Chapter 51 A Big Fish? (Bonus chapter if total gifts exceed 58.88)
As Zuo Shan was lamenting, he suddenly heard a rumble of thunder in the sky. Looking up, he saw through the gaps in the plants that thick, dark clouds had gathered in the sky.
Is this the start of a thunderstorm? Zuo Shan was immediately terrified!
The wasteland safe zone is only protected by an energy shield built by the authorities to filter out the intense radiation from the sun, but this energy shield cannot over-radiate water molecules.
The wasteland has a unique climate; it often snows during extremely cold weather and often rains during extremely hot weather.
However, there is a one-month transition period between the extreme cold and extreme heat, during which neither snow nor rain will fall.
Water molecules in the air cannot clump together and will always float in the air, constantly being radiated by strong sunlight. Therefore, the first rain after each extremely hot weather and the first snow after each extremely cold weather are formed by the condensation of highly radiated water vapor.
Getting wet from rain or snow is equivalent to experiencing high levels of radiation.
Unfortunately, the weather in the wasteland is unpredictable, and even weather forecasts can hardly predict when it will rain. Naturally, the scavengers cannot simply stay at home to avoid getting wet in the rain.
But before the first rain, they would bring raincoats or tarpaulins when they went out to scavenge.
Only Zuo Shan, who had transmigrated from another era, had no experience with this. Only now, seeing that it was about to rain, did his memories resurface.
Although there is shade everywhere here, the shade cannot be too complete, and it is even less safe once it rains heavily.
She felt she had to find a safe place to take shelter from the rain as soon as possible before it started.
This area is full of shrubs or tall trees, and the only safe place Zuo Shan can think of is the cave that Pan Duole took her to yesterday.
We had originally agreed that we would go there every now and then to avoid being discovered, but now, in order to avoid the high-radiation rain, she had no choice but to break her promise.
Zuo Shan made a quick decision, stuffing Xiao Bao and the cat Mao Li into his backpack, then grabbed the sack and ran towards the cave.
She hadn't made much of a haul today; the sack was almost empty except for her scavenging tools. It wasn't heavy at all and didn't affect her running speed in the slightest.
This area wasn't far from the cave, only about a kilometer away. Zuo Shan took off at sprint speed and started running.
I had only run halfway when large raindrops started falling.
She pulled the hood of her heat-insulating suit over her head, then took out two empty burlap sacks, stacked them on top of each other, and carefully walked through the shade of the trees.
Even so, a few raindrops still hit the sack, but luckily she ran fast enough and reached her destination in just three minutes.
Panting heavily, she quickly pried open the large rock and crawled into the cave. Then she heard the sound of rain pouring down. Looking out from the cave entrance, she saw that it was raining heavily.
I wonder if Pandora brought a raincoat, and whether she got wet in the rain.
But in that situation, she didn't know where to look for her. She just hoped that she would think of coming to the cave to take shelter from the rain.
Just as I was feeling uneasy, I saw a slender figure appear in the rain; it was Pandora running towards me.
When she saw Zuo Shan sitting at the cave entrance, she exclaimed with delight, "Great! Sister, you've come too!"
Zuo Shan quickly ushered her in, while carefully checking her to make sure she wasn't wet from the rain.
Fortunately, Pandora brought a raincoat today, and the collection site she chose wasn't too far from the cave, so she didn't get wet.
"Sister Fan, you have no idea how lucky I was today. I had just finished testing one shrub and was walking over to test the next one when I looked up and saw dark clouds gathering rapidly in the sky."
My first reaction was to find shelter from the rain. You know, my neighbor, Grandma Li, got skin cancer a few years ago because she accidentally got caught in the first rain of an extremely hot day. When she died, her whole body was rotting, it was disgusting and scary.
Although I was young at the time, I will never forget this incident. From then on, I would bring a raincoat every time I went out to scavenge.
Today, I saw that the clouds were thick and heavy, and I guessed that it was going to rain heavily. I figured that just relying on a raincoat wouldn't be enough, so I came here.
You wouldn't believe it, but last year's first rain came really suddenly. I was too far from this cave, so I found a tree hole nearby to take shelter from the rain, and guess what happened?
There were so many wood ear mushrooms growing in that tree hole, some as big as my foot, and they were all moderately irradiated.
I brought back half a sack of sackfuls; my mom and I ate from it for several days!
Listening to Pan Duole recount her past experiences, Zuo Shan felt at ease. If the little girl hadn't appeared in this cave today, she would have been so worried.
The rain was heavy, and puddles of water quickly formed in the low-lying areas in the distance. Zuo Shan couldn't help but worry: if this continued, would it cause a flash flood?
Thinking of the flood, she couldn't help but pull Pandora along, and the two of them went through the cave to see if the stream had risen.
Sure enough, the ditch that was originally only two meters wide has now extended to more than three meters wide, and the water level has risen by more than ten centimeters.
The once clear river water has become much murky, and large fish blowing bubbles occasionally pass by.
Pan Duole stamped her feet and kept saying what a pity. If it weren't for the heavy rain outside, she would have rushed over to catch fish.
"Sister Fan, since we're free anyway, why don't we find some vines that have climbed into the cave, weave a fish basket, and catch some fish after the rain stops!" Pan Duole rubbed his hands together, eager to get started.
"That's good. With this heavy rain today, everyone will be busy taking shelter from the rain. Once the sky clears up, they'll all go home, and no one will notice us."
But won't this highly radioactive rainwater pollute the fish in the river? What if we work so hard all day, only to find that we can't eat a single fish? That would be a waste of time.
"I don't care, even if we can't eat them after we catch them, I'm still going to catch them." Pan Duole's stubbornness kicked in.
Zuo Shan had no choice but to help weave the fish basket. Today she chose some sturdier vines to weave a large fish basket because she had already seen two big fish swim by.
She cut off two long, sturdy vines, intending to trim them into sections, when she suddenly saw a large, silvery shadow floating in the river in front of her.
"Wow! This fish is huge!" Pandora exclaimed, clapping his hands.
With lightning speed, Zuo Shan grabbed one end of the vine with each hand and threw it forcefully towards the shadow that resembled a large silver fish. The vine caught the middle of the silver fish perfectly.
Seeing this, Pandora quickly came over to help. The two of them worked together to twist the vines several times, binding the large silver fish tightly, and then pulled it hard towards the shore.
Because the stream extended for several tens of centimeters, it was only a little over a meter away from the cave exit. The two quickly pulled the large silver fish to the cave entrance.
I stared wide-eyed and exclaimed, "Wow!"
This isn't a big silver fish at all; it's clearly a man wearing a silver radiation protection suit!
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