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Chapter 87
Currently, the Hexi Monster Fish are only found along the Qinghe River Basin in the northern plateau of Huagou. They have a habit of swimming upstream to spawn and are steadily spreading toward the upper reaches of the river. Because they can move between land and water, and due to the river’s winding, deep, and extensive nature, no effective method has been found to completely eradicate them.
In fact, Xiangzhou Province is already facing a severe shortage of manpower and resources, making it impossible to dispatch additional troops to the northern plateau region to deal with these creatures.
As a result, the government has issued a public advisory: for now, residents along the Qinghe River Basin should prioritize evacuation and avoidance.
Although Youcheng is located at the river’s uppermost reaches and is currently safe due to natural elevation differences and waterfalls, there is still a potential risk. No matter how formidable the Hexi Monster Fish are, they cannot leap over such high waterfalls to reach the Youcheng shoreline.
“Of course, there is one scenario in which the fish infestation could reach Youcheng,” Chen Fa stated. Shu Fu could already guess the answer: it would happen if the Qinghe River’s water level continued to rise, eventually flooding over the natural elevation barrier and the dam’s spillway. Once the difference in water levels disappeared, the Hexi Monster Fish would be able to migrate freely into Youcheng.
Due to this looming threat, Gangzi and Xiaoxiao, who had been traveling with Yue Dong, ultimately decided to stop following the team and instead join other evacuees heading south to the safer Xiangzhou Province.
Meanwhile, Xu Tingfeng and his brother, Braidhead, and Big Guy—all of whom had been rescued by either Lu Zheng or Chen Fa—were determined to stay with them. Yue Dong, who had also been saved by Chen Fa multiple times, was now steadfast in his decision to follow her wherever she went.
Even though the six of them had learned bits and pieces of the situation, they still hadn’t earned full trust or access to certain knowledge. But in this chaotic world, survival depended on one’s own abilities and judgment. None of them had relied on supernatural abilities or special privileges to make it this far.
Even if Lu Zheng and Chen Fa were just ordinary people like before, they would still be willing to follow them. A trustworthy team and a reliable leader were rare treasures in times like these.
For now, Chen Fa and Lu Zheng had no plans to leave the southern outskirts of Youcheng. Their current objective was to take advantage of a break in the rain to repair the doors and windows of a few run-down houses near the lakeside slope.
They had brought plenty of tools with them, planning to salvage, repair, and rearrange materials from multiple buildings to create a single, intact shelter for their future temporary stay.
The government had recently awarded them additional survival points, which meant that once they finished the repairs, they would have to return to the refuge shelter for a few more days. There, they would trade points for essential supplies on the next market day before relocating to the lakeside.
A new medical term was officially introduced: “Ichthyosis Exfoliativa”, commonly referred to as “Fish Scale Syndrome.” The existence and symptoms of Gray Scab patients were publicly disclosed across the entire Huagou.
Despite this announcement, many mysteries remained unsolved—such as the cause of infection or any possible cure. Meanwhile, illegal underground organizations were secretly conducting inhumane experiments on these patients.
Some desperate families, unable to get help from hospitals and unwilling to see their loved ones sent into quarantine, turned to these underground groups, hoping for a miracle. But instead, the patients suffered even more.
The government’s decision to release this information was intended to prevent such tragedies from happening in secret. However, with chaos spreading across the country, many areas remained too far from safety zones, and even with the official announcement, tragedies continued to unfold—such as in the northern region of Youcheng.
Following the public disclosure of Fish Scale Syndrome, Chen Fa, Lu Zheng, and their team of ten officially left the refuge shelter and relocated to the lake where Shu Fu was staying for temporary residence.
By this time, they were all well-equipped with supplies—especially Chen Fa and Lu Zheng, whose backpacks were full and whose rafts were loaded with various essentials, including food, water, daily necessities, medicine, and fuel.
Their main intention was not to rely on Shu Fu’s supplies, as they had no idea how long she might be stranded here. But at the same time, they didn’t want to leave her isolated and alone. So before the situation completely deteriorated, they brought enough supplies to settle beside her as raft neighbors.
Just like before, Chen Fa and Lu Zheng’s rafts were moored in the wetland marshes along the lakeshore—one behind the other. The raft closest to the lake was then connected to Shu Fu’s raft.
