SEC Chapter 90 Snow on the Li River
Chapter 90 Snow on the Li River
During breakfast, the zombie fish from last night reappeared, stirring up waves and causing the five passenger boats to drift back and forth on the Lijiang River. Everyone on board seemed to be used to it and wasn't frightened, but Lu Yuan was so scared by his experience last night that he jumped up.
"Little cutie, don't be nervous. The passenger ship is different from the lifeboats you had yesterday." Lan Yichen laughed so hard he almost fell over when he saw his expression.
"You have such a low threshold for laughter, how could you have held back before?" Lu Yuan complained unhappily.
Lan Yichen was silent for a moment, then laughed, "What can't I endure to have food to eat?"
After breakfast, with nothing else to do on the ship, the four of them returned to the ship that had been arranged for them the day before. Gu Nanfeng went to the side to make a satellite phone call to Pei Sihao and Pei Simin, while Lu Yuan leaned against the ship's railing, deep in thought.
"What are you thinking about?" Gu Nanfeng hung up the satellite phone and walked to Lu Yuan's side.
"Um……"
"Are you thinking about how to get supplies for Jiang Yun and the others?" Before Lu Yuan could figure out what to say, Gu Nanfeng spoke up. He looked at Lu Yuan's conflicted face and smiled. "Qin and I already figured out what to do this morning."
"Really?" Gu Nanfeng was indeed a top student, always thinking ahead of Lu Yuan. Lu Yuan was truly envious of such a person. He felt that if he didn't have this space, he would be really useless in this apocalypse.
“Yes, I discussed it with Captain Qin this morning. If we take the waterway from here, although it will be slower, we should be able to reach J City in about three days. From there, we can drive to the port, which should take about a day.” Gu Nanfeng pointed downstream. “We also asked Jiang Yun this morning if they were willing to leave together. If they are, we will sail together. If they are not, we will try to get supplies to exchange for a boat with them.”
"But it only takes a few hours to get to Town C, right?" Lu Yuan studied history and had some knowledge of geography. Although he didn't open a map, he remembered that Town C was downstream from Town Y. The town was small and hadn't become a tourist attraction. However, if they got there by water in a little over three hours, they wouldn't need to take Jiang Yun's boat. They could just ask them to deliver the supplies.
“The mountain road collapsed before. Most of the roads from Town C to the port are mountain roads. We can’t guarantee that the same thing won’t happen again. Rather than being trapped in the mountains, it’s better to take the waterway.” Lu Yuan had to admit that Gu Nanfeng was being more thoughtful.
"The problem now is how to give them supplies reasonably." Lu Yuan's space cannot be exposed at will, and Jiang Yun was able to make so many arrangements at the beginning of the virus outbreak, which shows his meticulousness. Although they may not be bad people, it is really hard to predict what they will do if they know that Lu Yuan has a space and a lot of supplies.
"We just checked with our binoculars. Several groups of survivors have appeared in the town, and they're all going straight into houses to search for things." Lu Yuan and Gu Nanfeng were at the bow of the boat, while Du Wenqing and Qin Yuan had been at the stern observing Y Town with binoculars.
"There are several convenience stores that I can see, and there are people moving around inside. It seems that some survivors are using those places as bases." Y Town is really too small, and there are a lot of tourists. During this time, many people who had nowhere to survive in Y Town must have chosen to leave. But the number of survivors in Y Town now is definitely not small.
"There are too many people, and they're all acting independently." Qin Yuan finished his cigarette and sighed. "The main problem is that we don't have enough supplies."
How much supplies can a tourist town like this have? It's easy to imagine. Such towns need to receive a lot of food and water from outside every day just to keep up with the demand from tourists. Now, after more than three months without any supplies coming in, it's already quite remarkable that the town's supplies have lasted this long.
"Brother Gu, do you own any properties in town, like hotels or something?" Lu Yuan looked in the direction of Y Town and pondered, "Could we say we took the supplies from your hotel's warehouse, like we did at your resort last time?"
“After Y Town is developed, it will be difficult for large companies to move in. My sister tried a few times, but she was unwilling to do business that would lose money.” Gu Nanfeng smiled. This town is too small. If their hotel is built here, it will not be in the town center. Tourists are unlikely to go to any slightly remote areas. So after several inspections, Gu Yining gave up the investment project here.
"So, what did Major Pei say?" Qin Yuan and Gu Nanfeng discussed another plan that morning, which was to take this ship of more than 30 people with them. However, if so many people were to go to the South China Base together, even Pei Simin would have to ask his superiors for permission.
"I don't know yet. He said he'd get back to me later." Gu Nanfeng had just spoken with Pei Simin to ask about this matter, and also mentioned his unexpected separation from Pei Sihao. He knew perfectly well that Pei Sihao would never honestly tell his older brother about this.
