Chapter 82: Northern Plateau
The other party shot at the window of the pickup truck first, but they knew they were going to break into the northern area of Youcheng tonight, and they had made all the necessary preparations. The insides of all the windows were reinforced again with iron sheets and iron railings removed from the B&B.
They were lucky because the other party's first shot hit the iron sheet and no one was injured. It also allowed them to discover the presence of the sniper. So they accelerated as fast as they could on the last bit of road.
The sniper continued to attack, shattering the window glass at the back of the pickup truck and blowing out a tire of the SUV. But by then they had turned the corner and left the sniper range behind the building.
"Did one of the SUV's tires burst?" Shu Fu suddenly asked.
"Well, it exploded and we almost flipped over! Luckily, Grandma Chen is a good driver and she managed to drift around the corner steadily, so both she and the car didn't flip into the river!" Xu Jiechu was sitting in the car at the time and he still gets scared when he mentions this.
Shu Fu: ...
So next time she wants to use the car, she has to change the tire first...
Chen Fa knew what she was thinking: "Don't worry, I will."
Lu Zheng glanced at Chen Fa. He didn't know if it was an illusion, but he always felt that after this incident, something was different about her, especially the atmosphere between her and Shu Fu, which became closer.
Several people were tired, injured and in pain, so after a brief chat they decided to go and meet up with the others first.
Lu Zheng pointed in the direction behind the green space, indicating that there was originally a small waterfront commercial street behind it. They had already checked and there was no one there now. They found a restaurant at the corner of the street.
The restaurant is a pizza shop with an external staircase that leads directly upstairs. Right now everyone else is on the second floor of the restaurant, mainly because the guy with braids and the big guy were seriously injured and are being treated there.
Shu Fu and the other three immediately followed them, crossed the dense grass, and walked towards the commercial street behind.
There was mud under the grass. When you stepped into it, you felt soft and disgusting, and it made a sticky sound. Shu Fu and Chen Fa were walking at the end. After walking a few steps, Chen Fa suddenly stopped and turned around, looking at the dark river behind him.
Shu Fu noticed her alert expression and asked in a low voice, "What's wrong?"
"I hope it's just my illusion." It's such a long distance, and the river outside Youcheng has a cliff waterfall downstream, so the reverse waterway is impossible. If this can spread here, then she has nothing to say. Chen Fa shook Shu Fu's hand, "Let's go, be careful."
Shu Fu probably knew what she was asked to be careful about, and quickly caught up with the person in front.
**
This was originally a pizza shop, probably focusing on parent-child business. The decorations and tables and chairs in the shop are brightly colored and in strange shapes, full of childlike fun.
Most of the floor-to-ceiling glass on the second floor was broken, and everyone else was hiding on the unbroken side. They cleaned up the debris and garbage on the ground, spread out waterproof mats, took out camping lights and turned them up, and accommodated the injured.
In Lu Zheng's team, the braided man and the bald man were more experienced in dealing with injuries, but now one of them fell down and the other was gone. The braided man was pierced in the abdomen by a piece of iron and was seriously injured. He bled a lot. After his clothes were cut open, several people were at a loss as to how to deal with the bloody wound.
Fortunately, Chen Yuezhen was emotionally stable and had steady hands, so he took over the subsequent treatment of the wound.
When Shu Fu and the others arrived, Chen Yuezhen had already sewed up the wound on Braidhead with needle and thread.
I found the sewing kit in this family restaurant. This kind of restaurant needs to deal with any situation that may happen to the family, so the sewing kit is also a necessity. Supplies like drinking water and medicine are easy to be taken away, but most people will ignore the sewing kit.
In fact, sewing kits are very useful. In special circumstances, a little disinfection can save a life.
Because there was no anesthesia, the braid had to be held down during the suturing process. Several teammates from Yue Dong's place helped hold down his hands and feet, while Lu Ce assisted Chen Yuezhen. Although he was young and had little experience, he was really calm, calmer than many adults, and not afraid of blood. He handed Chen Yuezhen whatever she needed and did whatever she told him to do.