However, this time, before Shu Fu moved her raft over, she thought of something and reversed the orientation of her raft—docking its rear end instead.
The reason?
Chen Fa and Lu Zheng could not enter the floating house’s roofed areas, as the eaves provided the same protective effects as the wooden house itself—including disaster resistance, temperature control, and exclusion of outsiders.
However, the wooden ladder and second-floor terrace were not covered by this effect. Shu Fu remembered that when it rained, both the ladder and terrace got wet.
So, she asked both of them to test it out, and even Lu Ce tried it as well.
Sure enough, all three of them were able to step onto the raft, climb the ladder, and walk onto the terrace.
This meant that these areas—unless Shu Fu activated the Floating Bottle Shield—could be accessed by both Awakened individuals and ordinary people.
For Shu Fu, this wasn’t a big deal. Even if a stranger managed to climb onto her raft, they still couldn’t enter her floating house or damage the raft itself.
And if any hostile strangers ever managed to get onto her raft, she could simply activate the raft’s protective shield, and they would be instantly ejected.
This aspect, however, was quite favorable for Chen Fa and Lu Zheng. Although the weather was harsh, it wasn’t bad every day. Occasionally, when the rain stopped or lightened for a few hours, they could come over to her raft at any time, climb up to her rooftop terrace, take out folding tables and chairs from the backpack compartment, and enjoy a cup of hot tea or coffee while admiring the lake and mountain scenery. Sometimes, they simply sat in the high spot, feeling the breeze and chatting.
The first time they spontaneously gathered was one early morning. Shu Fu got up to use the bathroom and, still groggy and intending to go back to bed, sensed something unusual. She opened the back door, slipped on her slippers, climbed up two wooden ladder steps, and looked up.
It wasn’t raining outside. Though the sky was overcast, it was already considered rare good weather after days of rain. On the terrace, which was less than ten square meters, two camping tables and several folding chairs were set up. The air was filled with the delicious aroma of noodle soup.
On one of the folding tables, two portable gas stoves were placed, each with a pot on top. Lu Ce stood in front of one, holding a ladle, while Chen Yuezhen was on the other side, skillfully shaving dough pieces into the pot with a knife. Lu Ce occasionally stirred the noodles with his ladle to prevent them from sticking together before they were fully cooked.
Meanwhile, Chen Fa and Lu Zheng were setting out bowls and chopsticks at another table. Noticing the movement on the wooden ladder, they both turned their heads at the same time.
“Awake?” Lu Zheng smiled at her. “Sorry, since it’s not raining today, we thought we’d come over and make breakfast here. Have you washed up? Go freshen up quickly and come up to eat some noodles. Oh, and it’s a bit chilly outside—remember to put on an extra layer.”
“Knife-cut noodles—my grandmother’s specialty.” Chen Fa pointed to the pot on the other gas stove. “That one’s beef bone broth, a semi-finished product with dehydrated vegetables. The beef bone broth packets and flour were part of the airdropped supplies from the military. The knife-cut noodles come in two flavors: bone broth or dry mixed with chili. Which one do you want?”
Chen Yuezhen chuckled. “Shu girl, do you eat spicy food in the morning?”
“Fu Fu! Your terrace is really nice. I’ve already told my brother—we’re going to add a railing and a staircase to the roof of our raft house. We’re also planning to install a roof over the terrace and lay a waterproof canopy. Actually, you could do the same here—just set up a few stainless steel poles and pull a canopy over…”
Lu Ce, as usual, was quite talkative. The cat Lan Lan, who had been lying by his feet, seemed to find him too noisy and quietly got up, relocating to Chen Fa’s feet instead.
Ever since the cat had revealed its special identity, it no longer meowed at Shu Fu constantly, as if its mission had already been accomplished, and now it was just lazing around.
Shu Fu looked at the lively terrace, filled with the warmth of home, and simply said, “Bone broth knife-cut noodles, with some spice,” before hurrying down the ladder to wash up.
For breakfast, in addition to Chen Yuezhen’s specialty knife-cut noodles, Lu Zheng also pan-fried some vacuum-frozen chicken cutlets, another semi-finished product from the military supplies.
The five of them gathered around the camping table to eat breakfast. The air over the lake was especially fresh after the rain. The outdoor temperature ranged from 14 to 16 degrees Celsius in the morning, rising to about 20 degrees by noon, but dropping to around 11 or 12 degrees at night.
