Chapter 234: Rain, the Water Temperature Can Scald People
"Eagle was indeed seriously injured before." Meng Ci truthfully explained Eagle's situation.
"Later, we found an experienced vet who reset Eagle's leg and applied some herbal remedies."
"Thanks to that, Eagle made a full recovery."
Meng Ci knew Eagle's transformation would raise questions when Lu Chen and the others saw him, so he had prepared an explanation.
Xiang Jia wasn't surprised, knowing that many local vets were highly skilled.
Satisfied that Eagle was doing well, Xiang Jia said her goodbyes to Meng Ci and the others.
Eagle watched Xiang Jia leave, feeling a pang of regret.
But knowing his current situation, Eagle quickly shook off the regret, distracted by Eggplant's constant attention.
Meng Ci and Shen Que saw that Eagle didn't have much of a reaction and felt relieved.
"It's you! It's you!"
That day, Meng Ci and Shen Que were out walking Eagle and Eggplant when they suddenly encountered a woman.
The woman, clearly unstable, lunged at them, shouting hysterically.
"It's you, it's you!"
"Why did you save me, why."
"I have nothing left, nothing at all."
...
Meng Ci frowned and then recalled the woman's face; she seemed to be the one who hadn't been beaten among the two cleaners in the tunnel.
"Who let this crazy woman out? Is there no one watching her?" Shen Que also recognized the woman and, seeing that Meng Ci hadn't spoken, opened his mouth to say.
The woman was acting madly, and as long as they didn't admit to knowing her, there shouldn't be a problem.
Meng Ci also stepped back, letting Eggplant stand in front of him.
"What are you talking about? Don't go accusing me of something I didn't do."
Her hair was tangled, her lips were smeared with blood, and her body was bruised and battered.
Seeing this, Meng Ci felt puzzled.
She had been out of the tunnel for so long; how come her wounds hadn't healed yet, it didn't make sense.
But seeing how crazy she was acting, it was better not to get involved.
And since they had killed so many people in the tunnel, it was best not to let others know.
"The tunnel... the tunnel..."
"You, you killed!"
When the woman mentioned the tunnel, she suddenly covered her head with her hands and squatted down, screaming loudly.
A kind-hearted person nearby urged them to leave quickly, warning that the woman had gone mad.
Thanks to this person's explanation, Meng Ci and Shen Que learned that after the woman returned from the tunnel, she had wanted to go home.
But when her family found out about what she had been through, she was despised by her husband and in-laws, who drove her out, saying that she was already dirty and should die.
Even her child, whom she had protected from before the apocalypse until she was taken to the tunnel, despised her and spoke harshly.
Unable to cope with the rejection, she eventually snapped and became unhinged.
With no place to go, she was later sent to a hospital by the authorities.
But the nurses and doctors in the hospital were too busy to keep an eye on her all the time, so there was a possibility for her to escape.
Whenever she saw someone passing by—whether civilian or soldier—she would rush up and scream if they had a dog with them.
Soon, several nurses in hospital uniforms came over and took the woman back to the hospital.
After watching the woman being taken back to the hospital, Meng Ci and Shen Que decided not to linger and left with Qiezi and Xiongying.
"Hey, Shen Que, did you see Zhou Ning among those women?" Meng Ci suddenly asked.
After leaving the tunnel, there had been a lot of things to deal with, and Meng Ci had forgotten about it.
It wasn't until they ran into that woman that he remembered.
Shen Que nodded, "I saw her."
Among the disheveled women, Zhou Ning didn't stand out. She had many wounds on her body and had been timidly lowering her head, but when she occasionally looked up, it was clear that she was observing her surroundings.
Shen Que noticed a knife concealed behind her back, her hands trembling as she clutched it.
The only relief for Shen Que was that Zhou Ning's feet were intact.
Seeing that Shen Que had seen Zhou Ning, Meng Ci didn't ask about other matters and went back home.
Shen Que had previously said that saving Zhou Ning in this life was to repay the debt for saving his life in the previous life, and he didn't plan to do more for her.
Meng Ci and Shen Que stayed at the M City Base for twenty days, up until June 20th. Three months remained until the polar day ended, and five months before the zombies arrived.
"It's raining! It's actually raining!"
Meng Ci and Shen Que were lying on the bed, playing "Minecraft," when they suddenly heard exclamations from outside. They put down their phones and opened the window to look outside.
The sky was indeed drizzling.
Remembering the months of torrential rain at the start of the apocalypse—and how it hadn't rained since—Meng Ci instinctively reached out his hand.
"Xiao Ci!"
Seeing Meng Ci stretch his hand out of the window, Shen Que quickly pulled it back inside.
"Xiao Ci, are you okay?" Shen Que's face was serious.
Meng Ci shook his head, "I'm fine."
"But why is the rain so warm?" Meng Ci asked puzzled, recalling that when his hand touched the rain, the temperature of the raindrops was at least 40 degrees Celsius.
Shen Que said, "I'm not really sure either."
"But in my past life, I went through something similar."
"At first, the rain fell normally, but as it poured harder, the temperature of the rainwater gradually increased."
"The residents who were initially enjoying the rain didn't realize how hot it had gotten until it was already over 50 degrees."
"I remember this rain lasted at least five days."
"And the temperature reached as high as 70 degrees at its peak."
Many residents, who hadn't had the chance to drink their fill of water since the scorching heat began, were celebrating in the rain.
When the 70-degree rain hit, they couldn't escape in time and got scalded.
Blisters and swollen veins were just the beginning; some people, unable to find shelter, ended up with muscle and bone injuries.
Meng Ci felt lucky he'd pulled his hand back in time; otherwise, things could have gotten messy.
From the second floor, Meng Ci watched as nearby households took out anything they could find to collect the water.
Seeing this, Meng Ci asked, "Is this water safe to drink?"
Shen Que nodded, "Yes."
"But you need to boil it first, or it'll give you diarrhea. People with weaker immune systems could end up dehydrated and unconscious."
"With limited medical resources in the post-apocalypse, many who didn't get help in time didn't survive."
Shen Que recalled that in his past life, he'd also tried drinking the rain, which left him with diarrhea for three days.
Luckily, his strong constitution helped him survive.