Half a month later, another group of people in Zone 3, where many had already died, were preparing to move out. After all, there was no more free food, and the only way to survive was to catch rats. This forced many people to move out of their homes.
Although the current high temperature is still around 40 degrees Celsius, people have obviously adapted to this high temperature after living in it for a long time.
On this day, the person collecting rats in the supermarket made everyone line up to receive their own water. Lu Yuan arrived a little late and saw that the long line that used to stretch from the main road all the way to the back had obviously shrunk considerably.
Many people left because they couldn't make a living by catching rats. Although the water problem has been alleviated, with many seawater desalination plants built in coastal cities to prevent water shortages, and a water transport pipeline running from east to west completed two months ago, water shortages in various regions have been greatly alleviated. However, it can only be described as an alleviation, as there are significant losses during long-distance water transport. Moreover, the amount of seawater desalinated by desalination plants each day is limited, yet it is necessary to supply hundreds of millions of people, which is clearly insufficient.
Lu Yuan followed the crowd in line to receive his family's water for the day. Watching the group of people carrying their families and boxes, preparing to move away, he felt a pang of sadness. It wasn't that he felt sorry for these people, but rather that he saw them being forced to migrate for the sake of survival. However, they didn't know that many people would die along the way, because they would not only face shortages of water and food, but also bandits and starving people who might appear out of nowhere.
These people may die on the road or join a gang of robbers; it is their fate. Once they leave the place they depend on for survival, the risks they face when seeking a living will increase exponentially.
After collecting the water, Lu Yuan was about to go home when he saw Aunt Liu, who was known for gossiping, dragging her suitcase and moving away with her son and daughter-in-law. They exchanged greetings on the way. Although Lu Yuan didn't particularly like Aunt Liu's family, they were still neighbors, so he gave them all the water he had, as a small token of his appreciation.
Bored at home, Lu Yuan took out his phone and opened a group chat.
Chen Ke then posted the following message in the group chat.
"@Everyone, I just did a count of the people in Zone 3. There are 135 people left in Zone 3. Among them, there are 22 children under the age of 10, 43 children aged 10 to 18, 45 children aged 18 to 50, and 25 children over the age of 50."
Then Song Heng replied in the group: "Sigh! It should be 130 people now. Just now, the last family of five from my neighbors moved away. There was an eight-year-old child, two adults, and two elderly people. Now I have no one to keep me company. I feel a bit empty, lonely, and cold!"
Liu Tiantian: "Hehe! Who told you not to share any food with others? Now you're all alone! By the way, why aren't your family members coming back?"
Song Heng: "Hey! Don't even mention it. My dad was planning to send me to visit him a while ago, but it turns out the situation there is even worse than here. All transportation is shut down now, how is it possible to come back? It's thousands of kilometers away, am I supposed to walk all the way back?!"
Sun Zhe: "Have you heard? A large number of migrants have appeared in Qingshui City. I wonder if this will affect us here!"
Wei Tian: "Hehe! It's a poor, remote place. People from the city look down on us! Don't worry! They're all heading east!"
Wang Chuanchuan: "By the way, didn't they say the high temperatures are causing sea levels to rise? Why are we still heading towards the beach? Isn't that just asking for trouble?"
...
Looking at the messages in the group chat, Lu Yuan felt a bit bored. They were just talking about trivial matters and needless worries, which weren't very helpful. However, they were still quite helpful in obtaining some information.
However, there will definitely be refugees, and the scale will be unknown. His own house was built like a prison, and the high walls and gates would obviously attract their attention. Lu Yuan knew that the trap could not be kept secret and he had to make preparations as soon as possible.
So Lu Yuan shared his thoughts during dinner.
"Make a trap? Everyone's watching in broad daylight, how can you make a trap?" Mr. Lu asked first.
Okay, now that a problem has been raised, we need to find a solution. Lu Yuan had already developed a strategy based on these ideas.
"Of course, we'll put it inside the wall! If they want to get into our house, they'll have to climb over the wall. Not only is this three-meter-high wall extremely difficult to climb, but even if they do climb it, they'll have to deal with the barbed wire on top! And then they'll have to come down again. So I plan to dig a circle of holes along the wall and prepare some tools inside!"
Grandpa thought highly of Lu Yuan and immediately gave him a thumbs up in approval.
At this moment, Aunt Lu asked with some concern, "Then should we just kill the person? That's too... too inhumane!"
Xiao Shan's mother, who was standing to the side, had a lot to say about this issue. If Lu Yuan hadn't brought them back last time, their whole family probably wouldn't have been able to come back.
“Mother-in-law, are you really planning to give these people who climb over the wall to eat? They’re never full. If even one of them finds out about our situation, more refugees will try to take advantage of us. We have to be ruthless!”
Xiao Shan's father nodded repeatedly, saying, "That's right, special times call for special measures! Although this amount of food seems like a lot, there are so many refugees. This isn't even enough for them to share once!"
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