Chapter 16
When Tong Songming took out the modified assault boat, Tong Shu hardly recognized it. The original low and flat main body had been raised by one floor, creating an extra cabin. Many boxes were hung around the hull, further increasing the storage space. Tong Songming also made a transparent rain shelter on the assault boat, which could be folded, retracted, and unfolded, preventing the cargo from getting wet and protecting the crew from catching a cold from prolonged exposure to rain.
Under cover of darkness, the family moved the inflatable boat and some vegetables to the sixth floor. The water level has now risen to the boundary between the fifth and sixth floors, and the inflatable boat can be pushed outside from the window near the stairs.
This time, Tong Shu, Wang Jie, and Qin Xiaoxiao went out together. Their destination was H City, which is north of Z City. Qin Xiaoxiao couldn't stay in the room and had been wanting to go outside to see the world. Wang Jie had previously attended university in H City and was familiar with the routes.
"Shushu, why do we have to pack everything before we leave? Can't we just sneak the vegetables out of our bags when we get there? This is too tiring to carry, and it's so heavy," Qin Xiaoxiao complained, shaking her wrists that ached from carrying the vegetables.
"Qin Xiaoxiao, use your brain," Wang Jie said. "It will take us at least two hours to drive from Z City to H City. You don't know how many people are taking refuge in the high-rise buildings nearby, and how many eyes are watching outside. We will stop at any time to exchange things. The waterline of this assault boat is always shallow. Anyone who is even slightly observant will definitely suspect us."
Upon hearing this, Qin Xiaoxiao suddenly realized what was going on, scratched her head sheepishly, and smiled: "Anyway, I wasn't that careful. Luckily, you guys were here."
By the time the inflatable boat left Z City, it was already broad daylight. Since the natural disaster, Tong Shu and the others hadn't traveled this far. The situation outside was much worse than in Z City. Because Z City was coastal, it usually paid great attention to its urban drainage system, and its higher elevation meant there were still many places available for refuge.
H City is quite different. The southern part of H City is almost entirely farmland, with virtually no tall buildings. Villages are scattered throughout. Tong Shu had often passed through this area when traveling by high-speed rail before and was deeply impressed by the vast rice paddies. Now, sitting on the speedboat, not only are the rice paddies gone, but even the slightly taller villas in the villages are no longer visible.
The three continued on their way with heavy hearts, only feeling a little better when they reached the vicinity of the city center. Wang Jie then directed Tong Shu to drive the speedboat to his alma mater.
Surprisingly, there were many people on the H University campus. People were constantly paddling in and out of the campus in kayaks and lifeboats; some, lacking the means, were even paddling in large basins and buckets through the rain. Surprisingly, when Tong Shu and his group entered H University, they found a small passenger ship moored where the university's former sports field had once been. Tong Shu steered his speedboat near the ship and discovered that a group of armed police officers were busily working on it.
"Those collecting supplies, please line up over there!" A young armed policeman on the passenger ship spotted them and shouted to them from a distance, then pointed to the boarding gate of the passenger ship, indicating that they should line up over there.
As you can see, quite a few residents of H City have already lined up, waiting to receive supplies. Tong Shu waved her hand and moved the assault boat closer.
"Hello, my family farms. We had a lot of vegetables stored in our cellar before, but they've been sitting for too long and are about to spoil. We'd like to bring them here to exchange for some other supplies. Can we trade here?" Tong Shu asked, looking up as she lifted the waterproof cloth covering the basket, revealing fresh lettuce underneath.
The young armed police officer was also a little surprised: "Wow, you still have so many vegetables. Okay, then leave them over there, just don't block the way for others to come and go."
Tong Shu thanked them politely, bypassed the buoys placed on the water to maintain order, and, following the instructions of the armed police, parked the assault boat near the passenger ship, on the only way for the crowd to come out after receiving supplies, and then put away the waterproof tarpaulin.
