Chapter 54 Chapter 54 Impact Warning!
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It was too hot. Gu Mengran waited until the early morning to refuel the Fengyi, but after staying on the deck for two hours, it was still so hot that he doubted his life even though it was the coolest time of the day, the early morning.
Gu Mengran couldn't bear to fill up the fuel tank after filling it halfway. After confirming with Liang Zhao in the cab through the intercom, he dragged his tired body and walked back to the room with weak steps.
Feeling dizzy and weak in limbs, Gu Mengran went back to the house, drank a bottle of Huoxiang Zhengqi Liquid, and sat on the ground to rest for a long time. Only then did he slowly recover.
Feeling very uncomfortable and sticky with sweat, Gu Mengran found a change of clothes in the closet and staggered towards the bathroom.
The bedroom door was not closed tightly. Gu Mengran heard a noise when he passed by the door. He turned his head and saw a yellow shadow coming into his sight.
Xiao Huang, who was supposed to be enjoying the air conditioning in the cab, ran over for some reason and squatted by the door alone. It stretched its neck and looked around, its wet eyes fixed on the door, looking pitiful as if it wanted to go in but didn't dare to.
Who can resist a shy puppy coming to your door?
Gu Mengran put his clothes on his arm, squatted down quietly, and seeing that Xiao Huang did not run away because of fear, he reached out and touched the dog's head.
"Xiao Huang, are you here to see me?"
The puppy has its own energy. Patting its head and scratching its chin, Gu Mengran, who was feeling listless due to the heat, gradually perked up.
Xiao Huang never gave much reaction, but for a timid dog who is afraid of people, not running away is the biggest response.
After petting the dog for a while with satisfaction, Gu Mengran realized that Xiao Huang had stayed in the space for too long and his body was dirty, with mud all over his paws.
Just as he was about to take a shower, Gu Mengran suddenly had an idea. He put his hands under Xiao Huang's armpits and picked it up by surprise, "Let's go take a shower!"
"Woo-woo-woo-woo!"
Half an hour later, the bathroom door opened, and a small wet yellow figure suddenly jumped out of the door and disappeared at the end of the corridor.
Gu Mengran walked out of the bathroom refreshed and shook his head helplessly.
It's difficult. It was just a shower, but the feelings that had just been cultivated were washed away.
As expected, when Gu Mengran walked into the cab while wiping his hair, Xiao Huang was hiding in the corner shaking off water and licking his fur. When he saw him, he hid under the dashboard.
Looking at the weak, pitiful and somewhat resentful eyes, Gu Mengran silently put the hair dryer back into the space. Forget it. It’s hot anyway, so I don’t have to blow-dry my hair. If I continue to blow-dry my hair, it will probably become my enemy.
It was already early morning, and the Fengyi, after refueling, set off again. Liang Zhao, sitting in the captain's chair, was still so energetic.
Gu Mengran dried his hair and hung the towel around his neck. He walked slowly behind Liang Zhao and poked his arm, "Go take a nap. You've been driving for most of the night. I'll drive for the rest of the time."
Liang Zhao tilted his head to look at him and shook his head gently. "The cabin is cool. I would rather drive the boat all night than squat on the deck for two hours."
This may sound a bit strange at first, but upon closer inspection, it turns out to be a roundabout way of expressing how hard it is to go to the deck to refuel.
Gu Mengran pretended not to understand, raised his eyebrows and asked, "Oh? Do you mean you want me to suffer this punishment again next time?"
"no……"
Liang Zhao was obviously panicked for a moment, and seemed to not know how to explain. He said in panic and helplessness: "Let's switch. Next time you stay in the cab to watch the instrument, and I'll go out to watch over the gas."
"Haha!" Gu Mengran laughed out loud and patted Liang Zhao on the shoulder. "Just kidding. To fill half a tank of oil at a time, how many barrels of oil would I have to carry out? Forget it, this is destined to be my job."
Liang Zhao's eyes flashed with a trace of barely perceptible annoyance, and he whispered, "Don't bother. There's space so you don't have to carry it back and forth. Just put the oil barrel on the deck before refueling."
"Forget it, it's more convenient for me, so I can just go alone." Gu Mengran didn't want to continue this topic. He spread out his small stool and sat next to Liang Zhao, sighing slightly, "Oh, I think I still need to find a way to get some more fuel."
"Not much oil left?" Liang Zhao asked hurriedly without caring about being upset.
"There's still a lot. If we use it like this, it can last at least a year." Gu Mengran covered his mouth and yawned, and said slowly: "After arriving in Yinan, if we save a little, it won't be a problem to last for a few years. It's just that I spend a lot every time I fill up the gas tank, which makes me feel a little sad."
"Indeed, non-renewable resources will become less and less if we use them a little more," Liang Zhao also began to worry, his brows unconsciously frowned.
Gu Mengran pursed his lips, "In the end, it's because we don't have money. Diesel prices are high, and hoarding this oil has used up all of grandpa's pension. If only I had met Zheng Yijie earlier, he still has millions left to spend. What a pity!"
The casual sigh had a different meaning when it fell into Liang Zhao's ears.
Gu Mengran realized something was wrong when he glanced at Liang Zhao's increasingly solemn expression. He quickly tried to make amends, "It was thanks to you that we were able to get all the equipment on the Feng Yi without your timely help."
"But you are really brave. An old classmate who you haven't contacted for many years came to ask for money, and you actually lent it to him. You were so generous." Gu Mengran couldn't help but complain.
The sporadic displeasure disappeared, Liang Zhao lowered his eyes, and a faint smile spread across his lips, "It's not that I'm brave, but I may not lend it to others if they come to borrow it."
