Chapter 9 Supermarket in the Water
[9]
The shopping mall is surrounded by low buildings. It stands there like a crane among chickens, but only three floors are above the water.
This place is closer to the coast and was hit hard by the tsunami. The glass on the fifth floor was all broken. The speedboat was parked upside down next to the building. Ximan was responsible for fixing the rope, and the others could climb in directly through the empty window without the need for a rubber boat.
The fifth floor was ravaged by the tsunami. Every store inside was in a mess. There were undried water stains everywhere on the ground. Many items were soaked in water, but of course there were also intact items.
Fortunately, the supermarket in this shopping mall was on the top floor and was not affected too much.
The supermarket was not very big, and the shelves were not full. Some foods that needed to be refrigerated and frozen, such as vegetables, fish and meat, had not yet been put on the shelves, but these were not necessities at the moment.
For their group, the things on the shelves were more than enough.
Lin Wu reminded everyone before they got off the boat that the speedboat was heavy and was now full, so everyone could not take items without limit. They had to control the weight of a suitcase and try to take the things they needed most.
No one objected to this. Xiao Lu glanced at the huge speedboat and muttered in a low voice, "Obviously the place is very big." Fang Zichen looked at her disapprovingly, and she immediately shut up.
The elevator to the seventh floor is inside the mall, and you have to go through most of the building. There is no electricity in the mall, and it is dark everywhere. If you are not careful, you will step on water or be tripped by fallen objects. Some doors have been washed down, and there
is broken glass all over the floor. However, when everyone finally got there, they found that the glass on both sides of the escalator had been completely washed down, and the black handrails were slanted there. The steps were full of broken glass, and the steps on the other side were full of water.
To go up from here, you have to go through a pile of broken glass, and there are no handrails on both sides. If you make a mistake, you will fall down.
A few people discussed it, and finally found the nearby stairwell by looking for signs.
The stairwell is inside the safety door, and the situation is better than the escalator. But again, one side of the stairs went up, while the other side of the stairs was completely submerged in water, like a bottomless pool.
Because everyone had different focuses and priorities for taking items, unless they were a family of three who were tied together, everyone else would take items separately to save trouble.
Youxi followed the others' example and found a good carry-on bag in a luggage store on the fifth floor, then pretended to collect the items she needed.
She had plenty of things, and compared to the purposeful things others took, it was more like shopping in a supermarket.
She took a lot of local snacks, all kinds of dried fruits, various packaged snacks made from seafood, vacuum-packed meats such as chicken wings, duck wings, beef jerky, sausages, specialty food cakes made from coconut, chocolates of various brands and packages, and a lot of biscuits and candies of different styles.
Then there were several boxes of room temperature boxed milk, several cartons of coconut milk drinks in cartons, and several boxes of instant noodles in barrels, each containing 20 to 30 bottles. She
also took a lot of a famous local instant coffee in bags, and later discovered drip coffee, which can be brewed with hot water and tastes just as good as freshly ground coffee. Since everyone else was in the main food area, she reached out and took all the drip coffee.
Finally, she replenished her supplies with a dozen 5-kilogram bags of local fragrant rice and four boxes of one-liter mineral water that others found inconvenient to take, each containing 20 bottles.
Some of the light snacks and vacuum-packed food items were placed in the luggage bag, and most of them were placed in the Star House Warehouse by her; the heavier drinks and food were all placed in the Star House Warehouse, and only four to five boxes of drinks were placed in the luggage bag to make it look like a bag.
Youxi looked at the things in the warehouse that were gradually increasing and piling up, and felt a bit like bringing souvenirs and gifts when traveling abroad, and she didn't know if these things could be brought back to the native world.
Afterwards, she went around to other areas and successfully found a power bank on a shelf. She took three, and then some flashlights and batteries. She passed by the daily necessities area and replenished a lot of disposable underwear, sanitary napkins, napkins, towels, bath towels, toothpaste and toothbrushes.
