"Perhaps we're the lucky ones after all."
Someone suddenly said this.
Before, whether it was the system buildings or the Spacetime Tunnel, despite having witnessed many wonders firsthand, deep down, everyone had still clung to the hope that the apocalypse might not happen, or had not quite believed in it.
After all, human society and the natural world had existed stably for thousands and even hundreds of millions of years.
How could they suddenly collapse in 2012, in their own generation?
How could there be such a coincidence?
People found it hard to believe in something without historical precedent.
But things were different now. There was already an example in a parallel world.
In one world, nearly all of its more than six billion people had died because of a single virus, and society had collapsed completely.
If that had happened in another world, could theirs be an exception?
A fierce battle raged within the close-cropped old man's heart. Finally, he laid the photographs facedown on the table and sighed. "Yes, we're fortunate. We met Chairman Zhang so early, before the apocalyptic crisis even happened."
Someone suggested, "I think that, from now on, we should not only actively prepare for the apocalyptic crisis that may happen in the future, but also spare no effort in helping our brother nation rebuild.
"If we have the capacity to spare, we can do our best to help the other countries in their world too."
The close-cropped old man agreed. "I agree as well. This isn't just helping them. It's also helping our future selves."
Inside the shelter.
Tong Wenshi lay on his bed, looking at the lights in the room and the furnishings around him. The peaceful atmosphere made him feel as though he had fallen into a dream.
"Is this the parallel world?"
Tong Wenshi looked at the television in front of him. Beneath it was a DVD player.
He rolled out of bed and soon found plenty of films to pass the time, all classics from this world, both domestic and foreign.
Tong Wenshi compared the numbers of the two kinds of films. There were more foreign films, and their production dates were clearly much earlier too.
Then he divided the domestic historical films into ancient and modern periods, reading only their titles and synopses to glimpse the threads of history...
From this alone, he easily judged that the general state of affairs in this world was probably the same as in theirs.
Western countries were in the lead, while their own country was still catching up.
As he pondered this, a nurse outside suddenly knocked on his door, holding a telephone, and informed him that this world's senior leadership wished to speak with him.
After a moment's hesitation, Tong Wenshi took the telephone from the nurse and began the first contact between the two
worlds.
The senior leaders on the other end had originally wanted to visit in person, but they were concerned that the KV Virus might cling to them during the visit and spread outside along with them.
If something like that happened, their world would be no different from Tong Wenshi's.
So, in the end, everyone could only offer their initial greetings over the telephone. An actual meeting would have to wait until Tong Wenshi and the others had completed quarantine and disinfection and received the KV Vaccine.
After the call ended, the nurses brought Tong Wenshi a complete set of world history books as a gesture of goodwill.
This was also a decision made by this world's senior leadership to help Tong Wenshi and the others understand their world better.
History had an enormous influence on a country.
To truly understand a country, one had to understand its history.
Tong Wenshi spread out the history books and began studying them...
The historical trends of the two worlds were similar. He only needed to read the tables of contents to gain a rough idea of what had happened and how events had unfolded.
After a round of rapid reading, Tong Wenshi once again confirmed the conclusion he had just reached.
The country in this world was highly similar to their own. If the two were not twins, they were at least triplets.
This also means that their counterparts in this world possess extremely formidable industrial production and construction capabilities, along with a huge population. They're the world's factory in every sense of the word...
For him, this was a bad thing instead.
This world's country was too powerful. Coupled with their cultural and linguistic similarities, this meant that swallowing up his people would be as easy as eating a snack.
It would only mean adding a million or so people, barely one-thousandth of the country's population.
Simply by absorbing these people, they could reasonably and legally acquire the inheritance of an entire country, and even the whole world, in another world.
Faced with such enormous benefits, Tong Wenshi did not dare gamble that this world would return to its own world after the disaster ended, as promised.
He could not afford to gamble on that possibility.
The affairs of a nation were not something he could put on a gambling table as stakes.
After pondering for a long time, Tong Wenshi suddenly wrote the names of the Mutual Aid Society and Zhang Tianyuan on a blank sheet of paper.
If I want to break out of this deadlock now, I can only rely on this young director. He merely has a cooperative relationship with this world, and he clearly lacks personnel of his own. He should badly need troops he can trust.
But his attitude is ambiguous. I can't be completely certain what he's thinking...
Zhang Tian-
yuan had not explicitly accepted his allegiance, leaving Tong Wenshi deeply uneasy.
Just then.
Tong Wenshi suddenly heard some commotion outside.
Only after asking the caregiver standing outside his door did he learn that the obstetricians and gynecologists who would examine the pregnant women had arrived.
Zhang Tianyuan had promised that all the pregnant women who came would receive the best care.
And this world had indeed done just that.
Upon learning that Zhang Tianyuan and the others had brought back several hundred pregnant women awaiting delivery, the senior leaders had not dared neglect the matter.
They immediately transferred all the obstetricians and gynecologists from the ten-thousand-strong team that had already been vaccinated, and briefed them on the basic situation: the pregnant women were infected with a new kind of virus.
Those who came were all first-rate doctors from across the country. Unflustered and obedient to orders, they threw themselves into work immediately upon arriving at the shelter.
A He stood with her back straight in the middle of the examination hall, looking at the bustle around her, so much like the school physical examinations of the past.
The women she had known for only a day were all smiling, joy brightening their brows as they happily underwent all sorts of modern medical examinations they had not had in so long.
One of the women even went into labor right there. The nurses and doctors fitted her with a protective isolation mask and quickly wheeled her into a sterile operating room.
"I heard from a nurse that they'll first disinfect the mother's skin with ozonated water, then deliver the baby. The mother will wear a protective mask the whole time too. That way, they can make sure the child doesn't come into contact with the KV Virus."
"She's so lucky. If we were still out on the grasslands, the baby definitely wouldn't survive..."
"Civilized society really is better."
"Who could have imagined we'd encounter something like a parallel world? I'd say all of us are pretty lucky!"
The pregnant women gathered outside the operating room to watch, voicing their feelings one after another as they all gazed at its doors with concern.
If the woman inside gave birth safely, it would mean they would not have to worry in the future either.
A He also watched the operating room anxiously.
But suddenly, a garment was draped over her shoulders, and a nurse holding an examination form said to her:
"There's no need to stay here watching. Nothing will go wrong. Come get a scan with me first."
With that, she supported A He as they walked forward.
For a moment, A He felt as though she had returned to the past, to a time before the apocalypse.
The garment around her felt as though her late husband had draped it over her shoulders. It felt weighty, heavy, and warm.
He should be smiling up in heaven now, shouldn't he?