Ch21 Departure, Searching for Useful Items
"Plop!"
The sound of a body entering the water, amidst the noise of the crowd, did not stir any ripples.
After six days of torrential rain, the floodwaters had already submerged the first-floor window sills, and people could swim directly inside.
Meng Ci carried an oxygen tank on his back, wore swimming goggles, and did not need to surface for air, making it unlikely that anyone would notice him.
The route out of the neighborhood was firmly etched in Meng Ci's mind, so he didn't have to worry about getting lost.
The arguing sounds from the people were drowned out by the heavy rain, growing quieter and quieter in his ears until only the sound of flowing water remained.
After exiting the neighborhood, Meng Ci took out a rubber dinghy from his space and, wearing a safety helmet, began rowing in the direction he had previously checked.
Along the way, various pieces of wood, clothes, shoes, and other debris floated on the water's surface.
At times, fallen trees blocked the way, and Meng Ci had no choice but to take detours.
After half an hour, when there. were fewer people around, Meng Ci swapped to a speedboat from his space.
The rainwater hit the helmet with a thud, thud sound.
Meng Ci squinted, straining to discern the direction.
He silently thought to himself, grateful he had the foresight to wear a safety helmet, otherwise, the raindrops hitting his head would have been painful.
As he moved farther into the suburbs, the floating debris on the water gradually became less, allowing Meng Ci to move faster.
After about an hour in the speedboat, he reached the entrance to the industrial park where the gas cylinder factory was located.
To avoid any people inside the park, Meng Ci stowed the speedboat, put on a life jacket, and started swimming, so it wouldn't require too much energy.
The park's main gate remained steadfast in its place.
Meng Ci had initially planned to climb the gate, but after searching for a while, he couldn't find a suitable place to step on, so he gave up.
Instead, he turned his attention to the nearby guardhouse.
Luckily, the guardhouse window had a small gap, and water had already started flowing through it.
Meng Ci forced the window open, jumped in with a splash.
The furniture inside the room was submerged in water, and the original appearance was unrecognizable.
The security door was tightly closed, and since Meng Ci couldn't exert much strength in the water, it wouldn't open.
Gradually losing patience, Meng Ci pulled out a chainsaw from his space.
Without worrying about whether the noise would disturb any people trapped in the park, Meng Ci started cutting through the security door, eventually creating a hole large enough to crawl through.
The sound of the chainsaw didn't attract anyone's attention. It seemed the park was deserted, so Meng Ci took out a kayak and continued paddling forward.
The kayak moved slowly, allowing Meng Ci to observe the factories around.
Automobile factories, chemical plants, garment processing factories...
This industrial park was large, and it had all kinds of industries.
In the rainstorm, Meng Ci couldn't make out the names of the factories, but he vaguely remembered the locations of a few specific ones.
He thought to himself that after collecting the gas cylinders, if time allowed, he might try his luck to see if he could find anything valuable.
When he arrived at his destination, the gate of the gas cylinder factory had already been damaged by the flood, so Meng Ci simply paddled the kayak inside.
The factory's gate required a keycard to open, and although the power was out, it was still impossible to open it.
Meng Ci went to a nearby window, took out a glass suction cup from his space, and securely attached it to the glass.
Holding the suction cup with one hand to avoid being swept away by the flood, Meng Ci used the other hand to take out a glass cutter from his space and made an opening in the glass.
"Bang."
The glass fell to the factory floor, shattering.
The factory was well-sealed, and not much water had entered.
The rope of the kayak was tied to the glass suction cup, and Meng Ci crawled through the hole, landing on a machine.
After putting both the kayak and the glass suction cup into his space, Meng Ci jumped down.
He took off his helmet and replaced it with a miner's lamp.
The factory was divided into sections, so it was easy for Meng Ci to find the area where the gas cylinders were stored.
Various sizes of gas cylinders were neatly organized, and Meng Ci didn't hesitate to store them all in his space.
After wandering around the factory, Meng Ci also found over a thousand portable gas cylinders and many gas stoves, which he also stashed in his space.
Once he was sure nothing had been missed, Meng Ci exited the gas cylinder factory.
It was still early, and Meng Ci began to think about which factories might have useful items left to scavenge.
Not far from the entrance, there was a seed factory. Fortunately, there was still plenty of open space in his storage. Although he wasn't sure if he could grow vegetables, it was worth a try.
To the east, there was an automobile manufacturing plant. He could grab some car parts, just in case something happened to the vehicles in his space and he needed spare parts for repairs.
Of course, if he could also gather some vehicles, that wouldn't be a wasted trip.
It seemed there was also a pharmaceutical factory. Meng Ci spent some time in his space going over the route until he finally found the place.
There were all sorts of medicines, vaccines, and even raw materials for Chinese herbs.
Meng Ci didn't hold back and gathered everything, including various incubators and low-temperature boxes, into his space.
Since he hadn't encountered anyone at several places, he assumed the industrial park was deserted, so he acted without concern.
"Bang!"
Not paying attention to where he was going, Meng Ci bumped his shoulder into a shelf, pushing it a few centimeters.
Grimacing in pain, he rubbed his shoulder.
"Who's there?"
As he massaged his shoulder, Meng Ci suddenly heard a man's voice and quickly ducked behind a shelf filled with medicines.
He figured if the person came toward him, he would just enter his space. The reason he didn't enter right away was to see what was happening.
The sound of footsteps echoed in the enclosed space, and a light slowly began to shine in the darkness.
"Who's there? Who's in here?"
The man walked back and forth in the room, and soon, he noticed that all the Chinese herbs had disappeared.
"Where's the medicine? Where's my medicine?"
The man's voice grew frantic, tinged with a hint of tears.
From the man's incoherent muttering, Meng Ci finally understood that the reason he hadn't starved to death or ventured out to find food was that he had been eating ginseng, goji berries, fish mint, and other herbs.
"Thief, come out!"
"Come out!"
The man's mental state had clearly broken down.
Over the past few days, several of his colleagues had either been swept away by the flood because they couldn't stand the hunger,
or had gone out searching for food and never returned. Now, their fate was unknown.
The man was left alone in the vast factory, hearing only his own footsteps. Even his phone, his only means of contacting the outside world, had run out of battery and shut down.
With no one to talk to and no proper food, the man's mind began to crack. He fantasized that the floodwaters would break down the factory gates, leaving him trapped.
Now that all the remaining herbs had been stolen, how could the man not break down?
As the footsteps drew closer, Meng Ci quickly entered his space.
Inside, he grabbed a plate of shredded potatoes with rice, tore open a package of Latiao, and made himself a cup of milk tea to replenish his energy.
After setting an alarm, Meng Ci lay down on the bed, relaxed his body, and planned to rest for a while to recover his strength.
An hour later, when the alarm went off, Meng Ci turned it off and exited his space.
The man's voice was no longer heard in the room, and Meng Ci didn't dare to go back the same way. Instead, he found a piece of glass nearby, used the glass cutter to cut it open, and crawled out.
However, as he left, Meng Ci pushed the cut glass back into the factory and dove into the water, swimming toward the edge of the industrial park.