Chapter 69: Northern Plateau

Chen Yuezhen only hurriedly put on a raincoat and didn't even have time to put on rain pants. He carried two travel bags filled with supplies in one hand, a boat bag was hung on the other arm, and he was holding a boat motor in his hand and a backpack on his back. He was hung like a Christmas tree and didn't leave behind any supplies.

She rushed out of the small building and a look of delight appeared on her face when she saw the two of them.

"Luckily you're back! Go! The bridge over there collapsed, the water level in the tributary surged, and the flood has already reached the shoreline!" Chen Yuezhen only highlighted the key points. Although she was not sure that the flood would definitely reach this community, as a gentleman does not stand under a dangerous wall, it is better to evacuate as soon as possible.

She originally wanted to find a tall building on the side of the road the two people were coming back to stay in, so that when they came back, she could see them the first time and not get lost. Now that she saw them coming back in time, it was of course better.

Chen Fa and Shu Fu didn't have time to ask more questions, and immediately took the travel bag and boat bag from her hands. The three of them left the community and returned to the main road. The closer to the center of Lucheng, the higher the terrain.

Even if the flood hits the shoreline and floods the surrounding area, it is impossible for it to flood into the urban area, so they will be safe as long as they leave this area.

The three people found a small building again according to the memories of Chen Fa and Shu Fu when they just returned.

This small building is located on the second floor of a row of simple commercial buildings along the street. Because it is a small commercial building, the single floor is slightly taller.

They chose the second floor of a car repair shop. The first floor was a warehouse. The useful auto repair parts in the warehouse had long been moved out, but the warehouse had four walls made of steel, which could protect against wind and rain and could not be seen by outsiders, making it suitable for staying overnight. There was a room at the other end whose windows had long been broken, which was just right for checking the situation outside.

Two hours later, the three men cleaned up the warehouse, collected some dry cardboard, dismantled a wooden chair, found an empty diesel barrel in the repair shop on the first floor, and lit a fire for heating.

The three of them collected rainwater and added water purification tablets, then used the water to wash their bodies and faces, changed their wet clothes, and washed them in the water. They also found an empty hollow steel frame, which was supposed to be used to store tires. They cleaned it, moved it to the side of the diesel barrel, and hung the washed clothes on it, waiting for them to dry automatically.

Two camping mats had been spread out on the ground nearby. While Shu Fu and Chen Yuezhen were hanging out the clothes, Chen Fa sat on the camping mats and used a gas stove and a small camping pot to heat up the cans that he had just received today.

Shu Fu is quite good at changing things up. There are several dishes of curry potato stewed beef brisket and curry chicken cubes in it. You can just pour them out and mix them into one pot, add bread, and make a curry dinner.

Curry can keep you warm and ward off the cold. Today the temperature dropped due to the heavy rain, and the three of us were all more or less wet in the rain, so a curry dinner was just right.

To be honest, since the natural disaster began, Shu Fu has been able to eat and sleep well most of the time with the Drifting Island House plug-in, and has never worried about food, clothing, housing and transportation. This period of time has been the most wandering and unstable time for her.

There are no delicacies, snacks, fruits, milk tea, coffee or drinks, no clean bathrooms where you can take aromatherapy bubble baths, no comfortable soft beds or soft blankets to roll around on...

However, perhaps because we had companions around us, we worked together to create a comfortable place for each other with limited resources in a limited environment. This feeling unexpectedly made us feel happy and safe.

But this sense of security is different from the previous sense of absolute security with loneliness. It has some novelty and danger. But because there are people accompanying us and everyone works together, every day is more fulfilling.

Although she knows that such days will end sooner or later, and she will have to return to working alone after completing the raft level 4 progress bar, at this moment, these wandering lives with adventure, warmth and protection will become part of her memory and become more precious and beautiful as time goes by.

Therefore, no matter how difficult the current environment was, she did not feel uncomfortable at all. She did not even miss the Drifting Island House as much as she thought.

After all, no matter how good something is, if no one shares it, there will always be some regrets...

Late at night, Shu Fu turned over on her camping mat and looked at Chen Fa in the room at the other end of the warehouse. It was her first night shift tonight, and she was sitting in the room with a raincoat on so she could check the situation outside at any time.

She seemed to be aware of Shu Fu's gaze and turned to look at her. In the dim light of the flickering diesel barrel beside them, the two people's eyes met in mid-air.

Chen Fa looked at the black eyes that were staring at him without blinking, smiled helplessly, and then made a gesture to Shu Fu to go to bed quickly.

Shu Fu also curled the corners of her lips and was about to close her eyes to rest when another thunder exploded outside. At the moment of lightning flashing, she subconsciously realized that something was wrong, and suddenly opened her eyes and looked at the position above Chen Fa's head again.

Because the room was not big and the windows were broken, rain could easily get into the room during a severe storm, so she put on a raincoat and a rain hat while on night watch.

The raincoat was a dark army green color. She was in the dark, so Shu Fu should not have noticed her rain hat. But at a certain moment just now, she seemed to see a white light strip flashing rapidly on the rain hat above her head.

