Chapter 104 Chapter 104 See the Light of Day Again
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The sky is my blanket and the ground is my bed. I wake up feeling sore all over.
The body was awake but the soul was still asleep. He opened his eyes dazedly and found Gu Mengran lying on the ground like a stiff corpse for five minutes before he sat up with difficulty by supporting himself on the ground.
The mud was not smooth, but bumpy and hard.
After sleeping for these days, Gu Mengran felt like his bones were about to fall apart and he felt stiff.
Rubbing his sore neck, Gu Mengran stood up and stretched. Looking up, he saw the piles of radishes and cabbages in the vegetable garden, and Liang Zhao who was busy at work.
The food had been prepared and was placed next to Gu Mengran.
The cabbage leaves were spread flat on the ground, and the cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, and lettuces were covered with crystal water droplets, obviously they had been washed. There were also two clean eggs placed next to them, but unfortunately they were raw.
Being trapped in space is no different from being stranded on an isolated island, and it feels quite uncomfortable. But since Liang Zhao woke up, Gu Mengran's tense nerves have completely relaxed, and he no longer feels like he is living a year in a day, and it is no longer so difficult.
After washing his face at the stream, he came back and found that the small animals that were raised in the space had already eaten their meal. Liang Zhao, who was exhausted from the journey, sat back on the edge of the field and put a slender and smooth purple eggplant into his mouth.
Gu Mengran walked closer slowly, his eyes lingering on the eggplant for just a second. Liang Zhao immediately reached out and handed over the half-eaten eggplant, smiling and saying, "Try it, it's delicious."
"No." Gu Mengran shook his head quickly, picked up a handful of small tomatoes from the cabbage leaves, twisted one and put it into his mouth, "I can only accept cucumbers, tomatoes, and radishes as raw vegetables. It's too unpalatable to eat eggplants and cabbages raw."
"Where's the lettuce?" Liang Zhao pulled his hand back with a smile and took a bite of the soft eggplant.
Gu Mengran glanced at the lettuce, pinched his chin and said thoughtfully: "If the pork belly is wrapped in it... well, it's totally acceptable."
Liang Zhao laughed out loud, "It seems that what you want to eat is meat."
"Of course. It's been so many days. No matter how delicious the tomatoes and cucumbers are, I've eaten enough of them. My mouth is tasteless." Gu Mengran complained, but his body was honest. He stuffed the small tomatoes into his mouth one by one.
A handful of tomatoes were eaten up in minutes. Liang Zhao saw this and handed over a cucumber. "Just bear with it for one last meal and fill your stomach first. I'll take you out to eat meat later."
"Go out in a while?" Gu Mengran was stunned at first, then his dull eyes suddenly lit up. He was so excited that he grabbed Liang Zhao's hand and shook it back and forth. "Is this true? Did you suddenly figure it out today?"
Worried about his grandfather, Gu Mengran had wanted to go out and check the situation. However, with Liang Zhao's well-reasoned analysis and patient advice, Gu Mengran gradually calmed down and decided to wait for a while.
After waiting for several days, Gu Mengran was already prepared to stay in the space for ten days or half a month. Unexpectedly, Liang Zhao suddenly agreed. It was really hard not to be excited.
Liang Zhao held Gu Mengran's hand, used a little force to pull him in front of him, and said in a gentle tone: "Are you so impatient? It's almost time. We have been in the space for about ten days. No matter how big the fire is, it should be extinguished."
Gu Mengran nodded vigorously, "Then what are we waiting for? Let's do it now——"
"Don't be in a hurry, fill your stomach first." Liang Zhao pried his hands open and stuffed the cucumber into his hands.
Gu Mengran frowned, "We're already getting ready to go out, why are you still chewing on cucumbers? Save your stomach for something good."
Liang Zhao smiled and said, "Only when you are full can you have strength. Didn't you say that we will be underwater as soon as we go out? We have to save some energy to swim and hold our breath?"
It seemed to be true, and Gu Mengran started to eat the cucumber obediently.
After the excitement, rationality returned.
After eating half a cucumber, Gu Mengran calmed down completely.
Everything was just Liang Zhao's guess, and they knew nothing about the real situation outside. Although about ten days had passed, there was still a lot of risk in this trip.
