81: Chapter 81: China is moving, while across the ocean, celebrations are in full swing.

A streamer named Mengmeng held up her phone, standing in the square outside the exit of Hangzhou East Station, livestreaming.

In the frame, the crowd surged toward the platforms like a tide.

There was no pushing, no arguing, only the rumbling of suitcase wheels rolling over the floor tiles.

The livestream chat was going crazy.

"Oh my god, the tickets out of the city are all sold out."

"There are so many people in Hangzhou, can it really be cleared in two weeks?"

"Brothers, I'm on the highway, it's already gridlocked."

"Do you think this prediction is fake?"

A comment floated by, the font size one level larger than the others.

"Fake?! Who cares if it's real or fake! Back then, if there had been a prediction like this, even if it were fake, I would have taken my parents and left! It wouldn't have ended like this..."

The chat went quiet for two seconds.

The next comment:

"Brother above, look forward. It's all in the past."

Mengmeng held up her phone and randomly stopped an uncle dragging a woven bag.

"Uncle! What do you think about this evacuation?"

The uncle stopped, grinned, revealing teeth stained yellow by smoke.

"I listen to Motherland in everything! It's just right to go out for a trip!"

A high school student with a backpack next to him leaned over and made a V-sign at the camera.

"School's out! Isn't this a huge piece of good news for students!"

A programmer in a plaid shirt behind him dragging a suitcase added expressionlessly,

"I've been a beast of burden my whole life, and it's finally like the company has become human. I want to leave the city, I want to play, I want to rest."

The chat was flooded.

"Hahaha, the plaid shirt brother said what I was thinking!"

"Hangzhou, stay strong! We'll come back to rebuild after the earthquake!"

"Wait, why are you all so optimistic?"

"Because we trust our country, what else can we do?"

The same scene was playing out in arrival halls at airports everywhere.

People holding signs stood in a row.

Handwritten, crooked ones.

"Hangzhou folks, come eat at my house!"

"Free accommodation, meals included, not charging a penny!"

"Hangzhou, stay strong! Brothers and sisters! If you have nowhere to go, come to my place! There's good wine and good food!"

An auntie wearing an apron stood at the very front, her husband next to her carrying two cases of mineral water, smiling honestly.

A reporter interviewed her,

"Auntie, how many people can your house hold?"

"If we squeeze, we can fit six! Sleeping on the floor in the living room works too!"

"No charge?"

The auntie glared at the reporter,

"Charge what money? We're all one family!"

This scene was livestreamed.

The camera focused on that row of crooked signs, and the chat exploded instantly.

"Hangzhou, stay strong! My house has good wine and food too! Welcome anytime!"

"Location Feixi! Three bedrooms and a living room, two are empty, Hangzhou brothers and sisters come stay!"

"I run a restaurant in Suzhou, Hangzhou people eat for free!"

"Damn, I'm crying... This is what Chinese people are, right..."

"When one side is in trouble, all sides support! I've heard this since I was little, today I saw it with my own eyes."

The chat reached tens of thousands of messages and was still growing.

The Seventh Division.

Section Chief Han Zheng stood in front of the screen wall.

The real-time population heat map of Hangzhou filled the entire wall.

Thirteen million light points were squeezed together, like a mass of burning red molten iron.

Countdown: 13 days 19 hours.

The edges of the heat map had already started to fade.

People were moving out.

"The Railway Bureau has replied."

A staff officer walked over quickly,

"All high-speed rail schedules passing through Hangzhou have been increased, capacity increased fourfold. On the Civil Aviation Administration side, thirty-seven routes have added temporary flights, military transport planes are on standby."

"What about the highways?"

"Blocked. The East City exit has a seventeen-kilometer queue. Traffic police are already at full capacity, coordinating a one-way traffic plan."

Section Chief Han Zheng tapped his finger on his pant leg.

"The elderly living alone in the old city?"

"The neighborhood committee and village cadres have already started checking door-to-door, the list is being compiled. The military region has sent three battalions specifically for transport."

The superior's voice came from behind.

"Section Chief Han Zheng."

He turned around.

The superior stood at the conference room door, clutching a document.

"National mobilization. Add planes, add high-speed rails, contact the Railway Bureau and Civil Aviation Administration to coordinate with full effort."

He walked in and slammed the document on the table.

"Military, get involved. Troop carriers, helicopters, use everything you can. For the elderly living alone and the disabled, organize soldiers to join the neighborhood committees and village cadres to ensure everyone is picked up."

"Do not miss a single person."

"Yes!"

The superior did not sit down. He walked to the screen wall, looking at that mass of the heat map slowly fading.

