Chapter 24 Suicheng
Half an hour later, the number of buildings above the water surface began to increase, and they looked like some factories in the suburbs. The number of trees around also began to increase, and most of them had only the tops of the trees above the water surface. Some branches were arranged neatly, and it felt like the green plants that were originally planted on both sides of the road.
The factory gate and walls were basically invisible, with only the taller factory buildings sticking out of the water. From her perspective, they were all dark gray buildings, and she couldn't tell which was which.
Shu Fu took a sip of grapefruit lemon tea, stood up to check the function screen, confirmed the current position of the raft on the water map, and sat down on the lazy sofa again.
About ten minutes later, Shu Fu heard the sound of the engine. She looked up and saw the shadow of a lifeboat appear in the water in front of the raft.
It was not yet fully light, and everything around was shrouded in gray rain. The lifeboat was not moving faster than the raft, probably because there was not enough light and they were afraid of hitting floating objects on the water, so they drove very cautiously.
Although Shu Fu was confident in the function of the Drifting Island House, she was sitting in front of the house at the moment. If the opponent's lifeboat came any closer, the two sides would be directly in contact, and she would be completely exposed to the opponent's sight, which made her subconsciously nervous.
The waterway was not very wide, with tangled tree branches on both sides. The lifeboat and raft were getting closer. Shu Fu could see clearly everyone on the opposite boat, the tired-looking rescue team members, the disheveled people wrapped in raincoats, and half of the boat full of boxes covered with plastic film. He didn't know why the other party evacuated at this time.
The people on the boat also saw her. Shu Fu could clearly feel the rescue team members' gazes sweeping over her, but that gaze was just a sweep over her, without any emotion or ups and downs, and it quickly swept back.
Those people who looked embarrassed and panicked didn't even bother to look at her.
The two sides soon passed each other on the waterway and continued to move in their respective directions.
During the whole process, Shu Fu was indeed seen, and the raft and the drifting island house were also seen. However, there was no surprise, no doubt, no puzzlement, no exploration, nothing. Just like what was described in the function, in the eyes of others, the raft and the people on it at this moment had no sense of existence and were meaningless.
Shu Fu relaxed again, and after more than half an hour, she changed the direction on the water map to "south".
The raft had entered the urban area that she was familiar with. There were many buildings here. Although the low-rise buildings had been submerged in water, there were still many familiar tall buildings and landmark buildings for her to recognize where she was nearby.
Because she couldn't locate the target and let the raft arrive automatically, she stood at the half-open front door for the last part of the journey, looking at the water outside while quickly changing the drifting direction on the function screen.
The familiar shopping mall and commercial buildings appeared in front of Shu Fu. Driving along the water on the left side of the shopping mall, she arrived at the residential area where her home was.
The height of each floor of the shopping building is between four and five meters. The supermarket, which once became a temporary shelter for nearby residents because of its height, abundant supplies and backup generators, has now been flooded to the third floor.
Shu Fu quickly calculated that the water level near her community had risen to nearly ten meters, so the third floor of the building where she lived was almost half flooded.
Her house is on the fifth floor. If she's lucky, she can survive for a few more days.
On the way back, she saw not only a rescue team's assault boat, but also several civilian rubber boats and even small hand-rowed wooden boats. The people on them seemed to be carrying and transferring some supplies from the buildings in the water.
She speculated that this situation would continue for a few days, as there would always be some people who were unwilling to follow official arrangements and acted independently for various reasons.
When the raft passed the supermarket shopping building, the "collect" button on the automatic water fishing rod suddenly lit up. Shu Fu temporarily stopped the raft and collected the underwater metal basket.
This time, the metal basket was filled to the brim: bags of scallops, bags of abalone, bags of cod, bags of oysters, bags of tiger prawns... bags of - toilet paper?
All in all, there were more than a dozen bags of seafood, mixed with a pack of toilet paper, which was jaw-dropping.
Is it because there is a supermarket nearby that this harvest is so...special?
After the "disinfection" was completed, the metal box was opened and a metal basket full of harvest slid out.
