Chapter 10 Emergency Notice
Just as most people gathered around the table, enjoying their first proper dinner of the day, messages popped up one after another in the community chat group. "Notice, notice, emergency situation. We've received a notification from above that an unknown poisonous fog is rapidly approaching China from the US. Many Chinese cities have already been affected by this toxic fog. Breathing it can cause suffocation and death. Everyone, please close doors and windows immediately and seal any gaps with tape. Remember, do not go out."
The community staff tagged everyone in each of their groups with this message, and they sent more than 20 messages in a row before they stopped.
As they were sending messages to the group, the community radio kept repeating the same notice: "Emergency notice, emergency notice, toxic fog is approaching. Everyone, please close your doors and windows immediately and tape the gaps. Please remember, do not go out. Do not go out."
However, their community was not the only one that released this news. Almost at the same time, the entire J city was in an uproar.
"Oh my god, I just picked up the chopsticks, what's going on? Can I eat properly now?"
"What are you going to eat? Hurry up and close the doors and windows. If you get caught in the poisonous fog, you won't be able to eat anything."
"I'm cooking, and this dish is half cooked. Should I close the door or cook?"
"Are the people upstairs stupid? What's more important, food or life? You see, this situation must be very urgent. Hurry up and close the doors and windows and seal the gaps."
"That's right. As long as you're still breathing, why worry about not having time to eat?"
The community's emergency notice was repeated non-stop, and this behavior indeed increased the tension of many residents. After all, no one had seen such a thing in the past few hundred years. Everyone knew that if the poisonous fog situation was not particularly serious, the community staff would not play the notice in a loop like this. No one wanted to die, and no one was willing to die, so naturally they acted according to the community's requirements while cursing.
But in this world, there are always people who believe it, and there are always people who don’t believe it, and there are even some people who think it is a prank.
"Poisonous fog? What the hell is poisonous fog? I've lived for decades and have never heard of such a thing. I won't close the door or the window, just wait and see what this poisonous fog can do to me."
"The upstairs guy is awesome! My doors and windows are already closed. If someone upstairs is exposed to the poisonous mist, please tell me what happened."
"Yes, we also want to know whether this is alarmist or true, but I don't dare to take the risk with my family, so I'll just wait and see the results upstairs."
"Are you stupid? If you inhale the poisonous mist, you will die. What else can he tell us?"
"That's true. If there's no result, then the poisonous fog is really poisonous. If there is a result, then the poisonous fog is fake."
"You are all so boring, playing with your lives. Listen to me and quickly close the doors and windows. You can't gamble your life on anything else."
"But I also feel like this is so fake. Could it just be a community drill? Like they do in Japan, with earthquake drills and tsunami drills?"
"The one above, where is the Little Country anymore? It's been buried underwater for a long time."
"Let me give you an example."
"Can't you use another analogy? It sounds disgusting."
Seeing everyone's chat in the group chat becoming increasingly playful, the community staff member announced again on the radio: "Please take the toxic fog issue seriously. This is not a game. Once again, this is not a game, nor is it a drill. You only have one life, so please cherish it. The toxic fog is about to arrive in J City. Please quickly seal your doors and windows. Please leave without delay. Remember, please leave without delay."
However, the community staff only said the toxic fog would arrive, but didn't say when it would dissipate. Someone in the group quickly asked, "No, the toxic fog came so quickly, I haven't bought any food to keep at home yet. The small amount of food we have today won't last two days. When will the toxic fog dissipate? Or when will it arrive? This will give us some time to go out and prepare some food."
"Yeah, how long will it take for the poisonous fog to dissipate? It can't starve us to death."
"Yeah, we can't be unaware of when it's coming or when it's going to dissipate, right? If the poisonous fog doesn't dissipate for a few days, we'll all starve to death at home."
"Yes, there is nothing to eat at home. If you keep me locked up for a few days, I will starve to death at home.
The community staff tagged everyone and said, "There will be arrangements later. Please seal the doors and windows first."
Looking at the two busy work groups on her phone, Lan Jin hurriedly got busy with the things at hand. She had already closed the doors and windows, but she had not sealed the gaps. The main reason was that the poisonous fog had not come yet, and she couldn't seal the house too tightly. Now that the community had been notified, it was not too late to seal it tightly.
She was busy at the doors and windows, while a child and a dog were sitting on a chair and the ground respectively, chewing the braised chicken legs in their hands obediently. After she finished working on the doors and windows, she placed several potted plants in various corners of the house, as a small change of fresh air for the house. The potted plants were also very cheap. She bought them just to make up the number of people, and now they were in use.
Of course, she was still worried about placing the potted plants, so she also took out the air purifiers, a big one in the living room and a small one in the bedroom.
When all this was done, she suddenly remembered that the windows of the emergency passage and elevator passage had not been glued on yet.
That's right, even if the elevator doesn't go to the 32nd floor, there is still an elevator passage. The doors for entering and exiting the elevator are just sealed with bricks, so there is also a ventilation window next to the elevator. She has always lived alone on the first floor, and for the sake of ventilation, the window there has never been closed, so she quickly closed it now.
Speaking of the safety (fire) passage, it is also on each floor... Oh no, the window of the fire passage here is shared by two floors. It is not a large two-story floor-to-ceiling window, but a small window half the height of a person stuck between the two stairs on the 32nd and 33rd floors. In short, you can see at a glance that this is also a symbol of incomplete building design, because no one would design windows like this, not even for a safety passage.
But anyway, the windows of these two floors are connected, so just seal them quickly.
Lan Jin took the tape and scissors to seal the window on the elevator side, and then went to the emergency passage. As soon as Lan Jin arrived here, she saw a boy busy at the window. She remembered that the community staff said that a teenage boy lived upstairs, so she thought it must be him.
She had lived here for over a month, but this was the first time she had seen the boy. Lan Jin asked, "Do you live upstairs? I live on the 32nd floor."
When Lan Jin appeared in the emergency passage, the boy noticed her. When Lan Jin spoke, the little boy quickly replied, "Yes, I live upstairs."
(End of this chapter)
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