Chapter 60
Even in the mountains and forests, they encountered refugees. Tong Shu and her group dared not be careless anymore. They traveled along the way, stopping frequently. Even if they needed to return to the island temporarily, they would set up their tents on the spot and enter the island away from people's sight.
Fortunately, apart from the suddenly growing trees, the weather gradually warmed up. By the time they got out of the mountain path, Tong Shu and the others had taken off all their clothes except for a thin sweater.
"Fortunately, the temperature didn't suddenly rise or fall like it has been the last few times. Otherwise, if the ice melted into water all at once, I don't know how many people would have lost their lives." Tong Songming's shoulder injury was almost healed, and he was peeling off the last piece of medicine.
"If that's really the case, those houses, which have been flooded for so long and frozen for months, wouldn't even need these suddenly growing trees; they would just collapse," Wang Jianye said.
As they talked, they walked toward the main road. The trees growing at the foot of the mountain were not as dense as those on the mountain, but each tree was incredibly thick, with canopies stretching for dozens of meters, as if they had entered another forest from one forest.
Wang Jie felt the ground beneath his feet become wet and muddy, and quickly stopped the people around him, saying, "We need to put on our gas masks. We're probably walking on the original path from the bottom of the mountain now. The water and ice are gone. When the weather warms up, the viruses that were hidden in the water will become active again. Don't get sick by accident."
Remembering the poisonous aquatic crops from the floods long ago, the group dared not be careless and each took out a gas mask from their backpack and put it on.
"Luckily, the trees down the mountain are big, not like the trees in the mountains where they grow side by side, otherwise we wouldn't be able to drive the car," Tong Shu said. "Dad? Have we left Z City yet?"
"Not yet." Tong Songming's voice came from under the mask, muffled and hard to hear: "This mountain is on the edge of Z City, and it's about three or four kilometers to S City."
They didn't encounter anyone else along the way, but just to be on the safe side, Tong Shu decided to wait until they left Z City before looking for an opportunity to drive. Wearing gas masks was really uncomfortable, and knowing they didn't have much time left, they all felt motivated to keep going. They immediately stopped chatting and focused on walking forward.
That evening, Tong Shu and her group of five arrived in City S. They found a dilapidated factory building, surrounded by more than a dozen similar factories of varying sizes, which should have been part of a small industrial park. Outside the factory buildings grew crops with shallow, short roots but broad, thick leaves, the largest of which was as tall as the factory buildings themselves.
The factory was completely inaccessible, as it was crammed with all sorts of plants, resembling a small rainforest.
"They're all bitter grass and some other algae. They must have been growing in the water for a while, and then they came out when the water receded. Judging from this, the water probably hasn't been out for long," Qin Jiaqiang said, picking up a handful of grass leaves.
"Let's set up a campsite here tonight, and then get up early tomorrow to clear out a space in the factory so the vehicles can drive out," Wang Jianye said.
No one else objected, and they all took out their tools and began clearing the open space.
Wang Jianye and Qin Jiaqiang took shovels and leveled the grass on the ground. They then dug a ditch around the perimeter for firewood. Tong Shu sprayed pesticide around the ditch, while Tong Songming and Wang Jie set up a tent in the middle of the enclosure. They had been doing this for the past few days while traveling. The vines would sprout up at night, but they could only wriggle and sway around the ditch from the outside, unable to get in.
Considering they were no longer in the mountains, Tong Shu prepared a bottle of disinfectant and sprayed it inside and outside the campsite. Although she didn't know how effective it would be, she felt much more at ease.
That evening, they took turns hiding in tents and going up to the island, even wearing gas masks while sleeping.
In the middle of the night, Wang Jie woke Tong Shu from her sleep. He had finished his first night's watch, and it was Tong Shu's turn to take over for the second night.
Tong Shu was kept watch with Tong Songming. The father and daughter wore strange masks and sat facing each other, occasionally adding firewood to the fire in the ditch.
The Killer Vines fear fire, yet they crave living people. They try their best to stretch their branches, but according to Tong Shu's observation, they can only grow to about three meters at most, making it impossible for them to cross the fire ditch and attack them.
The branches and leaves rubbed against the ground, making a "rustling" sound.
In the dim light, Tong Shu seemed to hear a crisp sound of sheet metal bending.
"Dad, did you hear that?" Tong Shu leaned closer and asked Tong Songming.
"Huh? What did you say?" Tong Shu's voice was mostly muffled by the mask, and only a blurry sound reached Tong Songming's ears.
Tong Shuxin was suspicious, but she didn't dare to ask loudly. She thought for a moment, took out a pen and paper, wrote it down, and handed it to her father.
After looking at it, Tong Songming immediately calmed down and listened carefully. Apart from the crackling sound of burning firewood, there was only the sound of the killer vine. He couldn't recognize the sound Tong Shu was talking about. Then he shook his head at Tong Shu.
Tong Shu suspected she had misheard, but dared not let her guard down. She took out the gun Wen Shaocheng had given her, held it in her hand, and turned her head slightly to observe the surrounding movements.
About an hour later, the sky was beginning to lighten, and the Killing Vine receded like a tide. Just as Tong Shu was about to put the gun away, he heard the rattling of metal.
