◎Happy 133rd Day: Honesty is the foundation◎

Zhou Fei said that he was an honest man. Anyway, he had given his heart, so no matter whether everyone went to look for him or not, they should not forget to be grateful to him.

Captain Yu walked to the bedside, pulled aside a corner of the light-blocking cloth, looked at the turbid water below, and frowned unconsciously.

He asked Zhou Fei, "Where is the place where you hid the things? If we go down from here, how long will it take to get there?"

Zhou Fei gestured and said, "It's in the underground parking lot of the complex building. I know where the entrance is. We can directly jump into the water vertically from above the entrance, feel our way along the outer wall of the complex building to the entrance, and then find the third protruding stone pillar along the wall on the far left of the entrance. There's a small piece hollowed out on the inside of the stone pillar, and the object is hidden inside."

"As for how long it will take to get there... If everything goes well, with low visibility underwater, the round trip shouldn't take more than ten minutes."

Based on the height of the building, the water depth is less than 20 meters, not counting the depth of the underground garage.

Everyone had accumulated their skills by diving without equipment, so this depth was not a big problem for most of the people present.

The only problem was that the underwater visibility was too low and there was too much debris, making it impossible to tie a rope and go into the water. The surface of the water was also gloomy, and it was pure fantasy to rely on the light to determine the direction of the water surface.

If you lose your way underwater at this time, you will be dead unless you grow gills on the spot.

"It's not a big problem." Jiang Muyun's eyes swept across the group of half-bald hairy balls huddled by the fire, and finally fell on a big golden head.

When the little lazy cat saw Jiang Muyun looking at it, it tilted its head in confusion. Then, the golden head stretched out and rubbed Jiang Muyun's waist twice. After rubbing, it did not forget to raise its head and shake it, reminding Jiang Muyun to touch it.

Jiang Muyun once again gave in to the spoiled child. While rubbing Xiaolan's slippery head, he said, "Let Xiaolan follow us into the water. We'll tie the safety rope to Xiaolan. If we get anything or encounter an accident, Xiaolan can bring everyone back up directly."

Xiaolan seemed to understand what Jiang Muyun said and nodded in cooperation.

Captain Yu shook his head and sighed, "These animals are now so smart they don't even seem mutated. It's as if they've become spirits. The only thing missing is a human form."

Jiang Muyun threw a bundle of parachute ropes to Chu Buwen and said with a smile, "That won't work. After the founding of the country, spirits are not allowed to become spirits. If they transform into human forms, won't they be exposed directly? It's better for them to keep their original form."

After saying that, Jiang Muyun patted Xiaolan's head and said, "Isn't that right, Xiaolan? You must hide well."

Chu Buwen took the parachute cord and put it aside with the jacket he had just taken off. He changed into long-sleeved quick-drying clothes, took off his shoes and put on thick socks to protect his feet. While putting on gloves and goggles, he said, "When it comes to becoming a spirit, our Xiaobai needs the most attention. He is much smarter than Xiaolan."

Xiaolan, who was considered not as smart as Xiaobai, subconsciously wanted to look up at Jiang Muyun, but was knocked away by Xiaobai who pounced on him.

Xiaobai has disliked this bald man for a long time.

It was okay that the bald guy asked his sister to touch him in the morning. The sister could barely tolerate it because of his pitifully bald face.

I didn't expect that this guy would become even more aggressive and just stick to me.

Do you think I don't exist?

Xiaobai rushed over and pushed Xiaolan away with his forehead, then glared at Xiaolan, as if to say, "If you dare to come near here again, I will not be polite."

Xiaolan was a little dizzy after being knocked by Xiaobai. He raised his head and shook it a few times before falling down limply.

Just then, Chu Buwen and his companions saw that everything was almost ready, so they called out "Xiao Lan", and Xiao Lan moved towards Chu Buwen.

Before leaving, Xiaolan looked back at Jiang Muyun pitifully. Seeing that Jiang Muyun had no intention of going over to comfort him, he crawled over to Zhou Fei and Captain Yu with his head down to ask for a pet.

Zhou Fei, Captain Yu, and Chu Buwen tied safety ropes around their waists and took Xiao Lan with them towards the garage entrance.

Tang An, Gao Liang and Jiang Muyun also carried a few folding buckets, took the transporters Xiaobai and Tutu and walked out of the classroom with Chu Buwen and others.

They needed to find a stairwell to fetch some water.

Now the water everyone drinks is clean water brought from the base. We also brought mushroom bags on the way to make mushrooms to eat. The demand for water when cooking is not large, so there is no need to filter water from outside.

