November 27th.

Daytime Temperature: 17 to 24 degrees Celsius, wind force level 3, light rain.

There are still about ten days left until the next routine apocalypse task card activates.

Since the system announced that the apocalypse is spreading over Blue Star, it has been raining for three consecutive days. Fortunately, the rain hasn’t been heavy, just a light drizzle, stopping and starting intermittently, with occasional hours of sunshine. Other than the ground being persistently damp, there’s been nothing particularly unusual.

This led Yu Xi to gradually rule out the idea of a flood apocalypse. She bought pH test strips to check the acidity of the rainwater, and after several tests, the pH value was between 6 and 6.5, never dropping below 5.6—pretty much ideal conditions. The possibility of an acid rain apocalypse was also ruled out.

In the past few days, she kept an eye on global natural disasters online. Earthquakes, typhoons, heavy rains, and volcanic activities were not uncommon, nor were building collapses. However, differing reports from various regions made it difficult to use these events as reliable indicators.

When the system first announced the apocalyptic disaster, she asked the Star House system about the term “spreading.” As she expected, it didn’t mean the apocalypse had already arrived; it implied a precursor period before the apocalypse fully manifested, similar to the apocalyptic task worlds. Last month’s massive earthquake in a neighboring country, the tornado at the beginning of the month, and the recent bridge incident could all be considered precursors.

So now the question was, what kind of apocalypse would her real world face? And how long would this relatively peaceful period last?

【Host, when the time comes, you will naturally know.】

With the peaceful world about to become a thing of the past, Yu Xi was understandably resistant, but resistance wouldn’t help. She wasn’t a pessimistic person by nature. No matter what, she was luckier than others on this planet because she had the Star House. Although she had to go through an apocalypse task every month, the Star House allowed her to prepare a safe retreat and protect her two most important relatives when the disaster struck.

She had no grand ambitions or plans; she just wanted to protect her small family when the apocalypse came. So, besides spending an hour every morning browsing the news to observe global trends, her daily life remained unchanged.

After several rounds of stocking up, the Star House warehouse was nearly full. Items that wouldn’t expire, such as half a box of gold, diamonds, and jade, dozens of boxes of clothes and shoes, two generators, sanitary pads and paper products, various tools, and spare tires, were moved inside the Star House to free up some space in the warehouse, where time stood still.

She reserved this space for items unique to peaceful times: several high-memory latest model laptops, tablets, and smartphones. The remaining empty spaces were left for unforeseen needs, like bringing back useful items from task worlds.

Additionally, some important and daily-use items from her apartment were temporarily stored in the Star House warehouse. This included her coffee machine, award certificates and trophies, a dozen art books, camera, tablet, paper books, professional books, a box full of various jewelry, perfumes, lipsticks, makeup, favorite clothes and bags, various pretty cups and plates, and all the food and drinks from her apartment…

When she initially bought this apartment, she meticulously decorated every corner. Now, only some empty furniture remains, each piece handpicked by her, full of memories. Looking at them still evokes the emotions and dreams she had when she was setting up her home.

She once thought she could live here for many years, have a place to enjoy a relationship with a boyfriend she might meet. But now, as the days of a peaceful world are numbered, no matter how much she likes and dreams of it, there are many things she can’t keep.

She also thought about listing the apartment with an agent to sell it for cash to stock up on more supplies. But she decided against it. She had already collected so much gold and jade, so she didn’t lack for money. Besides, the Star House warehouse was full, and the Star House itself was packed with things. Even if she had more money, she had nowhere to store more goods.

At the end of November and the beginning of December, two more over-river bridges in other cities experienced accidents. One bridge had a situation similar to the one Yu Xi experienced, with the bridge deck collapsing. It wasn’t rush hour, so there weren’t many cars on the bridge, and there was no stampede during the evacuation. Nevertheless, it still caused a wave of panic and chaos.

The other bridge had an issue with its pillars, which was even more frightening because it wasn’t immediately noticeable. During midday, cracks on the pillar widened unnoticed. The reinforced concrete seemed to have developed osteoporosis, with the combination of cracking and gravity eventually causing half the pillar to shatter, sending huge concrete blocks into the river below, nearly hitting passing ships. The people on the ship were stunned by the huge splash and only thought to call the police after a while. Consequently, the people and cars on the bridge were evacuated in time, and there were no casualties.

These two cities were quite a distance from S City, but the common factor was that all the bridges spanned the same river. Therefore, besides the cities’ own investigation teams, a special expert group was also formed to investigate the incidents and share data to find the cause together.

Due to these three bridge accidents, the informed public became anxious, developing a psychological shadow over bridges—especially large over-river bridges—opting to avoid them if possible, take detours, or use ferries instead. Of course, many people were still unaware of these events. Even those who saw the related trending topics might just curse about shoddy construction and then move on, as the world has so many disasters. If we were to tally them, every hour of every day would see various degrees of disaster happening worldwide, most of which just go unseen.

