Chapter 100 Wei County
In the evening, Yao Ruoyun finally woke up. She had suffered from concussion and high fever for several days, plus the shock of yesterday's explosion. This time she was completely exhausted. After opening her eyes, she was still lying in bed, without even the strength to get up.
This ward was converted from an office. The office was not as big as a classroom and was separated by curtains. There were six beds in one room. At this moment, the curtains on both sides of her bed were drawn. Shu Fu was sitting on a chair beside her bed. A faint fragrance of rice porridge wafted from the bedside.
Yao Ruoyun thought it was an illusion until Shu Fu stood up, took out a brown paper bowl, and asked her if she wanted some porridge.
She turned her head to look at the head of the bed. There was a folding electric kettle on the small wooden cabinet. The socket of the kettle was connected to a large-capacity power bank. This kettle should have the function of keeping warm. At this moment, the insulation light was on. It did not consume much electricity, but it could slowly boil the rice soup until it became rice porridge.
As Shu Fu opened the lid of the pot, a richer fragrance filled the air.
"It's really porridge?" Yao Ruoyun was extremely surprised. Although she had never been hungry during the entire transfer and with the rescue team, most of the time she had to eat ready-made dry food or semi-finished products such as canned self-heating rice.
Cooking porridge takes too much time. It requires rice and water and takes time to cook slowly. Even if there is electricity and fire, it is not very popular because the porridge is not filling and is too light. It means that you waste time and energy but it is not tasty enough. It is more convenient to just make some instant noodles.
But she had just recovered from a serious illness, and the sequelae of the concussion were still there. She was obviously very hungry and her stomach was empty and she wanted to eat something, but when she thought of those canned meat, instant noodles, and self-heating rice, she subconsciously felt nauseous and wanted to vomit.
On the contrary, she wanted to eat this light rice porridge just by smelling it, so she tried to sit up and indicated that she could eat it by herself.
Shu Fu only gave her a spoon but not a bowl. Instead, she sat on the edge of the bed and held the bowl for her so that she could scoop the rice porridge and drink it slowly.
"Senior..." Yao Ruoyun drank two sips. Seeing that she was always holding the bowl for him, he felt touched and guilty. "Senior, I'm causing you trouble again..."
"It's OK. It's not too troublesome." Shu Fu smiled at her. "I bought the rice at the service desk. I brought the folding kettle and power bank with me. The doctor said you were just hungry. You will get better as long as you eat and have strength. You should get better soon so that you can go to Zhicheng to find your parents."
Yao Ruoyun nodded at her, not noticing that Shu Fu said "you" instead of "we".
She is currently unclear whether she can leave Xiangzhou Province, so she cannot promise anything to Yao Ruoyun. Everything will have to wait until this mission is completed.
The fragrance of rice porridge filled the air. The other people in the ward finally couldn't sit still anymore. The curtain on the side was lifted, revealing the face of a middle-aged woman. Following the aroma of rice porridge, her eyes first swept across the folding kettle on the cabinet, and then looked at Shu Fu and Yao Ruoyun, smiled at them, and asked if she could sell her a bowl of porridge.
Yao Ruoyun subconsciously wanted to refuse, but when she remembered that the porridge was cooked by Shu Fu, she stopped talking and looked at her.
"Sorry." Shu Fu rejected the other party directly, "I only cooked a little porridge, not enough to share."
The other party muttered that she didn't want to share, but to buy it. But when Shu Fu didn't respond, she changed her mind and said she wanted to borrow her kettle. As she spoke, she looked at Yao Ruoyun and said that she and her son were both patients and in the same ward, so she just wanted to help out.
Yao Ruoyun already knew Shu Fu's attitude, so she refused directly this time: "I'm sorry, but I don't like others using our things."
The woman walked away with a bad look on her face, still mumbling to herself, complaining that they were stingy, saying that young girls nowadays had no sympathy, it was just a broken kettle, how could someone die from using it...
