Chapter 12 Human Heart
[12]
"Xixi!" Meng Lu was anxious and ran to catch up with her. "Youxi! Wait for me!"
"What's the matter?" Youxi stopped.
"I haven't seen you these few days. Are you still angry with me?"
Youxi really didn't like this kind of roundabout way of speaking: "I'm asking you, what do you want me to do for you?"
Meng Lu looked at her without saying anything for a while. Her attention was attracted by the clothes on her. The black down jacket just reached her thighs. It looked thin and soft. There was also a fur hood behind the collar. It was definitely very casual.
There is no winter on L Island, so there are naturally no cold-proof supplies like down jackets. The rescue team only distributed warm clothes such as blankets and fleece jackets. Even if you wear a few more layers and wrap yourself in blankets, you will still feel cold, not to mention that it is impossible to distribute several fleece jackets to each person in the current situation.
Most of the survivors who stayed in Wanghaishan Hotel when the tsunami came kept the cold-proof clothes they brought from their own countries. Such down jackets are not worth much.
Meng Lu remembered that she also had a similar light down jacket in her suitcase, because it was winter in Jingguo when they set out. After arriving in Haiguo, she couldn't wait to take off her bulky winter clothes and stuffed them into the bottom layer of the suitcase. How much she disliked it at that time, how much she misses that clothes now.
They were all in the same tour group, so why was Youxi so lucky? A strange thought suddenly occurred to Meng Lu, which was absurd and ridiculous.
Meng Lu was startled and asked directly: "Did you know that a tsunami would happen?"
"What are you talking about?" Youxi's expression did not change at all.
Meng Lu looked at Youxi, who had doubts and confusion in his eyes, but no guilt or panic.
Yes, how could this be possible?
She remembered the purpose of calling Youxi, and suppressed the anger and absurd thoughts caused by his cold attitude: "You saw what happened just now. Fang Zichen is a central air conditioning scumbag. I don't want to live with these two people anymore. Are you living in Shanbei? I heard that there are B&Bs there. Although the conditions are not as good as here, many rooms are empty. I want to live there with you."
"This is your business. You don't need to discuss it with me."
"Youxi! Why are you like this..."
She lowered her voice that had just risen, and her tone became softer, "Xixi, we are friends. In the face of disaster, we need to take care of each other. We have to pay for living in the B&B. You know that all my belongings were lost in the tsunami. I just want to borrow some money from you, or live in the same room with you. And..."
She said, moving closer to her and lowering her voice, "I have a lot of food and drinks here, I can take everything away..."
Meng Lu's words were clear enough. She had no money, but wanted to live in the B&B area, so she needed Youxi's help, but she didn't ask for her help in vain. She could contribute supplies and prepare to take away all the supplies for the three people.
Anyway, Fang Zichen took people to the opposite side, and there was no one in the room.
"If you have a lot of supplies, it's easy to stay in the B&B area. Some places there don't charge any money now, and you can use supplies instead of room fees."
In Youxi's opinion, Meng Lu didn't need her help at all. "I have things to do, and you probably don't have much time either, so let's not waste each other's time."
After saying that, she walked around him through the lobby and headed towards the annex building of the hotel.
Meng Lu then realized that the friend who used to be very easy to coax and obey her in everything was a thing of the past. Now Youxi was cold and distant, and she couldn't coax him with just a few words.
"Forget it!" She gritted her teeth and turned to run towards the safety passage of the main building.
She didn't have much time, and that green tea bitch must be fine. It was estimated that she would come back from the other side soon. She had to hurry back to the room to pack her things and leave early.
Youxi had seen the registration cards that Yuanqi and the other two had received, so he knew their floor and room numbers.
The annex building was much shorter than the main building. There were few family suites in this building, and most of them were single rooms and double rooms, which were provided to backpackers who liked to travel alone.
Because the rooms were small, most of the survivors who were arranged here were arranged as a family unit, and no strangers were arranged to live together. This made the atmosphere and environment here much better and more harmonious than that in the main building.
However, there were occasional exceptions.
As soon as Youxi stepped onto the corridor on the fifth floor, she heard a cry of surprise. A dark-skinned man ran quickly towards the stairs. He was stopped by someone halfway, but was frightened by the knife he swung. The man kicked the man away, hugged the big bag in his arms and continued to run.
"Try to stop him!"
"Be careful! He has a knife!"
...
The man swung the knife with a ferocious expression: "Get out of here!"
Several voices came at the same time, mixed with the crying of a child.
Youxi distinguished the familiar voices here, she stepped aside half a step, and with a thought, a three-section baton slipped out from the sleeve of her down jacket. She swung her hand, and the three sections of the metal stick were fully opened. She swung it at the other person's face expressionlessly.
With a loud bang, the opponent saw her take a half step back. He had never expected that she would do this in the middle of the fight, and was caught off guard and hit. Her strength plus his momentum left a deep bloody mark on his face. He wailed and stumbled. You Xi took advantage of the opponent's body shaking and hit the opponent's arm again with a stick.
This time, the opponent's hand shook, and the big bag in his arms fell to the ground. He subconsciously reached out to pick it up, but You Xi took advantage of the situation to bend his arm back and stepped hard on his wrist.
