Chapter 30 Chapter 30 Doomsday Doctrine
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“Puff.”
A harmless chuckle exploded, echoing in the quiet living room.
No one spoke until the laughter died down. Zheng Yijie patted his chest and exhaled a hot breath, "No, you guys are younger than me. Don't you guys usually go online?"
Surf the Internet? Gu Mengran vaguely guessed something and raised his eyebrows unconsciously.
Liang Zhao had a cold face, Gu Mengran said nothing, Zheng Yijie thought they had misunderstood, and quickly waved his hand to explain: "I'm not mocking you, it's just that, when the yellow fog just broke out, wasn't there a lot of noise on the Internet, something like Blue Planet is doomed, the end of the world, etc., didn't you hear anything at all?"
"I have heard of it," Gu Mengran nodded, and said thoughtfully, "But the yellow fog has only been erupting for a few months. How could you believe it so easily and make so many preparations for it?"
"I can tell from the looks of it that you've never read online novels."
Zheng Yijie pushed up his black-framed glasses, raised the corner of his mouth, and revealed an unfathomable smile, "In online articles, those who don't believe this or that and always think they are smarter than others are usually the cannon fodder who die the fastest.
Did you know about the Mop forum? Many of the previous posts made very reasonable analyses. One of the original posters even accurately said that the yellow fog came from volcanoes and underground cracks, repeatedly emphasizing that a disaster was about to happen. Now it seems that he is a true prophet!
The yellow fog is really weird. Although I don’t understand astronomy and geography, I listen to advice. So considering all the circumstances, I decided to stock up on supplies to be prepared. ”
"Of course, the most important reason..." Zheng Yijie paused for a few seconds. Seeing that the two did not show any impatience, he continued, "I am a doomsday person myself. I believe that the end of the world will come one day. I am both looking forward to it and afraid of it, so I made some plans in advance."
"For example, this house, I bought it second-hand five years ago. When I saw this basement, I paid the deposit on the spot. At that time, I thought that once the house was renovated and supplies were stocked, I could hide in it when the doomsday came, and it wouldn't be a problem to survive for at least eight or ten years.
But I thought the end of the world would be a zombie outbreak, but I didn’t expect a volcanic eruption and an earthquake. Fortunately, this house was sturdy and didn’t collapse in the earthquake, otherwise my body would be stinking now. "
It seemed like he hadn't communicated with anyone for a long time. Once Zheng Yijie started talking, he couldn't stop and talked to himself for a long time.
Gu Mengran listened very carefully, but the main point unknowingly deviated.
Zheng Yijie looked only about 25 or 26 years old. He was probably in his early twenties five years ago. How could he have bought a house at that age? Gu Mengran tried to hold back, but couldn't help asking casually, "So, where are your family members? Didn't you bring them over?"
Zheng Yijie: "I have no parents, no worries."
"Sorry." Gu Mengran lowered his eyes and apologized.
Zheng Yijie seemed to be totally unconcerned. He smiled and said, "It's okay. It's better than dying in an earthquake. And I can show off. I bought a house in full at the age of 20 without relying on anyone."
The other party deftly resolved the awkward situation. Gu Mengran tactfully took over the conversation and provided emotional value to the other party: "Great, people are really different. You bought a house in full at the age of 20, but I was still asking my family for money at the age of 19."
These words touched Zheng Yiji's heart. He immediately burst into laughter and reached out to pat Gu Mengran on the shoulder.
The hand was less than an inch away from Gu Mengran's shoulder. Liang Zhao coughed lightly and asked again: "There is water, electricity, and supplies, and the temperature in the basement is still within the tolerance range. Since you are so well prepared, why don't you continue to stay here, but come with us?"
Liang Zhao either kept silent or asked sharp questions as soon as he spoke. Gu Mengran was slightly stunned when he heard this, and immediately stopped joking.
It is indeed strange. From Zheng Yijie's description, it is not difficult to see that he spent a lot of effort to build this basement. Why would he give up his hard work when he has no worries about food and clothing?
Not everyone has the space to pack up their supplies and take them away. At this critical moment, they would rather give up important food resources and leave. Could it be that...
Did he also know it would rain?
Under the gaze of two pairs of eyes, Zheng Yijie withdrew his hand that was frozen in mid-air and sighed, "Oh, it's complicated. I'm hungry, let's eat first, and then we can talk after we finish eating."
Dinner consisted of two dishes without soup, a dish of shredded potatoes with soy sauce that looked extremely bad, and a dish of watery stir-fried bok choy.
The children didn’t have big appetites. After eating half a bowl of rice porridge each, they put down their bowls and chopsticks and ran off to play with Lego.
The group of adults had quite good appetites. Although the food was not very delicious, they had been living on instant dry food these days and it was rare for them to have a hot meal of white rice porridge. Even the two girls ate two big bowls of it with hot sauce.
I barely finished the food, and there was still half a pot of porridge left, which was enough for tomorrow morning. But there was no need to think about it, the temperature was at least 30 degrees in the basement, and the food would definitely go bad if left overnight.
No matter how reluctant he was, he had to throw it away. Gu Mengran volunteered to take out the garbage and went upstairs alone with half a pot of porridge. Ten minutes later, he came back with an empty tin pot, sweat on his forehead.
Pour it out? It's hard to pour it out, and it won't go bad if it's kept in the space.
After eating and drinking, Gu Mengran and Liang Zhao did not rush to clean up and go to bed. Instead, they sat back at the dining table and stared at Zheng Yiji, waiting for him to speak.
