Countdown: Humanity's struggle to survive against yesterday

Chapter 16 Dingshan Lake

Jiang Ning breathed a sigh of relief only after walking away under the incomprehensible gaze of the beautiful woman.

Frankly speaking, if the world hadn't regressed, he wouldn't have been afraid of death and might have continued to wallow in despair until one day he couldn't think straight and chose to commit suicide.

However, after the world went backward, he saw hope for living again.

A few days ago, he felt extremely guilty about this. He didn't dare to call his parents because he felt they would be utterly disappointed in him.

After all, he had once ruthlessly and selfishly blocked his parents' contacts.

I told everyone, all for the sake of a dead woman.

He never confided his inner pain to his parents, nor did he ever explain his choice to them.

If asked why, he was afraid that his parents, out of love for him as their son, would harbor even the slightest resentment towards Lin Wei upon seeing their son so heartbroken over his deceased wife.

This is something he won't allow!

So when the world went backwards, he was overjoyed.

When he discovered the strange changes happening to him, besides the initial surprise and joy, he was also very scared.

The fact that one's own mutation will not rewind as the world goes backward means that one will truly die.

Of course, this is just my guess. What's the actual situation?

He plans to try it out after verifying this hypothesis.

Similarly, this fear once made Jiang Ning lose interest in his own mutation, and he wished he hadn't mutated.

"If I were to die, then..."

Jiang Ning felt a tightness in his chest as he thought about this; he would surely die with his eyes wide open in disbelief!

After taking only a few steps, Jiang Ning faintly heard a loud "bang" from nearby.

Jiang Ning looked in the direction of the sound and saw a young man holding a baseball bat on the roadside ahead. He was excitedly posing as if he were playing baseball, aiming at the rearview mirror of a parked car.

Another loud bang.

The rearview mirror glass and shell of a car were smashed to pieces, leaving only half a fragment hanging in the air.

"The eleventh..."

The young man laughed loudly, while his companions pouted and looked disgusted. "You didn't use enough force, you didn't even knock it out, it doesn't count..."

Jiang Ning frowned, subconsciously stopped, glanced at it a few times, and immediately turned and walked in the other direction.

Not far away, they saw a group of young people, men and women, discussing something around the fuel tank of a large gasoline truck. In the distance, a young man shouted, "I'm back!" and excitedly waved the plastic pipe and bucket in his hand.

Jiang Ning didn't linger and continued on her way.

He didn't know exactly what these young people wanted to do with the stolen oil, but he figured it certainly wasn't to sell it for money.

"Gurgle..."

Jiang Ning walked along the park, specifically looking for less crowded areas. After ten minutes, his stomach suddenly growled.

He took out his phone and checked the time; it was already noon.

Jiang Ning glanced around and decided to leave the park first and find something to eat on the street.

Back on the street, Jiang Ning picked a direction and walked for only a few minutes before seeing a few scattered people carrying large and small bags walking towards him, their faces full of excitement.

Jiang Ning noticed that most of what they were carrying was food, and walked several hundred meters further against the flow of pedestrians.

Jiang Ning saw a large shopping mall with a large crowd of people in front of it.

Some people were pushing shopping carts piled high with various items, some were carrying bags full of clothes, and others were holding large bundles of snacks, all pushing their way out.

But outside, there were already layers upon layers of people trying to get in. For a time, the two groups of people pushed and shoved each other, making a lot of noise and commotion.

Suddenly, a commotion arose in the crowd. Jiang Ning, standing on the opposite side of the road, could not hear the two people's voices and had no idea what had happened.

But he saw a middle-aged man throw the food he was carrying into the air and then start shoving another middle-aged man.

The two quickly began to fight, and this sudden turn of events caused the surrounding crowd to retreat, creating a small open space.

The two men were locked in a fierce battle, neither willing to back down. They exchanged punches and kicks, a purely instinctive fight with no entertainment value. Before long, both were bruised and swollen, their clothes splattered with blood.

Jiang Ning then saw that the snacks and drinks scattered on the ground were quickly picked up by others.

