Chapter 84 Shi Guangyao?
Why not take advantage of my own parents' money?
Sun Wei was very self-righteous.
She firmly stated that she had done market research, that this was all she wanted, and that she would take responsibility for any excess.
Liao Ya-hui and the other woman looked incredulous, but probably wanting to teach her a lesson, they didn't say anything more and agreed.
Sun Wei had thought it through clearly. Once the meat arrived, she would first fill up her and her roommates' cold storage, and then distribute the rest to her classmates. The school had cold storage; such a small amount of meat would barely fill a gap between more than two thousand people.
She would have thought it wasn't enough if she weren't afraid of arousing her parents' suspicions.
Sun Wei was worried that if she asked for too much, her parents would think she was unreliable and would simply refuse to cooperate, so she should reconsider.
Actually, during this period, all the students in the school were trying to find ways to move things into the school, and Sun Wei's act of pretending to open a shop was not the most outrageous.
Initially, the students shopped online or found people on forums to directly wholesale goods from manufacturers. If they found a bargain, they would share it on the forum.
With over two thousand people searching the entire internet for cheap merchants, it's inevitable that they'll bump into each other, not to mention they share information. Sometimes, on the same day, even several students from Fangzhou will place orders with the same vendor.
Gradually, some merchants realized something was wrong.
Why are there so many buyers with the same address, and why are they ordering such large quantities? The delivery address is clearly a school, but the items being bought are things like generators, matches, and compressed biscuits—things that students don't need for daily life at all.
Even if someone were to eat compressed biscuits in their dorm room, would they really buy several boxes at once?
Doesn't their school have a cafeteria?
Later, some students received private messages from the merchant after placing their orders.
The other party asked very politely and cautiously if our school did not have a policy to support impoverished students, which is why so many people have to rely on compressed biscuits to survive.
"Compressed biscuits are so unhealthy! Tell me quietly, did the school administration embezzle the subsidies? Do you need me to report this to them?" the enthusiastic and caring merchant said with a strong sense of justice.
The student was so frightened that he quickly made an excuse, saying that he had spent his living expenses on in-game purchases, so he could only afford to eat this at the end of the month, which dispelled the other party's suspicions.
That's not all. What's even more terrifying is that a group of students saw a charcoal store having a clearance sale, so they pooled their money to buy a truckload of charcoal braziers. The order time was right before the end of the semester, so the moment they placed the order, the cyber police called them.
The group was terrified. After a moment of conversation, they realized that they had bought too much charcoal, and the merchant thought they had done poorly on their final exams and were planning to commit suicide by burning charcoal.
Students: "..."
"Don't be so suicidal at such a young age. Should I talk to your school leaders?" the person on the other end kindly asked during the silence.
Actually, buying charcoal wouldn't have aroused suspicion in the first place. The problem arose when the person in charge of taking the order caught a glimpse of the "buy one get one free" service at the checkout. Tempted by the attractive price, they ended up buying several rolls of wide tape as well...
Even they themselves felt a strong sense of suspicion when reviewing their order records.
Fearing that their foolish mistake would be reported to the principal, the group had no choice but to lie and say that they had made a mistake in the quantity, which resolved the issue.
As the incidents accumulated, even Fu Qing herself wouldn't know how much blame she had taken for the students' frenzied hoarding these past few days.
Sending the goods to the school in bulk through group orders would be too conspicuous, so someone suggested renting several warehouses in the suburbs of S City and sending the ordered goods there.
Students with cars then moved the items back to school in batches.
Some classmates, whose family situations were similar to Sun Wei's, turned to their own families for solutions. After all, college students are not wealthy, with most only having a little over a thousand yuan in living expenses each month. Getting goods from their own families could at least save their classmates some money.
Some people whose families owned clothing factories lied and claimed they were going to do live-streaming sales. They took a batch of down jackets to school and sold them directly on a forum at cost price. They gave the recovered cost to their families, pretending to keep the "profits," but in reality, they didn't make a single penny.
Of course, the price was that the student had to do live streams for a whole semester and even begged classmates who had bought his down jackets to come and support him in the live streams to avoid arousing suspicion from his family.