Tong Songming had been paying attention, and without Tong Shu reminding him, he heard the noise coming from the roof of the small factory building next to them.
The father and daughter looked up together and met the gazes of the three people on the roof.
"We've been spotted, let's go!" The leader grabbed a tree trunk and jumped down.
Tong Shu's heart skipped a beat, and she immediately shouted, "Uncle! Brother Jie! Someone's attacking!"
The people in the tent hadn't been sleeping soundly either. Hearing the shouts, they were jolted awake, rolled out of their sleeping bags, and found their shovels and axes lying nearby, ready to be used.
Those three men were clearly skilled fighters. They had already reached the edge of the fire ditch. The ditch was wide and the fire was still burning, so they couldn't rush over in a short time. The leader grabbed a large leaf, draped it over himself, and jumped in.
Tong Songming pulled Tong Shu behind him, picked up the axe he had been using to cut tree branches and swung it forward. Suddenly, a stone flew from a distance and hit Tong Songming's wrist. The impact caused Tong Songming to lose his strength, and the axe fell to the ground.
Tong Shu immediately looked up at the top of the factory building and sure enough, she saw a figure moving faintly.
At this moment, Qin Jiaqiang and his two companions rushed out of the tent. The two groups of people got into a fight. Tong Shu's side had shovels and axes as weapons, but the three opponents were superior to them in both age and physical strength. Moreover, there was another one hiding in the shadows to finish them off. Tong Shu and his companions gradually fell into a disadvantageous position.
They didn't seem to take Tong Shu seriously, focusing their attacks on the men of the Tong family.
Tong Shu kicked the soil from the edge of the fire ditch back into it, and the camp suddenly became half dark. The person hiding on the factory building lost most of his vision, and the frequency of the stone-throwing also slowed down.
Tong Shu rolled around the tent once. A person in yellow clothes was snatching the shovel from Wang Jie's hand. Tong Shu crawled closer, took out a dagger, and stabbed the person's ankle hard.
"Agh!!" The man in yellow let out a deafening scream, clutching his ankle and turning his head with a sinister look, raising his fist to smash into Tong Shu's face.
Wang Jie got a chance to catch his breath, rolled over and got up from the ground, and slammed the shovel into the back of the man in yellow. Half of the man in yellow's body went numb and he fell to the ground.
Seeing that the person wasn't moving, Wang Jie picked up a shovel and went to help the other side.
Tong Shu picked up the dagger and was about to go over when she was unexpectedly pulled to the ground by a force. The man in the yellow clothes had bloodshot eyes and was holding a burning stick with its head on fire, which he used to burn her arm.
A moment later, a piercing pain shot through her arm. Not wanting to distract her family, Tong Shu bit her lower lip hard. The strong smell of blood filled her mouth, and a raging fire rose in her chest. Under the firelight and the sunlight, the face of the person lying on the ground seemed to have changed. Tong Shu seemed to see the ugly face that had been grinning maliciously at Qin Xiaoxiao that night.
The excruciating pain in her arm seemed to vanish. Tong Shu mustered a fierce strength and kicked the man in yellow in the head. The man in yellow was struck in the head and immediately went still.
But Tong Shu had clearly lost her mind. She was filled with hatred. A green light flashed in her hand, and the sharp tip of the knife plunged heavily into the man's neck with undeniable force. Hot blood spurted three feet high and dripped down the mask.
The other two, despite their skills, were overwhelmed by the attack of four adult men. When they saw the man in yellow being stabbed to death by Tong Shu, they shouted in their dialect and rushed towards Tong Shu without regard for their lives.
Wang Jie and his men weren't about to let the two escape. They chased after them, shoveling at them until they were knocked to the ground, writhing and unable to get up.
A pebble struck Tong Shu hard in the back, and Tong Shu could clearly hear the cracking sound of his bones.
She wiped the blood off her goggles with her sleeve. Through her pinkish, blurry vision, Tong Shu stared intently at the figure lurking in the shadows. As he pulled back the slingshot again, Tong Shu raised her gun and fired decisively.
The sound of a huge object rolling echoed from the top of the corrugated iron factory building, then the vegetation was crushed, and everything returned to calm.
Tong Shu's chest heaved violently, and she was unable to shake off the state for a long time.
After Wang Jie and his men tied up the two men, they looked at the yellow-clothed man lying dead on the ground with his eyes wide open, and a feeling they couldn't quite describe welled up inside them.
"Shushu, are you hurt anywhere?" Tong Songming had been hit in the waist by the shovel and was in a lot of pain. He deliberately ignored the corpse lying in a pool of blood and slowly moved over to check on Tong Shu.
Wang Jie also came to his senses. It seemed that Tong Shu had been burned by the man in the yellow shirt with a wooden stick. He himself was not injured. He took out his first-aid kit and said urgently, "Were you burned? Cut off the sleeve first, and I'll treat you."
Several people were injured to varying degrees. Tong Songming and Wang Jianye went over and helped Wang Jie cut Tong Shu's sleeves.
Qin Jiaqiang gently touched the swollen face, walked over to the corpse, and his mouth twitched nervously.
Taking advantage of the fact that no one was paying attention, he kicked the corpse into the still-burning trench, let out a big breath, and felt a slight, almost imperceptible sense of satisfaction.
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