near miss

The entire Nuclear Energy Research Institute, whether on duty or on leave, was all urgently recalled.

Their main job was to find the cat and search for traces of its escape.

Every route along the way had to be scanned with instruments to detect radioactivity.

This workload was undoubtedly enormous.

The surrounding walls were torn down, and the land was directly excavated.

It seemed exaggerated, but it was the most cost-effective and convenient method.

Later, they would use trucks to dump them into a designated landfill.

Fortunately, this area was a development zone, relatively remote, and most of the houses were uninhabited.

The wild cat would not run into people's homes.

As long as people stayed at home, nothing serious would happen.

The only thing that gave them a headache was that the cat was missing and couldn't be found at all.

Many plots of land nearby had not yet been developed, so there was no surveillance whatsoever; the cat just burrowed into the bushes and vanished without a trace.

However, according to the Experts' calculations, given the cat's physical structure and the amount of nuclear material it carried, it was probably already dead by now.

Even if it wasn't dead, it probably couldn't walk, so finding it was only a matter of time.

In contrast, West Sea City was in an uproar at this moment.

Following Secretary He's orders, various overwhelming propaganda instantly caused city-wide panic.

First, there was an SMS bombardment; every West Sea City resident's phone received messages advising them to self-isolate and not to wander around.

Next were television and radio stations.

However, local TV stations had fewer viewers, so the effect was minimal.

The most impactful propaganda came from the patrolling police.

Large numbers of traffic police were maintaining order on the streets, police cars had their hazard lights on, and loudspeakers broadcasted continuously, urging everyone not to leave their rooms without authorization.

Seeing such a large-scale operation, even the most reckless person knew something big had happened, and everyone obediently hid in their houses, no one going out.

But privately, it had already exploded.

Forums, Moments, and discussion groups were almost all talking about related topics.

— [Thanks, Lin Yuan, I can slack off again! Not working this afternoon is so great, hehe!]

— [You're so carefree. Aren't you afraid of radiation contamination? That stuff is deadly!]

— [Afraid of what? Just stay at home, and you'll be fine. As long as you don't contact anyone, it won't spread.]

— [Rumor has it that the first two infected people appeared yesterday. How do you know if you've contacted him or not? What if?]

— [Holy cow! Is that true or false? These two guys are really carefree. I just want to know what sentence they'll get if they're caught? Life imprisonment or death penalty?]

— [Today, Lin Yuan also got infected. He is currently being examined at the Hospital. But it shouldn't be a big deal. To be honest, we all have to thank him, otherwise, many people would have died, or at least suffered greatly.]

At this moment, the local forum company in West Sea City was in chaos.

The manager watched the network department staff sweat profusely as they fixed the network, his heart constantly hanging.

In previous years, local forums were particularly popular, and he also made a lot of money.

However, in recent years, Weibo, forums, and Tieba have almost become a thing of the past and have been eliminated.

The company's revenue also declined little by little, and it was on the verge of bankruptcy.

But for a while, it suddenly became inexplicably popular.

This rekindled his hope.

After some investigation, he realized it was related to a person named Lin Yuan.

He originally thought this was just a stroke of luck.

As a result, every day thereafter, the forum remained extremely popular.

Large numbers of West Sea City residents communicated and asked questions on the forum, but the topics were basically inseparable from Lin Yuan.

In just one week, it directly brought him back to life.

Many businesses came to him seeking cooperation for advertising, and even venture capitalists approached him to discuss investments.

The feeling of such unexpected wealth falling upon him was truly exhilarating.

However, today!

As expected, the forum exploded in popularity again.

But this time it was different!!

Previously, at most, there were tens of thousands of concurrent users.

And now, there are already over 500,000 concurrent users!

After all, this number is still increasing wildly.

In a short period, the number of successfully registered members also exceeded 200,000.

What does this concept mean!

Such data, in the past, the total for a year might not even reach it.

It gave him an illusion that it seemed like everyone in West Sea City was going to flock over.

It seemed like a good thing, but the problem was that the server couldn't handle it!!

If it weren't for the network department trying every possible way to maintain it, the forum would have crashed long ago.

If the hard-won revitalization were to crash at a critical moment, not to mention a complete regression, at least a loss of over a hundred thousand Clients would occur.

Thinking of this, the manager couldn't help but take a deep breath, and with a solemn expression, he instructed the network staff: "I don't care what method you use, you must hold on, it cannot crash. If this succeeds, you will be the company supervisor, and your year-end bonus will be ten times!"

Upon hearing this, the maintenance staff instantly worked like they were injected with adrenaline, working like mad.

Secretary He specifically called media reporters and personally led Li Secretary and the nuclear energy Experts from the neighboring city to visit and inspect house by house, broadcasting the entire process live.

On one hand, it was to make everyone aware of isolation, and on the other hand, it was to tell them not to panic too much.

As long as everyone cooperated well, this problem could be solved very quickly.

The fact was indeed so.

Director Yang had made preparations in advance at the scrap yard to ensure that the radiation would not leak out.

And after interrogating the two Thieves, he also immediately mapped out their travel routes from yesterday.

Fortunately, both of them were internet addicts, spending most of their time in internet cafes or sleeping in rented rooms, so they had very few actual contacts.

With the addition of medical staff, who uniformly wore protective suits and carried detection instruments, efficiency instantly increased many times over.

After all, it didn't require any special skills; it just needed a quick scan, which was very convenient.

Anyone found with radiation exceeding the limit was immediately isolated and transferred to the Hospital for treatment.

During this period, several incidents of radiation exceeding the limit were unexpectedly discovered.

Especially a little girl, who wore a so-called energy stone around her neck.

Her parents bought it from an unknown master.

They said it could ward off evil and help the child grow taller, develop better, and become smarter.

However, ever since she started wearing that thing, her complexion had never been good, and she would get nosebleeds frequently. Her parents thought she was just sick and didn't take it seriously.

It wasn't until she was detected with radiation exceeding the limit that they suddenly realized, continuously thanking the visiting personnel.

If she had stayed with it any longer, she would probably have died by its hand sooner or later.

As time slowly passed, the sky gradually changed from bright sunshine to a sky full of stars.

The special vehicles on the street gradually decreased, replaced by private cars.

The deserted community entrance also gained a touch of life, and residents who had been worried all afternoon came out to get some fresh air.

A thrilling nuclear leak was resolved so unknowingly.

Citizens resumed their lives as usual, but their post-dinner conversations were basically related to this.

The scrap yard was not so lucky; the wild cat had passed through many places.

Neither demolishing the scrap yard nor excavating the ground could be resolved in a short time.

Residents living nearby could only continue to self-isolate, but fortunately, the Government delivered supplies to them on time, so they would not starve.

Lin Yuan was also safely discharged from the Hospital after an afternoon of treatment.

The moment he walked out of the Hospital, looking at the stars in the sky, the two exchanged glances and couldn't help but sigh.