Chapter 40 Chapter 40 A day trip to the suburbs [Second update]…
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As dusk fell, two white and gold buses followed a black commercial vehicle, driving slowly and steadily on the road against the rolling heat wave.
The devastated city was gradually left behind, the deserted highway seemed to be forgotten by time, no pedestrians or cars were seen, the trees beside the road had lost all their leaves, leaving only bare branches and desolation.
“Ding Di——”
A fork in the road appeared in front of the right side. The commercial vehicle honked its horn to signal, then turned right and drove slowly down the slope, following the narrow and winding road.
The bus driver followed carefully without hesitation.
Going downhill and then uphill, the road is still narrow, but there are vast farmlands on both sides of the road.
Due to the continued high temperature, the corn in the fields had long since turned into a pile of dry stalks. Gu Mengran lowered the car window to take a look, then decisively turned the steering wheel and stepped on the accelerator to drive the commercial vehicle into the fields.
There is a certain height difference between the road and the farmland. A commercial vehicle can barely drive in by scraping its chassis against the mud. There is no need to even try for a heavy bus, as it certainly cannot drive in.
Seeing Gu Mengran open the car door and get out, Zheng Yijie, who was confused, stepped on the brakes and stopped the car on the side of the road, and quickly lowered the window, "Aren't we going to Jincheng? What are you doing in this mountainous area? It's still early, if we drive faster, we can get there tonight!"
"Turn off the engine and get out of the car." Gu Mengran walked back to the road on the hard dirt and waved at Zheng Yijie through the car window without further explanation.
"What are you doing? You tricked me into going to the wilderness and killing me?" Zheng Yijie asked half seriously and half jokingly, then he rolled up the window, turned off the engine, put on his backpack and got out of the car.
Gu Mengran curled his lips and smiled, "Congratulations, you guessed it right."
The car behind was parked right next to the one in front, and Mr. Meng got out of the car slowly. He glanced at Zheng Yijie who was standing on the side of the road, not knowing what was going on, and then looked at Gu Mengran who was chatting and laughing with him, and frowned slightly.
He was very clear about Gu Mengran's plan, but in front of outsiders...
"cough."
The old man coughed lightly and was about to call Gu Mengran over to ask him what to do. The next moment, Gu Mengran reached out his hand to cover the bus without any warning, and the huge monster occupying the road disappeared in an instant.
This action scared both of them.
The old man thought that Zheng Yijie was unaware of the situation, and Gu Mengran was kicked in the head by a donkey, and was inexplicably exposed in front of outsiders.
Although Zheng Yijie had seen Gu Mengran using the space before, seeing it from a distance and seeing it up close were two completely different experiences. Such a large car disappeared so quietly! He was shocked by this supernatural phenomenon that could not be explained by science and broke out in a cold sweat.
That’s awesome, just 200 push-ups, I’ll do it tonight!
The two people on the roadside were stunned, and Gu Mengran, who had done a bad thing, laughed so hard that he fell backwards.
But before he could laugh for long, the old man's cold gaze came into his sight. Gu Mengran felt a chill on his back for no reason and waved his hands back. "I was just joking, Grandpa. Actually, he already knew it. He accidentally saw it, so you can't blame me—"
"Gu Mengran, stop right there!"
…
Three days is neither fast nor slow.
Once the words were spoken, there were no more secrets. Gu Mengran took his grandfather and Zheng Yijie to the mountains for a picnic and barbecue. They ate and slept, and had a great time for three days.
Unfortunately, the weather was too hot to camp, so we had to sleep in the car. After three days, all three of us suffered from back pain and leg cramps, without exception.
It was a hot noon. The commercial vehicle parked in the farmland shook twice, and the front door slowly opened. Gu Mengran leaned out of the car, opened his arms and stretched out comfortably.
The heat wave hit his face. Gu Mengran turned on the fan around his neck, rubbed his sore neck, and then slowly opened the back door.
The hot air rushed into the car, and Zheng Yijie, who was dozing in the second row, woke up almost instantly. It was like a basin of cold water was poured over his head. He sat up suddenly and looked around in fear.
"What the hell! What happened? Is it on fire?"
The culprit, Gu Mengran, was so frightened that he touched his nose and reminded in a gentle voice, "It's not on fire. It's time to get up."
"Why get up? There's nothing to do. Let me sleep a little longer..." His voice became smaller and smaller. Zheng Yijie closed his eyes, tilted his body, and was about to fall back into his chair.
Gu Mengran grabbed his arm in time and pulled him up.
"Still sleeping! What time is it, brother? The wheat hasn't been loaded onto the truck yet!"
"Xiaomai?" Zheng Yijie blinked blankly, "What do you mean Xiao——Oh, right! I think I should go back today."
Gu Mengran glared at him unhappily, "Thank goodness you still remember it."
Thinking of the important matters, Zheng Yijie forced himself to sit up, but within two seconds, his shoulders slumped and he leaned weakly against the chair, as if all his vitality had been sucked away by an invisible force.
"I think three days is not reasonable. There are three truckloads of wheat and we don't have any tools. It will take at least five days to unload and load the trucks by hand, right?" Zheng Yijie could hardly open his eyes and tried to bargain with Gu Mengran to stay for a few more days.
Gu Mengran sneered, "Who was the one who was crying and making a fuss about not wanting to come? You don't want to leave after having so much fun? Hurry up, get up and work!"