Yao Ruoyun was a little angry. If she didn't lend him something, she would blame him for being stingy and unsympathetic. What's the point? Moreover, although the clinic didn't have the conditions to cook porridge, this was a county town after all. As long as she knocked on the door of a house where someone lived near the clinic and paid some money, someone would naturally be willing to cook porridge for her.
Before the middle-aged woman came over, she heard the mother and son talking in low voices. She just didn't want to go out because it was raining outside, cold and wet, and it was getting dark.
Shu Fu, however, seemed to be completely deaf to the complaints. She didn't even blink an eyelash. She put the empty bowl on the cupboard, poured her half a bowl, and handed it to her, indicating that she should eat more if she could, because eating would make her body better.
On the other side of the curtain, the son who had broken his leg and was lying on the bed had no appetite for a few days. Today, when he smelled the fragrance of rice porridge, he suddenly wanted to eat it. Seeing that his mother didn't give him any, he started to complain again. The middle-aged woman was annoyed by him and had no choice but to listen to the sound and felt that the rain outside didn't seem to be heavy at this time, so she had to start putting on her coat and raincoat and planned to go to a nearby house.
However, not long after she pushed the door open and walked out, she hurried back, her voice filled with panic: "Son! It's icicles falling outside, and Mom can't go out. The rain will turn into icicles as soon as it falls! This raincoat won't hold up!"
"Mom, what are you talking about?"
The son didn't understand and didn't believe it. What did the rain turn into icicles? What nonsense! Rain is rain, hail is hail, how can rain turn into ice?
Yao Ruoyun was also wondering what it meant when the rain fell and turned into icicles, but Shu Fu next to her suddenly stood up, put down the bowl, lifted the curtain and walked towards the window.
The windows in the office are relatively large. Because there are frequent heavy rains, strong winds and hail, the window glass was basically reinforced when it was converted into a ward, leaving only a few gaps several fingers wide. They cannot be opened normally, and because they are always blocked by curtains, everyone has long forgotten that there are these windows inside.
Although the window glass was covered with many wooden boards, when you leaned against the gap, you could still clearly see the scene outside.
The rainy evening was gloomy and it was about to get dark. The rain outside was not heavy and the wind was not strong, but just as the middle-aged woman said, it was icing.
As the rain fell, it hung on the bare branches, eaves, and windowsills. The raindrops froze into ice beads on the spot. As more rain fell, the ice beads gradually turned into icicles hanging there. The originally clear window glass was gradually covered with a layer of ice as the rain dripped from the raft. The freezing speed was completely visible to the naked eye.
Yao Ruoyun was a little worried. While trying to get out of bed, she asked, "What's going on? Is it hailing? It doesn't sound like it."
"It's not hail, it's freezing rain. It's freezing raining heavily outside." Shu Fu turned around, reached out to hold Yao Ruoyun who was slowly walking towards her, and when she raised her eyes, she saw a white light strip flashing above the other's head.
At the same time, Shu Fu felt the vibration of the bracelet.
**
[Complete the check-in task at the First Clinic in Wei County within five days, and get a 20% progress bar for level 5 of the raft; get an additional 5% progress bar bonus; and get a wheel lottery: 1 time. (Current progress of level 5 of the raft: 25%)]
For this mission, although the basic progress bar is high, the additional progress bar bonus is very low, and there is only one draw.
One draw is too little, she must wait until the next time when she has more chances to draw. However, she was happy to see the current 25% progress of the level 5 raft, after all, this mission was not too difficult.
Moreover, based on the prompt time for task completion, she could roughly infer the key point of this mission - it should be this freezing rain.
What would have happened if she hadn’t gotten to Wei County No. 1 Clinic within five days?
First of all, she and Yao Ruoyun would definitely not meet. According to her, when she woke up yesterday and found out that her parents were in Zhicheng, her first reaction was to book a parking space. If she hadn't been careless, she should have been on the bus to Gongmang County this afternoon.
Freezing rain turns into ice when it hits the ground, which can not only break trees and electric poles, but can also collapse buildings that are already vulnerable to storms and hail. The ground will also freeze quickly, and driving on such mountain roads with a thick layer of ice on the ground can be troublesome for vehicles.
