Not only Huang Mao, but even his henchmen couldn't escape the Grim Reaper's scythe.
They fell ill one after another, and then died after dawn.
Those who remained behind, unaware of what was happening, repeated the mistakes of Huang Mao and his gang, trembling with fear of death...
Bi Qiaoan rested in the ruins for a night and finally recovered her strength.
Waking up to the sunrise, I took An'an out of the room, and the mother and son stretched their arms and kicked their legs to exercise.
The noise from the two woke up the elderly couple and several girls who were in a light sleep, and they followed Bi Qiaoan's example and started moving around.
After they were covered in sweat, they gave each other a disgusted look.
"What are we going to do now?" There's no water to wash up, and it already smells bad, but now it smells even worse.
Hearing their complaints, Bi Qiaoan chuckled and shook her head, saying, "Shouldn't you be thinking about the drinking water issue right now?"
I didn't drink water for the first two days because we had just survived the disaster and had food to replenish our fluids, so the situation wasn't that urgent yet.
But this is the fourth morning already! Can we really expect any moisture from the cookies and bread? We're going to die of thirst!
The girls licked their chapped lips and suddenly realized that what the other person said made a lot of sense. Why hadn't they thought of that before?
"Then what do you suggest we do?" asked the girl who had been the most stubborn.
"Find some tools and distill pure water, right? Didn't you learn that in school?"
"I've studied it, but I've never applied it," a girl said weakly.
Bi Qiaoan rolled her eyes. "What's so difficult about this? If you can't do something precise, can't you at least make something simple? Haven't you ever cooked at home?"
"It's been cooked!" The group was completely bewildered.
Bi Qiaoan explained to them bluntly, "We don't have any professional tools right now, so we can only look for pots and pans in the ruins. Just like when you're cooking, the steam from the pot lid will condense and drip down. We can use broken glass or broken leaves, as long as we can get the steam to condense and drip into the bowl."
The girls nodded, indicating they understood, but asked, "Won't this be too slow? Also, if we can't eat the fish in the sea, can we still use the water?"
Bi Qiaoan glanced at the other person and asked in return, "Didn't you spend the whole day doing other things? Besides, besides seawater, do we have any other water resources available?"
"Use it, and you might die of plague; don't use it, and you'll die of thirst. Either way, you'll die; the choice is yours!"
"Ugh, why are you like this!"
Bi Qiaoan spread her hands, "What's wrong with me? Didn't I tell you what to do? Why think so much? Do we have other options now?"
Besides, can't you just boil the distilled water again? It's just a matter of using a little more firewood and water; there aren't many people left to live, so we can afford to waste it.”
Bi Qiaoan's words were unpleasant, but after thinking about it, they realized that she was right, so they didn't argue and obediently went to rummage through the ruins to find tools.
Seeing her mother standing still, An'an asked her, "Aren't we going?"
Bi Qiaoan shook her head; she wanted to go and see the other side of the "isolated island."
So he said to the others, "You guys keep searching, I'll go explore the other side of these ruins."
"Aren't you coming with us?" The girls looked at Bi Qiaoan in shock, feeling a sense of abandonment.
Bi Qiaoan smiled and said, "We need to know what's going on on the other side. If we're not submerged by the sea, we can leave here, right? There's no need to stay here and fight to the death."
The old man hesitated for a moment, then said to Bi Qiaoan, "I'll go with you."
Bi Qiaoan shook her head: "No need, you should stay and take care of those girls. I'm afraid those people will come and cause trouble, so you should all be careful."
If you find the tools, try distilling some pure water. If that doesn't work, wait until I get back. Maybe I can find the tools on the other side.”
Several girls were quite moved by these words, little did they know that this was just a pretext to get them out of trouble.
"Alright, be careful on your way," the old man said.
Bi Qiaoan nodded and left with An'an.
The two walked around the water's edge in an unexplored direction. After walking for more than an hour, they came across a partially collapsed ruin.
The buildings are described as partially collapsed because they still retain some shape. Some of the better-maintained buildings were barely damaged.
Bi Qiaoan's eyes lit up, thinking that she might find something here.
She pulled An'an along cautiously to look ahead, and sure enough, through the broken glass window, she could see a mess inside.
"It's a bit dirty, but it can still be used after washing it clean," Bi Qiaoan said with emotion, looking at the furniture and clothes scattered haphazardly.
She wanted to go inside to see if there was anything to eat, but the precarious state of the building made her stop in her tracks.
"Forget it, let's walk a little further and see." Bi Qiaoan picked up An'an and weaved through the crooked and twisted buildings.
When they got hungry at noon, the two found a secluded spot to have a nice lunch, and then, after resting, they continued their exploration.
At 4:30 p.m., Bi Qiaoan felt she couldn't go any further; if she did, she might have to circle back to where she got ashore.
So they prepared to turn back, but just as they set off, they heard a group of people walking towards them from a distance, cursing and swearing.
"To hell with the apocalypse! They've trapped me here and I can't even move. I really want to kill those bastards."
"I told you that's enough! So what if someone stole your fish? Look how sick they are!"
"That's right, if you're looking to die, don't drag us down with you. Everyone knows these days that you can't eat fish from the sea."
"Do you think I want to eat fish? No, I don't want to live anymore! I've been trapped here for days and nights, eating tree bark and drinking piss all day. What the hell is the point of living like this?"
"I'm telling you, don't be ungrateful. So many people want to live but can't. You have the good fortune you have today, you don't know how many lifetimes of good deeds your ancestors accumulated."
"I'm just really annoyed and I want to vent, but I can't! This is so damn unlucky, I've been looking for food for two or three days and I still can't find anything to eat."
"Alright, stop complaining. There are still a lot of places we haven't searched. Hurry up, let's look around some more, or we'll really starve to death."
"I know, I know, what are you yelling about! This place is really weird. The building is still intact, the furniture and clothes are all there, but there's no food. I did find a bag of flour a couple of days ago, but it's been soaked in seawater and turned into mush. What good is it? Can you eat it, or use it to plaster the walls?"
"Do you think it's possible that this is also a city that was evacuated? The residents took all the food from their homes, and what's left are all things that they don't need for the time being."
"I don't think so, otherwise you wouldn't have found that can of meat the day before yesterday. I'm more inclined to believe that the sea swept this place away and washed all the food away."
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