◎Happy 54th Day: Feudal Superstition◎
The night before leaving for the comprehensive plaza, everyone was given a copy of the small note that Jiang Muyun had compiled about the miscellaneous items.
Some supplies that had already been found, such as clothes drying racks, were crossed out by a few people, and some remaining items were waiting for them to find in the comprehensive square.
Clothes, quilts, electrical appliances, even tables, chairs, benches, mosquito nets, curtains, and toilet water.
Several people have discovered traces of mosquitoes in the mountains in the past few days, and the number seems to be increasing.
Using the insect repellent cream they brought from Nanshan to deal with mosquitoes always felt like a waste of resources, so they decided to include toilet water, wind oil, etc. in the list of items.
Wang Qingqing and the other three had been to the Art Market and visited the Comprehensive Plaza. They had a general impression of the layout of the Comprehensive Plaza and were now trying hard to recall the layout of the Comprehensive Plaza and try to restore a simple map.
"There is a pharmacy at entrance number two on the first floor, and next to the pharmacy is the entrance to the supermarket on the basement floor." Wang Qingqing sniffed and started to sort out her memory from the entrance.
"The first floor should be full of electronic products, as well as some high-end cigarettes, alcohol, gold and silver jewelry, etc." Wu Xingyue added.
"The second floor is full of clothes, and there are also a few snack shops." Zheng Xiang said.
Zhou Ying no longer had much of an impression of the integrated plaza: "I only remember there was an arcade on the third floor."
Zheng Xiang remembered it more clearly: "The third floor sells leather shoes and bags, and home textiles are also on the third floor. Next to the video game arcade is the children's playground. If the foam mats there are still intact, we can also get some back."
The camp bed that Jiang Muyun brought back was a bit tattered and creaked when she slept on it. Jiang Muyun weighed over 100 pounds, and she was afraid that the bed would collapse in the middle of the night and she would fall to the ground.
She could sleep on the bed she brought from home at night. There was no need to argue with the camp bed, so she gave the bed to Wang Qingqing, who had a stuffy nose.
At present, apart from Jiang Muyun, only Wang Qingqing has the privilege of sleeping on a bed, and everyone else still sleeps on the floor.
Camp beds are hard to find, but you can always take apart a few foam mats to sleep on. You can also make the bed bigger, so you don’t have to worry about turning over at night and falling to the ground and chewing on dirt.
After a few people pieced together their information, they roughly figured out the general layout of the comprehensive square and assigned some material salvage tasks.
For example, Jiang Muyun and his group, the first group of people who set out to search for supplies, could just clear out the pharmacy and bring it up, and then everyone could divide it among themselves, so as to avoid wasting time running back and forth for a few small things.
To be fair, some miscellaneous items such as gauze curtains and mosquito nets were assigned to other groups of people to find specifically so that they didn't have to drag them themselves.
This arrangement is mainly due to the fact that the integrated plaza is too large.
When they search residential buildings, they can surface for three to five minutes to breathe, but in the comprehensive plaza, three to five minutes is not enough to swim from one door to another.
In this case, the previous model of taking your own things is no longer applicable and is a waste of time.
In addition to arranging supply search missions, they will also have to carry a few empty bottles with them every day when they go into the water as emergency oxygen reserves.
Everything was ready, and they set out early the next morning at dawn.
Today they have a lot of miscellaneous items to look for, and they may not be able to bring them all back in one trip. In order to have more time to search for supplies, they can only set off early and save time on the road.
The integrated plaza covers a large area, so it is easy to find the exact location once you are nearby.
The possibility of finding food outside the residential area is very low now. At most, you can find some snacks and drinks, so the few of them didn’t focus on food at all today.
The first group to go into the water were Jiang Muyun, Chu Buwen, Wang Qingqing and Zheng Xiang. The four of them found the location of Exit No. 2 and went straight to the pharmacy as soon as they got into the water.
At this time, it doesn’t matter what medicine it is. Anyway, most medicines are packaged in plastic. Just pick up the medicine you see first.
