Chapter 169: The Destruction of the Northern Plateau

Chapter 169: The Destruction of the Northern Plateau

Shu Fu looked at the map display in her hand. This panel permanently displayed the current water conditions in real-time. Even without a network connection, it could instantly relay the latest information about the water regions on the planet to her.

A few days ago, on her way to conduct rescue operations in the Northern Plateau, she had checked the entire map of the Northern Plateau.

The Northern Plateau was originally a horizontal stretch of land, narrow from north to south and long from east to west.

At that time, except for the higher-elevation mountainous areas in the west, the eastern, northeastern, northern, southeastern, and southern regions were all marked as patchy islands on the map.

Some of these patchy islands were far apart, while others were connected, each representing a town. The rest were water regions.

Regardless, there was still land visible.

Now, the large dark green areas in the western part of the Northern Plateau appeared as scattered islands, and the patchy island lands that were once marked by dark green icons had disappeared from the map. The entire eastern and central regions of the Northern Plateau had become a uniform light green.

Only after zooming in on this light green water region could she find the occasional scattered dark green areas, representing the small remaining land areas, which were likely the higher peaks near certain towns.

As she stretched the map further south, she could still see two identical dark green icons in the waters near Xiren Province. These should be two government huge ships. From the proportional size on the map, it was clear that the remaining land areas in the central and eastern parts of the Northern Plateau were smaller than these two ships.

The Northern Plateau had completely disappeared.

**

In the underwater dining area of the snack store on the raft, everyone looked troubled after listening to Shu Fu. Although they couldn’t see the map display Shu Fu was referring to, no one doubted the information she provided.

She said that the Northern Plateau had disappeared, not like other plains and hills that were flooded. In those places, if you dive to a certain depth, you can still see the cities and buildings below.

However, the land of the Northern Plateau first disintegrated into pieces during a massive earthquake and was eventually swallowed by tsunamis from all directions triggered by the quake.

From this point on, the Northern Plateau of Hua Country disappeared completely from the planet.

It was dinner time, and ever since the snack store raft had been anchored, even though it hadn’t officially opened due to the lack of recruited staff, people would automatically gather during mealtimes.

Mainly because the fully automated kitchen was extremely convenient, eliminating the need to cook manually, and everyone was curious to see how the machine worked.

Therefore, during the lunch and dinner times in the past two days, Hua Qiong would come over to activate the automatic machine. Usually, others wouldn’t sit at the tables waiting but would crowd around the kitchen’s food outlet, watching the machine prepare food with curiosity.

The automatic food preparation machine had ten fixed dishes for now, but since the machine was so useful, Hua Qiong changed them almost daily. These past few days, the dishes included: bubble wontons, tomato scrambled eggs, spicy cucumber salad, chive egg pancakes, spicy hot and sour soup, scallion pancakes, salt and pepper fried chicken cutlet, shredded potatoes with green peppers, celery and mushroom pan-fried wontons, five-spice braised chicken and duck claws, fish soup seafood noodles, pan-fried fish fillets, fried large shrimp with garlic and chili, spicy crab, soy sauce squid, ginger and scallion stir-fried clams, and sashimi.

They had been living on the raft for so long that the pork and beef stored in their backpack compartments were almost depleted. In the pet house, apart from chickens and ducks, other animals were not yet mature.

The next batch to mature would be rabbits and some types of sheep, which would still take over twenty days.

So, at this stage, apart from chicken, the other meat dishes at the snack store were mainly seafood.

Every household on the raft had plenty of seafood. Even if they didn’t fish themselves, every once in a while, Shu Fu would distribute a batch under various pretexts. At first, she was somewhat restrained, distributing one basket for everyone to share.

Later, she became less restrained, sending full baskets of seafood directly.

This was mainly because her automatic water fishing rods could ignore all weather and water conditions, yielding three baskets of harvest every day. At first, everyone would cook complex dishes like ginger and scallion stir-fries, spicy stir-fries, and iron plate barbecue hot pots.

However, cooking seafood to make it delicious not only required certain skills but also involved complicated procedures that were time-consuming. After the initial excitement of trying new dishes, everyone quickly returned to basics, boiling or steaming the seafood and simply dipping it in soy sauce.

In this situation, having a machine that could eliminate all intermediate processes, putting in raw seafood and getting cooked seafood out, was the best possible solution.

Although the automatic food preparation machine could only learn and record ten dishes at a time, Hua Qiong only needed to prepare all the different dishes, place them in the backpack compartment, and when menu changes were needed, delete the recorded dish and retrieve the new one to learn. This process hardly took any time.

