Chapter 14: Rat Plague
Jiangcheng has now mobilized all the manpower in the city to rebuild six cold-proof warehouses in the severe cold to accommodate the residents who have migrated from the north. The warehouses are also open to Jiangcheng residents, and every family has a free place in the cold-proof warehouse.
Gu Nian works in Jiangcheng's No. 3 Cold Warehouse. This cold warehouse was renovated from an old air-raid shelter. Looking back, it was an open space of thousands of square meters. Now it is tightly packed with bunk beds. Every ten bunk beds are covered with curtains to form an area. Living here, there is really no privacy.
Gu Nian walked carefully between the bunk beds and headed for the power supply room at the back. She noticed that an area that was vacant yesterday was now occupied by dozens of people packing their luggage. Among them was a couple in their fifties. The man kept cursing and complaining about the poor environment here, while the woman next to him retorted that her old house was freezing cold and she couldn't afford the electricity bill. At least she wouldn't freeze to death here.
Gu Nian has seen many families like this in the winter warehouse recently. Some old buildings and a few bungalows in Jiangcheng are not good at winterization, and the circuits are aging and cannot be powered on a large scale. Many residents living in old buildings and bungalows simply moved to the winter warehouse to live. The winter warehouse has free places for local residents to stay, and electric heating is provided all day long, but the living conditions are so poor that any Jiangcheng resident who can still support himself is unwilling to move in.
However, as the temperature gets lower and lower, more and more people will move in. Later on, it will be hard to get a place in the cold-proof warehouse. Gu Nian thought to herself. She was about to walk towards the power supply room when something strange happened. Suddenly, a "sizzling" sound was heard in the cold-proof warehouse. The hanging lights flickered, and the exposed wires sparked. Then the lights went out with a "snap", and the room was filled with a burnt smell.
Oh no, the wire must be short-circuited. Gu Nian's heart sank. Nowadays, if there is a problem with the circuit, it must be repaired immediately. If it takes too long, the heating will definitely have problems. The crowd exclaimed, and Gu Nian turned on the flashlight function of his mobile phone and hurried to the power supply room.
On the way, she met the captain of the electrician team, Lao Chen, who was holding a high-power flashlight in his hand. They both knew that there was a short circuit and that they had to repair it quickly, so without saying much, they walked towards the power supply room together.
When they entered the power supply room, Xiao Huang, who was on duty today, was standing at the door. Xiao Huang breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the two of them coming over. He said hurriedly, "It's probably a problem with the circuit box! I'm looking for a flashlight here. I have to open the box and take a look."
After hearing this, Lao Chen took Xiao Huang and Gu Nian to the power supply room. Lao Chen provided light from behind, while Xiao Huang took out the key to open the power supply box. Under the light, a big hole was bitten in the back of the power supply box, and inside was a rat that was charred by electricity! It turned out that the rat had gotten into the high-voltage power box. Because the rat itself had a low resistance, as soon as it conducted electricity in the high-voltage circuit, it was immediately electrocuted to death, and the voltage box was also short-circuited immediately.
Xiao Huang was so angry that he wanted to yell, "Damn rats! They've bitten a hole in the locked power box. Now they've gotten in and caused a short circuit. It's going to be a hassle again!" At this moment, he heard someone gasping behind him. Xiao Huang looked up reflexively and saw dozens of rats standing densely on top of the circuit box. Each of these rats was a foot and a half long, with red eyes and long hair that dragged on the ground. They looked like weird rabbits!
"Be careful!" Gu Nian exclaimed.
These mutant rats squeaked and pounced on Xiao Huang! Xiao Huang had no time to react and was immediately bitten by the rats. The rats chewed the human flesh into their mouths quickly. The bloody smell filled the room, and the rats attacked even more frantically!
Gu Nian was quick-witted, and seeing that Xiao Huang was still in a daze, she quickly pulled him away, picked up the shovel next to her and slapped the rats that were rushing towards her. She used all her strength this time, but she didn't expect that the shovel would hit the leading rat directly against the wall. Blood splattered on the wall, and the rat was about to die.
Old Chen and Xiao Huang came to their senses and felt ashamed. They didn't expect that a girl like Gu Nian was so brave. They quickly picked up the tools around them to deal with the rats. Fortunately, this was an electrical workshop with many tools. But they didn't expect that the rats were not only big, but also very flexible. They only attacked people's exposed hands and feet. Xiao Huang and Old Chen were caught in a dilemma. They couldn't do anything about these rats for a while, and even cried out in pain from time to time. On the other hand, the shovel in Gu Nian's hand seemed to have eyes. She hit one rat with one shovel. The rats she hit were at least half dead.
Busy footsteps were heard, and several people rushed in from the door behind him. They were security guards who had rushed over. They were equipped with stun batons. When the stun batons hit the mice, they screamed. Their participation quickly killed the dozen or so mice and also covered up Gu Nian's abnormality.
The rats in the room were finally killed. Xiao Huang, who was the most seriously injured, was taken aside for a simple bandage. Lao Chen was also slightly injured. Gu Nian asked the two of them to rest, and Lao Chen had to contact his superiors to report the situation. Gu Nian simply carried out the emergency repairs by himself with a flashlight. Finally, the power supply was restored and the lights illuminated the room again.
Only then did everyone see the tragic situation inside the room. Not only were these rats huge, they were also very ferocious and would keep attacking unless they were killed. Their blood splattered all over the power supply room. How could anyone see such a scene on a normal day? The security captain gritted his teeth and found a few pairs of rubber gloves. He asked everyone to put on two layers of gloves and put the rats' bodies in garbage bags.
