Chapter 66: Northern Plateau
At this time, no one was concerned about why Shu Fu took the red liquid. They focused their attention and just wanted to escape from this Hexi town full of strange fish as soon as possible.
The three of them picked up their travel bags and boat bags again, leaned against each other, and moved quickly down the mountain. They quickly turned the corner and headed straight for the grove by the water.
On the way, two large strange fish were not affected by the smell and attacked them, but they were killed by the vigilant Chen Fa and Chen Yuezhen.
Shu Fu was mainly responsible for replenishing the red liquid on the three people and the travel bags. He would also use the red liquid to clear a path when the small monster fish blocked the way and refused to move away.
The three of them worked in perfect harmony, and even though they were retching frequently from the strong and pungent stench of decay, they still stuck to their positions and fulfilled their responsibilities.
There was still one-third of the distance left in the woods when Shu Fu suddenly stuffed the boat bag into their hands. She then took out three bottles of red liquid from her backpack and stuffed them all, together with the remaining two bottles in her hand, into the pockets of Chen Fa's raincoat.
"What are you doing?" Chen Fa was very alert and grabbed her.
"Don't worry, I'm not going there to offer sacrifice. I've hidden something nearby that can help us escape from the water quickly. You and grandma should hurry to the water's edge and be ready for me!" Shu Fu patted the other's arm, "Trust me, I'll be back soon!"
Chen Fa loosened his hand and watched Shu Fu take out another bottle of red liquid from her backpack. After opening it, the liquid spilled everywhere. She managed to open a passage through the circle of small monster fish and then ran towards the woods.
Chen Fa and Chen Yuezhen consumed another bottle of red liquid and finally reached the water's edge safely. Chen Yuezhen opened the boat bag according to the method Shu Fu had taught him before.
A small orange inflatable boat with a tent was quickly opened on the shore. While opening the boat bag, Chen Fa kept sprinkling red liquid on it to prevent strange fish from lurking in the water nearby and destroying the inflatable boat.
This is their only means of escape now. They can’t move forward or backward, so the inflatable boat must not be damaged.
After the inflatable boat was opened, Chen Yuezhen immediately threw the three people's travel bags into the tent, and at the same time found the oars in the tent and started to assemble them. Although this inflatable boat is easy to carry, it needs to be rowed by hand and the speed is not fast. The waters near the town are dangerous areas, so she wants to save time as much as possible.
Chen Fa sprayed red liquid on the inflatable boat and the mud around it while waiting anxiously. Shu Fu was alone and her weapon was not very lethal, so she was afraid that something might happen to her.
But fortunately, Shu Fu did not make them wait too long. When Chen Fa sprayed the third bottle of red liquid, Shu Fu came back. She was holding a long object in one hand and waving the other hand to sprinkle red liquid. She rushed through the school of small monster fish and came in front of them.
"Get on the boat first!" Without waiting for her to say it a second time, Chen Yuezhen and Chen Fa had already lifted the inflatable boat and moved it to the shallow water area. Chen Yuezhen quickly got on the inflatable boat, then took the things in Shu Fu's hand and pulled her up.
Chen Fa stepped into the shallow water and pushed the inflatable boat hard to get it away from the shore, then quickly got into the inflatable boat.
Shu Fu took out two bottles of red liquid from the backpack in front of her and stuffed them into Chen Fa's hands, asking her to continue spraying them in the waters around the inflatable boat. Then she told Chen Yuezhen to use the oars to paddle the inflatable boat outward as much as possible, because the engine could not be started in too shallow waters.
"..." Chen Fa looked at the full red glass bottle in his hand, "How much did you take?"
Shu Fu had already climbed to the innermost side of the inflatable boat, where there was a zipper opening that was designed to be rainproof. After opening it, the propeller of the boat motor could be extended out and then fixed at the corner of the inflatable boat. After that, just add fuel to the boat motor to start the boat motor and push the inflatable boat forward quickly.
She had studied the instruction manual of the marine engine when she was free in the cave restaurant. She also tried to start it, added oil to the engine, and filled the engine tank with fuel, which saved her a lot of effort and time.
She fixed the hook, turned the throttle handle skillfully, and started the engine.
Luckily, it started successfully the second time she repeated it. She held down the handle and adjusted the angle of the propeller in the water, while checking the situation outside through the transparent hole in the tent.
