Chapter 71

Although the temperature was very hot and the sun slowly came out, the temperature rose, but compared to chewing hard naan, it was still more comfortable to eat it soaked in soup. After eating, take a sip of warm soup, and after a while you will feel cool down. Compared to drinking ice water to cool down, which feels cool at the time but gets hotter after a while, drinking warm water is actually much more comfortable.

Some people looked at them eagerly, and wanted to ask them for a sip of soup several times, wanting to speak but hesitant. Apart from other things, the replenishment of salt is still very important when sweating so hard. Unfortunately, they seemed to be together, all of them were tall men, and judging from their appetite, it was obvious that they didn't even have more than one mouthful.

Sure enough, each person had a naan and a bowl of soup, which were all eaten up without any leftovers.

Mu Nan didn't eat much, most of it was eaten by Qin Huai. He was so hot that he had no appetite. He wore protective clothing and walked for such a long time outside in such high temperatures. After sitting down, he felt drowsy before he finished his meal.

To sleep, they naturally lay down on the ground. There were not many conditions. Qin Huai and his friends parked the car in the inner position. There were people sleeping outside, so they could be discovered as long as someone approached them. Others slept in twos and threes very few times. Most of them found a place against the wall with their belongings in their arms or as pillows. Some people even had the energy to rummage through the overturned cabinets on the ground. It was not known whether they wanted to find money or to see if there were any snacks placed in the cabinets by bank employees before. But unfortunately, they found nothing and the cabinets were empty.

Mu Nan fell asleep as soon as he lay down. He was too tired. Qin Huai undressed him a little, wiped him with a wet towel, and blew a small fan at him. Mu Nan slept without moving at all during the whole process.

Jian Chu couldn't help but say as he looked at him, "It really is someone else's brother series."

Qin Huai smiled and said nothing. He touched Mu Nan's forehead and neck. The temperature was not too high. Although he was a little sticky with sweat, it was okay. After making sure that he was really tired and fell asleep, Qin Huai lay down.

On the first day of running around like this, almost everyone hadn't adapted yet, and fell asleep as soon as they stopped. Many people didn't know whether they hadn't developed the vigilance after the disaster, or felt that it was safer to have soldiers guarding them, and snored loudly as soon as they lay down. Because they were outside, emergencies could happen at any time, so Qin Huai didn't sleep deeply. He never trusted others to ensure the safety of himself and Mu Nan, so although he was tired, he didn't let himself fall asleep completely. Even the whispered communication between the two soldiers in charge of their brigade when they took turns to change shifts woke him up instantly.

The old soldier glanced at him, seemed a little surprised at his alertness, smiled at him, then found a place to lean against the wall and closed his eyes.

After sleeping for a whole day, he was given another meal at about five or six o'clock. The meal lasted for an hour, and they set out on the road at seven o'clock. Mu Nan looked at the naan and shook his head. It was too hard. It was not the hardness of ordinary naan at all. It was so hard that it could be used as a helmet on the head. Even though Qin Huai had boiled it in the soup, it still made him feel uncomfortable. He felt that he was being difficult to chew now, so he did not eat the naan, but a few small breads.

Jian Chu sighed as he ate: "Fortunately I'm young and have good teeth."

Yu Zibai smiled and said, "Why don't you just leave it alone and eat the dried meat. If you want to eat naan in the evening, cook more."

Jian Chu bit his mouth to vent his anger, his cheek aching from chewing, but he didn't forget to ask, "Do you know where this is? How far is it from the university town?"

Yu Zibai said: "This is Wuyang Road."

Jian Chu was instantly sad: "We haven't even walked out of the district." They walked for a whole night, and in the past the distance was only three or four bus stops.

Yu Zibai shook his head: "Some places have collapsed and we can't get through. The team is also long, so naturally we move slowly."

