Chapter 48
The only person who can be said to be thinking is Professor Zhao Shansi.
As a person without superpowers, she was not actually living the worst life in the apocalypse. Firstly, she had a certain resistance to the unclean river water, and there was no sign of disease until now. Secondly, she was indeed a professor and expert with solid theoretical and practical knowledge, and had made achievements in building various infrastructure frameworks. Therefore, no matter what the resources of the base were, they were willing to protect her as much as possible to let her do her research with peace of mind.
However, after the base was attacked by many batches of mutated zombies, the weapons were gradually used up, and a third-level mutant became the boss of the H city base.
This third-order psychic is, to some extent, a "beneficiary" of the apocalypse. He has won a status he never had before, and he doesn't care about his dead relatives and friends. He feels very comfortable in the apocalyptic environment.
He even enjoys the end of the world and hates the orderly society under science and technology.
Less than two days after he took office, the treatment of the technical staff in the base took a sharp turn for the worse. Professors like Zhao Shansi, who had no special abilities but were knowledgeable and highly skilled, no longer had the same treatment as before. They were not well fed or housed, and could no longer focus on their research as before, but had to consider their livelihoods.
Zhao Shansi thus understood a truth: the various bases in the end times were no longer in a stage where the government could have complete control. When their weapons were becoming less and less, they could only rely on the superpowers.
If the psychics were our own, everything would be fine. But the ratio of government staff to ordinary people was too disparate, and the number of psychics was also very different. Most of the strongest psychics in the base were not our own.
Therefore, if you want to join the next base, instead of looking at who is the current ruler, it is better to look at who is the most powerful psychic at the moment.
While He Xuan and the others were talking to Fu Erdie, Professor Zhao was observing them. She found that this girl really valued technical personnel and was in a dominant position in her own base... oh no, in the girl's words, in her own community.
Her boyfriend is very strong, but he also acts according to her words.
This is definitely not a relationship of primary and secondary that arises simply because of the boyfriend-girlfriend relationship, it must also be due to the girl's own abilities.
Maybe because the girl has plant-based abilities, she can provide food? Or maybe the girl is a dual-ability person, with water-based abilities, so she is basically the breadwinner for her boyfriend and the entire community?
No.
Although this ability to provide food, water, and treatment is very useful and highly valued, it is often fought over by many people due to its lack of aggressiveness. It always does auxiliary work in the team and has very little autonomy.
There must be something special about her.
This is a good thing.
A powerful person in power who values technical personnel and holds the necessities of survival is her best choice.
Professor Zhao is already 46 years old. He is quite capable of dealing with schools and corporate project departments. He also has his own company. He is not the academic nerd who knows nothing as everyone stereotypes.
She glanced at everyone present.
Zhuang Licheng, as an electrical engineer, must be won over, and Pan Feizhou, a sports student with the ability to extract metals, must also be won over. The two of them, plus herself, are the technical department members that Fu Erdie specifically named to have a better living environment.
As for the other few, Professor Zhao actually didn't want them all to go.
There is one couple in particular who don’t seem to be doing anything fancy now, but after spending a few months together, it can be seen that they are very scheming and like to take advantage of others.
It's not wrong to be greedy and scheming, but being greedy and stupid at the same time, without character and without brains, is like a time bomb, and you may sell out the boss if you don't think clearly.
Her team had gone through untold hardships to escape here, and had finally found a target who looked very good at the moment. She didn't want to see the plan ruined by these two people.
Professor Zhao lowered his eyes and thought.
Twelve o'clock noon.
After driving for four hours, Fu Erdie and his group finally arrived at Fentie City.
After passing a transition zone, they saw large tracts of fields flooded by the vast river.
The water has not yet flooded the highway, but it is only twenty centimeters away. One kilometer ahead, the wheels will start to wade through the water.
Fu Erdie thought about it and asked Sang Wenhao to drive the car to the nearest hill and then take a van to continue their journey.
The box truck was very clean. He Xuan was very hesitant when he saw how dirty he was.
Fu Erdie simply gave her a bucket of water and a set of somewhat worn but clean clothes, and used a metal rack to temporarily build a small light-proof shed for her to take a bath and change clothes in.
Fu Erdie pulled Sang Wenhao to the top of the hill, using his supernatural powers to restore his energy and strength, while also dealing with the zombies around him.
After He Xuan washed his hair and took a shower with a small amount of water, changed into clean clothes, and got ready to enter the box truck, he could breathe smoothly and all the lingering stench from the outside world was isolated.