Removing the iron sheet, cleaning and disinfecting, threading the needle, cutting the thread ends, preparing gauze... He did not hesitate at all and followed the instructions step by step. He cooperated with Chen Yuezhen tacitly, as if they had cooperated many times before, and helped complete this surgical operation under extremely simple conditions.
Lu Zheng went forward to check on the condition of the man with the braid, then went to look at the big guy leaning against the side. His head and cheeks were cut, and blood was all over his face. Although it was scary, the wound was not deep and would heal faster with a few stitches. It just so happened that the man with the braid had already sewed his wounds, so he also got two stitches.
The big guy was more conscious than the guy with braids, and he was twitching in pain from the stitches on his face. When Lu Zheng went to see him with the painkillers given by Shu Fu, he was sitting aside with a dazed look on his face, looking listless.
Lu Zheng didn't tell him because he was afraid that he had a concussion, after all, his head was broken. But the other party waved his hands to indicate that he was fine, but he felt bad when he thought of the bald man and the thin man.
However, everyone was still very happy that Shu Fu and his three companions returned safely.
When Chen Fa saw Chen Yuezhen, her eyes lit up for a moment. She rarely showed such excitement and joy. It seemed that she had a lot to say, but she knew it was not a good time and could only hold it back for the time being.
Shu Fu knew that the situation between Chen Fa and Chen Yuezhen was different from that of Lu Zheng. After Lu Zheng woke up, he thought about telling Lu Ce immediately, but everyone was still on the road, and he was afraid that he was too young to hide the truth on the way.
Chen Yuezhen naturally wouldn't lose his temper.
But after tonight, many things are different. The people who crossed the river with Lu Zheng must have discovered the problem with the raft hut.
As expected, before Chen Fa found an opportunity to pull Chen Yuezhen aside, someone from Yue Dong's team spoke up: "How did the four of you cross the river?"
Yue Dong and Xu Tingfeng were taking off their clothes and checking the scratches on their bodies with the help of Jiang Dai and Xu Jiechu. When they heard someone asking the question, they immediately understood the other person's meaning.
The two of them turned around at the same time. The one who spoke was a man from Yue Dong's team, and also Chen Fa's former teammate. His name was Fisherman, and he rarely spoke. He and the deceased Lao Gu were former colleagues, and they had been working together all the way until now. Lao Gu had always taken good care of him.
Lao Gu died in the explosion today. He was already in a bad mood. Now he realized that someone in the team might be hiding a big secret. He couldn't help but speak up and broke the window paper without hesitation: "You...you didn't also take a raft to cross the river? How many people on your raft can get into the cabin?...Haha, I thought you were all in the same team, working together and sharing the same aspirations, but it turns out that someone among you clearly has extraordinary abilities. Why didn't you save Lao Gu at that time?"
"Fisherman! The explosion came so suddenly, who could save him?" Yue Dong frowned. Some things could not stand being asked. He could understand that he was in a bad mood because Lao Gu died, but would it be good for him to say it so bluntly and try to dig out other people's secrets?
In Yue Dong's opinion, it was already very difficult for others to take the risk of exposing their secrets to lead them across the river. If he had such ability, he might leave the team and become a lone wolf with only his wife, and would never let others know his secrets.
"How do I know who can save him? Why not ask someone who can enter the raft hut?" said the fisherman, looking directly at Lu Zheng.
Lu Zheng didn't react much. Things happened suddenly tonight. When he found that only he and Lu Ce could enter his raft cabin, he knew that some things could no longer be hidden.
But he didn't intend to explain, even if someone asked.
Probably because there are more memory fragments in his brain, when he encounters the same thing, his emotions will be amplified, and the personality presented in those memory fragments will also affect him. No, or it should not be said to be an influence, but an "awakening".
For him, awakening is not the moment when the panel appears. The process of recovering memories bit by bit is the real "awakening".
"So what you mean is that people with ability must take care of everyone and save everyone?" Lu Zheng smiled lightly. It was a mocking smile, an expression that he rarely showed according to his low-key personality. "But, why? Someone saved you, but you didn't say thank you. Instead, you blamed him for not saving his own friend. Only your friend died tonight? One of my friends died and one is missing. Even if I have the ability to save them, I will save them first."
