The journey from here on out wasn't as smooth as before. After leaving Yaojia Village, they were greeted by a continuous mountain range. At first, they could follow a section of the highway, which was full of potholes and overgrown with weeds, but even so, it was still less strenuous than climbing the mountain.
With more mountains come more animals, especially snakes, which seem to roam endlessly. The original ten people leading the way increased to twenty.
On this day, it happened to be the turn of the people from Pinghe Village to lead the way. However, due to the increased number of people, the others could not share so much luggage, so everyone was carrying something on their backs, and even Sicheng was covered in it.
Yunqi led the way, constantly picking out venomous snakes from the bushes. Now there were so many snakes that she didn't want to kill any that weren't highly venomous; she would just toss them into a corner and leave them alone.
"Sister, there are so many snakes here. Could they be migrating inland like us?" Yun Tao followed behind, collecting snake gallbladders. These gallbladders were ordered from Yunnan Medicine. You see, the large venomous snakes near Pinghe Village have been basically eliminated. Now that the opportunity is so rare, we should hurry up and have them collect some.
Therefore, during this period, the villagers of Pinghe Village had snake gallbladders hanging all over their carrying poles, because only in this way could they be better dried and preserved.
“Animals are sometimes much smarter than humans. Look, when they were frozen, we didn’t know where they were hiding, but now they’re all jumping out.” Yun Qi then picked up a snake and tapped it on its vital spot, then handed it to Zhao Dongwei behind him. Zhao Dongwei skillfully took a bottle from a row of bottles and expertly extracted the snake venom. Zhao Dongwei had been learning medicine making from Uncle Nanyao recently, so extracting snake venom was now a routine task for him.
“There’s a flat area ahead, it looks like the old service area. Should we spend the night there?” Yunqi walked ahead and soon spotted the flat area.
"When we get there, let's take a look around and see if it's suitable for camping." Si Cheng simply didn't have a free hand to use his binoculars to check.
If you can keep going along this road, you won't get lost, so unless absolutely necessary, no one will get off and change routes.
However, there was a downside to traveling along the road: water was scarce. Sometimes they would walk all day without finding a water source, and in those cases, they would have to make do with dry rations. This was why Sicheng couldn't agree immediately.
When everyone arrived at the service area, they found it completely destroyed, with broken bricks and shattered glass scattered on the ground. Fortunately, the concrete in the middle was relatively well-preserved.
"Let's clear out the area and see if there's a water source nearby." Si Cheng ordered the twenty scouts to disperse, while the rest stayed put to clear the area.
"Brother, there's water here!" Yunyang shouted excitedly.
"Is the water clean?" The monkey, who was not far away, quickly ran over.
"It looks fine. Let's boil some water and test it later."
Yunqi led Yunxun and Yuntao toward the original gas station, but they had little hope. Along the way, they encountered many gas stations that had either exploded or were empty of fuel.
As they expected, there were already signs that someone had taken the oil from the area. The surrounding garbage had been cleared to the side and was covered with weeds, indicating that the oil had been taken away some time ago.
"Sister, there seem to be some more in here." Yun Tao, unwilling to give up, went forward to check and indeed found some extra treasures.
“But we don’t have any containers to put it in, so it’s empty if we can’t take it with us.” As soon as Yun Xun heard that there was oil, he walked around the vicinity and found that there wasn’t even a container.
"Let's leave it for now and figure out a solution later." Yun Qi wondered if he should organize some people to dig through the rubble in front of them. The pile of collapsed rubble didn't seem to have been disturbed. Maybe they could find some useful items if they were lucky.
The group cleared the nearby haystacks again, and apart from eliminating a few venomous snakes, they found nothing else.
When they returned, Yunqi told Sicheng about his suspicions. In his previous life, Yunqi had relied on his intuition and judgment to find supplies from the ruins, and it was through these supplies that they had managed to persevere.
"Let's set up camp here. We'll organize people to clear the ruins in a bit, and also notify the other villages. If they'd like to join, that's fine too." Si Cheng had always trusted Yun Qi's judgment. Besides, apart from the gasoline, nothing else in this area had been touched. There was even so much gasoline left. It was possible that something happened after the people who came to collect the gasoline earlier, which was why they didn't continue.
Everyone was slowly preparing dinner, but as soon as they heard the announcement that they would be digging up the rubble, everyone sped up as if they had been injected with hormones. Only some people from Yaojia Village who caught up later didn't understand why they had to dig up the rubble at this time. However, the person in charge of their village also asked them to act together, because their village chief had specifically instructed them before they left to follow the pace of other villages and do more and ask fewer questions.
Because the area was surrounded by mountains, Si Cheng was worried that animals might come and attack under the cover of darkness. So he had two campfires lit in each corner and inserted freshly whittled wooden spikes in the middle. This way, if any animals came and accidentally stepped on the spikes, everyone could take immediate precautions.
"Has everyone finished eating?" Si Cheng asked, only after everyone responded that he was ready to assign the next tasks.
“Each group should keep two people to prepare drinking water and dry rations for tomorrow. The rest of you will go dig through the rubble. Whatever we find, we’ll distribute it all together later. Of course, if we don’t find anything, consider it exercise after dinner.” Si Cheng thought for a moment and then added, “If you don’t want to participate, you can withdraw now.”
No one in the team expressed any intention to quit. Only Gao Dongxing wanted to raise his hand to leave, but his uncle stopped him. This nephew had been causing a lot of trouble lately, and many people in the village had begun to express their dissatisfaction. At this time, they couldn't let him be isolated.
Gao Dongxing knew that the people of Gaojia Village didn't like him very much during this period, and even had a subtle sense of rejection, so he followed his uncle's wishes and stopped slacking off.
Sicheng saw these actions, but seeing that the two of them had reached a private consensus, he remained silent.
Si Cheng led everyone to the ruins. He took the lead in moving several huge cement blocks, and the others followed suit. Only then did the people of Yaojia Village realize that he had specifically chosen to move the large cement blocks, and that he did so with ease. They then understood why he had been chosen as the leader among so many people.
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