Doomsday Traveler

Chapter 257 "One Hundred Years of Solitude" on the Eastern Island

Lu Xi'an's heart skipped a beat when he heard what the man said.

According to what this person said, the seawater under Caiyang Mountain does indeed recede, and the seawater that flows into Yangcai County rises and falls in cycles.

When the tide rises, this person will arrive by boat; when the tide recedes, others will come.

This person realized that he and Yao Wei were new humans and mistook them for the other party's leader, which is why he said something like "Your subordinates will come."

Therefore, the real danger comes after the tide recedes.

Lu Xi'an knew that pretending to be a bystander was pointless, and besides, he hadn't intended to pretend anyway, so he asked directly according to his own train of thought:

"Where did you come from, and what are you doing here? Who are those people you mentioned, where did they come from, and how many of them are New Humans?"

"Also, when will the tide recede?"

The two people tied to the tree were immediately taken aback. One of them said, "You...you...you two aren't from Jiangbei?!"

So, were those people this person was talking about from Jiangbei?

Judging from the map, it must be quite a long walk from Jiangbei to here, right? What are they doing here?
While pondering this in his mind, Lu Xi'an said to the two men, "No one told you that we came from Jiangbei."

"But you'd better answer my questions honestly, or I won't mind tying you both up here and making you wait for the people from Jiangbei to arrive."

The two men panicked, as if they had heard something extremely terrifying.

“We…we’re from Dongdao Island. My name is Hu Xiaodong, and this is my son, Hu Dong. We’ve come here to fetch water.”

The older one spoke again.

Lu Xi'an was a little surprised: "Your name is Hu Xiaodong, and your son's name is Hu Dong?"

Hu Xiaodong nodded repeatedly and said, "That's how my family names his children. His grandfather was also named Hu Dong, so my grandfather was named Hu Xiaodong."

Tsk, One Hundred Years of Solitude.

Lu Xi'an recalled the "World Atlas I" he had read, and there was no Dongdao Island on it, but there was a Donglai Island, which was the island that Wangdao County looked at.

That island is visible from the east coast of the Fish Mouth area. On the map, it looks like a pearl spitting out of a fish's mouth.

Wangdao County got its name from this.

Lu Xi'an recalled the mirage he had seen earlier, judged the direction from which the two men had rowed from, and guessed that the Dongdao that Hu Xiaodong mentioned was the former Donglai Island.

I don't know how the name changed to what it is now. Now Donglai Island has become Dongdao Island. I wonder if the people on the island know martial arts, or if they can use the "Emperor's Qi Observation Technique" and the "Whale Breath Technique".
Lu Xi'an's mind wandered, but it was just random thoughts. Judging from their physical attributes, how could these two possibly be martial arts masters with extraordinary internal energy?
He has never seen any internal martial arts techniques in this world.

Are you carrying these four buckets to fetch water?

Lu Xi'an then asked the next question.

Hu Xiaodong nodded and said, "Yes, we're going to fetch water. We don't have anything else to do, we just need to fetch some water and then we'll leave."

He then pleaded, "If you two are unwilling, we won't fetch water, but please let us leave. We'll leave right now and won't stay any longer!"

Lu Xi'an ignored what he said and asked the next question: "You should know when the tide rises and when it falls, right?"

Hu Xiaodong and Hu Dong seemed to breathe a sigh of relief when they heard Lu Xi'an say that.

Lu Xi'an guessed that they only realized at this point that he and Yao Wei were not from Jiangbei County, which showed their fear of the group from Jiangbei County.

Hu Xiaodong replied, "The tide will rise for ten to fifteen days, then it will recede. Then it will rise again after another ten to fifteen days."

“Every time, we rush here as soon as the tide comes in, and before the tide recedes, we get some water to take back.”

"This way we can avoid being separated from the people from Jiangbei."

"But there are times when you can't make it, and then it's all over. My father, Hu Dong, said that my grandfather, Hu Xiaodong, injured his leg here and was killed by people from Jiangbei before he could go back."

"His father's grandfather was also killed by the Newtypes, right in front of him."

"That's because I was too young. After my grandfather Hu Xiaodong died, my father could only bring my father's grandfather Hu Dong to the island to fetch water. Who knew that the people from Jiangbei would discover us and specially call the new humans over?"

“My dad said that the new human killed my dad’s grandfather in one hit, but spared my dad’s life so that he could go back and warn us not to come here again, or he would kill us one by one.”

Lu Xi'an asked, "Then why did you come? Isn't there water on East Island?"

He was a little confused when he heard this person talking about father, grandfather, and grandfather's grandfather. The way the person kept switching between Hu Dong and Hu Xiaodong really brought back the feeling he had when he first read "One Hundred Years of Solitude".

