Forty-nine rules of the end times

Chapter 50 Wang Yan and Chen Na

Upon hearing Guan Tong's words, the middle-aged woman hesitated for a moment before turning off the flashlight.

With the help of the truck's headlights, she could see Guan Tong's face clearly. He was young and pretty, and looked like an eighteen or nineteen-year-old student.

Judging by appearance alone, Guan Tong didn't seem particularly aggressive. However, the iron pliers he was holding made a middle-aged woman with a child feel somewhat nervous and fearful.

She looked at Guan Tong warily and said, "I'm from Sunjiazhuang. I read online that places with fewer people have less snow, so I brought my daughter here. Young man, where are you from?"

"I came from Yunhua."

Guan Tong knew that Sunjiazhuang was a village more than 40 kilometers away. He had passed by the village when he drove here before.

"Mom, I'm cold..."

Just then, the little girl's voice came from behind the woman. Upon hearing this, the woman quickly picked up the girl and put her back in the car.

She then said to Guan Tong, "Young man, my daughter and I live in the car. If you also have a place to stay, let's not bother each other."

"can."

Hearing the middle-aged woman say this, Guan Tong was quite pleased.

"But be careful not to destroy the path I cleared," he added as a reminder.

"Okay, we'll be careful."

Guan Tong heard the middle-aged woman agree and said no more. He turned around and walked back along the path to his campsite.

The middle-aged woman then returned to the car, and her daughter asked curiously, "Mom, was that brother also bullied and came here to hide?"

"I don't know." The woman touched her daughter's forehead and earnestly instructed, "You must stay with Mommy all the time these days, and don't run around on your own, okay?"

She hadn't expected anyone to be on Mingdao Mountain. Although Guan Tong didn't seem like a bad person, she was alone with her daughter, and the two women were facing a strange adult male in the wild; they had to be extremely careful.

After all, in this place and at this time, if any violent crime were to occur, even calling the police would not provide any assistance.

"Okay, Mom. I'm a little hungry."

"Yes, there's food in the car. Mom will get it for you."

Before the end-of-the-world rules, women were drivers who drove large trucks to transport goods over long distances.

Driving such a long-distance truck often means spending entire days in the vehicle, so there's always plenty of food in the truck. Before this trip, she specifically took a large amount of food from home and packed it into the truck, enough for her and her daughter to eat for the next twenty-odd days.

She took out a bag of fruit and bread for her daughter to tear open and eat, and also made sure to lock the car door.

This way I can sleep more soundly at night, and if someone tries to force their way in, the only option is to break the window.

The woman kept the crowbar within easy reach, ready to use it at any time.

"Mom, I'm full."

"Okay, go to bed early after you've eaten."

These large vehicles all have sleeper beds, which are very narrow, but enough for one person to sleep in.

In the past, when the woman's husband was still alive, the couple would drive a cart together, taking turns. When one person got tired, they would go to bed to rest, and then the other would take over.

The woman watched her daughter slowly fall asleep in bed, while she leaned back in her car seat, gazing at the snowflakes outside the window, her brow furrowed with an unyielding sorrow.

Because the truck's headlights were on all the time, visibility in the vicinity improved significantly, and Guan Tong also benefited slightly in the camp, being able to see his surroundings more clearly.

However, since there were other people nearby, he was still somewhat cautious. He broke off some stored branches and scattered them on a patch of ground in front of the camp, covering them with snow.

That way, if the mother and daughter sneak over in the middle of the night, their feet will make a crisp sound as they step on the branches in the snow, which will wake Guan Tong up in time.

This may seem like overly cautious, but it's necessary for personal safety.

Guan Tong would not let her guard down just because the other party was a seemingly weak mother and daughter.

On the contrary, the fact that so many people died after entering the post-apocalyptic era shows that this mother and daughter were able to survive, which in itself indicates that they had extraordinary abilities.

Furthermore, there are "black box" items like psychic power items, where no one knows what the opponent's item is. If you underestimate someone just because they seem weak, you risk being defeated by someone pulling out a powerful item.

The current situation, where both sides are keeping to themselves and each is fighting against the rules to survive, is something both sides are happy to see.

Silent all night.

The next day, Guan Tong woke up and got up to look at the large cart.

The mother and daughter didn't get off the vehicle, which is normal; the truck itself was essentially their campsite. They didn't need to get out unless absolutely necessary.

After glancing at it, Guan Tong looked away and went back to doing what she needed to do.

After eating something quick, he began to use a folding shovel to clear the snow that had fallen on his path the night before.

This task is not difficult in itself, but it is difficult because it is done every day for a month.

If you slack off even for one day, the snow that has accumulated over two days, combined with the ice, will make the cleanup much more difficult.

He and the mother and daughter lived peacefully together for the day, without disturbing each other. Two more days passed uneventfully afterward.

Three days later, on June 9th.

When Guan Tong got up to clear the snow, she saw the mother and daughter also clearing the snow near the car door.

