Chapter 93: Unease
"A crack?" The driver yawned and said, "This is the Qingyin Expressway. We'll pass by it when we enter Qingdao in a bit. Let's see whose shoddy construction project got exposed again."
"A crack 'above'?" Qi Xia felt a bit strange. Although he knew the earthquake would come tomorrow at noon, could there be strange omens before that?
Before Qi Xia could figure it out, the driver suddenly slammed on the brakes, sharply reducing the speed from 120 kilometers per hour.
Qi Xia, sitting in the back seat without a seatbelt, nearly hit the front seat from the sudden stop.
"What's wrong?" He steadied himself and looked up in confusion.
"That's strange... There's a long line on the expressway."
Qi Xia followed the driver's gaze into the distance and indeed saw heavy traffic ahead—a colorful sea of cars with no end in sight.
The driver anxiously checked the time. "Ah... must be a multi-car pileup. I've seen this before; it'll be at least an hour... The entrance to Qingdao is just ahead... It's almost 7:30. What are we going to do..."
He kept looking left and right, as if figuring out how to change lanes to bypass the congested traffic.
"It's okay, driver. This counts as arriving in Qingdao," Qi Xia said. "Just drive slowly."
"Ah..." The driver glanced at Qi Xia with some embarrassment in the rearview mirror. "You're a straightforward kid. Don't worry, I'll get you home before 8:30."
Qi Xia nodded and said nothing more. The driver slowly pulled up to the end of the line.
What neither of them expected was that from the moment they joined, the line never moved. More and more cars kept pulling up behind them, and now they were stuck in the middle of the entire queue—unable to advance or retreat.
"It's really strange..." After waiting over an hour, the time was approaching 8:30. The driver could only scratch his head helplessly. "Even if it was a pileup, it should have been cleared by now..."
Qi Xia was getting anxious, but at this moment, waiting was the only option.
Their location was still twenty or thirty kilometers from Qi Xia's residence. If he tried to go on foot like before, he probably wouldn't arrive until dawn.
Thinking this, he pulled out his phone again and called Yu Nian'an. Still no answer.
The busy signal on the other end only made Qi Xia more restless.
The two of them fell silent, with only the car radio crackling softly.
"Dear listeners, an unidentified weather phenomenon has appeared on the Qingyin Expressway. The actual situation awaits expert analysis. Drivers who can, please take a detour."
"Weather phenomenon?" The driver had never heard such a new term on the radio before and was a bit confused.
"Probably something like 'ball lightning' or a 'mirage,'" Qi Xia explained. "Maybe it's attracting a lot of onlookers, or indirectly causing traffic accidents."
"Is that so? You know a lot, young man. A college student?"
Qi Xia didn't bother responding to the driver. He leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes to rest.
In his previous memory, he hadn't chosen to return to Qingdao that night, so he had no idea what happened on the expressway. He only knew that when he set out the next morning, the entire road had already returned to normal.
In other words, the current traffic jam wouldn't last long. Qi Xia's best option for now was to wait.
But when people wait for a long time without a clear purpose, restlessness inevitably sets in—after all, no one knows how long they'll have to wait.
Horns began to blare intermittently on the road, making everyone feel unsettled.
After a while, drivers started to turn off their engines, get out of their cars, and chat with each other.
The taxi driver, clearly unable to sit still, got out as soon as he saw people moving around. Ignoring Qi Xia, he lit a cigarette and started shooting the breeze with some nearby drivers.
Qi Xia sighed, took out his phone, and sent Yu Nian'an a message.
"An, something might happen tomorrow. Pack some daily necessities. I'll take you out to take shelter in the morning."
Qi Xia deliberately made it sound serious. The most important thing was to make Yu Nian'an understand the urgency the moment she saw the message. As for words like "earthquake" or "anomaly," those could be left out for now.
After doing this, Qi Xia leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes.
For some reason, even though he knew the earthquake was coming tomorrow, he felt at ease as long as he was near Yu Nian'an.
He had limited abilities. He couldn't save too many people.
If he went around spreading news that an earthquake would strike tomorrow, he would only be arrested for disturbing public order. So within his limited scope, Qi Xia could only choose to save a few people.
He never considered himself a savior. Everything he did was just to survive in this world.
Qi Xia closed his eyes and dozed off. He didn't know how long had passed when he was suddenly startled awake by the driver opening the door.
"Kid, come look at this!" The driver didn't care if Qi Xia was sleeping and yelled out loudly.
"What?" Qi Xia opened his eyes in confusion and saw the driver waving a phone at him.
He took the phone and saw a photo. It seemed to have been taken at the expressway toll station ahead.
"This was taken by a driver up front. It's spreading all over the road!" The driver said excitedly. "You're well-educated, kid. Help me see what kind of weather phenomenon this is."
Qi Xia zoomed in on the image and couldn't help but frown.
If this was a "weather phenomenon," it was way too obscure.
In the sky, a crack hung in the air. Many glowing things were spilling down from the crack, like falling stars. Many cars were blocked by this curtain of light and couldn't move forward.
"The sky is cracked?" Qi Xia asked in confusion.
"Yeah, it really looks like a hole split open in the sky. Is this weather phenomenon called 'Suspected the Milky Way falling from the ninth heaven'?"
Qi Xia pursed his lips helplessly. "Uncle, although I don't know what this phenomenon is, the one you mentioned definitely doesn't exist."
The driver gave a silly laugh and sat down in the driver's seat. "But they say the crack is shrinking. It should disappear soon. Once those glowing things are out of the way, we'll be able to move."
Qi Xia nodded, pulled out his phone, and froze.
"Past three in the morning?!"
"Yeah..." The driver stretched. "You're a straightforward kid, and I'm not a cheapskate. I turned off the meter a while ago. Otherwise, the waiting time would cost you a lot."
That wasn't what Qi Xia was concerned about. What bothered him was that Yu Nian'an still hadn't replied.
A sense of unease began to creep into his heart.