“Sang Sang, you’re trending!”
Qin Sang was sitting on the back of the electric scooter, scrolling through her phone, when she saw someone @ her in the college dorm group chat.
Seeing the message, she immediately clicked on the video shared in the group. It turned out that footage of the supermarket chaos had been posted online by some resourceful customer. She had appeared as a background extra in the video.
Amused, she replied: “I’m not trending. I’m just a nobody in the background.”
Seeing her respond, the group chat immediately came alive. Someone asked if the chaos had really happened. Someone asked if the apocalypse was real. Someone else mocked her for being foolish enough to follow the aunties and uncles in stockpiling supplies.
Qin Sang read all the messages and simply replied: “I think things are about to change.”
She then put down her phone and recalled what had happened after leaving the supermarket.
Half an hour earlier, when she had walked through that strange security door, she had been genuinely terrified.
Her family’s space was ancestral—different from others. According to Dalinzi, spaces like his appeared after having prophetic dreams. But Qin Sang knew that not everyone who had a prophetic dream received a space. The mechanism behind how spaces appeared was still unclear.
So, when she stepped through that security door, although she felt she shouldn’t be detected, she was still worried.
Fortunately, everything was fine. She passed through without any issue.
After clearing the security door, she had to register her personal information and give a brief account of what she had done in the supermarket. Then she was let go.
As she left the supermarket, she deliberately looked around. She noticed that the two people with spaces had been escorted into a military vehicle.
That glance also revealed that among the soldiers who had arrived, seven or eight of them had spaces. That was a significant proportion. She wondered whether they had been deliberately assembled together, or if the rate of space awakening was simply higher among military personnel.
But the fact that the authorities had developed a tool to detect spaces suggested they understood the phenomenon much better than ordinary people.
—
As soon as their electric scooter entered the village entrance, the family of three was surrounded by villagers. The more impatient ones immediately asked about the situation at the supermarket.
Neither Father Qin nor Mother Qin were the type to keep people in suspense. They gave a brief account of what had happened and then pushed their scooters toward home. They had taken two scooters out and returned with absolutely nothing.
Seeing their empty hands, the villagers realized the Qins hadn’t bought a single thing. Someone called out to Mother Qin: “Hongxia! Do you want to come with us to the wholesale market early tomorrow morning?”
Mother Qin replied, “Sure. I’m not going back to that supermarket. Those people really don’t hold back when they start fighting.”
Qin Sang admired how her mother could chat away under the blazing sun.
She walked ahead, planning to document today’s discoveries and ask Dalinzi about the situation on his end. He had said he would return soon, but today was already the 13th, and there was still no sign of him.
When she passed by Second Uncle’s house, she saw that his doors and windows were still tightly shut. Trash had been dumped at his doorstep. The high school student with the space was lingering nearby.
“Dad, whose kid is that?”
Father Qin, while pushing the scooter and discussing the supermarket incident with a cousin, glanced over. “Oh, that’s your Eighth Uncle’s son, Qin Yonghua.”
Many people in the village were relatives. This “Eighth Uncle” was actually a distant relative—a great-great-great uncle, quite far removed. Judging by that kid’s behavior, he was probably looking for a chance to completely clean out Second Uncle’s house.
At that thought, Qin Sang raised an eyebrow. If he really did that, she would have to watch out for him sneaking around the village stealing supplies.
After a moment’s thought, Qin Sang sent a message to Brother Fa. He was the captain of the village patrol team. He led a group of villagers on patrol every night. That said, the patrol members didn’t usually take their jobs very seriously. They mostly held their positions through connections, collecting a salary from the village committee.
[Brother Fa, with all the chaos online recently, you should probably tighten up the patrols at night.]
[Oh? Worried about thieves?]
[Exactly. We were just at the supermarket, and people were already fighting over rice.]
Qin Sang chatted casually with Brother Fa for a bit and asked him to keep an eye on things in the village. By then, she had reached her own building.
—
“It smells so good!” Father Qin remarked, looking up at the building above.
On the fourth-floor balcony, someone was looking down at the street. Qin Sang immediately recognized Qu Meijing. The woman had returned angrily in the morning and hadn’t gone out since. Qin Sang guessed it had something to do with the nationwide loan suspension. Now the building was filled with the aroma of cooking—clearly, Qu Meijing was processing food at home.
Anyone who had read apocalypse novels knew that as long as a protagonist had a preservation space, they would buy a bunch of prepared food. They would also process and package large quantities of it themselves, making it convenient to eat after the apocalypse broke out.
The fragrant aroma of braised meat filled the air. Qin Sang immediately understood Qu Meijing’s intentions.
But she didn’t engage with her. She went straight upstairs and into the house. Her father stayed on the first floor to tidy up. The simple renovation was complete, but there were still some finishing touches left.
