Chapter 17

In addition to the hiking bags, they also brought snakeskin bags.

The two men entered the food section and picked out items with a long shelf life, such as canned food and vacuum-packed items. They stopped only when the plastic bags were full of space.

At the meeting place, Qin Wei waited for half an hour before Ye Xun appeared around the corner, dragging the bag with all his strength.

He strode over, snatched the bag from his hand, lifted it up with a little force, swung it, and then put it on his back.

Ye Xun's body, which he had trained for a month, was nothing compared to Qin Wei. In May, Qin Wei came out wearing only a T-shirt. When he exerted force, the muscles on his arms bulged and Ye Xun couldn't take his eyes off them.

When will he be able to become like this?

Ye Xun wanted to know if he had this talent, "Qin Wei, do you think I can become as good as you?"

As he spoke, he gestured with his hands on his skinny arms.

Qin Wei looked at the white and tender arm in front of him, stretched out his hand and squeezed it with a little force, then shook his head, "I'm afraid it's difficult."

After Ye Xun was pinched by the other party's hand, he felt as if his arm was numb and sore.

"Hiss, why are you so strong?"

"Does it hurt? You don't exercise enough, so your muscles are all dead. Let me massage them for you." After saying that, she was about to massage his hands.

Ye Xun clapped his hands away and hurriedly stopped him, "No, no, I have a massager, I'll do it myself when I get home."

Qin Wei was not annoyed when his kind offer of help was rejected, as he was thick-skinned. But Ye Xun was different. While he was sitting in the kayak scooping water, all sorts of random thoughts ran through his mind.

Will Qin Wei think that I dislike him?

There's nothing I can do about it. It's because men shouldn't touch each other. He is a self-respecting man and won't have close contact with other men.

Especially for men with broad shoulders and narrow waist who are good-looking, what's the difference between this and a straight man watching a beautiful woman dancing sexy dance.

On the way back, it was exceptionally quiet. Ye Xun lowered his head and scooped water without saying a word. Qin Wei saw that his head was almost buried in his stomach, and he didn't dare to speak rashly, fearing that he would dive into the water in the next second.

He didn't expect Ye Xun to be so shy, a person who would not hide his sexual orientation. His room was full of posters and peripherals of male star idols, but now he was so shy just because of a pinch on the arm.

Because there was no talking or distraction on the way, we returned very quickly this time, reducing the time by about one third.

Even so, it was already past 12 o'clock when they arrived at the community. Due to the lack of food, most residents went to bed early to conserve energy, so no one noticed the two people who returned with a full load.

If someone asked where these things came from, Ye Xun would not be able to answer. Being a thief is not a glorious thing.

Ye Xun had not expected Qin Wei to take the initiative to visit the supermarket again. Last time, it could be understood as a request from the employer, but what about this time? Should we say that getting something for nothing is addictive?

When she entered the house, Wang Yu had not yet gone to bed. She wanted to prove that she was capable of taking care of her brother.

For example, I would cook a bowl of hot instant noodles for my brother who came home from work in the middle of the night. If it wasn’t nutritious, I would add two pieces of nutritious braised beef.

The two brothers ate with relish, and Qin Wei even drank up all the soup to give them face.

Wang Yu happily went back to her room to sleep.

The strange silence between Ye Xun and the other person lasted until they woke up the next day, and it was Qin Wei who took the initiative to talk.

He asked Ye Xun to learn fighting from him.

"You have no advantage in comparing strength with others. You might as well learn how to use your cleverness to subdue the enemy."

These are Qin Wei’s original words.

This proposal hit Ye Xun's heart. Qin Wei was right. If they really had to compare, just in terms of their family, if they were ranked by strength, it would be Qin Wei > Bal > Ye Xun > Wang Yu.

People are worse than dogs.

So I agreed.

From that day on, Qin Wei would call Ye Xun to exercise with him, and made a strict schedule, including which days to do aerobic exercise and which days to do anaerobic exercise, how many sets of push-ups to do, how heavy the dumbbells were, how many to do every day, and how many kilometers to run.

After just one day of training, Ye Xun was like a buffalo fished out of the river, sweating and panting like a cow, lying on the ground for a long time without being able to recover.

Damn it, why don’t people fill in the application form for sports students in the college entrance examination?

Qin Wei's exercise volume was much greater than his, but he only sweated a little and his breathing became a little faster, and he looked very relaxed.

Ye Xun watched him put down the dumbbells in his hand, walk to his side and squat down, then stretched out his hand as if to pull him up to continue.

She didn't even have the strength to shake her head, and could only quickly express that she couldn't do it anymore, "I'm really going to die if I practice any more, I'll do it tomorrow, ahhh! It hurts, it hurts, be gentle! Brother, please stop rubbing it, it hurts!"

"If you don't rub it open, you'll feel even worse tomorrow. Just bear with it."

The owner of the body under his hands was more sensitive to pain than he had imagined, so Qin Wei had to speed up the massage so that it could be finished quickly.

As the one being massaged, Ye Xun only felt the pain become more intense. Seeing that the person was still alive, he actually wished he was dead.

Bal in Wang Yu's room heard the shit shoveler's screams and thought he was attacked. He had been pretending to be asleep with his eyes closed, but suddenly he stood up, showing his sharp teeth and was about to rush out.

