Chapter 75: Chapter 72: Splendid Scenery (Fog)
"What? It’s trending now?"
Hearing the report from the person in charge of the publicity portal, Tian Liangwei, who was directing the related matters on-site, couldn’t help but frown:
"How long has it been, and it’s already gaining the traffic to trend at midnight?"
Although Tian Liangwei is already over sixty, as a college leader, he is fairly familiar with matters of the internet.
If there were a video or picture going around, he wouldn’t be too surprised.
After all, with so many people on site, taking photos and recordings is quite normal.
But for a picture or video to transform from information to news, it requires a substantial base for transmission.
There’s some possibility during the day, but in the latter half of the night relying on scattered fragments to naturally gather enough heat...
Honestly speaking,
the probability isn’t high.
Facing Tian Liangwei’s skepticism, the head of the publicity portal smiled helplessly:
"Dean Tian, it’s like this.
After confirmation from our technical department, it appears the source of the information comes from a student in building 14.
His name is Fu Ming, a web writer with a sizable follower base on the platform.
Under the reposts from those fans, the message skipped the initial fragment accumulation phase and was spread through multiple channels right from the start.
Moreover, at the end of the video, to prove it’s not stolen online material, he deliberately filmed the screenshot of his writer’s backend, accidentally capturing Ke Da’s textbooks and campus card.
Netizens traced back to Tieba, where some curious students were discussing the matter, although their spread wasn’t as wide.
Once these two groups converged, the matter was thoroughly established."
The person in charge paused briefly, tentatively suggesting:
"Dean Tian, should we first lock down the public opinion platform?
Tieba is simple; the moderator is a teacher, just increase the post level and that should be fine.
As for the trending list, it might be troublesome, but I estimate in about an hour it shouldn’t be too much..."
Before he could finish, Tian Liangwei waved his hand and interrupted him:
"No, no, don’t control comments. This kind of thing isn’t something that can’t be shown. Controlling comments will only make people think we’re guilty, some things just become worse that way.
Let’s do it this way, you personally handle the public opinion platform.
Don’t worry about normal discussions, and don’t hold the student who first broke the news accountable.
However, if you see any comments taking this opportunity to blacken Ke Da or stir emotions, address them first, there might be some old acquaintances from across the sea behind them."
Tian Liangwei’s words carried some deeper meaning, since certain events have not just happened once or twice.
Though Ke Da’s ranking isn’t as high as Qingbei Jiaofu, due to contextual issues, Ke Da, National Science University, and Harbin Institute of Technology often face some ill-intentioned attacks in media.
Sometimes, the frequency of attacks even surpasses that directed at Qingbei Jiaofu.
Now that Ke Da is facing such an incident, most of the discussions probably aren’t malicious, but there will surely be some looking to profit from chaos.
Upon receiving Tian Liangwei’s instructions, the head of public opinion immediately accepted the order:
"Understood, I’ll get on it right away."
After the head left, Tian Liangwei turned to look at the dormitory building.
He was about to thoughtfully comment, ’It’s a tumultuous time now,’ but suddenly caught sight of the densely packed cockroaches on the water pipe, startling him:
"Damn it, I’m so damn scared of dense clusters!"
.....
Considering that Tian Liangwei is already over sixty, and the temperature difference between day and night is quite large this season, the outside is prone to causing colds.
Therefore, under the persuasion of several accompanying leaders, Tian Liangwei first returned to his residence.
Xu Yun, meanwhile, stayed at the scene with a few security personnel, working the night shift.
As for the students inside the entire dormitory building, a team of fully equipped security personnel had entered an hour and a half earlier, outfitting each student in protective clothing before escorting them out of the dormitory for resettlement.
After all, although the cockroaches couldn’t enter the dormitories, the viruses carried by so many cockroaches were a potential hazard, and the smell produced by their gathering was quite unpleasant too.
In such an environment, staying a few minutes or even an hour might be fine, but if it’s for the whole night, something might just happen.
And so it went.
An hour swiftly passed by.
As time went on, the number of cockroaches on the dormitory wall visibly decreased.
The ground outside the building also gradually appeared with some cockroach carcasses, with the farthest one falling as far as two hundred meters away.
Meanwhile,
the entire building 14 faintly exuded an unpleasant odor, which was a mix of cockroach corpses and excrement.
During this period, Xu Yun kept an eye on Weibo and Tieba, to be precise, on that topic.
Currently, the topic’s Weibo heat had already surged to the tenth position, second only to the previous Old Niu.
No surprise,
when dawn breaks, this topic is highly likely to rush into the top six, given how bizarre its content is.
Whether it can go any higher will depend on whether there’s any big news in the entertainment circle tomorrow.