Qin Huai said: "There are a total of 15 administrative districts in our city. If we divide them by route, we have to go through at least three districts. This is when the main roads are clear and we don't have to take many detours. If the Qingsha Bridge hadn't collapsed, taking the Qingsha Bridge would be the quickest way, so we only need to go through one district. But based on the current situation, it's impossible for the bridge not to collapse, so we don't know how to take a detour."

Jian Chu wailed immediately: "If you don't experience it yourself, you really don't know how hard the long march of the predecessors was. I feel like my life is coming to an end before I even walk out of one district."

Yu Zibai patted him lightly and said, "Puh, touch the wood. Children speak without restraint. Do you know how to speak?" In an environment where the plague is spreading everywhere, it is too unlucky to say such things.

Although Jian Chu didn't believe in these things, he still obediently made a "Puh" sound, then reached out and touched the wooden cabinet that had fallen to the ground beside him.

Mu Nan smiled as he munched on some bread: "It was only a little tiring in the first two days, but it was actually fine once you got used to it."

He felt that he was really relaxed in this life. Although it was obviously much hotter than in his previous life because he was wearing protective clothing, his relaxed mentality made him not feel how painful the walking process was at all. Perhaps it was because he was the only one who had to endure it no matter what the situation was in his previous life, but in this life he had Qin Huai, and friends like Jian Chu, so he felt that even if the sky fell, nothing could make him nervous, and he felt much more relaxed.

When it was time to assemble, the walkie-talkie in the hand of the soldier in charge of their team rang, and Shi Yuanfei's order to assemble came from it. The veteran in charge of their team was named Xu, and basically everyone, whether older or younger than him, called him Brother Xu. He counted the team numbers, because a brigade had thirty people and a squad had five people. There were too many people and they might not be able to remember each other, so each squad was asked to remember the people clearly. In this way, when counting, they only needed to call out the squad number, and check whether the people were there or not. This could save a lot of time.

The people in their team were all OK, there weren't too many fussy people, they all waited for the time to gather and didn't run around, so they quickly arrived at the gathering place and were ready to go. Some of the teams behind had more problems, and it was said that two people had fought over a place to sleep during the day, which made many people convinced that they still had the energy to fight after walking for so long. Shi Yuanfei said that this was because they didn't use up their physical strength enough, and today they sped up, and when they were so tired that they didn't want to say a word, they naturally didn't have the energy to fight.

However, having said that, the speed did not actually increase at all, on the contrary it was slightly slower. Many people had not experienced this kind of forced march, so it was normal for their legs to not be able to bear it at the beginning. Today, many people even wished they could find a piece of wood to use as a crutch when walking, and their legs were so sore that it was not their own legs that were sore.

What surprised Shi Yuanfei was Mu Nan. He looked at Qin Huai and said, "Your brother's small physique is a bit beyond my expectation." Looking at him, he was not strong at all and was wearing a protective suit. You know, once the protective suit is stuffy, it will consume more physical energy. Those who don't exercise regularly will gasp for air after running a few steps. They all looked fine, but once they entered the hospital, they had problems everywhere. It really surprised him that they could make it through the first day.

Qin Huai said: "Fortunately, I have improved my physical fitness by running at home every day."

Shi Yuanfei smiled when he heard this and said, "Not bad, you have a strong sense of crisis." He really felt that it was a pity that Qin Huai did not join the army. Both his physical and mental qualities made him a perfect candidate for the job.

On the second day, Mu Nan had figured out a new way to cool down, which was to put an ice cube in his mouth from time to time. He had prepared these ice cubes for iced drinks before, and the water was drinking water, so he could drink it directly. Now that he found that he could cool down in this way, he felt a little regretful. He should have chilled some glucose water and light salt water, so that he could replenish sugar and salt at any time. However, he was already very satisfied to have ice cubes to cool down. It was just that it was still daylight, and he couldn't secretly put ice cubes into Qin Huai's mouth without anyone knowing.

Originally they thought that their journey would be almost the same as the first day, walking all night, taking a short break for an hour, finding a place to eat and sleep during the day, and continuing on their journey after eating. But unexpectedly, something went wrong the next day.