"Wow! Such good vegetables, young lady, are you planning to sell these vegetables or what?" An uncle who had just received his supplies paddled over in a kayak. The bright green leaves of the lettuce attracted his eyes and he couldn't take his eyes off them. During this period, he had been eating dry food, and everyone was more or less constipated. He could bear it, but his child at home was in pain and cried every day. As a father, he was heartbroken.
"Sell it, sell it! 20 yuan a pound!" Tong Shu said with a smile. Anyway, money was useless now, so setting the price higher was practically giving it away for free.
"Wow! Cash transactions are still possible now!" The uncle was pleasantly surprised. He had thought he would have to reluctantly sell his newly acquired goods, but he hadn't expected the vegetable seller to accept money. However, he couldn't find a single coin on his person, and said anxiously and embarrassedly, "I don't have any money on me. Could you wait a moment? My house is just nearby. I'll go back and get the money and come right back!"
Tong Shu said, "It's alright, Uncle. You can go back and get it. We'll keep it for you."
"Alright, alright!" The uncle immediately grabbed the oar and rowed away, not forgetting to turn back and remind him, "Remember to leave me ten pounds!"
In a short while, a large crowd had gathered around Tong Shu and his team's assault boat. Many people had heard their conversation, and the news spread like wildfire. Everyone nearby who was collecting supplies knew that three young men were selling fresh vegetables by the supply ship and accepting cash.
Some quick-thinking individuals noticed that Tong Shu and his group's assault boat wasn't very big, and probably didn't carry much food. They figured they might miss out if they waited too long, so they immediately dropped out of line and rushed home to get their cash.
Some people directly traded the supplies they had just received. Because supplies were scarce, Tong Shu's prices were not high; one compressed biscuit could be exchanged for five kilograms of vegetables. This made them very happy. Seeing that in addition to lettuce, there were also potatoes, tomatoes, and other vegetables, they quickly pointed and arranged a vegetable platter, happily loaded it into their vehicles, and went home to share the good news with their families.
"Wang Jie! What brings you here!" An elderly man with gray hair approached on a paddleboard and greeted Wang Jie with delight.
"Professor!" Wang Jie was also pleasantly surprised and quickly helped the old professor get closer to the assault boat, asking anxiously, "Are you alright?"
"It's all good, it's all good. We were still in class on the day of the heatwave when the school realized something was wrong and immediately organized all the teachers and students to hide in the basement. Our whole family is fine."
Wang Jie's professor family were all highly educated. He and his wife met at the university and had an only daughter. After growing up, their daughter also became a lecturer at the university.
“It’s just that the evacuation was too rushed when the flood broke out, and Yueyue’s pregnancy was affected. She’s resting at home now.” The professor’s face showed a trace of fatigue. “Fortunately, she has a good constitution, otherwise she wouldn’t have made it through. My son-in-law went on a business trip to Country A a few months ago, and we can’t contact him at all now. We don’t know if he will be able to come back.”
Upon hearing this, Wang Jie grasped the professor's rough hands: "They will come back, and they will all be reunited."
The professor understood that this was just a word of comfort, but he nodded gratefully nonetheless.
"Professor, please take these vegetables. They're all grown at home for my sister and baby." Tong Shu brought out a bag of vegetables, packed full in a black plastic bag.
"Oh my! So much! This won't do. You must have come all the way from home, right? It's such a long and tiring journey. I can't just take your food for nothing." The old professor waved his hands repeatedly. Although he had indeed heard that someone was selling vegetables here and rushed over to exchange some for some to supplement his daughter's nutrition, he felt a little embarrassed when he saw that they were his students. After so many years of being a teacher, he really couldn't bring himself to take advantage of his students.
"Professor, please take these," Wang Jie reassured her. "These are my cousin's vegetables; her family grew them in the countryside."
“Yes, please take it. It’s just home-cooked food, nothing special,” Tong Shu said to the professor.