Fu Erdie and Sang Wenhao entered the van and saw the wound on her arm that was still festering and worsening. They said, "I can treat your injury, but I can only cure part of it now, so that it can recover on the surface and stop deteriorating inside. For the rest, I will treat you after we find my parents, okay?"
He Xuan nodded quickly!
This is great! "Thank you for your help. I can directly express my position. I recognize you as the boss! I will do whatever you ask me to do! Whether it is to find my parents or to avoid danger on the way home, I will do my best to make you, classmate Sang, and all of us get home safely!"
Fu Erdie nodded at her politely.
The rest of the journey was basically entirely by flying, and the speed slowed down a lot.
I drove the electric car for 400 kilometers in the morning, but in the afternoon I only moved 40 kilometers due to the constant movement of the box truck.
The main thing is that they have to check one point at a time from now on. They have to check all the hills where people might be hiding, and then use a loudspeaker to call for help.
Some survivors felt that they were about the same age as Fu Erdie's parents, both in their fifties, and clumsily pretended to be her parents. When they were exposed, they cursed in despair.
Fu Erdie ignored them all. After dealing with the zombies that gathered because of the horn, she scattered a few dandelion catkins and flew away.
At about six o'clock, they stopped to recover their powers and eat. After eating, they continued to walk for 30 kilometers, reaching five hills, and then stopped at the sixth hill.
Fu Erdie felt that her parents would definitely not stay where they were for the past six months. And at her speed, she might be able to find them within a week.
But it is also possible that they had already left the flooded area. If that were the case, it means that they were able to grab gasoline and run so far, and they might have gone straight back.
By then, Fu Erdie will have checked the hills affected by the flood and confirmed that her parents are not there, so she can come back and look for them.
When sleeping at night, Sang Wenhao widened the bed box to 2.1 meters wide. He and Fu Erdie slept on the 1.4-meter wide one, and He Xuan slept on the 0.7-meter wide one. In the middle of both sides, they made a partition with disinfected and deformed steel plates pulled in from outside, barely turning the small space into two rooms.
Fu Erdie lay in Sang Wenhao's arms, activated her special powers and fell into a deep sleep. She continued her journey early the next morning.
In the next few days, they moved in a regular manner according to the map.
The survivors, who seemed few in number at ordinary times, were now crowded on the top of a hill or in a small kayak, wailing for help to Fu Erdie and others who were flying by.
If Fu Erdie likes someone, he will throw a small potato to him, but most of the time he will just pass by without stopping.
They traveled day and night for five days, and finally saw two middle-aged men with haggard faces, who were tottering due to being washed away by the water, on a roof that was no longer standing.
In the van, Fu Erdie's loudspeaker was still broadcasting the recorded voice over and over again: "Cao Bingqing, Fu Chenghong, your daughter is here to see you. Shine the flashlight when you hear her! There is a flashlight on the watch I bought for you!"
"Cao Bingqing, Fu Chenghong, daughter..."
In the rain, the two middle-aged men were stunned for a moment, and then the woman began to flash the flashlight on her watch in the direction of the box truck.
When Fu Erdie looked over, the light had just used up its last bit of power and went out.
But this moment was enough for Fu Erdie to capture the woman's blurry face.
It's mom! The one next to her must be dad!
Fu Erdie burst into tears and shouted, "Dad! Mom! Hold on! I'm coming!"
The window opened, and the van quickly landed next to the two middle-aged men. The two tired, pale, and hopeful faces burst into great surprise and indescribable sadness the moment they saw the girl in the van.
"Butterfly!!!"
Her heart seemed to be struck by the bells and drums of celebration, and Fu Erdie felt that the huge, heavy stone in her heart suddenly disappeared.
"Dad, Mom...! I finally found you!"
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The rain and river water outside the window mixed with Fu Erdie's tears, interweaving into a slightly blurry spot of light.
She pulled the potatoes, letting their roots wrap around her parents' waists, and then she and Sang Wenhao worked together to pull the two people, who were still surprised and unable to believe, into the car.
The carriage was parked next to the roof without moving. A steel cable was inserted and anchored by Sang Wenhao, fixing the carriage on the water surface.
"Dad, Mom..."
Fu Erdie's hands were shaking and she burst into tears while hugging her parents who were almost ten years older than her.
It took a full ten seconds before Cao Bingqing and Fu Chenghong finally pinched themselves.
"I'm not dreaming, I'm really not dreaming!" Their rough, calloused hands touched Fu Erdie's face and arms, "I thought we would never see each other again, wuwuwuwuwu!"
