Chapter 35 Lou Yuncheng

Although it was late in the evening, the sky outside gave her the feeling that it was just dawn.

Has the rain stopped?

Shu Fu opened the window and looked out. Even through the security window, he could clearly see the light blue sky and the slightly orange clouds on the right side of the horizon. That was the light of the setting sun coming from behind.

The rain stopped as expected.

Shu Fu opened the window wide, stretched out his hand to feel the air outside, took a deep breath, and felt the particularly fresh air after the rain, the smell of soil, and the fragrance of plants.

Many residents upstairs and downstairs opened their windows to enjoy the rare moment of rain stopping. She also heard the excited laughter of children from some residents' homes, saying that they wanted to go to the west corridor to bask in the sun. The elders were busy saying that they wanted to take out their clothes and quilts to dry them. After all, it rained every day and the house was wet everywhere. The corners of the walls were moldy, and the quilts and clothes also smelled moldy.

Shu Fu leaned against the windowsill and looked quietly at the dam in the distance. Outside the high walls, there was still a vast expanse of water, but at this moment, listening to the noise outside, she still smiled slightly.

Although she doesn't know how many days the rain will stop, she is still very happy as long as it doesn't rain.

She was in a good mood and decided to tidy up the rental house a bit. After all, starting tomorrow, she would still have to stay outside for 12 hours during the day.

Shu Fu first returned to the Drifting Island house, put on the fleece sweatpants on the lower body, found a set of lazy mop and mop bucket from the space, went into the shower room, and filled a bucket with water stored in the tank.

Ever since she discovered that the purified water in the Drifting Island house was very clean, she would store the unused purified water every day. Now, this compressed water tank contains the purified water that had been stored previously.

Now that the raft cannot be used on the water, the automatic water fishing rod and 50L of purified water three times a day are completely wasted, which is a bit of a pity when you think about it.

There are rivers in Louyun City, and there are lakes and streams in the suburbs, but the city order is still there and surveillance is everywhere. It's okay for her to hide in the car and use one-way film to collect supplies, but she can't turn into a raft on the water.

The domestic water supply time of Louyun City is two periods a day, once in the morning from 8 to 9 o'clock, and once in the evening from 8 to 9 o'clock.

Currently, most of the tap water plants in Mu Chau Province and Xi Ren Province have started zoning operations. Multi-layer filtration and disinfection systems have been installed in some areas. The completely treated water is bottled and transported directly to various disaster areas or shelters. In addition to daily use, this water can be drunk directly when there is a real water shortage.

In addition, some areas directly store and purify rainwater, provide it to local residents, and clearly mark it as domestic water and not drinkable.

The same is true in Louyun City. The water flowing out of the tap can only be used for cleaning and daily life.

There were indeed a lot of complaints in the beginning, with some people complaining and cursing on the Internet every day, but gradually, cursing became useless and everyone got used to it.

There are floods all over the world now. Large areas of land in all countries have disappeared. Some countries are even almost disappearing - such as the small turtle country next door. About one-sixth of the land of Hua country was submerged by floods. Many victims don't even have clean water to drink, let alone water for daily use.

The entire planet lacks clean water resources, and it is understandable that water plants are under too much pressure. At least they are not forced to drink this purified water directly, which is already good enough.

If you look more at the miserable conditions of the refugees and disaster victims on the Internet, you will stop complaining.

After a period of phased water supply, people have become accustomed to it. Almost everyone has a few extra-large buckets at home, and they start releasing and storing water during the water supply period, so that they can have water at any time during water outages.

Some people who have the means will even install a water tank at home or on the roof. The water tank is connected to their own pipes. After storing water during the water supply period, they can use it for daily water simply by turning on the tap, which is no different from their previous life.

After all, in the past many people at home did not drink tap water, not even boiled water. They only drank purified water, and the same was true for cooking.

Now that the raft is out of the water, Shu Fu feels that she can't just go out without coming in. She should also buy two large water barrels and place them in the kitchen and bathroom to store the water for the day during the water supply period.

When she is in the rental house on a daily basis, like she is now wiping furniture and mopping the floor, she can use the purified water here in Lou Yuncheng.

At around eight o'clock in the evening, she received a message and reply from the property management that her friend request was approved.