Looks like some kind of old-fashioned electronic screen...

Is she dazzled? How is this possible?

Outside the window, another thunder flashed, and the lightning exploded outside the window, and at the same time it was imprinted on Chen Fa's body and face, flickering slightly.

Sure enough, the white light strip just now was probably just her misunderstanding.

**

Shu Fu and the other two stayed on the upper floor of the repair shop for the third and fourth nights. They got up early on the fifth day, packed their things, and prepared to go into the city.

Shu Fu had said early in the morning that she would go to Trading Station No. 3 on both the third and fifth days after it opened. The difference was that after going to Trading Station No. 3 today, they would not stay in Lucheng, but planned to continue heading north, through the entire Lucheng, to Pincheng further north.

Shu Fu was not sure whether the Lu Zheng brothers and Yao Ruoyun were still in Pincheng, so when she went to Trading Station No. 3 today, she would log in to her old WeChat and take the initiative to contact them.

If they are still in Pincheng, that would be the best. If they have left, you can also ask them about the current situation of Pincheng.

Heavy rain had been falling for a few days and it subsided a little today. However, Lucheng, which had been attacked by wind and rain for several days, looked more and more dilapidated and depressed. The three of them were still very careful when entering the city because this time they carried all the supplies with them.

An empty travel bag was put on the outside of the boat bag, and the boat motor was also put into another empty travel bag to prevent these two things from attracting more covetous eyes.

They still walked along the boundary of the teams' territories, taking advantage of the situation and arriving at the museum safely again.

There are not as many people today as last time, probably because of the continuous heavy rain and thunder and lightning for several days, which made it more difficult to travel, so there are fewer people coming here to trade and exchange goods.

Shu Fu and her friends still paid three packs of biscuits to enter, not only to complete the check-in and free internet access, but also to exchange them for some portable food, such as canned food and instant noodles, as well as bottled drinking water, so that they would have enough supplies to go north.

Shu Fu even had another plan - she wanted to find a way for the three of them to travel by land.

Gold is still useful here, and if she just wants to buy a drivable car that doesn't require fuel, the price shouldn't be that expensive.

After all, the most expensive thing is not the car, but the fuel which is comparable to gold nowadays.

In her space, she only used more than 200 liters of the more than 3,000 liters of fuel she stockpiled in Suicheng last year. With several wins in the monthly electricity card draw, she now has sufficient electricity and rarely uses the generator.

After her phone was connected to the Internet, she turned off the sound first, and then logged into the old WeChat.

As expected, as soon as the connection was established, I was bombarded with a lot of information, including messages from Zhang Tian, ​​Wu Shaoshan and others, as well as those from Liu Shuang and Cheng Yu.

Zhang Tian and Wu Shaoshan had already learned from Chen Fa the day before that she was still "alive", and they also scolded him, scolding away all the worries they had previously caused by the huge tsunami.

Compared with other people, there was not much news about Liu Shuang and Cheng Yu, and she couldn't read it for the time being.

She first found Lu Zheng's name in a large field of red prompts, and then sent a message to him. He didn't reply immediately, probably because of a bad signal and a delay. This phone has been turned off since leaving Hexi Town, and now there is still a lot of power, so she didn't turn it off again, put away the phone, and prepared to exchange the needed supplies first.

Today she doesn't plan to trade with drugs anymore, but wants to trade with gold instead.

After all, she had only shown Chen Fa a few boxes of medicine before, and there were at most some other types in the bag. Too many would be unreasonable. Moreover, the medicine was precious. Part of the reason for the last transaction was to gather information, but it was not necessary today.

Gold is different. It is small and very easy to hide. She can put a lot of it in her waist bag. The three of them had a lot of things today, so they didn't separate and looked around together.

Chen Fa was not surprised when he saw her take out the portable self-heating rice bag for gold trading. When they left the stall, Chen Fa took out a bag of gold jewelry from the inner pocket of his backpack and stuffed it into Shu Fu's hand, motioning her to keep it and use it if she didn't have enough money for future transactions.

The gold jewelry was quite heavy. Shu Fu did not ask much. In troubled times, how could she not have some gold with her? However, she only kept it for the time being and did not plan to use it. Just kidding, how could she not have enough gold? She had several gold shops in her space...

The three of them walked around for a while. They were all quick-tempered people and quickly replaced the food and water supplies. Shu Fu also exchanged two pills for a gas tank to replace the gas tank of a gas stove.

She also inquired about the car at the two trading stalls, but the other party obviously didn't take her seriously and directly said that if she wanted the car, she would not exchange it for gold at the moment, and only fuel could be traded.

30L of fuel can be exchanged for a small car, and 50L of fuel can be exchanged for an off-road vehicle.

This made Shu Fu a bit confused. Gold was small, so she could make it. But how could she make fuel? Did she say she picked it up on the roadside?

As she was thinking, someone suddenly grabbed her arm and pulled her aside.

