Countdown: Humanity's struggle to survive against yesterday

Chapter 24 Jiangning Notes

Local private documents:

Awareness Day, January 11th.

Do any decent person keep a diary?

Lin Wei, I'm so sorry...

I've chosen such a mundane way to tell you about my fears; I've become unserious... and the world has become unserious too.

It all started on March 21, 2047...

......

Awareness Day, January 10th.

Lin Wei, as you can see, when the whole world rolls back to the previous day every day, all the efforts of today should be wiped out after the "regression", but I have become the exception.

The first diary entry you read didn't disappear; it's the second manifestation of my becoming unserious, which I call "positioning." After I crushed the red bead that represented me, I gained the ability to "anchor."

Everything I'm willing to define remains unchanged even during a new world regression, which makes me feel like a god.

But I'm also scared...

......

Awareness Day, January 4th.

Lin Wei, today I finally mustered up the courage to try self-harm. I'll tell you the test results tomorrow...

......

Awareness Day, January 3th.

This is really good news; the problem I've been worried about has finally been confirmed.

I'm fine, don't worry. I don't have any wounds. Once again, I feel like a god...

But I feel more like the most cowardly god...

Today, I saw an elderly man at the hospital. I heard from the people around him that he was a billionaire. He had his tubes removed "yesterday" and was able to sit up and drink porridge, but "today" a checkup revealed that the tubes had been put back in...

I also saw a young nurse crouching in a corner, secretly crying. I later learned that the wounds of several patients she had stitched up "yesterday" had all reopened... Today, many family members scolded her, saying her skills were inadequate...

In the corridor, there was a pregnant woman tied to the bed, sometimes crying and sometimes laughing. I didn't dare to look at her, but I heard people in the corridor talking that she had just given birth yesterday and her belly was swollen again today.

I only stayed at the hospital for 20 minutes before fleeing in a panic. Don't you think I'm pretty useless...?

……

Awareness Day, January 1th.

Lin Wei, tomorrow will be February, which brings us one month closer to our reunion.

But I haven't felt much joy these past few days, and I'm sorry to tell you that.

These past few days, I still can't forget what I saw and heard at the hospital that day. I thought that traffic accidents were the worst possible scenario in the face of a major disaster, but compared to the hospital, I realized that it had gone from heaven to hell.

Because traffic accidents at least have an end: the car overturns, people are injured, blood is everywhere, then the ambulance arrives, and then it's either life or death...

In any case, it was a straight line, from beginning to end, crystal clear.

But there is no end in the hospital...

A doctor asked online, "Who exactly are we trying to save?"

That day, this sentence went viral globally, and the entire internet fell silent. A foreigner named Amy Chen said, "We are saving their memories..."

During a live broadcast the following day, Minister Chen Xiao said, "If we don't save them today, when they wake up tomorrow, they will remember the day they suffered the most, when no one reached out to them. And we ourselves will remember that we didn't reach out. Material things cannot be preserved, but conscience can be preserved, and conscience is also part of memory..."

The entire internet remains silent, but I can sense that this silence has turned into something like gritted teeth.

I'm in so much pain right now...

I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that. I'm having some issues with the strange changes happening to me. I feel like I'm not fit to be a god.

Why me...?

I'm better off being an ordinary person, so I can wait patiently for your return with anticipation!

......

Awareness Day, January 25th.

Lin Wei, I'm sorry I haven't told you about the changes in the world these past few days. I've retreated back to my home once again.

But today, you'd never guess who I saw!

It's our dad!

And Xiao Yuan, and Brother Fumin!

When they appeared at our doorstep, their faces weathered and worn, I could hardly imagine how they had traveled 800 kilometers from Yicheng County to Shanghai...

……

Sanmiao Village is an ordinary village with a main cement road running from north to south.

Heading south, the roads are clear, and you can go all the way to Kaiping Town, which belongs to the county, and then to the county seat, but the journey is very long.

Heading north, the cement road only leads to the village entrance. Beyond that lies a hundred acres of farmland, with a crooked dirt road running through it. The other half of this dirt road belongs to Huishi Town.

Sanmiao Village is closest to Huishi Town. In the early years, before the Xijiang Bridge on the west side of the village was paved with cement, villagers would ride electric bikes on dirt roads to Huishi Town to go to the market. However, this road was very difficult to travel on rainy days.

Later, cement was laid on both sides of the bridge, and people from Sanmiao Village used this road to go to the market. After crossing the bridge, they entered Linshui Town, and on the other side was Daweizhuang. They could pass through Daweizhuang, leave the village, and then turn north to quickly reach Huishi Town.

Sanmiao Village was once glorious. In the last century, the village had cattle markets, donkey markets, cloth shops, and more than a dozen supply and marketing cooperatives with blue bricks and red tiles. On odd and even days, the market would be set up at different times, just like in the big town, and people from more than a dozen surrounding villages would come to the market.

However, with the development of the times, this village, which used to be known as "Sanmiaoji", has long been swept into the dust of history.

If we're talking about something else that's somewhat famous about Sanmiao Village now, it's that there's an old temple in the village that enshrines the Three Immortal Maidens, which is also the origin of the village's name.

The name has caused some jokes; outsiders always think that Sanmiao Village has three temples, but there is actually only one.

On the day Jiang Hua decided to go out, seven or eight villagers gathered in front of the Sanxiao Niangniang Temple.

"Uncle Dahua, are you really going to Shanghai to see Ningzi? That's awesome!" a shout came from the crowd.

Jiang Hua looked up and saw that the speaker was Sun Lingsong from the village, a generation younger than himself and the same age as his nephew Sun Fumin. He used to be a regular at the mahjong parlor in front of Fumin's supermarket. Now he was calling him Uncle Da Hua and praising him, seemingly respectful, but in reality, his face was full of amusement.

"Yeah, Dahua, you're really going to Shanghai? The roads there are tough... Can't we video chat if there's anything you need to say?"

Standing in front of the crowd, Sun Zhen looked at his old friend in confusion. He couldn't understand why, with the internet so developed now, he could just video call his son if he missed him. Why bother going to Shanghai, a place that would only bring trouble and no reward?

"It's not just difficult to travel, it's impossible!" Sun Lingsong said, one hand on his hip, the other holding a cigarette and waving it around, looking like he was surveying the world. "Going to the county town these days is like Tang Sanzang's pilgrimage to the West. Isn't this just asking for trouble? It's simply impossible!"

"Tang Sanzang can't ride a motorcycle..."

Before Jiang Hua could speak, Sun Fumin stepped forward with a loud laugh, first offering Sun Zhen a cigarette, then offering one to everyone around him, and finally throwing half a pack of cigarettes to Sun Lingsong.

"What do you know, kid! My uncle went to Shanghai to deliver things to Ningzi. Can a video call deliver vegetables grown by my uncle? Can it deliver chickens raised by my aunt?" Sun Fumin's loud voice quickly shut down Sun Lingsong's words. "Ningzi works in Shanghai and eats takeout every day. My uncle feels sorry for her, so he made the trip. It's better than you wasting your time gambling with a bunch of kids every day."