It was incredibly embarrassing.
Throughout the summer vacation, students racked their brains to stock up on goods and persuade their parents and relatives to go to City S with them.
Some people whose homes are far away are extremely nervous as the apocalypse approaches, checking their home supplies and weapons countless times every day.
Song Rushuang would pull out the weapon case under the bed more than ten times a day just to check if the blades were rusty. The hiking backpack in the corner of the room was already full of survival supplies. She even took the time to sew two neck warmers for Xu Mingyu and Song Jianguo, padding them with thick cushions so that they would be difficult to cut with a knife in one go.
Even while eating, she was restless, nervously biting her chopsticks and staring intently at the news playing on the television next to her.
"Good evening, everyone. Today is August 23rd, Friday, according to the lunar calendar..."
At 8 o'clock sharp, the male and female anchors appeared on the screen as always. Their familiar broadcasting tone and faint smiles made it hard to imagine that this was the day before the virus outbreak.
Apart from the more than two thousand teachers and students in Fangzhou and the instigator hiding in the shadows, no one else will know that tomorrow a disaster will befall humanity, one that could overturn the fate of the entire species.
Her parents sat with her at the dining table, chatting quietly about trivial matters at work. On the television, the anchor's voice was calm and composed. Children on summer vacation were running and making noise downstairs. Further away in the community activity area, the first square dance music had already started playing enthusiastically.
All these sounds intertwined, entered Song Rushuang's ears, and then gradually faded away.
Song Rushuang suddenly felt her mouth was dry and the food in her mouth had lost its flavor.
The virus will break out on August 24th, with only one day left.
What hasn't been done yet? What can still be done?
She suddenly felt terrified. For a moment, she even felt that the past year had been an unreal dream, and now that the dream was about to end, she didn't know what kind of reality she would see when she opened her eyes.
"...Xiao Shuang...Xiao Shuang...Xiao Shuang?!"
Someone gave Song Rushuang's shoulder a hard shove, startling her out of her daze.
Song Rushuang was like a drowning person suddenly pulled to the surface, her forehead soaked with sweat, her chest heaving as she looked at Xu Mingyu in front of her: "...Huh?"
"What's wrong? Did you get heatstroke?" Xu Mingyu, dressed in sportswear, touched her cold forehead. "Your dad and I are going for a run in the park. Do you want to come? If not, you can wash the dishes at home later."
After a summer of persuasion from Song Rushuang, the two finally began to develop the habit of exercising. These past few days, Xu Mingyu has just gotten through the initial painful period of exercise and is beginning to experience the pleasure brought by dopamine and endorphins.
She's now really into running, and even bought new running shoes. Every evening after dinner when it's not too hot, she goes for a run in the park.
"Oh, you guys go ahead, be careful." Song Rushuang adjusted her breathing, feeling somewhat ashamed.
A year has passed. In some ways, she has undergone tremendous changes, but in others, it seems that she has never changed at all.
She is still that child who gets nervous and fearful in front of every important occasion, and wishes she could turn around and run away.
In this respect, Shen Qingqing did a much better job than her.
No matter the difficulty of the dungeon or the strength of the enemy, she can always quickly adjust herself, as if a powerful force is pushing her forward, never shrinking back and never looking back.
Song Rushuang admired and respected Shen Qingqing.
But since she can't become her, she can only try her best to be a good, half-baked "Song Rushuang".
In the hallway, Xu Mingyu, who was about to leave, poked her head out again: "Oh, by the way, your phone has been ringing since just now, remember to answer it!"
Song Rushuang got up and picked up her phone.
I opened the chat app, and sure enough, it was the four of us from the dorm chatting.
All four of them were very talkative, and within a short time of not checking their phones, they had accumulated hundreds of unread messages.
Zhang Han: [Report! We have arrived in S City with our family.]
Zhang Han: [Sharing Location]
Zhang Han: [Let me show you all the delicious food I ate along the way!]
Zhang Han: [Photos][Photos][Photos]...