Thanks to Chen Yuezhen's efforts, the inflatable boat has already moved some distance from the shore. Now with the thrust of the propeller, it accelerates instantly and heads towards the water ahead.
On the shore, those strange little fish should have been out of the effective range of the red liquid, but for some reason, they did not go into the water. Instead, they gathered on the shore, supporting their ferocious big fish heads with their "legs", with their upper bodies upright, staring in their direction in unison.
This scene is really scary.
In the shallow water near the shore, large strange fish jumped up and down from time to time. At first, they were afraid of the inflatable boat and the smell on their bodies and did not come over, but now it seems that they are protecting their cubs, so they did not continue to swim after them.
They finally escaped from the town safely.
In the inflatable boat, three exhausted people each chose a seat to lean on, took a long breath, and did not speak for a long time.
**
Two days later, Lucheng.
Due to the terrain of the entire northern plateau, the urban area of Lucheng is not very large, only about half the size of Louyun City. In the entire Hua State, it can barely be considered a third-tier small city.
Chen Fa had traveled back and forth between Hexi Town and Lucheng before the flood submerged the suburbs, and had taken a boat to exchange supplies twice since then, so she was very familiar with the route to Lucheng. According to her original plan, the three of them would row an inflatable boat, and it would take about a day to get here, taking into account the water resistance and the rest time in between.
But what she didn't expect was that Shu Fu actually had a boat-mounted machine!
Come to think of it, she was alone, and if she didn't have complete equipment, it would be impossible for her to travel by water in such a situation.
The fuel tank of the boat engine was limited in size, and the fuel inside was not enough for them to reach the land. The last section of the waterway took the three of them two hours to reach the shore. But even so, it reduced the time they spent crossing the flooded area by half.
Almost just after noon that day, the three people on the inflatable boat saw a very long land appearing in the northwest direction.
There is also a river in the southeast suburbs of Lucheng, which is a tributary of Qinghe River. When the water level of the river rises, it floods the entire area. Therefore, the coastline here is very long, because it is along the tributary.
Along this long waterfront, you can still see several bridges that have not yet been submerged. These were bridges that originally spanned a tributary of the Qinghe River. One end connected to Lucheng, but the other end had been submerged in water due to the terrain.
At the end of the bridge near the suburbs of Lucheng, part of the bridge deck is still exposed above the water, while some of the bridge pillars have cracked and broken due to long-term erosion by floods, the bridge body and deck have collapsed, and concrete fragments occasionally fall.
When the three people rowed through these areas, they stayed away from them for fear that they would hit the falling rocks from the bridge and hit the inflatable boat, or be hit by the splashing waves.
Shu Fu was originally worried that there would be some patrols deployed near the land and water boundary here, just like the two patrol teams in the Hexi town, but Chen Fa told her that this was impossible.
Lucheng is much larger than Hexi Town. After the tsunami, most of the troops in Lucheng were transferred to the tsunami disaster area for rescue. The remaining garrison was short of manpower, and the authorities gradually lost control of the people. After that, this place experienced the most chaotic period. Those who should have escaped had already escaped, and those who could not escape and were unlucky all died.
Now there are only two kinds of people left in this city: those who are waiting to die and those who don't care about life or death.
The former group of people have completely given up struggling. Most of them are old, weak, sick and disabled. They don’t have the courage to escape. They just live day by day in this increasingly dilapidated city. One day they may fall asleep and never wake up again due to illness, hunger, long-term drinking of unclean water...
The latter group of people have the ability to leave, and they also have vehicles, equipment and weapons that can travel long distances, and some even have loot in their hands, but they don't want to leave. Because some of them have killed people, and perhaps they were helpless at the beginning, but for them, it is no longer possible to live a regular life in a city with order and security.
There are also people who simply enjoy this kind of unrestrained life. They don't need to work hard from nine to five, fawning and bowing in front of their boss for a little salary, or scrimping and living every day to pay for their mortgage and car loans.
There are a large number of ownerless houses here; although the shops, supermarkets and shopping malls have been looted several times and most of the supplies have been taken away, the remaining ones can still allow them to live a comfortable life. The old, weak and sick dare not come to rob, but will appear to beg as weak people.
In the eyes of these people, they are gods who dominate their bodies, freedom, dignity, life and death.