The more he ate the cucumber, the less tasted it had. Gu Mengran secretly glanced at Liang Zhao, cleared his throat deliberately, and stammered, "Ahem, I, I think it's a little dangerous to go out directly. How about this, I'll go out and explore the way first."
As soon as he finished speaking, Liang Zhao raised his eyebrows, the smile on his face froze, and his eyes instantly sank, "Isn't it dangerous for you to go out and explore the way?"
"It's not that it's not dangerous," Gu Mengran touched his nose guiltily, "The space is in my hands. If the situation is not right, I can hide back with just a thought. But it's different if we go out together. What if there are strong winds and waves outside and we are separated?"
"no."
Liang Zhao almost didn't think twice before holding Gu Mengran's hand again, inserting his fingers into his fingers and interlocking theirs, "We agreed not to separate, so we won't separate. We'll go anywhere together."
Liang Zhao's attitude in this regard was particularly tough. Knowing that he couldn't win, Gu Mengran held his hand and nodded helplessly, "Okay, then you have to hold on to me tightly and never let go no matter what."
"Yeah." Liang Zhao nodded heavily.
It only took a moment to leave the space. After finishing their food, Gu Mengran took Liang Zhao's hand again and held it tightly. Then he took a deep breath, and with a change of mind, the herds of cattle and sheep behind him disappeared, and the lush vegetable fields faded in an instant, replaced by a cold and turbid sewage.
The air disappeared in an instant, and water rushed in from all directions, as if an invisible hand reached out from the darkness, wrapped people tightly, blinded their eyes, and covered their mouths and noses.
Gu Mengran and Liang Zhao held their fingers together and held their breath at the first moment. Feeling that the water temperature was normal, they kicked their legs and swam their arms almost at the same time, swimming quickly and swiftly, in perfect harmony.
“Hua La La—”
It was like a rushing stream hitting a rock, splashing water everywhere, and under the thick darkness of the night, two wet heads suddenly emerged from the originally empty water surface.
The rain was pouring down, the night was as dark as ink, and the turbid water was turbulent.
The water was flowing very fast. After finally coming to the surface and taking two breaths of fresh air, Gu Mengran immediately realized that an irresistible force was pushing him and Liang Zhao away.
As if drifting in a canyon, the two of them moved more than ten meters away in an instant.
The speed was too fast. It would be impossible to climb up if we took out the boat now, and we would lose a boat for nothing. Gu Mengran didn't even have time to open his eyes. He held Liang Zhao tightly with one hand and raised his arm as much as possible to expose the other hand above the water.
Swimming ring, swimming ring...
Gu Mengran placed his palm on the water, and two foam swimming rings suddenly appeared in the empty water flow. Unfortunately, the swimming rings were too light, and as soon as they touched the water surface, they were swept away.
Fortunately, Liang Zhao reacted quickly and caught one in time.
Without any hesitation, Liang Zhao put the only swimming ring around Gu Mengran's neck. Gu Mengran rarely refused and cooperated with Liang Zhao to put on the swimming ring.
With the help of the swimming ring to stabilize his body in the water and keep his head above the water, Gu Mengran immediately took out another swimming ring and fumbled to put it around Liang Zhao's neck. Only then did he have time to rub his stinging eyes and opened them with difficulty.
It seemed to be late at night, the sky was covered by a heavy curtain, and all I could see was a deep darkness. The water was still turbid, and the surging waves were yellow-brown, like a pool of surging mud.
There was only a strong smell of mud in the air, without any smell of fuel, and no trace of burning flames remained on the water surface, as if the fire was just Gu Mengran's hallucination.
The fast current quickly carried them to Fengjin Lake. Gu Mengran didn't believe it, so he turned his neck and looked back. It was not until he saw the unrecognizable mountain opposite the village entrance that he realized what had happened.
They guessed correctly, Hengrongsheng exploded with great force.
After looking around and not seeing any ship wreckage, Gu Mengran felt a little relieved. But not long after, he followed the current into the lake and didn't see even the shadow of a ship around. Gu Mengran's heart, which had just calmed down, became heavier again.
Obviously, Grandpa and Zheng Yijie are no longer here.
