The food was excellent, but the atmosphere in the room was heavy. The family had scattered throughout the space; some squatted in the corners, others stood in the hallway, and a few sat on the plush couch, all eyes fixed on the television.
Grandma Jing had spent the morning over the stove making scallion-and-egg pancakes. She had prepared one for each person, the golden-brown dough smelling of toasted grease and sharp green onions. They wrapped thick slices of braised meat, crisp scallions, and savory sausage inside the warm folds, washing the heavy meal down with bowls of steaming soybean milk ladled from a large pot.
Jing Shu's portion was especially generous. She had secretly added pork floss, a crispy chicken cutlet, a tender fish fillet, and fresh lettuce to her wrap. A sheen of oil gleamed on her lips as she ate, but she was the only one who seemed to be enjoying the flavors.
Everyone else seemed to forget the food in their hands. Their eyes remained glued to the flickering screen, watching the broadcast with growing dread. Only Li Zhu managed to keep chewing, his jaw working mechanically while he half-listened to the urgent report.
"Right now, the victims from Qingshui Town have all been relocated to the neighboring Zhuhuo Town. However, the situation is worsening. The muddy water is already flowing into Zhuhuo Town, reaching ankle height in the lower districts. No one knows if the terrain will cause the mud to submerge the entire area. If the flow continues to increase, the people there will be forced to evacuate a second time."
The screen showed aerial footage of a town being slowly overtaken by a slow, viscous brown tide.
"Qingshui and Zhuhuo are sending emergency teams back to retrieve any supplies not yet buried. They're looking for bedding, winter clothes, and any essential goods that can still be moved. The coming relief and resettlement efforts are going to be a nightmare."
The reporter's voice grew more urgent, rising over the sound of wind and rushing sludge.
"We want to remind everyone that this disaster covers an extremely wide area. Please stay alert, pack your essentials, and be ready to evacuate at any time. Otherwise, the consequences could be deadly. Based on current data, anyone buried by the mud without immediate rescue has a survival rate of less than 0.1 percent. Next, we will show footage from the hardest-hit regions."
If Qingshui Town was considered lucky, then the next few locations shown were purely tragic. The footage switched to a foreign city situated near the base of a dormant volcano. A massive mudslide had erupted there without warning, sweeping through the streets with terrifying force. Just like the catastrophic floods from years ago, the earth had come roaring down like a living monster, swallowing buildings and vehicles whole. In those clips, it looked as though hardly anyone had made it out alive.
"This is worse than the floods!" someone whispered in the room.
"At least when it's water, you can swim or go back for your stuff once it recedes. But once it's mud like this, damn, it's like falling into a swamp. You're done for!"
The grim realization settled over the family. For the past few days, they had noticed sticky, muddy water seeping up from their own fields. Even the roads Jing Pan and Jing Zhao had traveled to reach the villa were covered in the same gooey sludge. It was a bad sign that Wu City might not be spared from the encroaching disaster.
Their fears were confirmed minutes later when the local news aired similar footage. They reported that mud was now gushing uncontrollably from the nearby Ningshan City. The authorities had already begun the process of evacuating citizens from the most vulnerable districts.
The screen switched to live footage from Ningshan City, a place Jing Shu's family knew well. Mud poured down the slopes like thick, chocolate-colored waterfalls, swallowing entire neighborhoods. Half the city appeared to be drowning in the earth.
People were scrambling to move supplies and daily goods to higher ground. The government had deployed a fleet of trucks to assist, but the effort was a drop in the bucket compared to the scale of the crisis. Countless people ran through the freezing cold with heavy bags strapped to their backs. Anyone who moved too slowly was quickly overtaken by the rushing mud.
Everyone in the room was familiar with Ningshan City. It sat right next to Wu City and Wu County, and it was even closer to the latter. While it wasn't as prosperous as the provincial capital, it had been a decent, thriving city before the apocalypse. If a city of that size was already in full retreat, with its people running for their lives, how could Jing Shu's family possibly feel at ease?
Jing Pan spoke up, her voice trembling with worry. "Back when the floods hit, we used to envy Ningshan City since it was on higher ground and didn't get flooded. Who would have thought they would be the first ones hit this time?"