But at the same time, such a life also requires paying a corresponding price.
Lucheng is a mixed bag of good and bad people, with many teams occupying large shopping malls, supermarkets, shopping streets, hospitals, water stations, power plants... and other places. Most of these places have solid buildings with large internal spaces and supplies.
Except for the three large teams, fighting and looting would occur every few days among the remaining teams in order to compete for these territories.
These people may be hacked to death at any time while walking on the street, or they may be beaten to death in their beds by intruders while sleeping at night...
This is the price they have to pay.
Therefore, even though there are still many people in Lucheng city, they are all on the line between life and death. They fight openly and secretly for territory and materials every day, and it is impossible for them to guard and manage the city like the authorities do.
However, the ones that fought each other every day were basically small and medium-sized teams. The three largest teams had already passed the fighting period and were temporarily on a truce to check and balance each other. The reason was similar to the reason why Yang Can's team and the Malaysian team maintained relative peace in Hexi Town.
There are currently three trading stations in Lucheng, which were set up by three large teams. The original intention of setting them up was to integrate and allocate resources. Some teams need medicine, some teams need electricity, some teams need water, and some teams need fuel...
So, the three teams found a sheltered place to allocate and exchange resources.
Later, the trading station gradually began to provide a form of private barter, and then it would be open to the public at fixed times every week. In addition to the refugees in Lucheng, people from surrounding towns would also come here to exchange for what they needed more after collecting supplies for a period of time.
Because this is the territory of three major forces, each of the three brigades has a certain number of looted weapons, so there are not many people who dare to deliberately rob and cause trouble here. But don't expect too much order here, and fair and reasonable exchanges are impossible. It all depends on one's own needs and strength.
Trading Station No. 3 that appeared in Shu Fu's mission is one of them. It is opened twice a week. The most recent two times were on the third and fifth days after she received the new mission.
Shu Fu didn't know which time to check in to complete the task, so she had to go both times.
"Trading Station No. 3 was originally a museum. Most of the important items on display were taken away during the official evacuation. The interior is not very large, with three floors. Because it was an empty museum, the building was solid, and the interior structure was open and simple, it was chosen by one of the teams as a place to exchange resources.
In order to facilitate management, the other party only opened the first floor as a trading area. The people in the fixed stalls were all people in the team. There was no fixed exchange price. People who entered had to hand over some food and supplies. This was to screen out refugees who came from the city or other places and wanted to steal and rob.
However, those who dare to set up stalls to exchange goods are all powerful. If they dare to steal and rob them, breaking their hands and feet in public is considered good, but taking them outside and killing them directly is commonplace. After all, in the current situation, supplies are more valuable than human lives..."
Shu Fu obtained a lot of information from Chen Fa. If she had entered the city alone, it might have taken her some time to find out this information.
It is very easy to be targeted during the process of investigation.
Now, she just needs to stay in the safe room and listen to Chen Fa telling her the key information one by one.
In fact, after the flood blocked the suburbs of Lucheng and the small town of Hexi, Chen Fa never entered the city twice when he came with the team to exchange goods. Zhou Feng was very cautious. His boat docked but would not go further. It was the other team that brought the supplies to the waterfront and traded with him directly.
These supplies should have been purchased by the other team, and would be more expensive than if they entered the city in person. However, the city was not peaceful at all. There were too many people in their team and they were carrying too many supplies. They might be directly devoured, so they simply traded on the shore.
In this way, the other team can earn some difference in price, while Yang Can's team on Zhou Feng's side can ensure safe coming and safe leaving, and can get on the boat and leave in time if there is any disturbance.
The establishment of a trading station by the three forces had already begun when Chen Fa evacuated Lucheng, so she knew a lot of things.
**
After getting ashore that day, the three of them did not rush into the city. Instead, they adopted Chen Yuezhen's suggestion and found a small residential area that had not yet been fully built on the edge of the city - commonly known as an unfinished building - to rest and recuperate for a while.
The unfinished residential complex is located next to a hill and the buildings face south, so it can see the flood zone to the southeast. Because it is close to the flood zone and there are no supporting shops or facilities around it, there are basically no people nearby.
This place was originally planned to be built into a villa area, with single-family buildings and townhouses. Most of them have no doors or windows, and some are even made of pure concrete.