Wang Yu hugged her tightly, fearing that she would be trained like Ye Xun. Since her brother had already been trained, she could not be trained anymore.

Time flew by during the exercise, and Ye Xun's endurance and pain tolerance were significantly improved, as evidenced by the fact that he could already withstand Qin Wei's massage without crying out.

On May 13, the 35-day-long heavy rain finally stopped, and the sun, which had disappeared for an equally long time, reappeared in the sky.

When people found that the rain had stopped, they couldn't help crying with joy and waved their arms and cheered. This damn day was finally over.

The outdoor temperature rose at a rate of one degree per day. Because the perceived temperature did not change much, when it was discovered, it was already 10 days later. It was not yet June, but the temperature was approaching 40 degrees.

Affected by the high temperature, the water level dropped rapidly and had already dropped to the third floor. The bodies of those who died in the heavy rain slowly emerged as the water level dropped.

The high temperature accelerated the decay of the corpse, revealing white bones in some parts, and even tooth marks from unknown animals.

Some brave ones got close to take photos and posted them to the owners’ group, causing panic instantly. This was the closest people in peacetime have ever been to death, and it wasn’t a pretty death.

No one paid attention to the tooth marks on the skull of the corpse, but Ye Xun enlarged them and looked at them repeatedly. He recognized that they were the tooth marks of a rodent.

He had no other guesses except rats as the rodents that could eat carrion in the city.

As the flood recedes, the insects and rats that have been dormant for a long time will come out to look for food.

There's going to be a rat plague.

The rat plague reminded Ye Xun of plague and cholera, but that was not something that someone who had just survived a heavy rain could think of.

Someone had to deal with the bodies in the water, but they were too scattered and it would take too much time for the soldiers from City H alone.

Ye Xun knew that dead bodies were prone to plague outbreaks. Didn't the government know that? Of course they knew. But they didn't dare to tell the people below because it would cause panic.

Finally, they came up with a solution: mobilize everyone in the city to participate. It wasn't mandatory, but those who worked in the body collection team would be provided with two meals a day. There wasn't much in the way of food, but it was enough to keep them full.

Under such a policy, people's enthusiasm was immediately mobilized, and the floating corpses in H City were basically cleared away.

Without corpses as food, the rats in City H turned their attention to humans.

One night, something happened in the old town.

There was a family, consisting of two elderly people and a ten-year-old grandson, who were eaten by a pack of rats.

The person who discovered the scene was their next-door neighbor. The two families had a good relationship and were even relatives. His daughter-in-law was the old lady's niece. She would bring them two steamed buns every morning. She was a filial and good woman.

I knocked on the door that morning, but there was no response for a long time. Given the situation outside, it was impossible for two elderly people and a young child to go on a spur of the moment trip. The most likely possibility was that something had happened.

She quickly called the man in the house to pick the lock. Sure enough, as soon as she entered the door, she smelled a strong smell of blood. The living room was full of messy bloodstains. There were three bloody corpses lying on the bed in the bedroom. Most of the flesh and blood had been eaten clean, the organs in the stomach were all eaten up, and even the flesh on the face was not spared.

Several grown men vomited after watching this scene. The old lady's niece called the police with shaking hands and cried breathlessly while speaking.

The police station was right next to the community, but it was inconvenient to get there, so it still took half an hour to get there. Even though he had seen many cases, his reaction at the time was not much better than that of others. He was a senior policeman, so he resisted the urge to vomit and went forward to check.

The fatal wounds of the three bodies were all on the neck. The wounds were extremely deep, the flesh was turned inside out, the blood vessels were bitten off, and the trachea was exposed. This is why no cries for help were heard.

It is better to die immediately than to watch yourself being eaten by a rat.

The body in this store was finally dealt with by the daughter-in-law next door. The weather was hot and the body couldn't be kept for a long time. Moreover, it had been eaten by rats and who knew whether it might carry germs, so it had to be cremated hastily.

The old man’s son and daughter-in-law work in another province. When they heard the news, they cried bitterly on the other end of the phone.

After knowing this, Ye Xun called his father and mother who were far away in Chen Village to ask them about the situation over there.

Father Ye: "We are at a high altitude here, so the heavy rain has little impact. It's just that there are more rats and bugs these days. I don't know if it's because of the warm weather."

When I heard the increase in rats and bugs, I knew something was going to happen, so I said nervously, "Dad, there's going to be a rat plague. Please connect the power grid on the wall of our house to the grid as soon as possible. You and Mom should not go out or contact others during this period. If someone from the village office comes and you must meet them, you must wear an N95 mask. After contact, disinfect your whole body with disinfectant. Disinfect the house and yard every day. Close the doors and windows, and don't let these things in."

Ye's father kept everything Ye Xun said in mind, and promised to do it well. Then he said, "Your mother wants to chat with you. If you are not free now, we can chat next time."

Of course there is time, "Dad, please hand the phone over to Mom."

Father Ye said happily: "Okay."

There was some noise on the other end of the phone, and then Ye's mother's gentle voice came through the receiver and reached Ye Xun's ears.

"Axun, it's mom. Your dad and I saw the news about H City. How are you and Xiaoyu doing now?"