Chapter 18 Chapter 18 Flash Flood Crisis
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"Liang Zhao, dog, dog! There is a dog in the water."
Gu Mengran lay on the fender and looked around. Although he could not see anything, he quickly determined the specific location by the sound and hurriedly took out the walkie-talkie to share it with Liang Zhao.
The first few words were somewhat ambiguous. Liang Zhao on the other end of the intercom was silent for a moment, and then asked: "Do you want to save it? Do you want to keep it?"
Of course he wanted to, Gu Mengran liked small animals, but dogs wouldn't appear out of thin air in the river. Thinking of this, he quickly told Liang Zhao: "Let's check the radar first, there may be a ship in distress nearby."
Liang Zhao responded, and about two minutes later, a deep voice came from the intercom again: "No boat was found. Either the boat has left, or it came from upstream. Have you thought about it? Do you want to rescue it?"
As if Liang Zhao's words were heard, as soon as he finished speaking, the dog's whining sound was heard from the river again.
Judging from the sound, it was not far from the Wind Wing, so it wouldn't take much effort. After hesitating for a long time, Gu Mengran gritted his teeth and said, "Save it! Pick it up and raise it. Maybe it can help us look after the house and the ship."
Liang Zhao smiled and said, "Okay, then you go back to the cab and let me take over. I'll get off—"
"Why should you do that? I can just go down and fish it out." Gu Mengran interrupted him, "Come on, I'll get a diesel boat out, and you use the crane to lower me down."
After Gu Mengran finished speaking, he groped his way to the crane and took out the diesel boat on the spot.
Liang Zhao was still persuading him on the other end of the intercom, saying that he had not slept all night and was in a trance, and the water was not safe in his current state.
Gu Mengran was unhappy when he heard this, and asked back with a smile: "Will it be 100% safe if you go down? I want to save it myself, and I can't let you take risks."
Liang Zhao was about to speak, but Gu Mengran spoke up in time and complained quietly: "Okay, okay, Liang Zhao, I don't know how long the dog has been in the water. If we continue talking, we'll probably drown."
Liang Zhao couldn't beat him and had to compromise.
The diesel boat and the crane were firmly fixed. Gu Mengran got into the boat and gave an order. The crane started to operate and the tower head slowly rose with the diesel boat hanging on it.
The height of the small boat exceeded the fender of Fengyi. Gu Mengran reported to Liang Zhao in time, and then the engine began to turn, moving the small boat from the flat deck to above the river.
The ship swayed slightly and the entire ship was completely suspended in mid-air. Gu Mengran was not at all panicked. He searched the dark river surface with a high-powered flashlight in one hand and communicated with Liang Zhao on a walkie-talkie in the other hand to adjust the direction in time.
The rescue operation went relatively smoothly. It took about three minutes for Gu Mengran to successfully find the target by following the source of the sound.
"Bang——"
The boat entered the river, splashing water, and the puppy that was constantly struggling in the water was frightened, kicking its four legs and trying to get away. But it was already exhausted, and Gu Mengran drove the boat closer to it, but it swam less than half a meter away, and then soaked in the water pitifully.
At first, he vaguely saw a yellow shadow and Gu Mengran thought it was a golden retriever. Now that he got closer, he found that the dog had a yellow face, a white face, and a curly tail. The little guy was an out-and-out pastoral dog.
Huang Jiang opens a pet blind box. Gu Mengran doesn’t care about the breed, but those who have raised a pastoral dog know that this guy only recognizes his owner and is a real murderer to strangers!
If you get bitten at this critical moment, you won’t even be able to get the rabies vaccine.
So Gu Mengran gave up the idea of taking action directly, and instead took out a fishing net from the space, held his breath, and tentatively approached the dog little by little.
The whole process went very smoothly. Perhaps because he was exhausted, the little guy did not resist. Gu Mengran struck while the iron was hot and used the scoop net to cover the dog's entire body, then lifted it up with force.
“Huahuahua——”
The wet dog was successfully salvaged onto the boat, and half a cabin of river water was given for free.
Water splashed everywhere, and Gu Mengran's shoes and pants were all wet, but he didn't have time to care and hurriedly turned the boat around and headed towards the crane.
The diesel boat reconnected to the crane, and Gu Mengran lowered his eyes and glanced at the dog.
It doesn't matter if you don't look at it, but just this casual glance, seeing its trembling body and meeting its weak, pitiful and helpless eyes, Gu Mengran's heart softened.