The four people worked together, and the surrounding water was stirred into turbidity, but the collection speed was obviously high.
After a few minutes, Jiang Muyun felt a little short of breath.
She undid the buckle at her waist, brought the empty bottle to her lips, and took a deep breath.
As fresh air entered his lungs, Jiang Muyun slowed down and continued to stuff things into the net bag, stuffing whatever he could find.
After a few people groped their way along the shelves and bumped into each other frequently, they could roughly determine that the pharmacy had been almost completely searched.
Dragging a bag of things, the four of them surfaced at the same time.
This time they stayed underwater for a long time, and the three empty bottles Jiang Muyun had with him had been used up, and the same was true for the others.
Jiang Muyun handed the net bag to Li Anxuan on the boat, looked up and took a breath.
The sun is just coming out now and the temperature on the water is very comfortable.
Qin Shiwu took a quick look at the medicine they brought back.
The outer packaging of those medicines was soaked in water and then kneaded by their hands, and it was no longer recognizable. Fortunately, most medicines nowadays have their names printed on the tinfoil inside.
Qin Shiwu sighed: "There are basically no anti-inflammatory drugs. Ninety percent are prescription drugs, and the rest are nutritional supplements."
They also knew the result.
When the temperature was high before, most people had skin diseases, and their anti-inflammatory drugs, painkillers, various trauma medicines, and topical ointments had been cleared out early on. It would be strange if they could find them.
Jiang Muyun unscrewed the empty bottle, poured out the water that had seeped in, and refilled it with air. "It's okay. We bought a lot of topical medicines in Nanshan before, so we don't need them. We can exchange prescription medicines with others later, so it's worth it."
Chu Buwen was focused on the key target this time: "Do you have Fengyoujing?"
When they are looking for something, they just put it in their pockets when they touch it, without paying any attention to what they touch.
Chu Buwen touched a lot of small bottles, but he couldn't tell whether they were medicated oil or eye drops.
Qin Shiwu emptied the contents of several net bags, and Qin Shiwen rummaged through them for a while: "There are a few bottles, but not many. There are also some baby mosquito repellent and cooling oil."
Jiang Muyun sighed: "Then we have to go to the supermarket."
The supermarket is on the underground floor, and the entrance and exit are the same. It would be very dangerous if you were to run out of oxygen or get lost in the supermarket and fail to surface in time.
They originally thought of looking for it in the pharmacy, and if the quantity was sufficient, they would not take the risk of going to the supermarket.
Jiang Muyun stretched his arms and said, "It's inevitable. Give me the bottle. Chu Buwen and I will go and search. Remember to help me get some mobile phones, game consoles, and other things."
There is only one shelf selling toilet water in the supermarket. If too many people go there, the water will easily become muddy. If we are not careful, everyone will get lost. It is safer to go together with one or two people.
Qin Shiwen handed the spare empty bottles they brought to Chu Buwen and Jiang Muyun, frowning and saying, "If we really can't find any, forget it. We can find some more gauze mosquito nets to provide good protection."
Jiang Muyun tied three more empty bottles around his waist: "Don't worry, it's not a big problem."
There were few mosquitoes during the hot weather, so not many people came to buy toilet water.
Some people cannot stand the itching of their skin and want to use toilet water to relieve the itching. However, toilet water contains more than just alcohol. If you just pour it on the wound, wouldn’t that be provoking the wound?
The more people get into trouble, the fewer people dare to commit suicide.
Mosquitoes only become more common after it rains, and at that time, it's impossible to go out even if you want to. Therefore, the toilet water in the supermarket should not be sold out, and there is a high possibility that they can find it. If all else fails, Jiang Muyun can smuggle a few bottles out from the space.
The only problem is that they don't know where to buy toilet water in the supermarket.
Wang Qingqing and the other three only knew about the place where daily chemical products were sold, but they had never been there specifically, so Jiang Muyun and Chu Buwen had to explore the place on their own after getting into the water.
