Chapter 226: Super Flood 12
Chu Yian warmed her hands over the flames, then placed the wet wood she had just pulled from the water around the fire to dry.
The two leaned against the wall and tacitly took off their raincoats.
Lu Qingyuan looked at the dry clothes beside him, thinking of the numerous passersby still around. He picked up the sheet Chu Yian had placed nearby, shook it open, held a corner, and reached out to cover her, creating a private space.
Oh! Teacher Lu is so thoughtful.
“Change quickly.”
“Alright.”
Chu Yian swiftly stripped off her soaked clothes and changed into dry ones underneath. The dry clothes instantly transformed from a forgotten item of body temperature to a crucial treasure for warmth.
Chu Yian came out and took the sheet. “Your turn.”
Lu Qingyuan wanted to say it wasn’t necessary, but seeing that her hands had already picked up the sheet, he didn’t say much more.
Once both had changed, Chu Yian began to delegate tasks.
“Teacher Lu, go hang the wet clothes on branches near the fire to dry, but be careful not to burn them.”
As she spoke, she took out an iron lunchbox and food.
First, she boiled a pot of hot water.
She added ginger slices and brown sugar to it.
The ginger-sugar water was specifically for expelling cold, and drinking it made one feel a warm current spreading through the body. She didn’t make much; they each drank a cup until it was empty.
Then, she put a pot on the fire to boil water.
Today, it was still just instant noodles.
However, in addition to the instant noodles, she also took advantage of the steaming pot to boil water for a biscuit paste.
The biscuit paste didn’t look good and didn’t taste good. Its only advantage was its high energy content and ability to stave off hunger.
But while she disliked the taste of the food, others in the building were secretly salivating over the food and warmth. There seemed to be murmuring from the people opposite, and Chu Yian heard a woman whisper, “Don’t go over there, they have guns.”
However, half a minute later, a young man walked to the demarcation line Chu Yian had drawn.
“Hey, girl. Can I have a piece of that firewood?”
The man had come to ask for fire starter.
His expression was a bit uneasy, and a hint of fear flashed in his eyes.
With such timidity, he still dared to ask for fire starter?
“You can have firewood and fire starter, but you have to trade for it by salvaging wood from the water. At a 1:10 ratio.”
Chu Yian stated this price.
There was still a lot of wood on the water outside, and the man immediately left upon hearing this. Half an hour later, he and his companion returned to the building, soaking wet.
The two placed the firewood outside the boundary. “Is this enough? We want some fire starter and dry firewood.”
They could trade.
Chu Yian readily selected two well-burnt pieces of wood from the fire and gave him a few pieces of dry firewood.
Not long after, the second bonfire in the building was lit.
Other groups, seeing these men exchange wood with Chu Yian, also went out to salvage floating wood. Chu Yian exchanged fire starter with two more people, and after confirming that the firewood they brought was enough to burn for one night, she stopped trading.
As long as one’s combat power was high enough, one could be absolute in a group.
No one dared to pester the two of them; the others went to the three places that already had fire starter to discuss exchanges.
However, that was no longer her concern.
Chu Yian took out her sleeping bag and wrapped herself completely inside. She only had four hours of precious sleep, no energy to pay attention to other matters.
The flames burned the wet wood, and the rainwater inside the wood evaporated, making a sizzling sound.
So that’s what wet wood burning sounds like.
She fell asleep to that sound, the happiest time in a day of escape.
Before her alarm even rang, Chu Yian was suddenly woken by Lu Qingyuan. She was directly dragged out of her sleeping bag by him, and the other people in the building were screaming and fleeing in all directions at that moment.
“Upstairs!”
Lu Qingyuan pulled her wrist, running with the others. Chu Yian didn’t realize what was happening, but she quickly grabbed the deflated rubber boat nearby.
They ran upstairs, the sound of floodwaters crashing against the walls echoing around them.
Crash—!
Floodwaters surged into the building through the windows, drenching passersby.
The two of them squeezed with the others, and Chu Yian clung tightly to their rubber boat during this process.
Squeezing onto the fifth floor,
Squeezing onto the sixth floor,
Squeezing onto the seventh floor,
Eighth floor!
A seven-story-high giant wave struck, and the entire building shook. Their building was still relatively good; a building 30 meters away from them collapsed with a roar.
There was only a dull sound, and the building instantly toppled and was swallowed by the flood.
Their building was also teetering at this time.
Please don’t collapse!
Perhaps hearing Chu Yian’s prayer, the building began to tilt even more.
When the tilt exceeded 30°, screams erupted from all around. Chu Yian only felt her body lift into the air, carried by someone, rushing through the dense crowd.
By the time they reached the top floor, the building had completely toppled.
At the moment of collapse, Lu Qingyuan took her and jumped out of the window. The turbulent floodwaters outside swept them away directly, and scattered concrete blocks and rebar attacked their bodies like hidden weapons. The two drifted with the current for two minutes, then Lu Qingyuan suddenly grabbed a piece of driftwood.
“Grab the wood.”
Lu Qingyuan held Chu Yian, reaching up to lift her.
But Chu Yian couldn’t get up, because if she let go, the rubber boat would drift away with the water.
That’s right.
The rubber boat was still there.
As tightly as Lu Qingyuan had held Chu Yian, Chu Yian had held the rubber boat.
She first placed the already water-filled rubber boat onto the wood, and the two of them held onto the wood, drifting with the current. They drifted to a building that hadn’t been completely washed away, with only one floor remaining above the water.
After observing that the flood wouldn’t suddenly surge for a second wave, they grabbed the broken wall and climbed inside.
The accumulated water inside was already past their ankles, but it was still better than staying in the water.
“Why did the flood suddenly get so big, even washing away buildings?”
Chu Yian frowned deeply, beginning to calculate their losses.
The situation was urgent at the time, and they only managed to bring back the rubber boat.
They had one sleeping bag, a set of clothes each, an iron lunchbox for cooking, and most critically, two life jackets and two raincoats, all of which had been swept away by the flood.
Moreover, the rescued rubber boat had been squeezed by people, collided with various objects, filled with water… after so much abuse, she didn’t know if it was still in good condition.
“Before you worry about your rubber boat, can you worry about me first?”
Lu Qingyuan took off his soaked clothes, his arm a bloody mess. Chu Yian was safe and sound here, able to fret over her belongings, all because someone had acted as her shield.
Chu Yian quickly took out the wound medicine.
As she treated his wounds, she felt they were so unlucky, their resting place washed away in the middle of the night.
But were they really unlucky?
The upstream water carried upstream bodies, a dozen or so bodies mixed with trash, washing to other places, and among these people were those who had just come to her to exchange for fire starter…
