Return without success
As time passed until early August, the flood showed no sign of receding. Sometimes it was calm and peaceful, and sometimes it was surging and turbulent. The municipal government had tried its best to drain the water and clear the canals, but it seemed like a drop in the bucket in the face of such a huge volume.
There is nothing people can do about it.
The news that there were kayaks at 1201 gradually spread to all floors of Building 6 in Lanwan Community.
After all, with a ship, the efficiency of searching for supplies can be doubled! More supplies can be brought back in a shorter time!
The boss of 501 is a fat, big-eared man with tattoos on his arms. He has taken over 501 and gathered a group of young men who swam here to seek help. He is a gangster and evil force.
The food in the building was getting less and less day by day, and the relief food was also getting less and less. For those who went out to look for food, it was considered good news if they found nothing. The number of people who died silently in the water was simply countless.
Just when everyone had no way out, the tattooed brother from 501 took the lead and united all the people from 1101 down, surrounded the iron gate and forced the two floors above to surrender.
The six gangs on the six floors sent six representatives to stand in front of the iron gate, which looked like six major sects besieging Guangmingding.
The sun was still quite hot before the rainstorm. In addition to meeting his own needs, Jiang Miao also replenished the power in his mobile power bank through the solar charging panel.
But now the flood disaster has come, the sky is overcast from morning to night, and the solar panels cannot meet Jiang Miao's daily needs even if they work for a whole day, so he simply removed them and put them in the space. In the days to come, he can only rely on mobile power supplies and generators to make ends meet.
There was a lot of noise outside the door, the noise was intermittent, and there were faint sounds of smashing and destroying things.
Jiang Miao was sweating all over after practicing sword skills, and was too lazy to take a shower. He walked to the eleventh floor with his sword in hand and happened to run into Li Chongyu who came up to report the news.
He saw Jiang Miao coming down and breathed a sigh of relief: "Sister Miao, I was just about to go upstairs to find you."
"What's going on." She walked down the stairs and saw that the steel-framed door was being smashed continuously with plastic poles, tables and chairs, kitchen knives, and iron pipes, as if they would not give up until the door was broken open.
There are only four people on the 11th and 12th floors combined, not to mention the Immortal King who is soundly sleeping, so the actual fighting power is only three people.
The people in 501 are a bunch of rough men. They hit and beat people with steel bars and are extremely arrogant.
Jiang Miao doesn't like killing people, but some scenes require the shock of blood, like now.
Soon, the screws fixing the wall loosened and the door was pushed open. Everyone rushed into the iron gate and looked at the thin and stern woman holding a sword and standing across the corridor, looking like a single man blocking a thousand men from passing through.
The natives who knew her background had silently retreated to a safe distance the moment she appeared at the stairs. Only some young men who were ignorant of the ways of the world rushed forward with machetes.
"Swish!" Jiang Miao's sword moved smoothly as if he was cutting vegetables or carrots. He killed three people in just a few breaths. The smell of blood in the air gradually made people more conscious, and their violent thoughts slowly returned.
Is this person a monster? Isn't she afraid?
The bodies were lying all over the place, and the others were hesitant and unwilling to move forward. Seeing that the situation here was deteriorating, the 501 flower-armed man who was hiding in the back watching the battle secretly took out a gun from his clothes and quietly aimed at the girl in front.
"Be careful!" A young man suddenly appeared from behind Huabi. He swooped down and knocked Huabi down. He pulled the trigger of the gun in his hand while struggling, shooting two people nearby and killing them!
Su Le's eyes flashed, and he rushed forward without any hesitation, stepped on the man with the flowery arms' head, and then confiscated the gun from his hand in a lightning speed.
"You're planning a sneak attack!" Su Le held the gun in his hand and pointed it at the others, "Let's see who dares to take a step forward today!"
Everyone stared at the wide-open 1101 behind them with fear and greed, and were forced to retreat outside the iron gate due to the pressure.
The young man on top of the tattooed arm raised his head, his dirty little face looking earnest.
Jiang Miao looked carefully and found that it was Fang Yang, whom he met at D University.
