Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Everyone chimed in and an argument was starting.
Bai Youwei quietly observed the man wearing glasses. She saw boredom and contempt in his eyes. Presumably, this person was also helpless. In order to survive, he had to rely on these vulgar and selfish human beings.
Bai Youwei turned her face and gave Shen Mo a look, as if she was saying: Look, I told you so that this group of people was unreliable.
Shen Mo smiled faintly without commenting.
The so-called meeting to discuss the solution gradually changed. At first, it was still a discussion, but then, the group of people started to complain to each other. If it weren’t for the man wearing glasses coming forward from time to time to ease the tension, a fight probably would have broken out.
At that moment, the room suddenly went dark!
The timid people screamed first.
Then someone scolded everyone, saying, “What are you screaming about!? It’s just a circuit breaker trip, so don’t scare people!”
After a while, their eyes adjusted to the darkness and everyone left the canteen in a hurry. The man wearing glasses called on two people to check the switch.
There was no electricity, so everyone was waiting outside and there was nothing to do.
Bai Youwei raised her head and looked at the moon and stars in the sky. The vast sky enveloped the earth. It was quiet and expansive, and in the night, people seemed extremely insignificant.
The dark night seemed to contain a mysterious power and looking at it for too long made one’s heart pound.
The crowd was restless.
The man wearing glasses told everyone that there was no problem with the switch, but the entire service area was out of power. Perhaps the water would be cut off soon as well.
The atmosphere suddenly became low and depressed.
Bai Youwei felt that these people were really hopeless. Aside from the man in glasses, none of them were prudent.
“I have to say…” An old man in the crowd hesitated then said, “How about we think of a way to leave?”
Someone next to him said, “Teacher Cheng, haven’t we been thinking of a way to leave for the entire time? What you are talking about is nonsense.”
The old man they called Teacher Cheng was about sixty years old. His temples were white, and his thin body was wearing an old-fashioned coarse cloth shirt. His back was slightly hunched and he looked very unremarkable.
After he was ridiculed, his old face turned red and he stubbornly said, “I mean… don’t drive. Just – just leave like this. The reason we are stuck here isn’t that the road is blocked, but because the cars can’t drive past.”
The old man stretched out his hand and gestured. “We can go in groups of two and set off in groups every ten minutes so that we can dramatically decrease the chance of becoming dolls…”
“Teacher Cheng, stop fooling around. How can we go without driving? There are so many of us. We have families and a lot of luggage. Do you want us to go to Yangzhou on only our two legs?”
“Yes, your plan won’t work in reality.”
Everyone spoke and the complaints were getting louder and louder. It seemed as if they even wanted to blame the power failure on the old man.
The man wearing glasses, facing the old man’s look for help, was silent in the crowd. He chose to ignore it. Perhaps he also thought that what the old man said made sense, but at this time, what obligation did he have to help him bear the brunt of other people’s anger?
The pressure of survival had accumulated for a long time, so someone had to become the target of group catharsis.
Bai Youwei didn’t want to get dragged into the mess, so she silently said to Shen Mo by mouthing, “Let’s go.”
Shen Mo stood still.
She gently pulled at him again, but he walked two steps forward and said to the complaining people, “Everyone, be quiet…”
Bai Youwei immediately wanted to roll her eyes!
Everyone looked over.
She and Shen Mo suddenly became the center of attention. It felt like being stared at by a group of starved people and was very scary.
But Shen Mo didn’t even bat an eye.
He calmly said, “It seems like a car came.”
The people fell silent.
Once the voices stopped, the various sounds in the air became very clear.
The faint roar coming from far off, at first quiet like the wind, was getting closer. The sound of tires creaking as they rolled along the road became more clearly distinct.
Finally, in the dark, a big car drove into the service area. The bright headlights shone directly on the people——
Brake.
The car stopped steadily.
Several robust young people jumped out of the car. One of them whistled and said, “Hey, what’s the matter? What are you all doing outside?”