You Xi reached out and supported Yuan Xi, who was about to fall because of the wound caused by the force of chasing people.
"Thank you." His lips turned pale, but he gave her a helpless smile, "I owe you again."
A moment later, in the room of Yuan Qi and the other two, Lin Wu, who had been notified, treated Yuan Qi's abdominal wound and put the gauze and tools into the medical box one by one. "It's only been three days. The wound can't heal so quickly. If you try to be stubborn next time, find someone else to show you."
"Thank you." Yuan Qing pulled his clothes together and nodded at him. "Okay, I got it. I'll find another doctor then."
Lin Wu was amused by her and turned around to see You Xi: "Thank you very much today. The people in the rescue team said that he was a habitual criminal. After the tsunami, the personnel were in chaos. Many criminals escaped from the detention centers of two police stations because they did not register with the data office due to identity problems. There have also been thefts in several hotels in the past three days. The person you just caught was one of them."
Now there are too many people on the mountain and the affairs are complicated. In addition, after the power cut, the surveillance has stopped. The original electronic door of the room can no longer be locked. The survivors themselves have changed it to various models of key door locks, bolt locks, or simply not locked it. It is inevitable that someone will take advantage of the situation.
Most of the annex buildings of this hotel are occupied by families, with more women and children than men. Sometimes when collecting supplies, two adults go down together, leaving a child alone in the room to watch. Someone has set his sights on this place after an investigation.
Lin Wu stayed in the room for a while and naturally exchanged some information with You Xi. He first talked about the various situations in the hotel area, and finally asked her about the situation in the homestay area.
When You Xi was talking, she saw the thoughtful expressions of Lin Wu and Yuan Xi and had a hunch.
Sure enough, after Lin Wu left, Yuan Xi immediately proposed to move to another place of accommodation.
"We have both money and supplies."
Yuan Qing looked at Yuan Qi. "My sister is a conservative person. She brought a lot of cash with her, and she didn't take it down when she packed her backpack. There are more and more people here, and we have lost contact with the outside world. The temperature has dropped suddenly, so chaos will come sooner or later.
The rescue team is made up of the surviving police officers and government personnel on the island. Not only are they few in number, they also have no weapons, but they are in charge of all the supplies on the island. Once chaos breaks out, the situation will be difficult to control."
Yuan Qi was also frightened by what happened today. She went downstairs to get supplies today. Yuan Qing heard strange noises next door and went to see. Unexpectedly, the fifteen or sixteen-year-old boy was gagged and tied up in a corner of the room, and a strange man was rummaging through their supplies.
The people living in this room had gone to the supermarket with them to pick up something before. They all knew each other and were assigned to the next room. They would take care of each other in small matters, but they didn't expect to run into this scene.
Yuan Qi's wound had not healed yet, and the other party was holding the boy to ask for money, so she was very passive and let the other party run away. Fortunately
, You Xi showed up. The boy also had a cut on his arm and bled a lot, but fortunately nothing serious happened and nothing was lost. But Yuan Qi thought of her son when she looked at the other party. Yuan Yuan was only three and a half years old. What would she do if she encountered such a situation?
Although the homestay area may not be very safe, there are few people there. As long as Yuan Qi is given a chance to recuperate, and her wounds heal, she won't have to be as passive as she is now.
In the end, You Xi took Yuan Qi and the other two back to the homestay area.
When they left, the woman from the family of three next door heard the noise and came out, but she only stuck her head out, looked at them for a moment, asked where they were going, and then went back into the room without even saying thank you, as if she was blaming her for not being able to protect her son because his arm was injured and bleeding.
Yuan Qi sneered, Yuan Qi sighed, patted her sister on the shoulder, picked up the luggage bag, and left the annex with You Xi.
****
Yuan Qi and his two friends exchanged the price of a five-pound bag of rice, a bag of ham, five packs of instant noodles, and ten potatoes for the right to stay in a family suite.
When Youxi accompanied them to act as a translator, the boss and his wife, who were nestling in the room, were tuning the radio with a broken radio that they got from somewhere. She also listened to what they heard. The situation outside was still not good. The island countries around the sea country and even the mainland a little further away were hit by the tsunami.
The boss and his wife were worried, so in addition to money, they also required food. With the original room price for one day plus a proper amount of food, they could stay in the suite forever.
Yuan Qing thought this was more cost-effective, so he took out his mobile phone to record the conditions for the room price agreed upon with the other party, and then moved in.
This room is just downstairs from Yuan Qing, but it faces south instead of north, and there is no balcony, but two windows.
Looking north, there is still a black ocean with floating construction waste and corpses. Yuan Qi's psychological tolerance is not that good, and with Yuan Yuan, it is better to stay in a south-facing room.
The location of this B&B is really not very good. So far, the only guests are Youxi in the north-facing room on the fifth floor, four young women from Beijing in the south-facing family suite on the second floor, and Yuan Qi's family on the fourth floor.
But Yuan Qi is very satisfied. All the conditions here meet her requirements. Yuan Qi is even more satisfied because there is a public kitchen on the first floor of the B&B, which has kitchen utensils, bowls, chopsticks, and a stove for burning firewood.
