A group of people were inside the supermarket. Xiao Liu and Xiao Zhao had sent some photos in the work group chat, showing scenes of panic buying in the city.
The two of them were staying at the company in response to their supervisor’s call, which gave them more time in the morning to handle personal matters. They went out together to grab breakfast, but the shop they usually ate at wasn’t open. As they kept looking, they found many stores shut down. When they finally found a place to eat, the prices had gone up and it was packed with customers.
While waiting for their food, they noticed that the small supermarket next door, which had just opened, was also packed.
At first, the citizens remained relatively calm. But after a sudden power outage, everyone started forcing their way in and panic buying.
Instant food went first, and later, even snacks weren’t spared.
A large number of people also rushed over to a nearby big supermarket that was restocking and not yet open. Even when the employees tried to block them, they couldn’t hold anyone back.
These citizens could wait at first, but after the power outage, they couldn’t hold it in any longer. They pried open the rolling shutter door and charged in to grab goods.
A few employees simply couldn’t stop a hundred people from going wild.
Interestingly, no one ran off without paying. Everyone paid.
Besides Xiao Liu, Xiao Zhao, and the others, many people were also paying close attention to this. Those who saw the news all went out to stock up.
The newcomers Chang Yong and Chang Kaihuai were asleep at the company when they got woken up. They quickly paired up and rushed out to shop.
They ran across two streets, drenched in sweat, but still couldn’t buy anything.
The supermarkets were either closed or their shelves were completely empty.
Anything edible had been bought up. But things that weren’t edible, like mouthwash and disinfectant, no one was buying yet.
By this time, the breakfast shops along the route in the Eastern Alliance had also been cleaned out. Not a single steamed bun or fried dough stick was left.
The Eastern Alliance issued an appeal, urging everyone not to panic buy and to leave supplies for those in need. The Alliance promised to do its best to ensure sufficient supplies.
They would release grain from their warehouses into the market.
Song Wuli didn’t go. His body had already been conditioned to automatically walk to the subway station. Seeing the subway doors closed, he only then realized service had been suspended.
He coughed a few times. His body wasn’t feeling great, and it had been aching the whole way here.
He checked the work group chat again. The news everyone had been waiting for finally came. The supervisor announced an exciting piece of good news—they’d gotten their hands on a generator.
The copywriting team wasn’t getting the day off today.
Old Song was used to it by now, so he switched to taking the bus for his commute.
He expected the bus to be packed, but it was actually quite empty. Seemed like only a few people had to go to work today.
He sat down and looked out the window.
The housing in this area was still relatively intact, with only a small amount of damage.
They were quite far from where the fighting happened, so how had this area been affected?
Occasionally, he could see some rocks embedded in the walls, and some buildings had clusters of small holes in them.
These were stones that the barber man’s fist wind had sent flying, like cannonballs. They varied in size, and their power was enough to penetrate concrete walls.
The city’s restoration work might take years, and many places could never return to how they were before the war.
The bus stopped. A limping elderly woman wanted to get on, struggling a bit.
She glanced at Song Wuli, who was by the door, and the driver also looked at Song Wuli.
Old Song hesitated at first. The driver had no choice but to unbuckle his seatbelt and come over to help the elderly woman aboard, which was a bit difficult.
He managed to help the limping elderly woman into a seat. Only then did Old Song get up and lend a hand, working together with the driver.
The elderly woman thanked the driver and Old Song, who had taken over halfway.
The bus started moving again. Ten minutes later, the elderly woman got off.
There was a small traffic jam up ahead, so the bus had to wait a bit. Through the window, Old Song saw the elderly woman heading toward the quiet vegetable market.
That place should have been bustling. Today, it should have been even livelier. Of course, that was only in the early morning.
The vegetable vendors had already packed up their stalls, which was why it seemed so quiet.
The supermarkets had all been cleared out, so there was no way the vegetable market would still have anything to buy.
Just before the bus pulled away, Old Song saw the elderly woman standing at the market entrance. Helplessly and with difficulty, she bent down to pick up dirty vegetable leaves that passersby had trampled on the ground.
After arriving at the company, he clocked in and saw the office area buzzing with heated discussion. Besides the sound of voices, there was also the noise of machinery.
Almost everyone from copywriting team 1 and group 2 had arrived. The newcomers Chang Kaihuai and Chang Yong were showing off what they’d managed to grab. After running several kilometers and being busy all morning, they’d still gotten a little something.
They’d gotten a bag of flour from a restaurant and emptied out everything in their fridge.
Pretty ruthless.
After greeting them, Song Wuli went to look at the machine in the office area that was making some noise. It was the generator the supervisor had mentioned. The sound was actually pretty quiet.
The folks in group 2 were pretty clever. Since they couldn’t buy food, they bought power banks instead. Dozens of power banks were quietly siphoning electricity.
When they saw Xiao Liu, they’d compliment him on how plump and fair he looked. When they saw Chang Kaihuai, they’d praise his solar panel. They’d even managed to get a solar panel.
During today’s shift, colleagues kept sending messages, hoping the supervisor—who seemed afraid of being scolded—would come back to the office area to hype up the mood. He could probably sense that everyone’s resentment was running pretty high.
Song Wuli, what are you going to do?
It wasn’t just group 2’s people. Even the folks from group 1 came to beg Old Song.
They really treated him like the hero of the copywriting team.
He thought it over for a long time and finally decided to go talk to the supervisor.
Meanwhile, the experts from the Eastern Alliance were also busy dealing with the mess left after the war.
A psychology expert had been working for two days and woke up early this morning. He knew about the panic buying but didn’t care. He had something very important to do.
He tapped on the keyboard and typed out the final period.
He let out a long breath. While sipping his tea, he reviewed the plan. After confirming there were no errors, he printed it out into a booklet.
He left excitedly and reached his private garage. As the rolling door slowly rose, he suddenly noticed that the wall beside him was cracked, with a hole in it.
When did this hole appear? Did the barber man attack my place?
And the hole in this wall was strange. It looked like it was caused by a small explosion from the inside out, not from the outside in.
Having been in the Eastern Alliance for a long time, the psychology expert had picked up a thing or two about criminal investigation.
The garage’s rolling door was still rising, at about 50 percent height.
The expert’s attention was completely fixed on the hole. Then, a shocking change occurred.
The rubble near the hole suddenly floated up and was instantly pulled toward the hole in the wall, filling in the cracks and the hole itself. Almost instantly, it restored itself to a flawless state.
A light orb shot out in an instant, hitting the psychology expert who was watching the show.
It wasn’t over yet. Some fine specks of light suddenly gathered into a sphere, shot out, and immediately struck the psychology expert, who was still watching the show.
The thing exploded, dealing him significant damage. One hit was enough to scatter his consciousness, and he collapsed to the ground.
In his daze, he saw a figure appear in his line of sight. The figure was all too familiar.
A small foot stopped right in front of the expert. The pattern on the high heels caught his eye. The design of those shoes was one he knew very well.
The document clutched in his arms was snatched away.
The last image the expert saw before passing out was the burning document being thrown to the ground, turning to ash and smoke in the flames.