Why is this kid haunting me?
Seeing that a tough approach didn't work, this group of people began to adopt a conciliatory policy.
An old lady yelled in a low voice: "Little girl, we are not bullying you because of our numbers! But now there are waves of natural disasters, and we who survived should always help each other! We don't need your food or clothes, so lend us your boat to row out and find some supplies! My grandson hasn't had a full meal for two or three days!"
This old lady had a smile on her face, but her eyes were full of calculation.
Su Le retorted in a bad tone: "Your grandson is eighteen or nineteen years old, tall and strong. What does it matter if he goes hungry for a few meals? Besides, why should they lend you their things? Oh, because you are old, because you don't take a bath."
The old lady, who had hardly taken a bath during the natural disaster, looked downcast and said, "Hey, what's wrong with you, girl? Why are you talking so harshly? Everyone is in trouble, so what? Didn't your parents teach you to be kind to others?"
Su Le wanted to argue with her, but Jiang Miao made the final decision: "No."
Those people had ugly faces and some of them had hatred in their eyes. The aunt wanted to throw a tantrum as usual, but because of the gun in Su Le's hand, she dared not say anything. She just shouted: "Okay, you actually have a gun in your hand. When the municipal staff comes tomorrow, I will report you! How dare you secretly hide a gun!"
He completely forgot that the gun was taken from the man with the flower arm.
"Okay, I'll wait." It's just a broken gun with only a few bullets. Who would want to hold it in their hands?
Su Le raised his chin to force the man back. Li Chongyu hurriedly took a hammer and nailed the iron door again. Jiang Miao took out new screws and steel bars from upstairs and fixed the big iron door firmly to the wall.
The only way to break through is to tear down the wall.
"Tell me, how did you get here?" After threatening the people outside, Jiang Miao looked down at the person who had been trying to follow her.
On the ground, Fang Yang whispered: "I had a feeling that I would run into you in this part of the city, and I really did."
Jiang Miao recalled the talent and skill he once described himself as: prophet, with a 100% blind pick hit rate.
If this child is taken to do experiments, maybe he can really be trained to become a scientist. He will definitely choose the right research direction to invest in. You know, for scientific research, choosing a direction is really more important than hard work.
Jiang Miao said nothing, but turned to Su Le and said, "I'll leave this to you. If you and Li Chongyu want to borrow my boat to go out and find supplies, the rent will be one-fifth of the supplies you find."
Su Le nodded: "Okay, we will speak up if there is a need."
"Take this. If someone from the municipal government comes to you to inquire about something, give this to him." Jiang Miao handed over a simulated toy gun, which was originally prepared for herself.
Su Le's eyes lit up and he happily took it: "Thank you, senior sister!"
No shots were fired, so who knows whether the gun she snatched from her hand was real or fake.
"Yeah." After saying that, Jiang Miao walked up alone, not caring about what the rest of the people would do.
Fang Yang, who was once again turned away, looked on helplessly, and finally sighed helplessly, muttering quietly: "Alas, why is it so difficult to get close to someone these days?"
"Don't even think about it. How can you and I get close to a rich woman like Sister Miao?" Li Chongyu patted his shoulder. Although he didn't see what the pretty boy next to Sister Miao looked like last time, he could tell from the look below the neck that he was a handsome man with a tall stature and a fluttering coat.
He sat down on Huabi's body and asked Su Le: "What should we do with this man?"
Su Le put away the gun, walked up to him and broke his neck: "Of course I'll kill him and throw him out."
Both boys felt a chill on their necks at the same time. Are girls nowadays so cruel and taciturn?
After dealing with the tattooed arm, Su Le turned his attention to Fang Yang.
Fang Yang spoke with difficulty: "I rushed their leader in and was killed by you. It's impossible to go back now."
A traitor's fate at the end of the world will definitely not be better than having tattooed arms.
"How did you get to know the senior?" Su Le asked him curiously.
"It's a long story, but anyway, I'm definitely not a bad person! Otherwise, I wouldn't have risked my life to save her! Just take me in!"
That’s true.