"You-you admit it?"
"I don't need to explain or admit anything to you. I'm just saying this to tell you that it's my right to save whoever I want or not to save. There's no reason for that."
"You selfish bastard! How dare you have the nerve to—"
"Fisherman!" This time, in addition to Yue Dong, Chen Fa also spoke. Both of them frowned and stopped him from continuing. Yue Dong even asked him to apologize to Lu Zheng immediately with a cold face.
"Why should I apologize? I just asked the question that everyone wanted to ask!" He stood up with his neck stiffened, trying to seek resonance from others, but when he glanced around, he only saw looks of disapproval.
"Okay, okay, you all like to pretend, right? Then go ahead and pretend. Since we are not on the same path, you don't have to continue to be in the same team!" As he said this, he stood up and sorted out his backpack. He also said that Lao Gu was his friend, and since he was dead, he should take his backpack with him.
The backpack represents supplies. Although Yue Dong and his companions had not originally intended to swallow up Lao Gu's supplies, the fisherman's behavior still made the rest of the people feel very uncomfortable.
No one stopped the fisherman, so he left the pizza restaurant with his two backpacks, went downstairs, walked into the rainy night, and headed south.
Finally, it was Shu Fu who spoke up: "He just left like that?"
Her main intention was to remind Chen Fa and Lu Zheng that letting the man go like this might cause trouble, but Jiang Dai obviously misunderstood and thought she was worried about the fisherman. She hurriedly said that before Shu Fu and the others arrived, Lu Zheng and Gangzi had already investigated the situation nearby.
They also felt strange because the south bank was pitch black, so they found a tall building nearby and quickly climbed up to check the surroundings.
The result of the investigation was that the troops and civilians in the south of the city should still be there, but not in the urban area. They should be in the area at the foot of the mountains in the south of the city.
"They said they saw lights there, and in addition to the lights that were always on, there were searchlights sweeping back and forth."
Searchlights are generally used to assist patrols. The presence of searchlights indicates that there is a planned and orderly patrol team. Usually patrols like this are conducted by either official or military forces.
Afterwards they checked the map and found that there was a military academy nearby. It was very large, had air-raid shelters and high walls, and was built on a hill. In every way, it felt safer than the exposed urban area.
They originally planned to rest here for one night and set off for the suburban military academy at dawn the next morning.
Now the fisherman dared to leave the team alone because he knew their destination and went there first.
Lu Ce also misunderstood. He looked at Shu Fu and shook his head and sighed: "Sister Fu Fu, I know you are very kind, but now is the end of the world. If you are too kind, you will not be able to survive. You have to be a little cruel!"
Shu·Too kind·Not cold·Fumu face:……
Fortunately, Chen Fa understood what she meant: "He has left the team alone once or twice before, but he came back soon after."
Shu Fu nodded. The two of them looked at Lu Ce and thought of the tabby cat that had saved them not long ago. Looking at his current state, he definitely didn't know that the cat was dead.
Sooner or later, it had to be said. Shu Fu hesitated for a moment, but still reached out and pulled him over, taking him a few steps towards the stairs: "That, Lanlan - it..."
"Lanlan?" Lu Ce looked a little puzzled. "What happened to Lanlan?"
Shu Fu was about to speak when she heard a familiar voice coming from the backpack in front of Lu Ce. Whenever he went out, he always carried this waterproof backpack with him. He never put anything in it. It was the backpack where he put Lan Lan.
Hearing this voice, Chen Fa, who was leaning against the wall, also froze.
The zipper of the backpack was pushed open, and a familiar cat's head popped out, a brown tabby cat with a little silver mixed in, and a pair of beautiful blue eyes.
The tabby cat that was supposed to have died in the north of Youcheng City appeared again, alive and well in the south of the city, in front of them.
At the same time, Shu Fu felt the vibration on his wrist.
When she landed at Lixiang Pier just now, there was no movement from the bracelet, and she was wondering whether she should stay at the pier a little longer.
She had even decided that if there was no movement from the bracelet by the time everyone had rested today, she would go back for a walk around the dock. But now, the bracelet sent a reminder that the task was completed.
