Getting into the car, Xu Song felt a sense of safety that surpassed riding on a tricycle. He let out a sigh of relief and suddenly pointed outside to a white car lying on the roadside, saying, “That’s it! The Jinbei van from the convenience store.”
After arriving at Zhao Village, Xu Song frequented the convenience store to buy things, so he remembered the license plate of that car.
“They might have been trying to escape,” Yue Zheng’s voice sounded heavy. When he passed by that car earlier, he had seen bloody footprints inside and on the pedals.
Initially, he thought they were left by the owner after getting injured. Now, in retrospect, it could also be the owner hastily getting into the car after encountering a human explosion in the store.
Wanting to escape, but encountering even greater danger on the road, ultimately sacrificing their lives…
During the rest of the journey, they occasionally came across several abandoned cars on the road. What shocked them, even more, was that there was a car that seemed to have been stepped on by something, flattened and lying across the middle of the road.
What on earth had happened?
Looking at the dense and exaggerated vegetation on the roadside, Xu Song took out his old cell phone again, but it still showed no signal.
“Don’t worry, we’ll be back soon. Where do you live? I’ll take you home first,” Yue Zheng said, seeing him looking at his phone again, knowing that he was worried about his family.
Although he also wanted to find his colleagues as soon as possible and explain what had happened on the mountain, he couldn’t help but be concerned about this person who had been inexplicably involved in this series of strange events.
Xu Song tugged at the corner of his mouth and forced a smile.
“I live in the Nancheng District, on Xihe Road, next to a Carrefour.”
For some reason, seeing his forced smile, an image popped into Yue Zheng’s mind from when they were in the ancient tomb. With the dirty face, the smile that only revealed a row of small white teeth, he felt that such a smile was more suitable for him.
“We happen to be heading into the south of the city, so I’ll take you home first.” Having made up his mind, he thought it was also on the way.
“What about you? Where do you live? Are your family members in the city?” Xu Song didn’t want to be overly nervous, so he changed the topic and started chatting with him.
Yue Zheng remained silent for a while before saying, “I live on Sian Road in the north of the city, and I live alone.”
Xu Song looked at him puzzled, and Yue Zheng explained, “My mother passed away when I was too young to remember, and my father sacrificed himself while on duty when I was in high school.”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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“What… what was his job?”
“He was a detective.”
Xu Song was taken aback and turned to look at him. There was no trace of extra expression on his determined face. His eyes looked ahead, but he could sense his vigilance toward everything around him. Xu Song suddenly smiled, “You must resemble him.”
“How do you know?” Yue Zheng glanced at him, seeing him smiling, and he also curved his lips.
“I guessed.” Xu Song also looked at the road ahead. He just felt that Yue Zheng should resemble his father, whom he couldn’t remember clearly, and he should also love his father.
The road became increasingly difficult to traverse, with raised asphalt and scattered gravel. Pale green weeds sprouted short spikes from the cracked crevices.
There were even more empty cars scattered on the road ahead. Looking at the nearby intersection, Xu Song pointed there, saying, “I remember that road leads to a small county town.”
Yue Zheng nodded, “Hmm, these cars should have come out from that county town.”
“…So, it seems that something must have happened in the county town too.” Their previous speculation had now been confirmed. If even the nearby county town was affected, then it was likely that things weren’t much better in City Y either.
As the car approached that intersection, they unexpectedly saw a few vehicles driving out from the direction of the county town. They exchanged a glance and both had the same idea of stopping the car to ask about the situation.
However, the people in those cars seemed to be fleeing for their lives. They didn’t care about the road conditions and desperately stepped on the gas pedal, heading north.
Yue Zheng could see that most of the people in the cars had terrified expressions, and some of the cars were filled with bags and luggage.
“Should we try to find a car and ask?” In these past two days, they hadn’t encountered a living person. They either saw pseudo-zombies or mutated livestock. It was rare to see vehicles, and Xu Song really wanted to find someone to inquire about the situation.
Yue Zheng pursed his lips, “It looks like it would be hard for us to stop them.” The people in the car clearly looked like frightened birds. Even if he approached to flag them down, they might not pay attention.
Scratching his head, Xu Song suddenly stared at the car’s dashboard, raised his hand, and tapped his forehead, “Brother Yue! We’ve been fools. The radio! The radio!”
The working principle of a radio was different from that of a cell phone or telephone. Even if there was no network or power, the radio might still receive signals!
Yue Zheng’s eyes also lit up, and he quickly turned on the switch. They had been so focused on driving and realizing their cellphones had no signal that they had forgotten the possibility of the radio still picking up a signal.
Noisy sounds came out of the radio, squeaking and buzzing, giving them a headache. Xu Song adjusted the frequency channel bit by bit, silently praying in his heart, hoping to at least receive a signal to listen to and find out the current situation.
