Chapter 16

Just when everyone in the stadium was making a fuss about the tickets to return home, there was another thunderstorm in M ​​City. This time there was no lightning strike, but the hailstones that fell were even bigger. Fortunately, it happened in a sparsely populated fire area, but it still caused the death of 14 post-disaster rescue workers and injured 126 people.

Affected by these two thunderstorms, the military control of the entire city was delayed until the 20th, and people could walk freely from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Qiao Xi, who had run out of patience and was preparing to sneak away at night, was relieved, as he had waited for this day. Even if the embassy gets in touch with Beijing again and tells everyone that everything is fine in the country, it would be too painful to wait.

After the stadium door opened, almost everyone chose to leave, and the high temperature of more than 40 degrees outside could not stop them from running on the street.

Expats are rushing to go home and see their relatives and friends, and some are rushing to the supermarket to grab supplies. The government announced a number of large supermarkets that are open for business normally, but with limited purchases.

Tourists rushed to the supermarket to replenish supplies. After so many hard days, they felt like they were talking.

Twenty minutes later, Qiao Xi found an office building he was satisfied with. The railings of the parking lot had been broken by cars from the inside out. Maybe a social worker who was forced to work overtime discovered a fire in the office and rushed to the underground parking lot in panic. The railing that could not automatically rise after losing power was broken.

It was pitch dark inside the underground parking lot. She turned on the flashlight on her mobile phone to see that there were only a few vehicles and no one inside. I walked deeper, turned off the flashlight, and walked a short distance in the dark before releasing the rented off-road vehicle. The other cars didn't have license plates, so I had to use it first.

For the license plate, Qiao Xi decided to go to the fire area to get some license plates just in case. You have to drive at least a thousand kilometers to enter the country. If you have to abandon your car halfway, driving a car without a license plate will easily attract unnecessary attention.

Half of the city across the river was reduced to scorched earth, the high-rise buildings were in ruins, the green shrubs were burned to charcoal, the cars on the road were reduced to frames, and the space was filled with the smell of burnt and decay.

After so many days of emergency repairs, two lanes of the main road were cleared to facilitate the entry and exit of rescue workers. The other lanes were piled with various debris.

Rescue workers were moving in and out of the ruins, carrying out charred corpses from time to time. There were so many dead people that they had not yet collected them all.

Local residents who rushed back from the resettlement site cried heartbroken in front of their destroyed homes.

Qiao Xi's heart was heavy. He calmed down and entered a relatively intact building. Among the many burned-out vehicles in the underground parking lot, he found four still-usable license plates.

After getting the car and license plate, Qiao Xi drove back to the stadium and found the staff: "My friend's family is leaving here. They own a grain and oil store. They have some grain that they can't take away. Let me deliver it."

In these days, she has sorted everything into categories. There is much more food than she imagined, and the previous estimate was still conservative. In terms of grain alone, there are tens of thousands of tons of rice such as white rice, fragrant rice, glutinous rice, and brown rice. It can only be said that it deserves to be the second largest rice exporter in the world.

Their family of three would not be able to eat so much rice even if they each have ten mouths and ten stomachs, so I would like to give some to the embassy to thank them for taking them in these days.

The staff had mixed feelings. They were happy that someone donated materials. Their material reserves were not abundant, and the local government was overwhelmed and had very limited support for them. The leaders have all gone out to beg for alms today, and I don't know how much supplies they can bring back. What worries me is: "Anything can happen on the road. It's really not safe for you to go on the road alone. Why don't you wait a few more days? If you want to leave, go with a large group so that you can have someone to look after you on the road."

Qiao Xi smiled: "Thank you, we have decided. Please find someone to unload the things. They are still waiting for me."

The staff had no choice but to give up when they could not be persuaded. There were many people who insisted on leaving first, and many people just waited until they were ready before setting off. She called a few colleagues to come over and move things, and found that there were more things than she expected. The back seat was packed to the brim, and the passenger seat was full.

There are a total of 10 25kg bags of rice, six boxes of cooking oil, four boxes of curry sauce, and some oil, salt, vinegar, sugar and grains stuffed in the seams.

Qiao Xi then sent two more supplies, which together amounted to almost the inventory of an ordinary grain and oil store. For the tens of thousands of people in the stadium, it's just a drop in the bucket. But she could only do this, no matter how much she did, it would be difficult to justify herself.

When delivering the last supplies, they met Liu Yifeng and Ding Lanyue who had returned from shopping in the supermarket. Each was carrying a plastic bag with not many things in it. It wasn't that they didn't want to buy more, but the supermarket didn't sell them. It has been fourteen days since the power outage and the internet were cut off. Panic is unavoidable. If there are no purchase restrictions, the products will be sold out quickly, leaving some people who really need them unable to buy them.

The two of them walked forward covered in sweat: "Are you leaving today?"

"Yes." Qiao Xi nodded.

In the past few days, she had been observing the situation on the street with binoculars. There were many trucks with foreign license plates coming in and out, obviously transporting relief supplies. If cars from outside can come in, it means that the expressway has been restored to smooth flow, at least part of the road has been restored to smooth flow.

