Countdown: Humanity's struggle to survive against yesterday

"..."

This question seemed to shut down the middle-aged man's next question. He frowned and stammered, "Well... we can't go out either! Didn't the news say to stay home as much as possible, and contact the property management or the community if needed..."

"Didn't you stop me?"

Jiang Ning smiled, waved, and turned to leave.

"Ugh, you..."

The middle-aged security guard wanted to say a few more words, but seeing that Jiang Ning had already turned and left, he could only stand there listlessly waving his hands, feeling utterly dejected. He thought to himself, "No wonder the neighbors say he's a weirdo."

The middle-aged security guard turned around and went back to the guardhouse. He stared at the "strange" inner road outside the door, quietly smoked a cigarette, sat for a while, then got up, took out his mobile phone and electric scooter keys from the drawer, smacked his lips and hummed a little tune, and slowly left.

Jiang Ning headed north, while he headed south. Along the way, he couldn't help but think contentedly, "It would be great if the world went backwards; there would be endless drinking. Whoever wants to be this lousy security guard can have it..."

Walking along Nei'er Road again, Jiang Ning immediately noticed that more shops were closed than yesterday, and there were far fewer pedestrians.

Jiang Ning guessed that he might have slept for a few more hours after waking up, which is why he missed the first wave of people returning home after the "world went backwards".

The term "homecoming wave" was coined by netizens themselves.

When the world regressed and returned to normalcy, the first thing the awakened Chinese people did was rush home.

Jiang Ning withdrew his guess, but felt a strange sense of unease on the street. To be specific, it was like there were people and cars, and the street scenes on both sides were familiar, but you found that people were no longer smiling, cars were not moving, and shops were closed. It was like every year during the Spring Festival, when the once bustling metropolis suddenly became like a dead city, completely devoid of vitality.

As Jiang Ning passed by Xiao Huai Convenience Store, he noticed that the same convenience store owner who hadn't charged customers before was sitting idly at the counter by the entrance.

He saw Jiang Ning, chuckled, and said, "Hey buddy, come on over! Take whatever you like, it's free!"

Jiang Ning was amused by his optimistic attitude and waved her hand to indicate that she didn't need it.

Continuing forward, we arrived at Wangjiang Road, where the scene was just like yesterday, but the sense of disorder was even greater.

The main road was crowded with all kinds of abandoned cars. The cars were stuck on the road without moving, with only rows of indicator lights flashing left and right. Some of the cars that had been rear-ended were emitting piercing alarms as if they had electrical problems. Occasionally, sparks could be seen coming out of the hood of one of the cars.

Fortunately, there were no fires or explosions today.

Jiang Ning was quickly drawn to a 4.2-meter truck that had overturned on its side. The truck, which was equipped with a refrigerated box, was lying on its side, surrounded by several cars that had been crushed and deformed.

After the horrific scenes witnessed "yesterday," this scene itself wouldn't have been particularly noteworthy.

However, Jiang Ning saw a young man with blood on his face and the wounds already scabbed over, sitting quietly on the roof of a BMW that had been rear-ended and was deformed, eating an orange.

To his side was the open refrigerated truck door, and perhaps because the door was open, the entire box of sweet oranges inside had rolled out of the door.

He saw Jiang Ning smile slightly and casually toss an orange over: "Give me one..."

Jiang Ning quickly caught it, broke it open, and tasted it; it was very sweet.

"Are you also a passing driver?"

The young man asked, and before Jiang Ning could answer, he added, "There's a Xinhe Hotel at the intersection ahead that can take in passersby. If you have nowhere to go, you can stay there for the night!"

"And what about you?" Jiang Ning asked.

"Me?!" The young man grinned, as if his wound had been reopened, and he gasped for breath. "I'll just stay here with my truck and cargo. I used to work myself to the bone for it, but today I can finally take a proper rest."

Jiang Ning nodded, said nothing more, and continued walking eastward.

However, he already had a vague feeling that he was certain...

This world is still strangely regressing. The laws of physics haven't changed, memories remain continuous, and the entire world's matter resets as time regresses, except for one thing...

Only I remained unchanged!

It's also possible that I'm still moving forward.

Jiang Ning followed the right-hand sidewalk of Wangjiang Road eastward until he reached the intersection of Wangjiang Road and Leyuan Road. This is a large intersection with heavy traffic in the past.

It is precisely because of the heavy traffic in the past that this place feels even more impactful now.

As Jiang Ning approached the intersection, he was stunned. Flames were still burning in the middle of the intersection, and countless cars were piled up like compressed pancakes, one on top of the other, reaching a height of five or six meters. It looked like a pot of fried tofu, a scene of utter devastation.

Among these piled-up "tofu blocks," someone seemed to be weakly calling for help, but most of the people scattered around did not step forward.

The few people who tried to participate in the rescue were covered in sweat and looked very anxious. Some had crowbars and some had fire extinguishers, but it was obviously beyond their capabilities to rescue the trapped driver in a vehicle that had been crushed and blocked on all sides. They could only do their best.

Jiang Ning watched for a while, but had no intention of helping. Instead, he climbed onto an abandoned vehicle with a blank expression, looked up and headed south along Leyuan Road. There was a subway station about 500 meters away.

Jiang Ning wanted to see if the road was still passable, but what he saw was a lot of uniformed police officers running back and forth, and the wounded were being carried out one by one from the subway station entrances and exits.

Jiang Ning's heart sank. He secretly wondered why there weren't many police officers at this intersection, only a few scattered around. There must have been an accident on the subway, and more police officers were there to carry out rescue operations.

Jiang Ning didn't have many thoughts about this. Police resources were limited, and in the face of a major disaster, no one's life was more valuable than anyone else's. But in the end, there would be choices to be made.

Jiang Ning hesitated for a moment, but still decided to go and take a look. As he walked forward, stepping on the roofs of cars, he suddenly felt something and turned back to look at the Xinhe Hotel.

This hotel is located on the northeast corner of the intersection. It is a five-star hotel that rents half of the building for its business, and it doesn't usually have many guests.

At this moment, the hotel entrance was packed with people. People were queuing anxiously at the entrance. Some people were silent with their heads down, some looked confused, some had the lingering fear of surviving a disaster, and most were talking and laughing.

In that instant, Jiang Ning felt as if he were seeing three worlds.

One is a devastated intersection where people are at a loss; another is a subway station exit 500 meters away where countless police officers are going in and out; and yet another is the Xinhe Hotel, located northeast of this intersection and very close to both sides, where people are chatting and laughing.

Jiang Ning had no idea what those people were laughing at in front of the Xinhe Hotel.

But he soon realized that perhaps he had survived a disaster!

Jiang Ning soon arrived at the subway station entrance. The subway station is called "Liming University Station". Continuing south along Leyuan Road for one kilometer, you will reach Liming University.

This subway station used to be very busy, with all kinds of shared bicycles and private bicycles piled up on both sides of the sidewalk.

But now, besides these vehicles, there are also people lying on the sidewalk, or corpses.