So he reminded him, "Just say what you know, and don't mention anything about your father's grandfather or your grandfather's father."

"okay!"

Hu Xiaodong quickly said he understood, then sighed and said, "It's easy to tell us not to come here, but how do we do it?"

"Our family relies on fetching water from here to survive." He saw that Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei were not as fierce as his father had described, nor were they condescending or arrogant. As long as he honestly cooperated and answered the questions, he felt that he could still speak normally, so he relaxed a little.

He wasn't as nervous as he had been at the beginning; he was just careful not to mention his father and grandfather again, and his speech became much smoother.

"There is water on the island, but it's not sweet. The water here is sweet, unlike the water on the island. If you mix it with something, it tastes wonderful and refreshing, it's different."

He sighed again as he said this, and said, “We have no land, so we can’t grow anything to eat. We can only come here again and again to fetch water, then go back and dilute it with sweet water to trade with other people for food.”

"Otherwise, we will starve to death."

"We can't just steal, can we? If we get caught, we'll be kicked off the island, and then we won't be able to survive."

Lu Xi'an's heart skipped a beat upon hearing this. The people on this island actually knew how to farm?!
In this desolate and barbaric world, there actually exists a paradise hidden on the sea?!

What do you grow?

Lu Xian asked.

Hu Xiaodong replied, "There are potatoes, barley, and sweet potatoes."

Goodness, these are all things that can be eaten as a staple food!
Lu Xi'an remained calm and said, "Go on."

Hu Xiaodong said, "Actually, I heard from the elders that there were other things before, but none of them could be grown. It took a long time to grow these three things."

“My grandfather said that our family used to have land, and we grew vegetables, but they all died before they could grow. We had nothing to eat, so we traded the land with others for other things.”

"Later, the land was all exchanged, and we had no choice but to go to sea."

"Normally, we'll catch some fish and pick some wild vegetables, but that's not enough. If we only have vegetables and meat but no rice, we won't have the energy to work."

"So we can't stop going out to sea. With this sweet water, we can make a living."

Lu Xi'an wasn't sure if this person was telling the truth, but she felt it wasn't entirely true.

Fishing and picking wild vegetables might not make life easy, but it should be enough to make a living.

Look at those people in Mengxin City, they can survive on straw cakes.

Why is it still necessary to make that sweet water, even at the risk of one's life?
Perhaps this thing is already a luxury on the island, allowing the Hu Dong and Hu Xiaodong family to make huge profits and live a very wealthy life with sweet water.

So, they couldn't bear to give up coming to the island to fetch water?

Of course, these were just Lu Xi'an's guesses, just a thought that flashed through his mind.

This question wasn't important to him, so he didn't ask any further questions.

He asked the question that concerned him most: "After the tide recedes, when will the people from Jiangbei come here? When did you usually leave?"
"Aren't you afraid they'll still keep people on the island after all these trips?"

Hu Xiaodong said, "We usually take the water and leave. How could we dare to linger here?"
"We only dared to come here because we were certain that they would not usually stay on the island."

"There's not much to eat on this island. They killed my grandfather before, and we survived the high tide period by eating his corpse."

"It's too much trouble to get food here; people from Jiangbei probably don't know how to cook."

"When my dad first brought me to the island, he told me that there was a possibility that they had people living not far from here on the west side."

"This way they can observe when the tide comes in and when it recedes. Once the tide recedes, they can quickly rush over."

“My dad said they were also trying to get sweet water from here, but they were making more than us, so they had to drive here to get here faster.”

"Is that so?"

Lu Xi'an nodded, feeling reassured and quickly forming a plan. He asked, "When the tide recedes, is there any summons?"

Hu Xiaodong thought for a moment and said, "There shouldn't have been any warning signs... I wasn't here when the sea receded, so I didn't know either. My dad, my grandpa, and my grandpa's dad never mentioned it."

Fine……

Lu Xi'an then asked one last question: "If the sea level rises to this point, will it continue to rise? Or will it stay at this level until it recedes?"

Hu Xiaodong said, "No way... I've never seen it before. The sea is quite calm after it rises. Otherwise, we wouldn't dare to keep going out to sea."

"Running to the sea" is probably a specific way to describe the family of Hu Dong and Hu Xiaodong coming here to fetch sweet water.

Once Lu Xi'an had a better idea of ​​what to do, he decided to drive the car downhill to the mountainside.

This way, as soon as the tide recedes, they can immediately drive down the mountain, avoiding the people on the north bank of the river as much as possible.

Hu Xiaodong said that those who come here to fetch water from Jiangbei are usually ordinary people, but who can guarantee that a new kind of human won't come?

It's best to be on the safe side and prepare in advance.

(End of this chapter)