Chapter 296

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Main Character:

Shen Yao

For the next two years, Shen Yao lived at her own pace.

After all, the natural disaster had not yet arrived; all Shen Yao could do was prepare in advance and wait, so as not to be caught off guard and not know what to do when the disaster struck.

"However, the officials have already made preparations; it seems the beginning won't be too hard."

Shen Yao persistently sent emails, using up who knows how much of the merit she had accumulated earlier.

Fortunately, the final result was good; the officials went from disbelief to suspicion to belief, and by now had already arranged backup plans in many places in advance — all of this was the result of Shen Yao's efforts, and also the guarantee that ordinary people would be able to live normally in the future.

The natural disaster cannot be avoided, so the country's internal order needs stability all the more.

"The natural disaster has no end; the national order will ultimately decline as well." When natural disasters occur one after another, even the most stable regime won't last long.

The System pried some words from the World Consciousness, none of them good, greatly lowering the System's confidence in the Host; if the Host hadn't been prepared early on, the System would likely have declared mission failure and given up entirely.

With the Host's accumulation, a few mission failures can still be borne; at worst, they'll work harder in the next world to make up the rewards.

"That's all for later; right now we just need to watch how long this current drought lasts." Shen Yao finished speaking and looked up at the sky.

It was March, clearly it should have been warm with flowers blooming, but a late spring cold snap caused the temperature in all of Jiang City to plummet.

Shen Yao had been back at school for over a week, and the thin shirt on her body had been swapped for a thick coat.

She had no classes today; Shen Yao didn't run to the library to study as usual. She simply ate breakfast, then hugged her laptop and sat on the bed reading the news.

The domestic and international situation was not optimistic, especially last year's heavy snow — even tropical countries experienced cooling, leading to reduced harvests in the Southern Hemisphere, and a visible gap in food supply.

However, this is the situation seen from a global scope; speaking solely of the domestic situation, the country has recently been spending money to import foreign grain.

Although this matter fermented online and inevitably got amplified and attacked by the media, and was also turned into conspiracy theories by ill-intentioned people on the foreign internet, the tangible benefits still landed in their own pockets.

It was also from these clues that Shen Yao understood the country was taking action; although they couldn't make a big show of it, these preparations would definitely play a critical role in the near future.

"Just hope the officials can hold on, survive the most dangerous period." The rest is a smooth road; even if the natural disaster doesn't end, humans are creatures with strong adaptability — as long as they can survive, they'll persist even if they have to grit their teeth.

Closing the open webpage, Shen Yao stood up intending to go downstairs to buy food, but unexpectedly the x-message avatar at the very bottom flashed — a message had come in.

She clicked the avatar; the one who popped up was the website editor she had collaborated with before.

The books she wrote had good returns; the publisher intended to publish them and sell the rights, and if everything went smoothly, Shen Yao would have a sum of money deposited into her account recently.

She tapped the keyboard to reply a few sentences, closed the chat window in the upper right corner, but didn't want another new message to pop up — it was Wei Mingyu, far away thousands of miles.

"Bought you some water and food, can be stored for a long time." Wei Mingyu always spoke directly; a simple line of text, followed by pictures below.

Shen Yao's fingertips moved slightly, replying with a "thank you."

No message came from the other side; presumably he was busy. Shen Yao exhaled, suddenly admiring the officials' deeper intent behind this move.

That's right; this kind of buying water and grain started from vague rumors that leaked out at the beginning of the year.

The source was internal to the officials, saying the year's prospects were bad, affecting grain harvests, and the neighboring nuclear pollution had escalated, seriously endangering drinking water safety.

Starting from the beginning of the year, one wave after another of panic buying was spawned.

It was real panic buying; people have a herd mentality — as long as enough people are buying, the truth or falsity of the news is no longer the key.

Shen Yao also took the opportunity at that time to purchase rice, flour, oil, and daily drinking water that could be stored for a long time; later, when Shen Yao returned to university, this task was temporarily entrusted to Wei Mingyu, which led to their chat content.

As for whether this news was true or false, all kinds of things were said online, and the officials also posted various ambiguous debunking posts, causing the more they debunked, the more people panic-bought.

Currently, even the student dormitory Shen Yao lives in has stockpiled quite a lot of instant noodles, canned food, and the like; one can imagine how much stuff ordinary civilian households would have.

"System, how much longer?" Shen Yao got off the bed, put on her clothes, and went downstairs to the canteen to get food.

"Host, no more than three months; the time has changed." Originally there was still half a year, but with natural disasters no one can say for sure; they are not human-controllable.

