49 Chapter 49
Tong Shu stayed in her room in a daze for three days. During that time, Shu Hua and the others came and knocked on the door a few times. She answered a few times at first, but eventually she couldn't be bothered to speak. The people outside knew that she was in a bad mood, so they didn't bother her anymore.
"Knock knock knock," someone knocked on the door. Shu Hua opened the door and saw that it was Zhu Cheng.
"Hey girls, are you home?" Zhu Cheng had already heard about the Tong family's accident on the supply ship. He didn't want to bother them at this time, but the Tong family's shop hadn't been open for three days. Not only the residents of the community, but also many residents from the surrounding area came to ask about the situation, so Zhu Cheng had no choice but to bite the bullet and come over.
"It's Director Zhu, please come in and have a seat." Shu Hua greeted him as he entered.
Zhu Cheng awkwardly patted his coat and found an empty chair by the door to sit down.
He looked around and saw only Shu Hua and the two old men, so he asked, "Where are Xiao Tong and Lao Tong? Aren't they home?"
Shu Hua sighed and pointed to Tong Shu's tightly closed door: "Shu Shu was frightened and hasn't come out for three days. Old Tong is upstairs tinkering with the machines."
"Hey...you know..." Zhu Cheng shook his head with a troubled look on his face. "In the end, it's the community that's dragging you down. If the community weren't so incompetent, we wouldn't have sent a few juniors out in danger to find a way to get supplies."
“Our family helped the community because we thought that neighbors should take care of each other in times of disaster. It was just that things went too smoothly during the flood, and we became complacent and didn’t know that things had changed so much outside,” Shu Hua comforted her. Even though she was feeling down, she knew that none of this had anything to do with the kind-hearted old director.
After a long silence, thinking of the residents who were gathered at the office and refused to leave, Zhu Cheng said with difficulty, "It's like this... Sister Shu, if your family has any difficulties, the community and the supply ship will do their best to help you solve them. It's just... it's just this little shop. When can you see if it can reopen? The residents here are used to having places to buy supplies, and they don't have much stuff stored at home. If you suddenly close the shop, many people will suddenly run out of food."
Shu Hua frowned upon hearing this, feeling somewhat displeased. Just as she was about to speak, Tong Shu's door opened.
"Director Zhu, the convenience store will be temporarily closed." Tong Shu came out of the room, with dark circles under her eyes, clearly indicating that she hadn't had a good night's sleep.
"Huh?" Zhu Cheng looked at Shu Hua helplessly upon hearing this, but Shu Hua turned her head away, avoiding his gaze.
"Director Zhu, I'm so sorry. You've heard, haven't you? We went to W City, but we didn't get anything back. My sister almost lost her life. Now, the cotton and wheat reserves in the warehouse are running low. We don't know how long this natural disaster will last. We have to think about our own families. I've thought about it, and I've decided to keep the things in the store for our own use." Tong Shu said slowly, ignoring Zhu Cheng's pleading gaze.
“The machines in the two workshops can be left to the community. When the community grows cotton, the machines can still be used. We have enough cotton quilts and everything else. We will give the rest of the cotton to the community. The only thing we would like to ask the director for help is to leave the top floor of this office building for us to use. We can’t store so many remaining supplies at home for the time being.”
Zhu Cheng still wanted to try: "Xiao Tong, I thought about it when I came here. How about this, the community organizes people to go to other provinces to exchange supplies, and your family can stay in the community to produce. Let's work hard and keep the store running."
Tong Shu shook his head wearily. Putting aside the fact that going out to exchange supplies was just a pretext, if someone were really willing to risk going far away to find supplies, then the north of the city wouldn't have to keep relying on their small shop.
"Director Zhu, the convenience store has only been closed for a few days, and people have already come to you and are making a fuss about reopening. The community is no longer distributing supplies, but the supply ships are short of workers and need labor everywhere. Why are they targeting our convenience store?"
Zhu Cheng was speechless. It was clear that Tong Shu had revealed the truth: the people in the community were living much better lives than in other places because of the Tong family's convenience store. Some people took advantage of the loopholes to exchange goods and became lazy and unwilling to work.
Zhu Cheng nodded and said, "You're right. It's hard to go from luxury to frugality. Once everyone has a small shop with plenty of supplies, they lose their sense of crisis. If we want to get through natural disasters, we still have to rely on ourselves. Xiao Tong, I'm sorry to have troubled you this time. I'll go back to the community later and talk to you about closing the shop."
Zhu Cheng left, and Shu Hua gently closed the door. Looking at her daughter, who had become silent again, she felt extremely sad.
"Shushu... your aunt and uncle know they can't blame you for that. Don't think about it anymore. You still have to live your life." Shuhua led Tongshu to sit down on the sofa and patted her hand as she spoke.
Tong Shu could sense that her second aunt's family hadn't been to the island for the past three days. She hadn't come out because she was too tired and didn't know how to face them.
"...Sister Xiao, how is she?" Tong Shu asked in a hoarse voice.
