“You’re back? What about the others?” After finishing the porridge, Wang Jun finally felt a little better and asked Han Yifeng.
“We came back to see how many instruments we could take with us. Thanks to brother Xiao Wen and the others for finding us in the snow. Otherwise, I don’t know what would have happened. Everyone is doing well now. I’m sorry we didn’t come back earlier to see you.” Han Yifeng explained to Wang Jun, feeling embarrassed later. They only survived and escaped because of Wang Jun, and after they were safe, no one thought of coming back to check on him. Fortunately, Wen Le wanted the instruments on this side, or Wang Jun would have been trapped here.
Wang Jun patted Han Yifeng’s head and smiled, “There’s nothing to be sorry about. Given the situation that day, I didn’t expect to survive. It’s snowing heavily, and if you came back to die for me, I would have saved you in vain!”
“Well, let’s stop apologizing. Isn’t it good that everyone is alive now? Yifeng, you stay here with Master Wang, and I’ll accompany brother Xiao Wen and the others to find the instruments. Master Wang, rest well and let’s discuss how to proceed when we come back.” Bai Yun pulled Han Yifeng and said, then stood up and looked at Xiao Wen and the others sitting next to her.
Wen Le felt that Bai Yun was much more decisive than Han Yifeng when it was critical. She was like a girl who was only a teenager.
“Let’s go and achieve our goal first.” Wen Le pulled Xiao Wen and Yin Chengyang and followed Bai Yun out of the room.
“Don’t we go upstairs?” Wen Le asked Bai Yun curiously, wondering why she was leading them outside the building towards the courtyard.
“The instruments are in the courtyard.”
“What? Isn’t it that tall tower on the roof?”
“That’s the communication signal tower. Who said that weather monitoring instruments have to be in the sky? The buried instruments in the courtyard are what we need to find. There are some in the sky too, but they are satellites, which we can’t reach.”
Wen Le felt frustrated and didn’t speak. He was being ridiculed by a little girl… Who knew that the weather was related to the ground? The weather should be in the sky, right?
“Can these things make accurate weather forecasts?” Xiao Wen comforted Wen Le, half-hugging him and asking.
“Strictly speaking, without the cooperation of satellites, it is impossible to make accurate predictions. But after we finish collecting the instruments outside, we will also collect the instruments that can analyze data and let experts like our professor analyze them. We can predict some weather conditions artificially, but we can’t guarantee their accuracy.” Bai Yun explained.
After leaving the building, they each took a shovel, and Bai Yun reminded Wen Le to be careful when detecting the instruments. The instruments were buried under the snow, and if they were accidentally hit by the shovel during the excavation, they would probably be scrapped.
Fortunately, the wind was strong at the top of the mountain, and the snow was not deep.
Carefully, they shoveled the snow around the instruments and then used tools to remove them. This process was not difficult.
Similar instruments, like automatic temperature and humidity recorders, were protected by louvered boxes, making them easier to pack up.
The trouble was with the wind speed and direction indicator and the automatic visibility observer.
The former had to be removed along with the stand to be reused, while the latter was too fragile and had already been damaged. Wen Le and Bai Yun carefully took it down.
“Is that it?” Xiao Wen asked, looking at the snow-covered courtyard that had been turned upside down.
Bai Yun silently calculated and checked with Wen Le the total number of instruments they had packed up before nodding.
“When we go back, it’s just the data analyzer. It’s not so complicated, as long as we don’t completely destroy it,” Xiao Wen said as they went inside.
Bai Yun and Yin Chengyang formed a group, while Xiao Wen and Wen Le formed another.
After dismantling the instruments, Wen Le and his group collected them directly, while Bai Yun’s group left them out until Wen Le came to collect them later.
“I didn’t expect you to be so enthusiastic about these things,” Xiao Wen said to Wen Le after they separated.
“Weren’t we planning to go to the highland? The weather there changes drastically after half a year, with fewer people and animals. It’s a good place to stay, but if we plan to settle there, weather forecasting is important. Professor Li agreed to come with us because of this, and he is an expert in meteorology,” Wen Le explained while dismantling the machine with a screwdriver.
Xiao Wen nodded. He and Han Ya had thought of this, but Wen Le was more proactive.
In fact, after Wen Le knew about Xiao Wen’s ambitious goals, he was also excited.
Xiao Wen and his team didn’t think much of it, only considering expanding their field of expertise.
However, Wen Le had experienced the baptism of the apocalypse and had deep-seated ambitions for building their own base, regardless of their relationship with the government.
After a day of scavenging, the meteorological experiment station was completely empty. They regrouped in the room where Wang Jun and Han Yifeng were, and Wang Jun’s ability had also recovered a lot.
“Stay here for the night, and we’ll leave tomorrow. What about that bus you mentioned? We can drive it back when we leave.”
“Drive back?” Han Yifeng looked at Xiao Wen in surprise.
How could they drive it? There was a lot of snow accumulated throughout the day, could the car even move?
“You clear the way with your ability, and when your ability runs out, we rest in place. Your ability control is still unfamiliar on the way here. Most of the time, the fireballs you create are too big, and the road is too wide, we don’t need that much, it’s just a waste of ability. On the way back, you can train your accuracy. You open the road as wide as the width of the car, and control it yourself if it’s too wide or too narrow.” Xiao Wen gave him no chance to refute and gave the order.
Although Han Yifeng knew that Xiao Wen was training him, he still felt depressed and wanted to cry. It took them three days to get here by working together, and if they relied solely on his ability to get back, it would take forever.
Wang Jun patted Han Yifeng. He could see that Xiao Wen wanted to make this boy stronger, and he didn’t know what was happening outside. The stronger their abilities became, the more assurance they would have for survival.
