“Did your sister and the others go to Country C? She called the day before yesterday saying she had a layover there… Congcong, check it quickly, I can’t quite remember right now!”
Seeing the news notifications, Cheng Ru panicked immediately, her voice trembling with anxiety.
“Mom, don’t worry, my sister will be fine.”
Shen Cong comforted her mother, but her own heart was tightening with unease.
The abnormal weather in Europe had arrived much earlier than Shen Cong had anticipated.
Although, under their urging, Shen Xi had booked her tickets as quickly as possible, continuous heavy rains had caused many flights to be canceled. And since June is still the peak travel season, tickets were hard to come by.
After much effort, Shen Xi had only managed to secure a flight back to China three days prior.
But just as she was setting off for the airport with the two children, she received a notice from the airline: due to thunderstorms, the flight was canceled again.
If she didn’t take that flight, the next available tickets were a week away.
Yet the rain continued relentlessly, and the forecast predicted heavy precipitation for the entire week. Who could guarantee that even waiting a week, flights would operate normally?
Shen Xi gritted her teeth and didn’t turn back; she still took the children to the airport.
She called from the airport saying she planned to get a ticket to Country C and then transfer from there to return home.
Because the airport signal was poor, and she had two children plus a lot of luggage, buying tickets and catching flights at the same time, the family hadn’t dared to call her often, fearing that a distraction might lead to mistakes.
Now, over thirty hours had passed since Shen Xi’s last call.
And Country C was within the area affected by the volcanic eruptions…
The more everyone thought about it, the heavier their hearts felt. Cheng Ru could no longer hold back her tears.
“I’ll call my sister. They’ll be fine. Mom, don’t overthink. The news only said a volcano erupted in Country C, Country C is huge, and that volcano is tens of thousands of miles from the airport! It has nothing to do with my sister and them.”
“It has nothing to do with them, nothing at all. I’m just worried she’s alone with two kids, Shanshan isn’t even three yet, and Tongtong is only five. What if something goes wrong…”
Cheng Ru’s words trailed off as her sobs overtook her.
“Don’t scare yourself, Xixi will definitely be fine.”
Shen Jianyi put down his phone, which was still repeatedly trying to call his eldest daughter, though the line remained unreachable.
His expression was serious, but he took on the authority of the head of the household and commanded everyone in the room: “Don’t panic. Do what needs to be done. Xixi will absolutely return home safely!
According to the time she mentioned, they should already be on the plane back. Not being able to reach her by phone is normal.
Worrying won’t help anyone. Get to work, there’s so much to do, what are you just standing around for?!
Shen Cong, go handle things at the warehouse. Gu Kai, do your own work.
Old Gu, take care of the backyard. I’ll call Ranran and see if Wei Yan can get any news.”
“Go ahead, go ahead. I’ll watch the house. Hurry and make the calls,” Gu Zhengchu responded quickly.
In moments like this, it really helps to have someone who can keep things under control.
Hearing Shen Jianyi speak, although everyone was still worried, at least they no longer felt helpless and went to their own tasks.
Only the elderly couple remained in the house, trying their best to reach their daughter through every possible connection.
Shen Cong went to the warehouse today mainly to collect water; she had been doing this for two days.
At the same time, she had to receive deliveries, today the manufacturer was bringing the iron racks and storage boxes customized for the space.
After the space expanded, the first thing Shen Cong did was buy forty large stainless steel water tanks in one go: ten capable of holding four tons each, twenty holding two tons, and ten smaller tanks that could be installed in the kitchen, bathroom, or even on the car roof with solar panels.
Having experienced two consecutive years of drought in her previous life, Shen Cong had endured enough of water shortages. Now that she had the chance, she wanted to store enough water for the family for two years.
Since hauling all these tanks home at once would be too conspicuous, she came to the warehouse to collect water whenever she had time.
The warehouse Gu Kai rented was on the first floor and already had a tap inside.
Nearby, there was a public water pool for everyday use.
Shen Cong installed a water purifier on the warehouse tap, so the water she collected would be safe to drink directly, and she planned to fill all the small tanks with this purified water.
Normally, no one was at the warehouse. The weather was too hot, and only occasional deliveries occurred. In a whole day, hardly any vehicles passed by, let alone people.
So the public tap was rarely used.
Shen Cong bought a long rubber hose and directed the water into the warehouse, filling the large water tanks. With both taps running at the same time, the speed of collection doubled.
If it weren’t for the extreme heat, she would have used the water-collection breaks to boil water directly in the warehouse. That way, when the extremely cold season arrived, the house would never run out of hot water.
The warehouse already had a stove and fuel, so it was very convenient.
But after Gu Kai came by once, he strictly forbade the idea, insisting that in this kind of weather it was too easy to suffer from heatstroke. Sometimes people don’t even notice when they are suffering from heatstroke, and if something happens, it would be too late to regret it.
In reality, whether because of her upgraded abilities or not, Shen Cong now clearly felt her physical constitution had improved greatly.
Even in this scorching weather, when everyone else was drenched in sweat and barely tolerating it, she didn’t feel uncomfortable. By the end of the day, she barely even broke a sweat.
This was also why her family didn’t oppose her going to the warehouse to collect water.
Now she even had a secret weapon, her father-in-law had made a small array disk out of jade, embedded in a wooden box, portable enough to carry with her.
Shen Cong normally kept it in her space, but when she went to the warehouse, she would take it out and place it nearby.