Jiang Muyun and Chu Buwen looked at each other and dived at the same time.
The entrance to the supermarket is right next to the pharmacy, so the two people who had just been to the pharmacy were familiar with the place.
After the two entered the supermarket, they swept the flashlight around the supermarket and roughly understood the situation inside.
The supermarket shelves were fixed directly to the ground and were not knocked down by the flood, but the goods on the shelves were scattered everywhere.
The daily necessities area that Wang Qingqing and the others mentioned was in the second row of shelves right in front of the checkout counter. The place was not small, but because of the shelves blocking the way, Jiang Muyun couldn't see clearly what was going on inside at the entrance.
Jiang Muyun and Chu Buwen made a gesture.
This was not the first time they had gone into the water to search for supplies, so they knew very well what to do in this situation.
One person goes right, the other goes left. Don't interfere with each other. Once you find someone, go ahead. Even if you're running out of oxygen, just flash your flashlight to let the other person know before you go. Don't worry about the other person's situation, and don't look back to find them. Make as little noise as possible.
With shelves acting as barriers, a person's movements, as long as they are not too big, can only muddy the area of the water to a limited extent. Once the situation goes wrong, as long as one is calm enough to steady his movements and float to the top of the shelves, he can find a way out.
But if you panic underwater and your movements become larger, or if a second person turns back to look for you, making the surroundings muddy, then getting lost is inevitable.
The level of danger here is incomparable to that small chain supermarket in the scenic area.
When there are shelves everywhere, the water is turbid and there is no visibility, and it is impossible to tell the direction, if you want to find the exit, you can only rely on luck and gamble your life.
Jiang Muyun and Chu Buwen were veterans. They held onto the top of the shelves for leverage, tried to restrain their movements as much as possible, and stayed away from places where dust and sand accumulated. They held up flashlights and struggled to distinguish the goods.
Jiang Muyun walked along this row of shelves all the way to the end and directly found the daily necessities area. He collected two large rows of puffed foods, but there was no sign of toilet water.
She used up the first empty bottle.
This time she brought a total of six empty bottles into the water. She had tried it before and found that this was the limit. If she brought more, these bottles would become a burden.
Including the two bottles reserved for the return trip, she still had three bottles to use, which could probably last more than ten minutes.
According to Wang Qingqing, there are two large shelves in the daily chemical products area, which are separated by brand counters in the middle. There are five or six shelves in a row on each side, for a total of two rows.
She also remembered that the row closer to the cashier was filled with skin care products and shower gel.
Jiang Muyun was not too disappointed when he didn't find any trace of toilet water in the first row.
She circled the shelves and prepared to start searching the second row.
When Jiang Muyun walked around, she raised her flashlight and shone it towards the opposite side. Chu Buwen on the opposite side may have felt the light and flashed back at her twice.
It means that Chu Buwen didn’t find it either.
Jiang Muyun and Chu Buwen were at about the same level of progress, and both began searching the second row of shelves at the same time.
The shape of the toilet water bottle was very conspicuous, and Jiang Muyun could tell it apart when the light shone on the raised patch of dust.
This kind of bottle with a long and thin neck appears in the daily chemical products area. If it is not toilet water, it can't be a bar.
Jiang Muyun used up the air in the second bottle, and then carefully looked at the shelf near the bottle of toilet water.
There were only a few tilted and upside-down toilet waters left on the shelves, some in glass bottles and some in plastic spray bottles, from all brands.
She didn't reach out to brush off the dust, but first collected all the toilet water on the shelf into the space, and then transferred it directly from the space into the net bag.
After quietly collecting the items on the shelves, she began to define the area of the toilet water that had spilled on the ground.
Jiang Muyun held onto the shelf for leverage and began to fish things out from the inside out.
Almost at the moment when Jiang Muyun approached the ground, mud and dust rose up, covering Jiang Muyun's body so that no light could penetrate.
She had space and didn't need to put things into the net bag one by one.