So, the mission this time is to keep Yao Ruoyun in Wei County before the freezing rain comes?
But if she hadn't come, Yao Ruoyun might have been injured in yesterday's explosion and fell into a long coma again. If she had been in a coma, she probably wouldn't have boarded the bus to Gongmang County this afternoon...
It was dark, the boiler heating had not yet been repaired, and the heating was cut off in the houses where survivors lived near the Wei County Clinic.
The few local residents in the county town began to burn firewood for heating, but it was not easy to find dry firewood these days. In desperation, many people began to chop tables and chairs in the house to make a makeshift fire, and some survivors followed suit.
In contrast, the clinic ward was cold and damp, while the freezing rain outside was getting heavier and heavier. Many of the remaining branches of the trees on the ground nearby were covered with icicles, and many branches had been broken by the thick layer of ice.
Yao Ruoyun was officially discharged from the hospital. She changed out of her hospital clothes and put on the emergency cold-resistant supplies distributed by the rescue team. They went to the ward in another building where Shu Fu had been assigned a bed before to rest.
The emergency cold-resistant supplies were gathered together by the rescue team members and military personnel who still had time to search through vacant residential buildings nearby. They included warm clothes, warm pants, cotton coats, cotton pants and rain boots. The clothes were not quite the right sizes and were old, but for Yao Ruoyun, who had nothing, having clothes to wear was already good enough.
In addition to the warm clothes and cotton jacket, she also put on the military coat. This coat was given to her by the nurse in the small building when she just woke up and hurried to the service desk to ask. Now there was no heating and the temperature was dropping, so the nurse naturally couldn't take it back.
After putting on the military coat, Yao Ruoyun still felt cold. She didn't know why. It wasn't snowing outside and the temperature wasn't particularly low. The thermometer in the corridor showed that the room temperature was minus 5 degrees Celsius, but she just felt cold. The damp coldness seemed to penetrate into her body through the gaps in her clothes.
Until Shu Fu took out some magic tools: extra thick fleece socks and heating packs.
Although Yao Ruoyun was wrapped in thicker clothes than Shu Fu, she was only wearing ordinary rain boots with a pair of disposable socks distributed inside, so her cold feet prevented her whole body from warming up.
She put on the fleece socks Shu Fu gave her, and then stuck heat packs on the outside of the socks and on her back. Soon, as the heat packs began to work, she felt relieved all over, as if she was soaking in hot water.
After the cold-resistant supplies were distributed, the rescue workers finally had time to light the brazier.
Because it was an open flame, there was a fear that the fabrics in the ward would get burned, and the wood used in the wooden furniture was temporarily chopped, which would produce smoke when burning, so it was placed in the ventilated corridor. The survivors who couldn't stand the cold moved chairs around the fire to keep warm.
As the firewood burned, the temperature in the room slowly rose. With the help of fleece socks and heating packs, Yao Ruoyun was no longer cold.
"Senior, if it weren't for you this time, I don't know what I would do now..." At night, the two of them put the empty bed next to them and Shu Fu's bed together, put on all their clothes, put on their hoods, and finally covered the outside with the quilt, intending to sleep leaning on each other for the whole night.
The white light bar above Yao Ruoyun's head was fleeting, just like the several times it had appeared before with Chen Fa and Lu Zheng. The difference was that her light bar was only one step away from being full, so she believed that awakening was imminent.
Shu Fu gently patted her arm that was around her and whispered, "Go to sleep quickly. You're not fully recovered yet. Only by getting enough sleep and taking good care of your body can you recover your strength." Only by recovering your strength can she cope with the completely different worldview after awakening, and deal with the disasters that will follow.
Yes, according to her inference, this freezing rain may be just the beginning.
She had expected low temperatures, but from September till now, although the temperature has not been as high as it should be for the season, it has never been ridiculously low. Especially now that it is December, the temperature is around zero degrees, which is considered normal weather for this season.