Gu Mengran narrowed his eyes: "What do you mean?"
Liang Zhao: "It's no problem to lend it to you."
Gu Mengran looked at him steadily, "Oh? You haven't contacted me for so many years, but you trust me so much?"
"Because..." Liang Zhao chuckled, "The monk may escape, but the temple cannot."
Gu Mengran didn't like what he heard, and his eyes, which were filled with expectation, gradually dimmed.
Liang Zhao moved his lips, but said nothing in the end. He turned sideways, clicked on the electronic chart on the center console, and began to look at it carefully.
After getting back on the water, they did not see any oil tankers or water service areas in the small ports along the way. The only large port was Xinjing, which they passed a few days ago, but there were troops stationed there, so fuel was not something they could expect.
Liang Zhao slid the chart forward. Five minutes later, he called Gu Mengran and tapped the anchor symbol on the chart. "Lingjiang Port, the largest port in the middle reaches, should be reachable in three days. There is a large service area on the shore. We can try our luck in the port."
Liang Zhao actually started to study it after just mentioning it casually.
There is no such thing as too much fuel. Gu Mengran craned his neck to glance at the electronic chart and nodded immediately, "Let's go! We will be drifting for a long time from now on, so the more fuel we have, the safer we will be. But I have to discuss this with Grandpa in the morning. We can't rush into the port. We have to at least make a simple plan."
"Well," Liang Zhao nodded in agreement, "We should have a good discussion."
It was getting light outside, and Gu Mengran guessed that grandpa and Zheng Yiji should get up too. He stood up, stretched, and prepared to go to the kitchen to make breakfast.
The cooked food prepared these days is enough to last for several months without cooking, but that is for emergencies. Unless there is a special situation, Gu Mengran does not intend to touch the cooked food.
Besides, if you don’t have the conditions to cook, your life will be half as fulfilling.
After saying hello to Liang Zhao, Gu Mengran walked out slowly. When he reached the door, he seemed to have thought of something, and suddenly turned to look at the driving platform, smiling and saying, "Liang Zhao, what do you want to eat in the morning?"
It was just a simple question, but Gu Mengran's eyes lit up surprisingly.
Looking at each other from a distance, Liang Zhao was dazed for a moment.
There was a dull pain in my temple and a short buzzing sounded in my mind. Suddenly, he heard a familiar voice whispering in his ear again: "If only there were no disasters, we would all be fine, no longer hungry, and then I could ask you on a sunny morning: 'Liang Zhao, what do you want to eat?'"
The two voices gradually overlapped, and in a daze, Liang Zhao saw a thread end in a tangled mass of hemp rope, but just as he was about to reach out to grab it, a shrill alarm suddenly sounded on the center console.
[——Beep, beep, beep, collision warning, collision warning! 】
Liang Zhao came to his senses instantly, and Gu Mengran, who had just walked out of the door, immediately turned around and returned to the control panel.
Hearing the sound of the radar alarm, Gu Mengran quickly moved to the radar screen to check. The screen, which was originally dominated by green, had a hint of red and a motionless rectangular red image.
"1.5 kilometers ahead, medium to large ships!"
"Received, emergency brake applied."
Unlike cars, ships do not have braking systems. Due to their large size and high inertia, it is basically impossible for a ship sailing at full speed to stop immediately.
Fortunately, the radar alarm sounded in time. 1.5 kilometers was still a safe distance. Liang Zhao methodically turned on the reverse thrust device, reversed the propeller, and pushed the water flow to produce a reaction force to offset the ship's forward trend.
One observed while the other operated, and the two performed their respective duties. It took a total of six minutes, and the Fengyi, sailing at full speed, stopped steadily on the river.
The air conditioner was blowing cold air with a hissing sound, but the two people in the cab broke out in cold sweats at the same time.
Without a word of communication, Gu Mengran waited until the turbulent Huangjiang River calmed down. He picked up the ship's telescope on the bridge and walked quickly to the front windshield.
The boat stopped for more than one kilometer, and was now less than five hundred meters away from the blocking ship ahead. The blurred outlines of each other could be seen with the naked eye.
As the sky gradually brightened, Gu Mengran raised the ship's telescope and a cargo ship of the same size as the Fengyi came into view.
They were almost the same size, but the ship opposite was obviously carrying cargo and had a very low waterline, much shorter than the Wind Wing. Therefore, Gu Mengran could clearly see the red and green deck opposite from his high vantage point.
From the oil pipeline and double-hull structure, Gu Mengran could tell at a glance that it was an oil and chemical tanker on the opposite side. Moreover, the ship has a poop structure, with the superstructure located at the rear of the deck, facing the Fengyi across the river, including its cabin.
The magnification was too high, so the telescope could only move little by little. Gu Mengran finally found the highest point in the hazy white, but before he could see the cockpit clearly, a blurry figure suddenly walked out from the open deck opposite.
The Feng Yi was making quite a lot of noise, and the other party had obviously come out to look around, also holding a ship-mounted telescope in his hand.
The distance was too far to see the face clearly, so Gu Mengran continued to increase the magnification. But just as the telescope became clearer and he was about to see the other person's face clearly, the person opposite raised his hand and raised the telescope, blocking half of his face.
Half of the picture was also a face. Gu Mengran scanned the other person's chin and lips, and based on his clothes, he confirmed that the person in front of him was a young man.
It always feels a little familiar, as if I have seen it somewhere before?
Before he could recall what was going on, the long-silent high-frequency sound on the center console suddenly rang out, and a clean female voice echoed bit by bit.
"Zizi, Zizi, Wind, Wind Wing?"
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