Because she wrote down her identity and needs when applying to add the other party, the other party left her a message directly after accepting the friend request, asking her to provide the rental contract information and her license plate number.

Shu Fu sent a message back to the other party, who replied quickly, asking her to wait until tomorrow evening, around 6 o'clock, to go to the next building. He would be there to help distribute the purchased materials for Building 3 and Building 4 at that time, and he would tell her the serial number of the parking space and provide her with the monthly parking space certificate.

He told her to arrive at the corridor area on the second floor of Building 3 10 to 15 minutes in advance so as not to affect his subsequent work.

Shu Fu agreed and immediately transferred the parking fee for that month to the other party.

**

The next day, Shu Fu indulged herself in a little sleep and did not walk out of the Drifting Island House until around nine o'clock to pack up the raft.

She drank a bowl of century egg and lean meat porridge, ate half a portion of pancake at the dining table in the rental house, and then prepared to go out.

It still didn't rain outside today. The temperature rose after a night, and the air was a bit stuffy. It was not sunny outside like yesterday evening, but a cloudy day.

Shu Fu didn't know if the rain would come at any time, so she still wore a waterproof jacket when she went out, but she didn't wear the fleece jacket in the middle. It might be 20 degrees outside now, and the fleece jacket is too thick, so she only needs to wear two layers.

She went into the bathroom and tied her hair into a bun in front of the mirror. Then she took out a black baseball cap and put it on, and also put on a black mask on her face.

The jacket is dark gray, a low-key color. There is only a compressed water cup and a bag of bread in the backpack. The water cup is filled with latte freshly made from a freshly ground coffee machine.

She was going out today to buy some things needed for the rental house, such as large water storage buckets, toiletries and kitchen utensils. Mainly because she didn't want to put the things in the house outside, she would try to choose cheap ones, so that she would not need to take them away in the future.

As for the big soup pots in the kitchen, she really wanted to buy a few good ones and make a few more big pots of soup while there was gas in the rental house.

There is no purchase limit for these items and they can be delivered via takeout.

However, the nearest supermarket with a slightly more complete range of supplies is about six kilometers away, and it was flooded with orders today. It is probably because the rain has stopped, and everyone is desperately placing orders. The supermarket has long stopped accepting takeout orders, and the same goes for errands like express delivery.

There was some traffic jam on the road and it took a long time to find a parking space. Shu Fu had already anticipated this, and as expected, as soon as she entered the supermarket, it was crowded with people.

Although the store had just opened, the shelves selling fresh produce such as fruits, vegetables, seafood and meat had already been sold out. Fortunately, the shelves selling rice, flour, grain, oil and bottled water can be replenished, otherwise these would have been sold out as well.

However, the speed at which supermarket employees replenished goods could not keep up with the speed at which customers took goods. When two employees came over with a large cart of rice, noodles and instant noodles, they saw a large group of people gathered in front of the shelves. They even saved the time of putting the goods on the shelves and let customers take them directly from the cart.

Anyway, these are all subject to purchase restrictions. No matter how fast you grab them, there is a purchase limit. As the saying goes, it is not the lack of goods that is worrying, but the inequality of distribution. No matter how anxious everyone is, in the end everyone will have a large bag of rice, two packs of noodles, and two five-packs of instant noodles. The warehouse has sufficient supply, so there is no need to worry about anyone snatching them away.

However, when there are too many people, and they are crowded together to get goods, bumping, squeezing, and noise are inevitable.

Fortunately, there were not many people at the shelf where Shu Fu was going, and no one was rushing to buy the toothbrush cups and washbasins. She saw that she had not replenished enough towels and underwear in Suicheng before, so she took a lot of them, and also took a lot of eco-friendly packaging boxes and garbage bags.

On the way to the other side of the shelf, she saw tea leaves and coffee beans, and she continued to replenish them.

There weren't many people at the electrical appliance aisle, and she saw the brand of coffee machine she had bought before. Coffee machines need to be regularly maintained and cleaned, otherwise their service life will be shortened, but the process is very complicated. She tried once before but failed to completely fix it, so now she plans to buy a few more coffee machines and replace them directly if there is a problem.

She took two coffee machines, still fully automatic Italian ones, as well as some small electrical appliances such as desk lamps and power banks that had a limited lifespan and could not be salvaged from the water.