"Why is this cat here?"
"Lanlan has always been here." Lu Ce looked at them with a calm expression.
**
Late at night, Chen Fa, lying on the camping blanket, couldn't sleep. He took out his mobile phone, typed a line of words, and handed it to Shu Fu beside him.
Shu Fu was also asleep. She was covering her head with a thin blanket and checking her black mini notebook.
[Complete the check-in task at Lixiang Wharf in Youcheng, and get a 10% progress bar for level 4 raft; get an additional 10% progress bar bonus; get a wheel lottery: 3 times. (Current progress of level 4 raft: 95%)]
Her expectation sank again. She thought the progress bar would reach 100% directly this time, but now it was stuck at 95. Was it meaningful to be stuck here? How long had it been since she had seen a task with only 5% progress?
Will I die if I push the progress bar to the limit?
Fortunately, there were still three more draws as consolation, but she still planned to save them. After so many draws, she had an idea of what was going on. Obviously, better prizes would be more likely to come out when there were more draws. She planned to wait until she completed another task and then draw again after the raft reached level four.
However, looking at the number 95% and thinking of the question Chen Fa had asked her before, her mood improved again.
If she hadn't reached level 4, it meant that she still had tasks to do. Since there were tasks, it meant that she could continue to travel with Chen Fa and the others. Now that Chen Fa had also awakened in addition to Lu Zheng, the three of them could actually sit down and have a small meeting to discuss the situation.
It would be best to find an empty space with no one around, have everyone release their rafts, and have a raft exchange meeting. It would also be a good opportunity for her to try and see if Chen Fa and Lu Zheng could enter her drifting island house.
The fact that Lu Ce had entered Lu Zheng's cabin meant that he might have obtained some direct information from Lu Zheng, and it also meant that Chen Yuezhen could enter Chen Fa's raft house.
By this calculation, there were five internal members who knew each other well. Everyone was tired from the meeting, so it was a good idea to have some barbecue together. It just so happened that she won ten barbecue gift packs...
After tonight, everyone else also vaguely knew about some special circumstances.
Apart from the fisherman who just lost his temper and left the team, the other teammates were actually quite reliable, especially Yue Dong and Xu Tingfeng who were traveling with them tonight. They didn't need to be brought along for the raft exchange, but they could be invited to join them for the barbecue...
For a moment, Shu Fu's thoughts were in a mess.
It was at this time that Chen Fa stuffed her cell phone into her thin blanket. On the dimmed screen, there was a line of words. She asked Shu Fu if she had made a mistake and that it was not Lan Lan who died.
Shu Fu put away the black notebook, pulled down the thin blanket, and typed a reply: If you really think that it was not Lan Lan who died, you wouldn't be asking me this question now.
After she showed it to Chen Fa, she added another line of words: Don't doubt it, it was Lan Lan who died. I'm behind you, I saw it clearly.
She guessed that this must be the big secret that Lu Ce had been hesitant to tell her.
So, is this the third bug?
**
The two men finally couldn't bear it for too long, and before the team set out the next day, they pulled Lu Ce to a separate compartment on the third floor of the restaurant.
"I thought you would ask me last night." Lu Ce looked very proud. He had completely relieved the pressure associated with the secret since he followed Lu Zheng into the small cabin that no one else could enter on the raft last night.
It turns out that in this world, not only his Lanlan is abnormal, but his own brother is also abnormal!
After that, he emptied himself without them asking.
"Lan Lan can't die. I found it by accident. That time, it was to save me. It can't be said that it will never die, but even if it dies, it will reappear alive next to me in a new body after a while. You know those games where characters can be revived infinitely at set locations after being killed? Lan Lan is like that."
Shu Fu: ...
Listening to this description, doesn't it mean that——
"Cat version of Tomie?" Shu Fu suddenly remembered something that happened a long time ago. She was still in Suicheng at that time. It seemed that after a thunderstorm, she went downstairs for a mission. When she went back, she saw a dead cat beside the building. She could not see it clearly because she only glanced at it from a distance and it was blocked by branches and leaves.