After it was completely dark, Mu Nan unbuttoned his protective suit a little, wiped himself with a cooling wet towel, fanned himself, and used the cover of wiping Qin Huai's sweat to quickly stuff two ice cubes into his mouth when no one was paying attention. Qin Huai's mouth was full and he couldn't speak. He could only glare at him. Fortunately, he didn't have any tooth problems, otherwise his teeth wouldn't be able to bear such cold.

The ice in his mouth finally melted a little, and when he saw Mu Nan reaching out his hand again, he grabbed his hand and said, "Walk carefully."

Mu Nan: "I want to wipe your sweat."

Qin Huai straightened his hat and said, "I can't stand the heat anymore, so I'll wipe it off myself. Please walk carefully. It's so dark, so watch your feet and don't fall."

Seeing Qin Huai refuse his ice, Mu Nan sighed.

Jian Chu said from the side: "You two brothers, do you have to be so clingy?"

Mu Nan chuckled: "Of course you have to." Before he finished speaking, he felt something running over his feet. Although he was wearing running shoes, he was afraid that his feet would get choked if he walked for a long time, so he put a sweat-absorbing sanitary napkin under his feet. The upper of his feet was made of breathable mesh, which was very light and thin, so he could clearly feel something running over his feet.

Mu Nan was caught off guard when a living creature jumped on his feet and he screamed subconsciously.

Qin Huai quickly turned around to check: "What's wrong?"

Mu Nan lowered his head and looked around: "Something just ran over my feet."

The people nearby were already tired and hot, and were more or less envious of their equipment. The protective clothing didn't matter, as it was torture to wear it in such hot weather. But the hat with a small fan was a good thing, especially when it was so hot and there was no wind. So they were a little annoyed by his fussing and sneered with a hint of dissatisfaction: "There are so many reptiles and rats, what's the big deal if one or two of them run over? You're such a sissy."

Qin Huai's face turned cold, but before he could move, Mu Nan grabbed his hand and jumped up and down in panic, shouting, "Rat! I have a rat!"

Not only Mu Nan was shouting, the entire team also became agitated at almost the same time, because it was not just one or two rats, but a group of rats. Those rats were not afraid of people and even jumped onto people. Rats were really disgusting and scary, with tiny claws and long, hairless tails. They had crawled over countless piles of dead bodies and were now rampaging through the crowd and even crawling onto people. Even though their team was made up of men, they still jumped in fright and slapped themselves hard, trying to knock the rats down. Those rats that had already climbed onto their faces and heads were shouting in fear.

Qin Huai didn't care about himself, he pulled Mu Nan over and slapped the rat that was climbing on him. Although Mu Nan was scared and disgusted, he knew that if he was accidentally scratched or bitten by the rat, it could be fatal. Seeing that Qin Huai also had the same scratches on his body, he didn't care about being afraid anymore and hurriedly slapped him.

Screams came from the crowd one after another. Some shouted for help, some fled in panic, some were even scared to tears, and some grabbed mice and threw them to the ground to vent their anger, stepping to death every mouse that jumped past their feet.

All the teams were thrown into chaos by the sudden appearance of rats. Some people instinctively wanted to escape and started running around in panic, even though Shi Yuanfei kept shouting, "Don't panic, don't panic." But with rats crawling all over their bodies, it was impossible to stay calm and listen to what others were saying.

Qin Huai was driving away the rats while paying attention to the surrounding environment. Seeing someone rushing towards them in panic, he pulled Mu Nan away and the two of them tried to stand as high as possible. As for the small trailer, they no longer cared about it. That thing was not worth risking their lives to guard.

Qin Huai was very calm and was not frightened by the sudden commotion, so he jumped out of the crowd immediately. Xu Ming also reacted quickly and pulled Yu Zibai and Jian Chu, who were still busy chasing away the rats on their bodies, and asked them to get away quickly, the farther away from the panicked crowd the better.