Jiang Muyun took advantage of the almost zero visibility around her and directly put the net bag into the space. She groped on the ground with her hands, picking up each bottle she touched. Finally, she felt that she had reached the edge of the shelf. She took out the net bag and put all the bottles she had just touched into it.
Now that I have found the thing, it's time to go.
Jiang Muyun quietly began to float up. When the water was not so turbid, she used the third bottle and flashed the flashlight in the direction of Chu Buwen.
What surprised Jiang Muyun was that Chu Buwen's place was also turbid. From Jiang Muyun's perspective, the noise was probably no less than when he touched toilet water in the water.
Isn't the toilet water all here? What is Chu Buwen looking for?
Although Jiang Muyun was curious, she didn't go over to take a look.
Chu Buwen is not the kind of person who panics when encountering problems. If she ran over, it would make it more difficult for the two of them to survive.
But since Chu Buwen can't receive any messages now and she has some air left, why not get some more supplies into the space?
Jiang Muyun thought of the snack area next to the daily necessities.
The road she had walked on when she came in was already muddy, and it was impossible for it to calm down in such a short time.
Actively entering the muddy water area underwater is an act of seeking excitement. Jiang Muyun is not so brave, so her original route out was to circle along the wall at the end of the shelf and go to the door.
My route out just happens to pass by the snack area, and I would be letting myself down if I didn’t accept it.
Jiang Muyun does what he says.
She didn't dare put the puffed foods floating on the supermarket ceiling into the space, for fear of being discovered, but she could at least pick up a few bags and put them in a net bag.
As for those blocked by the shelves, they were all collected by Jiang Muyun and taken into the space.
After emptying several shelves, Jiang Muyun touched the wall and prepared to go to the exit along the wall.
As she touched it, she felt something was wrong with the touch.
After Jiang Muyun finished using the fourth bottle of air, she reached out and tapped the wall, but unexpectedly, she moved the "wall" directly.
Jiang Muyun was stunned for a moment.
Could it be that he found the supermarket warehouse?
What supermarket puts a warehouse door next to the entrance? Is it so wild?
But if you think about it, the entrance and exit of this supermarket are together, so it’s not impossible!
Jiang Muyun was ecstatic.
She groped along the gap she had just created and found the location of the door lock.
Jiang Muyun used the same trick again, put the door lock into the space, and successfully opened the warehouse door.
The supermarket in the comprehensive plaza is not a scenic area supermarket. Nearby residents often come here to buy things, so the supermarket has been replenishing stocks normally. Although the warehouse is not full, it can be said that it has abundant supplies.
Jiang Muyun groped forward in the muddy water.
If she remembered correctly, when the door was opened and the dust had not yet risen, she seemed to see the shape of a pile of rice bricks stacked together.
Rice and flour are indeed sold out as soon as they are put on the shelves, and it is difficult for ordinary people to buy them, but this does not mean that China is currently in a food crisis.
China's official strategic grain reserves alone are enough to feed the entire nation for two to three years if eaten sparingly.
Not to mention the supplies in the hands of some major grain merchants and the grain stockpiled by private households.
It seems incredible that there is still food in the supermarket warehouse.
The incredible thing is not that there is grain in the supermarket, but that the rice is actually kept in the warehouse instead of being directly put out for sale.
When Jiang Muyun touched something that looked like a rice brick and put a bag of it into the space to confirm what it was, he knew why the rice was placed in the warehouse.
These rice bricks are vacuum-packed in red and printed with the words "XX Supermarket Mid-Year Benefits".
The mid-year benefits have not been distributed yet, but the rainstorm has come first.
Jiang Muyun used up the fifth bottle of air, turned around and swam out.
This batch of rice is quite a lot. If all of it can be moved back, it will almost catch up with the total amount of rice they have collected in the past four days.
If they could bring this batch of rice back, they would have no problem staying in the mountains until the potatoes were ripe twice.
It's certainly dangerous in the supermarket, but the temptation here is great enough.
