Apocalyptic Hoarding Diary

Chapter 561 Something's Wrong

On the morning of the fourth day, the rain finally subsided, turning from a downpour into a light drizzle.

Xu Xiaoyan put on a raincoat, pushed open the door, and walked into the yard. The first thing she saw was the terrible state of the open-air planting area.

The plot of land where she used to grow potatoes and sweet potatoes is now planted with bok choy seeds, and the seedlings have just sprouted.

The once soft, tilled soil was eroded and became pitted and uneven, with a layer of grayish-white sediment covering the surface, like some kind of powdery substance that had been extracted from the rainwater and dried into a thin, hard shell.

Several tender seedlings lay crookedly in the mud, their leaves curled and yellowed, their stems limp and clinging to the ground.

She crouched down and gently touched the stem of one of the seedlings with her finger. The moment her fingertip touched it, the stem broke off silently, leaving an unnatural grayish-black color at the break, as if it had been burned.

Her heart sank, and she turned around, lifted the curtain of the greenhouse, and went inside. The scene inside made her breathe a sigh of relief.

The vegetables, green beans, loofahs, and grapes in the greenhouse were all safe and sound. The plastic film kept the rainwater out, and the surface of the beds remained moderately moist.

The leaves are emerald green and spread out, and the vines climb to the top of the bamboo trellis, blooming with white flowers, completely unaffected.

She squatted down by the edge of the plot and parted the leaves of a green vegetable to examine it. The roots and stems were healthy, a stark contrast to the withered seedlings outside.

Same seeds, same soil, the only difference is that one is a greenhouse covered with a plastic film, and the other is bare soil in the open.

Xu Xiaoyan straightened up and stood in the shed for a while, her eyes slowly turning cold.

She slowly turned her head to look at the seedlings outside the greenhouse that had been ruined by the rain, and then looked up at the gray sky.

That rain was definitely suspicious. The grayish-white sediment and the abnormal grayish-black color on the leaves could not have been caused by ordinary rainwater soaking.

If it were just ordinary acid rain or pollution, the greenhouse in her yard wouldn't be completely spared. The plastic film can block rainwater from washing directly down, but it can't stop polluted water from seeping into the ground.

The fact that the plants in the greenhouse are now intact indicates that the key to the problem lies in the "rainwater contact with the plant surface" process, rather than soil pollution.

The raindrops of unknown composition fell on the plant leaves and stems, and after three days and three nights of repeated washing and seeping, they killed the seedlings from the outside.

She recalled the outbreaks of diseases among the people who had moved from other satellite cities, and the cases of people who seemed normal when they first arrived but developed fevers and coughs a few days later.

If there was any connection between this rain and those viruses... she dared not think any further.

Xu Xiaoyan turned around and quickly walked out of the greenhouse, standing in the center of the yard, her gaze sweeping over the devastated open-air planting area and the intact greenhouse next to it.

Her mind raced. What if this kind of rain came again? What if its destructive power wasn't limited to plants? What if it affected people too…

She had to cover all the open areas of the yard before the next rain came.

Without hesitation, she turned around and went back into the house, changed into dry clothes, stood in the center of the living room, and began to take things out of her spatial storage.

Bundles of dried bamboo poles, white plastic film, bundles of rope, a box of nails, a hammer, and leftover scraps from when the first greenhouse was built.

She sorted the materials out into categories on the living room floor, then went back into the yard to measure the remaining open space.

There are still more than 100 square meters of open space left in the yard. Today, she is going to build greenhouse frames on all the exposed ground and cover them with plastic film.

She picked up a shovel and began digging a hole. First, she inserted bamboo poles one by one into the soil, then she hammered the base firmly, and finally tied the top with rope in a crisscross pattern to form an arched frame.

Her hands never stopped working. She erected bamboo frames one by one from east to west, covered the ground behind her piece by piece with white plastic film, and wrapped and tied the hemp rope tightly.

From morning to evening, Xu Xiaoyan single-handedly erected sheds on all the open spaces in the entire courtyard, except for the building's base.

The bamboo frames are intertwined, and the white membrane stretches endlessly, making the entire courtyard look like it's wearing a white, transparent suit of armor, completely covering all the exposed soil underneath.

She carefully compacted every crack with soil and bricks to ensure that when the next rain came, not a single drop of rainwater of unknown composition could fall onto the ground in the yard.

By the time everything was finished, it was already dark.

She stood under the eaves, her trousers covered in mud, her fingers scratched by bamboo splinters, and her fingertips red and swollen from being pulled by rope.

But as she stood under the eaves and looked up at the continuous white film in the yard, which reflected a faint light in the night, she finally felt at ease.

Even if the next rain comes, heavier than this one, her yard will be safe.

On the fifth day, when Xu Xiaoyan pushed open the courtyard gate and went outside, she smelled an indescribable odor in the air.

She stood at the doorway and took two deep breaths to confirm that the smell was indeed coming from the entire street, not just a remnant in some corner of her yard, which deepened her vigilance.

She walked a short distance along the alley and found that the scene on the street outside was even more tragic than that in her yard.

The roadside trees planted in the green belts were originally growing well, with lush green leaves, but now the entire crown of the trees has withered, the leaves are curled and yellowed, and they hang sparsely on the branches.

There was a public green space on the street corner, planted with some flowers and lawns, but now they were all withered and dead. The charred black grass stems lay flat on the ground, looking like they had been burned from a distance.

At the base of the walls of some houses, a layer of grayish-white powder could be seen, as if some component of the rainwater had precipitated out and formed salt frost after evaporation.

A young man lived in the neighboring plot. Xu Xiaoyan didn't usually have much contact with him, but at this moment he was squatting at the gate of his yard, staring blankly at the few dead flowers and plants in front of the gate.

As Xu Xiaoyan walked past him, she casually asked, "Was everything in your yard destroyed too?"

The man looked up, his expression weary and bewildered.

"They're all gone. My cucumbers and peppers, which I planted three months ago, all wilted yesterday morning, and it's even worse today. The leaves crumble at the slightest touch, like they've been burned. What's wrong with this rain?"

Xu Xiaoyan shook her head without answering, but she already had a vague answer in her heart.