Wei Chang shoved the rest of his pancake into his mouth, chewing quickly as he stood up. "No, we can't sit here. We have got to go back right now. Wu County is closer to Ningshan than we're. If they're already in trouble, our place might be next."
Grandpa Jing frowned, his brow furrowing as he pointed at the two men. "You two, stop eating. Grab the flashlights and go check the back mountain. Ask around and see what is going on outside the community."
The urgency of the moment killed any remaining appetite in the room. Wei Chang jumped up, throwing on his heavy padded coat, a thick fur hat, and his sturdy boots. Li Zhu hesitated for a second, his eyes lingering on his half-eaten pancake. "Don't clean up my food, alright? I will finish it when I'm back. Leave me some soybean milk too, and add a little sugar."
"Hurry up and go!"
Grandpa Jing glared at him, his eyes sharp. "Is this really the time to be stuffing your face? Sugar is precious, you know!" He snorted in irritation, then shot a sharp look at Li Yun, who was still eating quietly in the corner. "Useless."
His gaze finally softened when it fell on Jing Shu. She was busy scrolling through her phone, her fingers moving quickly while she continued to eat. "Grandma, make a few more pancakes. Your granddaughter doesn't have enough. The girl has been working hard lately."
He let out a quiet sigh. To him, she looked thinner than she had months ago. He felt a twinge of guilt, thinking he had been too focused on saving food recently, and now the child was starving herself as well. It was a silly thought; she was the one who had grown or found most of their food, yet he worried she wasn't taking enough for her own meals.
The mood in the room remained tense. Her parents had already left for their work shifts, and her Third Aunt was busy with her duties in the cafeteria. Even Wu You'ai, who was usually the calmest among them, was furiously tapping away on her phone, likely checking on her own subordinates and building assignments.
Only Jing Shu seemed unaffected by the panic. In reality, she was simply occupied. The factory operations were now being managed by her Maternal Eldest Uncle, so she didn't have to worry about the finer details of bonuses or holiday red envelopes. However, she had recently traded some favors to gain authority over Wu City's waste station, and she was currently handling the complex cooperation between the two organizations.
The Red Nematode project had grown so rapidly that it was starting to reach its operational limits. The most pressing issue at the moment was fuel. The waste station had plenty of manpower and heavy equipment, but it lacked a reliable food supply and the means for self-sufficiency. Naturally, a deal was struck: the Red Nematode Factory would provide consistent shipments of worm patties, and the waste station would supply fuel in return. Through this arrangement, she could even stockpile a significant amount of fuel for her own private use.
A while later, Wei Chang and Li Zhu returned to the villa, both of them panting heavily. Li Zhu's feet were freezing from the sludge, and he stomped on the floor to regain some feeling before gulping down a large bowl of the leftover soybean milk. His face was pale and drawn.
"It's bad," Wei Chang reported, his voice tight. "The mud is flowing down the back mountain, just like what we saw in the footage. We only made it to the foot of the slope before we saw the sticky mud running down nonstop. It's slow for now, but who knows? It could end up exactly like Ningshan City."
That thought made the rest of the family even more anxious. Grandma Jing looked as though she were about to burst into tears. "If our place gets buried too, where are we supposed to go? Are we really going to end up like those people on TV, forced to leave everything behind? It's one thing to get flooded, but if it's mud, the whole house will be ruined!"
Wu You'ai stood up, trying to bring some logic to the fear. "Grandma, the ones who should be panicking right now are Auntie and Second Aunt. Their families are in Wu County, which is much closer to Ningshan. The city is situated higher up, so the mud flows down much faster. If Ningshan is already sinking, Wu County won't be far behind. Once it reaches there, Wu City will be next."
"So what you're saying," Grandpa Jing muttered, his teeth clenching around his unlit pipe, "is that it's just a matter of time before we're hit too?"
He didn't light the pipe.
Seeing everyone this worried, Jing Shu finally let out a quiet sigh and stood up. Did they really think all those big "tombstones" she had built behind the villa over the years were just for decoration?