Forecasting Natural Disasters for Novel Natives - Chapter 12

The arrival of the military made the people of Haicheng realize that the warnings on the Sky Screen might actually be true, and everyone rushed to panic-buy supplies.

However, by this time, Haicheng’s resources came under control. Granaries, docks, food processing plants, major wholesale markets, and logistics distribution centers were directly taken over by the military.

It wasn’t that they confiscated everything, but rather implemented centralized management. Designated sales points were set up in every community for controlled distribution.

Everyone needed to use their ID cards to purchase necessary supplies, with purchase limits in place to prevent any individual from hoarding too much.

In addition, a comprehensive and detailed census was conducted, registering everyone’s name, address, and occupation down to the smallest detail.

This ensured every person in Haicheng was accounted for. From then on, identification checks would be mandatory for movement, and any discrepancy in information would mean serious trouble.

Late at night, Zhang Xiao’s hotel room door was knocked on. The hotel manager came with two government officials to register guest information.

She presented her ID card for registration. After scanning it, they asked, “This shows your registered address is XX Apartment. Why are you staying at a hotel?”

Zhang Xiao calmly replied, “My boyfriend brought his whole family over, and I don’t get along with them, so I moved out.”

They didn’t press further, only reminded her to stay safe on her own.

They also informed her that this community had five designated supermarkets where she could shop with her ID card if needed.

After closing the door, Zhang Xiao breathed a sigh of relief, realizing her back was drenched in sweat.

Once the state machinery was set in motion, things were indeed different. Fortunately, she had already bought quite a lot during the day and stored it in her space. Otherwise, it would be much harder to acquire supplies now.

She put on her jacket, took her ID card and wallet, and went to one of the designated supermarkets.

It wasn’t far from the hotel—originally a supermarket with five storefronts. Now it was brightly lit, with large canopies set up outside where boxes of goods were stacked beneath. Several soldiers stood guard with loaded weapons, their imposing presence keeping everyone orderly and obedient in line.

The queue was quite long. Thirty people were allowed into the supermarket at a time, with a new group every five minutes.

Zhang Xiao waited half an hour before her turn. Inside the supermarket, she looked around—the merchandise was fairly complete and hadn’t been marked up, maintaining the same prices as before.

However, there were purchase limits: for food items, whether raw or cooked, one ID card couldn’t exceed ten jin. Fruits and vegetables were limited to three jin, fresh products to two jin, and drinking water to 5 liters.

While 5 liters seemed little, with water service still running, people could boil tap water, so this didn’t seem problematic.

Other daily necessities were also rationed.

It appeared the government’s main goal was ensuring every person and household had basic supplies for essential goods.

Zhang Xiao bought up to the limits, emerging with two heavy bags that would normally last one person more than ten days.

The queue had grown even longer. People behind her, seeing everyone leaving with bulging bags, grew worried.

“Everyone’s buying so much—won’t everything be gone by the time we get there?”

“I told you to come queue earlier, but you wouldn’t listen.”

“Don’t we still have rice at home?”

“We do, but it’s better to buy more while we can!”

Fortunately, several large trucks soon arrived, unloading boxes of supplies, which reassured people considerably.

「Bo Family Residence」

The family was packing through the night.

Mrs. Bo hesitated. “Are we really leaving? The military has entered the city.”

Bo Mucheng replied, “Precisely because the military entered the city, we need to leave. Once tomorrow’s torrential rain truly arrives, Haicheng’s population will definitely be evacuated in batches. Ten million people, continuous heavy rain—such a massive evacuation will face tremendous difficulties. If we can leave now, we should, to reduce the burden on the nation.”

In fact, airports, high-speed rail stations, and train stations had all temporarily increased their schedules. The highways were filled with vehicles leaving Haicheng.

The government didn’t prevent people from leaving Haicheng. As long as they didn’t take away too many resources, they even preferred more people to leave, reducing the burden for the upcoming potential Torrential Rain crisis.

Mr. Bo told his wife, “Stop wasting time. Hurry and pack everything. We won’t be able to return for quite a while, so don’t forget anything important.”

Bo Mucheng said to his father, “Ji He has already secured that land in the west. I heard that this afternoon the nation began constructing refuge bases in the western region. After you arrive there, Father, act immediately to establish our branch office as our own stronghold.”

Mr. Bo replied, “Will the nation allow this? The Sky Screen mentioned rival factions rising, and the government is very sensitive about this—they won’t allow individuals to grow too powerful.”