They had to clear it, because if they let the snow pile up, it would reach the car doors in a few days. And if the frozen snow blocked the doors, it would be a real problem.

However, the middle-aged woman cleared the snow in a different way than Guan Tong. She started the truck directly, slowly driving forward, reversing, turning the steering wheel slightly, driving forward again, and reversing again.

She used the powerful engine of the large truck, along with its thick, tall tires, to crush and compact the snow, making it much more efficient than manual snow removal.

After they finished their work, the car door opened, and the mother and daughter got out and used some small tools to clean the tires.

Guan Tong was clearing his path when the little girl saw him and took a small shovel to help shovel snow and splash it out at the end of the path.

Seeing this, Guan Tong politely went over and thanked the person who offered to help.

The little girl grinned at him, showing her big teeth, as if she found it amusing.

Her mother hurried over and said apologetically, "I'm sorry, did I cause you any trouble, young man?"

"It's nothing, I'm just thanking your daughter for helping me clear the snow."

"This child isn't helping at all; she just thinks it's fun," the woman said helplessly. "In this cold weather, even when we tell her to stay in the car, she insists on getting out to play in the snow."

"It's normal for kids to be playful."

After exchanging a few words, the two gradually lowered their guard.

Because neither side had done anything to make the other uncomfortable in the past three days, they both felt that the other was just an ordinary person with no ill intentions.

So after chatting for a while, we now know some basic information.

The woman said her name was Wang Yan, and that she used to be a truck driver, but stopped working after the apocalyptic rules came into effect and has been taking care of her daughter at home ever since.

Guan Tong also told her that he used to be a senior high school student, but he stopped working and studying, and he doesn't go to school anymore.

“Young man, it’s good that you’re in your final year of high school.” Wang Yan looked at her daughter Chen Na, who was playing in the snow with a small shovel, and said with some worry, “My daughter was only in sixth grade before, and she hasn’t even finished junior high school yet. I’m not very educated either, so how am I going to teach her in the future? Just having online classes and not interacting with people won’t work.”

"The school might reopen later," Guan Tong said, "but it might take a different form."

Wang Yan said, "I heard a few days ago that the government is going to open a university in the capital and recruit students from all over the country..."

"That's an academy that helps students develop their mental power, right? It shouldn't teach any other basic knowledge."

"Oh? Is that so..." Wang Yan was somewhat disappointed upon hearing this.

Guan Tong then asked, "Sister Wang, I'm a little curious and would like to ask a question. I hope you don't mind."

"Hehe, go ahead and ask if you have nothing to say."

"Sparsely populated areas receive less snowfall. This news must have spread within hours of the rule being announced. Why did you only bring your daughter here to escape the snow a few days later, Sister Wang?"

Wang Yan's expression was somewhat complicated upon hearing this; she hesitated, seemingly unsure of what to say.

Chen Na, the little girl who had been squatting on the ground playing in the snow, looked up, pouted, and said angrily, "Someone in the village bullied us! That's why my mom took me away!"

"Bullying?" Guan Tong was quite surprised.

He felt that villages, as gathering places, were different from cities. In cities, many people don't even know their neighbors, leading completely atomized lives. Therefore, when disaster strikes, they are more willing to follow official commands and act according to official calls.

But in a village where everyone sees each other all the time, almost everyone knows each other. Under such circumstances, after a disaster strikes, shouldn't they quickly band together to fight it off? How could there be bullying?

Wang Yan didn't want to say it, but her daughter Chen Na blurted it out, so she could only nod helplessly: "Someone came to our house to take some food from us, a widow and her child. They said they'd return it later, but..."

The little girl, Chen Na, snorted, "They stole a box of instant noodles and a box of yogurt from my house, which were all left for me by my mom!"

“There is such a thing.”

"Yes. Actually, a box of flour and a box of milk aren't much, but I feel like this has happened after only a few days. If this continues, who knows if they'll come back and take something else..."

Wang Yan sighed as she spoke.

“Actually, I was fine, but I couldn’t let my daughter risk going hungry, so I took her out of the village in the truck at night. I figured the truck had a full tank of gas, plenty of power, and high tires, so it wouldn’t matter if there was snow on the road.”

"I see……"

“Speaking of which, young man, you’re quite brave,” Wang Yan said. “You dared to come all the way from Yunhua to here by yourself. Yunhua is more than 700 li away from here.”

"It's all for survival."

"Yes, ever since this rule came out, I don't ask for anything else, I just want to live well."

"Today is already the 9th, and one-third of the rule's effective period will soon be over," Guan Tong said. "Given the amount of snowfall here, we should be able to get through this safely as long as we clear it every day."

Wang Yan nodded: "I wonder how things are in the village, and also, young man, you've come to Yunhua. That's a big city, the snow must have been incredibly heavy, right? After this nine-day blizzard, I really don't know what the city is like..."

(End of this chapter)