The three people chose a building that looked relatively intact so that it would not suddenly collapse while they were sleeping at night.
They have camping equipment, so all they have to do is choose a room that is not near a window, such as the dining area or the corridor area, and after a little cleaning, they can sleep directly on the floor.
In order to escape the town alive, the three of them did not hold back when they sprinkled the red liquid, so the smelly liquid on their raincoats had already seeped into the clothes underneath. Even after they landed and were drenched in heavy rain, they could not wash off the smell on their bodies.
They could still endure it in critical moments, but now they can't endure it at all, and they are almost stinging each other to death.
So in addition to resting, they chose this place so that they could clean up and wash up early.
Clean the three people's raincoats, rain pants and rain boots, clean the inflatable boat that became smelly because of being in it, clean all their backpacks and travel bags, change their clothes, and clean themselves as well.
Fortunately, Chen Fa's camping supplies were complete. She took out a folding bucket and collected the rain water outside directly through the gap in the window. She thought that everyone could use the cold rain water to wash themselves and then change into clean clothes. Even if there was no shampoo or bathing supplies, it would be good to wash a few more times with clean water.
But at the critical moment, Shu Fu started to dig out of his backpack again, and then took out two magical tools: sulfur soap and drinking water effervescent disinfectant tablets - that is, water purification tablets.
The sulfur soap is new and unopened, packed in plastic packaging, and the water purification tablets are in a bottle of 120 tablets. When purifying drinking water, the concentration should not be too strong. One tablet can purify 50L of water. If it is only used for cleaning and disinfection, the amount of water should be reduced appropriately.
Chen Fa's folding bucket is about 20L. Putting 1 to 2 pills in it can purify rainwater, which is just right for cleaning and disinfecting smelly bodies.
There is also sulfur soap. Although it doesn't smell very pleasant, it can make foam to wash the hair and body, making them completely clean.
The flood lasted for more than half a year, and water purification tablets, which are cheap, good quality and easy to carry, have become popular items. When I was still in Hexi Town, the team had such water purification tablets. They also collected rainwater for daily use, filtered it first, and then purified it with water purification tablets.
Some people who are not so particular can just boil the purified water and drink it directly.
Chen Fa also had water purification tablets, but they were not the same type. They were boxed, with tablets in a medicine package. The purified water could only be used for drinking, and had no cleaning or disinfecting effect. She only had four tablets, which she kept for drinking water just in case.
So when she collected rainwater to take a bath, she never thought of using it, but Shu Fu directly took out a bottle.
So the three of them fetched water and went to the unrenovated bathroom in the house to wash, and also washed their clothes and boots by the way.
Two hours later, the three people who had finally washed off the stench, smelling the chemical odor on their bodies, put on clean clothes and sat barefoot on the camping mats that were laid together, and began to work busily.
I bandaged the bite wound on Chen Fa's hand, which had only been treated urgently, changed the dressing on her foot, cooked self-heating hot pot and self-heating rice, put bottled drinking water in a camping pot on the stove and cooked vegetable soup, lit mosquito coils around her, and smeared wind oil on her body...
The vegetable soup is filled with Shufu’s dehydrated vegetables. Although there is only one bag, it contains 500g, and a little bit can make a big pot. Instant noodle seasoning is also added for flavoring.
It was a lucky thing for the three of them to be able to sit in a safe room and drink a bowl of hot vegetable soup quietly, with fragrant rice and hot pot beside, after escaping death on such a rainy evening.
Chen Fa also took out some bread. The three of them dipped the bread in the hot pot soup and ate it together. It was both filling and delicious.
At the other end of the house, looking out from the unsealed window of the living room, you can see the tall treetops being beaten to pieces by the heavy rain.
This place has probably been abandoned for more than two months. It is very likely that the construction work was suspended since the heavy rains last year, so the grass and trees are growing wildly inside, and there are broken and fallen branches and rotten leaves everywhere, with many mosquitoes hiding in them.
Shu Fu noticed that since they landed in the suburbs of Lucheng, mosquitoes could be seen flying everywhere in the surrounding bushes and grass, and all kinds of reptiles could be seen everywhere on the ground covered with building debris, broken branches and garbage.
Although not as exaggerated as the cave restaurant, Hexi Town seems particularly abnormal in comparison.
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