“I’m not talking about becoming excessively large. I think we can focus on food processing going forward. There will definitely be a huge food shortage ahead. With flooding and standing water, ordinary food won’t keep long. The nation will surely be eager to process stored grains into long-lasting food products. We can take government contracts. Additionally, the Sky Screen mentioned strange diseases after the Torrential Rain, so we should also prepare for pharmaceutical manufacturing.

“Also, I’ve decided to stay temporarily in Haicheng to assist the government in setting up some designated sales points and donate some supplies.”

In essence, they would become the kind of enterprise the nation needed while avoiding taboos, donate to improve their reputation, and successfully complete their transformation.

Mrs. Bo exclaimed, “Mucheng, you’re not coming with us?”

Bo Mucheng replied, “If I leave too, we’d truly be deserters.”

It wasn’t until the early hours that Bo Mucheng finally saw his parents and others off to the airport.

Those leaving included family members of others, company technical staff, key personnel and employees, along with large quantities of machinery, raw materials, and hard assets like gold—multiple chartered flights.

These people would lay the groundwork in the west, while Bo Mucheng remained with the rest.

The starry night sky was perfect for flying. At the airport, planes constantly took off and landed, with the terminal packed with people carrying large and small bags—busier than during Spring Festival.

Bo Mucheng said, “Let’s go back.”

*

「Restaurant」

Zhao Wu was frantically trying to reach Zhang Xiao on his phone, nearly breaking it, but couldn’t get through. Looking at the bill of over five thousand yuan, he was dumbfounded.

Despite pleading with the waiter, they wouldn’t let him defer payment. His credit card wasn’t working either. He had to empty all his cash and drain his mobile payment apps to barely cover the bill.

Leaving the restaurant, Zhao Wu’s face was dark with anger.

His parents and sister just kept complaining.

“This Zhang Xiao is outrageous, standing us up like this. Our family can’t accept such a daughter-in-law!”

“If she wasn’t coming, she should have said so earlier, instead of making us spend all this money.”

“Xiao Wu, you need to have a serious talk with her.”

Zhao Wu irritably agreed. Having spent all their money, they had no mood to do anything else and headed straight back to the apartment.

But outside the apartment, they saw a long queue at the 24-hour convenience store, and neighbors from their building were giving them strange, seemingly mocking looks.

They were completely baffled. When they reached their floor and saw the ransacked, empty apartment, they were stunned.

“We’ve been robbed!”

“My new clothes!”

“Where’s the roasted duck I left on the table?”

“The refrigerator’s been completely cleaned out!”

“Oh no! Call the police, call the police immediately!”

The police arrived quickly and contacted Zhang Xiao, who said she only took her own belongings. None of the other residents in the building admitted to taking anything.

With no surveillance in the building and Zhao Wu’s list of missing items containing nothing particularly valuable—none meeting the threshold for filing a case—he had to swallow this loss.

The family sat in their bare apartment, wailing and cursing Zhang Xiao.

This wasn’t the end of it. The landlord soon arrived, wanting to reclaim the apartment to rent to someone else. Being on the sixth floor, it wouldn’t flood immediately if it rained heavily, so people were willing to pay extra to rent it.

With the landlord’s two thousand yuan compensation plus their returned deposit, Zhao Wu’s family was evicted from the apartment, not knowing where to go.

*

This chaotic night passed, with Haicheng’s lights burning all night long, and the queues for shopping never shortening.

When the next morning’s sunlight streamed down, everyone felt exhausted—tired yet restless.

People frequently looked up at the sky, which remained brilliantly sunny and blazingly hot.

They felt for wind on the streets—the breeze hadn’t picked up, there was hardly any wind at all.

They checked weather forecasts, which also showed no prediction of wind or rain.

By noon, people began to waver.

“Could it be fake?”

“How could there be a Torrential Rain in weather like this?”

“A Torrential Rain lasting several months is completely unrealistic. Where would all that rainwater come from?”

“Oh dear, we queued all night for nothing—it’s all the government making a big fuss over nothing.”

“The house is piled high with vegetables, the refrigerator can’t fit them all. In this weather, they’ll spoil in a couple of days. What are we going to do?”

“We bought such expensive plane tickets—did we panic for nothing?”

People throughout the city complained, growing increasingly agitated.

As the sun climbed higher and then began to set, the entire city’s atmosphere grew more tense. Almost everyone had set aside everything else, waiting for something to happen.

Just when people thought the Sky Screen was complete nonsense, the sky suddenly darkened.

The previously clear sky was suddenly filled with massive, rolling dark clouds. Strong winds swept up fallen leaves and trash from the ground, rattling windows and doors with loud banging sounds.

