Natural Disaster(10)
It was a normal business day at the one hundred square meter snack bar, bustling with people. The clear sky and bright sun shone down on Seventh Street in the City Center of Q City.
Suddenly, someone screamed and pointed towards the door. Everyone turned to see a child, around eleven to twelve years old, with ragged pants and clothes full of holes. His face was bleeding, with a large wound above his eyebrow that had almost dried up, and a new wound had opened up beneath it, which was still bleeding. He wore only one shoe, with the other foot bare.
Despite the strange stares from the people around him, the child's eyes were fixed on the roasted chicken, as he quietly swallowed. His innocent face betrayed his hunger, but you could see in his eyes that he did not want to beg for food. He just silently stared at the people around him.
"Hey kid, get out. Your smell is ruining my appetite!" a fat man bellowed, pointing at the child.
The child continued to stare at the roasted chicken.
"Hey kid, did you hear me?"
The child remained silent.
The fat man was enraged and stood up, his finger pointing and his mouth spewing nonsense. Suddenly, he kicked the child. The entire snack bar erupted in screams.
Old Yang, the owner of the snack bar, quickly grabbed the fat man and said, "Stop, brother. I will compensate for your food. Just let go of the child."
The fat man nodded, but still pointed at the child and said, "Make that kid vanish from my sight. Everyone in this snack bar is eating and is disgusted by his smell and appearance!"
Old Yang nodded and walked towards the child. To his surprise, the child did not cry or make a sound. He simply stood up and looked at the fat man, then back at the roasted chicken.
"Old Jing!" Old Yang called out. "Come help me."
The child stared at Old Yang with a blank face. Old Yang quietly told the child that he would let him eat if he followed him through the back door of the snack bar. The child just nodded and let the strange man grab his hand.
"Thank you, Old Yang," Jiang Chen expressed his gratitude.
"Ohohoho, don't thank me. If you really want to thank me and Old Jing, go and get married quickly," Old Yang joked.
"That girl wasn't bad," Jiang Chen chuckled.
Old Yang patted his shoulder and walked into the kitchen. "Okay, stop that drama and come help me," he said.
Five people sat around a table, enjoying a bountiful and happy lunch while listening to each other's stories. Everyone was happy except for Jiang Chen, who had a premonition that something bad was about to happen. "Strange, why do I always feel like this?" he wondered. As he pondered what was happening to him lately, a conspicuous speeding off-road vehicle came towards Seventh Street.
"Second brother, I can't open this mysterious black case!" Fourth anxiously explained.
"Try again," he replied. After three minutes, they heard a loud bang.
"It really can't be opened," Fourth reported.
The usually bright sun was slowly fading, and the earth trembled little by little. The sky was slowly being covered by black clouds. Everyone on the planet was oblivious to what was happening, as if a mysterious force had wrapped around them, preventing them from seeing the real situation. The Earth was undergoing mysterious changes.
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The asteroid Bennu was emitting a dreadful light. It was supposed to reach the orbit of Earth in sixteen days, but right now it was floating near the moon. Scientists on Earth had been fooled. The two-kilometer asteroid was gradually melting, to be precise, it was melting into smoke - black smoke - which slowly formed a cloud enveloping the full moon. The moon acted as the center of it, and right now, the moon was full of deadly cosmic radiation. The Earth was slowly being corroded by the black mist, but surprisingly, the sun could still shine on Earth, though barely.
"Old Jing! Old Yang! We will come back in the future. Take care of yourselves," Jiang Chen smiled at the old couple while waving his hand towards the exit. They had stayed at the snack bar for almost an hour, but not a single customer had come.
"Brother, we need to visit them regularly, and I feel sorry for them," Xiao Yan suggested, her face full of pity.
"Yes, we will," Jiang Chen replied.
Jiang Chen turned his head to Xia Yue and asked, "What was your plan after staying here for two days?"
"I don't know either. After my parents left this world, I dedicated myself to our business, and right now, I feel tired and exhausted. Why? Are you eager to let me go back?" She said angrily, punching his shoulder with her small white hands.
"No. The truth is, I feel lucky to have a goddess staying in our house," Jiang Chen said while his face flushed with a hippy smile.
Time seemed to stop. The smile on his face solidified. He knew why he had felt uneasy earlier because, right in front of him, a speeding vehicle was coming to their place. In a matter of seconds, he subconsciously grabbed Jiang Yan's hand and pushed her with all his might, then was petrified when he saw Xia Yue still standing in the same place. Everyone in the street shouted, but it was no avail. The one who should have been standing there was Jiang Yan in his nightmare, but now it was someone else.
Jiang Yan was shocked when her brother suddenly pushed her. Her knees and palms had scratch wounds, and her face was covered in dirt. As she was about to cry because of the pain, she heard an anxious shout from the surrounding crowd, "GIRL, MOVE!" She turned her head and saw that her sister Yue was standing still, and an off-road vehicle was about to hit her. "SISTER YUE!" she cried out.
As the surrounding people closed their eyes, fearing they would see a bloody scene, a shadow pushed the girl away from her spot.
BOOOOOOOOOM!
The car collided with an electric pole, emitting smoke. Everyone on the street witnessed a gruesome scene. The bodies of the driver and passenger were completely deformed, and a bloody piece of arm lay three meters away.
"BROTHER!" Xiao Yan saw everything clearly. She saw her brother push Xia Yue in the very last seconds before the accident. Her eyes were red as she anxiously looked around for the figure who always smiled.
Xia Yue was also in shock and frightened. She wondered why she just stood there and didn't move. Was she completely paralyzed by fear?
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