If the gun had been held at a more off angle, the man with the tattoo would not have hit the two innocent passers-by, but Fang Yang who was attacking him from the side and rear.
Li Chongyu: "1101 is Sister Miao's territory. It's not up to us to decide whether you can move in. We still need her approval."
Fang Yang was depressed for a moment, Su Le rolled his eyes at him and said, "Silly, even we can think that this kid will be skinned alive if he goes back now, how can senior sister not know? Senior sister didn't just throw him out and let us handle it, which means that it's up to us two to decide whether to keep him or not, and she respects our opinions."
"Ah?" Li Chongyu scratched his head, "You girls are so hard to guess what's going on."
Su Le: "You are too stupid, OK? This man at least saved my senior sister once. Is my senior sister such a cold-blooded person?"
Li Chongyu thought about it carefully: "She is."
Su Le was furious: "Damn you, you big monkey! Senior sister was so kind and gave you a place to stay, but you actually said bad things about her behind her back. I will definitely sue you!"
Li Chongyu hurriedly explained: "Now cold-blooded and ruthless is not a derogatory word, it is a compliment to her!"
"Is there anyone who praises others as much as you do? I often wonder if you, a little Taoist priest, have damaged your brain from practicing in the Taoist temple every day."
On the other side, Fang Yang raised his hand weakly: "You two, stop arguing, why don't you discuss whether you want to accept me first."
"Yes, of course I would. It's unreasonable not to accept the labor that comes to my door." Su Le looked him up and down. "Cleaning every two days. You said you can cook, so I'll give you this job. By the way, how old are you this year?"
"sixteen."
"Okay, just call me Sister Lele."
Li Chongyu finally confirmed the sturdiness of the door and went in with them to close the door of 1101.
1201.
Jiang Miao returned to the room and took a shower. Regardless of his wet hair, he took out a bowl of spicy hot pot. The thick sesame sauce wrapped in the salty, fragrant and spicy red chili oil was simply delicious.
Lanwan Community is just a temporary residence for her, so it doesn’t matter who lives in 1101. But if there is a choice, of course it is better to know each other and have good character.
Sometimes numbers can be a deterrent.
There was a flood outside the window and the temperature was gradually dropping.
Feeling that the temperature was dropping faster and faster, Jiang Miao took out the cotton pad he had prepared long ago and nailed it to the wall of the bedroom to block the sudden cold wind.
Su Le and others also borrowed a rubber boat to go out and look for supplies, but they didn’t expect that among the supplies handed over the last time, there was a gas mask!
This gas mask is well-made and has a military logo on the inner wall. It is exactly her dream mask!
So he immediately went downstairs and asked, "Where did you find this?"
Li Chongyu and his friends are killing fish.
Now that the water level has risen, all kinds of aquatic creatures that used to live in rivers, lakes and seas have swam closer to the water surface. Now that people are short of food and clothing, fishing has become their most important job every day, and fish has become their main food.
Li Chongyu has been in the Taoist temple all year round, and Fang Yang travels between Ancheng and City D because his parents are divorced and separated. Both of them are not very familiar with the architecture in Ancheng, so Su Le is the most reliable.
She thought about it carefully and said, "It's in the northwest direction. There are no tall buildings there, so there are few reference points. I only remember that the last tall building was Wanjiang Building. We saw a lot of parts floating on the water, so we salvaged a few gas masks."
Coincidentally, Wanjiang Building is the office building of Jiang Group. Jiang Miao has never been there even once since his rebirth.
Seeing that she remained silent, Su Le immediately suggested: "What I said may be a bit abstract, why don't you go out with us tomorrow and we will take you there."
This is all that can be done now.
"Okay." Jiang Miao nodded. "Since we are going out together, we don't have to pay rent. We also need to leave someone on duty here to prevent any emergencies."
In the past, when Jiang Miao was at home, all the staff of 1101 would be mobilized, but this time she also had to go out. In order to prevent the group of people downstairs who dreamed of occupying this place from sneaking up and causing trouble, it was necessary to leave someone on duty.