Then the first raindrop fell, followed by the second, the third…

People’s expressions in that moment were shocked, resistant, despairing, and disbelieving.

“It’s—raining—”

“Don’t come any closer!”

People on the streets turned and ran, as if the rain was something terribly unlucky they didn’t want to touch.

The next moment, torrential rain poured down, turning the entire world into a blur.

Help us!!

The Torrential Rain really came ahhhhhhh!!!!

…

「Wei Yuexin’s Workplace」

Wei Yuexin sat at her workstation, constantly refreshing her DouDou backend.

“Xiao Wei, handle this report.”

Wei Yuexin put down her phone and took the folder from her team lead. “Okay.”

The team leader asked. “How’s your grandmother doing?”

“She’s out of danger. The doctor says she’s recovering well.”

“That’s good. The company executives might visit for inspection these next few days. Pay attention and don’t be cutting it close with your arrival and departure times to avoid making a bad impression.”

“Understood, team leader.”

After the team leader left, Wei Yuexin sighed with relief and picked up her phone again.

Her first two videos had shown income shortly after posting, but the third video had been up for over a day with no income showing.

Could something have gone wrong?

She recalled the novel’s plot. This novel was mainly divided into two parts.

The first half focused on the female protagonist surviving in Haicheng, seeking revenge, upgrading her space, meeting the male protagonist Bo Mucheng, then working together to build a team.

The second half covered the evacuation from Haicheng, then the male and female protagonists reaching the high-altitude western region, building bases, with the nation facing external threats and internal strife, epidemics spreading, and vast numbers of people dying. Finally, the male and female protagonists’ Xiaocheng Base became the strongest.

The Torrential Rain lasted three years total. In the end, the whole world became an ocean, with very few survivors. The male and female protagonists’ base sheltered most of the survivors. When the rain finally stopped and they emerged from the base to see the long-missed gentle sunlight, everyone shed tears.

The epilogue covered building a new world, with the male and female protagonists as rulers of the new world.

So for warning videos, she mainly needed to capture two key points:

One was the timing of the Torrential Rain’s arrival, and the other was the critical period when conflict and epidemics broke out. She felt her videos were correct.

Wei Yuexin rested her phone against her chin, sighed, and picked up the report to start working.

Side income was quick money, but not stable enough, so she had to continue doing her main job well. If the side income dried up someday, she’d still have steady work.

Suddenly her phone vibrated. She looked and saw:

DouDou backend notification: [Income from your video “Torrential Rain Apocalypse Countdown” has been credited…]

Her heart leaped with joy. Looking around to make sure no one was watching, she quickly opened it.

Her eyes widened in shock.

Sh*t, was she seeing things? Ones, tens, hundreds, thousands, ten-thousands… The income was actually thirteen thousand yuan!

Could it be a mistake?

She clicked on the details.

This video had 13 million views, over 380,000 likes, over 2.12 million dislikes, and over 70,000 flower gifts.

These stats were incredible!

Nearly double her first video’s numbers.

But there was also an additional income source.

Paid viewers: 715 people, paid income: 7,150 yuan.

Why was there suddenly a paid viewing option? Did her video require payment to watch?

And ten yuan per person—her video was only a few minutes long. Even paid movies she watched on apps only cost three to five yuan.

She didn’t know that these 715 people had actually each paid ten thousand yuan, and she only received one-thousandth of that, otherwise she’d really call it highway robbery.

Besides the additional paid option, there was also a penalty item.

[Key character gave your video a thumbs down. This world will be sealed for processing for the next month, prohibiting video uploads]

Huh?

What did that mean?

Wait, she had already made her second video, and now they were telling her uploads were prohibited?

Wei Yuexin was confused and messaged HR on WeChat.

「The paid income is normal, don’t worry about that. As for the penalty, a key game player was dissatisfied with your video, so you’ll have to wait a month before uploading the second video.」

Wei Yuexin typed: 「Can I work on videos for other projects?」

HR: 「Yes, you can.」

Wei Yuexin scratched her head. That would work then.

But she couldn’t help asking: 「Who is this key person?」

After a while, they replied: 「The female protagonist role-player.」

Wei Yuexin was stunned.

After thinking about it, she understood.

This world’s female protagonist was a reborn character who had more advance knowledge than others, but her warning video essentially leveled the playing field, eliminating the protagonist’s advantage. No wonder she was dissatisfied.

Wei Yuexin muttered, “I thought your script was pretty tragic, and I was even considering not revealing your space secret, but you gave me a thumbs down.”

Even that scumbag from the acid rain world hadn’t given her a thumbs down (Shi Feizhai had been too panicked at the time to either like or dislike)!