Chapter 171: Surviving at Sea: Fish Everywhere!

Aftershocks still came from time to time outside, but they were much weaker now.

Out here, there were hardly any buildings in sight to serve as landmarks.

All anyone could feel was that the waves were a bit bigger, the rocking a bit stronger.

Ye Qing’s words did make some sense.

Song Qian and Sun Jingtao both nodded in agreement, their expressions instantly turning serious.

Kong Wu glanced at the two of them, looking a bit troubled. “Brother Song, the compass still isn’t working. Which way should we go?”

“Wait a bit, the sun’s about to come out,” Song Qian said calmly.

“The sun?” Su Dai and the others were momentarily stunned, tilting their heads up to look at the sky.

Sure enough, the thick clouds overhead were now pierced by a patch of light.

Soon, a ray of cold, pale sunlight tinged with gold broke through the clouds.

The sun was out!

The sun had really come out!

Though the sunlight brought no warmth at all, it instantly filled everyone’s hearts with a sense of hope.

After all, except for Jiang Yan, who had her own space, none of them had seen sunlight in a long time.

“Let’s go, that way!” Song Qian checked his watch and pointed diagonally upward in a certain direction.

Kong Wu immediately started up the boat.

“Brother Song, isn’t that the wrong way? That’s not east, is it?” Sun Jingtao, who was also using his watch to tell direction, asked.

Song Qian replied, “Right, we’re not heading east yet. We’re going west. About five or six kilometers out, there’s an industrial park with a steel-framed multi-story parking garage. It’s above the water.”

As soon as he said this, everyone understood.

These days, gas stations were all submerged dozens of meters underwater.

If you wanted to find gasoline, you’d have to go to an official reserve depot—or collect it bit by bit from the cars left in places like this.

“Honey, your watches can work as compasses?” Su Dai asked curiously.

“Yeah, it’s a way to find direction with a watch—as long as there’s sun, it works.” As Sun Jingtao explained, he showed her exactly how to use the method.

Jiang Yan and Ye Qing already knew a bit about this, so instead of listening, they kept scanning their surroundings.

“Whoa, guys, look! There are so many fish over there!” Kong Wu, who was driving the boat, suddenly shouted.

Everyone followed his finger and was stunned.

That area looked like a fish pond—fish were leaping and splashing all over the surface.

Some fish were even floating belly-up, apparently dead.

“Kong Wu, slow down a bit. Let’s catch some,” Sun Jingtao said.

“Okay.” Kong Wu gradually slowed the boat.

Now that they’d decided to make their own way to Dongshan, they couldn’t pass up this food that had practically delivered itself.

Ye Qing had already pulled out two spearguns, handing one to Sun Jingtao.

“Ye, do you have another one?” Song Qian glanced at him.

Ye Qing handed over the one in his hand, then pulled out another for himself.

The three men quickly got to work, aiming and shooting, and soon caught more than a dozen fish.

There were carp, crucian carp, grass carp, and black carp.

All of them were big, and most were still alive.

Su Dai and Jiang Yan dug a mosquito net out of their luggage, tied a few knots in it to make a makeshift fishnet, and put the fish inside for now.

Jiang Yan’s inflatable raft was now tied to the back of the speedboat, making a handy temporary fish tank.

With the temperature so low, it didn’t matter if the fish weren’t processed right away.

The only problem was the strong fishy smell.

Once they’d caught enough, they set off again.

By now, they were well away from the city, and Kong Wu gradually picked up speed.

Along the way, they encountered more schools of fish—leaping out of the water in even greater numbers and over larger areas.

But with limited space on the boat, they had to ignore them.

Jiang Yan, however, quietly collected quite a few and stashed them in her space whenever they came across a school.

Gradually, a solitary reddish-brown steel-framed building appeared above the water.

It looked a lot like the one they’d seen at the Golden Shield Security headquarters, but shorter.

About seven or eight stories still rose above the water.

Because of the ground shaking, many cars had piled up together, badly deformed.

Some roofs and windows were smashed, probably by falling billboards or lightboxes.

But the gas tanks were still intact.

“We three will go up and get the fuel. You two stay on the boat. If anything goes wrong, Kong Wu, you get the boat out of here immediately,” Song Qian said, standing up and pulling three large army-green portable fuel bladders from the storage box.

He also took out a length of hose and a nylon safety rope with a pulley.

Su Dai pressed her lips together, looking at Sun Jingtao. “Honey, I want to help too.”

Her clothes had been soaked earlier, and though she’d changed her jacket along the way, her lips were still a bit pale—probably from the cold.

“There’s no telling when another quake might hit. You and Jiang Yan stay here,” Sun Jingtao refused without hesitation.

If a strong quake hit, those cars above would be the biggest threat—one wrong move and they could be crushed.

Su Dai looked disappointed.

But seeing Jiang Yan sitting quietly beside her, she just pursed her lips and sat down next to her.

She’d wanted to talk to Jiang Yan about a lot of things, but with Kong Wu—whom she’d just met—right there, she held back.

“Jiang Yan, can you hold onto this for me?” Ye Qing handed her his submachine gun before going ashore.

Jiang Yan didn’t ask questions, just said “Okay” and took it.

“Sister Yan, do you know how to use that gun?” Kong Wu asked teasingly as he watched her take it.

Jiang Yan smiled, neither confirming nor denying. “What do you think?”

“Maybe, possibly, probably not! But I can teach you! Don’t worry, I won’t charge you tuition!” Kong Wu grinned, full of confidence.

Su Dai shot him a look: This kid is such a chatterbox… but that’s not a bad thing.

Jiang Yan didn’t bother arguing with him, and changed the subject: “Kong Wu, have you ever been to Dongshan?”

“Nope.”

Kong Wu shook his head, then his eyes lit up. “But we’re about to go, aren’t we!”

“Oh, you haven’t been? That’s odd—” Jiang Yan trailed off deliberately.

Su Dai realized Jiang Yan was trying to get information out of him, so she frowned and chimed in, “Yeah, that is strange!”

Kong Wu looked confused. “Huh? What’s strange?”

Jiang Yan said, “Yaoben Base is in Dongshan. Your boat is from Yaoben Base, but you’ve never been to Dongshan. Isn’t that a bit contradictory?”

“Exactly!” Su Dai echoed.

“It’s not strange! The land belongs to our leader, and the people who built the base work for our leader. Now that it’s finished, our leader’s going there. Makes sense, right? Just think of it as headquarters moving locations.”

“Hmm, when you put it that way, I guess it makes sense.” Jiang Yan didn’t say more, just exchanged a silent glance with Su Dai.

Having the power to build a base was normal.

But being able to plan ahead and have it ready at just the right time—that was anything but normal…"