Chapter 70

The young boy leading the group had grown quite a bit, his voice cracking as he shouted loudly, urging Xu Jiechu to release the cat. He also kept turning around, shouting, “Brother, hurry up!”

Behind him, the handsome young man responded, quickening his pace. However, as he casually glanced over at Shu Fu’s group, his expression froze. The next second, he suddenly changed direction and walked toward Shu Fu.

Shu Fu and the others had just stepped out of the trading post. She had only pulled up her rain hood and hadn’t had time to put on her mask, so her slightly pale face, dampened by the rain, was clearly visible to the approaching person.

Lu Zheng appeared somewhat stunned, and it wasn’t until he got closer that he confirmed he hadn’t been seeing things. It was really her!

“Shu Fu?” The young man’s voice trembled slightly, and his usually calm, serene eyes were now wide with surprised joy.

On the other side, Lu Ce, who had already reached Xu Jiechu, turned in confusion. He didn’t understand why his brother was suddenly calling out Shu Fu’s name. But soon, he saw who was standing in front of Lu Zheng and immediately twisted his body like a pretzel and ran toward Shu Fu.

He wasn’t as reserved as his older brother. Once he reached her, he threw his arms around her. “Sister Fu Fu! It really is you! You’re alive! I thought my brother was just dreaming during the day!”

“Mm, alive…” The reunion came unexpectedly. She felt the vibration on her wrist as she gently patted Lu Ce on the head and smiled at Lu Zheng. “Long time no see, Lu Zheng.”

While they were joyfully reuniting, the three men who had come looking for revenge were left awkwardly standing aside. Xu Jiechu, still with scratches from the tabby cat, looked especially disheveled.

He held the cat up, shaking it. “Heh heh! Looks like your owner doesn’t want you anymore! How about coming back with me? You can be my ‘Fortune’ cat’s wife and have a bunch of kittens. What do you say?”

The response he got was a “cat punch” in the face.

Xu Jiechu yelped in pain and quickly let go of the cat.

The tabby cat hit the ground and immediately ran toward Lu Ce, clinging to his pants and meowing loudly.

Lu Ce bent down, scooping the wet little cat into his arms and stuffing it into his waterproof backpack. He looked back at Xu Jiechu as if he were an idiot. “It’s been so long and you still haven’t figured it out? My Lan Lan is a male cat!”

Xu Jiechu: …

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There wasn’t really a good place to chat near the museum, unlike in the past when, after a reunion in the city, they could sit in a café.

Now, the best they could do was find a place where they wouldn’t get rained on and stand there.

Apart from Lu Zheng and Lu Ce, there were others with them. They had originally planned to meet with people from the No. 3 Trading Post, and when they saw Lu Zheng talking with an old friend, they didn’t disturb him. After greeting him, they headed inside the trading post.

The two people who had been with Xu Jiechu also went with them. He didn’t follow his older brother into the post, instead standing at a distance from Lu Zheng’s group, still looking disgruntled.

Just an hour ago, Shu Fu had been worried because she couldn’t contact Lu Zheng, wondering if he had also gone missing. But now, over an hour later, there he was, standing right in front of her.

She couldn’t shake the feeling that everything was somehow orchestrated, as if “the mission” was always in control.

“My brother’s phone broke about a month and a half ago, probably when we were escaping…” Lu Ce continued, his chatter never ending when he was excited. “Pincheng was even worse than Lucheng. There was a prison on the outskirts, and for some reason, after the tsunami, all the prisoners escaped. They formed a group, and their power grew rapidly. While many of the teams were busy helping with disaster relief, they caused all kinds of chaos in the city, robbing, setting fires… and even killing people. Eventually, they took over the city hall and started looting the granaries…”

Pincheng, originally small with a population far fewer than that of Lucheng, was even smaller than half of it. Lu Zheng and Lu Ce’s home was in the outskirts, so they initially avoided the worst of the chaos. Meanwhile, the Yao family had left before the tsunami, applying for a small town in the Fengshang Plateau, and quickly got approval.

