Qiao Songzhi and Shao Shengfei sat in a tattered tent, with water dripping from several places on the roof.
"Don't be disgusted, this is good enough. At least we don't have to get wet in the rain."
Qiao Songzhi waved his hands and said, "I don't mind. It's so nice to have a place to shelter from the wind and rain."
"This is your son, so tall and big." A middle-aged woman looked at the tall and strong Shao Shengfei with envy. Qiao Songzhi nodded politely and pulled Shao Shengfei to sit down. There were two long benches in the tent, with stones under the wooden boards, which were obviously simple and homemade. After sitting down, his feet were still in the water. Shao Shengfei wanted to lift his feet and hug his knees, but someone next to him shouted: "Don't move, the bench is lifted up!"
Qiao Songzhi hurriedly pulled Shao Shengfei and asked him to sit closer and not sit on the edge of the bench.
"Oh." Shao Shengfei sat down next to Qiao Songzhi. He looked towards the door expectantly. It was stormy outside. He looked at the rain for a long time, and the expectation in his eyes slowly faded away.
Qiao Songzhi held his hand and said, "Sister will be back soon. Are you hungry?"
"I'm hungry."
Qiao Songzhi took off his backpack and took out half a bag of compressed biscuits for him to eat.
While drinking water, Shao Shengfei sneezed, and the others in the tent shrank back at the same time, moving away from Shao Shengfei. The woman who had spoken to him at the beginning covered her mouth and asked cautiously: "Is your son sick? Did he catch the dead person's disease?"
Shao Shengfei waved his hands: "I'm not sick, I'm not sick!"
"Fei Fei doesn't have the fatal disease you mentioned." Facing the defensive and hostile gazes of the others in the tent, Qiao Songzhi forced himself to remain calm, "It's been raining outside. Isn't it normal for us to catch a cold after traveling outside for a few days? I don't believe that any of you haven't sneezed in the past few days!"
“…Okay, fine, then you ask him to wear a mask. We are scared.”
"Yes, yes, if you have masks, wear them. We don't have any masks to wear."
Shao Shengfei had to wear a mask after eating, as it was unsafe not to. Seeing the others in the tent urging him, he put on the mask before he finished eating. After he put on the mask, the others tried to stay away from them, and those who sat on the same bench squeezed to other places. Qiao Qingqing came back at this time. She hung her umbrella on the door and sat in the empty seat next to Qiao Songzhi and the others.
"How come you found it?" Seeing her daughter's distracted look, Qiao Songzhi knew that the situation was not good.
Qiao Qingqing shook her head: "There is no such thing as their names. I also heard even worse news."
"What news? How bad could it be?" Qiao Songzhi clenched her palms.
"A sea appeared."
“W-what?!”
Qiao Qingqing couldn't accept this news either. This news was even more shocking than the sandstorm and tornado in Xicheng. Although there was a phrase like "the sea changes with time" in ancient Chinese, Qiao Qingqing never thought that she would personally witness this phrase come true. How many days have passed? Less than a month? How could a sea be formed?
"Qingqing, please say it again, did I hear you correctly?"
Qiao Qingqing looked towards the door. The damaged door of the tent was swaying in the wind and rain. The conversation with the rescue team just now reappeared in her mind. She sorted out the information and told Qiao Songzhi.
"Big, ocean? How is that possible!" Qiao Songzhi shook his head. This was simply a fantasy!
The other survivors in the tent were also interested in talking. Apparently they had known the news for a long time, but most of them were skeptical and unbelieving.
"I don't believe it either! Xicheng is more than a thousand kilometers away from the sea, how could there be a sea? I think it's just a lake at most. The earthquake was so severe that the ground cracked, so the crack must be wider there. Then it has been raining heavily in the past few days and the pit has been filled up, making it look like the sea. I guess the water level is only half a person's height!" said the woman who took the initiative to talk to Qiao Songzhi, "Don't be too scared. The rescue team definitely doesn't want us to go to the new community. There are rich people there, and it must be full and not enough space, so they made up this kind of story to scare us."
"This is so damn unfair. We are sleeping in a shabby tent here. The new community must have built a new base. There are new houses there that won't collapse so easily. I really want to go to the new community."
"I would rather go to Yeshan. Yeshan feels safer."
"You wish!"
Although she was reluctant to believe it, Qiao Qingqing thought that there was no need for the rescue team to deceive her or all the survivors.
This thing must be true.
Moreover, in the context of natural disasters and the end of the world, it is not uncommon for the continent to become the sea due to the splitting and movement of plates due to a major earthquake - even if Xicheng is located inland. As I said, anything can happen these days, and there have been many unscientific things in the past ten years.
"Mom, I want to go and take a look." Qiao Qingqing said.
Qiao Songzhi calmed herself down: "We have to go and take a look." Her lips turned pale as she looked at her daughter. Her daughter was wearing a mask with only her eyes exposed, but she could clearly see fear in her daughter's eyes.
Qingqing is afraid, and so is she.
If that sea really existed and happened to separate them from Sheng An and the other two, they would definitely not be able to find each other no matter how hard they tried.