After finishing, she returned to the fifth floor, passed by a clothing store, and found some T-shirts, trousers, thin coats, cotton socks, hiking shoes and other items for this season.
Most of the clothes she prepared before were cold-weather clothes, and her own world was also autumn. She had no idea that she would be on a tropical island as soon as she arrived, so what she lacked most was seasonal clothes.
She thought she was the first one back on the speedboat, but when she got back, she found that Lin Wu was already on the boat.
Yuan Xi had just had his wound sutured, and he had to avoid moving as much as possible, so he stayed on the speedboat with Yuan Yuan. At this moment, Yuan Yuan was on the upper deck, while Yuan Xi and Lin Wu were both standing in front of the cabin on the lower deck, seemingly talking about something.
Lin Wu saw her and stopped talking to Yuan Qing: "Are you back? Have you got everything?"
"Yes." She felt as if she had disturbed him, so she answered and went straight to the upper floor, then took out a large bag of jelly from her luggage bag and handed it to Yuan Yuan. He happily hugged her tightly: "Is it for Yuan Yuan?"
"Yes, because Yuan Yuan is well behaved, so I reward you."
After a while, the family of three and the two couples also returned to the speedboat.
Following behind them were Ximan and Yuan Qi.
They pushed a small loading cart to the edge of the building with several luggage bags on it. He asked Yuan Qi to help hold the cart, and he got on the speedboat first, and then took the luggage bags one by one. You Xi counted them and found five in total, one for each of Lin Wu, Yuan Xi, Ximan, Yuan Qi, and Yuan Yuan.
She was lost in thought, so Lin Wu didn't take anything before? But she clearly saw him get off the speedboat earlier than her, and she didn't see him at any time when he came back.
The remaining people who didn't come back were Fang Zichen, Xiaolu, Mangmang, and two hotel staff.
Everyone waited for a while, but still no one was seen.
"Did anyone see them when you came back?" Lin Wu came down from the upper floor.
"I saw Meng Lu when I passed by the cosmetics area. She was picking up cosmetics at the time."
One of the girls in the two couples spoke up, and the others frowned when they heard it. It was such a late hour and they were still picking cosmetics. They really thought they were still on vacation.
Everyone was dissatisfied, and the girl immediately shut up.
In fact, she had also taken some skin care products when she passed by there. The skin care products she brought with her on vacation were all samples. She didn't know how long she would have to stay on the island, so she took some when she had the chance. She didn't expect that speaking out would cause dissatisfaction among everyone.
Now that they saw the unhappiness on other people's faces, they naturally wouldn't say that they had also taken skin care products.
After a while, just as Lin Wu was about to take Ximan back to look for someone, the two men from the hotel hurried out carrying things. The travel bags they each carried were particularly large, and when they were thrown onto the speedboat, everyone felt the boat shake twice.
Lin Wu frowned, but didn't say anything. He just asked the two people if they had seen Fang Zichen and Meng Lu.
I don't know if the other party didn't understand or what, both of them didn't answer, but their faces were not very good. Ximan stepped forward to ask clearly, but the other party still looked angry and reluctant to speak.
After waiting for a long time, Meng Lu and Fang Zichen finally showed up in a hurry. Her clothes were all wet and she looked messy. Fang Zichen supported her with one hand and held two luggage bags with the other hand. Behind them, Mangmang carried his own luggage bag and followed silently all the way.
He saw the two hotel men on the speedboat and said angrily, "You are too much. She almost drowned!"
This time, the other party spoke up, "She slipped down by herself. It has nothing to do with us."
"If it wasn't for you, how could I have slipped down? If I didn't know how to swim, I would be dead now!"
"Don't talk nonsense!"
...
No one said anything. No one knew what happened. It was obviously Meng Lu who brought these two people here. She had defended her before. Why is there trouble again now?
However, after being late frequently, leaking her mouth, and taking cosmetics, others were somewhat dissatisfied with Meng Lu. In addition, she had said before that she would solve the problem herself. There were more people watching the show than those who wanted to help.