Then another hour passed by.
By this time, the effect of the gel bait had begun its critical phase of exertion.
The majority of external cockroaches, exhausted, fell to the ground. Roughly thirty percent were completely lifeless, while the remaining seventy percent were barely clinging to life.
Half an hour later.
Five thirty in the morning.
On the ground, aside from a handful of particularly tenacious individuals, 99% of the cockroaches had entirely lost any signs of life.
Meanwhile, having had a short rest for a few hours, Tian Liangwei returned to the scene.
The trending topic had climbed to number eight.
"Xiaoxu."
Upon arriving at the scene, Tian Liangwei glanced at the dormitory building and said to Xu Yun:
"Isn’t it about time now?"
Xu Yun nodded:
"It’s close to time."
Tian Liangwei nodded slightly and looked at the person beside him:
"Director Guan, I’ll leave it to you."
The Director Guan Tian Liangwei referred to was the head of the security department at Ke Da, and also a retired special forces soldier, serving as the commander of the campus reserve unit.
He was tall and well-built, with a square face, appearing quite reliable at first glance.
The security system of Ke Da had conducted numerous drills for special situations like septic tank explosions, so within the various units of the university, the security department was undoubtedly the most suitable choice for today.
More than ten minutes later.
A twenty-person hazardous materials team was assembled, with Xu Yun joining as an ’atonement’ consultant.
Then, under the lead of Director Guan, the group steadily moved towards Building 14.
At this time, the sky was just beginning to brighten, so certain scenes only became clear as they approached the dormitory building.
The most conspicuous among them were undoubtedly the four originally white drainage pipes:
The sections above the fourth floor could still barely be seen as white, but the areas below the fourth floor were stained with a significant amount of cockroach excrement.
From a distance, the pipes appeared mottled in black and white.
At the lowest end of the pipes, a sharp cone approximately 40 centimeters high had formed from a pile of cockroach corpses.
Within five meters of the water pipe, the ground was densely covered with cockroach bodies or remains, with not a single gap in sight.
There is a rumor on the internet about cockroaches:
If you see one cockroach, it means there are actually hundreds of thousands of cockroaches in your house.
This notion is clearly incorrect because cockroaches are insects that need to stay near a water source to survive, and within residential areas, the areas with the most water are usually the bathroom and kitchen.
If there were hundreds of thousands of cockroaches in the sewer, the sewer would have already been clogged beyond use.
However, tonight, the number of cockroaches that died in Building 14 might genuinely be this many.
After all, it’s one of the output nodes for the water used by over ten thousand people in the university; the filth underground is unimaginable.
As for the total number of cockroaches at Ke Da, it’s conservatively estimated to be at least over three million—don’t think this number is large; three million is actually considered small.
In 2017, Jinling University had created a decomposer model, which included creatures like worms, mites, beetles, and cockroaches.
Within densely populated areas of ten thousand people, the number of cockroaches exceeded a million.
Not to mention places like schools, where a large amount of kitchen waste is produced daily, it’s normal for the number to be several times that of regular residential areas.
This is similar to the iceberg theory, where the submerged part that’s invisible to the naked eye is far greater than what’s visible above the surface.
Tap, tap, tap—
The boots of the protective suits tapped against the ground as Xu Yun and his team soon entered the dormitory building.
At this moment, the stairs from the first to the second floor were fully covered with rows of cockroach corpses.
Each stair step was conservatively estimated to have two or three dozen carcasses.
Director Guan used cleaning equipment to clear a path, and the team moved from the first to the second, then to the third floor.
Finally, they arrived at the fourth floor where Chang Licheng and others were located.
As a retired special forces soldier, Director Guan’s capabilities weren’t as exaggerated as the legendary soldiers in novels, but his experience and psychological resilience were sound.
For instance, during his peacekeeping missions abroad, he had seen some blood and had faced off against vicious criminals.
Yet even such a formidable man as him got goosebumps all over when he saw the scene on the fourth floor!
At this moment...
The corridor on the fourth floor, over thirty meters long and three meters wide, was densely covered with at least three centimeters thick of cockroach carcasses!
Director Guan and his team forced themselves to endure the discomfort, stepping over the mound of cockroaches, leading the team to reach the very center of the entire incident.
This was the open space on the fourth floor where rubbish was piled.
Well, how shall I put it.
This area should no longer be described with the term ’open space’:
The walls that were comparatively cleaner were now densely covered with cockroach excrement, turning the entire wall black.
The windowsills and trash cans, even the gaps in the area, were filled with cockroach legs!
The ground had heaps of various body parts forming small hills, raising several cones.
In this ten square meter area, the thickness of cockroaches was at least over ten centimeters, with countless numbers!
......