You should leave as early as possible. At this time, people who want to leave M City are still looking for cars and gas to prepare supplies along the way, so they are not ready to leave so soon. Today is already the fourteenth day after the solar storm. Those who want to take the expressway in other cities must have already traveled a lot. Later, when the wave of victims in M ​​City get onto the expressway, the road conditions may become worse because there are too many people. M City not only attracts a large number of foreign tourists, but also attracts more tourists from various cities in their own countries. These people are also eager to return home, and it is easier for them to find a car to set off than foreign tourists. There will also be some local people who lost their homes and went to seek refuge with their relatives in other cities.

Liu Yifeng and Ding Lanyue were a little envious, but they really didn't dare to let them leave the army and return home early. Even if Qiao Xi invited them to go together, they would not dare to agree. They admit that Qiao Xi is powerful, but no matter how powerful he is, he is only one person. Even if it were replaced by another convoy of dozens or hundreds of people, I still wouldn't dare. At least Qiao Xi's character is a little bit low. If you are a stranger, who can guarantee that he will not abandon you or sell you after accepting your money. In peacetime, one cannot trust strangers, let alone now.

Therefore, it was particularly difficult for the two of them to understand the brain circuits of Huang Canming and He Haiyu. They would believe whatever others said. I'm scared to death if I stay here, but I'm not scared of going on the road with strangers anymore. At least the embassy will definitely not harm them, but strangers may not.

The two sincerely wished: "Have a safe journey."

"You guys too, take care of yourself." Qiao Xi stuffed the hiking bag he planned to ask the staff to hand over to Ding Lanyue's arms, "I've prepared something for you."

Ding Lanyue waved her hands hurriedly: "We bought a lot in the supermarket today."

"Take it, my friend has plenty of supplies." Qiao Xi looked at the two of them and said that he was in his twenties, thirties or fourteen years old, but he had never left the ivory tower of school and lacked social experience. "Beware of others when you go out. none."

Before they could say anything else, Qiao Xi got into the car, started the engine and left.

The two stood there and watched the off-road vehicle disappear around the corner of the street. Then they opened the bulging black hiking bag in their hands and found that there were ten cans of fish and fruit, six bottles of salt soda, two bottles of cooling spray, two small fans, and a solar energy A power bank, two multifunctional sabers, two portable medical first-aid kits, and at the bottom is more than 40,000 T baht left by Ma Meiying.

Ding Lanyue covered her mouth, afraid that she would scream.

After leaving the embassy, ​​Qiao Xi did not take the expressway immediately. Instead, he went to a car rental agency seven or eight kilometers away. The dealership is located in the western half of the city and was not affected by the fire. The door was closed tightly at this moment, but fortunately there was a small crack under the door. She parked her car at the door of the dealership and threw her car keys into the store through the crack in the door.

If you are short of a car and don't have the kindness to return it to its original owner. But I am not lacking. There are already hundreds of good cars in the space that I picked up for free, so there is no need to take advantage of this small advantage. Maybe this car can help its owner live a better life in the apocalypse.

Quan should be used to build character, and feudal superstition still needs to be believed. After all, it can exist in any space. In the face of the iron-clad facts, she has already become a firm theist.

Gods and Buddhas above may wish her a smooth journey home for the good deeds she has done.

My character is not in vain, this road is incredibly smooth, there are no natural disasters, no man-made disasters.

Due to the lack of navigation, he had to keep looking at the road signs at intersections, and the speed could not be too high. Otherwise, Qiao Xi felt that he could run the entire 800 kilometers in five hours instead of only 450 kilometers.

After driving non-stop for five hours, she was a little tired. She drove into the highway service station nearby, rested for half an hour, had a snack and went to the bathroom before setting off. Not willing to take a break at noon, I only ate two puff pastry lobster rolls.

There are not many cars in the parking lot, only half are large trucks and half are private cars. At this time, there are only a few people who have the leisure to run around.

Half of the large trucks are used by the government to dispatch supplies from various places, and the other half are speculators.

Many of the people in private cars are urbanites traveling to the countryside, where they grow vegetables, raise chickens, and have wells for drawing water and firewood for cooking. Unlike in the city, where water, electricity and gas are cut off, it is difficult to eat hot meals.

She found a random spot to park her car and entered the service building.

There is no air conditioning in the building, but there are many fans with ice. Drivers passing by are sitting in front of the fans, blowing on their faces, talking and laughing while eating, and the air is filled with the aroma of food.

Qiao Xi, who was accustomed to seeing the devastation in M ​​City, was stunned at first, but then slowly started to laugh. A society formed over hundreds of years could not collapse so easily. The riddled city of M was purely caused by the plane crash and fire. Even the thunderstorm behind it had limited impact. Other cities only had power outages and Internet connections, so the situation was naturally not that bad.

That's great. Please slow down the end of the world and give humans more time to prepare.

Since the power outage and the Internet, panic is unavoidable. People who are not hopelessly slow will stock up on goods. Especially the people in their country have the hoarding gene engraved in their bones.