Holding an umbrella, Qiao Qingqing looked at the wilderness in the distance. Seeing a figure approaching, she couldn't help but have some expectations. She stood up straighter and took out the telescope to look. The next second, she was disappointed. The person who came was not Sheng An and his group, but there was also an acquaintance among them.
"Sister, I'm fine!" Shao Shengfei shouted loudly, and after a while he tiptoed out, "The water is so deep, luckily I wore water shoes! Sister? What are you looking at?"
Qiao Qingqing put down the telescope: "There are survivors coming. I saw an old colleague. Let's wait a moment."
At the tank checkpoint ahead, Liu Zhaoyun climbed up first and reached out to pull his companion.
"Hold on tight! Be careful the ground is a little loose—"
The heavy rain made the soil loose, and your ankles would sink into it if you stepped on it, which was very unsettling. Liu Zhaoyun tilted his head and wiped the rain off his face on his arm, then pulled his companions up one by one, then straightened the crossbow on his back and looked expectantly at the camp not far away: "Finally found the camp, I've had enough of this damn rain!"
As the group of more than a dozen people continued to move forward, Liu Zhaoyun suddenly saw something, blinked, and then smiled. She waved her hands vigorously: "Qingqing! Hey Qingqing! Why are you here? Haha!"
Qiao Qingqing also waved: "You are still alive, and I am still alive too."
Liu Zhaoyun smiled even more happily: "Of course! This evil God won't let us live, so we have to survive to show it, to piss it off to death!"
Liu Zhaoyun was the first familiar person Qiao Qingqing met after fleeing the earthquake. It was a lucky thing to meet someone familiar at this time. Qiao Qingqing led them into the camp and took them to register with the soldiers.
The location was wrong, and Liu Zhaoyun couldn't talk to Qiao Qingqing any more. She glanced at Shao Shengfei who was following closely beside her and nodded: "You go back first, I'll find you later."
The water in the tent was deeper, estimated to be almost thirty centimeters deep. The three of them sat on the bed, listening silently to the noise outside in the wind and rain.
The tent shook violently a few times, then stood firm again.
"It would be nice if we had a tall building made of reinforced concrete," Qiao Songzhi said. "It would be OK to sit on the stairs, as long as it's sheltered from the rain and dry."
"It would be great if there were any, but unfortunately most of the buildings are gone now... Maybe there are some houses left in the new community, after all, they are newly built and of better quality." Qiao Qingqing looked at the puddles under her feet while speaking, thinking that if the rain really continued like it did that year, they would only have three options. One is to find a tall building that survived the earthquake, the second is to find Yeshan - if Yeshan did not collapse in the earthquake, the third is to live directly on a speedboat or kayak.
The last option is the worst option, too unstable and too unsafe.
But that was also the last way out that the space she held gave the three of them. When the first two options were impossible to achieve, they were very lucky to have a third way to go.
“Qingqing!”
Qiao Qingqing raised her eyes and signaled Qiao Songzhi and the others to get ready. She put away the bed before reaching out to open the tent door. Liu Zhaoyun was circling in front, calling her name.
"I'm here."
Hearing the sound, Liu Zhaoyun hurried over, looked around and said in surprise and envy: "You have a separate tent, that's great."
"What do you want from me?"
"I'm afraid that I won't know when the next time I see you will be the right time. I want to exchange some crossbow arrows with you. I remember that you can make your own crossbow arrows. Do you have any more? Just exchange ten for me. Do you have any medicine, medicine for bruises and injuries? If you have any, give me some too." Liu Zhaoyun took off the necklace from his neck, on which was a plain gold ring, and handed it to Qiao Qingqing.
"Yes." Qiao Qingqing took the ring and handed it to Qiao Songzhi, then said to Liu Zhaoyun, "Come in and hide from the rain."
"I won't go in. I'm all wet. I don't want to get your tent wet."
"It's okay, come in, it's already wet in there."
Liu Zhaoyun bent down and came in, only then did he realize that there was so much water in the tent.
"Aunt."
"Hey, hello." Qiao Songzhi asked her to sit down.
She waved to Shao Shengfei: "Hi, hello, nice to see you again."
"Hello." Shao Shengfei looked at her curiously.
Qiao Qingqing asked her to sit down and went to rummage through her luggage. She quickly found twenty crossbow arrows, a bottle of ointment for bruises, and a small bottle of medicinal alcohol.
"Can you exchange your gold ring for these?"
Liu Zhaoyun smiled: "That's great, my good sister, you are so generous. Just double it for me. Thank you. You helped me a lot." She stuffed the crossbow arrows into the empty quiver and asked, "Do you mind if I take off my clothes?"
Qiao Qingqing asked Shao Shengfei to turn around.
Seeing Shao Shengfei huddled on the bench with his knees hugged, Liu Zhaoyun smiled even more happily: "This is your brother, so cute." As she spoke, she took off her wet clothes. Qiao Songzhi hissed: "On your back——"
"Is your back seriously injured? I felt a lot of pain at first, but then it became numb." Liu Zhaoyun turned her head to look behind her, but she couldn't see anything. She smiled and asked Qiao Qingqing if she could provide additional basic treatment services.
"For the sake of our friendship."
"If it weren't for our friendship, you wouldn't be able to enter this tent." Qiao Qingqing asked her to turn around.
Realizing that Qiao Qingqing had agreed, Liu Zhaoyun breathed a sigh of relief.
