J Country sank, what was previously thought to be a major disaster from the earthquakes and volcanic eruptions turned out to be just a prelude to the disappearance of this country.
People around the volcano fled to other islands, but they did not expect to still be unable to escape.
Of course, wealthy people who felt this country was unsafe had already left during the earthquakes, leaving behind mostly ordinary people.
What they did not expect was that they would then face such a catastrophic disaster.
It was not just this country that sank - many small islands in the Pacific, especially those near tectonic plate boundaries, also vanished, while new islands emerged.
The dangers brought about by the movement of seafloor plates were not limited to this. Many beautiful scenic islands were destroyed by the earthquakes and tsunamis.
Some islands formed by accumulated volcanic eruptions were covered over again by new volcanic ash and lava during subsequent eruptions, including a famous scenic island of the United States.
For a time, various countries dispatched relief efforts, but with little effect.
The intense geological activity sparked discussions around the world, after which earthquakes of varying magnitudes occurred in different parts of the world.
People fell into panic for a time.
In places without earthquakes, rumors spread that earthquakes were about to happen, causing many people to be too afraid to sleep at home and instead set up tents in nearby open spaces like parks or in the middle of sports fields.
The sinking of J Country triggered tsunamis that hit coastal cities in our country to varying degrees.
Densely populated cities inland also experienced earthquakes, though not of high magnitude.
But the psychological impact on people was greater, with many unable to stay calmly at home.
People discussed what they would do when winter arrived if this situation continued.
Earthquakes cannot be predicted in advance, and although there are countdown alerts and warnings, running in a high-rise building is useless - there simply is not enough time.
In Wen Qian's hometown of An Province, Auntie Chen experienced the first tremor of her life, with the gardenia leaves in her front yard pot shaking noisily, and a large crack then appearing in the wall of the cattle pen.
Rural self-built houses cannot withstand high earthquake intensities at all, with many developing cracks and even becoming dangerous structures.
Moreover, earthquakes are rare in this area, so there is no awareness about quake-resistant construction.
Shaken, Auntie Chen thought of her son Chen Ming far away in An City, and for a time the calls and messages to check on each other's safety caused communication overloads.
Chen Ming's area experienced more obvious shaking, with everyone running down from buildings and standing on the street to look around.
The higher the building, the more noticeable the swaying - the towering construction cranes on the buildings under construction caused particular alarm.
After finally getting through to her son, Auntie Chen wanted Chen Ming to return to their hometown, as she just wanted the family to be together at this time.
In her view, what use was a good job if in the densely packed city housing a real disaster could lead to fatal stampedes?
And Auntie Chen's thinking was not an exaggeration. In many places that experienced slight tremors, there were not many quake-related injuries or deaths.
But in factories, with too many people rushing out, some who fell could not get back up and were tragically trampled to death.
Around the world, people were in a panic over the earthquakes and felt increasing despair about the future.
Many survivors also felt such despair that they committed suicide.
In areas with severe quakes, communications and power were cut off, leaving many unable to contact their families for a time.
With multiple earthquake zones, there were too many places needing relief, so many epicenters did not receive outside support for a long time and had to engage in self-rescue efforts.
Given the successive global earthquakes, people began setting up tents in relatively open spaces as shelters.
Even rudimentary tents were fine, as they did not want to stay under any roofs.
In An Province as well, many people set up tents outdoors or made their own tents, unwilling to stay under eaves and even moving their household belongings outside.
Auntie Chen's family all planned to live outside, and Fang Ya went to check on Wen Qian's home during this time.
Some roof tiles had fallen off Wen Qian's home, and there were cracks in the side wall, but overall it was still okay.
Looking from the front windows and door gaps, Fang Ya noticed something strange - the inside basically looked completely empty.
It was like the house had never contained anything, even for an abandoned home this was too bare, where had all the belongings gone? Perhaps they were in the back rooms?
So Fang Ya went around to the back of the house up the hill, where there was a sunken alleyway between the rock face and rear wall, but instead of going down into the alley she crouched up on the rock face to look down.
Looking in through the back windows, she also saw nothing inside, not even anything in the kitchen - it was completely empty.
Had Wen Qian moved everything out before leaving? But they had not noticed such a major operation, where could she have taken it all? Surely she could not have hauled everything away, some things were too bulky and worthless.
Fang Ya told Auntie Chen's family about this, but they could not figure it out either, only assuming Wen Qian must have moved it all out somehow, as it was possible for her to have taken another path from her home.
After all, the lock on her door was still intact.
They had previously tried contacting Wen Qian as well but received no response, so there was nothing more they could do.
This all happened after Wen Qian turned off her phone and went home, so during her subsequent time gathering firewood she was completely unaware of the major events unfolding outside.
There had actually been some earthquakes in Xia Province as well, just none strong enough to be felt in Wen Qian's area near the edge of the basin.
Wen Qian's area had no perceptible tremors, nor any sources of information about the situation.
All she knew was that it was getting colder there.
At this time, she had made plans for the area she had staked out, intending to construct a low courtyard wall.
Originally she had thought to wait until next year, but after finishing her house construction she had a lot of free time with nothing to do.
So she arranged this new activity for herself - building a stone courtyard wall, continuing to go to the mountain across the way in the mornings to gather firewood and in the afternoons to collect stones, bringing back stones of all sizes to her home, first.
Now her routine alternated between gathering firewood or stones, or traveling the path between the two tasks, and she even found a large rock to place in front of her door to dry things on.
The planned stone courtyard wall was not large in area, but considering she might continue adding height later, the requirement was that even if it collapsed in an earthquake it would not damage the other structures inside the courtyard.
She set up two sheds next to her house, one for stacking firewood and one for stacking stones, and some stones were so large she might need to process them further.
For the time being she did not plan to build the wall very high, just wanting to construct an initial one meter plus high courtyard wall, and since the early morning and evening temperatures were too low she left the work for periods with sunshine, staying inside at other times.
She had already moved the prefab house into her space, having lived in her new home for some time now, with a plastic planter box holding soil dug from outside placed on the windowsill.
Wen Qian had scattered some flower seeds in it, wondering if they could grow.
With the higher indoor temperatures from the stove, Wen Qian had also set up a pot next to the stove to sprout bean sprouts.
Vitamin C should always be available as a supplement, and if she could obtain it from vegetables then she would not need to take vitamin pills.
She even tried taking some Chinese cabbage seeds out from her space, using a styrofoam box filled with soil from the riverside, setting it out on the large rock to sun when sunny and bringing it inside at night to avoid freezing damage.
The place where she lived was very peaceful.