All the seafood bags were vacuum-sealed. I don’t know if it was because they were originally frozen foods, or because the fresh food frozen section of this supermarket was on the second floor and was flooded late, and the weather was cold.
In short, when she opened it to check the seafood inside, she found that everything inside was good, and after being "disinfected" with black technology, it was all safe to eat.
Shu Fu was very happy, and felt that she had one more way to obtain supplies. She put all the seafood into the space, and put the toilet paper in the storage area outside the kitchen, and continued to let the raft go to Ping'an Community.
The plants on both sides of the path are gone, the small shops are gone, and the street lights are gone. From the intersection to Ping'an Community, you don't even have to turn and go back to the original lane. You can go directly to the buildings in the water from the open water surface.
At 8:50, seven days after Shu Fu left home, he returned here again.
The raft was moored outside the corridor on the north side of the building. The water level had already submerged the fence of the corridor on the third floor, and there was about half a meter of space between the water surface and the corridor ceiling. Fortunately, at this height, she could just flip into the corridor on the fourth floor with an effort.
Shu Fu put on her fleece coat, pants and waterproof jacket again. She first cancelled the protective shield of the message in the bottle, put the golden card with 20 hours left into the space, put on waterproof boots at the door, pulled up the hood of her jacket, reached out to grab the fence of the fourth-floor corridor, and stepped on the outer extension of the corridor and climbed up with all her strength.
The tallest building here is the fifth floor with a garage like the one she lives in. There are also several four-story buildings, or five-story buildings without garages, all of which are now flooded.
Everyone in the community had left long ago. There were no supplies and the building was not tall, so no new people would come here. It was dead silent all around.
Shu Fu walked across the wet walkway and into the stairwell while operating the bracelet to fold up the raft.
Everything was the same as the day she left, right down to the trash in the stairwell.
Shu Fu did not go home immediately. She put on a mask and disposable gloves, took the broom left in the stairwell by other residents, and swept the garbage in the stairwell leading to the fourth floor from the fifth floor from top to bottom. Finally, she swept along the corridor on the fourth floor in the opposite direction of her home, and continued to clean all the way to the external stairwell at the other end of the fourth floor.
Then she went back to the fifth floor and cleaned the corridor there again using the same method.
She didn't know how many days the garbage had been there, and even in the cold weather, it still gave off all kinds of unpleasant odors. She had no way of dealing with it and could only sweep it as far away from her home as possible.
Shu Fu threw the mask, gloves and broom in the stairwell and quickly returned home.
The house, with doors and windows closed for many days, was cold and damp, and there was an unpleasant smell, which should be the smell coming from the sewer.
Shu Fu changed into a pair of clean flat cotton shoes and went to the kitchen to try it out. The water, electricity and gas were all turned off.
Yes, the people have evacuated Suicheng, so there is no need to keep the pipeline open even if it is not broken.
She first opened the north-facing glass window in the kitchen and locked the iron gate at the front door. She opened the inner door halfway and then went to the balcony and opened a gap to allow ventilation from the north to the south of the house.
As soon as the glass on the balcony was opened, the heavy rain outside poured in. She placed a large plastic basin underneath to catch the rain. As for the rain water that splashed outside, she would just mop it up in a moment.
Afterwards, she sprayed the room with alcohol disinfectant, and then lit a scented candle in the room and the living room to deodorize.
Then, she found some foam boxes, old towels and sealing putty from the space, blocked all the sewer openings in the house, and finally sealed the outermost layer with silicone, reinforcing it several times.
If the water level submerges the fourth floor, the sewer on the fifth floor will backflow. The backflow of water into the house is more terrifying than hail breaking glass and heavy rain pouring into the house. Although she may have moved to another place by then, it is better to make preparations early.
After ventilating for a period of time, the air quality in the house improved. She poured the rainwater in the plastic basin out of the balcony, closed the doors and windows again, and mopped up the rainwater on the balcony floor.
After that, she mopped the house and finished a simple cleaning. She took off her waterproof jacket and changed into her home cotton coat and pants.