Based on my experience of living in Suicheng for two months, I also bought several drones with large-capacity batteries.

Finally, it was the big soup pot that she wanted to buy the most.

The largest soup pot holds 66L, which strictly speaking should be called a soup bucket. It can be used to boil water, cook soup, and store rice, flour, and oil. It is made of 304 stainless steel. The empty pot alone weighs 13 pounds, is 45cm in diameter, and 50cm high, and can barely be placed on a gas stove.

There are even bigger ones next to it, which can’t fit on the shelves and can only be placed next to them. The largest one is 60×60 in size and weighs more than 22 kilograms when empty. It definitely can’t fit on a gas stove, but it’s too heavy and too expensive to be used as a water storage barrel.

After some consideration, she bought four 45×50 stainless steel soup buckets, which were priced higher, at 350 each. Afterwards, she went to the wall near the shelf of bathing and cleaning supplies and found a foldable bathtub, which was the most convenient for storing domestic water at room temperature, and was light and foldable.

She also took four of the largest 75×100 ones, one for use in the rental house, and the other three were temporarily stored in the space so that when the raft was on the water, there would be more barrels for storing purified water.

She bought all large items, so the supermarket employee pushed a cart and helped her transport them to the checkout.

There was already a long line here, everyone was checking their phones while waiting, some people came together to buy, and there was a lot of room for chatting. Shu Fu waited in line for more than half an hour before checking out. When he got to the cashier, he couldn't push two carts by himself, so he had to call the employees to help.

Fortunately, the newly rented jeep had a tall body and a large trunk, so the soup buckets and several other large packages of things were put in smoothly. The foldable bathtub could only be fixed on the roof, where there was a storage rack. Shu Fu climbed up and down by himself and managed to do it.

It was already past noon when she came out. She checked the recommendations on the food app and found a small stir-fry restaurant a few blocks away with parking available at the door. She ordered a dish of scrambled eggs with green peppers and a dish of twice-cooked pork.

Although the stir-fry restaurant was small, the food was really good. When she left, she ordered all the dishes she liked on the menu and asked for ten servings of each, which she would take away.

At this time, the soup bucket and several other large bags in the car had been put into her space. She was going to go back after buying this batch of cooking. Because after collecting the soup pots, she had very little space left. She sensed it and counted all the scattered corners. There were about 20 cubic meters left.

But when it comes to actually storing things in it, these 20 cubic meters certainly cannot be fully utilized.

Just like playing with a Chocobo, if the puzzle pieces you get are of different sizes and in disorder, it is impossible to force the pieces in, even if the total area matches the area inside the box.

Therefore, it is estimated that there are still 17 to 18 cubic meters of space that can be fully utilized, and she can keep this space as backup and cannot fill it with anything else.

It’s best to go back and sort it out today.

**

After four o'clock in the afternoon, it finally started raining again in Louyun City, which had been cloudy all day.

At first it was a drizzle, which turned into heavy rain an hour later. Everyone had gotten used to it, so they closed the windows early, took out their rain gear, and continued to do what they were doing.

Not long after, all the residents of Louyun City received high wind warnings on their mobile phones.

One disaster information APP even issued a typhoon warning.

The Internet is lively again. When people talk about strong winds, everyone is still cautious, but when people talk about typhoons, more people are protesting.

——You must be kidding! This is an inland city! It’s a hilly place! Where does the typhoon come from?

——Yes, the worst time before was when there were lightning and thunder for more than half an hour, and hail as big as eggs fell. There was also heavy rain and strong winds, but none of them exceeded level eight!

——I think it’s more than level 8…

——I think this disaster notification is going crazy!

——That's not necessarily true. What's the situation now? Don't worry about the inland city! This place is no longer inland. The flood has flooded the suburbs. Didn't a tsunami happen outside the dam a few days ago? That video was so scary, how could you forget it so quickly?

——Correction! A tsunami is what happens at sea! A tsunami is what happens in a flood zone, at most it’s called a giant wave!

——What are you talking about, Building 1, Room 2206! Disasters are about the results, the damage and losses caused! Waves over 40 meters high, that's higher than ordinary tsunamis! The tsunami alarm went off several times that day! After the huge waves ended, the water level outside the wall rose directly by more than four meters! This is a tsunami!