“She’s not quite right in the head,” Shu Hua said softly. “...Your aunt checked her over and found that the injury wasn’t serious. She just had a shock and couldn’t process it. A-Jie isn’t a psychologist and can’t treat this. Your aunt is spending all her time with Xiao Xiao now, hoping that staying home will help her get better.”
At this point, Shu Hua leaned closer and whispered in Tong Shu's ear, "Xiao Xiao can't stand seeing men right now. A-Jie is a little better, but she screams loudly when she sees her father and two uncles. Now your second uncle sleeps with A-Jie."
Thinking of the vicious face of the thug she had seen that night, Tong Shu felt a wave of nausea rising in her chest, followed by a surge of anger that burned her heart and lungs.
She leaned back on the sofa and pondered for a while. Ignoring Shu Hua's questions, she went into her room, changed her clothes, and went out.
Shu Hua couldn't stop her; she could only watch her walk away with a worried expression.
Tong Shu went to the supply ship to find Wen Shaocheng.
Wen Shaocheng was talking to Liu Wanqi about the group of foreign thugs when Tong Shu came in, and the two of them tacitly shut up.
"Go back first, write a plan and give it to me tomorrow," Wen Shaocheng said to Liu Wanqi. Liu Wanqi put away the documents and went out, then tactfully closed the door behind him.
Tong Shu, with a sullen face, sat down opposite Wen Shaocheng without waiting for his invitation.
Wen Shaocheng raised an eyebrow, not feeling offended, and asked good-naturedly, "Why are you here at this time? Is everything alright at home?"
Tong Shu didn't want to answer the question. She listened to the surrounding noises and, after confirming that no one was around, she asked, "Major Wen, what did you use to wound that scoundrel that night?"
Wen Shaocheng's smile vanished, and his eyes sharpened.
"You should know that I am allowed to carry a gun in the military."
Tong Shu curled the corners of her lips: "If it were just an ordinary gun, I wouldn't have made a special trip here. What I'm asking about is that thing that's emitting a green glow."
Wen Shaocheng was now certain that Tong Shu was indeed different from ordinary people; she could see things that others couldn't.
Wen Shaocheng's gun came from another world, or more precisely, a game world. It happened during his vacation before the apocalypse. Bored, he was playing video games in his dorm when, for some reason, the cartridge slot malfunctioned, ejecting the cartridge and shooting it directly into his eyes. His superhuman reflexes allowed him to raise his right arm to block it, and the cartridge embedded itself in his right arm. Then, the world spun around him, and he found himself in his familiar game world.
This is a game where you collect all sorts of amazing resources and assemble your own weapons. Wen Shaocheng enjoys using it to pass the time in his spare time. After entering the game world, even the usually composed Wen Shaocheng took quite a while to accept this fact. The green-glowing gun that Tong Shu saw was Wen Shaocheng's own masterpiece. He could take the weapon out of the game world, but others couldn't see or touch it. He tested it on Liu Wanqi several times, but unexpectedly, Tong Shu saw it in the end.
Wen Shaocheng flipped his right hand, and a gun landed in his palm. He placed the gun on the table, but his eyes remained fixed on Tong Shu.
Tong Shu frowned as she looked at the gun that had been taken from under the desk.
It was strange; its appearance was very rough, and it didn't even look like metal. Tong Shu had no interest in weapons and knew nothing about them, but even so, she could sense that this gun was not a gun in the ordinary sense.
"So ugly," Tong Shu commented.
Wen Shaocheng remained silent, glancing at her with a hesitant expression.
"Can I take a look?" Tong Shu asked.
Wen Shaocheng nodded, and Tong Shu reached out without ceremony, picked up the gun, and weighed it in her hand. It was very light, like it was made of wood. Could wood be used to make a gun?
Tong Shu put the gun back and asked him again, "A gun that glows green, what kind of high-tech is that? I don't think your comrades are surprised." Tong Shu had only intended to bluff him, but it turned out to be a real weapon.
Wen Shaocheng shook his head, no longer intending to test Tong Shu. He said directly, "Only you can see it."
Now it was Tong Shu's turn to be surprised. She opened her eyes wide, finding it hard to process what Wen Shaocheng had said.
"Tell me about yourself, your prophetic abilities, and those resources."
Tong Shu panicked, but still stubbornly insisted, "What supplies? Don't you already know? They were what our family went out to exchange for."
Wen Shaocheng stared intently into her evasive eyes and said, "Fine, then I'll tell you where this gun came from."
He pulled his right hand out of his cotton coat and rolled up the other clothes layer by layer. When the last black thermal underwear was rolled up, Tong Shu saw the scar on Wen Shaocheng's arm, about the length of a finger joint. The scar had healed and was slightly lighter in color than the surrounding skin, with some black showing through underneath.
He was gambling that Tong Shu had the same marks on him.
Tong Shu stared blankly at the scar, her right hand involuntarily reaching out, her fingertips lightly touching the raised surface, while her left palm slightly opened and slowly covered her heart.
"...Have you died before?"
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