To ensure each dish maintained the best flavor, for dishes she wasn’t proficient in, Hua Qiong spent raft points to hire someone skilled.

For example, seafood was Longsheng’s specialty, and every dish was made by him. Hua Qiong gave him raft points to help prepare the finished product, which she stored in her backpack compartment and retrieved when needed.

For example, the scallion pancakes and braised chicken and duck claws are specialties made by Zheng Feifei's mother. The scallion pancakes were her father's specialty, and though they don’t always mention it, her mother often makes scallion pancakes, trying to replicate her husband's taste, always feeling like something was missing.

Recently, because she’s been practicing more frequently, Zheng Feifei told her mother that she had succeeded and now could make scallion pancakes that tasted exactly like her father's.

This time, when Hua Qiong collected dishes, Zheng Feifei also contributed these two specialties.

The menu is the result of the collective effort of all the companions on the raft.

In the next few days, Hua Qiong will randomly adjust the menu depending on the availability of ingredients. For dishes like fried chicken cutlets and five-spice chicken claws, they can't be supplied daily since the output from the pet house hasn't fully caught up.

However, for other vegetables and various seafood dishes, there’s basically as much as they need. The seafood dishes, in particular, are prepared by Longsheng with the skill of a restaurant chef, making them extremely popular.

When Shu Fu got there, everyone had just finished dinner. Since the snack shop hadn’t hired any employees yet, everyone had to take care of the trash and clean the tables themselves. They were discussing the recent earthquake and tsunamis.

Since most people remained indoors during the disaster, they didn’t know exactly what happened outside. After hearing Chen Fa and Lu Zheng’s accounts, and now Shu Fu’s account, everyone felt heavy-hearted.

Sitting next to Shu Fu, Chen Fa patted her on the shoulder and took out a bowl of seafood noodle soup and a portion of spicy cucumber salad from his backpack, saying that he had saved them for her.

Today, after the raft had experienced the tsunami’s turbulence, everyone's meal was simple and plain.

Although Shu Fu had plenty of finished cooked food in her space, she couldn’t eat right then. But thinking of Liu Shuang in the attic, she stored the two meals in her space, planning to check on the shelter.

At present, only Shu Fu could go into the monitoring room in the attic beside the shelter.

Although Liu Shuang also had food in her backpack, it was mostly instant food like canned goods, dried noodles, and instant noodles that she had stocked up while on land. She also had some raw ingredients like rice, flour, meat, and vegetables, but they all needed to be cooked before eating.

At the entrance of the small house, Liu Shuang's parents heard the sound and opened the door, smiling and asking if she’d eaten. They said they had wrapped some pork and cabbage dumplings a few days ago and wanted to treat her to a meal.

Shu Fu smiled and said she had already eaten, then went upstairs.

The family had been cleaning up the living area on the first floor, preparing to move back from the hotel to Liu Shuang's raft. Mainly because Liu Shuang had been staying in the attic during the day, monitoring the screens, and didn’t have time to take care of her meals and daily routine.

Liu Shuang didn’t care at all. With instant food in her backpack, she could just open a can when hungry and sleep on the sofa in her clothes if she was tired, without bothering to go downstairs. Moreover, Shu Fu came to the attic several times a day, always bringing her food and coffee to keep her energized.

Liu Shuang said she could do this task for a year without feeling tired.

But in the eyes of her parents, this wasn’t acceptable. Since they were all on the raft, how could they let their daughter eat food provided by Shu Fu every day? After staying in the hotel for so long and losing the novelty, they decided to move back to Liu Shuang's raft, after informing Han Lan's parents.

The living space on the first floor had two bedrooms and a living room, and the total space was almost twice the size of their previous home in Sha City, so it wasn’t a problem for the sisters to share a room.

However, Liu Zhen immediately said she wanted to stay in the hotel, where there was a single room, close to the tree house library, convenient for her reading. Unlike her busy sister, she had time to cook in the hotel kitchen or eat at home.

Having stayed by her parents' side all these years while Liu Shuang was out and about, Liu Zhen was actually longing for an independent life.

In the end, it was settled that way. Knowing her parents were moving in, Liu Shuang took out all the luggage she had brought from home and new home furnishings she had purchased for settling on the raft, letting them decorate the house at their own pace.

For her own room, she added a foldable sofa bed, as she wanted her sister to have an independent life but also have a bed at home, ready for when she wanted to come back.

The parents weren’t in a hurry, decorating a little each day and bringing meals to their elder daughter on the attic three times a day. Although they couldn’t enter the attic area, they could go up the stairs and knock for Liu Shuang to let them in.