This temperature seemed normal—except that it was early August, the hottest time of the year. Even on the northern plateau, it shouldn’t be this cold.
“The weather has been acting strangely lately. Winter might come early this year. You should start preparing for the cold in advance,” Shu Fu reminded them.
The main concern was that their raft houses lacked proper temperature control. If temperatures continued to drop now, by the time winter truly arrived, they might face extreme cold.
Of course, the lack of temperature control in the raft houses could also be due to the current temperatures not being extreme enough—neither excessively hot nor freezing—so the issue hadn’t become apparent yet.
It was similar to the disaster-proof feature they had discovered before: only when extreme weather like heavy storms and hail hit, and they shut the doors on both sides, did they realize its function.
“We’re already prepared. Now that we have the backpack compartment, we’ve considered everything we need,” Lu Zheng replied. At the shelter, they had never been idle. Whenever the market wasn’t open, they made lists, studied the raft and backpack compartment, and worked on maximizing their utility.
They first sorted and stored rarely used items and those with no expiration dates into cardboard boxes, keeping them inside the raft house.
For items with fewer than ten pieces or smaller volume, they used boxes under one cubic meter to store them all together. For example, a case of bottled mineral water contained 24 bottles. If they stored the entire case, that backpack compartment couldn’t hold anything else. However, if they took out the 24 bottles and packed them into a larger box, they could still fit more items inside.
For materials that, when stacked together, exceeded one cubic meter in volume (typically 2 to 10 pieces), they removed the boxes and stored them individually.
Shu Fu had heard about their storage methods before and even suggested a new idea—since vehicles were too large to fit directly into the backpack compartment, what if they drove the car onto the front deck of the raft and then stored the entire raft, along with the car, inside the backpack compartment?
Lu Zheng had immediately tested the idea, and to their surprise, it actually worked. The car placed on the raft’s deck was recognized as part of the raft and was stored along with it.
Their raft was larger than Shu Fu’s, with the house positioned at the back. This meant the front deck was like a natural parking lot. However, after parking a car there, the remaining space became quite limited. Moreover, if the raft needed to float on water, the car could easily slide into the lake due to movement.
Their raft deck needed to have railings installed manually or some stakes driven in to secure the car wheels.
Moreover, every time they needed to load or unload the car, they had to take the raft out, making it best to do so in an unoccupied open area, which was a bit inconvenient. However, no matter the hassle, Shu Fu’s idea had solved their previous worries about vehicle damage or being forced to abandon the car due to road blockages.
Lu Zheng and Chen Fa had already started collecting wood and tools to modify the front deck, which was why Lu Ce, sitting on Shu Fu’s rooftop terrace, was now thinking about building a similar setup on their own raft cabin.
After breakfast, Shu Fu helped clean up the dishes and brought out a box of sliced watermelon and another filled with bright red cherries, kicking off a leisurely post-meal fruit session.
On rain-free days, sitting on the rooftop terrace and enjoying the surrounding scenery really felt like returning to the peaceful days of the past.
While everyone was quietly appreciating the lake and mountains, Lu Ce couldn’t help but start talking again. He wished that his brother and Chen Fa’s raft would never sink and could withstand any kind of natural disaster. So far, it could resist wind, rain, and hail, but if they encountered massive waves or even a large tsunami, the raft would capsize, and everyone inside the cabin would perish…
No one responded because they all knew that was impossible. Lu Ce himself was just speaking on a whim—just wishful thinking.
But while the speaker had no particular intent, the listener took it to heart.
A raft that never sinks and has a protective shield against all natural disasters… wasn’t that exactly what her “Little Cutie” had?
She felt that if the system’s TKSE-21S error hadn’t appeared in her interface task, their raft should have been able to upgrade as well. Eventually, it might have developed defensive capabilities comparable to her floating island house.
Unfortunately, the upgrade path was now cut off. If only she could share the protective functions of her floating island house with their rafts—then, when the waters covered most of the planet’s land, her raft could tow theirs, allowing them all to roam freely on the water…
Wait!
Shu Fu suddenly remembered something.
She recalled the golden first-place prize she had drawn during her ten-pull lottery when she had just upgraded to a Level 3 raft—Raft Tow Slot ×1, usable at Level 5!
She had always assumed the tow slot was for boats, but what if—what if that slot was meant for another raft!?