Although its energy output couldn’t compare to the one at home due to its size, it still made the air in the warehouse circulate slightly and brought a faint cooling effect.
This allowed Shen Cong to collect water and receive deliveries while still absorbing energy.
But today, because of her sister’s situation, she couldn’t calm her mind.
Her phone was already heating up from constant use. She had scrolled through every possible news source, and the more she read, the more uneasy she felt.
Her parents had informed her cousin, Cheng Ran, but even Cheng Ran didn’t know what to do.
She couldn’t get in touch with Wei Yan at all, and she didn’t even know if he was still in the capital.
Since entering the first-level alert, she hadn’t seen her husband for over half a month. Not only had she not seen him, but not a single call had been answered.
Cheng Ran said she would ask friends to try to find out what was happening, but it was obvious she didn’t have many options.
Her parents were still using their connections, hoping to reach the embassy.
Over the phone, her father even tried to reassure Shen Cong, telling her not to overthink things and that a solution would be found.
But, how could she not overthink?
Shen Cong now even felt a little guilty. She couldn’t stop thinking: if she hadn’t called and pushed her sister to come back, would they have avoided this disaster?
At the very least, they probably wouldn’t have been heading to Country C at this time.
She knew her thoughts were unreasonable, but she couldn’t control the sadness that welled up.
From her sister, Shen Cong’s mind drifted to another issue that had been troubling her for a long time, should she tell people about the impending earthquake?
She felt conflicted.
On one hand, she wanted to warn everyone about the natural disaster. No matter how many believed her, saving even one person meant giving one more family hope.
On the other hand, she truly didn’t know how to convey this message.
Should she tell the government, the seismology bureau?
Who would believe her?
She couldn’t possibly show everyone her space, could she?
Even if she did, it probably wouldn’t reach the key people who could take control, it might even get her labeled as a threat and detained.
Moreover, she still had her own family to protect.
Shen Cong believed she could help others as long as her own family was safe.
But without that guarantee, recklessly putting herself at risk to save others, she wasn’t some saint; she definitely wouldn’t do it.
So life continued, day by day. Until now, Shen Cong had only tried to help those around her quietly, without telling many people about the coming disaster.
But her sister’s situation hit her too hard, making her feel the helplessness of having a family in danger and being unable to do anything.
That feeling pushed her to make a decision.
Shen Cong opened WeChat and entered her university classmates’ group chat.
Because the school anniversary was coming up, the group had been lively recently.
She @-mentioned the group admin, also their class monitor back in college, and quickly typed a message:
“Sorry, I won’t be attending this year’s school anniversary. The weather has been bad lately, and there have been too many natural disasters. My family won’t allow me to go out. I’m very sorry I can’t join everyone, hopefully, we’ll meet another time.”
As soon as she sent it, the group chat exploded.
Shen Cong had just won an international award and received a scholarship from a prestigious university; at this moment, she was the star of the class.
Many people had said that they were attending this year’s school anniversary just to see Shen Cong, hoping to share in her good fortune.
She had also posted her flight and hotel bookings early, and several old classmates who were close to her had even booked the same hotel.
So suddenly saying she wouldn’t go, and giving the reason that “my family won’t allow me to leave”, was just too outrageous.
Within minutes, a flood of messages appeared in the group, all firing off at Shen Cong.
Everyone criticized her decision as sudden and said she lacked sincerity.
But Shen Cong was expecting exactly this kind of skepticism.
She explained that her sister couldn’t be reached because of the bad weather, mentioned that her cousin had called to suggest stockpiling food, and then brought up her grandfather.
She said her grandfather had warned that the weather was unstable and that major natural disasters were likely to occur soon.
Could be earthquakes, could be typhoons, the most likely areas were along the coast, and the timing was imminent.
Her grandfather had said: “Don’t go out. If you go, I’ll break your legs!”
Her parents not only fully agreed but also insisted she cancel her flight and hotel reservations to Nan’an.
To make the story even more believable, Shen Cong hinted that her brother-in-law’s unit had been mobilized and forbidden from returning home for a long time.
She also mentioned that her cousin’s workplace had started issuing emergency survival kits.
ᘻᘿᓍᘺ
Everything Shen Cong said was true, except for the few lines she phrased as coming from her grandfather, all of it actually happened.
Individually, each of these points might not have seemed important, but together, they commanded attention.
After seeing Shen Cong’s post, people in the group began to agree and voice their support.
Some classmates from the capital city confirmed that many workplaces and communities were indeed distributing emergency survival kits, and a few well-funded organizations were even handing out staples like rice, flour, and cooking oil under the guise of heat-relief supplies.
Classmates living near earthquake zones or in mountainous areas also mentioned that there had been noticeably more military vehicles on the roads lately, and that many units had already been mobilized.
Someone even shared a link that compiled all the natural disasters worldwide in the past two months.
The number was several times higher than in a normal year.
Seeing the lively discussion, Shen Cong chimed in a few times, subtly hinting again, “If you can avoid going out, don’t go out,” “I can’t attend the school anniversary, there will be other chances, don’t risk your life…”
Then, before anyone got suspicious, she logged off.
No sooner had Shen Cong exited WeChat than her phone rang.
As soon as she answered, the familiar, shrill voice of her best friend, Zeng Nuan, came through: “Shen Cong, what are you doing?! I came all the way to Nan’an just for you, checked in today, and now I see in the group messages that you’re not coming?!”
Shen Cong was completely stunned!