1101 Su Le has always had the final say. She looked at Li Chongyu and Fang Yang and decided to let Li Chongyu stay.
Just as Fang Yang said, his intuition was extremely accurate and could often help their team find important supplies and avoid danger.
Although he is weak and has no fighting ability, he is really useful.
The next morning, Jiang Miao, Su Le and Fang Yang went out together.
Li Chongyu stayed at home and used a pager to contact others if there was any emergency. This time she put the communication tool in her backpack, and she was in Ancheng, so she could rush back in time if anything happened.
The three of them locked the iron door, and the stairs below the 11th floor were crowded with people.
Ancheng has become a water city with no way to go. High-rise buildings have become the only shelter for humans, and more and more survivors will come to the high-rise buildings to survive.
Su Le led the way, Fang Yang walked in the middle with the kayak, and Jiang Miao followed behind with a large travel bag on his back.
As they walked down the corridor, they attracted everyone's attention without exception.
But although they watched, no one dared to actually step forward.
The guy with the tattooed arm in 501 is probably dead. Now the 5th floor is leaderless and in disarray, which shows how powerful these guys are.
After getting on the kayak, the three of them left the Blue Bay community without looking back. The people behind them were envious and jealous, and could only watch the boat go farther and farther away.
The sea surface was calm today, with no waves or sea waves. Occasionally, two or three small boats passed by on the water, but everyone was on guard against each other and immediately passed by.
Fang Yang paddled the boat, hesitatingly and not daring to talk to Jiang Miao. The thoughts of the sixteen or seventeen-year-old boy were clearly written on his face, and one could tell what he was thinking at a glance.
After rowing together for more than an hour, they finally reached Wanjiang Building. After rowing north for about twenty minutes, Su Le stopped the boat at an endless body of water.
This place is close to the suburbs and there are almost no tall buildings, so there are no landmarks to refer to.
"It should be here. We paddled for twenty minutes and we are at this location." Su Le took out a fishing net from his backpack and prepared to cast the net.
Jiang Miao stopped her: "Don't do that yet, I'll go down and take a look."
She took off her outer clothes to reveal her diving suit, and took out diving goggles, fins and a scuba diving apparatus from her travel bag.
After putting on the clothes, he took out the rope and tied a noose around his waist. Then he dived down and swam to the deep like a fish.
"Senior, you are really well-equipped." Su Le smacked his lips, then became alert and paid attention to the situation around him. There was no cover here, so it would be quite dangerous if a gunfight broke out.
Fang Yang seemed to be in a very low mood and did not answer her as usual.
Underwater, Jiang Miao dived about ten meters, took out a waterproof flashlight, and carefully observed the situation underwater.
This should be a neighborhood, there is nothing around.
Jiang Miao turned on the electric switch of her flippers and used the mechanical power to patrol in all directions. Finally, she found a building in the south. She swam over and saw that it was a granary.
There are many confidential organizations in China that are not shown on the map, such as the Academy of Aerospace Science, the Academy of Nuclear Explosion Science, and the Granary.
A city’s food reserves are stored here, including rice, flour, grain, oil, and a lot of frozen meat, which are used to solve the imbalance in market food prices and replenish supply.
Jiang Miao stopped at the rooftop, struggled to pry open the door to the rooftop, and went inside.
Most of the things here have been moved away by the staff, only some old rice that was soaked in water and had not been transported away in time is still lying quietly at the bottom of the water.
Jiang Miao took them all away.
Now that the city is flooded, it would seem too abnormal and conspicuous to trade clean new rice. On the other hand, old rice that has been soaked in water and then dried is more in line with reality and will not arouse suspicion.
Thinking of the two people standing guard for her on the boat, Jiang Miao dragged three 25kg bags of rice up and struggled to climb onto the boat.
"How's it going? Is there anything you want?"
Jiang Miao shook his head, wiped the water stains with a towel, took out clean water from his travel bag to rinse his mouth, and then said, "There is a granary down there, which is not the place I'm looking for."
Su Le looked guilty: "I really remember it was this location. I'm sorry to have made you come here for nothing."
