Chapter 346: Changes
Although the changes sweeping the world had already reached a certain stage, more and more perceptive people around the globe were beginning to notice something unusual in the air.
Certain major conglomerates and groups of high social standing were particularly alert to it. Some wealthy individuals had even begun building their own shelters.
Some had been exposed by tabloid reports, such as spherical, single-person shelters.
They could withstand the shock wave of a nuclear blast, store five years' worth of food, resist heat and radiation, keep water out, and so on. For a while, they gave the internet's spectators plenty to laugh about.
Still, many people had begun consciously buying food with a longer shelf life now and then.
Aside from this, people living near the wilderness could feel the changes more keenly than those in distant cities and on the plains.
Forests that had long since been stripped bare were flourishing again. Some old villages tucked into mountain valleys, in particular, seemed on the verge of being surrounded by newly invigorated woodland.
Some mountain residents had a rather startling impression.
Large trees were now everywhere around their homes and throughout their villages. Weeds and shrubs had grown outrageously lush, and even the paths into the mountains had become unfamiliar.
Honggou Village was a mountain village deep in the Shennongjia mountains. In recent years, all its young people had left to work elsewhere. Those who remained were older adults, the elderly, and children left behind by their parents.
Early that morning, village chief Liu Youquan opened his window. The first thing he saw was green.
Beside the mountain road near the village entrance, green trees already towered overhead. Some that had once been saplings now had trunks as thick as an arm.
Some of the village's large