Originally wanted to put it in the scoop net and take it back, but the more Gu Mengran looked at it, the more he couldn't bear it. Seeing its weak appearance, it probably didn't have the strength to bite anyone. After hesitating for a long time, Gu Mengran reached out and said, "Xiao Huang, I don't want to be Lu Dongbin."
Xiao Huang did not disappoint. Gu Mengran tried to free it from the scoop net. It responded with a hum and then curled up obediently in the cabin like a kettle boiling.
"Good dog." Gu Mengran became bolder and took the opportunity to touch the dog's head.
I touched it, but why did the feeling... feel weird?
The dog's head was slimy and slippery, not like a furry animal but more like a cold and slimy snake.
Gu Mengran felt sickened by his own imagination. He leaned closer and took a closer look in the dim light. He saw that the dog's head and even its limbs were all covered with a thick layer of mud.
Not only that, Gu Mengran looked down and found that his shoes and pants were also covered with mud, and the "water" that had just been used to fish out the dog's leash was swaying with the boat, like thick and silky caramel pearl milk tea.
Gu Mengran's heart skipped a beat and an ominous premonition came to his mind.
It was normal for the river water to be muddy as we experienced an earthquake not long ago, but now it is obviously no longer muddy, it is clearly a muddy soup.
Back at the Fengyi, Gu Mengran wrapped Xiao Huang in a blanket and temporarily placed him in the cab. He then hurriedly called his grandfather to the cab and promptly explained the situation on the river to the old man and Liang Zhao.
Some things still need to be judged by experienced old people. Gu Mengran keenly smelled the danger, but he was far from realizing the seriousness. When the old man heard this, he decisively slammed the table and stood up, "Get ashore, get ashore immediately!"
"Ah?" Gu Mengran was still a little confused. "How did it suddenly come ashore? If it was just a landslide upstream, couldn't we take some precautions in advance?"
The muddy river water was mostly caused by earthquakes or landslides upstream. It hadn't rained yet, so Gu Mengran naturally thought that the mud entering the river muddied the water, and the threat was not great.
The old man frowned and asked Gu Mengran, "Just? Who can guarantee that it was just a landslide? Boy, did you notice the speed of the water when you went into the water just now?"
Gu Mengran nodded, "The river was very calm, just like the lake, without any waves. At that time, Xiao Huang couldn't swim anymore, but he was not washed away by the current."
This is also the main reason why Gu Mengran feels that the problem is not serious.
The old man obviously doesn't think so.
He looked out the window at the dark river surface. His weather-beaten face became more solemn, and his voice was slightly hoarse: "Not far ahead is the Linhuai Gorge. There are steep peaks on both sides of the river. We are not afraid of landslides, but we are afraid of landslides!"
"No way, there should be a landslide and huge waves, right?" A chill crept up his spine. Gu Mengran was still trying to be stubborn, but he was silently planning how to get ashore in his heart.
The old man didn't answer him for a long time. At this time, Liang Zhao, who had never spoken, slowly opened his lips and said a creepy guess: "A barrier lake."
Gu Mengran stood up and said, "Let's go, let's go now."
The space gave them the confidence to leave at any time, but it was troublesome and time-consuming for the Wind Wing to dock, and if something happened, they had to use a diesel boat.
The crane needed people to operate it, so the three people could not leave at the same time. For this reason, the three people insisted on their own opinions and refused to give in. After arguing for a long time, they finally came to a conclusion.
Gu Mengran and Meng Gaoyang left first, and Liang Zhao stayed on the boat to operate the crane.
In just a few minutes, Gu Mengran and Meng Gaoyang took a diesel boat to the river surface first. Liang Zhao returned the crane to its original position, shut down all the facilities and equipment on the ship, and finally came to the deck and stepped on the escape ladder prepared by Gu Mengran to board the boat.
You can forget anything but your home. After Liang Zhao successfully boarded the ship, Gu Mengran decisively raised his hand to cover the hull of the Wind Wing. His mind turned, and in just a short moment, the huge building like a tall building disappeared in front of him.
The river is vast and misty, and the sea is calm.
But the calmer it was, the more uneasy Gu Mengran felt.
Xiao Huang curled up motionless in his arms. Gu Mengran stroked its head gently. He was extremely grateful for Xiao Huang's appearance and also grateful that he chose to get off the boat to save it and thus discovered the abnormality.
Everything went very smoothly. The three people and the dog successfully reached the shore on a diesel boat and experienced the feeling of being down to earth again.