These cotton-padded coats and trousers are winter clothes. In the past, I only wore thin autumn clothes inside and didn’t feel cold at home. Now, even though I am wearing fleece coats and trousers inside, I still feel chilly.
Although she could use the generator to turn on the air conditioner, the outdoor unit would spin when the air conditioner was in use, and there were still people in the city, so she didn't want to get involved. So she pulled all the blackout curtains tight, took out a kerosene stove, filled it with special oil, and lit the stove.
Kerosene stoves are more convenient than diesel stoves. They are portable and safer. They do not require ventilation ducts and can be used in any room with normal air circulation.
Of course, the heating effect will vary depending on the size of the room, and there will be a special smell from the burning of some special oil when using it, which you will get used to after a while.
Her living room was connected to the kitchen and the corridor, and the space was slightly larger. After the kerosene stove had been burning for about ten minutes, the temperature stopped rising and remained at around sixteen to eighteen degrees, about five degrees lower than the small space inside a normal tent.
But this was enough. The original dampness and coldness in the room had been completely dispelled. She leaned back on the sofa, looking at the dancing fire in front of her, and her whole body felt warm.
It was almost noon. She had eaten breakfast early and was a little hungry after being busy. Thinking of another use for the kerosene stove, she added the cover.
Afterwards, she took out a camping pot with a handle, a set of camping folding tables and chairs, a tablet with various movies, TV series and variety shows downloaded on it, and finally took out the hot pot gift pack that she had won in the previous lottery.
Stir-fry the mashed garlic and beef hot pot base until fragrant, add mineral water, place it on the top cover of the kerosene stove, and put all the hot pot dishes you want on the table: beef rolls, crispy lamb rolls, luncheon meat slices, tripe, cuttlefish, chrysanthemum, vermicelli, rice cake, kelp knots... and several kinds of seasonings and coriander, mashed garlic and chopped green onions that come in the gift package.
The camping pot was not big, and the hot pot soup soon began to boil with gurgling bubbles. She put half a box of beef rolls in, opened her tablet to find a comedy movie, and began to enjoy her hot pot lunch.
The beef is spicy and fresh, the tripe is salty, fragrant and crispy, the cuttlefish is tender and delicious, the rice cake is soft and chewy... The rich and spicy taste makes people feel particularly satisfied.
After the meal, she took out the trash can, cleaned up the garbage, put away the leftover hot pot dishes, put them back on the space shelf, and then put the table and chairs along with the pots and bowls into the space, ready to deal with them when she used the raft in the evening.
The raft has twelve hours of usage per day, and she will definitely not waste it. The planned usage time is eight hours from 0:00 am to 8:00 am, and four hours from 8:00 pm to 12:00 am.
This way, it can be used continuously for 12 hours from nightfall to dawn, allowing her to sleep well.
There were three hours left in the day, and she planned to take out the raft at nine o'clock in the evening.
She didn't have to go to work and didn't have anything to do, so she took out a thin blanket and a flat screen and lay down on the sofa to watch a movie. As she watched, she became sleepy and fell asleep.
**
She didn't know how long she had slept before she was awakened by noises outside the window.
It thundered outside again, the window frames buzzed, and the whistling wind was mixed with lightning and thunder. It was not as shocking as the previous strong thunderstorm, but the rumbling thunder was also frightening.
Shu Fu took out a table lamp and placed it on the bar table near the kitchen, then went to the balcony and carefully opened the blackout curtain. The water outside was surging with waves from the strong wind, carrying construction debris floating in the water and constantly hitting the buildings in the water.
Around four o'clock in the afternoon, the sky seemed completely dark, the wind was howling, and the heavy rain hitting the glass was soon mixed with hail. All kinds of roars of nature mixed together, as if it was the end of the world.
Shu Fu felt a little stupid. Isn't this the end of the world?
As far as the current situation is concerned, it is the end of her life alone. The precarious Suicheng is sinking under the water little by little.
At nine o'clock in the evening, Shu Fu put away the kerosene stove, opened all the south-facing curtains in the living room, and then released her warm little home: the unsinkable drifting island house.
