Chapter 76 Chapter 76 Ship Repair

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There was no rush to complete his deception plan; Gu Mengran needed to take it slow.

To thank the Dog-Headed Military Strategist for his help, Gu Mengran opened the last door to him and took him to the space to farm for three full days.

At first, Zheng Yijie found it novel and wanted to spend the whole day in the space.

But after three days of planting, Zheng Yijie was so tired that he couldn't even lift his hands, and angrily scolded Gu Mengran for repaying kindness with enmity.

After three days of hard work, in addition to the cabbage, radish, and sweet potato that Liang Zhao and I had planted before, there were also potatoes, leeks, and lettuce in the space. Most importantly, Gu Mengran led the coolies to dig a small ditch with their bare hands, which made it much easier to water the field in the future.

Before they knew it, they had already spent six nights peacefully in Fengjin Lake. In just one more day, the "isolation" would be over. Who knew if the owner of this place would show up again?

After tossing and turning in bed for an hour, Gu Mengran stretched his back and climbed out of bed resignedly. Without washing up immediately, he walked to the window slowly and opened the curtains with a "swish".

The endless torrential rain finally turned into continuous drizzle today. The mist lingering on the lake gradually faded away, and the mountains in the distance were clearly visible. The annoying noise also weakened significantly, and the drizzle hitting the tarpaulin was like a lullaby.

After standing by the window for a few minutes, Gu Mengran immediately thought about what he should do today. He found a set of clothes from the closet to change into, quickly washed up, opened the door, and walked happily towards the restaurant.

It was a little after nine in the morning, and Gu Mengran thought he had gotten up relatively early. But when he arrived at the restaurant, the old man and Liang Zhao had already finished their breakfast and were sitting on the sofa in the living room watching TV.

I have been working in the fields from dawn to dusk these past few days and have hardly seen my grandfather and Liang Zhao. When I saw him walking out of the corridor, the two people sitting on the sofa glanced at me at the same time.

Especially the old man, he glanced at Gu Mengran, and gave Liang Zhao a look that he thought was hidden. Then Liang Zhao, who was sitting on the sofa, leaned forward, obviously intending to get up.

Without giving him the chance, before Liang Zhao walked towards him, Gu Mengran walked into the kitchen without saying a word and finished his breakfast in the kitchen at the speed of light.

First suppress him and then promote him, leaving him alone for a while.

No more than five minutes after he entered and left, Gu Mengran wiped his mouth and walked away, leaving behind the dumbfounded old man and a distraught Liang Zhao.

"Knock, knock, knock, wake up, Zheng Yijie, it's time to get to work!"

Gu Mengran returned to the door of Zheng Yijie's room and knocked on the door politely.

There was no response from inside the room, so Gu Mengran turned the doorknob and pushed the door open. He didn't see anyone, but only a tightly wrapped, very large silkworm pupa on the bed.

Without saying a word, Gu Mengran walked forward and lifted the quilt.

After trying to lift it but it didn't move, he slapped the bulge and snorted, "Let go, stop pretending, and get up quickly."

When he blinked his eyes, he was back to farming. Zheng Yijie wrapped himself in a quilt and pretended to be dead.

Unexpectedly, the next second, another heavy slap landed on his back. He grimaced and took a breath of cool air, begging for mercy through the quilt pitifully: "Let me go, brother! It's been three days, can you let me rest for a day?"

"Not today, it's a rare drizzle, hurry up, I have something important to do."

"Business, business. Business every day! I don't!"

Too lazy to continue bargaining with him, Gu Mengran kicked off his slippers and climbed onto the bed to peel onions. The short Zheng Yijie was no match for him, and Gu Mengran pulled him out from under the quilt in less than two minutes.

Not leaving the bed was his last resort. Zheng Yijie desperately clung to the edge of the bed, staring at him with dark circles under his eyes, "Do you really have to torture me alone? Can you go find your Liang Zhao?"

Gu Mengran put on his slippers and got out of bed. He put Zheng Yijie's quilt on the chair next to him, turned his head and raised his chin towards him, "I'm not kidding you. While it's not raining today, we have to go out and fix those deep holes on the outer panels."

"You should have told me something this important earlier." Zheng Yijie sat up from the bed and tugged at his hair with his hands. "The Wind Wing must be repaired as soon as possible, but how long will it take for the two of us to finish repairing it? Why don't you ask your Liang Zhao to help?"

Gu Mengran was stunned for a moment, "My Liang Zhao——"

Speak of the devil, and here he appears. As soon as the words Liang Zhao came out of Gu Mengran's mouth, the half-closed door was suddenly pushed open, and a tall figure stood in the dim corridor.

Although he couldn't see his face clearly because of the backlight, Gu Mengran inexplicably felt that he was a little aggrieved.

I don't know how long I stood at the door and listened. The two people in the room hadn't said anything yet. Liang Zhao took two steps forward, looked at Gu Mengran and said, "I want to go too. Maybe it will rain heavily tomorrow. We should fix it all at once today."