Gu Mengran put the muddy diesel boat back into the space and was about to move away from the river with his grandfather and Liang Zhao when suddenly, a loud noise like a landslide was heard.
“——Boom, boom!”
It was like a thunderclap, with a huge sound that covered the sky and came from all directions. At the same time, the ground began to tremble, and the earthquake seemed to come back. For a moment, the ground on both sides of the Huangjiang River shook.
Gu Mengran's head was buzzing and he almost lost his balance. The loud noise hurt his eardrums, and before he could figure out what was happening, someone suddenly grabbed his wrist.
"Hurry, run! Something is coming down from upstream." Liang Zhao grabbed him with one hand and the old man with the other, and drove the two of them to run with irresistible brute force.
Gu Mengran woke up as if from a dream. He came to his senses and decisively put the dog in his arms into the space. While running at full speed, he turned his gaze to Liang Zhao and his grandfather.
For a moment, Gu Mengran wanted to take his grandfather and Liang Zhao into the space as well. But then he thought, if he didn't escape, wouldn't that deprive them of the right to escape and implicate them instead?
It was even more impractical for the three of them to hide in there together, because they could exit from the same place they entered. If the two banks were flooded, they would only be able to come out in the turbulent river.
Visibility was extremely low, and it was impossible to see the upstream scene clearly. The thunderous sound constantly reminded Gu Mengran that the barrier lake had burst, and the silted river water condensed into huge waves, rushing downstream in an instant with the force of thunder.
There is no other way, run!
Gu Mengran gritted his teeth and sped up, running as fast as he could, and his speed was comparable to Liang Zhao's. But Meng Gaoyang was old and not as strong as the young people, and he didn't run far before he was exhausted and panting, and his feet staggered.
The sound of water is getting closer and closer. This can't go on.
Gu Mengran was just about to reach out to pull his grandfather, intending to let him hide in the space, but Liang Zhao was one step faster than him. He leaned over, hugged the old man's waist, picked him up and continued to run.
It's actually possible!
Gu Mengran's pupils shrank slightly, and he didn't have time to take the next step.
“——boom boom boom!”
The mighty waves were surging, and judging from the sound, there should be less than a hundred meters left. Gu Meng felt an inexplicable chill on his back, and even felt a terrifying force dragging his body backwards.
His body swayed slightly and he almost lost his balance. Fortunately, Liang Zhao pulled him up in time.
Run, run for your life, not daring to stop for even a second.
The sound of his heavy, rapid breathing was instantly drowned out by the roar, and his attention was drawn to the roaring flood. Gu Mengran only paid attention to what was behind him, and while he was running, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his toes, and his body fell forward uncontrollably.
He did not fall flat on his face as expected. His body only tilted forward slightly. Gu Mengran subconsciously stretched out his hands and supported himself with a hard object.
Stone? No, it was tall and big, like a giant slab of stone.
When his fingertips touched the clear lines, Gu Mengran suddenly understood what it was, "Liang Zhao, Liang Zhao, it's a flood control dam! We are saved!"
"Don't just stand there, go up and help first!"
"OK!"
Gu Mengran responded loudly and climbed up using his hands and feet.
Gu Mengran climbed up the embankment in one go. His palms were burning with pain. He didn't even have time to catch his breath. He quickly turned around, crawled on the ground, and stretched out his hands to Liang Zhao.
The flood control dam is tilted forward at 45 degrees and is nearly five or six meters high. There is no doubt that it is impossible to climb up with a person weighing 100 or 200 kilograms on his back.
Without any hesitation, Liang Zhao decisively put the old man down. Without waiting for Meng Gaoyang to react, Liang Zhao held his legs and lifted him up with force, and desperately sent him to Gu Mengran.
Pushing and pulling, the old man climbed up the embankment breathlessly.
Just as Gu Mengran turned around and handed his hand to Liang Zhao, the flood came.
The long-brewing flood rolled in, bringing with it a strong sense of oppression, like a towering majestic mountain collapsing in an instant, sweeping across the river with devastating force, ruthlessly dragging both sides into the abyss.
The thick fog was dispersed by the water, and Gu Mengran could clearly see that Liang Zhao's position would be affected.
Ten meters, eight meters, three meters...
Gu Mengran gritted his teeth, half of his body had already slid down the embankment, and he stretched his arms as far as possible. However, the moment his fingertips touched Liang Zhao, the surging flood suddenly swallowed him up.
"Liang Zhao, Liang Zhao!"
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