Chapter 25

In places Tong Shu was unaware of, things were actually not peaceful.

The high temperatures are called the beginning of the apocalypse because it is a global catastrophe. The floods have further shattered everyone's preconceived notions—that the entire world has been submerged.

As an ancient civilization with a history spanning thousands of years, the Chinese people's inherent resilience and unity enabled them to quickly adapt to sudden disasters and gradually restore pre-disaster order. Other countries, however, were not so fortunate.

Country R is a small island nation surrounding China, with a small land area and a high population density. The arrival of high temperatures caused their population to plummet to fifty percent of its original size, and the subsequent floods continued to encroach on their already precarious living areas, driving away the survivors who were struggling to escape.

Higashino was originally a junior employee at a company in Japan. He was often harassed by his superiors and lived a very frustrating life.

He was on his way to his boss's house to deliver a trivial document when the heatwave hit. Amidst his boss's incessant berating, he forced himself to bow and scrape, but out of the corner of his eye, he saw rows of pedestrians collapsing outside the window.

The noise outside the door grew louder, and the entire hallway became chaotic. The boss, who had been nagging incessantly, stopped his reprimands and, with a hint of panic, wanted to go out and see what was happening.

The ever-increasing heat was baking Higashino Mei's brain; a buzzing sound filled his ears, and everything seemed far away from him.

Right next to me was my boss's sparsely haired back of the head.

Higashino gripped the pen tightly in his hand.

Three minutes later, a body fell from a third-floor window and landed in a flower bed below.

Blood was gushing from a dark, gaping hole in the corpse's head.

But no one screamed about it.

Because besides him, there are countless other corpses lying in the streets, and soon this corpse, like the others, will become withered, fragile, and turn to dust at the slightest touch, never to be seen again.

------------------

Higashino Mei felt no fear after killing his superior; instead, he was unusually excited.

He panted heavily, trying to draw oxygen from the dry air through his nostrils and mouth, while his hands rapidly searched through his boss's house for all the valuables.

His backpack was heavy, stuffed with gold and silver jewelry, and it wasn't until he shakily pulled a gun from a hidden compartment in his desk that he slowly pulled himself out of his extreme excitement.

The rising temperature made it hard for him to breathe. Higashino shoved the gun haphazardly into the bottom of his backpack, shook his muddled mind, and ran underground as fast as he could.

No police arrested him, and no one even noticed him; everyone was running for their lives.

Higashino Mei hid in a dark corner, enjoying the incessant screams and cries.

It's wonderful, the world has suddenly become so wonderful.

Higashino began to hide during the day and go out at night, robbing the elderly, children and women of their food.

While he was brutally murdering a female college student, he encountered Ichiro Tamura, who was also out robbing. After testing each other, the two reached a consensus and decided to travel together from now on.

From then on, Higashino's gang grew larger and larger. They were no longer afraid of the police. Relying on the gun they found in their superior's house, they killed several police officers from Japan and seized a considerable number of guns and ammunition. They became increasingly reckless in their actions.

Just as Higashino was once again marveling at this wonderful chaotic world, a flood broke out.

The buildings in Country R are generally low-rise, and coupled with its status as an island nation, the water level rises extremely quickly.

Higashino Ming scrambled onto the empty bucket his underling had pushed for him like a drowned dog, watching his hard-earned possessions being submerged by the floodwaters, and let out a furious roar.

Country R soon had nowhere to settle down, and this island nation at sea seemed destined to sink into the ocean forever.

Higashino Naruto and Tamura Ichiro gathered all their surviving men and painstakingly moved to a remote fishing village. After slaughtering all the villagers who dared to resist, they chose the largest fishing boat, looted all the village's supplies, and set sail westward.

I've heard that in the nearby land of China, there is a vast territory, abundant resources, and countless beautiful women.

----------------------

Wen Shaocheng was injured by Dongye Ming and his group.

At that time, he had just finished inspecting the mountains and factories and was preparing to return to the supply ship to rest.

Before I even entered the residential area, I saw a group of people lurking underwater, plotting something.

Wen Shaocheng had excellent eyesight and a very good memory. He immediately spotted Hao Dadong among them. He remembered seeing this person in the air-raid shelter in the community before, but he didn't recognize the others. One of them had a long scar on his face, and Wen Shaocheng had a gut feeling that this group of people were not good people.

He took off his military jacket, revealing only a vest, and slowly slid into the water. The distance was too great; he needed to get closer to hear what these people were saying.

When they swam close enough to hear some noise, Wen Shaocheng realized that the group of people were not Chinese.

Hao Dadong spoke and gestured to one of them, saying, "Inside, that building, on the 12th floor, there are lots and lots of supplies!" He pointed to his apartment building and exaggeratedly drew a semicircle with his hands.