Just as they dodged, some people bumped into each other in a panic. Many people fell to the ground and rolled in a ball. The rats climbed on people even more recklessly. Others tried to run away in a panic. Some were tripped and some stepped on the people who fell to the ground. If the ground was flat, it would be fine. The team of 300 people was not gathered together, so even if they collided and trampled, they would not be hurt. But now the ground was full of collapsed building debris, stones, steel bars, and some broken furniture with sharp corners. If they fell and broke, it would be considered light. Some of them poked their bodies, which was fatal.

For a moment, the whole team was wailing and screaming, and the chaos was completely out of control.

Qin Huai saw some rags pressed under rocks on the ground, which were obviously used by the people who lived here before to block the sun. So he asked Mu Nan to stand carefully, went over to pull out the rags, and pulled out a steel bar that was still stuck in the rocks, and asked loudly: "Who has a fire?"

Shi Yuanfei, who was not far away from him, understood his intention instantly, and hurried over to hand over a lighter. He wrapped the cloth around the steel bar and tossed the cloth around for a while before getting the cloth on fire. Shi Yuanfei directly took the steel bar wrapped with cloth and used the burning end to hit the mouse on the ground.

Some people saw that fire was used to drive away rats, so they started looking for cloth in the ruins. However, there was not so much cloth to be found. If they couldn't find cloth, they would find something else handy and smash it on the ground, killing one rat at a time.

No one knew why the rats ran out in groups, but some of them were obviously passing by. Maybe they were very hungry, but when they saw people, they climbed on them and bit them without any care. However, they were hit by the fire and were trampled to death by many people. After a panic, most of the rats ran away, leaving only a few scattered rats running around in the crowd. After many of them were trampled to death, they slowly ran away.

Those who fell to the ground didn't know where they were poked by construction debris or bitten by rats. Many of them couldn't even get up. Some were frightened by the sudden swarm of rats and couldn't recover for a long time. Some were wailing, some were crying, some were standing, some were lying down, and the whole team was dispersed.

Qin Huai couldn't care less about others. After making sure that the mice had run away, he pulled Mu Nan to his side with shaking hands: "Are you hurt anywhere? Are you bitten anywhere? Don't hide it from me."

Mu Nan shook his head, still a little dazed from the shock: "I don't know, I don't know if I was bitten anywhere."

Qin Huai ran to their trailer and pulled out a pack of disinfectant wipes, then took off his protective suit: "Hold the light, let me see."

As he spoke, he pulled Mu Nan's arm and wiped it bit by bit, while carefully checking his body for wounds from rat bites, inside and outside his clothes, and even on his feet. After making sure that his body was clean without any wounds, Qin Huai's heart finally settled down a little. He kissed Mu Nan's forehead hard, and after a long while, he said in a weak voice: "It's good, it's okay, there are no rats."

Mu Nan also undressed and tried to take off Qin Huai's clothes: "Let me take a look." Just like Qin Huai had just checked him, he wiped his body with disinfectant wipes and checked his body for any broken skin. Fortunately, they were wearing protective clothing, so they were probably not injured by the rats because it blocked some of the damage.

Qin Huai took the protective clothing taken off by the two people aside. These were all places where rats had crawled, so he sprayed them carefully with disinfectant. On the other side, Jian Chu and the others also checked each other, but they were not wearing protective clothing. Although there were no bite wounds on their bodies, there were some red marks that seemed to be caused by rats' claws.

Mu Nan quickly got them disinfectant to clean them. Although he didn't know if it would work, it was better than doing nothing.

They had dealt with everything they could. Mu Nan was still shaking slightly as he sat on the stone pier. It was too scary. A group of rats rushed towards him and climbed onto his body and head. If he hadn't been wearing protective glasses and a mask, a rat would have climbed onto his face.

The protective suit had been washed with disinfectant and was still wet, so Qin Huai hung the protective suit on a small trailer to dry, then walked over and touched Mu Nan's head: "It's okay, don't be afraid."

