Chapter 129: Chapter 129: Forestalling Disaster
No. 98 An’an: We can’t. The broadcast said not to go out unless absolutely necessary.
No. 84 Li: Then what are we supposed to do? No one came yesterday, and we’re out of food at home!
No. 79 Uncle Ge Liang: If you need to talk about cooking, do it in a private chat. Don’t discuss irrelevant topics in the group.
No. 75 Translator Qian Tao: I’m asking on behalf of my boss, what’s the plan now? Weren’t we supposed to leave for the safe zone tomorrow afternoon? Can we still go, with things like this?
No. 79 Uncle Ge Liang: Shut up, you little spy! How did you sneak in here? The military’s plans are none of your business. Are you trying to fish for intelligence?
No. 75 Translator Qian Tao: (⊙o⊙)... Be reasonable, sir.
No. 13 Tie Zhu’s Corner Store: Let me tell you something. Which one of you scumbags tried to pry open my warehouse door again last night? Got caught in the rain, did you? Did you report it to the military? I bet you didn’t! I know who you are, hiding at home, too scared to come out. You’ve probably got a high fever by now. Sooner or later, you’ll turn into a zombie and kill your whole family.
No. 79 Uncle Ge Liang: Tie Zhu’s dad, have some decency for your kid’s sake. We’re all neighbors here. Cursing like that isn’t right.
No. 97 Golden Years: Yaoguo, do you have any soy sauce at home? It’d be great if you had Xiao Ning and Xinxin bring half a bottle over to us.
Xie Ning scrolled to this message and rolled her eyes, speechless. "Is this ’No. 97 Golden Years’ your second grand-uncle’s family?"
"Yeah," Song Kexin nodded. "What’s wrong?"
"He wants you to bring him soy sauce."
"What?" Song You’ai felt a surge of anger rush to her head. "That unreliable old man is stirring up trouble again."
Song Yaoguo looked completely embarrassed and coughed lightly. "You’ai, how can you talk about your second uncle like that? Show some respect."
’Even though his brother has been this unreliable from childhood to old age, he still had to give the elder some face...’
"It’s okay, Mom." Xie Ning smiled and kept scrolling. "Sister Song Fu told him off."
No. 97 Song Fu: Xiao Ning, Xinxin, don’t listen to your second grand-uncle’s nonsense. He’s old and confused, just ignore him. If he wants soy sauce, I’ll give him tea and vinegar with his rice later!
No. 59 Village Chief Song Yufu: Everyone, please be patient. Just follow the military’s arrangements. We should have a definitive answer tonight on whether we’re staying or going.
No. 96 Trickling Stream: Sigh, what are we going to do? This is making everyone so anxious.
No. 53 He Dayong’s Mom: Utterly depraved and lawless! No. 85 Xie Ning kicked us, a widow and her son, out of our home! She made us live in a pile of dead bodies! There’s no justice, all morality is gone!
No. 97 Song Fu: What the hell are you talking about? Who are you? Who’s He Dayong? I’ve never even heard of your family in the Song Family Pavilion.
System Notification: No. 53 He Dayong’s Mom has been kicked from the group chat by an administrator.
The group owner has enabled mute-all mode.
Xie Ning felt exasperated and checked the group owner’s information.
She found that the group owner was Lu Wei, and an administrator was Gu Chen.
This Xiao Gu had secretly added Song Kexin as a friend, and he had secretly chatted with Song Kexin about her both yesterday and just three minutes ago...
Gu Chen: Could you please share your sister’s contact with me?
Song Kexin: Okay.
Gu Chen: She hasn’t added me!
Song Kexin: The internet is spotty right now. Maybe she didn’t see it?
Gu Chen: Could you please give her a subtle reminder?
Song Kexin: I’ll call her downstairs and tell her. She probably hasn’t been looking at her phone at all.
Xie Ning expressionlessly turned her face to look at her dear little sister.
Song Kexin was chewing on a sausage. Seeing her sister looking, she grinned. "Sis, Brother Gu Chen is looking for you. He wants you to add him."
Xie Ning hadn’t even glanced at her phone for the past two days. Now that she pulled it out, she saw the battery was low.
"The internet keeps going in and out. Who knows when it’ll cut out completely," Song Kexin muttered.
Xie Ning fished a power bank out of her bag, plugged in her phone to charge for a bit, and, while she was at it, accepted Gu Chen’s friend request.
Gu Chen quickly sent a message: The rain might continue for two days. The departure date will likely be postponed.
Xie Ning replied: We don’t have a problem with waiting. But did you see what No. 13 Uncle Tie Zhu said? Someone tried to pry open his door last night. They must have been exposed.
Gu Chen: Mm, you and your mom should stay home and don’t go out. I’ll take some people to check door-to-door in a bit.
Xie Ning: Be careful! I had another dream. I saw zombies catching the rain and worshipping it. I’m worried this acid rain can strengthen them. Also, the number of zombie rats will definitely skyrocket. I think you should broadcast a notice for everyone to guard against rats and take precautions.
It took a long time for Gu Chen to reply: Notifying them now.
Xie Ning glanced at the gloomy sky outside.
The rain kept falling, not too heavy, not too light, but continuous. It didn’t look like it would stop today.
"Uncle, let’s go check every corner of the house. After we removed the air conditioner last time, did we plug up the hole?"
Song Youzhi nodded. "Is something going to happen?"
"I’m worried this acid rain will cause a rat infestation."
Hearing this, Song You’ai felt her hair stand on end and quickly followed. "Ningning, are you saying it’ll be like that swarm of rats we saw in Su City?"
"It could be even worse." Xie Ning’s expression turned grave as she thought of the small rats drinking the rainwater.
"Then we’ll go too. Let’s go, let’s go." Song You’ai called to Song Youyi and his wife. "Let’s go check upstairs."
"Mainly check the pipes. It would be best to seal up the flush toilets, too." Xie Ning turned to Ji Taixian. "You have solid-state toilets, don’t you?"
"Yes, yes, I do." Ji Taixian pulled out five unopened solid-state toilets in one go, grinning at Xie Ning. "Sis, how did you know?"
As he spoke, he took out two more brand-new ones. "Sis, for you to put in your little Space so you can go whenever you need?"
"Thanks." Xie Ning said thank you with a deadpan face, her eyes full of disdain, but her actions were swift as she stashed the two small toilets in the living room.
Song Kexin picked up a toilet and examined it. "This seems pretty convenient. Let me take a closer look."
’You really don’t have anything better to do, do you?’
Song Shijun rolled his eyes and hurried to follow them. "Dad, Mom, I’ll go upstairs with you to check."
Temporarily plugging the pipe openings was simple for Xie Ning. She just had to embed a metal mesh over the pipes, and it was secure.
As long as the mesh was fine enough not to affect drainage but still prevent rats from passing through, it would work.
"So useful." The three young Song siblings praised her nonstop as they watched.
"Ningning is amazing! Ningning is awesome!" The praise was starting to go to Xie Ning’s head...
After sealing up the flush toilets as well, the group went to check all the windows, big and small.
They double-bolted all the windows that could be locked, and for any that seemed flimsy, they sealed them with metal strips.
By the time they finished all this, it was almost 12:30.
Exhausted and hungry, everyone collapsed onto the sofa, playing dead and not moving.
Fortunately, their grandparents made do with the remaining ingredients on hand and went to the kitchen to cook two large pots of noodles.
As the group ate the hot noodles, their spirits revived.
The only side dishes were some salted bamboo shoots and cured meat. They made do with what they had, and the meal passed just like that.
Just then, the CRACKLE and FIZZ of the broadcast’s electrical current sounded again.