But Chu Buwen and the others wanted to go into the water to retrieve something, and it would be best if they took a shower after coming out.

Who knows how much dirt is in the water nowadays?

Chen Cheng stayed there to take care of Professor Chen and clean up where Professor Chen would sleep at night.

Jiang Muyun had specifically ordered that only the place where Professor Chen slept should be cleaned up.

In Jiang Muyun's words, today is the first day out, and they have to find a place to set up camp so early. If everyone can lie down on the ground and sleep comfortably at night, it would be a blessing.

She suggested that we rest early today so that everyone can slowly adapt to the life of being on the road.

What kind of adaptation is sitting on a boat for hours?

At least start by sleeping against the wall at night, right?

With Xiao Lan's escort, Chu Buwen and the other two brought their things up in less than ten minutes.

After coming up, Zhou Fei thought they would be greeted with warm regards, hot soup, and soft beds by their companions. However, what awaited him was only a few buckets of semi-clear bath water filtered by Jiang Muyun and others, and a cold reply: "Don't sleep on the bed tonight. Everyone, get used to sleeping against the wall."

Zhou Fei was hit hard by this cruel reality.

He knew that traveling outside would be very hard, and before he decided to participate in this operation, he also asked many caravans about life on the road.

It's just that each caravan has a familiar base on the road they are familiar with, and most of them will stay overnight in the base. At worst, they will find a safe fixed camp to rest. In terms of the degree of hard work, it is naturally no match for their wild pioneering team.

Zhou Fei's face was filled with worry. "Did I misunderstand? 'Get used to sleeping against the wall' means we're going to have to sleep against the wall often in the future?"

Jiang Muyun said cruelly: "If you understand it this way, then there is actually no problem."

Chu Buwen patted Zhou Fei's shoulder and said, "The conditions will only get worse, not better. Go to bed early and have a good rest tonight."

That being said, few people can get a good rest tonight.

Professor Chen, who relaxes his mind, eats well, drinks well and is in good health, is one of them. There are also Jiang Muyun and Chu Buwen, who are the two people who know what is going on and cherish every night they can sleep on flat ground.

The next morning before six o'clock, everyone got up one after another to wash and cook.

We have a long day to travel today, so we need to eat something full in the morning. Mushrooms alone will not do.

Captain Yu roasted a few potatoes, Jiang Muyun and Chu Buwen cut two dried fish to make soup, and Professor Chen also opened a small bag of dried carrots and put them into the fish soup.

As for the taste, it's definitely not that good.

But at this time, it is still most important to supplement nutrition. At worst, just think of it as drinking tonic.

If you are not satisfied with the collective meal, you can add some snacks for yourself.

There is a big gap between the rich and the poor among the members of their temporary team. Whether it is asking those who have enough supplies to eat coarse food with others, or asking those who lack supplies to take advantage of others' good things, it is easy to make people feel uncomfortable.

We simply agreed in advance that we would contribute to the common food and eat from the big pot, and other extra meals would depend on our family's financial resources. Whether we were willing to share it with others was our own business, and no one should be coveting each other's money.

Everyone had eaten enough the night before and no one wanted extra food, so no one realized the effect of this agreement.

This morning, when everyone was chewing jerky and eating eggs, without having to worry about any negative effects of eating alone, I felt that this idea was really good.

These days, no one is that rich, and there are only a few good things. I brought them out because I was worried that my body couldn't handle them. I feel bad eating them myself, let alone sharing them with others.

Now that all the ugly words have been said, everyone no longer has the psychological burden to give themselves special treatment, and they feel more at ease when getting along with each other.

After eating and drinking, Jiang Muyun and Chu Buwen removed the umbrella ropes and nails that were wrapped around the window yesterday. After packing up everything, Jiang Muyun spread out the map by the fire and called everyone to gather around.

"Let me tell you about today's plan first." Jiang Muyun pointed to the route she had marked on the map.

"We plan to set off at 7 o'clock. We have to walk at least 110 kilometers today and reach the rest area I've identified before 4 o'clock in the afternoon. Then we'll find a suitable place to rest."

Jiang Muyun tapped the circled rest area with his unopened pen. "Looking at the topographic map, you can tell this is a hilly area, but the terrain is low, so the likelihood of survivors staying here for a long time is low. We'll rest here tonight and let Xiaobai and the others out to find some food."

Xiaobai, Xiaoguai and Tutu eat more than the eight humans combined. If they are fed artificially, they can only afford mushrooms.