Shu Fu had wanted Lu Zheng and his brother to come with her, but Pincheng was their home, and the northern plateau’s climate wasn’t as harsh, with no giant waves to worry about, so they didn’t leave.

They never expected to survive the natural disaster only to fall victim to human-made disaster.

Soon after, those criminals began spreading and soon reached the eastern suburbs. The town still had internet at the time, and people knew the situation outside. They knew Pincheng was in complete chaos and had already organized a patrol team.

Before those thugs could raid their town, the team began moving out with their families. Many families had cars and fuel, and by pooling their resources, they managed to get everyone out.

They didn’t dare take the main roads, fearing they might run into the prisoners. Instead, they took the mountain roads to the east.

In this kind of weather, walking through mountain roads meant risking landslides, mudslides, and lightning strikes—dangerous, but they had no choice. Compared to these natural disasters, they feared the criminals more. After all, falling into their hands might be worse than death.

It took them three days, during which they lost three cars and five or six people, but they eventually made it out of the eastern suburbs and into the southern suburbs. After leaving Pincheng, they continued heading west for over a hundred kilometers.

There was a small salt lake there, situated in the mountains, a little-known scenic spot. Because the salt lake wasn’t particularly beautiful, difficult to access, and hadn’t been developed, it hadn’t attracted many tourists before.

But for the people seeking refuge, it was just right.

There was a salt factory near the scenic area, with places to stay. The salt ponds generated electricity, and with an underground water source, they had access to both water and electricity. For now, they were safe—except for food and internet.

The internet wasn’t completely absent, but they could only connect about half of the time during a ten-day span, and the signal was poor when they did.

They couldn’t get timely updates on the situation outside, so when their food was about to run out for the first time, they had to take action. They reorganized, took two cars, and set out, hoping for the best.

After getting onto the provincial highway, they realized they were actually closer to Lucheng than they thought. Lucheng was to the southeast of them. Since everyone knew Lucheng had been designated as a relocation city and had more supplies, they decided to give it a try and entered the city.

Lu Ce hadn’t gone with them, and the entire experience was later relayed to Lu Zheng by Xu Jiechu’s older brother, Xu Tingfeng. They encountered many difficulties and dangers along the way, some people were injured, but fortunately, no one died. They managed to bring back life-saving food.

Lu Ce lowered his voice as he glanced around before continuing to talk to Shu Fu: “Where we are, there’s not much except salt, but there’s a salt factory. Many of the capable people in our town gathered together, and quickly figured out how to make salt.”

“And we have underground water, which is much cleaner than rainwater. Even without purifying tablets, you can boil it and drink it. So later, when my brother and that guy’s brother went to Lucheng, they brought these two things to trade here and bring back food. But this trip has been a bit of a hassle. We encountered a landslide on the mountain road, had to take a detour, and used up all the fuel on the way back…”

Every time they went out, they tried to save fuel by taking two large vans. The vans were modified with iron mesh to protect against hail and strong winds, the engines were reconfigured, and the tires were replaced, so they could handle extreme weather and mountain roads with no issues.

However, aside from the passengers, they also needed to bring as much clean water and salt as possible when leaving, and as much food and other necessities as possible when returning. This left limited space, and they only carried enough fuel for the round trip.

On previous trips, the team had gone out and returned safely. Lu Ce, bored at the salt lake, decided to come along this time.

As for Xu Jiechao, he was in a similar situation. Protected by his older brother, he hadn’t faced much hardship.

It was the second day they were in Lucheng. He had previously visited another trading station, thinking he was capable of handling things on his own. So, on that day, he decided to explore by himself. Somehow, he ended up outside and got ambushed. They stole everything from him and stripped him naked. He limped back to the trading station, looking utterly miserable.

“We haven’t left yet because we were trying to get fuel for the return trip. But the most expensive thing here is the fuel. We traded our supplies for food, but it wasn’t enough to get fuel. The other side is interested in our cars and offered to trade the car for fuel, but we only have two cars. If we trade one for fuel, we won’t have enough space for all the people and supplies. We thought we’d bring fewer supplies this time and trade the excess for fuel, but…”

Lu Ce glanced at Lu Zheng while holding the tabby cat, leaving the unspoken part of the story—the reason they were now stuck here and unable to leave.

