Anyway, this is the mentality of Xia Ning, a typical ordinary citizen: when she feels safe, she has great confidence in the state apparatus and thinks her country is the best in the world; but when there are risks in her living environment, all sorts of conspiracy theories can't help but bubble up in her mind.
After the earthquake, Xia Ning made some minor renovations to her temporary residence, adding pots and soil to the balcony to grow vegetables. Space was good, but she couldn't rely on it entirely; after all, you can't put all your eggs in one basket.
There are also some durable foods stored in the kitchen, and three neatly packed waterproof backpacks are kept in the entryway so that they can be grabbed and run away in case of emergency.
After tidying everything up, Xia Ning went to the bathroom to take a quick shower and changed out of her sweat-soaked clothes.
She looked in the large bathroom mirror and admired her increasingly defined biceps and abs.
After 20 days of consistent exercise, I've finally seen some small results.
Xia Ning hummed off-key, "Bye-bye, bye-bye flabby belly! Bye-bye, little tummy!"
The two sentences repeated endlessly, like a cacophony in the ears.
After taking a three-minute shower, Xia Ning, who was busy making a living before dawn, took out two large meat buns, a fried dough stick, and a cup of milk tea from her spatial storage and sat on the sofa to "study".
In the past, when Xia Ning drank milk tea at home, her mother would scold her, "You're such a troublemaker! You drink milk tea in the morning, at noon, and at night. If you drink so much that your veins are filled with white liquid instead of blood, you won't dare to drink it anymore." Then, for several days in a row, her mother would share health-related articles on WeChat with her.
Xia Ning imagined her mother's tone and protested while petting her younger sister: "Don't wrong me. What I'm drinking is called a black tea latte, not milk tea. Foreigners drink coffee every day, and their veins don't look brown."
"Besides," she muttered, "we're living on the edge. What if the game locks the skill slots one day? Storing them in my space is just for temporary use. I'll only feel at ease if I actually use them."
Moreover, Xia Ning had a secret thought: with all the milk tea shops closed and no one able to get milk tea, milk tea seemed to taste even better.
The younger sister tilted her head foolishly, and Dou Dou stared at Xia Ning.
Xia Ning pinched its cheek: "That's the bad thing about raising a dog, you can't help but talk to it."
She used to see the aunties in her neighborhood who kept cats and dogs, treating their pets like babies, talking to them seriously every day, asking if they were hungry, cold, or tired. Xia Ning found it strange, as if the animals could understand her.
Now that they have a dog, they're doing the same thing.
Animals are actually quite intelligent. Anyway, whether my sister understood or not, every time Xia Ning petted its head, it would respond enthusiastically.
So, early in the morning, Xia Ning was enjoying the air conditioning, drinking milk tea, holding her younger sister in her arms, and watching a disaster movie with her legs crossed.
On the television screen, glaciers melt and floods rage, submerging a modern metropolis in an instant. The camera then shifts to the other side of the earth, where extreme cold prevails and a cold wave freezes all living people into ice sculptures... one spectacular scene after another, sending chills down the spine of the viewers.
At first, she felt a little uncomfortable. In the past, Xia Ning would watch disaster movies in the cinema as if they were science fiction movies, but now she only felt that disaster movies were a death apocalypse.
However, she's treating it as desensitization therapy now.
She can use disaster movies as teaching material to fill in gaps in her knowledge. Art originates from life; see how the protagonist adapts to changing circumstances.
After finishing breakfast, Xia Ning turned on the TV to watch the morning news.
After the government implemented a series of preventative measures, there were fewer accidents reported on the morning news caused by high temperatures. It's unclear whether the number of accidents has actually decreased or if there has been less media coverage. In any case, the news channel is now constantly urging everyone not to follow the trend of hoarding goods, blindly purchase overpriced supplies, or rush to withdraw money. The government has sufficient reserves of various basic supplies, so the public should not panic.
Then came several short videos showing the closure of several illegal workshops and the arrest of gangs deliberately inflating prices. Following that were images of boxes of goods being continuously transported to various cities, and empty supermarket shelves being instantly filled, giving people a sense of psychological security.
The last ten minutes showed the situation abroad, with people dying from shootings every day. Tourists stranded overseas and overseas Chinese wanting to return home crowded the embassy, and on camera, compatriots emotionally shouted their desire to return home as soon as possible.
People used to think that the moon was rounder in foreign countries, but now that they find that people outside are trying to take away their humble homes, they feel that their motherland is better.
Humans are incredibly adaptable, and the most obvious example of this is that they still have the energy to argue.
Online debates about whether or not to accept refugees have erupted. Supporters, of course, cite humanitarian principles and a global community. However, a significant number oppose the proposals, with a barrage of criticism on various official platforms.
Evacuating our citizens is one thing, at least they are compatriots. But what's the point of bringing back those foreign refugees? They not only waste national resources, but also cause all sorts of security problems.
In reality, everyone is quietly staying at home, but the internet is buzzing with noise.
Xia Ning's apartment building was also anything but peaceful on this day.
On the first day of the distribution of supplies, Zhang Changheng's nurse wife, who was in household number 803, went home.
The whole building knew about it. It wasn't that they were eavesdropping on each other, but rather that the couple had a fierce argument as soon as they met, making it hard to ignore.
Xia Ning sensed something was wrong and opened the door to find Zhang Changheng's house wide open. His wife, still in her nurse's uniform, was blocking the doorway with a suitcase.
Xia Ning munched on her melon: Is she going to run away from home?
Then she looked outside again, and wow, there were several heads popping out of the emergency exit next to the elevator. It seemed that people from upstairs and downstairs had come to see what was going on.
Aside from the fact that gossiping is human nature, everyone is really bored now that the company is shut down.
Xia Ning listened intently for a while, and by connecting the context, she barely understood the cause of the matter—it turned out that Zhang Changheng's wife had been selected to support areas severely affected by the disaster, and it would probably take at least a month for her to arrive.
Zhang Changheng believed it was too dangerous for his wife to go to such a place, and that the family should stay together at a time like this. His wife, Dao Xiaoqin, argued that as a medical worker, it was her duty. The two were at an impasse and started arguing.
Once she figured out the trigger, Xia Ning's initial enthusiasm for gossiping about the scene instantly cooled down. Frontline workers have it tough, and their families have it tough too.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
