“That energy field is very strange.”
Inside the space, Qin Sang was trying hard to describe the strange energy field she had sensed from the high school student and from Qu Meijing to Grandfather Goose.
Yes, after leaving Qin Wenbang’s house, Qin Sang had run into Qu Meijing right by her own front door. The woman was getting out of her car with an angry expression on her face.
Normally, Qu Meijing would have already gone out to stock up by this hour. Coming back at this time was unusual.
Before Qin Sang could figure it out, she sensed the same energy field from Qu Meijing that she had felt from the high school student.
Qu Meijing had noticed her staring and asked impatiently what she wanted. Qin Sang just smiled and said nothing before heading inside. Once home, she went straight into the space to ask Grandfather Goose.
Grandfather Goose was lounging on the ox’s back, sunbathing. After listening to Qin Sang’s description, his eyes darted around. Suddenly, he raised one small wing—and Qin Sang felt the same energy field emanate from him.
Her eyes widened. “That’s it! Grandfather Goose, what is this? Is it the energy field given off by a space? I never sensed it from Qu Meijing before, but today I suddenly could. Does that mean I’ve evolved?”
It wasn’t surprising that Qin Sang’s imagination was running wild. She loved reading all kinds of fantasy, xianxia, and apocalypse novels, so her mind was full of such ideas.
Grandfather Goose twisted his long neck, tucking his head back under his wing.
Qin Sang looked at him expectantly. She wondered if she really had evolved—maybe she would develop some kind of superpower, or perhaps even cultivate and become immortal. After all, her family’s roast goose space had been passed down from their ancestors.
Ever since she obtained the space, she had often wondered: Where did it come from? Were her ancestors cultivators? Did she herself have a spiritual root that would allow her to cultivate?
Now that the outside world was becoming strange, could it be that spiritual energy was reviving?
Grandfather Goose could tell exactly what Qin Sang was thinking. He said flatly, “It’s not cultivation. It’s not spiritual energy revival. Your little head has been thinking about these things since you were small. Hurry up and check if there’s anything else you’ve missed. Don’t come crying later that it’s inconvenient because the outside world has stopped producing things.”
With that, he tucked his head back under his wing, signaling that he wanted to sunbathe in peace.
Qin Sang gave his long neck feathers a vigorous stroke before reluctantly leaving the space.
Every time she asked Grandfather Goose about such things, he acted like he couldn’t be bothered to explain.
Fine, then.
—
As soon as she exited the space, Qin Sang heard excited voices coming from the living room.
She opened her bedroom door and walked out to find quite a few people sitting in the living room. Fourth Uncle and his wife were there, along with several close relatives, and Second Aunt, along with a few other lively older women from the village.
Seeing Qin Sang come out, Fourth Aunt immediately said, “Sang Sang, perfect timing. You help convince your parents. Get them to talk to your second uncle for us. We want to back out of buying that run-down house of theirs.”
“Auntie, my family doesn’t have a good relationship with Second Uncle’s family. I can’t help with that.” Although she felt Fourth Aunt’s family had been wronged, Qin Sang still refused.
“How can you not help? Just give it a try! That house has drained our family dry. Everyone’s out stockpiling supplies, and we have no money left!”
At that, Fourth Aunt burst into tears. She didn’t understand all the news online, but if everyone was rushing to stock up, something terrible must be about to happen.
The other relatives chimed in as well. Only then did Qin Sang realize that every relative sitting in the living room had lent money to Second Uncle’s family.
“The village chief said loans have been suspended, so there’s no way to get a mortgage. That black-hearted family has turned shameless again—locked the door and won’t come out…”
Qin Sang had known this wouldn’t be easy to resolve. Unless the villagers got serious, broke down Second Uncle’s door, and cleared out all his supplies to settle the debts.
But since they didn’t dare do that, they had come to her family for help.
She didn’t even know what to say.
Father Qin and Mother Qin naturally refused, sitting there in silence. Qin Sang certainly wasn’t going to agree. Those people had lent money chasing that three percent interest, and they had even criticized her family for being cold. Now, all the lenders had become beggars.
A few who had come just to watch the commotion saw the standoff and began trying to ease the tension.
One of them, however, had a more sensible suggestion.
“That Dali family is unreasonable. The outside world is probably about to go bad. Why don’t you all gather your families, break down their door together, and take the grain, oil, rice, and flour back to pay off the debts? That way, you won’t have to go through the trouble of buying your own.”
Second Aunt picked up a teacup from the table, took a sip, and looked like she was directing the whole show.
Qin Sang nodded along. That was clearly the only path forward. Otherwise, when the apocalypse came, their money would be gone for good.
“Old Fourth, why don’t you just sell that house? Sell it cheap, and someone will probably take it. I told you back then not to drain your family’s savings for your son, but you wouldn’t listen. Look at me—trusting your son too much never leads to a good life.”
Second Aunt, who had been so rational just moments ago, suddenly grew agitated.