The System did a routine monitoring sweep, and the result scared it into being even more frightened and apprehensive; fortunately it's just a System, hiding in Shen Yao's mind where others can't find it.

"No more than three months." Shen Yao calculated carefully, thinking that would be right around May; she would take the opportunity of the holiday to return to Rimu City then, and wouldn't come back for classes.

"So fast." Gazing at the lively, clamorous canteen, she thought this kind of scene probably wouldn't be seen many more times; if she wanted to come back in the future, it would certainly be thousands of times more difficult than now.

She randomly found a window to queue at; Shen Yao picked the flavors she liked while getting food.

Especially she loved the canteen's boiled fish — eating it was sour and spicy, exceptionally appetizing; rumor had it was the canteen auntie's secret recipe, and if taken out to sell, people would pay high prices to buy it.

"Shen Yao"

Shen Yao sat down, and her shoulder was patted by a hand from behind.

"Xiao Yun"

It was Zhou Yun, also Shen Yao's classmate in the same department; their relationship was ordinary.

"Shen Yao, the class monitor's birthday is in a few days; everyone wants to go out to eat. Will you go?" Zhou Yun had a cute baby face, with a chin-length bob.

Shen Yao pondered for a moment, shook her head. "No, I have things to take care of these few days." The royalty matter needed her to handle it; it concerned her future source of expenses, so she had to personally make a trip to be at ease.

Zhou Yun looked a bit disappointed hearing this, but Shen Yao never liked this kind of gathering anyway; they were used to it long ago. "Next time when you're free we'll do it together; we said with more people we can go camping for a couple days."

They're university students; no matter how busy the studies, there's still time to be carefree. Especially Jiang University isn't some prestigious school; the daily demands aren't as cutthroat as those famous schools.

Shen Yao's time at school wasn't much; even so, her grades still ranked at the top. From this it can be seen that truly capable people who can settle down to study are only a minority.

She chatted with Zhou Yun for a while more, until Shen Yao finished the food in front of her, then she stood up and went back to the dormitory.

If she can avoid moving, she won't move. Although the System said the natural disaster would descend in May, before that, various disasters would also appear around them.

Just like Jiang City — recently there was a sudden incident of wild boars in the mountains injuring people, which directly hit the top five hot searches.

Shen Yao couldn't figure out why there would be wild boars here in Jiang City, but wild boars injuring many people and even rushing into the urban area — these are all omens before the natural disaster arrives.

Animals are more sensitive than humans; they can better detect where is not very safe, so they run out in groups, aiming to avoid calamity.

Unfortunately, the mountain forests have been developed to a jumbled mess; wild beasts running down from the mountain is no different from seeking their own death.

The time back in the dormitory was boring; all Shen Yao could do was write and draw, first complete her own daily tasks, and not forget to go online to read news, or open shopping apps to buy things and mail them home.

With Wei Mingyu as this tool person, Shen Yao didn't worry about the packages having nowhere to be placed.

Besides, just because Wei Mingyu helped her carry water and grain, Shen Yao didn't worry that he had any ill intentions.

People all help themselves first before helping others; Wei Mingyu definitely waited until his own purchasing was more or less done before he was willing to help handle Shen Yao's matters — on the premise of not affecting himself, there are many kind people.

……

A week later in the afternoon, Shen Yao watched her roommates run off to go camping in high spirits.

Zhou Yun's words still became reality in the end; even if Shen Yao didn't go, a class has at least 30 people, and with them airing things out among themselves, there were quite a few.

The whole bunch had been cooped up in school for a long time, so they simply ran off to camp and relax.

Although Shen Yao warned that camping wasn't safe, and cited the recent example of wild boars coming down the mountain, she still couldn't stop everyone's determination to go have fun.

Good words can't persuade the damned ghost; Shen Yao watched everyone leave with a calm face, and as expected, within three days she received news from the camping trip — someone had been bitten by a snake and was rushed to the hospital for emergency treatment.

Shen Yao: ……

Shen Yao looked at her roommates returning in tears, unable to utter words of comfort.

What could she say? The classmate lying in the hospital still hadn't escaped danger; anything more she said would just be nonsense.

Forget it; she offered a couple of sentences of verbal comfort, and after confirming it had no use whatsoever, Shen Yao continued doing her own thing.

Only her inaction somewhat angered this group of classmates who had just gone through life and death; Shen Yao was tacitly ostracized by everyone, more severely than before.

Shen Yao: ……

"I've attended this many universities, and only this time have I seen it all."

Elementary school kids fighting? Even forming a small clique — simply laughable.