You Xi was drinking the coconut drink she had just taken and opening a bag of squid shreds. She didn't want to pay attention to what was happening next.
Although she was also curious about what happened in just half an hour to make such a fuss, her desire to stay away from trouble far outweighed her curiosity.
The people below started to quarrel, one side spoke Beijing Mandarin, the other side spoke Hai Mandarin, and Fang Zichen was in the middle arguing in International Language. It was as lively as a vegetable market.
"Enough!" In the end, it was Lin Wu who stopped the farce with a shout, "If you keep quarreling, take a rubber boat and row to Wanghai Mountain by yourself."
These words worked better than anything else, and both sides stopped quarreling.
Meng Lu suppressed her anger and found a seat farthest away from each other with Fang Zichen.
The clothes she had just changed into were soaked again. The seawater was very dirty and had a bad smell. She was especially panicked when she fell into the water and accidentally swallowed two mouthfuls of water. Thinking of the countless corpses under the water, she felt so disgusted that she wanted to vomit...
Fang Zichen took a towel from his travel bag and helped her wipe. Meng Lu looked up at him with a look of grievance in her eyes: "Zichen, they are too much. I almost drowned..."
"Sister Xiaolu, how did they make you slide down? You helped them before, but they turned against you?" Mang Mang, who had always been taciturn, suddenly spoke.
Xiaolu was a little speechless, but fortunately she looked miserable now, so even if she didn't answer, it would not be appropriate for the other party to continue asking.
In fact, not only did Mangmang not know, Fang Zichen also did not know how Xiaolu fell into the water.
When the three of them got off the boat and walked outside the supermarket, they all went their separate ways to get things.
Xiaolu and Mangmang are girls, and they may need to take some feminine products and underwear, so it is not convenient for him to be with them, so he directly told the two to meet on the yacht.
He had a head injury, and thought that he could not rely entirely on others in this situation with a lack of medical care, so he spent time looking for medicine. On the way to find medicine, he ran into Mangmang, who said that he had already taken the things and wanted to go with him, so he followed him to find medicine.
The two left the latest, and before they approached the stairwell, they heard a quarrel inside, but they could not hear clearly because of the door and the floor. Later, they heard the sound of splashing water. He suspected that someone had fallen into the water, so he quickly rushed into the stairwell and ran downstairs, only to find that the person who fell into the water was Xiaolu.
Fang Zichen saw Xiaolu like this, and he didn't have the heart to ask more questions. He could only persuade her: "Fortunately, you are fine now. In the current situation, it is better to have less trouble than more. Forget it. Anyway, everyone will separate when we arrive at Wanghai Mountain. Just bear with it."
Xiaolu didn't want to bear it at all. Those two people were really too much. She just ran into them in the stairwell. Because she had too many things, she wanted to temporarily put a plastic bag of skin care products that couldn't fit into her travel bag into their bag. She also took out a few cigarettes from their bag to try to put them in together.
But the two of them didn't want to, and signaled her to throw away such useless things. She was busy taking care of her skin care products, but she accidentally slipped and fell directly into the water.
But none of the two people came to save her and just left.
Islanders are islanders, uneducated and ungrateful. If it weren't for her, how could they have the chance to come to the supermarket to stock up before moving to the mountain? How dare they do this to her!
Meng Lu was angry and resentful, planning all kinds of revenge, but when she thought of Mang Mang who had been clinging to Fang Zichen all the way, she held back and hummed softly.
****
It took the speedboat nearly two hours to reach the vicinity of Wanghai Mountain. Part of the mountain was also flooded, and the road surface and the mountain forest slope could no longer be distinguished.
Ximan had been here several times, and it was only because he knew the way that the speedboat did not get stuck halfway and finally drove smoothly to the front of the mountain.
This is a gentle slope, but it is not the main docking location. The rescue boats are on the other side, and most of the survivors are paddling in rubber boats and small boats.