Lu Zheng sighed and bitterly continued his brother’s sentence: “…We were careless. We didn’t understand the rules here. Initially, we didn’t agree to trade with the people at Trading Station 1 for fuel because Trading Station 3 offered us an extra 10 liters of fuel. So we agreed with them, but the night before last, both our cars were smashed…”

At this point, Shu Fu understood. 10 liters of fuel could get a regular car over 100 kilometers, and she would’ve made the same trade. She wasn’t stupid.

“It must’ve been the people behind Trading Station 1…” Lu Ce muttered.

Now, their problem was that both cars were gone, the fuel was gone, and the clean water and salt they brought had been traded for supplies. Those supplies were temporarily stored at Trading Station 3. They had planned to trade for fuel and drive back with the supplies, but now, with the situation like this, they had no idea how to return.

Yesterday, Trading Station 3 was closed, so they planned to come back today to talk to someone and hopefully find someone in charge who could lend them a car and fuel to get them and their supplies back.

“It’s a bit difficult.” Chen Fa, who had been listening quietly, shook his head.

“Who is this?” Lu Zheng turned and nodded politely toward him.

“My friend, Chen Fa, and her grandmother. This is also my friend, Lu Zheng, and his younger brother, Lu Ce.” Shu Fu simply introduced them and explained their current plans. She didn’t mention the past, since some parts of her story didn’t quite align with what they had told others. The more she said, the more mistakes she might make.

After exchanging pleasantries, Lu Ce was quite happy and immediately urged Shu Fu and her group to join them.

Joining them was a good option since she was originally planning to go to Pingcheng because Lu Zheng and his group were there. Shu Fu asked about the condition of Lu Zheng’s two cars, and from the sound of it, they were modified quite well. There were also car parts for sale at the trading station, so if they could be repaired, and they somehow managed to acquire some fuel, they could leave together.

“We can’t repair it; the other side was pretty ruthless…” Lu Zheng said. Just then, one of the people who had gone to the trading station rushed over, saying that Brother Xu had asked everyone to go over and collect the food and supplies they had traded for.

“You’re not borrowing the car anymore?” Lu Zheng asked in surprise.

“The other side provided another solution. Let’s go and get the supplies first. We need more people, or we won’t be able to carry everything.”

Not only would they not be able to carry everything, but it was also dangerous. This time, except for Lu Ce who stayed with Shu Fu, Lu Zheng and Xu Jiechao went together. The two of them, along with five other men, made a total of seven people, and they ended up with five waterproof travel bags and eight large burlap sacks.

Each bag was heavy and bulging.

In addition, there was an electric tricycle with a dump bed. One person sat on the tricycle while the others loaded the items into the bed. As the seven of them made their way here, their expressions were somewhat difficult to describe.

“Brother, is this the car you borrowed…?” Lu Ce’s expression was equally perplexed. “This car can’t even make it out of Lucheng, right?”

“Little kid, what do you know? This is the car they lent us to shuttle. They said to head south a few streets; there’s a bus station that’s now a parking lot. They told us to try our luck; maybe we’ll find someone going in the same direction, and if we offer more supplies, they might be willing to take us back…” Xu Jiechao’s expression was also somewhat grim, and his spirits were low.

“Shu Fu, now that we don’t have a car, do… do you still want to go with us?” Lu Zheng asked.

Shu Fu smiled and said, “Let’s go, we’ll see. Lucheng is so big, we’ll find a way.” She said this as she put on her rain hood, grabbed her travel bag, and led Chen Fa and Chen Yuezhen into the rain first.

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Leaving the area near the museum, following Xu Tingfeng’s directions, they quickly turned a corner and walked down another street.

The tricycle full of supplies was certainly eye-catching, but aside from the young man slowly driving the tricycle, the other seven strong men surrounded the vehicle. Each had a grim expression and appeared in a bad mood, holding weapons such as iron rods, baseball bats, and kitchen knives.