"Yes, yes, yes." Zheng Yijie nodded in agreement.

Gu Mengran smiled without saying anything and silently took out three raincoats from the space.

The Feng Yi was hit several times, and the outer plates on both sides were dented in many places. The first full-force collision was the most serious, and the outer plates that originally had a slight arc were directly hit into a "steel basin" three meters wide and more than one meter deep.

Fortunately, the outer plate was not damaged and could be repaired with tools. Gu Mengran had prepared a hydraulic tensioner specially used to repair the outer plate.

But the problem is that the stretcher is expensive and Gu Mengran only has one.

There was a steady drizzle, and the three men, wearing raincoats, came to the open deck and lowered the escape ladder along the concave position of the outer plate.

Determined to be the first to try something new, Gu Mengran ignored Liang Zhao's dissuasion, put on a wearable safety rope over his raincoat, and walked down the ladder step by step.

It went smoothly at the beginning. Gu Mengran staggered to the designated location, and Zheng Yijie and Liang Zhao used a cable to lower the tensioner and handed it to him.

He regretted it the moment he received the stretcher, because although the thing was not big, it was very heavy. It was fine to carry it on flat ground, but his arms became sore after a while when he was holding a lump of iron weighing several dozen pounds in the air.

Once the arrow is shot, it cannot be retrieved. Gu Mengran gritted his teeth and held on in the air for half an hour, barely repairing a few inconspicuous small holes. Finally, he climbed up the ladder, his hands were so sore that he could hardly hold on to the ladder.

Without mentioning being tired, Gu Mengran just said that the efficiency was too low when he returned to the deck. He then immediately took out his walkie-talkie to contact his father and asked him to go to the cockpit to operate the crane to assist in the repairs.

The mechanical arm lowered the diesel boat, and Zheng Yijie, who took over the second baton, stayed in the air for an hour. The last player Liang Zhao seemed to be competing with Zheng Yijie, and refused to come up until the outer panel on one side was completely repaired.

It was tiring and time-consuming, and it was almost dark when we finished repairing one side of the deck.

No one knew what the weather would be like tomorrow, so the three of them took advantage of the light rain and hurried to the other side.

The other side was much more convenient, and the crane didn't even need to be used. Because it was right next to the Heng Rong Sheng 2, which carried more cargo and was much shorter than the Feng Yi, it just missed the mottled depression on the hull, and you could operate it directly by standing on her deck.

And...there are enthusiastic neighbors here.

Perhaps because they saw that the three people were too busy repairing the boat in the rain, and they had just arrived and had not even repaired one hole, Xu Xingran and Xu Xinghe came out in raincoats, decisively rolled up their sleeves and stepped forward to help.

Too tired, Gu Mengran did not reject their kindness, but quietly stepped aside and used the intercom to contact the old man in the house, asking him to prepare a few more dishes and treat the siblings to dinner in the evening to express his gratitude.

The old man agreed quickly, and Gu Mengran didn't react for a while, so he didn't remind him. When he walked back to the crowd, he realized that cooking requires caution, and it's best not to serve dishes that shouldn't be served.

Being entangled by Xu Xinghe, the community leader, Gu Mengran never found a chance to remind his father. He worked with a group of people until nine o'clock in the evening. He estimated that no one else had a fire at home, so he could only bite the bullet and invite the two siblings to dinner.

Xu Xingran was still relatively polite. He waved his hands when he heard this. "No, no, we didn't help much. We just came to join in the fun. Xu Yuan is probably cooking in the house. We can just go back and eat."

Before Gu Mengran could say anything, Zheng Yijie, with sweat on his forehead, hurried over and said, "Sister, call your sister along. We've lived together for such a long time and haven't had a meal together yet. Let's go, let's just have a get-together."

"Sister, I can't refuse your kindness! I'll go call Xu Yuan, and we can go over and have a gathering together?" Xu Xinghe loved to join in the fun, and had been itching to do so, so he fanned the flames.

Unable to withstand the repeated persuasion of the two people, Xu Xingran finally nodded and gave Gu Mengran an embarrassed look, "Then, thank you for your help."

"It's no trouble, no trouble." Gu Mengran said with a smile.

I hope grandpa knows what's going on! Gu Mengran couldn't help but get nervous.

After leading the guest in with trepidation, Gu Mengran's anxious heart finally died.

The old man had some thoughts, but not much. He put away all the things that shouldn't be in the living room, such as the fresh fruit on the coffee table, milk bread, etc. But the restaurant was full of a large table of dishes, fried crispy pork, sweet and sour spare ribs, cola chicken wings...

As he walked into the restaurant, Gu Mengran's vision went dark, while the Xu brothers and sisters who followed behind him stared at each other with shock and disbelief written all over their faces.

The aroma filled his nose. Xu Xinghe pointed to the dining table with trembling fingers. He turned his head with difficulty to look at Gu Mengran and stammered, "What's going on, Brother Gu? How come you still have meat?"

Gu Mengran: ...I haven’t figured out how to edit it.