Their luck can't be that bad, right?
That was truly a separation between mountains and seas... Thinking of this, Qiao Qingqing couldn't breathe.
Shao Shengfei could not think of this. He just thought it was amazing that the sea appeared here. He asked, "Is it the sea on TV? It's so blue and big, with beaches and shells!"
Seeing his innocent look, Qiao Songzhi's eyes turned red with sadness. She coaxed him, "Yes, it's the sea. Let's go see the sea together."
Qiao Qingqing's eyes flickered, and her vision was blurry for two seconds. She calmly swallowed the medicine while drinking water, and then said, "We have to rest before we go. Let's rest for two days before going."
"Okay, let's take a rest for two days before going again."
Afterwards, Qiao Songzhi changed the medicine on Qiao Qingqing and Shao Shengfei's fingers. The wounds did not heal well. The damp weather, fatigue and exhaustion made the wounds heal slowly.
"Do you have any medicine left? Can you lend me some?" The woman who had spoken to me spoke again. "I have a cut on my stomach, but the rescue team said the wound is not important and saved the medicine for people with more serious injuries. My wound is very painful, so you can just give me some iodine to wipe it with."
Qiao Songzhi shook his head: "This is all we have left."
"Hey, just lend me some, a bottle cap? I don't need much." The woman leaned forward and stretched out her hand. Qiao Songzhi dodged and closed the lid before putting the potion away.
The woman looked very angry and said she was stingy.
"You've all been living in natural disasters for almost ten years. Don't tell me you don't know how precious medicine has been over the years." Qiao Qingqing looked at her coldly, "Don't treat others as fools. Let me hear you say stingy again!" As she spoke, she pulled out the knife from her waist and wiped it. The blade glowed coldly and became sharper after wiping.
Such an obvious threat made the woman shut up immediately and she didn't speak again afterwards.
This rebuilt camp, like Su Cong's temporary settlement, had a shortage of supplies. There was nothing that could be done about it. Tornadoes kill people and simply don't allow people to survive. Qiao Qingqing felt very depressed. After demonstrating her military deterrence in the simplest and crudest way, she and Qiao Songzhi leaned against each other and closed their eyes to rest.
In the evening, the rain had obviously slowed down, which was good news. When distributing dinner, Qiao Qingqing heard the soldiers discussing "the water level seems to be dropping..." and hurried forward to ask.
"Yes, we have been monitoring the water level, and it is indeed decreasing. Whether it will form a trend depends on the data from tomorrow and the day after tomorrow." The elegant middle-aged soldier announced the good news loudly, not only answering Qiao Qingqing, but also telling the other survivors, "Everyone, hold on a little longer. As long as we never give up, dawn will come one day."
Some of the survivors cried.
For some reason, Qiao Qingqing's eyes became a little sore after hearing these simple words. She knew that the natural disaster destroyed everything and took away everything. Everyone was too tired and exhausted. Even just a few words of encouragement like a slogan could bring some strength.
At eight o'clock that evening, Qiao Qingqing fired a flare with hope near the base.
The red flare drew a red light, but after it dissipated, there was still no response.
Based on Qiao Qingqing's understanding of her husband, he would definitely make the decision to move closer to the base during the flood. Their progress might be fast or slow, but if they were already nearby, they should be able to see each other's signal flares. Qiao Qingqing didn't want to accept it, but she had to consider the worst outcome of Sheng An on the other side of the sea.
On the third day of resting in the camp, Qiao Qingqing and the other two set off.
The water level was indeed dropping, and the water accumulation in the camp had improved a lot. It was drizzling on the day of departure. Qiao Qingqing and the other two wore raincoats and supported each other as they went out. The camp guards watched them leave with some suppressed desire in their eyes.
"Eat it." A soldier came over, took out a piece of steamed root from his pocket and stuffed it into her hand.
"I'm not hungry." The guard shook his head.
"Everyone only eats two meals a day. How can you not be hungry when you are so busy at work? Don't worry, I dug this piece myself outside of my mission time. Eat it."
The guard took it, broke it in half and handed one half to him.
The soldier smiled with his eyes narrowed: "Okay, let's eat together." The two of them squeezed under the sentry awning to share the big root.
"What are you looking at? Oh, they are going to look for their relatives. When they came the day before yesterday, they checked the list at Brother Jin's place to find their family members. We don't have any of the three names here."
The guard chewed, and the envy in his eyes could no longer be suppressed: "I want to go find my dad too."
"We guard this side of the camp, and other comrades will guard their camps like us. Maybe your father and my parents are in other camps."
"Um!"
The road conditions were bad, so Qiao Qingqing and her team had to keep taking detours to correct their route and rest as they walked. It took them two days to finally arrive at Pingshan Community.
Humans have long mastered the ability to move mountains and create seas, but at this moment, Qiao Qingqing still deeply realized the insignificance of humans. After all, nature can do it in an instant, but humans cannot.
Standing on the beach, looking at the endless waters in front of her, Qiao Qingqing was shocked and speechless for a long time.
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