This posture was very interesting. The old man and the two teachers who were about to get up and leave paused and sat back down. Although they did not stare at him like Gu Mengran and the others, their attention was all focused on Zheng Yijie.
It must feel good to be the protagonist. Surrounded by a group of people, Zheng Yijie relayed the current situation of the mountain city to everyone in his inherent chatty way.
"After the earthquake, most of the survivors in the northern part of the city took refuge in the air-raid shelters near Ninth Street. Oh, yes, you have never been to the mountain city before, right? The air-raid shelters are left over from the past. There are all of them underground in that area. Now they are almost like underground commercial streets."
"This earthquake left no way for anyone to survive. Many died, many were injured, and all the houses collapsed. It was a blessing in disguise to have an air-raid shelter, but there were too many people in the shelter, and there was no rescue. It didn't take long for the shelter to become chaotic.
Fights were commonplace, and some people even risked their lives for a bite to eat, a bed, or a place to rest.
Later, a big, strong man with arms thicker than my thighs took over the air-raid shelter with his men. At that time, the order was chaotic and people were panicking. In fact, it was a good thing to have someone take the lead in maintaining order. The key point was that the man... after he took over the air-raid shelter, he became an emperor and didn't treat people as human beings at all! "
"What did you say?" Meng Gaoyang was extremely curious and asked immediately after the words were spoken.
Zheng Yijie shook his head and sighed, "After that man took over the air-raid shelter, he also took over all the supplies inside the shelter, including the supplies that the survivors brought in, which had to be handed in and distributed by him.
As a result, he and his men ate and drank delicious food, and let other survivors go out in the choking fog to look for supplies. They also set tasks, and each person must hand in a certain amount of supplies every day. If it is not enough, they will withhold food and drink. "
"Bang!"
The old man slapped the table and said indignantly: "Damn it!"
Liang Zhao felt something was wrong and asked with a frown, "If that's the case, why didn't the survivors leave? Although the magnitude of the earthquake was high, there are always buildings left in the entire city. Isn't your mountain city the city with the most air-raid shelters? Can't you find somewhere else?"
"It's not that I don't want to leave, it's that I can't leave." Zheng Yijie sighed, "Not everyone is an orphan. If each family sends one person out and leaves your relatives behind, would you leave if it were you?"
Liang Zhao shook his head: "You continue."
Zheng Yijie: "Order has collapsed and the world is in chaos. They should enjoy the feeling of being in power, so they don't allow anyone to escape from control. Previously, a group of people couldn't stand this kind of oppression and chose to escape overnight, but they were discovered before they went far and were caught by his lackeys.
I was getting gasoline nearby at the time, and I heard with my own ears how they treated the survivors who tried to escape. They beat them up, beat them violently, beat them half to death, beat them until they begged for mercy, and dragged them back.
"It's like this, why don't they unite and resist?" Gu Mengran put his hands against the tip of his nose and said seriously: "No matter how many brothers we have, we can't outnumber the survivors. Organize a group of people to drive them out and elect a reliable leader again."
Zheng Yijie's mouth twitched reluctantly, and he pulled out an ugly bitter smile, "It's not that easy. The balance of power always leans towards resources. With the resources in his hands, more and more people will follow him. We are all ordinary people living in a peaceful era. We don't even have enough food to eat, so how can we have the energy to resist?"
Faced with sudden changes, humans have been struggling to survive in the cracks. Now that they can hardly protect themselves, who would dare to risk their lives to be a hero?
The serious topic made the atmosphere in the living room dull and depressing. A group of adults sat in silence, while the naive children were absorbed in playing with building blocks, and occasionally there were a few cheerful laughs.
The more he knew, the more powerless he felt. Gu Mengran knew that he could not do anything, so he decided not to empathize with other people's suffering and asked Zheng Yijie, "You think they will threaten you, so you would rather give up the supplies you have painstakingly prepared and leave this city?"
"It's not that I think so," Zheng Yijie shook his head quickly, "but they will definitely threaten me. After the temperature rises, they will start searching for survivors left outside, and take away every survivor they find, including the supplies in other people's hands."
Gu Mengran frowned, pinched his chin and said thoughtfully: "Strange, supplies are scarce, but instead of chasing people away, they are bringing people in. Hiss, are you sure it's not because the weather is too hot, so they brought people outside back to the air-raid shelter to cool off?"
"To escape the heat and cool down?" Zheng Yijie sneered. "Others don't want to go, so they drag and tie them back to escape the heat and cool down? They are just a bunch of bullies who do evil things. I saw it with my own eyes. There is no other possibility."
"I don't want to go to the air-raid shelter. I've never worked a single day in my life. Now I have to be a slave to others? I have to leave this city. I have to take as much supplies as I can. My life is more important."
As he was talking, Zheng Yijie suddenly thought of something, his expression changed slightly, and he suddenly looked up at everyone, "Did you run into anyone when you entered the city? Did you feel like someone was following you?"
Following? I'm not a spy, so even if someone is following me, I can't detect it! Gu Mengran complained in his heart, then shook his head: "Probably not."
"I didn't feel it. It was very quiet along the way and I didn't see a single person," Wei Qianlan added.
Zheng Yijie patted his chest and said, "That's good. It's been too hot these past few days, so they are not very active. But we still have to be careful and try not to go out. My house is actually quite far from Ninth Street, but this house is really conspicuous. It will take time to find it. We must leave as soon as possible."
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