Chapter 7: Premonition
A week earlier, Li Yu had already called all the relatives who were away, hoping they could come home for a visit.
However, not everyone was able to return. The younger uncle and aunt in the north declined, citing other arrangements. The eldest uncle, who was a leader in the WJ team in the county town, agreed to come over.
Additionally, on Li Yu's father's side, only the second uncle and aunt happened to be returning home, while the third uncle was away on a business trip and couldn't come back.
Faced with this situation, Li Yu felt helpless. Knowing that the end of the world was about to come, but unable to say anything, this feeling made him very uncomfortable.
Early in the morning, Li Yu drove an SUV to pick up his maternal grandparents and bring them to the rural tourism park. As soon as they got out of the car, Li Yu's grandparents were captivated by the beautiful scenery before them.
After taking his grandparents for a walk around, they happened to meet grandmother who was fertilizing a vegetable patch next to the rice field.
Li Yu's mother, Liu Fanghua, took over grandmother's work, allowing the two elders to chat.
On the other side, grandfather found grandfather fishing by the mountain pond, and the two old men were chatting intermittently.
When Li Yuan, who had returned home, saw this huge rural tourism park, she was momentarily stunned.
Especially when she saw the luxurious villa in the center and opened the room to find the gifts Li Yu had prepared for her, which he had mentioned on the phone earlier, she was so happy she almost jumped up!
"Brother, have you become rich?" Li Yuan asked with wide eyes, surprised.
For her, the surprise was too great. From the moment she entered the villa, she had been so amazed that her mouth remained open.
"I made a small fortune, and now I'm developing things at home. By the way, you can take some time off to stay at home for a while, it's a good chance to spend time with the family. Don't go out for now," Li Yu said.
"How can that work? I haven't asked for leave yet," Li Yuan said, pouting.
"Anyway, you can't go anywhere during this time!" Li Yu said assertively.
On October 2nd, the whole family gathered under the ancient banyan tree, setting up about three tables, with nearly 20 people.
At dusk, a huge lamp hung on the ancient banyan tree, illuminating the surroundings as bright as day.
The family sat around together, eating and drinking.
Li Yu's uncle, Liu Jianwen, took a sip of wine and then said, "Yu, I see that this tourism park of yours is quite large. It's much bigger than I imagined. When do you plan to open for business?"
Li Yu looked at his uncle, who was of sturdy build. Usually, because of frequent duties, he was often too busy to be found.
Hearing Uncle Liu Jianwen's question, Li Yu quickly finished the chicken wing he was gnawing on in two or three bites. He had to admit, his mother's culinary skills were still superb.
Just in the short time since coming back, even with high-intensity exercise, Li Yu had still gained five pounds.
Li Yu replied unhurriedly, "In a few more days. There are still some areas that need to be improved."
With the family gathered together, Li Yu originally wanted to invite them to come over and play whenever they had time.
But everyone had their own business to attend to. Fortunately, at least this time everyone had returned home, and they wouldn't be going far away again in the short term.
The second uncle was going to stay for a while due to family matters, and the aunt was also temporarily returning home to take care of her children because of their schooling issues.
The maternal grandparents were attracted by the environment here and decided to stay for an extended period.
Time slowly moved forward.
At the end of October, Li Yu again called his younger uncle, younger aunt, and third uncle who were far away. He told them that a friend of an elder in his family who worked in the government in M City had revealed that some situations might arise soon.
Just like before, he advised them to come back.
But as Li Yu had imagined, they didn't believe him. So Li Yu could only advise them to stockpile more supplies.
On November 3rd, the day suddenly became extremely hot. November, which should have been cool, saw temperatures soaring above 38 degrees Celsius.
All major TV stations were reporting on this strange event:
"This station reports that according to sources, this high-temperature weather is caused by solar particle ejections. According to experts, this high-temperature weather will pass quickly."
"Life Urban News, what we're seeing now is Ms. Xie's home in the Northeast. She tells us that normally at this time, they would be preparing winter vegetables like Chinese cabbage."
Southern Satellite TV interviewed a young man. The female host asked, "Does this hot weather cause you any trouble?"
"Yes, this damn weather is really killing people. Usually at this time of year, it's about 10-20 degrees, but now it's like summer. I don't understand."
The scorching sun blazed, and the day lasted for 16 hours, with the weather as hot as if it were on the equator.
After the high temperatures, there were 16 hours of darkness, and the temperature rapidly dropped to -10°C.
In the following days,
Day and night became completely chaotic,
Sometimes there were 16 hours of daylight, sometimes 16 hours of night.
And the temperature difference between day and night changed from the previous 10-20 degrees to over 50 degrees.
It was unpredictable.
This brought many problems to the general public, and for a time, talk about the end of the world was rampant.
The government also issued a notice, informing the public to purchase about 10 days' worth of food and try not to go out as much as possible.
The people had already started stockpiling some supplies early on,
but as the period of day-night reversal grew longer, two weeks passed,
While order could still be maintained in the country, public transportation began operating 24 hours a day, but with much less frequency than before,
For example, if you used to wait 10 minutes for a bus, now you had to wait about 20 minutes.
Uncle Liu Jianwen also became busier. On November 20th, he suddenly came to Li Yu and asked if Li Yu knew something.
Li Yu still gave the same explanation as he did at the end of October, telling his uncle that he had insider information from a friend in an official family in M City that some big things would happen.
Uncle said on the phone, "Today during our meeting, the government issued a notice that all transportation will be completely locked down in three days, and they told us to stockpile more supplies."
Li Yu took the opportunity to say, "Why don't you let Xiao Lue and aunt come over? You're quite busy now, and they can't go to school or work now. They can come to my place where grandpa and grandma are."
Liu Jianwen was tempted by this suggestion. So he planned to have Li Yu come pick them up the next day.
But unexpectedly, he received a call from his uncle in the middle of the night:
"Xiao Yu, now, quickly drive to the city and pick up your aunt and the others. I just received a call that in one village, everyone seems to have been infected with a virus, turning into zombies like in the movies. I'm on my way to the scene now. I feel this is not normal."
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(End of chapter)