"It's okay. I've gained something." Jiang Miao looked at the endless horizontal surface without any waves. There were no iconic buildings around for reference. Trying to find the exact location was like looking for a needle in a haystack.
At this time, Fang Yang, who had been silent all the way, finally spoke: "It did take us 20 minutes to row from Wanjiang Building yesterday, but we were with Brother Chongyu yesterday, and his rowing skills are obviously not as good as mine... obviously not as good as yours, so the place where we salvaged the gas mask yesterday might have been a little further forward."
Su Le suddenly realized: "That's right! Li Chongyu is still a landlubber. If we weren't short of manpower, we wouldn't force him to come."
Jiang Miao was no longer unaware of yesterday's situation. Since both parties felt so, the three of them rowed the boat back about a hundred meters, and Jiang Miao put on his oxygen mask and jumped down again.
I was just soaking wet and enjoying the breeze on the boat, and now I jumped out and actually felt that the water was a little warmer than outside.
It seems that I have to drink some cold medicine when I go back today as a precaution. I must not catch a cold before the extreme cold comes.
The buildings here are obviously much taller than the granary. Jiang Miao uses the power of his webbed feet to swim in the water like a fish in water. Occasionally, when he encounters a fish he recognizes, he knocks it out and throws it into the space, enriching his own diet at the same time.
No, no, and no.
Jiang Miao swam for fifty meters until the rope around his waist was taut, but he still couldn't find any connection with the gas mask.
She swam up, pushed the kayak in the water and said, "Paddle forward another hundred meters."
Su Le and Fang Yang started moving immediately. After reaching the designated location, Jiang Miao dived down again and began searching.
Something that the senior sister attaches so much importance to must be very important.
Su Le secretly decided that after the flood receded, he would come here to see if there were any extra ones.
It was still pitch black underwater.
Jiang Miao's oxygen tank can only supply oxygen for 45 minutes. Now the pointer on the dashboard has passed one-third of the way, which means she still has fifteen minutes.
After swimming through three courtyards in a row, I finally found a place marked with the Institute of Science when the rope around my waist could stretch to its limit.
This building is four stories high and not very large in area. If it is a nuclear-related department, then this should just be a simple office location.
Because generally speaking, nuclear tests are either conducted in deep mountains and forests or in the desert, and it is impossible to set them up in the suburbs of a city.
Jiang Miao was a little disappointed, as she had expected this to be a military factory producing related products.
Adhering to the good habit of being here now, Jiang Miao swam towards the building with the last glimmer of hope.
The rope was already stretched straight. Jiang Miao untied the rope and tied it to the railing of the rooftop, then swam in.
It was obvious that there had been a war before this place was flooded, with flower beds that had been kicked down, tables, chairs and benches scattered everywhere, and all kinds of books and newspapers floating on the ceiling.
Jiang Miao explored layer by layer, and the oppressive feeling brought by the water pressure became more and more severe. Apart from some material samples, there seemed to be nothing worth her staying here.
I sighed inwardly, feeling like I had been searching for something everywhere but still couldn't find it.
Now that things have come to this, she could only comfort herself by not forcing it. If there was an underground shelter, it would be fine. At most, she would be locked underground and unable to go out, and would have to stay in there for a few more days.
But I can barely stay here for a month or two, but what if the radiation lasts for a year or two?
After returning empty-handed, Jiang Miao turned around and left, but then he changed his mind and put the books, documents and a lot of information floating on the ceiling of several offices into the space.
Even if you can't find any information in it, this information is rare and precious nowadays.
"Splash." Jiang Miao floated up from the water, wrung out the towel to wipe off the water stains on his body, and put on his clothes: "Let's go, let's go back first."
Su Le asked: "Still haven't found it?"
"I found it, but it didn't have what I wanted."
Su Le was filled with regret, and the three of them rowed away together.
It's not easy to make such a trip in the apocalypse, Jiang Miao couldn't let others follow him for a whole day and then get nothing in return.
So she had decided long before they set out that no matter whether they found anything or not, she would take them to Wanjiang Building to look for supplies on the way back.
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