Zhang Han spent the entire summer vacation running around.
She has a large family; her grandparents and maternal grandparents are all still alive, and both her parents have many siblings. The relatives are all very close. Zhang Han couldn't possibly bring everyone into the shelter, and she had been worrying about this for most of the semester. The only thing that gave her some comfort was that the elderly people all had their children with them and wouldn't be left unattended.
Just before the holiday, Sun Wei shared her plans to pretend to start a business in the dormitory, and Zhang Han finally had a flash of inspiration and came up with a brilliant idea.
Sun Wei can pretend to start a business; she can pretend to have failed!
Given her usual image, this move seems quite credible.
Zhang Han's parents doted on her, giving her several thousand yuan in living expenses every month. During holidays, relatives would also give her extra pocket money. She couldn't spend it all at school, so she saved most of it, which her family knew.
Taking advantage of this, Zhang Han would go home for vacation and tearfully tell her parents that she had tried to start a business with netizens, but had bought a lot of goods that she couldn't sell and were stuck with.
"I wanted to buy some health supplements for my grandparents, but all they brought me were common medicines that can be bought at pharmacies, not expensive at all!" Zhang Han held her phone and showed the elderly people on the other end of the video call a large box of medicine next to her. She cried her heart out, breaking the hearts of both sets of grandparents. They called her their darlings and divided the medicine among themselves, promising Zhang Han that they wouldn't give it to anyone else and would keep it for themselves when needed.
Zhang Han then hiccuped and continued wiping her tears with the back of her hand: "I also ate a lot of food..."
"I wanted to earn more money to buy gifts for my family, but I was scammed out of all my money. How could I be so stupid... I don't want to live anymore. I'm so sorry..."
Zhang Han's uncles, aunts, aunts, uncles, aunts, and uncles-in-law all said, "It's okay, we'll buy it! We love to eat it!"
"But then there won't be any gifts..."
The relatives declared without hesitation: "This is the best and most practical gift!"
The next day, the relatives came to Zhang Han's house and took away all the rice, flour, and cooking oil that Zhang Han had "brought in."
Because it was a "gift," and they were afraid Zhang Han would be upset if she found out, they promised not to give it away. A week later, Zhang Han visited everyone's homes and found that the food was still safely stored away, so she was satisfied.
The remaining three girls in the dormitory watched the whole thing and were amazed.
All I can say is that this is a very "Zhang Han" method.
To comfort their injured daughter, when Zhang Han asked her parents to accompany her back to school, they agreed without hesitation.
The three of them set off two weeks in advance, traveled around the country, and finally arrived in S City on the last day.
Zhang Han had asked Song Rushuang for her address beforehand, and booked a hotel next to her house. Because weapons couldn't pass through security and she was worried she wouldn't be able to bring them back, this out-of-towner had stored a copy of her handy weapon case at Song Rushuang's house before her holiday.
The two plan to drive their parents to school together.
Zhang Han shared a bunch of food photos, which made Song Rushuang, who didn't have much of an appetite for dinner, very hungry.
Sun Wei: [I envy you. I've been so anxious lately that I can't eat anything at all; I have to force myself to eat.]
With the apocalypse looming, perhaps only Zhang Han has the nerve to go on a two-week trip. Zhang Han: [Hehe, I was just thinking that if something were to happen, I should at least see all the beautiful landscapes of my country before I die, right? I've already missed out on so much in the first eighteen years of my life because of school!]
Zhang Han: [Besides, once we're in the shelter, we'll be fine, but my parents will probably have a hard time getting out before the apocalypse ends. I believe that when they find out the truth, they'll be happy that they got to go on a trip before then.]
Zhang Han: [I'm not as capable as you guys; all I can do for them is bring them a good mood.]
Song Rushuang fell silent for a moment, then realized that Zhang Han was right—of course, she didn't regret not going on the trip.
She's been busy with other things these past two months, including getting her parents to exercise, so she hasn't had the time.
Everyone faces the end of the world differently; there is no right or wrong.
Shen Qingqing appeared and replied to Zhang Han's initial question.