"They're displacing their anger, pinning the matter on you," it had nothing to do with Shen Yao to begin with, nor was it Shen Yao who organized the camping trip.

Even before going camping, Shen Yao had advised them not to go.

The System witnessed species diversity and felt these people were even more shameless than itself, hmph! Just wait until difficulties come later — careful they don't get kicked while they're down by their own Host.

"I'm not that petty; besides, the camping initiator is still lying in the hospital," they just want to find trouble but have no way to do it.

Shen Yao being targeted for displaced anger is just a fig leaf for the other side's impotent rage; there's no conflict between them, and as long as time passes, it'll slowly resolve.

"System, have you noticed that wild beasts injuring people has been happening frequently lately, even Jiang City can't avoid it?" She originally planned to go back during the May holiday, but now it seems she has to leave in advance.

"Host, it will become more and more frequent later, just like migratory birds migrate before an earthquake, and ants crawl out and dragonflies fly low before rain — this is normal behavior in nature," the System finished, then advised the Host to leave quickly.

Although Rimu City also has mountain forests, Rimu City's elevation is relatively high, so there aren't many wild beasts living in the woods; weighing the two harms and taking the lighter, going back is still safer.

"You're right; taking advantage of the opportunity, I should go," staying any longer would truly be unwise; Jiang City isn't Shen Yao's chosen landing spot anyway.

Said and done; Shen Yao turned around and requested a period of leave from the Counselor on the grounds of dormitory conflicts.

Of course, leave isn't easy to get; students still have to study properly, but Shen Yao has money, plus Jiang University manages things relatively loosely, so her leaving really wasn't a big deal.

Having handled these matters very easily, Shen Yao grabbed her luggage and left extremely fast, not even exchanging a word of explanation with this group of roommates she'd lived with for over two years.

Mountains high, waters long; the rivers-and-lakes road is far — if we're fortunate enough to meet again, catching up won't be late.

"Host, you don't want to get too entangled with them, right?"

The System saw through the Host's heart, feeling the Host's roommates and classmates were all too stupid — such a big incident happened during camping, yet they didn't go home to recover, but still had the mood to stay at school.

Everyone coming here to study isn't easy; most aren't local residents.

Once something happens in Jiang City and transportation has problems, they won't be able to go home even if they want to.

How can school be safer than home? Who knows if the Official side will notify evacuation in advance.

"Won't happen; with an uncertain time, how to arrange?" One or two days is fine, but three to five days? One month or two months?

These are all factors that need consideration; word to stockpile has already been released, the Official side is also working hard to help the masses self-rescue, presumably more still depends on individual choice.

Shen Yao took a plane back to Rimu City; the round trip took no more than a day.

Departed in the morning, arrived home in the evening.

Looking at the spacious living room piled full of items, Shen Yao let go of the luggage in her hand, walked to the sofa and sat down.

Mind emptied, not thinking of anything, not considering anything, just letting herself go with the flow.

Unknown how much time passed, Shen Yao opened her eyes, her original emotions swept clean.

Stood up, using the space's characteristics to organize the living room's items, brought a basin of clear water to tidy the room.

Because she came back relatively late this time, Shen Yao only cleaned the bedroom, then went to the bathroom to take a hot water bath and went straight to sleep.

By early morning the next day, Shen Yao got up and continued cleaning the entire room.

The cleaning personnel requested long ago no longer came; no one lives here, and even with Wei Mingyu helping, a thin layer of dust had still accumulated.

Fortunately Shen Yao hadn't been idle during her two years at university; the physical stamina she should have was still there; spending roughly a whole morning cleaning all several rooms spotless, Shen Yao exhaled, her whole person becoming fresh and bright.

Not cooking herself, she chose to order a portion of fried chicken takeout. Shen Yao tilted her head to look out the glass window, admiring Rimu City's beautiful scenery.

Thump thump thump——

The door was knocked; Shen Yao got up to open it, and saw Wei Mingyu steaming with heat.

Wei Mingyu appeared slightly awkward, a bit ill at ease, "This is your house key; when you have time, change to a new one."

A young girl living alone; Wei Mingyu, priding himself as an upright gentleman, also felt it improper to hold the key to someone else's front door.

Shen Yao smiled and nodded, then gave him some specialty products she'd brought back from Jiang City.

Wei Mingyu had known about her return long ago; thinking the police station was busier than usual, he tactfully reminded Shen Yao that it's better to believe it exists than not, "You're alone in Jiang City, unfamiliar with the place and people; why not stay here?"

If something really happens, with me around, I'll always be able to look after you.