So, despite many covetous eyes, no one dared to make a move to steal.

After walking for about ten minutes and turning a corner, Shu Fu realized the area around her was somewhat familiar. They had arrived near the city bus station they passed by the other day.

She looked at Lu Zheng in surprise. “Is this the place?”

“No, not this station. We need to continue south for four more intersections.” Xu Tingfeng, who had been silent, answered.

Shu Fu nodded and continued heading south.

They had come from the south too, but not on the same street.

After walking another ten minutes, Lu Ce, who was driving the electric tricycle, suddenly braked and stopped.

“What’s wrong?” All the men immediately became alert.

Lu Ce stuffed the tabby cat that had poked its head out of his backpack into it again and pointed to a sewer grate on the side of the street ahead. “What’s that?” he said, stepping off the tricycle and walking a few steps toward it. “Is that… a fish? Why is there a fish in the street?”

Hearing the word “fish,” Shu Fu and the others immediately went on high alert, their nerves tensing, and they looked toward Lu Ce.

“Wow, it really is a fish! It looks so ugly, wait—it’s still alive! Oh my god, it jumped!” Lu Ce exclaimed. As he shouted, the fish, which had been lying motionless, suddenly sprang up, its mouth wide open, heading straight for his face.

The men, too far away and not able to see what had jumped, reacted too late.

However, the “undead” fish was knocked aside mid-jump by a shovel.

With a “thud,” the fish was slammed against the wall, and before it could hit the ground, several nails shot out, with two of them piercing its belly. But it was still alive and tried to jump again, only to be nailed to the ground by a dropped fire axe.

Chen Yuezhen, after pinning the strange fish, didn’t relax his vigilance. He turned the axe around and chopped the fish in half, making sure it was completely dead before sheathing the fire axe.

Beside them, Lu Ce, who was staring in awe, clapped his hands like a seal, amazed. “Wow, Sister Fu Fu is amazing! Sister Fa Fa is amazing! Sister Fa Fa’s grandmother is also amazing!”

Shu Fu: …

Chen Fa: …

Chen Yuezhen: …

The tabby cat’s head poked out again from the backpack, meowing a couple of times at the dead fish.

“You can’t eat this, it looks too creepy…” Lu Ce said, stuffing the tabby back into the bag again.

At that moment, the others gathered around and started inspecting the strange fish, which was now split in two. When they saw its sharp teeth and the “legs” between its head and belly, they widened their eyes in shock.

“Don’t you have this kind of fish in your lake?” Chen Fa asked, rinsing off the multi-purpose shovel with rainwater before returning it to her backpack.

“Our lake is a salt lake,” Xu Tingfeng replied, glancing back at her.

Chen Fa nodded, noncommittal.

Chen Yuezhen furrowed his brow. “Some saltwater lakes do have fish, it’s not impossible. And with the constant rain, the salt lake might turn into freshwater, too.” What he meant was that water creatures were mutating, and no body of water or lake was absolutely safe anymore.

Shu Fu furrowed her brows, looking at the fish on the ground. The fish didn’t appear very large, definitely not a female, but it wasn’t quite the size of a male either. “How could a strange fish end up here?”

No matter what, this was the center of Lucheng City, and those little strange fish couldn’t swim in the water—

Wait!

She was startled by her own thought. Five days ago, the little strange fish couldn’t swim in the water, but what if now, they could?

But they grew so quickly in just five days! The growth rate was way too fast!

The nearest land to Hexi Township was Lucheng. Plus, the bridge over the Qinghe Tributary collapsed the day before yesterday, causing the floodwaters to rise dramatically. The water had already broken through the riverbanks, and the southern suburbs of Lucheng were already submerged. If those little strange fish could now swim in the water, they would follow the flow and the first place they’d reach would be here!

Shu Fu turned to look at Chen Fa, but Chen Fa was already looking ahead, at an intersection where two sewer openings were continuously spewing water.

The flood had caused the entire Lucheng sewer system to start overflowing!

In the heavy rain, Shu Fu once again heard that familiar sound.

Slap—

Plop—

Plop plop plop plop…