“Master Wang, are you going back to M City after this?” Bai Yun ignored her boyfriend’s pleading eyes and asked.
Wang Jun nodded. He was a local driver recruited by Q University. His whole family was in M City, and no matter what happened, he had to go back and see.
Han Yifeng and Bai Yun were a little disappointed but also relieved. They were disappointed that they would have to part with this uncle who had risked his life to protect them, but relieved that with Master Wang here, Song Jia and the others who planned to return could also be safer.
As for the newly emerged abilities, even Xiao Wen and Han Ya didn’t have any specific methods to improve their abilities. They could only explore and make themselves more proficient in controlling their abilities.
Before Wen Le’s rebirth, besides knowing that the large-scale mutation half a year after the apocalypse not only increased the number of ability users, but also generally enhanced the abilities of those who already had them, Han Yifeng had not heard of any way to actively improve one’s ability.
His ability control had become stronger and he could almost control the amount of flame he produced, greatly reducing the waste of his ability and indirectly increasing the duration of his ability.
It took them three days to walk half of the distance they traveled to get there, after all, it was a mountain road, and many places were inaccessible by car. Everyone got out and walked, but no one helped Han Yifeng clear the snow. Everyone understood that it was a form of training for him.
As their ability use became more proficient, they only took a day and a half to complete the remaining journey. Compared to the first half, Han Yifeng rested nine times, but only four times in the second half. It was worth celebrating.
“Master Wang!” As they entered the cave, the other students happily surrounded Wang Jun, happy that he survived and curious about how he spent his time.
Although Wang Jun did not struggle in the snow like the others, he still suffered tremendously. With no food or water, he was fortunate to have his awakened ability to keep him from freezing to death.
In the past, he survived by controlling the vines to reach into his room, eating the leaves on top and drinking the snow water that the vines brought in.
“Did you bring everything back?” Li Yunsheng asked. He had worked as a meteorologist for his entire life, and these instruments were like his children. He was pleased that they were not abandoned on the mountaintop.
Bai Yun curled her lips and walked to Li Yunsheng’s side, smiling as she said, “Professor, rest assured, we brought everything back, not a single item was left behind.”
Not only were the instruments brought back, but everything else was also looted clean, as if bandits had passed through. If someone were to go to the weather station again and see the empty building, they would have no idea what it was used for.
Wen Le grinned at Li Yunsheng.
Li Yunsheng nodded approvingly, completely unaware that Bai Yun was rolling her eyes while holding onto his arm.
At noon, everyone gathered around two large tables for what Qi Rui called a reunion dinner. In the afternoon, Xiao Wen and Han Ya took Huang Yao and Han Yifeng, the four students with abilities, and left the cave to train for accuracy. Each person had to explore their own attack direction.
The six remaining energetic students followed Yin Chengyang to the entrance of the cave to train their physical abilities. After an hour, Wen Le was tired of the constant wailing and sent them down the mountain to train, giving the cave some peace and quiet.
At Professor Li request, Wen Le set up several detectors on the open space in front of the cave. For the next few days, Li Yunsheng went out every hour to check the data, while everyone else trained or repaired equipment.
One day, after getting up, Wen Le saw Professor Li writing and calculating on the table. He wiped his face and went over to take a look.
“Professor Li, what are you calculating?” Wen Le asked curiously, looking at the messy data on the paper.
“I’m calculating how many more days it will snow,” Li Yunsheng said without looking up.
Wen Le’s eyes lit up.
“How many more days?”
“If it’s early, it could stop tomorrow night. If it’s late, it might have to wait until the day after tomorrow,” Li Yunsheng estimated as he looked at the data.
Wen Le quickly took out the calendar that he had been marking off every day before going to bed.
Today is January 19th…
Wen Le looked at the calendar in confusion. Every day before going to bed, he had crossed out the date of the day, but he had never paid attention to these crossed-out dates.
It turned out that they had already missed Christmas and New Year’s Day without celebration or fireworks. 2012 quietly passed by.
The holiday that should have been celebrated grandly slipped away quietly. Will they never have holidays or celebrations in their future days?
“What are you thinking about?” Zhou Quan walked over to Wen Le, who was staring at the calendar foolishly. “It’s already January 19th.”
Uncle Mo, who was busy preparing breakfast, heard Zhou Quan’s words and put down the bowl to wipe his hands and walked over.
“It’s almost Chinese New Year. With so many people this year, we have to prepare in advance and make more food.”
Wen Le regained his senses, looked at Uncle Mo who had returned to the stove, and smiled as he talked about the dishes to be made for the New Year.
Their current days were going well, so why wouldn’t they celebrate holidays anymore?! They still needed to prepare well for their own major holidays, not to mention foreign ones.
“Professor Li said the snow will stop soon.” Wen Le took the calendar and happily ran to Xiao Wen’s side.
Zhou Quan didn’t mind. Wen Le’s thoughts were not difficult to guess, and now that he had returned to normal, he didn’t have to worry anymore.
Xiao Wen smiled and took the calendar, pulling Wen Le onto his lap.
It had been a month since apocalypse. Except for the first few days of killing zombies, most of the time was spent in the cave, plain and simple but very warm. It wouldn’t be bad if the snow kept falling.
However, since it was going to stop, they had to prepare to set off.
Living here might be cozy, but they couldn’t forget their journey. A peaceful life was only temporary, and there were still many roads to travel in the future.
Xiao Wen asked Wen Le to tell Han Ya, while he sat there contemplating the next step.
The snow had stopped, and the road to the apocalypse had started again.
Thanks for the chapter!
Thanks for the update!! 🤗🤗🤗