“We are reunited!”
Alive and reunited!
Cao Bingqing wiped her eyes and opened them wide, holding her daughter's face and looking at it carefully: "She has lost weight, my daughter has lost weight."
Fu Erdie cried and laughed at the same time: "Why are you thin? I've gained ten pounds and my body is full of muscles. If you don't believe me, feel it."
Fu Chenghong, who was listening nearby, couldn't help laughing out loud.
Fu Erdie is healthy and fine now, but she is worried that her parents are injured, so she asked about it after crying for a while.
"We don't have any major problems. We're not missing any limbs. We just have some minor ailments."
Fu Erdie looked at the visible parts and the most serious ones were the thighs and calves that had been soaked in water for three days. The calves were especially swollen and rotten, and there were many bruises on the waist caused by floating objects.
Fu Erdie asked Tu Dou to help clean the dirt off her parents' bodies, then she glanced at He Xuan out of the corner of her eye, put her hands on the wall, and activated her supernatural powers, causing the wall to produce a lot of white light that instantly flowed into her parents' bodies.
After his parents' legs and feet had recovered for a long time, Fu Erdie organized her words to talk about her "superpowers" and the situation in this carriage.
"I have plant powers and a power similar to 'home'. I can make plants grow and work, and I can also limit a certain space to be my 'home'. In this 'home', people who are allowed by me can get clean water and adequate treatment."
Because He Xuan was here, Fu Erdie did not tell the truth, but instead described her special abilities with a mix of 70% truth and 30% falsehood.
"I need to be treated in the house, and this treatment includes external injuries, internal injuries and various diseases. It is very comprehensive. Mom and Dad, you don't have to worry about sequelae such as rheumatism. You will be fine after a few days of rest."
"As for the house flying, that's Sang Wenhao's ability. He's my...quasi-boyfriend."
The parents, who were marveling at their daughter's special abilities, immediately raised their radar and looked at the young man again.
If at the beginning they just regarded this man and the woman next to him as their daughter's teammates and thought they were good people, now they suddenly felt a little uncomfortable.
After all, looking at younger generations and looking at a son-in-law are different.
Fu Erdie patched up: "We are still in the contact stage, not officially boyfriend and girlfriend. If you have any questions, we can find out later."
Sang Wenhao scratched his head uncomfortably, then took out clean potatoes and water and handed them over: "Uncle and aunt, eat a little first to fill your stomach."
The couple looked at each other, took it politely, and said nothing more.
It is up to the children to make the decisions themselves.
The boxcar is small, but it's just right for five people to sit around a small table.
The water surface was rippling and the box truck was swaying.
Cao Bingqing and Fu Chenghong were cleaned of dirt by Tu Dou, and with the house's thorough treatment, they relaxed completely. They briefly talked about the situation in the last six months of the apocalypse, and then fell asleep after their stomachs were initially filled.
It turned out that at the beginning of the end of the world, Cao Bingqing and his wife were indeed living well in that rented villa.
But in August, heavy rain hit somewhere upstream and the dam was not repaired or controlled. The water rose quickly and flooded many fields.
Their villa was on a plain. When they saw the water coming from afar, they quickly prepared daily necessities, took spare bicycles and started to escape.
The rest of the story is similar to that of many other ordinary escapees. First, the gas stations that I found along the way were either occupied by the psychics or had been taken away, forcing the vehicle to be stranded on the road.
Faced with the floods that could wreak havoc on the plains at any time, the couple traveled light, rode their bicycles with the little food they had left, and headed inland.
Just as Fu Erdie thought, they did follow the route agreed upon at the end of June.
However, no matter how fast they rode the bicycle, they could not fly over the flooded area that stretched for hundreds of meters in the low-lying area ahead. They dragged the bicycle for a while, but when the water submerged the bicycle and they could not touch the ground and had to swim across, they abandoned the bicycle.
In this way, they fled in a panic, with fewer and fewer things to use. The food was soaked to the point of rotting, moldy and smelly, so they had to find all kinds of wild vegetables to eat.
Last month they were too weak to run, so they simply waited to die or wait for the water to recede in a building abandoned by the psychics.
There were also materials for fishing and making fish baskets in the building. The two people tried various ways to catch fish to eat, and they didn't care whether they were raw, cooked, or mutated, as long as they were edible.
In this way, the water slowly rose from the first and second floors to the third and fourth floors, and finally to the roof of the seventh floor. When it was finally about to wash the couple away, Fu Erdie came.
(End of this chapter)