After changing shoes and entering the door, Shu Fu immediately equipped himself with an electric card.
She had just drawn a "one-week electricity card", and together with the original one, she had a total of eight days, or 192 hours of electricity usage. Although there was no way to have electricity in the Drifting Island House 24 hours a day, she could make full use of the limited electricity time!
She already had a plan in her mind. After preparing the electricity card, she quickly laid out all the rechargeable electrical appliances and power banks with low power on the living room floor.
Desk lamps, mobile phones, tablets, power banks, electric water bottles...all kinds of things are placed all over the floor, allowing them to charge themselves.
Then she went into the bathroom and took out a pulsator washing machine from the space. This was a newly purchased washing machine. It was placed together with the original one in the bathroom. One was used to wash clothes for going out, and the other was used to wash underwear at home.
Then he took out another dryer and placed them next to the washing machine together with the original dryer. Then he divided the clothes that he had worn in the library and threw them into the two washing machines for washing.
With electricity, the water was hot, so she didn't need to get the hot water stored in the space anymore. She went straight into the shower room, took a quick shower, and changed into clean cotton home clothes. The clothes she took off were what she wore today, so she could continue to wear them tomorrow.
She came out of the bathroom holding the clothes and found that there was still a lack of a place to put clothes in the living room, so she found a mobile clothes rack from the space. It was originally placed on the balcony to dry clothes, and now it was placed next to the standing water bar, which was convenient for hanging clothes for daily use.
After that, it was time to wash today's dishes. I was eating alone, so there were not many pots and bowls, so I finished washing them all in ten minutes. I also brought in the garbage from outside and dealt with it together.
By the time she had finished all her work and put away the charged electrical appliances, the two washing machines in the bathroom had also finished their work.
The peak period of electricity consumption ended in just over an hour, which was shorter than she expected. She took out the electricity card, put the clothes into the two dryers, and then turned on the generator to connect the dryers, entering the period of low electricity consumption.
She turned on the Bluetooth speaker and curled up barefoot on the sofa in the living room. While drinking hot milk, she took out the notebook in which she had made a survival plan and wrote down what she needed to do in the next few days.
First of all, the water level should be measured every day. It is best to go directly to the corridor on the fourth floor to measure the exact rise in the water line.
Secondly, the automatic water fishing rod can obtain supplies. It is best not to waste the three opportunities to use it every day. Moreover, it seems that the supplies obtained depend on the location.
The supermarket at the intersection is a good place to cast the rod, but there are still people in the city, so it will take shield time to go there. At this stage, supplies are not as valuable as shield time, so if she wants to use them, she can only try it in the community for the time being.
Finally, compare the water map and Suicheng map to find out the locations of the previously selected high-rise buildings for refuge on the water map and make preparations for migration.
After recording, Shu Fu thought about it and felt that during the twelve hours of using the raft at night, he could also release the raft on the water outside the building. At night, the light is dim, and it is fixed next to the building in the community and will not attract attention.
The advantage of doing this is that she won't waste the three daily opportunities of the automatic water fishing rod. In addition, she can use purified water. Also, if the water level suddenly rises while she is sleeping one day, she won't have to wait until the water floods into the room before noticing.
Although the raft would not sink, it was outdoors and the house was protected by a ceiling. If the water really rose to completely submerge the room, she would still be trapped.
Of course, there are also disadvantages to using the raft outside the building. For example, she must not oversleep. Then she will have to set ten alarms and must return to the building before the usage time is over, otherwise she will fall directly into the water.
After much thought, I decided that although the 12-hour use time of the Drifting Island House is safe, it is not safe enough. When can it be upgraded to allow the use time to be increased to 24 hours a day, it will be truly safe.
But - Shu Fu looked up and glanced at the function screen behind the door. She had noticed that the progress bar for the raft's level 3 upgrade had not yet appeared. She remembered that when the raft was just activated, the level 2 upgrade progress bar and the progress bar task appeared immediately.
Does it require some kind of trigger to activate it?
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