However, mushrooms, as a well-known weight loss companion before the end of the world, are quite good in terms of satiety, but they are not good enough to provide energy for physical activities.

There aren't many animals on the hills and low mountains, but now that the water level is so high, land creatures will gather on the top of the mountain, and hunting will naturally become less difficult.

Jiang Muyun made a few rough strokes on the map with a pencil. "In choosing routes from now on, I'll prioritize the plains and suburbs, avoiding densely built-up areas as much as possible. This will minimize risks while making it easier for Xiaobai and the others to get food."

"Of course, there may be survivor bases in these places. I will try my best to avoid them in advance and try not to get close to unfamiliar survivor bases unless necessary."

In the end times, there are many survivor bases like the South One Base, and there are also many like the original West Suburb Base.

Who knows if the next survivor base they pass by will be a den of evil? Only a fool would go to a strange base with nothing to do.

Jiang Muyun tapped the map with his pen cap and reminded him, "This means that resting conditions like today's are rare."

"In fact, judging from the general route we've planned, we'll have to sleep on the boat for at least two-thirds of the time. I'll relax the time it takes to find a resting place over the next few days. We'll proceed step by step so everyone can adapt as quickly as possible."

Jiang Muyun's words were not exaggerated at all.

Not only was she not exaggerating, she even deliberately downplayed her words considering other people's ability to bear it.

Their planned route was to go north along the coastal area until they reached the same latitude as the capital, and then turn west into the inland.

There was a severe drought at the time, and many survivors moved eastward to the coastal areas.

The number of survivors in the coastal areas at this moment is definitely much larger than they imagined.

The coastal areas are relatively low-lying and mainly composed of plains. The buildings have been washed away by tsunamis and may have even experienced earthquakes. It is hard to say how many buildings are left.

If it is flooded again now, who knows, people might create an area with an excessive population density in this sparsely populated apocalypse.

There aren't enough places for local residents to live, so where can outsiders like them find a good place to spend the night?

It's good that I'm not wandering alone on the vast and empty water.

Especially in the end times, there are many troubles in places with many people.

If they cannot adapt to life on the ship in advance, they will not be able to eat or sleep well, and they will have to be on edge all the time to guard against man-made disasters. It is unbearable to think about it.

So at Jiang Muyun's suggestion, everyone decided to sleep on the boat tonight.

Today they arrived at the rest area selected by Jiang Muyun in advance again, and then parked the boat in a small bay surrounded by mountains.

Ropes were tied around the hull, and the other ends of the ropes were tied to rocks and tree trunks on the mountains on both sides, fixing the four kayaks firmly in the middle. By dropping a small homemade parachute anchor, they could ensure that they would not wake up and find themselves drifting on the water.

The folding awning installed by Captain Yu was fully opened, covering the entire hull and isolating the rain from outside. Everyone used buckets and rags to clean the accumulated water in the raft.

After everything was cleaned up, except for Professor Chen who could find a place to lie down peacefully, everyone else had to use their own skills to sleep in any position.

But the problems of sleeping on a boat are not just as simple as the small space and the shaking of the boat.

The raindrops hit the awning, and the sound of ping-pong was like someone setting off firecrackers next to my ears.

Some debris that you would not notice at all under normal circumstances would hit the hull at this time, and the noise would be enough to wake people up from their dreams.

Even the occasional ups and downs on the bottom of the boat would make people wonder if there were some underwater creatures watching them.

Not to mention Captain Yu and others, even Professor Chen, who always hypnotized himself to relax, couldn't sleep well that night.

Moreover, during the previous drought, many survivors migrated eastwards, and the number of survivors on the coast was definitely greater than we imagined.

Everyone finally made it to morning. They were so exhausted that they were about to fall asleep when suddenly another smell of blood came over.

Xiao Lan made a great contribution this time.

Last night Jiang Muyun told Xiaobai and the others to go up the mountain to find food by themselves. Perhaps because they saw that Jiang Muyun and the others were too busy, the three brave dogs consciously and sensibly jumped into the water together with Xiaolan before they even docked the boat.

With the little sloth supporting the bottom underwater, the three of them doggy-paddled their way through the water, and in one night they covered several surrounding hills. Not only did they fill their stomachs, but they also had some food left to bring back.

The smell of blood wafted into everyone's noses, almost scaring everyone to the point of their hearts stopping.

It was early in the morning, and I was in the wild. I suddenly smelled a bloody odor. Who could lie still?

Captain Yu, half asleep and half awake, jumped up with his gun in his hand and hit the awning with a bang. He almost overturned the raft, and there was also a commotion in the boat next door.