"There will only be more things like this in the future."

The voice was not loud, but everyone in the conference room heard it clearly.

"This time, it must be done beautifully! Make it a template! Let everyone know—this country can carry it!"

A staff officer hesitated and spoke.

"Chief, Lighthouse Country... the warning email was sent three times, no response."

The superior was silent for two seconds.

"We have done what we should do."

He turned around, looking at the staff officer.

"Release the announcement on the external network. Say that China has monitored that a large-scale geological disaster will occur on the West Coast of Lighthouse Country during the same period, and advise coastal residents to evacuate."

The staff officer frowned.

"Chief, if the exotic beasts invade in two weeks and they aren't prepared, and the matter is exposed... it will cause panic."

The superior's gaze fell on the jumping countdown on the screen.

"We already know their style, don't we?"

He shook his head.

"When the exotic beasts invade, all electronic equipment, communications, and signals will be interfered with, and information dissemination will be cut off then. This matter will eventually be suppressed."

"It's just that the price will be borne by their own people."

The conference room went quiet.

Section Chief Han Zheng stood in the corner, not speaking.

He remembered the refugees kneeling in the mud in the War Zone.

He remembered the same expression on everyone's faces when the sky cracked open.

That expression would appear on the faces of people on the West Coast of Lighthouse Country in two weeks.

And they didn't even have any preparation.

The external internet exploded.

The news of China's city-wide evacuation spread across the entire internet in less than six hours.

Twitter trending #1: #ChinaEarthquakePanic#

"Earthquake in two weeks? Human technology can't even predict an earthquake within three days, how can they?"

"Thirteen million people evacuating? Is this filming a disaster movie? Laughable."

"Wait until nothing happens in two weeks, China will be the biggest joke in the world."

"How can they control people's will? Just evacuate because they say so? It's too scary, not like us at all, we advocate freedom!"

"It's impossible to clear a city in two weeks! Wasting money and manpower!"

A blogger with a million followers in Lighthouse Country posted a video titled— "I'm livestreaming in two weeks to see how China ends this."

The comment section was filled with ridicule.

"We'll all watch the clown show then!"

"Poor Chinese people, being cheated by their own country and still helping count the money."

"Laugh to death, they even said we have an earthquake here too! Not even a dog would believe that!"

"I'll livestream then and slap China in the face!"

"Support! Brother, I want to watch then!"

The Lighthouse Country comment section was more direct.

"Typical Eastern collective hysteria. An unverified prediction can make thirteen million people move like a herd of sheep? This would never happen in Europe."

"If our official government dared to issue such a notice, they would be out of office the next day."

"Chinese people are so pitiful, they don't even have the courage to question."

Occasionally there were one or two different voices.

"Wait... do you still remember that time in the Middle East War Zone last month? Something did happen later..."

"Don't be funny, that was just a coincidence."

"I just think, what if it's true?"

"What if? If you believe their 'what if', you might as well believe in Santa Claus."

That comment eventually stopped at seven likes.

Drowned in tens of thousands of ridicules, it didn't even make a splash.

Chinese netizens saw these ridicules.

No one replied.

It wasn't that they didn't want to scold.

It was that everyone's mind wasn't on this.

The first Weibo hot comment, 370,000 likes.

"Let them laugh. In two weeks, we, thirteen million people, will stand outside the city, every single one of us, and watch them shut up."

Torch Base.

Su Chen leaned against the stone steps, the light from the phone screen shining on his face.

The livestream of the airport arrivals was still playing.

In the frame, an auntie in an apron stood at the arrival gate holding a sign, her husband next to her carrying mineral water, smiling honestly.

The chat surged from the bottom of the screen, one after another, all "Hangzhou, stay strong".

Su Chen watched those comments, the corners of his mouth curved.

This was China.

Thirteen million people, clearing a city in two weeks.

No riots, no trampling, no looting.

Some people sent people to the station for free, some cleared out rooms, some held crooked signs at the airport, shouting at strangers—come to my house, there's good wine and good food.

He swiped twice more.

The external network comment section.

The top comment from a Lighthouse Country netizen caught his eye— "Typical Eastern collective hysteria... this would never happen in Europe."

Su Chen smiled.

The smile was very faint, the mask set aside, and the eyes on the twenty-five-year-old face had no temperature.

"It would never happen."

"Very good."

The phone locked, shoved back into his pocket.

Some people don't listen even when the path to survival is laid out clearly.

On China's side, he didn't need to worry.

The resilience of this nation is carved into its bones!

And Lighthouse Country... will only pay the price for its own ignorance and arrogance!