Siheyuan: Domineering life

"Buzz...buzz..."

The piercing alarms continued to sound in the sky outside the shelter.

The crowd surged into the shelter like ants. There was no panic in Taiping Town, which had hundreds of thousands of people. They had become accustomed to it after dozens of drills. Everyone quickly and orderly took refuge in the shelter. It took nearly forty minutes for hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate.

This time is already the fastest, even breaking previous records, with each iteration taking less time than the last.

Yang Chengwu stood at the entrance of the shelter and watched the last person enter before ordering the door to close.

"Close the gate."

At the command, the crowd slowly began to move.

"Squeak..."

The steel door, weighing millions of tons, closed slowly with a heavy metallic sound.

"boom!"

With a dull thud, the steel door slammed shut.

Then came the second heavy steel door...

The third way...

With the three heavy steel doors closing, the entire shelter was completely cut off from the outside world.

The people inside did not linger and continued to evacuate to their respective floors. They had rehearsed dozens of times and found their positions with ease.

Once they arrived at their floor and room, they sat there calmly, chatting and drinking tea, just like visiting relatives and friends, as if nothing had happened.

Each exercise is not the end of the exercise. After entering, you have to live here for a period of time, about three or four days, or even five or six days, but no more than ten days. After all, everyone still needs to live and work normally, and we cannot test the shelter's capacity for a long time.

During this period, all the supplies needed for people's lives came from the shelters. After many trials, the shelters were fully capable of being self-sufficient, and even had a surplus.

Every exercise is not a game; it not only aims to build people's awareness and muscle memory, but also to test the shelter's resilience and see if it can survive in harsh environments in the future.

Every exercise is treated with utmost seriousness, as each exercise consumes a huge amount of money and manpower. For example, after each exercise, a huge amount of supplies need to be replenished, which is no small expense.

As the three steel doors fell, the entire shelter entered a post-apocalyptic survival environment. Everyone performed their duties, strictly staying in their positions and doing their jobs well.

Yang Chengwu, his face ashen, opened the first steel door and continued down.

And so, he opened nine steel doors in a row before finally reaching the tenth floor where Yang Jun was.

"Godfather."

This was Yang Jun's first time participating in an air defense exercise, and they were not very familiar with the place. At this moment, everyone was searching for their positions without any clue. Even with the guidance of the staff, the scene was still quite chaotic.

"Xiao Wu is here."

Yang Jun was sitting on the steps by the door smoking when he saw Xiao Wu arrive. He patted the empty space next to him, gesturing for him to sit down and talk.

Xiao Wu glanced at the chaotic scene, his lips twitched a few times, but he didn't say anything. He simply plopped down on the steps next to Yang Jun.

"Godfather, are you alright?" Yang Chengwu asked.

Yang Jun waved his hand and said, "I'm fine. Tell me how the exercise went."

Xiao Wu sighed after hearing this.

"This exercise took a full forty minutes, which was thirty minutes later than expected."

"This result is terrible, but I don't have any other good ways to reduce the time, sigh."

Yang Jun smiled slightly upon hearing this.

He knew all too well that this exercise would take a long time, but what could he do?

Once the fireworks are set off, people have at most ten minutes to escape. Ten minutes is too short; they won't even have time to react before it's over. Even if someone lives closest to the shelter, the journey alone takes about ten minutes.

Of course, ten minutes would be enough to escape through the special passage in his study, but what good would it do if only his family escaped? Without everyone else, the shelter would cease to function.

Unless... these people live in the shelter around the clock, but that's not very realistic.

"Little five."

Yang Jun exclaimed, "This is a fact that no one can change, but we can provide early warnings from multiple perspectives. For example, we can analyze the current global environment. Once the environment deteriorates, there will definitely be signs, and we still have a relatively long time to evacuate."

This is why Yang Jun did not retire immediately; he wanted to obtain firsthand information about global changes so that he could make the most accurate judgments.

"Yes, Godfather, I was just complaining. I was thinking that if we do more drills, we can reduce the evacuation time to within ten minutes."

Yang Chengwu shook his head and said, "It seems impossible now."