Shen Qingqing: [What if? Quickly touch the wood, ptooey!]
Zhang Han: [Qingqing...you weren't a superstitious person after all.]
Shen Qingqing: [I firmly believe that the apocalypse will pass, and we will all survive.]
Zhang Han obediently replied: [Okay, ptooey, ptooey.]
Finally, she asked everyone how their preparations were going.
Sun Wei: [I just finished checking and loading the goods onto the truck today. I'm driving myself, and we'll leave first thing tomorrow morning. I don't trust the hired driver.]
She had considered leaving a day earlier today, but the distance between City A and City S is normally only four hours by car. Even if the principal covered up her lie and let her and her parents into the school, Sun Miao and her companion wouldn't be able to see the barbecue stall.
Liao Ya Hui has a fiery temper, and Sun Wei is afraid that if she can't explain herself properly, Liao Ya Hui will think she is lying—what if she gets angry and books a train ticket to go straight back to City A?
The apocalypse hadn't happened yet, the restrictions were still in place, and she had no way to explain the truth to her mother.
So even though the checkpoint was somewhat dangerous, Sun Wei decided to set off on the morning of the apocalypse.
Fortunately, she could drive a small refrigerated truck with her C1 driver's license; otherwise, Sun Wei would have had to drive another car behind the driver, and the risk of being stranded on the road would have been even greater if something went wrong.
Shen Qingqing replied to Sun Wei: [Drive safely.]
Sun Wei: [What about you? Didn't you say you were planning to book train tickets for today? I didn't see you say you'd left.]
Shen Qingqing: [...I ran into a little trouble here, I'm still at home. But it's nothing serious, I'll be back soon.]
Song Rushuang frowned as she looked at the door. Just as she was about to type a message to inquire about Shen Qingqing's situation, there was a knock on the door.
She opened the door, and in the dimly lit hallway, a blurry figure suddenly threw a bear hug into her arms.
"Surprise!" Zhang Han opened her arms wide and shouted, "Hehe, I've come to play with you!"
Song Rushuang gave her the address, and Zhang Han asked for directions all the way there, clinging to Song Rushuang and refusing to let go.
She looked smug: "Surprised?"
"A pleasant surprise." Song Rushuang couldn't help but smile.
Even if you only separate from your roommates for a short summer vacation, it still feels like a long time.
Song Rushuang's anxious mood during this period was greatly alleviated by Zhang Han's sudden appearance.
“It’s the last day, don’t stay cooped up at home, let’s go out for a walk. I saw a shopping mall nearby.” Zhang Han dragged her towards the door. “I’ve been so bored these past few days, I was afraid my parents would notice something was wrong, so I’ve been pretending to be all gloomy every day…”
Song Rushuang glanced at her watch. The mall was very close, and it would close in less than two hours, so she could indeed take a short stroll around.
"Let's go then, I'll tell my parents." She took out her phone.
The two arrived at the mall just after 8:30. As soon as they arrived, Song Rushuang's gaze instinctively followed the small shops inside: "Hanhan, is there anything you haven't bought yet?"
Cotton swabs, toothpicks, and the like are things you can do without, but would make life a little inconvenient if you didn't have them.
Song Rushuang had stockpiled these items several times, but her main focus was on necessities such as food and medicine.
Now, when she passes by a ten-dollar store, she remembers this incident again.
Zhang Han was unsure: "Should we go in and take a look?"
Just like before a long trip, no matter how well you prepare, you'll always suddenly remember one or two things you forgot to bring. Although the prices in these shopping malls are high, they have a particularly comprehensive selection of small items. Now that it's too late to buy things online at the last minute, these are perfect for supplementing your shopping.
The two entered the store and browsed for a while, but couldn't find what they wanted to buy. However, they unexpectedly spotted a somewhat familiar figure.
Just then, the other person turned around and their eyes met Song Rushuang and Zhang Han's. They were stunned for a moment, and a hint of ferocity suddenly appeared in their eyes.
Zhang Han hesitated, trying hard to recall a name from the depths of her memory.
"...Shi Guangyao?"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