Chen Fa and Chen Yuezhen moved instantly. One of them stood in front of Shu Fu, instantly pulled out the multi-functional shovel fastened to his backpack, and hit the opponent's face directly. The other one stepped forward, turned the fire axe he had been holding, and pointed the sharp end at the opponent.

The man quickly let go and stepped back, not daring to get any closer.

This was inside the trading station, and unless there was a life-and-death feud, no one would act rashly. The other party suddenly grabbed Shu Fu, and they forced the other party back and stopped their actions.

The man obviously didn't expect the people around Shu Fu to react so quickly. He also saw Chen Fa at this time and recognized her. He pointed at the two of them angrily and scolded them for not helping the man that day. He also said that he suspected they were companions of that group of people, so he deliberately turned a blind eye.

Chen Fa rolled his eyes at the other person and said, "You're crazy."

Shu Fu also recognized the other person at this time. He was the one who fell into a trap on the street outside the trading station the day before yesterday and was stripped down to only his underwear.

She swept her eyes over him and smiled meaningfully: "It's you. You're dressed quite neatly today..."

Xu Jiechu immediately understood what the other party meant. He looked at the smile on Shu Fu's lips, and his face turned red instantly, not knowing whether he was angry or something.

That day, both of them were wearing rain hats and masks, and they were walking in a hurry. He didn't see their faces clearly. He recognized them with his weapon just now. Now that he stopped and met their eyes, he realized that they were not big sisters at all. Both girls were very young, probably a few years younger than him, and they were both pretty, especially the one who was smiling at him now...

At this time, Xu Jiechu thought back to the day when they saw him in such an embarrassing state, and he suddenly felt even more ashamed and angry.

But he didn't dare to do anything reckless in the trading station. He had been robbed before and lost the gold his brother had brought for him. He was already in a lot of trouble. So, he said nothing more and turned around to leave.

"Be careful." Chen Fa reminded, fearing that the other party had a team behind him and would hold a grudge and continue to look for opportunities for revenge.

Two hours later, the three of them replaced all their supplies and prepared to leave.

Shu Fu didn't wait for Lu Zheng's reply. Before leaving the trading station and disconnecting from the Internet, she opened the chat boxes of Liu Shuang and Cheng Yu respectively. The latest message between the two was sent, one two months ago and the other more than a month ago.

Liu Shuang posted all text messages, starting shortly after the world-destroying tsunami. They went from being anxious and worried to messages of prayer in the end.

Cheng Yu's initial message came a few days later than Liu Shuang's. He was on a mission at the time, and later he must have learned about her loss of contact from Liu Shuang. He sent voice messages, each of which was short, asking her why she didn't leave Louyun City earlier, where she was, and whether she was still alive...

In the last few messages, he said that he was going on another mission, this time to the border, which was very dangerous and he didn't know if he could survive.

For the message at the bottom, he wrote something for the first time.

——If I can survive this time, it means you must have survived too. Shu Fu, I want to live to see you again.

Shu Fu looked at the message in silence for a long time, and finally replied to both of them.

——Peace, I hope you are safe too.

——I am still alive, and you will definitely survive too.

The message was successfully sent, but she knew the two of them were in a situation where they would not reply immediately, especially when they were on a mission. She currently did not have the time or conditions to keep in touch with the other party. Who knew when and for what reason she would have to disappear...

The reason why she told the other party that she was safe this time was because she had integrated into the crowd at this stage. As for explanation, there was no need for it now and she would leave it for when they had a chance to meet again in the future.

She turned off her phone again, wondering what excuse she could come up with to leave the team alone, get the fuel, or at least fix the problem with the car.

As a result, not long after the three of them walked out of the trading station, they were stopped again. This time, in addition to the man, there were two more helpers behind him.

"Three against three, now it's fair!" Xu Jiechu had obviously been waiting for them here for a long time. He couldn't find the group of people from the day before yesterday, and now that he met them, he was sure that they were in the same group, so he had to save face no matter what. "I say, do you want to choose one person to fight me one-on-one, or do we have a three-on-three melee?"

"Psycho." Chen Fa said concisely.

Shu Fu didn't even open his mouth, he just took out a nail gun from his backpack and pointed it at the other person.

The melee was about to break out. At this moment, a cat jumped out from nowhere, climbed up directly by holding Xu Jiechu's pants, and started scratching his face.

"Oh, oh, oh! It hurts! You damn cat! Oh, it's bleeding! It hurts so much--" With the help of the two people beside him, Xu Jiechu finally grabbed the cat and looked around angrily, "Lu Ce, you damn boy! Get out here! Lu Zheng! Can you ask your brother to keep an eye on this cat! Otherwise, don't blame me for catching and eating it!"

As he said this, the blue-eyed tabby cat he was holding started waving its limbs again, struggling to turn its head and try to bite his hand.

A familiar voice soon came from the side: "Why did you catch my Lan Lan! Xu Jiechu, you are a grown-up and you even bully a cat. How shameless! Brother! Come on, here! I found Lan Lan!"

As the familiar voice came, Shu Fu quickly looked back and saw an old friend whom he had not seen for a long time walking quickly towards him in the gloomy rain.