The temperature was so hot that Mu Nan was frightened to the point of being icy cold. However, it was not just Mu Nan. Many people were frightened at this moment. Some people even broke down and cried when they saw the wounds from rat bites on their bodies. It was only the second day and they had encountered such a thing. If they had known earlier, they would have stayed in the camp. Even if they were surrounded by the plague, they could at least live a few more days.

Xu Ming looked at the few people who had not yet come to their senses and asked: "Have all the wounds on your body been disinfected?"

Yu Zibai held Jian Chu's hand and nodded: "They are just some scratches, no bite marks. Are scratches serious?"

Xu Ming shook his head: "I don't know. Let alone scratches. If you have wounds on your body, you may even be infected if you pass by a place with the virus. I don't know where these rats crawled out from or what they were infected with. So let's see. If you are infected, you should react soon. You must wear masks these days and try not to have too much contact with others. I see a lot of people over there have been bitten and bleeding."

Yu Zibai looked at Jian Chu and said, "Put on your protective suit later."

Jian Chu: "I don't want it, don't say anything, if we're going to die, we'll die together, it's no big deal."

Yu Zibai: "You put on the protective suit and I put on the raincoat, it's the same."

Jian Chu: "You wear protective clothing and I wear a raincoat, it's the same anyway."

Yu Zibai couldn't persuade him, and was afraid that if he continued talking, it would go back to the original point where no one was allowed to wear it, so he nodded and agreed.

Shi Yuanfei and some soldiers were checking the wounded in the team. Those who had fallen and those who had been bitten by rats would all need to be treated. They didn't know whether the rats were sick or not, so those who were bitten would be placed at the end of the team. If there were any sick people, they would be abandoned immediately.

No one expected that they would be injured so badly the day after they were released. Some people speculated that there might be another earthquake, otherwise why would the rats move away in groups in one direction, as if they were migrating.

But no one could give them an answer. Given the current situation, if there was another earthquake, they would either fall through the cracks in the ground or be hit again. There weren't many buildings on the surface that hadn't collapsed.

A team of more than 300 people was hit by a swarm of rats, and it was not possible to deal with it immediately. But who knows if there will be more swarms of rats coming. Shi Yuanfei asked everyone to tidy up. Some of the seriously injured people supported each other and left here first. I'm afraid we can't continue our journey today, we have to find a place to rest.

A group of people continued to move forward with the team with fear and anxiety still lingering, but some of them were seriously injured because they fell to the ground. Even a casual bandage could not stop the bleeding, so they could not walk too far. Shi Yuanfei had to stop near a building that had not collapsed yet and let people rest and regroup in the open space first. If they couldn't set out again today, they could hide in the building to avoid the sun when it got light.

After seeing them find a corner to sit down, Xu Ming stood up and said, "I'll go to the military doctor to see if there's anything I can do to help." If there are medicines, he would have no problem treating some external injuries.

Qin Huai touched Mu Nan's forehead, wiped his sweat and fanned him: "Are you feeling uncomfortable anywhere?"

Mu Nan shook his head and looked at the people who were seriously injured or bitten in the distance, and couldn't help but say: "Should we go back?" It was only the second day, and there were so many casualties. Although no one died, what if those rats were sick? Wouldn't they be in trouble?

Qin Huai said: "Probably not. No matter what, they will insist on walking to the university town. Otherwise, they won't be able to find a place that is as far away from the city center as possible, and more people will die."

Seeing that no one noticed them, even Jian Chu and Yu Zibai were talking in a low voice over there, Mu Nan pulled open Qin Huai's mask and stuffed food into his mouth, stuffing a piece of meat pancake and a mouthful of rice ball. Afraid that he would choke, he stuffed another bite of watermelon. Although he was really scared by the swarm of rats, no matter how frightened he was, he could not stop him from feeding Qin Huai whenever he had the chance.