Qin Sang knew Second Aunt’s story. Back in the day, she had drained her savings to buy an apartment in the provincial capital for her son. She lived with him there for eight years, raising her grandson until he started elementary school. Then her son sent her back to this little urban village to “retire.” He never came back to visit his elderly mother, not even during the holidays.
When Second Aunt had first returned to the village, she had been gaunt and haggard. It was only after several years of living in the village that she had regained some of her vigor.
“You can’t just sell a house on the spot like that,” Fourth Aunt and Fourth Uncle said, looking lost.
Qin Sang sighed.
Today was July 13th. There was still over half a month until the apocalypse. There was actually time to make it happen. The only problem was that whoever bought their house would become the sucker.
And Qin Sang suspected that given Qin Wenqiang’s personality, he wouldn’t agree to sell the house anyway. He simply didn’t believe in the end of the world. After last night’s influencer scandal, Qin Wenqiang had even mocked those who believed in the apocalypse in the group chat.
Sure enough, when Fourth Aunt called Qin Wenqiang to discuss selling the house, he cursed her out without mercy.
“Mom, you may not be educated, but you’re not an idiot. Remember when you bought all that iodized salt when I was little? We were still eating it when I got to high school. And the masks and disinfectant you hoarded a few years ago—we still haven’t finished them. The year before that, you believed the nuclear contamination scare and bought hundreds of pounds of sea salt. We still haven’t finished that either. The stuff online is designed to fool gullible people like you. Don’t believe it.”
With that barrage, he hung up again.
Everyone was speechless. Fourth Aunt burst into another round of sobbing.
Qin Sang thought to herself: Qin Wenqiang really is stubborn as a rock.
—
Meanwhile, after hanging up, Qin Wenqiang complained to his colleagues at work: “I don’t know what’s wrong with my mother’s brain. She actually believes in the end of the world.”
“Right? But seriously—your family really ate that iodized salt from elementary school all the way through high school?”
“But if nothing were really happening, why would the whole country suspend loans?” someone quietly pointed out.
Although their branch was just a small district bank, they had still heard vague rumblings. A nationwide loan suspension wasn’t something to take lightly.
The atmosphere instantly turned cold. Someone mentioned having a relative in a government agency who seemed to know something. Another said their relatives were all out buying things—apparently, supermarkets were running out of grain and oil.
One young man in glasses pulled Qin Wenqiang aside and asked about his house purchase in detail. After getting the full story, he asked for leave from his boss and left. As he walked away, he thought: No wonder Qin Wenqiang is so stubborn. Who could blame him for not believing the world was actually ending?
The bespectacled man thought about the dreams he’d had last night and the space that had inexplicably appeared to him. He couldn’t afford not to believe. He had come to work today intending to apply for a loan from the bank. But the moment he arrived, he received the notice: nationwide loan suspension.
Since he couldn’t take advantage of that, he decided to take leave and go stock up instead. If the government was suspending loans nationwide, something big was definitely happening. As for Qin Wenqiang—well, the relative who sold him that house definitely knew the apocalypse was coming.
—
Back at Qin Sang’s house, after Fourth Aunt had cried herself out, the relatives finally left. Qin Sang didn’t care about family ties anymore. She said to her mother directly, “Mom, a lot of people online are stockpiling. People in the village chat are shouting about it too. Why don’t we head out now?”
Hearing that, the relatives realized they should leave. And although they hadn’t gotten their money back yet, they also needed to hurry and stock up. Having been through many such panics before, they knew that if they were too slow, the things they needed might be gone.
Soon, all the guests had left. Mother Qin asked, “Sang Sang, are we really going shopping?”
“Yes. If everyone else is going, our family not going would stand out too much.”
They locked the door and went downstairs. The village was unusually lively. People were either heading out empty-handed or returning with fully loaded carts. When they saw the family of three, someone called out to them to hurry to the supermarket—the grain and oil at the market had already been bought up.
Hearing this, the other villagers quickened their pace. In no time, cars and scooters nearly clogged the village roads.
The Qin family rode their scooter to the supermarket, only to find it packed with people. It was hard to tell where so many people had come from. Quite a few of them looked like office workers.
Their area had many factories and office buildings, so renting out rooms was easy. These renters usually kept different schedules from the original villagers, with little overlap.
This was the first time Qin Sang had seen so many office workers on a weekday morning.
“Didn’t they say young people don’t believe in the end of the world?” Father Qin couldn’t help but remark as he saw the crowd pushing into the supermarket.
Qin Sang glanced at her phone, which was constantly receiving messages, and sighed. “There are streamers online live-streaming their stockpiling…”
Even though those live rooms were quickly taken down, they had already drawn massive attention.
Posts about stockpiling and apocalypse survival were everywhere. And many of them were from people who had prophetic dreams.
Qin Sang felt like she had only been watching the drama unfold at Qin Wenbang’s house. How had the situation online escalated so quickly?
She continued scrolling through news and posts until she finally understood what had happened.
It turned out some fool had gone to the supermarket early that morning and used his space to steal things.
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