Read Novel Full Chapter 221: Mountains and Rivers Shatter
Chapter 221: Mountains and Rivers Shatter
“Let’s pack up and stay away from the cracks in the ground.”
Anticipating the aftershocks, they decided against returning and planned to spend another night outdoors.
They found a spot over a hundred meters away from the cracks and the factory. There were no dangerous obstacles which were suitable for setting up camp.
Jiang Ning pulled a compressed tent from her hiking bag.
With three people and a dog, fearing that it might be too cramped, she had specially chosen a large tent, a two-bedroom one with a living room.
Huo Yishen called Doudou over to teach her how to set up a tent in the wild.
Jiang Ning walked to a higher spot and took out her binoculars to look at the city.
The towering urban area was gone.
Under the scorching sun, the air was gray. Fengcheng City’s landmark buildings, including a three-hundred-meter-high observation tower that offered a panoramic view of the city, no longer existed.
Just like that, it had silently been erased from the earth.
Everywhere, there were remnants and ruins; human industrial civilization had been almost entirely destroyed.
Even reliving it, Jiang Ning still felt a chill of fear, her palms were sweating profusely.
The vibrant Fengcheng City she had lived in for twenty years had become lifeless, devoid of any of its vitality left before the natural disaster.
Inside and outside the escape pod were like two different worlds.
She had safely hidden in the escape pod but when she came out everything had turned upside down.
Jiang Ning stood under the blazing sun, unable to regain her composure for a long time.
Before the sunset, Huo Yishen and the two successfully set up the tent and used a pump to inflate the air mattress.
He instructed the two not to run around and approached Jiang Ning’s lonely figure bathed in golden twilight. “What’s wrong?”
Jiang Ning handed him the binoculars.
Huo Yishen looked into the distance for a long time before speaking, “The municipal government issued an early warning. I believe many people managed to survive.”
It wouldn’t be as tragic as the last time, with bloody corpses everywhere.
The tent was well-ventilated, but the high temperature was unbearable. Jiang Ning took out a portable air conditioner, added some ice, and gave everyone a glass of iced juice to cool off. “Here’s to surviving the disaster.”
Lunch had been simple; for dinner, they aimed to eat a bit better but still kept the dishes light: pork rib and corn soup, braised eggplant, and stir-fried vegetables.
Additionally, they dimmed the solar-powered lights considerably.
After all, they were in the wild, and if the smell of food was too strong or the lights too bright, it might attract others.
After dinner, they briefly washed their hands and feet. Doudou nestled in the tent to watch cartoons.
The two of them sat outside to enjoy the cool air. Jiang Ning was curious, “What were you doing on the day of the earthquake in your past life?”
It had been so long ago that Huo Yishen had to think for a while. “It happened suddenly, without any warning. I hadn’t rested for two days and was sleeping in the dormitory when the ground suddenly shook violently…”
He had fallen out of bed and couldn’t stand. He got injured by the shifting furniture.
He remembered his forehead was bleeding.
But relying on his long-trained reflexes, he quickly rushed out of the dormitory, just before the building collapsed.
After the initial shock, he hurriedly went to dig out his comrades that were buried under the rubble.
During this period, aftershocks occurred one after another, and many people involved in the rescue were injured consecutively. Most of his comrades were dug out with their bare hands…
High temperatures, earthquakes, suffocation—very few survived.
They didn’t even have time to mourn their fallen comrades before immediately engaging in rescuing survivors, again without rest for several days.
Recalling the past as if it were yesterday, Huo Yishen felt deeply heavy-hearted. He held Jiang Ning’s hand. “Anning, what about you?”
His words made Jiang Ning freeze for a moment.
Indeed, he had long known that she too had been reborn. He just never brought it up.
Jiang Ning’s gaze flickered but she looked into his eyes. “I was alone at the time, out searching for food, luckily not in Jinrong community. I was hit by flying debris during the earthquake, the wound got infected, and I was unconscious for a long time before waking up.”
Thinking back, it felt like a miracle that she managed to survive.
After waking up, she was surrounded by the corpses of the deceased. She searched for food for a long time and continued to persevere…
But in the end, she couldn’t escape a tragic death.
Jiang Ning gently leaned against Huo Yishen’s shoulder, looking up at the star-filled night sky. “Look at how beautiful the stars are, it’s shining like diamonds.”
In her memory, the industrialized Fengchen City no longer had such a mesmerizing night sky.
The sky was so dark, the stars so bright, and the moon was not stained by dust.
Who could have imagined that beneath this breathtaking night sky, mountains and rivers would shatter, buildings would collapse, and countless bodies would be buried under the ruins, with numerous survivors losing their homes?
The topic was too heavy, so Huo Yishen stayed silent, quietly staying by her side, their fingers tightly intertwined.
Suddenly, the earth started shaking again.
It wasn’t particularly violent, but you could feel the ground trembling.
An aftershock hit once more.
Jiang Ning snapped to attention and released the escape pod.
Huo Yishen crawled into the tent and found the dog pulling at Doudou’s clothes.
The three of them, along with the dog, entered the escape pod again.
That night, there were several aftershocks, so they stayed in the escape pod. It was a bit cramped with no room to move, but it was safe. What more could they ask for?
Around five in the morning, Huo Yishen patted Jiang Ning, signaling her to pack up.
They left the escape pod, and the two returned to the tent to continue sleeping.
Jiang Ning put away the escape pod, stretched her limbs to relieve fatigue, and then crawled into the tent to sleep.
She found Huo Yishen too close and pushed him away in annoyance. “Move away, you’re too warm.”
Feeling a bit dejected, Huo Yishen muttered, “Have you forgotten how tightly you were holding onto me?”
Jiang Ning understood immediately, her face turning red as she lightly kicked him.
Huo Yishen grabbed her foot. “Be gentle, don’t wake up Coke.”
“I should let it bite you.”
Just as she finished speaking, a pair of green eyes appeared in the darkness, startling her. “Coke, go out!”
Feeling heartbroken, Coke, with a forlorn dog face, retreated to the living room and curled up silently.
It felt abandoned by its human.
Indeed, finding a man meant she didn’t love it anymore.
They hadn’t slept long when the eastern sky began to lighten.
Huo Yishen woke the two, and they brushed their teeth, had breakfast, and packed up the tent to go home.
After a massive earthquake, the land was riddled with ravines and the roads destroyed.
The closer they got to the city, the more severe the damage.
For safety reasons, Jiang Ning didn’t take out the Hummer since the roads might be obstructed, and she would have to put it back into storage.
In broad daylight, if someone saw it, it would cause trouble.
So, the three of them and the dog decided to walk back.
Looking clean and tidy would draw attention, so they smeared some mud on their faces and clothes and messed up their hair.
Worried about unseen cracks or dangers, each of them carried a hiking stick for protection.
Huo Yishen held his sister’s hand.
Jiang Ning put a leash on Coke.
No one in the group was to wander off.
At around six, it wasn’t fully light yet, but visibility was good.
Huo Yishen led the way, alerting them to any obstacles.
The closer they got to the city, the more collapsed buildings they saw, with people searching through the rubble and the faint sound of children crying.
Before they got close, a girl around eight or nine started waving frantically, crying out for help. “Brother, Sister, please save my mom…”
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