CHAPTER 659: JING SHU, CAN YOU SOLVE THIS PROBLEM?

"To be honest, even if there was something, Jing Shu wouldn’t be able to help."

Li Chenglong quickly ran to the front of the house. While inwardly marveling at how his sister, as expected of her, managed such an impressive setup, he said, "After observing for so many days, we have a new development regarding our position. My uncle just asked for you to come over to discuss our next survival plan."

Hearing this, Jing Shu hurriedly got up and followed Li Chenglong to the seventh floor of the building, which was Boss Lu’s territory.

This was Jing Shu’s first visit here; Boss Lu had built a titanium alloy, fully enclosed little house that resembled a safe in this hidden room, and no one knew what was inside. Although Jing Shu was very curious, she hadn’t had the time to pay attention to it until now.

The gathering place today was once a hotpot restaurant before the apocalypse and now lay in ruins. The bright red decor, coupled with faint firelight, seemed a bit unsettling.

Only some large round tables and the empty twin-sided hot pots in the middle remained in the hall.

Many wooden chairs had been taken to be used as firewood.

Even the large red curtains and dividers that were previously for decoration had been taken to use as blankets.

"Just find a seat anywhere," Li Yuetian, who was sitting on the twin-sided hot pot placed on a platform, told the incoming Jing Shu and Li Chenglong.

Jing Shu felt it was a pity—should she swipe a pot later so she could enjoy a twin-sided hot pot meal in the future?

Once everyone in the hall had arrived, some were squatting on the tables while others lay on them. The most extravagant was Boss Lu, who had turned a large round table into a giant bed, comfortably lying on it, yawning under a thick blanket.

Apart from Jun Jia, Gold Dominator, Wang Miao, and other people from the Township Government that Jing Shu knew, the rest were Boss Lu’s people!

An old man with a bald head was holding a door plank, writing and drawing intensely on it. When he turned around, Jing Shu recognized him—it was her old college principal, Wang Zhiren!

"Let me explain in detail our current position. It’s a bit complex..." Old Principal Wang Zhiren, holding his data results, was about to begin his lengthy discourse when he was interrupted by Boss Lu.

Extremely dissatisfied, Boss Lu said, "We don’t understand those things anyway. Don’t make it so complicated. Just tell us bluntly where we are and how to get back to Wu City, and that’s it."

Old Principal Wang sighed awkwardly. "According to the time differences observed in the earliest days, we should have continued drifting westward, but..."

"But what? Hurry up, old man, you’re making us anxious," Boss Lu urged.

"But the time difference was sometimes earlier, sometimes later, according to..." The old principal rambled on and on, and Boss Lu was completely lost, as were the academically challenged folks around him.

So, where were they exactly?

Li Yuetian said in a deep voice, "So what Principal Wang means is, we were drifting before, and now we’ve been circling around this spot in recent days?"

Principal Wang wiped the sweat off his forehead. These people didn’t even understand basic geography. Being a math teacher asked to teach geography was indeed exhausting.

Luckily, he was highly learned and knowledgeable.

These people are even worse than the worst students I’ve ever taught. Just as he was thinking this, Old Principal Wang saw a familiar figure in the crowd. Hey, isn’t that student Jing Shu? She’s the one who got me a private room. And afterward, that young man, Liu, diligently helped me move my luggage and has been quite attentive these past few days...

Old Principal Wang cleared his throat and shook his head. "It is not that simple..." Aiya, these people, no matter how I explain it, they just don’t get it! He scratched his head, his occupational habit flaring up again. "Miss Jing Shu, please come up and explain this problem to everyone."

After he finished speaking, the principal realized something was a bit off.

But Jing Shu had already walked up. She took the homemade pen from Old Principal Wang, flipped the door plank to its other side, and then drew a large circle, followed by successively smaller circles inside it, spiraling inwards until she finally dotted the very center.

The line flowed uninterrupted until it reached the center of the circles, resembling the ’@’ symbol.

Jing Shu looked very serious. For many days, she too hadn’t understood why. Initially, for over ten days, the time difference indicated they were drifting in one direction. Then, for another ten-plus days, it seemed to revert. Later, the cycle shortened to seven or eight days, then five or six, and finally to a three or four-day period.

It wasn’t until today, after Old Principal Wang’s explanation, that she had an epiphany.

"See this diagram? This is the route we’ve been taking these days.

We are just circling like this, from originally taking ten to twenty days for a big circle to now, where a small circle might not even take a day. That explains why the time difference is so strange."

This diagram of Jing Shu’s was so simple that even someone as academically challenged as Boss Lu could understand it. He nodded in realization. "So, how do we return to Wu City now? How can we get in touch with the people in Wu City?"

Jing Shu shook her head. "Right now, the problem isn’t whether we can return to Wu City. It’s the danger that’s coming next."

"Danger? What danger?" Boss Lu had grown accustomed to comfort. After so many days, aside from that one monster attack, everything else had been quite peaceful.

"We might be pulled into a vortex, and that speed will increase, and then..." Jing Shu didn’t finish her sentence. The current danger didn’t just come from the vortex. Beneath the building swarmed numerous Rotten Mermaids, and if they climbed up again, total annihilation was inevitable.

The Magic Cube Space couldn’t admit people, and by then, Jing Shu herself might be done for.

Although Jing Shu had an ace up her sleeve, she wouldn’t reveal it until everyone else was dead. Her secret couldn’t be disclosed to anyone. Essentially, the worst-case scenario would be total annihilation, and her ace could, at best, only save herself.

Only then did everyone grasp the seriousness of the situation.

Nothing survives the eye of a vortex storm.

Old Principal Wang nodded in satisfaction, having finally conveyed the message he intended to express. Surely, she was a student he had taught... well, he hadn’t actually taught her, but having spoken to her counts as teaching, right?

"AHEM." Principal Wang cleared his throat and continued, "According to the timeline, we’ll be at the storm’s eye in two days. What conditions will prevail there, I can’t say. The building might sink, or there might be a new way out. My suggestion is, we can’t just sit and wait to die; we at least have to try and control our direction and avoid being drawn into the vortex’s center."

The building was like an island. How could one control the direction of such a building?

"Ships weighing several tens of tons need huge anchors and propellers to steer. How can we steer such a large island?"

Jun Jia spoke up, "Actually, we’ve been fashioning a massive makeshift rudder using all the steel and materials we could dismantle. Maybe we can deviate a bit in our course."

Wang Miao then added, "We have also organized a team and made emergency floating vessels. If it really comes to it, we might have to abandon the building!"

Abandon the building? Jing Shu’s mobile villa was still on the building.