Just when he was at a loss of what to do, the old man came out from the aisle with a box of beer and greeted the guests, "Come on, why are you still standing there? Sit down and eat, or the food will get cold soon."

Curiosity overcame appetite, and no one sat down. The Xu siblings turned to their old man with questioning looks.

The old man put the beer under the corner of the table, looked up and saw everyone staring at him, frowned slightly, "What's wrong? Don't you like the food?"

"No, no." Xu Xinghe waved his hands and explained quickly: "I'm just curious, how come you still have these dishes, Master Meng?"

Meng Gaoyang glanced at the table, pretending to have an epiphany, and laughed, "What's so strange about this? Our Fengyi used to be a supermarket ship, selling vegetables and meat."

"After the earthquake, I froze these fresh meats. We are quite frugal, and there are still several large freezers in the warehouse. We still have some chicken wings, chicken legs, shrimp dumplings, and fish balls. You can take a few bags when you go back later."

"No, no," Xu Xinghe waved his hands and turned his eyes to the plate of diced chicken and stir-fried lettuce on the table, "What about these vegetables, Master Meng? Can lettuce and lettuce be preserved for so long in the freezer?"

The old man remained calm and said, "Oh, those are pre-prepared dishes."

Pre-prepared food? How can pre-prepared food be presented like this? This oilseed vegetable looks as fresh as if it was just picked from the ground, okay? Xu Xinghe hesitated to speak. He had already asked several questions. It would be very rude to ask more questions when someone kindly invited him to dinner.

The old man seemed to have guessed what he was thinking. He raised his chin and shook his head helplessly, saying, "My son Meng Ran doesn't like the food I cook. He only likes to eat takeout. We can't order takeout on the boat, so I can only buy some pre-prepared dishes for him, and I only buy the expensive ones."

"I have to say, this expensive one is different. I heard that it uses some unique freshness-locking technology, so I heated it up and poured it out of the bag. It turned out better than freshly fried ones."

Xu Xinghe suddenly realized, "So that's how it is, I told you so."

"Sit down, sit down, and eat!"

"What a sumptuous meal, thank you, Grandpa Meng."

"You're welcome, take some food."

"Wow, Master Meng's cooking is so good, but Brother Gu doesn't like it?"

Gu Mengran, who was killed in Feng Ping:...

Just when we were halfway through our meal, we suddenly heard a short whistle sound coming from the lake.

The others seemed a little confused and were startled by the sudden noise, but Gu Mengran guessed that his eldest brother was coming, so he put down his chopsticks, put on his raincoat, and hurried out the door.

Liang Zhao was worried, so he followed him out. The two of them stood on the open deck at the side and watched the pointed white boat getting closer and closer until it approached the outer plate of the Fengyi.

The rain was not heavy, so the other party no longer used the loudspeaker to communicate.

After the speedboat came to a stop, a short, unusually fat man wearing a dark raincoat came out and craned his neck to look at the deck. "Hey, how's it going on your boat these days? Does anyone have a fever or a rash?"

Perhaps it's the fat pressing on the vocal cords that makes the man's voice sound very harmless, even a little gentle.

It was one of the ones that night, Gu Mengran recognized it.

The distance was very close, one was higher than the other, Gu Mengran leaned on the guardrail and shook his head, "No, you should be able to see that we are all fine and healthy."

The man squinted his eyes and looked them over. "Well, have you thought about it?"

"What have you thought about?" Gu Mengran didn't understand and asked back.

"Leave, or join us?"

Leave or join? Gu Mengran was stunned for a moment, and said in a gentle voice: "Must we join you? We just plan to stay here for a while and leave after a while."

"No, no!" The man raised his voice, but said without much confidence: "This, this is our territory, and only our people can stay here."

Gu Mengran: "What are the benefits of joining you?"

"If you work, you will be fed. You won't be hungry."

"What if you don't join?"

"Please leave now!"

The more Gu Mengran listened, the more strange it seemed to him. Seven days ago, they were worried that they might be carrying the virus, so they didn't chase them away, and even sent them food. But after they had been isolated for seven days and were sure there was no risk, they started chasing them away.

There are two possibilities. One is that something unexpected happened in the past few days, and there may be other outsiders pouring into Fengjinhu. The other is that they are short of manpower and want to use this method to attract people.

No matter what, it was impossible to leave. Having just settled down, Gu Mengran didn't want to continue sailing in the rain. But a strong dragon can't suppress a local snake, and he couldn't directly conflict with the other party. He had to find out the real situation here as soon as possible.

After thinking for a moment, Gu Mengran looked down at the man again and said with embarrassment: "Brother, I also want to join you. In fact, we are almost out of food and really want to find something to eat. But we don’t even know what your situation is. You just said that you won’t be hungry. What if…"

"It's simple. You can follow me to the shore now." Xiaopang patted his chest in the rain. "The environment here is very good. There is food and drink. I guarantee that you won't want to leave once you get ashore."

"It's too late now. How about you give us another night to think about it? Tomorrow?"

"Okay, I'll pick you up tomorrow morning."