Wen Shaocheng's pupils constricted; that was the location of Tong Shu's house.

The young man acting as translator in Higashino's team digested the information provided by Hao Dadong, then turned and whispered a few words into Higashino's ear.

Higashino nodded, signaling his men to lead Hao Dadong underwater.

When Dongye Ming first met Hao Dadong, he was robbing a small fishing boat at the harbor. The fishermen on the boat were already on the verge of death, and he was still hitting the fishermen's heads with a wrench. The bright red blood seeped into the murky water and disappeared in an instant. Dongye Ming stood at the bow of the boat and looked at Hao Dadong. The eyes of the two desperados met at that moment.

Higashino Ming needed a native Chinese to serve him. He took in Hao Dadong's family, arranged a separate cabin for them, and provided them with enough food and clothing.

Hao Dadong had been living in constant fear as order slowly returned, worried that Sun Xiaolong's affair would eventually come back to haunt him. He fled the neighborhood with his wife and daughter, and his life had been one of constant displacement. But now that he had suddenly found protection, he developed an extreme dependence on Dong Yeming and was willing to risk his life for him.

After spending some time in the fishing port, he mentioned that in his old neighborhood, there was a very wealthy family whose supplies could feed Higashino and his group for several months.

Dongye Ming was naturally tempted, and that very night he had Hao Dadong bring them to the neighborhood where Tong Shu lived.

Based on these few words, Wen Shaocheng guessed what they wanted to do, but they outnumbered him and he couldn't fight them all. So he decided to return to the supply ship first and mobilize his men to set up defenses.

Just as he was about to swim back to the small boat moored in the shadows, the lookouts in Dongye Ming's team spotted him. Silenced bullets whizzed through the air, and Wen Shaocheng had no room to dodge in the water; the bullets pierced his waist and abdomen.

The commotion startled Dongye Ming and his group, who were preparing to launch a night raid on the residential area. They quickly dispatched two men to swim towards the direction where Wen Shaocheng had been shot. Wen Shaocheng, being a former special operations soldier, had already endured the excruciating pain and swam into the residential area from the other side. The group searched the area but found nothing.

Because the operation may have been exposed, Higashino Akira had to terminate the plan and lead the team back to the port.

After emerging from the water, Wen Shaocheng exhausted all his strength to return to the supply ship.

Wen Shaocheng's deputy was shocked to see Wen Shaocheng's appearance and immediately wanted to dispatch a team to conduct a personnel search, but Wen Shaocheng stopped him.

Wen Shaocheng assessed his injuries and, knowing they weren't life-threatening, immediately made another plan. He had his deputy secretly use a small boat to lower him to the iron gate of the community office warehouse.

The deputy would never agree, shouting that Wen Shaocheng was being ridiculous and threatening to call the army doctor. Ignoring his injuries, Wen Shaocheng tried to get out of bed. Knowing his superior's relentless nature, the deputy had no choice but to agree to stop him from aggravating his wounds. He repeatedly warned Wen Shaocheng to call for help immediately if anything went wrong.

So before Tong Shu took Wen Shaocheng into the warehouse to treat his gunshot wound, Wen Shaocheng's deputy, along with several special operations team members, had been lying in wait downstairs for Wen Shaocheng's signal, ready to provide support at any time.

Of course, Tong Shu was unaware of all this.

Wen Shaocheng always had great faith in his intuition and his ability to judge people. Judging from the words and actions of Tong Shu's family, they were not antisocial bad people, but they were definitely hiding some unspeakable secrets. Wen Shaocheng was very certain of this.

From their prior preparations before the flood, to the abundance of supplies they had, and their relatively better mental state compared to other people, everything about them seemed strange.

While busy with production and construction, Wen Shaocheng kept thinking about the problems of Tong Shu's family.

Taking this opportunity, he finally managed to sneak into Tong Shu's home.

Over the course of several days, through his subtle observations, Wen Shaocheng confirmed that the Tong Shu family did indeed possess abilities different from others, and that these abilities were mostly in Tong Shu's hands.

As a junior member of the family, Tong Shu wields considerable influence within the Tong family and can even arrange jobs for her elders.

Any supplies or tools that cannot be found immediately can be provided by Tong Shu after inquiring.

This family was so orderly, completely devoid of the confusion and panic one might expect in a post-apocalyptic world. They all seemed to be working towards an unknown goal.

But this family is indeed doing their duty honestly, even providing assistance to the community and other disaster victims in the city.

This is also something that Wen Shaocheng couldn't understand.

What exactly is their purpose in doing this? Is it possible that the condition for Tong Shu to obtain this ability is to help others?

If, if there is another natural disaster.

If the next natural disaster is severe cold.

Therefore, Tong Shu must have the ability to predict disasters.

Wen Shaocheng remained calm and secretly made a bet with himself.