thunder cracked outside, the sound stabbing right into Jing Shu's heart. Her body collapsed with a loud thud, the impact vibrating through the floor and scaring Grandpa Jing out of his chair.
"Shu'er, what happened? Don't scare me like this!" He jumped out of the massage chair and rushed over, his hands reaching out to her.
She clutched her head in pain, groaning, "Grandpa, my head hurts, really bad. My ears aren't working right either. Quick, call my parents and get them back here."
"Alright, alright! Don't you worry, child, I will have that girl call them right now!"
He scrambled off, and Xiao Dou snuck in, shaking out the few scraggly feathers it had grown. The fat chicken gave her a look full of disdain, as if saying, "Quit acting, I see right through you."
Another clap of thunder exploded overhead, rattling the window panes.
"Cluck cluck cluck!" Xiao Dou panicked, flapping wildly before diving into Jing Shu's arms, its fat ass trembling outside as it tried to hide.
She yanked it up by the tail feathers and tossed it onto the sofa, then flopped down, using it as a pillow. Settling into a comfortable spot, she watched the news while keeping an ear on the storm.
"Yeah, pretending to be sick is the easiest plan. Thinking up other excuses is a headache, and I would still have to cover it with more lies."
She decided it was the most reasonable approach. If she asked reasonably, her parents would listen. If she said something forced and absurd just to keep them home, they would think she was acting strange. Of course, back in the pre-apocalypse days, if a sudden quake hit, work would have stopped too. But now? With the whole world going through quakes like it's some kind of sick party, rescue teams couldn't save everyone.
The living mattered more than the dead. The government had to focus on keeping survivors alive. Reason was the only thing that worked now.
She didn't know exactly what Grandpa Jing told them, but in less than fifteen minutes, she had polished off three bags of Lays chips and was planning to plant potatoes to make her own chips when her parents rushed back home.
Grandma Jing had dropped her sewing, and Grandpa Jing wasn't listening to opera anymore. Everyone surrounded Jing Shu. Grandma Jing even brought red date tea, the steam rising from the cup as she insisted Jing Shu drink more hot water.
Jing Shu didn't refuse, downing two full cups of the sweet, warm liquid.
The first thing her parents asked when they came in was, "What happened to Jing Shu?"