Upon hearing this, Yang Jun patted him on the shoulder and comforted him, saying, "Man proposes, God disposes. You have done what you should do. The rest is up to fate."

"Yes, Godfather is right."

"By the way, Xiao Wu, you need to hurry up and install an elevator in that escape route for me. This drill almost killed me," Yang Jun complained.

"hey-hey."

Yang Chengwu looked at Yang Jun and chuckled.

"What are you laughing at? You didn't even tell me you were doing a drill beforehand. Were you trying to trick me?"

"How could I dare?" Yang Chengwu said, "Godfather, an exercise should naturally be as close to reality as possible. If I told you in advance, the purpose of this exercise would be lost."

"You always have so many excuses."

Although Yang Jun was dissatisfied with this reason, he couldn't really refute it.

At this moment, a crowd gathered around.

Yi Qiushui walked up to Yang Chengwu, pointed at his forehead and said, "Xiao Wu, did you deliberately lure your godmother away? You didn't even tell me about the exercise beforehand. This crazy running has exhausted me to the point of exhaustion. It's all your fault."

As soon as Yi Qiushui finished speaking, the others joined in the attack on Xiao Wu.

"That's right, Xiao Wu, you're so unfair! We just got here and haven't even had a chance to rest yet, and you're already trying to run us away."

"Who says otherwise? I haven't exercised this intensely in almost twenty years. I almost collapsed from exhaustion on the way here today."

"Oh, I tripped and fell a few times on the way, and my legs still hurt."

"..."

Everyone was just joking; no one really meant to blame Xiao Wu.

Faced with everyone's accusations, Xiao Wu could only squat there and smile bitterly.

He didn't explain, just kept grinning foolishly. Seeing this, Yang Jun waved his hand and said, "Alright, Xiao Wu has already done more than enough by not conducting drills while you're sleeping at night. You should be content."

"Dare he?"

Upon hearing this, everyone became even more excited and exclaimed, "If he dares to conduct drills at night, I'll beat him to a pulp!"

"Exactly, if he dares, break his legs."

"..."

Seeing this, Xiao Wu laughed and said, "Everyone, if that's how you say it, then next time..."

As he spoke, a wicked smile crept across his face.

"you dare?"

Everyone rolled up their sleeves, ready to slap him, and he immediately shut up, not saying the rest of what he wanted to say.

Nighttime drills are definitely necessary. No one can guarantee that the fireworks will only be set off during the day. In fact, they are set off more often at night, so nighttime drills are very necessary. Before today, the people of Taiping Town had gone through dozens of nighttime drills, and they were already used to it.

Seeing this, Yang Jun had no choice but to step forward, since he still had to support Yang Chengwu's work.

"Alright, everyone, stop blaming Xiao Wu. He did it for everyone's own good."

"We built this shelter to survive in harsh environments, and doing this now is just to increase our chances of survival."

“Brother, you don’t need to explain, we all understand.” Yang Anguo interjected, “We’re just complaining a bit. Don’t worry, we will fully cooperate with Xiao Wu’s work.”

"Yes, we will all fully cooperate with Xiao Wu's work," everyone echoed.

People may complain, but it's mostly just a joke. They know that doing this is absolutely necessary, and they support it.

Seeing that everyone understood Xiao Wu's work, Yang Jun was very pleased. He pressed his hand down, and everyone immediately quieted down.

“From the time the shelter was built until now, Xiao Wu has been in charge for so many years. He knows this place better than anyone else, so everyone must follow his instructions.”

After speaking, Yang Jun glanced at everyone and said solemnly, "Even I have to listen to him."

"Anyone who dares to disagree will not be tolerated."

Upon seeing this, everyone unanimously replied that they dared not.

Afterwards, everyone began looking for their own courtyard.

The ninth and tenth floors were specially prepared by Yang Jun for his family. All his family and relatives lived on these two floors. These two floors were different from the other floors. The upper floors adopted a partitioned floor model, similar to a student dormitory, with four people in one room. However, the ninth and tenth floors were different. There were fewer people here, and the living space was larger. Each household could be allocated a courtyard.