Fortunately, Professor Chen was not so sensitive to the smell of blood and was just frightened by Captain Yu's movements. Otherwise, Professor Chen might have covered his chest with his hands.

Jiang Muyun remained relatively calm. After all, Xiaobai had gone out to have fun, and Dabai was still outside, and they also had someone on guard. If there was anything unusual, there was no reason for the night watchman and Dabai to remain silent.

The little white ones who returned with a full load were probably frightened by the noise of the crowd. Xiaoguai howled loudly, and even the badger in his mouth fell into the water.

Xiaoguai was howling halfway when he realized that his food supply was missing. He immediately dived into the water in a hurry and started struggling.

Jiang Muyun was completely relieved after hearing the familiar wolf howl. She moved her hand away from the gun on her waist, yawned, put on the hood of her jacket, and then lifted a corner of the awning and stuck her head out to take a look.

"It's okay. Xiaobai and the others are back. They brought some... If you don't recognize them, just think they are dead mice or something. They brought back some dead mice, so they should be food reserves." Jiang Muyun turned and said to the people in the boat.

Captain Yu took a moment to react after hearing this, then he lay over the side of the boat with a dazed look on his face, lifted the awning and stuck his head out.

He stood in the rain for half a minute before recovering. He turned around and asked, "What time is it?"

Captain Yu's voice was a little hoarse, and after just one night he looked scruffy and decadent, with obvious fatigue on his face.

If Captain Yu is in this state, the condition of Gao Liang and others will only get worse.

"Half past five." Chu Buwen, who was also awakened, leaned lazily against the edge of the boat: "Let's sleep a little longer."

Jiang Muyun lifted up half of the awning and let Xiaobai in, washing his face with the rain. "According to the plan, we should be able to reach the coastal area tonight, so we still have plenty of time."

Jiang Muyun supported his head with one hand and pressed his solar plexus. After clearing his mind, he said to the others, "Once we reach the coastal area, it will be difficult to find an uninhabited hill like this. If you really can't hold on, you can go up the mountain and find an open space to rest for a while."

This was mainly said to Professor Chen and Chen Cheng.

Jiang Muyun and Chu Buwen, two people who do high-intensity mental work on the road every day, can withstand it, so the others will have no problem at all.

Even if you stayed up all night last night, you can just wash your face with cold water in the morning, which won’t delay your journey at all.

I just don’t know if this old man and this child can withstand the ordeal.

Chen Cheng was at her most energetic. She woke up earlier than her brothers and sisters. Just when Captain Yu stretched his head out to get wet in the rain, she had already poured water for Professor Chen in high spirits.

When she heard that she didn't have to leave, she immediately huddled back into her blanket: "I don't mind, but it seems that grandma didn't sleep well."

Professor Chen, who was sipping water from a cup, shook his head. "The boat was rocking back and forth, so I barely slept the first half of the night. I got used to it in the second half and it was fine. It was mainly because of the rain; the crackling noise gave me a headache, and wearing earplugs was uncomfortable, so I didn't sleep well. If I had time, I'd like to go up the mountain and see if I can find some shelter and some peace and quiet."

"Okay." Jiang Muyun replied, "Xiaobai and the others have been crazy on the mountain all night. I think they have figured out how many rabbit holes there are nearby. I'll go with them and take a look later."

Jiang Muyun dared to plan for everyone to actively adapt to life on the ship, rather than just muddle through day by day, thanks to Professor Chen's calmness.

The old lady knows what she is doing. She will just say when she is tired and never try to be stubborn.

Jiang Muyun would not make up a lie to ask people to take a rest when time is obviously tight.

At this point, let's stop being polite and just say what we mean. Communication will be efficient and worry-free.

If there's anything wrong with that, it's that people can be a bit too honest sometimes.

For example, Captain Yu is now sitting on the shore negotiating with several mutant animals led by Xiaobai.

He honestly said that he was just coveting the food reserves that Xiaobai and the others had captured.

Moreover, he not only coveted the bodies of those stored food, he also didn't want to let Xiaobai and the others go.

"I, Yu, have always been a man of integrity," said Captain Yu, his face serious. "Let me make a deal. If the three of you, no, the four of you, can catch two more rabbits and bring them back to me, I'll give each of you a roasted rabbit leg. How about that?"

Jiang Muyun took a deep breath and said, "Good fellow, if you have the ability to get something for nothing, why would you eat rabbit? It would be unreasonable not to eat wolf meat stew tonight."