They drifted all the way to the depths of Fengjin Lake, where the impact of the water current weakened a little. Gu Mengran took the opportunity to take out a diesel boat from the space, and climbed onto the boat with Liang Zhao with difficulty.
It was impossible to just go with the flow. After getting on the boat, Liang Zhao didn't even have time to catch his breath as he hurriedly started the diesel engine, turned the rudder around and headed back, quickly launching a carpet search of Fengjin Lake.
The lake is so big and the sky is so dark, what if?
What if I didn’t see it, or it was parked in a corner?
Going upstream, dense raindrops fell on the open boat without a roof. In just a few minutes, water began to accumulate at the bottom of the cabin.
Gu Mengran, who had just taken a breath, sat up hurriedly, put the two foam swimming rings back into the space, and took out the bracket, waterproof tarpaulin, and screws from the space one after another, and started to install the canopy for the diesel boat.
The canopy is not difficult to install. The four corners of the diesel boat have reserved threaded holes for embedding the brackets. You only need to assemble the brackets in order, cut the waterproof tarpaulin to the appropriate size, and finally cover it and fix it.
It is simple and easy to operate, and Gu Mengran works efficiently, so he finished it in no time. But the problem is that there doesn’t seem to be much difference whether the awning is installed or not.
The rain above their heads was blocked, and the tarpaulin hit the ground with a buzzing sound, but the diesel boat was moving at high speed, and the rain blowing in from the front and sides... poured down on Gu Mengran and Liang Zhao without a drop falling.
I don't have the energy to bother anymore, so just let it leak.
Gu Mengran exhaled a breath of hot air, sat back in the cabin and looked around, then took out a spoon from the space, scooped out the accumulated water in the cabin, and carefully searched for the traces of Fengyi and Yongyue in the dark lake.
From late night to dawn, we searched every corner of Fengjin Lake and the Lancang River, but still could not find any trace of any large ship.
After staying up for half the night, everyone was tired and the boat was out of fuel.
The roar of the engine disappeared, and the sound of the rain filled my ears. After going around in circles, I returned to the starting point. The lake that seemed to stretch as far as the eye could see was awakened by the early morning, but there was no sign of life.
The fuel was exhausted and the boat lost power and drifted with the current. Gu Mengran rubbed his tired brows and was about to get up to add fuel when someone grabbed his wrist.
"I'm sorry Meng Ran."
After being soaked in the rain for half a night, Liang Zhao's clothes were still not dry. His voice was hoarse, his face was tired, his slightly pale lips were trembling slightly, and there was a deep sense of guilt in his eyes.
Gu Mengran was confused and looked at him with a raised eyebrow, "Why are you apologizing so politely?"
"I..." Liang Zhao lowered his eyes and looked away, tightly holding Gu Mengran's hand, "I made a wrong decision. Maybe we should have come out earlier. The water flow is too fast. They can't hold out for ten days. If we come out earlier, we might still be able to meet them."
Gu Mengran laughed when he heard it, and slapped him on the back of his hand, saying nonchalantly: "If we didn't encounter it, then we didn't encounter it. We can just find it and it will be over-"
"Wait," Gu Mengran lowered his head and approached Liang Zhao, looking at his increasingly pale face, and asked tentatively: "You don't think something happened to them, do you?"
Liang Zhao shook his head, his lips tightened into a straight line. "It's not like anything went wrong. Fengyi and Yongyue are not small boats. Even if they sank, they would leave traces. I'm just worried that you'll feel bad and anxious because you didn't meet up with grandpa in time."
"It's still a little bit uncomfortable, but it's not your fault. You were just thinking about your safety." Gu Mengran squeezed the hand that was holding his, and comforted the lost Liang Zhao. "It's a good thing that you didn't find anything. It means they left safely."
"There are food and drinks on the Fengyi. I just restocked the warehouse before I left. It's enough for them to eat for a while. And they should be traveling with the Yongyue and Decheng. There will be people to take care of them along the way, so there won't be any big problems."
Not knowing whether he was trying to comfort Liang Zhao or himself, Gu Mengran kept talking for a long time. Finally, he looked at the gradually brightening sky, raised the corners of his mouth and smiled at Liang Zhao, "Let's go, go downstream, and find them in the East China Sea!"
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