The speedboat cannot drive to the side of the mountain. The water is too shallow and there is a risk of stranded. In the end, we still use rubber boats to cross. The two men in the hotel didn't care about these. They just carried their luggage bags into the water, waded through the water, and left on their own.
Because there were too many things, everyone was ferried to shore in three waves with the help of Ximan.
With the help of Lin Wu, Yuan Qi stopped the speedboat next to a big tree. The trunk of the tree was very thick and submerged in the water. The shade of the tree could slightly cover the speedboat. Lin Wu tied the rope to the trunk and helped Yuan Qi get on the rubber boat that Ximan had arranged to pick up people.
When the feet touched the solid ground, almost everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
At this time, the two hotel men had already merged into the distant crowd and could not be seen.
The remaining people automatically divided into several groups, two couples in each group, Yuan Qi and his two friends and You Xi were close, and the family of three stood next to Lin Wu. Ximan and Lin Wu were deflated the rubber boat together. He looked at You Xi and wanted to go over, but in the end he stayed beside Lin Wu and did not move.
Xiaolu endured the pain all the way, and as soon as she got off the boat, she said she wanted to change her wet clothes first. She pulled Fang Zichen to the bushes, as if to find a place to hide, and Mangmang continued to follow behind.
Fang Zichen was pulled by Xiaolu, and looked at Youxi awkwardly, but unfortunately she didn't even look at him.
He finally helped find a dense bush, and asked Mangmang who was following behind to help, while he kept watch nearby.
Lin Wu didn't plan to wait for them, so he put away the rubber boat, and the three groups set off at the same time in tacit understanding. Now they were all heading in the same direction, towards the flow of people.
The rescue team set up a registration office in the open space outside several large hotels on the mountainside. There is electricity on the mountain, and the water resources are not polluted for the time being. At present, the hotels and inns are enough for survivors to live in. Accommodation is free, three meals a day are provided, and water and electricity are limited.
However, single people like her need to share a room, because there are still many people trapped in the water on the island, and they will be transferred here one after another later.
Youxi definitely cannot share a room with others. She asked a father with a child. The other party had just received a meal, and his clothes were clean and he was in good spirits.
The other party told her that he was originally a guest at a hotel on the mountain. When the tsunami occurred, he was on the mountain and escaped.
After the tsunami ended yesterday evening, the rescue team began to evacuate people from the surrounding area. The situation on the mountain is a bit chaotic now. All large hotels and guesthouses have been taken over. Now accommodation and meals are free, but it is not like before when you can live alone and order what you want to eat. Everything is distributed uniformly.
Most of the survivors lost their property in the tsunami. Although this arrangement is inconvenient, it is reasonable.
"…But I heard that there are several important guests in the five-star hotel, and they are still treated the same as before. If you really don't want to share a room with others and you have money, you can go around this area and go to the north side of the mountain. The environment and conditions there are not as good as here. Most of them are homestays and apartment hotels. However, because there are so many of them and they are relatively scattered, the rescue team cannot take over the unified arrangements. You should be able to live independently there by spending some money, but there is no food distribution station there yet, and you have to come here to get your things, which is not convenient.
There are pros and cons, right?" The other party was from Baiguo. Hearing that Youxi spoke fluent Baiguo and felt very friendly, he couldn't help but say a few more words.
Youxi thanked him and took out a small bag of dried fruit and a bag of squid from his luggage before leaving. He handed them to the boy from Boguo: "Your father helped me, this is a thank you gift."
The other party wanted to refuse, but in this situation, even if he had money, he couldn't buy such snacks - at least ordinary people couldn't buy them. The main reason was that after the tsunami yesterday, many guests from the hotel area rushed into the only two supermarkets here for crazy shopping and even caused a scramble, so now all supplies have been controlled by the rescue team.
He felt sorry for his son, and finally accepted it at Youxi's insistence.
On the side, Yuan Qi and the other two had already registered and received their room numbers and registration cards, which had the hotel name and their names written on them.
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