After washing up and eating an ice cream at home, Qin Sang finally felt alive again.
She opened her phone and checked the dorm group chat. The roommate who had mocked her for stockpiling was now posting screenshots of plane tickets for an overseas trip. Qin Sang didn’t respond. Her relationship with this person had never been good—she never figured out what she had done to offend her. In a tiny four-person dorm, this girl had managed to create eight different group chats.
The other two roommates were trying to persuade her to reconsider, saying that people around them were also stockpiling and that the internet was full of end-of-world rumors. Traveling abroad wasn’t safe right now. But she wouldn’t listen. After showing off her plane tickets, she posted pictures of her fancy international travel suitcase.
Qin Sang silently sent a candle emoji and moved on.
—
After that, she clicked on Dalinzi’s profile and sent him everything that had happened at the supermarket, including the authorities’ ability to detect spaces with a device. She expected to wait until evening for a reply, but he responded quickly.
[Sang Sang, a lot of people at my company have been seconded to help the government with big data screening and analysis. I won’t be able to come back for a while. I’m fine. My supplies are fine. You, Auntie, and Uncle need to be careful. Things are pretty chaotic out there.]
Dalinzi worked in big data analysis. His business trip had taken him to the capital. The fact that his company’s technical staff had been pulled in to assist the government clearly meant that the authorities were planning something big. Otherwise, why would they need private-sector technical staff?
Qin Sang could only reply that their supplies were ready and not to worry about the situation at home.
During their renovation, the family had focused mainly on Dalinzi’s house next door. His place was a four-story self-built home, not rented out. He was the only one left in his family. The two families had known each other for decades, so of course they helped each other out.
Just as she was thinking about this, Dalinzi sent a flood of messages—screenshots from various forums and live streams, news links. All of them analyzed the influencer’s broadcast mishap, the end-of-world rumors, the yellow-haired guy’s space, and more.
Qin Sang looked through everything and saw that chaos wasn’t limited to their area—supermarkets and wholesale markets in other places had also erupted.
The main problem was that online rumors were impossible to distinguish. On top of that, some influencers were live-streaming their stockpiling to chase views. Many people, seeing their relatives and friends stock up, followed suit out of fear of missing out. Then the authorities announced a nationwide loan suspension. And the yellow-haired man’s space theft deepened public panic.
All of that had led to today’s outbreaks of chaos.
Most importantly, unreliable rumors had been deleted. What remained were posts about prophetic dreams, the apocalypse, spaces, and related topics.
Seeing this, combined with the authorities’ actions at the supermarket today, Qin Sang was certain that the government would act soon.
But she hadn’t expected them to act quite so quickly.
That evening at 7:00 PM, on a news program watched by the entire nation, an announcement was made: a national press conference would be held tomorrow at 9:00 AM. At that time, an important statement would be made regarding recent end-of-world theories.
That night, most people slept poorly. As soon as the news program made the announcement, everyone was talking about it. Online, all kinds of theories spread—some fearful, some excited, some conflicted.
But regardless, the next morning still came.
Qin Sang, however, received a piece of good news early on: both of her parents had prophetic dreams. Her father had not received a space, but her mother had.
She immediately wanted to ask what was different between the two of them. But it was nearly 9:00 AM. That conversation would have to wait until after the press conference.
—
“I believe everyone has recently noticed various online discussions about the end of the world.”
At the press conference, the spokesperson directly addressed the topic—using the very words “end of the world.”
Instantly, the screen was flooded with danmaku comments. Some people said the apocalypse was here and they no longer had to work like oxen and horses. Someone asked if Ye Wenjie had pressed the button. Others said everyone would die together. The danmaku comments were overwhelmingly negative. But those negative messages disappeared within a second, completely wiped clean.
Qin Sang sighed and continued listening.
“The authorities would prefer to use the phrase ‘the arrival of natural disasters’ instead of ‘the end of the world.’ Because ‘end’ implies a final day, but natural disasters can be overcome.”
“At the end of June, people began dreaming of scenes of extreme heat and disaster. The number of people experiencing such dreams has steadily increased over time…”
“Upon waking from these prophetic dreams, some individuals have developed a preservation space…”
“Based on information gathered so far from those who have had prophetic dreams, we know that the extreme heat disaster will occur on August 8th of this year. At that time…”
“Here, we call on everyone who has experienced prophetic dreams to report to your nearest community registration point as soon as possible. Clearly explain the details of your dream to the staff. Your participation could make a difference in the survival of humanity…”
“The authorities will launch a 25-day disaster preparedness campaign following this press conference. Specific measures will be communicated to all regions…”
“We believe that as long as we stand united, we can overcome any disaster.”
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