——Stop arguing. It's so windy outside now. Aren't you worried about the supplies I'm buying today? I'm the only one at home with a six-month-old baby. I can't buy supplies normally. I rely on the delivery! If the supplies can't be delivered today, my baby will have no water to make milk powder tomorrow!

——Building 3, 1211, I have water at home, I can exchange it with you! If the neighborhood committee and property management staff don’t come later, you can go to my house to get it!

——Thank you! Thank you!

——Hey, Building 4, Room 1005, you are being a Lei Feng again! My family is also short of something, why don’t you exchange with me?

…

When Shu Fu went downstairs, she had been reading various messages on the Internet and the reactions of residents in several groups. The groups were very lively, with residents refreshing the screen with all kinds of messages.

She went downstairs to wait for the property management. The wind and rain were too strong and the elevator was unsafe, so she took the stairs. Including the time she spent walking up the stairs, she arrived ten minutes earlier.

Although there has never been a gale of magnitude 8 or above in Louyun City before, the fact that there has never been one does not mean that there will not be one in the future, especially since such a huge wave occurred a few days ago.

The wind is too strong today. The wind speed outside is obviously over level eight.

Reverse thinking logic, we are still in the mission period, and the mission period means all kinds of unpredictable accidents and disasters. Louyun City may really be hit by strong winds of more than level 11 or 2, and cars can no longer be parked outside at night.

The property management company had arranged to meet 10 to 15 minutes in advance, but Shu Fu waited in the corridor on the second floor until 6:30 and did not see anyone from the property management company.

There were many people around waiting for the same thing as her. They must have made appointments in the group to buy supplies through purchasing agents.

Among the four buildings in Jixing Community, only Building 3 and Building 4 have two connecting passages. Building 1 and Building 2 are independent, so only the supplies of Building 3 and Building 4 will be distributed in the corridor on the second floor of Building 3.

The weather was good yesterday, so not many people chose to buy on behalf of others today, but there were still many people standing in the spacious corridors. Neighbors with good relationships gathered in small groups to gossip about others. Some people were anxious and waited around the elevator, asking others if they should just wait in the parking lot on the first floor. After all, it was raining heavily today and the other party might not take the elevator.

"It should be fine. It's just a one-floor elevator ride..."

The first floor is a large parking lot, so the second floor here is equivalent to the first floor. The apartment type is also different from the other floors above. There are several fewer households, leaving more space for the corridor, especially around the elevator.

There are three elevators in the middle and there is quite a lot of space around them.

Shu Fu was also near the elevator. She had just arrived and didn't know anyone or was not familiar with anyone. She was standing alone against the wall. When she glanced over, she recognized a few people who had been talking in the group just now.

One of them should be a resident of Room 1211, Building 3. She was a woman in her thirties wearing a cotton home coat, with her hair casually tied up. She was holding a child in front of her, who looked to be about half a year old and was wrapped tightly.

There was also a middle-aged woman in her fifties standing beside her, talking to her and teasing the child in her arms from time to time. She was probably the resident of Room 1005, Building 4, who had just offered to help in the group.

Shu Fu glanced at the other person and paused for a moment.

I don’t know if it’s an illusion, but the feeling of seeing strangers and feeling that they look familiar but I can’t remember where I have seen them came back again.

Shu Fu couldn't help but look at the other person a few more times. Could this person be the target of this mission? But she really didn't remember having seen her before.

As she was wondering, the elevator in the middle suddenly made a ding sound, and the elevator door opened. The people standing nearby moved and leaned towards the elevator with expectant looks on their faces.

The people who came were indeed people from the property management and neighborhood committee who were there to distribute supplies. They all had the same credentials on them. In addition to the three people, there was also a large folding cart in the elevator, which was filled with various bags, and each bag was bulging.

The three of them looked quite disheveled. They must have come up from the garage on the first floor. They weren't caught in much rain, but their hair was wet.

One of them was a man in his thirties wearing a pair of glasses. The lenses were covered with rain and the glasses were a little crooked, but he was trying to pull the cart out of the elevator with the help of the other two people and did not even have time to adjust his glasses.