Now thinking back, could that dead cat be...
"Hey, now that you mention it, it's true." Lu Ce reached out and touched the cat's head that had once again stuck out of the backpack. "But besides this, it has another ability. Did you guys - last year, see a doomsday video on the Internet? It was a video that mixed the live broadcast video of the suicide man in Suicheng with various disaster scenes around the planet."
Shu Fu and Chen Fa looked at each other. Of course they had both seen it. This video pushed the term "reborn" in front of everyone, causing a shock on the Hua country's Internet and eventually giving rise to two positions: the westward migration faction and the garrison faction. How could they not have seen it!
"Yeah." Lu Ce nodded. He had already read the answer from their expressions. He became even more proud. He straightened his chest and made the backpack containing Lan Lan bulge out more: "It made it."
Shu Fu: ? ?
Chen Fa: ! !
The two people looked at Lanlan, with only a cat's head sticking out of the backpack, and their expressions were indescribable.
“Can it talk?”
Lu Ce shook his head, a little puzzled by the question: "No, Lanlan is a cat, how can it talk?"
"I mean, could there be... an adult inside it..." Chen Fa asked the two people's speculations.
"Are you trying to say that Lan Lan is actually an adult, and her soul accidentally entered the body of a cat?" Lu Ce continued calmly, "But I don't think so. An ordinary adult, even if he knows computers, can't possibly have that kind of supercomputer ability. The video that the reborn person took of himself was also its masterpiece!
I have been with it for so long, I know it best. Rather than saying there is a person inside, it is better to say it is an alien intelligent life. Haven't you heard that cats are aliens? Of course, it is also possible that it is a cat-shaped mechanical intelligent life. Why do we have to guess that it is a human soul? The universe is so big, and there are not only human beings as a life form..."
Although Lu Ce's remarks were a bit far-fetched, they had to admit that after listening to him, Shu Fu and Chen Fa both felt that they found his remarks quite reasonable.
But if it really involves advanced civilizations and alien life forms, then the matter will become more and more complicated.
**
The fisherman didn't come back until dawn.
Shu Fu was a little worried. It wasn't a big deal for her, but she was mainly afraid that the man had gone to the southern suburbs first and found the troops and said something nonsense. Then both Lu Zheng and Chen Fa would be in trouble.
In fact, Chen Fa was also a little puzzled. The fisherman was actually very timid. He had always been taken care of by Lao Gu. The two times he had lost his temper and ran away from the team, it was Lao Gu who brought him back.
This time he was alone, on such a dark and rainy night, in a completely unfamiliar empty city, and he actually walked all night? It felt a little strange...
After a simple breakfast, the group prepared to set off towards the southern suburbs of Youcheng, to the place where they had discovered the lights during their investigation last night.
Shu Fu took out a few painkillers from his backpack again and gave them to the injured Braid-Head and Big Guy, asking them to take them before continuing on their journey. At least they would suffer less along the way.
Although the guy with braids kept saying that he could walk by himself, his wound had just been sutured and walking would definitely tear the wound again. Forget about him if he was running for his life, the situation was not urgent and it was a long way to the southern suburbs, so in the end he had to listen to Xu Tingfeng and lie down on a cargo tricycle they found behind the commercial street.
The tricycle was pedal-powered, and there was a hole in the bed, so they took a long table and laid it on top to fill the hole, and then laid a waterproof mat and a camping blanket on top for Braidhead to lie on. Finally, they found an umbrella from a nearby restaurant, set it up, and then laid waterproof plastic sheeting on the umbrella, and a simple rainproof compartment was ready.
In addition to the braided man who could lie on it, their larger bags of supplies could also be put on it. The big guy took painkillers, and the pain in his head and face was much relieved. He took the initiative to take the job of pedaling the bike. After all, with the braided man's weight, who else could pedal it except him?
And you can sit while riding the bike, which is actually a little easier than walking.
The guy with braids felt that lying like this damaged his image as a tall, brave and tough guy, so he closed his eyes and pretended to be unconscious the whole time.
A group of thirteen people walked along the avenue in the center of the city towards the southern suburbs of Youcheng.
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