It was this freezing rain that reminded her that since freezing rain was the key to completing the mission, did it mean that there would be a series of disasters related to freezing rain afterwards?
What's the low temperature of minus 5 degrees? The temperature in northern China in winter is usually between minus 20 and minus 40 degrees. Of course, the ability of houses and people to resist low temperatures varies from region to region.
Wei County is not like northern cities, where every household has heating and kangs. Various cold-proof measures are taken when houses and windows are built. Even if there is a heavy snowstorm outside and the temperature is more than 20 degrees below zero, people can still wear short sleeves and eat cold drinks indoors.
The houses here in Wei County are not cold-proof, the heating was cut off due to the attack, and the mobile signals and network were also cut off. If there is a big drop in temperature, it will be troublesome.
I definitely can't stay in the clinic, as it's an important place with a lot of people coming and going. I've just been targeted by people from a perverted organization, and I can't rule out the possibility that the same thing will happen again.
In addition, these are all classrooms converted into wards, which are too spacious and public spaces, making daily life very inconvenient. Even drinking plain porridge will cause people to look askance, and they can't just eat compressed biscuits every day.
So, they had to move to another place. Fortunately, most of the houses in Wei County were empty. If they couldn't find a suitable one, they could just spend some gold.
Shu Fu made various plans in her mind, but these were just her plans under some preset disaster. It was also possible that these were just her guesses and none of them would happen. After the freezing rain stopped tonight, she would be able to move to Xizhou Province with Yao Ruoyun.
In summary, she can have all kinds of guesses and think of countermeasures, but ultimately everything still has to follow the mission. She will never become self-inflated just because the previous mission went smoothly, take the preset disasters that have not yet happened seriously, and go against the main force.
**
The next day, the freezing rain stopped as expected, but it was white outside and heavy snow began to fall in the world covered with icicles. Fortunately, the wind was not too strong and the perceived temperature rose a little from last night.
There was a lot of noise everywhere in the ward. I don't know how such a small number of survivors could make such a big noise.
Yao Ruoyun was still sleeping. Thanks to the heating pack, she was no longer cold and her cheeks were rosy from her sleep. Shu Fu did not disturb her, wanting her to sleep as much as possible. She gently got out of bed, covered her with a quilt, and went to the corridor outside with her backpack.
There is a tea room on the first floor of the building where they live. It used to be used by students, but now it is a hot water room for patients and survivors. There is a period of time every morning to provide drinkable hot water. Of course, there will be team members guarding it, one is to urge people to line up, and the other is to prevent someone from bringing a large container and taking away all the hot water.
Shu Fu went downstairs with a thermos cup, seemingly going to get it filled with hot water, but actually going to inquire for news.
As soon as I walked to the first floor, I found that there were many people gathered in a small space at the entrance. Compared with those who were queuing at the door of the tea room, these people were in a mess, with ice chips in their hair, their lips were frozen blue, and their clothes and shoes were all covered with melting ice chips.
Some of them were carrying large bags covered with thin ice and were sitting on the ground to rest, panting heavily. Some were wandering in and out of the corridors and classrooms like headless flies, muttering to themselves as if they were looking for someone. Some rushed to the tea room and told the supervising team members inside that they were all frozen and asked if they could get some hot water to keep out the cold.
What they said meant they wanted to cut in line, but the people originally in the queue behind them naturally didn't want to do that. They had been huddled in the ward freezing for a whole night, and now they were just hoping to get some hot water as soon as possible so they could drink some to warm themselves up. Moreover, the hot water supply in the tea room was limited in time, and if so many of them cut in line, the people originally in the queue would not be able to get any water later.
The two sides started arguing loudly. Even though Shu Fu was standing some distance away, he could still hear their quarrel and understand from the quarrel why these people were in such a mess.
It turned out that they were the group of people who had boarded a car to Gongmang County yesterday afternoon. The mountain road was difficult to travel on, and their car encountered freezing rain after only driving seventy or eighty kilometers.
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