When she was a child, she lived in the countryside. Things that are extremely difficult for others are simply a piece of cake for her.
So at noon that day, when Youxi was looking at the half-eaten hot pot on the shelf in the Xingwu warehouse, the bacon, carrot and egg fried rice made the day before yesterday, the soft and fragrant cheese pizza next to it, the crispy and soft fried chicken, the Northeastern dishes just out of the pot, the fragrant and spicy Sichuan and Hunan dishes, the fresh and exquisite sushi, various brines, noodle soups, wontons, vermicelli soup, spicy rice noodles, fried dumplings... and so on and so forth, all kinds of takeout that she had not yet started to eat, and was wondering what to eat for lunch today, Yuanyuan, who was wrapped up like a dumpling, knocked on her door on her short legs.
"Sister Xixi, mom and aunt said... they want you to have dinner together!" He was holding a toy dinosaur in his arms, wearing a long down jacket with a hood, and his little face was flushed with warmth.
Yuan Qi was a very careful person. Even though she was on a tropical island, she did not forget to pack a few warm clothes from China into her big backpack.
She probably just thought she could wear them when she was rescued and returned to China, but she accidentally dealt with the cooling crisis.
Yuanyuan forgot the invitation speech at one point, turned around and looked at her aunt at the other end of the corridor for help, and finally finished the invitation smoothly.
Yuan Luo walked over slowly and touched Yuan Yuan's head: "I owe you a few favors, and I don't know how to thank you. After thinking about it, I can only treat you to something hot. My sister cooked a meal, but there are not many dishes. Come and warm your stomach together."
You Xi hesitated for only two seconds before agreeing: "Okay, I'll lock the balcony and come down right away."
"Yuan Yuan will go downstairs and wait for her sister!" Yuan Yuan was obviously happier than Yuan Luo. Although he was young, he could also sense the tense atmosphere in the air these days, especially today when he saw his aunt fighting with others.
You Xi went downstairs to eat today, which was like a guest at home for him, and it was a very happy thing.
After Yuan Luo and Yuan Yuan went downstairs, You Xi entered the room and locked the balcony door, then took two boxes of tomato beef brisket flavored self-heating small hot pots from the Xingwu warehouse and put them in his backpack.
The suite downstairs was very large, with a bedroom, a living room, and a long table that could seat six people.
At this moment, there were four bowls of rice on the table, a plate of fried luncheon meat with carrots, a plate of fried shredded carrots and potatoes, fried steamed buns wrapped in eggs, stir-fried cabbage, and a seaweed egg soup.
The seemingly simple four meals and one soup were actually not simple at all. Rice, cooking oil, carrots, and potatoes were easy to prepare, but eggs and cabbage were not so easy.
This type of food is not easy to store, so the stock is limited. In the past three days, the survivors have only been given one or two fresh leaves. The vegetable soup is cooked with dehydrated vegetables, and eggs have been stopped since yesterday.
However, Youxi thought about it and knew who got these vegetables.
It should be Lin Wu.
It is estimated that he and Yuan Xi had some private agreement or cooperation since they went to the supermarket to get supplies. Of course, this is just a guess, and it cannot be 100% certain. After all, it is someone else's private matter. Who doesn't have a secret?
Just like she took out food now: two boxes of self-heating hot pots, three boxes of coconut drinks, a large bag of pork jerky, and two apples, and placed them on the coffee table beside her and said they were gifts. She estimated that Yuan Xi was thinking the same thing in her heart - after all, when she left the Ruonaya Hotel, she only brought a large backpack.
The self-heating hot pot was obviously not a product of L Island. Although it was more than enough to put it in, ordinary people would pick up the most important dry goods when fleeing. The self-heating hot pot took up more space and could not be considered dry goods.
But her plan to leave the island needed help. If she carried out her plan, some secrets would inevitably be exposed. She was also weighing and testing this time.
"We just came here to have a quick bite, why do you bring a gift?" Yuan Qi didn't think too much about it. When she saw the self-heating hot pot, she just thought that You Xi brought it from the country.
This thing was nothing in the past, but it was too precious in this situation. She wanted to refuse, but You Xi refused to take it back. In the end, she accepted it, but she silently thought that she could leave a portion for him when she cooked porridge or rice for hot food in the future. After
the meal, Yuan Qi would send the bowls, chopsticks and the like to the kitchen downstairs, and wait until the water and electricity came back at 7 to 8 o'clock in the evening to wash them. She used purified water to cook lunch at noon, almost according to the scale, and did not dare to waste anything.
You Xi helped Yuan Qi clean up, and even Yuanyuan wiped the table carefully with a paper towel.
Afterwards, Yuan Qi took her son into the bedroom to coax him to take a nap, and You Xi took the initiative to talk to Yuan Qing.
"You want to leave by yourself?" Yuan Qing was a little surprised. She originally thought that the other party wanted to talk to her about supplies.
You Xi nodded: "The scope of this tsunami is far beyond our imagination. Instead of waiting here, it is better to save ourselves."
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