Chapter 77: Extreme Heat 18
Who would have thought that drinking a bottle of unclean water would make him completely unable to get up?
Liu Yong visibly weakened, so much so that he didn’t even have the strength to get up to use the restroom, leaving a foul smell everywhere, which even his companion, Li Yunqiang, found disgusting.
Liu Yong wasn’t the only one who got dysentery from drinking dirty water; the nauseating smell in the underground garage grew stronger and stronger, and many people couldn’t stand it anymore.
“Are we going or not?”
“Let’s go, staying here is just waiting to die.”
“The family next door left yesterday; if we had left yesterday, we’d already be at Auntie’s house.”
… Many people were planning to leave the city, and Li Yunqiang was no exception.
But Liu Yong was a problem; he was vomiting and had diarrhea, and it seemed like he had heatstroke. He instantly went from a partner to a burden, and Li Yunqiang couldn’t possibly take such a hindrance with him. That night, he quietly left alone with all the useful items, leaving Liu Yong behind.
He couldn’t stay in the city, so he prepared to head to the air-raid shelter in the mountains.
The number of people fleeing the city today was double that of yesterday.
Chu Yian and Lu Qingyuan sat under the big tree again, listening to vehicles pass by their door.
One after another.
These cars came and left quickly. Just as Chu Yian thought they wouldn’t stop and was getting drowsy from waiting, a car stopped on the road.
The sound of the vehicle was very soft, but she was still startled awake by the faint sound of a door opening.
“Husband, look, there’s a house ahead. Let’s knock and ask to borrow their restroom.”
Someone got out of the car; it sounded like they wanted to relieve themselves, and it was a family. Chu Yian heard the voices from outside and instantly became alert.
“Why borrow a restroom? Just go by the roadside. It’s not safe for our car to be parked here.”
At this moment, a man’s voice, tinged with impatience, rang out, “Hurry up, the night is already short. We need to get to Mom and Dad’s place before dawn.”
The man urged the woman to hurry. After a few minutes, the car parked on the road started again.
The departure of the vehicle temporarily lifted the alert, but it still gave Chu Yian a sense of crisis.
She opened her eyes and focused, constantly paying attention to the situation outside.
Cars whizzed by on the road in front of them, and Chu Yian had already started using tally marks to record the number of departures. This continued until 2 AM on the fourteenth day of the game.
Amidst the sounds of cars, a sudden set of footsteps emerged.
The person walked with their legs lifted very low, their soles scraping against the ground, making a sound. His footsteps grew closer and closer, then suddenly stopped near the gate, followed by a knocking sound.
“Is anyone home?”
“Excuse me, is anyone home?”
Someone actually came!
Chu Yian stood up, her alarm bells instantly blaring. She and Lu Qingyuan both looked towards the gate, but neither spoke, hoping the person outside would think no one was home and leave directly.
But clearly, the person outside wasn’t thinking that.
Seeing that no one answered inside, the person directly took action. After pushing the door hard and failing to open it, he inserted a blade through the door crack, slowly moving the bolt outwards.
“Who’s out there?”
Lu Qingyuan spoke up, seeing the situation, which startled the person. “Oh, there’s someone inside. I’m sorry, I was just passing by and was really thirsty. I saw a house here, so I thought I’d ask for a cup of water.”
“There’s no water here.”
Lu Qingyuan coldly refused him.
“I won’t drink it for free, I’ll pay.”
The man outside quickly stated, then pleaded pitifully, “There’s no water in the city now. I’m going to my relatives, and I’m so thirsty I can’t bear it, that’s why I came to ask for some.”
Chu Yian and Lu Qingyuan had enough water to drink; even giving him some wouldn’t affect them. But they were afraid that good deeds wouldn’t be rewarded and would ultimately attract wolves and tigers.
Besides the well, their basement, generator, food… which of these wouldn’t make outsiders envious if seen?
“Uncle, you should look elsewhere. We really don’t have any water here.”
Chu Yian spoke to the person outside through the gate, “My aunt got dysentery yesterday from drinking unclean water. If it weren’t for her illness, our whole family would have left already.”
She fabricated an aunt, giving a reason to explain that she truly had no water.
But the person outside wasn’t so easily dismissed. “Little sister, if there’s no water, surely there’s food? Can you spare some for Uncle? Uncle is really thirsty and hungry.”
If it were an innocent young girl, she might have softened at his pitiful act.
However, Chu Yian had already undergone several rounds of game world trials. Helping was possible when it wouldn’t become a potential hidden danger to herself, but if her safety was threatened, her heart would become as hard as iron.
“Uncle, actually, our whole family hasn’t eaten for two days.”
Playing the pity card?
Chu Yian was even more pitiful than him.
“Our whole family is starving right now. No water, no food, and most importantly, no medicine. Do you have any medicine on you? Just fever medicine would be fine. My aunt is almost at her limit, we’ll buy it with money!”
“Where would I get medicine?!”
The man heard Chu Yian asking for medicine and felt like she was talking nonsense.
The current situation was that water was more precious than food, and medicine was even more expensive than water. Money had depreciated to almost like waste paper.
Soon, the sound of the person’s footsteps could be heard, growing fainter and fainter.
He left?
Chu Yian stood by the door and listened for a long while, realizing there was no longer any movement at the door, before slowly returning to her chair.
There was no movement at the door, but the side wall rustled about ten minutes later.
Chu Yian opened her eyes and looked towards the direction of the sound, then suddenly met the gaze of a man’s head on the wall.
“Holy crap!”
Chu Yian was so startled that she immediately stood up, then shouted for Lu Qingyuan, “Teacher Lu!”
The owner of this head was the man who had just been asking for things at the door; he hadn’t left at all, but had secretly climbed onto the wall under the cover of night.
He just knew this woman had a strong voice, not sounding like someone from a household lacking water and food. Look what he found, a well!
Because of Chu Yian’s shout, he was startled and jumped down, preparing to run outside to find a few people to occupy this courtyard.
Lu Qingyuan frowned, “Stay inside and guard.”
With that, he opened the door and chased after the man who had fallen. When Lu Qingyuan went out, Chu Yian immediately locked the door, grabbed a rake, and stood guard by the door, in case the man had other companions.
The high wall blocked the view, preventing anyone from seeing the situation outside, only hearing urgent footsteps on the road, followed by two shrill screams.
The screams were both the man’s, but Chu Yian clutched the hoe in her hand tightly, worried that Lu Qingyuan might be in trouble.
It wasn’t until ten minutes later that the courtyard gate was knocked on again.
Lu Qingyuan’s low and indifferent voice sounded from outside the door, “It’s handled. Open the door.”