Thus, in addition to Shu Fu’s meals, Liu Shuang was also being fed by her parents, feeling like she was eating eight meals a day and starting to doubt life. To digest, she did push-ups in the attic when she didn’t need to control the door.

At the moment, Liu Shuang was checking the monitoring screen and, seeing Shu Fu come in, instinctively felt a bit full, quickly waving her hands to refuse, "I'm full, don't give me anything."

Just about to pull out the fish soup seafood noodles, Shu Fu: ...

Alright, she’ll keep it since she has plenty of space available.

Shu Fu also sat down in front of the surveillance screen and asked Liu Shuang about the situation in the refuge.

On the surveillance camera, the dozen or so people had just placed the three injured on the corresponding metal bed boards.

Although they had experienced an earthquake, a reckless car ride, and falling into the water, their backpacks were mostly intact, each filled with their most important supplies. The backpacks were waterproof and had undergone various reinforcements to ensure they could be securely fixed on their backs and wouldn’t easily fall off.

The backpacks contained medical supplies for treating wounds. They also had simple food and water.

After caring for the three injured, they sat down at the dining tables in the hall in two groups, eating food from their backpacks. Some were quietly talking, discussing the terrifying earthquake and tsunami, as well as the shelter they were in.

They didn’t know much about the raft cabins of other psychics, but it was easy to imagine that even a raft couldn’t survive such a massive tsunami.

Not only had this uniquely designed house survived, but it also remained completely intact.

Liu Shuang gestured to the surveillance screen and pointed out her observations: “They are two teams, and there seems to be some past conflict between them. The smaller team helped the larger one with the three wounded individuals. Both teams have other members, and they evacuated to a large vessel in the afternoon. They stayed behind to carry out the rescue and were the last group from Zhang City. They are quite vigilant, and after inspecting the shelter house several times, they haven’t used any of the facilities, likely because they didn’t want to offend the owner of this raft, and also, they might not know how to use them...”

Normally, once there are official evacuees in the shelter house, there needs to be an “executive” to conduct inspections.

Initially, the executive helps new arrivals learn the environment of the shelter house and briefly explains the rules, such as no private fighting and no stealing other people’s food and water. Violators will be restricted, and in severe cases, expelled from the shelter house.

The meal vending machine in the shelter house contains trays and food. Once evacuees swipe their wristbands and choose their meal, the machine automatically dispenses it.

After the meal, the tray return slot is also on the vending machine.

Cups for drinking water are stored in the cabinets inside each room’s bathroom, with each cup labeled to match the bed.

The room doors are locked until someone is assigned, and then they can use their wristband to unlock it. The beds are standard metal boards with railings and ladders, but there are no mattresses yet.

Liu Shuang has confirmed that, aside from two basic meals and unlimited drinking water, there’s nothing else in the shelter house for now.

There are no mattresses or bedding, and the toilets lack paper, let alone toothpaste, toothbrushes, towels, or soap.

However, since they had just escaped a massive tsunami, they hadn’t had time to discuss appointing an 'executive' or other details yet.

Of course, for outsiders who were on the verge of death, the current environment of the shelter house was already more than adequate. After all, it provided shelter from the elements and disasters, a place to rest, food and water, and access to toilets. What more could one ask for?

“But having those extra things would definitely be better. I mean, there’s not even a roll of toilet paper in the toilet. It’s fine for a half or a full day, but definitely not for several nights...”

Shu Fu nodded, recalling the red first-place prize she had wanted to try in the shelter house. She brought it up directly with Liu Shuang, and since both of them were straightforward people, they decided to use it immediately.

Thus, Shu Fu got up again, preparing to head back to the Drift Island House.

As she was about to leave, Liu Shuang grabbed her. Shu Fu turned around in surprise, and Liu Shuang pointed for her to look at the screen.

Shu Fu looked back at the surveillance screen and saw that, in the B room’s camera feed, away from the others, a thin and handsome young man was silently staring at the camera. As she looked at him, it was as if he was looking back at her through the screen.

“Really sharp, spotting the surveillance camera.” They had checked the shelter house before, and the cameras weren’t completely hidden, but they were different from ordinary cameras in reality. They blended perfectly into every corner of the shelter house, and unless one was extremely careful and observant, it was impossible to notice the cameras.

The man looked at the screen for a moment, then reached into an inner pocket of his clothes and took out a small waterproof bag. He opened the bag and took out—a lollipop.

Liu Shuang was stunned.

The man raised the lollipop, aiming it toward the camera, and then spoke: “There will be a reunion in the mountains and rivers, farewell for now—Sacred Mini Raft, is that you?”

Liu Shuang: ... Shu Fu: ...