The warehouse was not far from the exit and was next to the wall, so the group could enter and exit safely by just touching the wall.
The air in the bottle can only be used for emergency purposes and cannot be compared with real breathing, so the further Jiang Muyun goes, the faster the air is used up.
To be on the safe side, Jiang Muyun used up his last bottle of air at the supermarket exit and then floated to the surface in one breath.
call--
When Jiang Muyun began to breathe freely again, he even felt his hands and feet go weak.
"Is Yunyun okay?" Qin Shiwen rowed the life raft towards Jiang Muyun and reached out to pull her up: "Come up and rest for a while, you don't look well."
Jiang Muyun's lips were slightly purple at this moment, a typical symptom of hypoxia. His whole body was undulating on the water surface, and his mouth and nose were almost submerged by water several times, which made Qin Shiwen frown.
"We've been underwater for too long. Let's get on the boat first." Before Jiang Muyun could speak, Chu Buwen's voice came from behind her.
Qin Shiwen looked at Chu Buwen again, and their states were exactly the same.
Jiang Muyun nodded and handed the net bag in his hand to Qin Shiwen first, and Chu Buwen did the same.
"Did you find it there too?" Jiang Muyun asked.
She had felt strange when she saw Chu Buwen's movements underwater. Does this supermarket still have two shelves of toilet water?
Chu Buwen raised his arm: "I guess so. It's the kind used for infants and young children, the kind you pour into the basin when you take a bath as a child. There's also some talcum powder and other things."
Not only mosquito repellent, he also picked up a lot of baby cream.
Jiang Muyun raised his leg and placed it on Chu Buwen's arm. After climbing onto the boat, he reached out to pull Chu Buwen.
While Qin Shiwen was holding a net bag nearby, the two of them had already fallen into the life raft, gasping for breath with a look of dejected look on their faces.
"Brother." Jiang Muyun saw another life raft paddling towards them and raised his hand to greet him.
"Have you found it?" Qin Shiwu rowed the boat over.
There were a lot of packaging boxes piled on their life raft, all of which were various electronic products.
Jiang Muyun paused for a moment and asked, "Where are Wang Qingqing and the others? How long have they been gone?"
Li Anxuan looked around. There was only one boat parked far away on the water. It was probably someone trying to salvage supplies. "It's been a while. They should be back soon. What's up?"
Jiang Muyun lowered his voice and smiled with a hint of pride: "I found the supermarket warehouse, there is a lot of rice in it."
As expected, everyone was shocked: "There's still rice for sale in the supermarket at this time?"
Just then, Wang Qingqing and the other person surfaced. Jiang Muyun stood up and said, "They're not for sale. I saw the packaging. They're mid-year benefits from the supermarket. They probably haven't been distributed yet, so they're temporarily in the warehouse."
Wang Qingqing and the other person were still a little confused and had no idea what they were talking about.
Qin Shiwen made the matter clear in just a few words.
Wang Qingqing's eyes were gleaming with hatred: "Then shall we go down and move it now?"
Jiang Muyun shook his head. "Let someone else go down. Going down to the supermarket is quite dangerous and requires physical strength. I saw that the amount of rice is quite large. Our boat can't carry it all. We can't transport it all at once."
Jiang Muyun moved the things under his feet and said, "Let's make a few more trips and try to move them all back today. The rice we bring back today will be distributed according to work, and the other supplies can be discussed later. How about that?"
It takes at least three hours to go from the comprehensive square to the hill where they live now.
As for the batch of rice in the supermarket warehouse, considering the carrying capacity of the life raft, they would have to make at least two trips back and forth to transport it all.
With all this delay, they won't be able to do anything today.
Since we didn't catch anything else today, we used this batch of rice to compensate for the time lost on the road.
If they fail to salvage all the supplies they were originally responsible for, the workload for people going into the water tomorrow will increase sharply, and they should be compensated.
If they followed their previous principles of "whoever finds it gets it" and "whoever wants it moves it", the whole batch of rice might not be moved until tomorrow.