At the beginning of December, a significant event occurred in the Yu family. Yu Li and her husband Zhao Hua were reported to have had a street fight, which not only drew a crowd but also made it onto local news. Yu Feng shared that it wasn’t entirely Yu Li’s fault; she caught Zhao Hua with his mistress at a hotel, leading to the altercation. Now, Yu Li was determined to divorce Zhao Hua and threatened to leave him with nothing.

Yu Feng understood his younger sister’s temper. While he detested Zhao Hua, he knew that a midlife divorce was a big deal. He didn’t advocate for staying together just for the sake of it, but he hoped Yu Li would think carefully and make a resolute decision, rather than impulsively deciding one day and wanting to reconcile the next. As long as she was firm and not making a hasty choice, he wouldn’t interfere much in her marriage.

However, Yu Li, in her anger, couldn’t listen even to Yu Feng’s well-meaning advice. She accused him of siding with Zhao Hua, suggesting that all men were the same and that he must be involved in the affair to be defending Zhao Hua. She scolded him indiscriminately. Even with his good temper, Yu Feng couldn’t take this, so he left her to cool down.

Yu Li was Yu Feng’s biological sister, and although Fan Qi didn’t particularly like Yu Li, she wasn’t the type to stir up trouble. As long as it didn’t harm her or Yu Xi, she didn’t interfere much with Yu Feng’s decisions. Fan Qi didn’t say much and simply set the table for dinner. Recently, her daughter had been staying at home even more than before, following her everywhere, even to the nearby supermarket to buy groceries.

Fan Qi was quite exasperated by her daughter’s constant clinginess. She asked Yu Xi why she didn’t go with Yu Feng to his workplace, where there were at least a few promising young men. At the very least, she could chat and possibly develop future prospects.

Yu Xi didn’t say anything. Her father’s workplace, the Metrology Bureau, was nearby—a five-minute drive or a twenty-minute walk. Plus, Yu Feng had no leisure activities, always going directly between home and work. Given her current speed, if something happened, she could run over and bring him back.

However, Mrs. Yu sometimes gathered with former neighbors for tea, occasionally had meals with old friends from the art troupe, or went shopping alone. If Yu Xi didn’t follow, she often wouldn’t know where her mother was.

xxx

Dinner was prepared by Fan Qi and Yu Xi together. They made spicy double-cooked pork slices, lung soup, braised shredded potatoes, beef enoki mushrooms in golden broth, and mushrooms with bok choy—simple but hearty dishes for a family of three.

While they were eating, Yu Xi turned on the TV to the news channel. Midway through their meal, a news story reported an incident at the city zoo where a chimpanzee had attacked its keeper. The injured person had cared for the chimpanzee for two years, and the animal had always been attached to him. It was unclear why it suddenly became violent. The chimpanzee was now under close watch, and the keeper had been taken to the hospital.

Yu Feng glanced at the TV and mentioned a story he heard at work. A colleague told him about a relative who worked at a chicken farm in the suburbs, nearly an owner. They recently had a problem with their feed, resulting in two deformed chicks among the newly hatched ones. This issue troubled them greatly, as they couldn’t identify which batch of feed affected which hens, causing such deformities.

Fan Qi was curious, “What kind of deformities?”

“They said the chicks had four wings.”

“Four wings!” Fan Qi exclaimed, “If the chickens are healthy, four wings could be beneficial. Usually, we only get two wings per chicken. If future chickens have four wings, we could get a whole plate from just one chicken. Your daughter loves roasted wings; imagine how convenient that would be!”

Yu Xi: …

Her mother’s first reaction wasn’t fear or concern but food. Truly her mother!

After dinner, Yu Xi went online to look up recent animal news. There were fewer such reports domestically, but plenty from abroad, mainly in the past couple of months.

In the U.S., there was a major brawl among deer in an ecological park.

In France, all the cats in a cat café went missing.

In Brazil, thousands of butterflies gathered in a rainforest, staying together for days without dispersing…

These incidents seemed unrelated and might have happened before in some places. However, at this critical juncture, Yu Xi couldn’t help but think more deeply about them.

She grabbed a pen and wrote a few words in her sketchbook: Plants? Animals?

If these were also signs, she believed that the expert team investigating the bridges must have some clues by now. If she could get those investigation reports, she might make more accurate predictions. However, it was still a peaceful time; she couldn’t ignore the law to steal documents.

That night, a strange sound woke her up. Initially, it came from very far away, but gradually it got closer. Soon, she heard similar sounds around her apartment building.

It was… dogs barking?

No, the nearby sounds were indeed dog barks, though elongated. But the distant sounds she first heard were… howls?

How could there be wolves in the city?

Yu Xi climbed out of bed, opened the window, leaned half her body out, and listened carefully again.

There was no mistake; the distant sound was indeed wolves howling.