Just as the four were at a loss, Lu Yuan suddenly felt a coolness on the tip of his nose. He looked up at the sky where the sun was still shining. It was almost 11 o'clock, but the sun was not as strong as it was yesterday. He touched the tip of his nose and wondered, "Did it snow?"
"Yes." Qin Yuan also felt a few drops of water fall on his face. He looked up at the sky. After evolving his superpower, he found that his five senses had improved a lot. He was able to detect the snowflakes in the air.
"Won't the Lijiang River freeze over with this snow?" Du Wenqing, unlike Qin Yuan, didn't have a significant increase in his five senses, probably because his special ability had been triggered. However, the snowflakes were already visible to the naked eye, so he could see them too.
“If it were like a few days ago, the Li River wouldn’t be frozen, but…” Gu Nanfeng looked at the snowflakes in the sky, “but I have a feeling that this snow won’t stop so soon.”
"Hey~ cutie over there~~~~" On the deck of the passenger ship in the middle, Lan Yichen waved to Lu Yuan, "Come and play."
Although that's what Lan Yichen said, Gu Nanfeng guessed that Jiang Yun had called them over to discuss something after seeing that it was snowing, not to go play as Lan Yichen claimed.
The four of them arrived at the middle passenger ship. The people in the cabins had already started to put up their quilts on their "beds". It seemed that they had learned from the experience of the previous two snowfalls. Lu Yuan noticed that there were also a few girls in the cabin. It seemed that if it snowed, they would also sleep in the cabins on the first floor, where it would be warmer.
"It's snowing, it'll be very cold tonight, why don't you come and rest here tonight too?" Jiang Yun came out of the cabin. This was the largest ship, and they had been living there for more than three months. It looked more like a dormitory.
"Brother Jiang." Before Lu Yuan and the others could reply, several people from another ship came over with their quilts. They entered the cabin with ease, found an empty spot, and made up their "beds" there.
“Only the middle ship will have its heating on at night to save energy.” Jiang Yuan pointed to another empty area. “You can stay there. I’ll see if I can spare you a blanket later.”
Gu Nanfeng thanked them, and the four of them didn't rush into the cabin. Instead, they walked to one side of the deck.
Qin Yuan looked through the small hatch at Jiang Yun, who was directing everyone to prepare inside the cabin, and said, "If these quilts were also among the first batch of supplies they brought, then Jiang Yun is incredibly prescient."
"These blankets look like they come from a guesthouse. They probably only went to the convenience store to get food and water at first," Gu Nanfeng said, looking into the cabin. Their blankets were all sorts of colors and patterns, unlike what you'd find in a hotel; they looked more like something from a boutique guesthouse.
“They said they sneaked ashore a few times afterward, so it makes sense that they took these later.” Lu Yuan peeked towards Y Town, then turned back. “Wait a minute, there are hotels all along the river here.”
Many hotels in ancient towns are built on the foundations of old buildings, somewhat like guesthouses. However, the hotels are under unified management, and the bedding is guaranteed to be uniform, unlike the colorful and varied bedding that Jiang Yuan and his group had.
"Interesting." Gu Nanfeng smiled and didn't say anything more. Three months have passed since the outbreak of the virus. Now, no one he meets is as open as they were at the beginning. Everyone has gone through something in these three months in order to survive. They have been hiding things from Jiang Yun, and Jiang Yun can't possibly be completely open about everything.
When Jiang Yun poked his head out of the cabin to invite Lu Yuan and the others in, there was already a thin layer of snow on the boat. The four of them were still wearing summer clothes. He had put all the winter clothes that he had originally put in the trunk back into his space for the sake of convenience when riding the bike, leaving not a single long-sleeved shirt. Now, seeing Jiang Yun wearing long sleeves and pants, he felt even colder.
"Come on, I've given you two blankets. That should be enough for tonight," Jiang Yun said, handing two blankets from a film crew member to Qin Yuan.
"Thank you." The four of them took two blankets to the last empty corner of the cabin. They didn't have any clothes, so they couldn't use extra clothes to pad the floor and wrap themselves in the blankets like the others. But it didn't matter. The four of them shared a blanket and sat together.
"Brother Jiang, the snow keeps falling every other day, and our supplies are running low. You even saved them. What are we going to do now?" The speaker was a man from another ship. Lu Yuan and his group hadn't seen him before. The men on that ship were very unhappy with Lu Yuan and his three companions. Clearly, with supplies running low, they had four extra mouths to feed. Anyone would be unhappy.
"But we can't just stand by and watch someone die, can we?" Lan Yichen and Jiang Yuan huddled under one blanket. It seemed that the two blankets that Lu Yuan and the others had were probably for him and Jiang Yun, and then the others gave them another blanket.
"Didn't they say they were soldiers?" The man then looked at Qin Yuan and Du Wenqing. "Then let the soldiers tell us why the rescue hasn't arrived yet!"