"Ouch!" Zheng Yijie wailed, put on his shoes and reluctantly walked out of the car. Seeing that Gu Mengran had no intention of asking his father to get up, Zheng Yijie was kind enough to close the car door.
“It’s so hot!”
Less than two seconds after getting off the ground, Zheng Yijie started wailing again.
Gu Mengran walked towards the road with his head down, and said without turning his head: "If you talk less, you won't feel hot anymore."
It was obviously not that easy to shut up the chatterbox. Gu Mengran walked onto the road and just after he took out the two buses and put them in the middle of the road, Zheng Yijie stood by and rubbed his belly, "I'm a little hungry. I don't have the energy to work."
"Oh."
Gu Mengran laughed, took out a large piece of hand-torn bread and threw it to him.
Seeing something thrown to him, Zheng Yijie reached out to catch it with a smile, but when he saw it was bread, his face immediately fell, and he said sadly, "You know I don't want bread. Aren't the spare ribs from the day before yesterday and the barbecue from yesterday still available? Give me some."
"Don't worry about it. You've eaten a lot. That's for Liang Zhao." Gu Mengran didn't even look at him. He opened the door and walked straight onto the bus.
Zheng Yijie complained in a low voice: "It's Liang Zhao again. I've heard you say this so many times these days. You two brothers have such a good relationship, as if you were wearing the same pair of pants, except that you don't look alike."
What else can it be? Gu Mengran smiled slightly and didn't explain too much to him.
With space at hand, loading several trucks of wheat is effortless.
The large woven bags that were stockpiled before the disaster came in handy. Gu Mengran took out a thick stack and, starting from the back seat, used his hands to pour the wheat in the space into the woven bags little by little.
The wheat came from Heng Rong Sheng. The ship capsized and was soaked in water, so it was all wet. Storing the wheat in the air would not dry it out, so in addition to eating, drinking and having fun these days, they also did not forget to take out the wheat to dry it.
Division of labor makes the work less tiring. Gu Mengran is loading the goods in the front, while Zheng Yijie is sealing the goods at the back with tie wraps to prevent leakage during transportation and make it easier for people to unload and transport the goods.
Gu Mengran was generous for once. The seats and aisles of the two buses were all packed, and there was nearly two-thirds less space for Xiaomai.
If it was the supplies that he had spent a lot of time and effort to stockpile, Gu Mengran would definitely be reluctant to give so much away to others, but they couldn't finish the wheat that they got by chance, so instead of stockpiling it in the space, it would be better to give it to those in need.
Well, I’m just borrowing flowers to offer to Buddha.
After more than two hours of hard work, the bus was loaded. The old man finally woke up, and the three of them had a simple meal to fill their stomachs, and then loaded wheat into the commercial vehicle together.
The last bag of wheat was put into the aisle, and the business car was so full of wheat that there was no room for anyone to sit except in the front row.
It’s past three in the afternoon, it’s still early.
The old man closed the car door, checked the time, walked around the front of the car to the driver's seat window, and knocked on the glass twice.
In less than two seconds, the car window slowly rolled down, and Gu Mengran, with a radiant face, held the steering wheel and poked his head out with a smile, "What's wrong, Grandpa?"
The corners of his mouth were slightly raised, his eyes were full of smiles, and he was visibly excited. There were four big words written on his face - eager to go home.
Meng Gaoyang saw through his thoughts at a glance, shook his head helplessly, stretched out his left hand and handed the watch to him, "It's only a little after three o'clock, isn't it too early to leave now?"
"It's indeed early. It's just over an hour's drive, and we got back just after four o'clock." Zheng Yijie walked over from the back of the car, leisurely waving his grandfather's palm-leaf fan.
Upon hearing this, the smile on Gu Mengran's face gradually faded, and he unconsciously rubbed the steering wheel with his palm, saying without much confidence: "It's okay, it's just a few hours earlier than expected. There's not much difference between arriving at four o'clock and seven o'clock."
The old man stopped talking after hearing this, but Zheng Yijie, who hadn't figured out the situation yet, went to the window and analyzed with Gu Mengran: "No, no, no, there's a big difference."
"Think about it, we must be exhausted after harvesting so much wheat in three days, right? We should have arrived in the dark, exhausted, and struggling to get to the mountain city, instead of arriving at 4 p.m., looking so relaxed."
"Dusty?" Meng Gaoyang chewed on these two words over and over again, and suddenly thought of a key question. He slapped the car door hard, "I almost forgot!"
"What?" Gu Mengran and Zheng Yijie spoke at the same time.
The old man said "tsk", turned back to point to the white and gold bus on the highway, and said with a bit of pride: "Have you not found the problem yet? Is it too clean? It looks like you went to Jincheng and brought back so much wheat?"
Zheng Yijie took a closer look and said, "Oh, right, what should we do? Let's drive it out for a few laps?"
"No need." Gu Mengran opened the car door and got out, pointing to the farmland where the commercial vehicle was parked. "Get the car in and let the tires spin for a while."
"Hey, this is a good idea. It's up to you, Xiao Mengran!"
The bus can't drive in? No problem, just retract the bus and put it in the farmland. The driver gets on the bus and operates it, pressing the brakes and the accelerator, coating the relatively clean wheels and body with a layer of dirty yellow mud.
After a long and tiring process of more than half an hour, the three vehicles returned to the flat road. Then the commercial vehicle took the lead and led the two buses on their way back.