It’s hard to say whether they will still be in the warehouse tomorrow.
It would be better for us to move the things back together first and then divide them up slowly.
Good things should rot in their own home.
Some people do what they say.
Only Jiang Muyun knew the location of the warehouse, so she had to go down again.
Then there were Qin Shiwen, Qin Shiwu and Li Anxuan, who were originally resting and full of energy on the boat.
Each of the four people tied an empty bottle around their waist for emergency use, and also tied a noose around their wrists to connect the four people together to prevent anyone from getting lost after going into the water.
The three people on the water had already cleared space in the life raft. As soon as Jiang Muyun and the other three surfaced, they rowed the life raft directly over to pick up the supplies.
Qin Shiwen was extremely excited: "This batch of stuff is really a lot, let's go down again and then return as soon as possible!"
Chu Buwen reached out to pull Jiang Muyun: "I'll go down with you this time."
Jiang Muyun followed his force and got on the boat.
She never tries to be tough about this kind of thing.
After suffering from hypoxia, she went into the water again without much rest. Her physical strength could not hold on any longer and it might be dangerous to go into the water again.
"Be careful. We will return immediately after this trip." Jiang Muyun said after taking two quick breaths.
As soon as Jiang Muyun finished speaking, Wang Qingqing and Zheng Xiang had already covered the rice tightly with film, and piled a lot of electronic product boxes on the side to hide it from others.
Jiang Muyun turned over and asked, "What did you find? Oh, there's an electric fan?"
Jiang Muyun picked up a USB desktop fan and looked at it from left to right. The box wrapped in plastic was a little damp and the pattern on the box was a little blurred. He didn't know if the fan could still be used.
Wang Qingqing dug out a bunch of small electric fans from the boxes. "It's better to be prepared. If the water recedes and the sun comes out and the weather gets hotter, these things will definitely be useful."
Jiang Muyun's hand holding the fan box froze for a moment: "Sister, do you remember what you said half a month ago?"
About two weeks ago, the sun had disappeared and people were nearly driven crazy by the drought. Wang Qingqing, with particular optimism, said, "What if the lack of sun is holding back a torrential downpour?"
As it turned out, the rain that was held back was indeed heavy.
Wang Qingqing herself also paused.
After a long while, Wang Qingqing managed to utter, "No... can't I?"
Zheng Xiang pondered for a moment and said comfortingly, "When we go into the water tomorrow, I'll look for a Bodhisattva statue for you. If not, you can go back and worship it."
Jiang Muyun: "What if it becomes more effective after the worship?"
Wang Qingqing was very logical: "Well, if nothing works, should I smash the Buddha statue? That wouldn't be good..."
Zheng Xiang: "Can't you just say nice things while you're praying? Wouldn't that offset the rules?"
Wang Qingqing might really have some talent for feudal superstitious activities.
The next day, Chu Buwen and Jiang Muyun were responsible for staying behind, and they used a pulley device to transport water up the mountain.
After filling up the water tank at home, Chu Buwen felt that the water level seemed to have dropped a little.
It wasn't obvious, and he wasn't even sure if it was his illusion.
But that night, when several people were using the gauze brought back by Zhao Jiahao and others during the day to nail mosquito screens, Wu Xingyue suddenly fell down.
Qin Shiwu judged it was heatstroke.
Chu Buwen confirmed that the drop in the water level he felt during the day was not an illusion.
The temperature is really rising.
It's just that they either live in caves or go into the water to retrieve supplies every day, so they are not sensitive to temperature changes.
Wang Qingqing was extremely panicked. As she poured Huoxiang Zhengqi water into Wu Xingyue's mouth, she muttered, "Should I really go find a temple to worship?"
Jiang Muyun took out her original list of miscellaneous items and said, "Let's check and see what else we haven't found. We'll try to collect everything within the next two days, then tidy up the mountain and don't go out anymore."
The temperature rises, the water level drops, and with more and more people outside, the dirt can no longer be hidden.
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