One channel after another was tuned, and it took quite a while before they barely managed to tune into a channel where they could hear the content clearly.
“…assistance work, trapped civilians, please conserve your energy and search for objects around you that can make noise. Our rescue personnel will conduct searches immediately upon hearing. For those who have escaped, please move to the designated safe shelters in cities, towns, and villages. Rescue personnel will arrive there as soon as possible to make proper arrangements… Now announcing the locations of confirmed safe shelters in various areas…”
Both of them perked up their ears and listened to the locations announced on the radio. The more they listened, the more astonished they became.
“Which channel did you tune into?!”
Xu Song confirmed, “It should be Zhong X Radio.”
As they listened to one place name after another being announced on the noisy broadcast, both of them couldn’t help but feel a tingling sensation on their scalps. They had thought that the affected areas would be limited to within Province F at most. But now, it seemed that the problem had spread nationwide?!
“Could this nationwide anomaly… really be caused by that ancient tomb?” Just because something beneath an ancient tomb was destroyed, even if there was radiation involved, how could it escalate to such an extent across the entire country so quickly?!
Before Xu Song could finish his sentence, they heard that the radio seemed to have finished broadcasting the locations of domestic shelters and was now discussing foreign ones.
As the two of them were in a state of shock, a summarizing voice came from the radio once again, “This is a catastrophe for all of humanity. We need to stand united and work together to overcome it. Please do not lose hope and have faith in the country and the government…”
Yue Zheng pressed his hand to his temple and suddenly felt that the things in his backpack were becoming a burden. He hadn’t expected things to be this serious. And just as Xu Song had said, was this really caused by the ancient tomb? Could it be a coincidence? Did the explosion in the tomb just happen to coincide with the global anomaly?
Otherwise, if it were known that he and Xu Song had been to the ancient tomb, both of them would likely get caught up in a huge mess…
The radio started broadcasting the locations of shelters in major cities and provinces once again. They recognized the shelter in City Y, which was located in an open space to the west of the city. That area didn’t have many buildings and only had a few ornamental plants and brick-paved ground. Usually, it was occupied by middle-aged women doing square dancing in the mornings and evenings, taking advantage of the favorable terrain.
With fewer plants and flat terrain, it was likely to be less affected by the mutated plants, right?
“After we go back, I’ll take you to your home first to check the situation. If there’s no one there, I’ll then take you to the shelter. And afterward, don’t mention to anyone that you’ve been to the ancient tomb,” Yue Zheng’s low voice echoed in the car.
Xu Song was startled, “What about you?”
Yue Zheng let out a sigh in his heart, “I have a mission to report.”
Regardless of whether the ancient tomb and the global plant anomaly were related or not, he had to hand over the stone tablet and crystal. This matter was of great importance, and he couldn’t withhold the information. As for what would happen after reporting it…
“What if there’s trouble?” After all, if the plant anomalies and the resurrection of corpses were indeed related to the ancient tomb, it’s likely that thorough investigations would be conducted on everyone who had been there, not to mention the fact that both of them now possessed special abilities. If Yue Zheng were to disclose this matter, he would likely… face significant trouble.
Letting out a sigh, Yue Zheng reluctantly turned his head and glanced at him, saying, “I’m not foolish. I know what should be said and what shouldn’t be said.”
Originally, even when he had a chance to escape, he wouldn’t have recklessly pushed forward. After all, no one would complain about having a longer life. But this matter was no longer something he could handle alone. Regardless of the circumstances, he had to report what happened in the ancient tomb first, as for what would happen afterward…
Opening his mouth, Xu Song didn’t know what to say for a moment. After all, they had only known each other for less than two days, and the current situation had already exceeded their expectations. There was simply no way to advise each other.
Silent throughout the journey, the car bumped along the road toward City Y, and the number of oncoming vehicles increased. It seemed like people were fleeing from the city.
The heaviness in both of their hearts returned. It seemed that the situation in the city was not good, otherwise, these people wouldn’t be leaving in such a panicked manner.
In recent years, in response to slogans from higher authorities promoting green and environmental initiatives, City Y, which already had a considerable amount of greenery, had added many decorative flowers in different seasons and on various roads.
These flowers, which were previously used for beautification and placed in disposable plastic flower pots, had now become the main obstacles to traffic.
Morning glories grew rampant, climbing everywhere. The low trees on the sides of the road were now growing towards the sky, with branches and roots spreading in all directions, causing the once flat road to become an undulating series of hills and gullies.
Yue Zheng drove into the city, looking at these roads that were even more exaggerated than the highways outside, and couldn’t help but exclaim, “I have no idea how they managed to drive their cars out.”
Xu Song, who had been worrying about his own parents, couldn’t help but laugh.
The situation is looking bleak, I hope his parents are fine. Thanks for the update