“That might have been the case before, but it’s different now.” The professor pointed to the rain-soaked sky and then to the murky water: “These fresh vegetables are now priceless.”
“It only has value if people eat it, so please don’t refuse. Here’s what we’ll do,” Tong Shu said, “Give me this pen in your pocket, and I’ll trade you this bag of vegetables.”
Tong Shu noticed a pen tucked into the professor's watch pocket and suggested that, since they could gain faith points through any exchange, they could do so anyway.
"What's the use of this pen... I'd rather trade it for supplies."
Without a word, Tong Shu shoved the bag into the professor's hand. The professor couldn't refuse, and thinking of his daughter who was weak and pregnant at home, he didn't care about saving face. He awkwardly pulled out his pen and handed it to Tong Shu, saying, "Thank you... thank you, I'm so sorry."
"You're too kind," Wang Jie said. "It's raining heavily now, so we'll head back after we sell our vegetables. You should go back early too. I'll come to see you and your teacher's wife again when I have the chance."
The old professor nodded repeatedly, said goodbye several times, picked up his oar, and rowed away with difficulty, his body hunched over.
Qin Xiaoxiao kept exchanging supplies with people, and in just a short while, the vegetables on the upper level were sold out. They then began to take the vegetables out of the small cabin that Tong Songming had modified and continued to exchange them.
The crowd, who were initially anxious because the vegetables were almost gone, instantly relaxed when they saw that they still had some stock. They even had the mood to exchange a few words: "Your assault boat is so advanced, it even has a warehouse!"
"Hehe, my family was quite interested in this, so they modified it themselves. I didn't expect it to come in handy." Qin Xiaoxiao said while packing them up. "Your H City is really quick to act, the ship is already out there."
"Hey, what a coincidence." Someone handed over a piece of chocolate and took Qin Xiaoxiao's food. "The water level rose so fast back then, and the H River is right next to it. A lot of boats and ferries were washed ashore. Our H City government reacted quickly and came in handy. I heard that our city's distribution points are all on boats!"
When Tong Shu heard this, she thought it was a really good idea. Their Z City was by the sea; they might not have much else, but they had plenty of boats.
Just then, the uncle who had said he was going home to get money returned. He was rowing hurriedly, sweat and rain mixed together and dripped from his face, but he didn't care about that. He pulled out a handful of wet hundred-yuan bills from his pocket and said to Tong Shu, panting, "Little girl, here, here is a thousand yuan. Please pack it for me to fill 50 jin. My neighbors need some too."
A murmur of discontent immediately arose from those around them. What was wrong with this person? Buying so much for themselves was one thing, but now they were offering to buy for others too? What were the others supposed to do, queuing up to buy groceries?
Tong Shu shook her head, took out two bills from the wad of cash, and handed him a bag of vegetables weighing ten pounds that had been packed in advance: "Uncle, it's not that I don't want to sell, but everyone here has been waiting for a long time, and it's raining so hard. Everyone has a hard time. If someone buys all the vegetables at once, it's too unfair to the others."
The middle-aged man blushed deeply as he watched the people around him pointing and whispering. He stammered, "But...but I already promised them..."
"It's okay, we'll come again in the future." Tong Shu raised her voice slightly to make sure everyone around her could hear her. "Our family has cultivated a lot of land halfway up the mountain, so the flood won't reach there. We also have a lot of vegetables stored in our cellar. Everyone in our village grows vegetables, so we'll be coming here more often recently. It's okay if you didn't buy anything this time."
Hearing this, everyone felt relieved, and the atmosphere became less tense. Some even thought to themselves that they should carry some cash with them so that they could buy vegetables as soon as they met Tong Shu and the others next time.
After selling a ship full of supplies at H University, Tong Shu and his two companions bid farewell to everyone and secretly circled around to the northernmost part of H City. In a secluded corner, they refilled the ship's hold, then sold a batch of vegetables at the North Square of H City using the same excuse. They then returned home fully loaded under the cover of night.
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