The tenth floor, where Yang Jun was located, was even larger. It was just like the ground, with plenty of living space and no sense of oppression. Except for the absence of the sun in the sky, it was no different from living on the ground.

The shelter was also brightly lit, with lighting every few steps. There was never a power outage, and the shelter tried to mimic the outside environment as much as possible to reduce the psychological impact of environmental changes on people.

Under the guidance of the staff, everyone finally found their own spot, and soon the noisy crowd quieted down. Everyone went to their own courtyard and began their three-day experience.

It was the first time everyone had participated in such an exercise, so they were quite curious and gathered in small groups to chat and discuss various aspects of life in the apocalypse.

Yang Jun didn't chat with them. Instead, he went to the living room in his courtyard. Soon after, Yi Qiushui arrived with her family.

She first glanced at Yang Jun, who was sitting on the sofa in a daze, then quietly sat down next to him. She didn't make a sound, knowing that Yang Jun was probably thinking about something, and she tried not to disturb him.

"Is everything settled?" Yang Jun asked, turning around.

"Yes, everyone is settled in," Yi Qiushui said, pointing to the other people in the living room. "After you're settled in, please come and sit down."

Yang Jun glanced at everyone and then said, "This exercise is expected to last for several more days. You all need to be mentally prepared, especially the children. You must keep them calm and reassured."

"Understood, Lao Yang," the women replied in unison.

Yang Jun listened and nodded.

He glanced silently at the women, his heart filled with mixed emotions. Seeing that all the women were there, he suddenly remembered that there were two women in Yanjing. He thought that if he had the chance in the future, he would secretly bring them to Taiping Town. After all, they had been with him for so many years, and he had to take responsibility for them.

Of course, that was just his intention.

He was a time traveler who knew the future trajectory. Although his arrival had changed the course of the world to some extent, the overall direction had not changed much. He knew that the next thirty years would be peaceful, so this shelter would be unnecessary.

However, he has already decided to spend his retirement here and will focus his life here from now on, so he is trying his best to arrange things well.

“Don’t all gather here. Go do what you’re supposed to do,” Yang Jun said.

Upon hearing this, the children's faces lit up with joy. They had been wanting to go play for a long time, but their elders had not allowed it. Now that their father had spoken, they all ran off in a flash.

"Hey, slow down, don't fall."

"Don't run too far, do you hear me?"

Several women hurriedly gave instructions.

"Alright, let them go have fun."

Yang Jun smiled and said, "The entire floor is sealed off, where could they possibly run to?"

"That's true, but the whole floor is quite large. If you get lost, it won't be easy to find your way," Chen Ruolan said.

“Yes, yes, it’s always better to be careful,” the other women chimed in.

Seeing this, Yang Jun did not refute it, as he knew that these women also cared for the child.

"This is our first time living on the ground, so let's adjust our mindset as quickly as possible and try to adapt to life here." Yang Jun clapped his hands and said, "We were just eating when the exercise started, so we didn't get a proper meal. Now we're hungry, let's get something to eat."

"Now that you mention it, I'm starting to feel a little hungry. It's all Xiao Wu's fault; he won't even let me eat properly." Yang Qingxiang said.

“Exactly, why did Xiao Wu have to practice during mealtime of all times? I think he did it on purpose.” Nini.

"Alright, stop complaining about Xiao Wu. Let's get something to eat. We adults can manage, but the kids need to eat too," Yi Qiushui stopped everyone from continuing.

Afterwards, Yi Qiushui personally led everyone to the kitchen.

However, they quickly came out of it.

Approaching Yang Jun, Yi Qiushui spread her hands and said, "There's nothing in the kitchen. Xiao Wu is conducting an exercise, and he didn't even know to distribute the supplies beforehand?"

"Maybe it hasn't been time yet?"

Yang Jun explained for Xiao Wu, "We've just started the exercise, so we have to do things step by step. He'll bring the supplies over in a bit."

No sooner had he finished speaking than a commotion was heard outside the courtyard gate.

Upon opening the door, I found it was staff delivering supplies. (End of Chapter)