Shu Fu immediately recognized the other person. This man was the property manager she was waiting for, because there were his selfies in his WeChat Moments.

Probably because it was late, the wind was howling outside, and there were many people waiting inside, the three of them were frowning at this moment, and seeing that everyone was in a mess, they hurriedly waved their hands to ask people to line up.

Shu Fu didn't need to receive the supplies, she just walked past the people and was told to line up before she even opened her mouth. Shu Fu didn't move, but made things clear in two sentences: "I'm here to get the monthly parking permit. Is it convenient for me to give it to you now, or do I have to wait until you distribute the supplies?"

As she spoke, she handed the other person a thick napkin.

The property man's expression suddenly eased. He took the tissue and finally had time to take off his glasses and wipe them dry. On the side, the other two people had already started checking the purchase records and distributing supplies one by one.

The property manager's surname was Zhou. He said that it was late today due to the weather, so he was not available, and asked her to find another property manager, whose surname was Zheng, and would be up soon.

At this time, another elevator opened and three people came out, pushing a second folding cart full of shopping bags.

Property manager Zhou waved his hand and called out, "Xiao Zheng, come here. I told you about the parking space before. Please take care of it."

The man called Xiao Zheng turned around and revealed a familiar face.

One of the property staff of Jixing Community is actually Zheng Feifei!

Shu Fu looked at the other person, feeling a sense of relief as if the second shoe had finally landed.

Sure enough, when the other party walked towards her, the bracelet on her wrist vibrated slightly, and the mission was completed.

**

Twenty minutes later, in the garage on the first floor.

Shu Fu parked the car in the designated parking space, got out and locked the door.

She walked to the other side of the car. Zheng Feifei's eyes were slightly red. She hooked her arm and looked like she was about to cry: "...I can't believe I see you here. I don't know how I got through these past few months...I really regret not listening to you before. I hesitated and missed opportunities every time, and finally ended up in this situation...I didn't lose contact with you on purpose. Something bad happened to me, and I don't know how to say it now..."

Shu Fu felt that the other party's words sounded familiar, and she soon remembered the messages she had sent to Yao Ruoyun and Lu Zheng before. What a coincidence.

But that was pure fabrication. She didn't expect that Zheng Feifei actually went through something like that.

She sighed, fished out a planet lollipop from her pocket, unwrapped it, and stuffed it into Zheng Feifei's mouth, who was crying: "Here, your favorite lollipop is your zodiac sign."

Zheng Feifei's mouth, which was originally flat due to crying, suddenly bulged out. She stopped crying, took out the lollipop from her mouth, took a closer look, and whispered in surprise: "Really! It's really Libra! How come you carry a Libra starry sky lollipop with you?"

"I happened to see it and bought it when I went to the supermarket this morning. It was as if I had a premonition that I would see you here today." Shu Fu lied.

But Zheng Feifei just fell for it, and her sadness had obviously been diverted away by Shu Fu.

"Now that you mention it, it's true! We haven't seen each other for such a long time. I didn't expect that after moving to another city, we could still live in the same neighborhood!"

Zheng Feifei put the candy back into her mouth. "I've been miserable since I lost my cell phone. I don't remember other people's cell phone numbers. I can't get back WeChat and other communication tools because I don't remember the passwords. I was lucky to have a place to rest and eat during the evacuation. There was no place to replace the card... Later, I finally came to Louyun City. I wanted to buy a new cell phone, but I found that all the money was in my phone! My ID card was also gone, but fortunately my mom and dad's bank cards were still there... At that time, many people flocked to Louyun City, and many people needed to replace the card. It took several days to wait for the replacement... Later, I thought, why not just change the number..."

In fact, Zheng Feifei didn’t say something here. It’s not that she didn’t want to use the old number again, but she received a lot of threats and disgusting words as soon as she got the old number back. She was scared, so she simply cancelled the number and changed to a brand new one.

Shu Fu naturally didn't ask about it. She took out her phone, wrote down Zheng Feifei's new number, added her on WeChat, and then praised her: "I didn't expect to see you here. You actually became a property staff here. You are really a worker chosen by God."

Zheng Feifei heard it and smiled as she pinched her face: "Are you laughing at me for being a working dog? I'm different now, I have to support my family!"