However, no one stepped forward to stop them; instead, they all pointed and talked with great interest.

"Stop! All of you, stop!"

Finally, a uniformed police officer squeezed out from the crowd inside the mall. He forcefully squeezed between the two men, swung his baton with one hand, pointed at them, and shouted at them.

Jiang Ning looked around for a while longer, but finally decided not to go into the mall to find something to eat and continued walking forward.

When Jiang Ning saw a small convenience store by the roadside, he went in and got some water, bread, and a few chicken legs.

"Boss, the bill!"

"Fine, you can have it!"

The boss waved his hand, indicating that he didn't need it, then offered him a cigarette and sighed, "I used to worry so much about how bad business was that I wouldn't even give away a lollipop. Hey, now it's all good, money is practically useless."

Jiang Ning hesitated for a moment when the boss offered him a cigarette, then accepted it.

He then pointed to the cigarette cabinet behind the shop owner and laughed, "Since the money's gone, how about giving me two more packs of cigarettes?"

"Hey, you!"

The boss glared at him, but still turned around and took out two packs of cigarettes, throwing them onto the cabinet in front of him.

"Okay, here you go, as long as you don't actually try to steal it! I'll also throw in a lighter!"

As the shopkeeper spoke, he pulled out a lighter from the corner of the counter and threw it on the counter as well.

Upon hearing this, Jiang Ning couldn't help but think of the owner of the small convenience store downstairs in the bustling residential area. He was just as shrewd, seeing the world regress, with the goods sold today returning to the counter tomorrow. He would also choose not to charge for them and would even tell people to come and get them.

Perhaps this is precisely the shrewdness and adaptability of business people.

Jiang Ning lit one for himself with some awkwardness, took a puff, and was immediately choked and bent over with a cough.

"Hehehe..."

The boss couldn't help but grin from ear to ear when he saw this.

"That's not how you smoke. Come on, let me teach you..."

The shopkeeper spoke, putting the cigarette in his mouth, taking a gentle drag, and then slowly exhaling, the smoke rising in a straight line towards Jiang Ning's face. He took another drag, slowly opened his mouth, and before the smoke dissipated, inhaled more through his nostrils, finally exhaling it through both nostrils...

"I can't learn that..." Jiang Ning waved his hand with a smile.

Jiang Ning then stubbed out his cigarette and chatted with the boss for a while. After two cigarettes, Jiang Ning clasped his hands in a fist salute, picked up a large bag of food that the boss had just stuffed into his hands, and left.

The boss gave him food, and having no way to repay him, he could only keep him company with a simple chat.

However, the conversation wasn't in vain, as Jiang Ning learned from the boss about a quiet place—Dingshan Lake.

As evening approached, Jiang Ning stood panting on the edge of a secluded spot by Dingshan Lake.

The journey covered dozens of kilometers. He first rode the boss's two-wheeled electric vehicle, but the road became impassable, so he switched to walking. After walking for a while, he found a mountain bike by the roadside, rode it for a bit, but the road became impassable again, so he had to walk once more.

After stopping and starting along the way, following the navigation, we finally arrived at Dingshan Lake.

"According to the navigation, this place is nearly 40 kilometers away from the Fanhuali residential area..."

Jiang Ningbian gathered firewood in a nearby grove, thinking, "This distance should be enough to verify my own mutation!"

The only thing he is now clearly aware of regarding his own transformation is that he has not regressed to the state of history of the previous day as the world has gone backward.

As for what the "mystery" in the mind is?

What does it represent?

And what is its use?

Jiang Ning had absolutely no clue!

Jiang Ning saw that he had collected enough firewood to burn that night, so he stopped gathering firewood and started a fire. After the fire was lit, he ran to the lake to wash himself quickly and then returned to the fire.

After a simple dinner, Jiang Ning sat by the lake, quietly watching the sunset.

At this moment, the sunset was beautiful, its rays scattering across the clear lake water.

A gentle evening breeze blows, and occasionally a returning bird flies across the sky, bringing a sense of tranquility to the heart.

In this calm atmosphere, Jiang Ning slowly began to ponder the three questions that had just come to mind.