The wound on Liu Zhaoyun's back had been soaked by the rain and was white and swollen. It seemed that he was injured by something heavy and sharp.
"Fortunately, it wasn't scratched by rusty iron, otherwise I would have been in great pain." Liu Zhaoyun still had the energy to tell a joke.
"Bear with it." Qiao Qingqing began to check and determine the condition of the bones.
"There should be nothing wrong with the bones." As Liu Zhaoyun inhaled in pain, Qiao Qingqing helped her cut off the rotten flesh, disinfected it, applied medicine and bandaged it. The lack of anesthesia made the pain infinitely magnified. Liu Zhaoyun almost bit her hand. Qiao Songzhi quickly found a clean towel and stuffed it into her mouth.
After everything was done, Liu Zhaoyun's head was wet with sweat and rain, and she felt cold all over. She tried to suppress the chill. A glass of medicinal wine was handed over at the right time. She glanced at Qiao Qingqing and said softly, "Thank you."
"Drink it."
After drinking the medicinal wine, warmth spread throughout the body and most of the coldness was driven away.
"This is my clothes, please change into them."
"Thank you, Qingqing, you saved me."
Qiao Qingqing lowered her head to pack her things: "How are you arranged to live?"
"Hey, there's nowhere to stay. They told us to wait a while while they build us a awning. They said there were no more tents, so we could only put up a awning to temporarily shelter from the rain." Liu Zhaoyun put on his clothes in slow motion, talking to distract attention. "I don't think it's possible. In this weather, people will be blown away by the wind. It's raining so hard, how can we put up a awning? I want to slow down and talk to them to see if they can separate us and put us into different tents."
Qiao Qingqing put the medical waste into a bag and sealed it, then put it aside for the time being and waited for an opportunity to throw it away. Hearing this, she said, "It's difficult. When we came that day, there were only three of us and we couldn't fit in. The tent was already overloaded. A dozen survivors came before you. It would be faster if you all helped to build the awning."
"No way!" Liu Zhaoyun wailed.
"A tent was blown up by lightning two days ago, but there are not enough tents in the camp," added Qiao Songzhi.
"It was blown up?" Liu Zhaoyun was stunned. "I saw lightning falling in the wild, and we were so scared that we ran away. The camp was actually attacked?"
Seeing Qiao Qingqing nod, she was confused. This camp didn't seem very safe. But then she thought, what if it's unsafe? She had nowhere else to go. When she and her companions encouraged each other on the road, they were all looking forward to finding a rescue team. Now they have found one... Even if it's not what she expected, it's her only choice.
After opening the tent door, strong wind rushed in. Liu Zhaoyun leaned back and raised her hands to cover her eyes: "What a strong wind!" She walked out with difficulty. The wind and rain hit her. She turned around and smiled at Qiao Qingqing: "Goodbye!"
"Goodbye, take care."
Looking at Liu Zhaoyun's back as he waded through the water, Qiao Qingqing lowered her head to look at the puddles on the ground, and her anxiety grew.
This uneasy premonition has been accurate over the years.
She said to Qiao Songzhi, "This weather is basically a typhoon day. You know how troublesome typhoons are. If we are lucky, it will be just a short-term disaster like before the apocalypse... If we are unlucky, I can't imagine how we can survive the long typhoon weather in tents without houses as shelters."
"That's what I thought, too. This is basically a typhoon! You were right last time. In this situation, the new community at the base is the safest. There are new houses there, so there must be some that haven't collapsed. It's the best place to take shelter from the rain." Seeing that his daughter didn't object, Qiao Songzhi understood, "Have you ever thought about going to the new community?"
"Well, Mom, if the typhoon lasts for a long time, we have to go to the new community no matter how difficult it is. The road will definitely be difficult to travel on. We have to be careful of lightning strikes. There are many germs in the stagnant water, and the epidemic inside the base is also a big problem."
"So many people died in the earthquake... It seems that many people here are sick too. I heard people coughing and crying last night. A man cried all night. Qingqing, don't worry. Our family is in good physical condition. We have strong resistance and it's not easy for us to get sick. We also have water shoes and masks. If we are careful, there will be no problem."
Shao Shengfei listened to their discussion carefully and suggested: "Don't be afraid, sister. I can carry you and Mommy Qiao on my back. I'm tall and not afraid of water accumulation. I can carry you like this and then hug Mommy Qiao. It's very easy!" He gestured, and his childish actions warmed people's hearts.
Qiao Songzhi smiled: "Our Feifei is really reliable. With you here, Mom Qiao won't worry anymore."
Shao Shengfei chuckled, but the next second a loud thunder sounded above his head, scaring him so much that his smile disappeared instantly. He let out a howl and hugged Qiao Songzhi's arm.
"It's thundering again!"
The thunder was so loud that Qiao Qingqing and Qiao Songzhi were startled and their hearts were pounding.
This was just the beginning. Thunders continued to roar, each one deafening, like a bomb exploding in the ear, shaking the soul. Qiao Songzhi held Shao Shengfei's hand tightly and went to pull Qiao Qingqing.
"Mom, it's okay, I'll check outside." Qiao Qingqing said. But Qiao Songzhi could hardly hear what she said. She only saw her daughter's mouth opening and closing. She wanted to go outside, so she held her daughter tightly.
Seeing her mother's eyes turned red with anxiety, Qiao Qingqing gave up her plan to open the tent door to investigate. Instead, she held Qiao Songzhi's hand and patted her gently to comfort her.
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