Gu Nian's heart moved and she offered to help. She took the opportunity to search through the dead mice. Finally, she saw a faint flash of light in the body of the largest mouse. Gu Nian suppressed her nausea and reached in to search for a while. Suddenly, she felt a hard object in her hand. She quickly wrapped it in paper and stuffed it into her trouser pocket.
While everyone was cleaning the room, Gu Nian carefully searched through the mouse's corpse and finally found a total of five such crystals.
At this time, someone finally rushed over. It was the manager of the No. 3 cold storage warehouse, and three people in white coats. One of the people in the white coat hurried to treat the wounds of Xiao Huang and Lao Chen. It turned out that he was a doctor, while the other two people in the white coats walked to the garbage bag in the corner and went straight to the rats.
It seems that these three men in white coats are not of the same kind.
The two men did not go to see the injured. They came for the rats. They took out gloves, protective glasses and masks, put them on, and used long tweezers to turn over the rats' bodies. They talked in a low voice. Gu Nian listened attentively and only heard a few words such as "mutation" and "return to study". Then, the two men collected the rats' bodies with special tools and left. When the two men left, the person in charge of the cold storage sent them all the way to the door, and his tone and demeanor were very polite.
Xiao Huang was seriously injured and was taken to the hospital by the doctor. Lao Chen also had to go back to recuperate. The person in charge gave them both a day off. When he saw that Gu Nian was unharmed and alive and well, he couldn't treat him differently. He waved his hand and asked Gu Nian to go back and rest for three days before coming back to work. As for the power supply room, the person in charge transferred someone else to take over the duty.
Gu Nian was so happy that she drove back to her home. Sitting under the bright lights of her home, sinking into the soft sofa, she began to think carefully about the rat incident. She went to work as an electrician just to save some credit points, but she didn't expect that this ordinary job was full of dangers. If Gu Nian hadn't had a shovel in her hand today and used the shovel to smack the rats away in time when they pounced on her, I'm afraid everyone would have been injured.
Gu Nian knew clearly that the reason she was able to slap those rats away in one go was because during this period of time she had been practicing breathing techniques, her body had absorbed a lot of spiritual energy without her realizing it, and her strength, vision and reaction speed had all increased a lot. Otherwise, today's events would definitely not have ended so easily.
It seems that in this end of the world, there are many crises. Gu Nian's mood has become heavy. She thought of the white coat that took away the mutant mice today. What organization is it? Is it a research institute doing research? Maybe these mutant animals have appeared a long time ago, and she has encountered more than just this one.
Gu Nian was lost in thought, and at this moment her cell phone beeped. She opened it and saw it was a message from Jing Li.
"I'm in Jiangcheng. Are you free? Do you want to meet and talk?"
Gu Nian then remembered that she had sent a message to Jing Li some time ago, wanting to meet Jing Li to talk about Han Neng's matter, but Jing Li had gone to a relative's house at that time and said he would come back to find her.
Gu Nian sent a message back to Jing Li. "If you have time, why don't you come to my house and chat?"
Jing Li's message came quickly. "Okay."
Soon, the doorbell of Gu Nian's house rang. Gu Nian went out and confirmed through the surveillance that it was Jing Li outside. Then he carefully opened the door of the villa.
Jing Li was still holding the suitcase in his hand. He looked tired and dusty, and it was obvious that he had just returned from another place.
Gu Nian couldn't help but become curious. In her impression, Jing Li's family was just like hers, with a small population. She had never heard of any relatives in other places, and she didn't know which relatives they were. Why would Jing Li go there despite the severe cold and inconvenient transportation?
The floor heating in Gu Nian's house was turned on high. Jing Li took off his heavy coat and hung it on the rack. The room was warm and the lights were bright. He sat on the soft sofa and felt his tense nerves relax.
Gu Nian handed him a cup of hot water. Jing Li took it, but didn't rush to drink it. His eyes were raised, his lips were pressed into a line, and he looked serious: "An Nian, did you sense the spiritual energy?"
Gu Nian didn't intend to hide it from Jing Li. She nodded and said, "Yes, do you remember when your grandfather forced you to learn Liu Yao when you were a child, my grandfather always forced me to practice breathing techniques, saying that it could draw air into the body. It turns out that what my grandfather said was true. This breathing technique can indeed absorb spiritual energy."
At this point, Gu Nian couldn't help but curl his eyes, and Jing Li also showed a nostalgic smile, and both of them recalled their childhood.
Jing Li's beautiful eyebrows wrinkled into a beautiful arc. He seemed to be thinking about what to say, and finally said: "Anian, you know, my family has always been a fortune teller."
Gu Nian was confused. Of course she knew that? "Yes, since we met, hasn't Grandpa Jing been a fortune teller?"
Jing Li took a deep breath, as if he had made up his mind, and said, "It's not just my grandfather, it's the entire Jing family. Our family is me and my grandfather's family, it's just a branch of the Jing family."
Gu Nian had never heard Jing Li talk about these family matters before, so she didn't interrupt him and just listened to him quietly.
"The Jing family has been engaged in divination for generations, and it is hard to tell how many years it has been. I heard that in the past, the Jing family served as the Imperial Observatory of a certain ancient dynasty, and our family is a branch of the Jing family. This time I went out of town, just to return to the main house of the Jing family..." At this point, Jing Li paused, his phoenix eyes dimmed, and then continued: "Anian, I told you last time that you must be prepared. The cold wave will not pass so quickly. This is the prophecy passed on to the Jing family by the main family. This time I went back to the main house to listen to the main family's prophecy."
Jing Li said solemnly: "Anian, according to the Jing family's prophecy, natural disasters are coming, and evolution will come with them. Next, the Blue Water Planet will experience many extreme climates and disasters, and unprecedented energy will appear between heaven and earth. Only creatures that can absorb this new energy and embark on the path of evolution can seek a glimmer of hope in this natural disaster!"
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