"Well, it's good to work in property management. It's close to home, and you know a lot of people and have a wide range of sources of information." After all, today's property management is different from before. Just being involved in the government and neighborhood committee buying restricted supplies on behalf of the people is better than sitting in an office as a clerk in the past.

"Yeah, that's what my mother said too." Zheng Feifei said, and asked her which floor she lived on. Then she told Shu Fu that she lived in Building 4 next door, and there was a passage connecting the two sides, which would be more convenient in the future.

"Number 4?"

"Yes, Building 4, Floor 10, Room 05!"

Hearing this familiar house number, Shu Fu suddenly realized that the middle-aged woman who had just accompanied the single mother at 1211 was Zheng Feifei's mother! No wonder she looked so familiar!

Zheng Feifei understood after seeing her expression: "Uh... have you met my mother?"

"……right."

"..." She knew her mother too well. Just by looking at Shu Fu's expression when she heard the house number, she could almost guess why she noticed her mother. She immediately had a lot of complaints to tell her, but she still had things to do. Now she just ran away for a while under the pretext of giving Shu Fu the monthly parking permit.

The two of them walked towards the emergency staircase together. When they returned to the second-floor corridor, they found that the people who had been gathered around the elevator waiting to get supplies had dispersed. Instead, on the other side, in the west-facing corridor, they heard people exclaiming in high and low voices.

Shu Fu and Zheng Feifei looked at each other and ran over quickly.

The west side of the corridor is a long corridor, which was originally semi-open, just like the building where Shu Fu originally lived in Suicheng.

After the disaster began, glass windows were installed on top of the fence in this area. The glass windows were either tempered or ordinary glass, which could only block wind and rain but not hail, so a stainless steel protective net with a fine mesh was installed outside.

To be honest, this stainless steel guardrail is quite ugly. It's like the guardrail installed outside the car window when you drive into a zoo. People staying inside feel like they are in an iron cage.

This kind of protective net cannot be opened and it also affects the field of vision, but the defensive effect is indeed very good. After that, no matter whether Louyun City was hit by strong winds, heavy rain or hail, the glass inside has never been broken.

This corridor is about two meters wide and quite long. There is a wall on one side and the elevator room behind it. During the day, people usually move tables and chairs to sit in this corridor to play cards and chat, and no one has ever complained about the bad view.

But now, everyone is standing behind the glass windows, and in order to see outside clearly, they would like to stick their faces to the glass.

“Wow—wow—”

"Look over there! There are so many of them! And they're moving!"

"Wow—it's happening again! It really is falling from the sky!"

…

Shu Fu and Zheng Feifei found a gap and hurried over. Like everyone else, they approached the glass window and tried to look outside.

At this time, it was almost completely dark outside, but fortunately there were a few street lights near Building 3.

The street lights have broken down several times, but now they have been protected by stainless steel guardrails, allowing everyone to see the situation outside clearly in such weather.

The rain was still heavy, crackling on the glass through the guardrail, and the wind was stronger than before. They saw several trees not far away had been deformed by the wind, with entire branches bent and ready to break at any time, and thinner trees were even uprooted.

The ground was covered with dead branches and rotten leaves. The branches and leaves were spinning, being blown up and down by the howling wind. Among these branches and leaves, Shu Fu saw that there seemed to be something bouncing up and down.

Those things seem to be alive!

As the other people around him screamed again, Shu Fu saw another pile of things suddenly falling from the air, hitting the ground with a crackling sound, making a wet bouncing sound.

That's a fish!?

It's raining fish outside! ?

"Oh my god! I never thought that I would be able to witness such a wonder in my lifetime!" Zheng Feifei's voice came from the side, she felt simply "stunned"!

Shu Fu also opened her eyes wide in surprise, but soon she realized something.

She remembered that a long time ago, when she was still in the native world, she seemed to have seen such a news somewhere, saying that when it rained heavily in a certain place one day, there was suddenly a "fish rain" for a while.

Of course, fish won’t really fall from the sky. Fish are all in the water. Now there is water outside Louyun City. So how did these fish that were originally staying in the water run to the sky?

Could it be——

When she realized the answer, she suddenly took a step back, grabbed Zheng Feifei and shouted to others, "Danger! Get out of the way!"