CHAPTER 216: CHAPTER 214: PASSING BY CHIBI

"Beep beep beep, beep beep beep..." The alarm clock sounded, and Chen Xin finally opened his eyes and got out of bed.

Brushing his teeth and washing his face, the dry and wet separation bathroom on the vehicle even allowed Chen Xin to take a shower, but there was no need for that in the morning, so he didn’t enter the bathroom.

After finishing his personal hygiene, Chen Xin came to the countertop, broke two energy bars that came with the shelter food into pieces, put them in a cup, added a little salt and sugar, and brewed it with hot water as his breakfast.

Eating this semi-liquid breakfast, Chen Xin tasted the half-salty, not-sweet flavor brewed from the energy bar in his cup, murmuring to himself, "The sugar’s too little, looks like I can plant some coffee beans and beets in the future."

While murmuring these things, Chen Xin went to the driver’s seat, put the cup he was holding into the cup holder on the console, and at the same time, turned on the map projection on the console, contemplating the route for today’s journey.

The city where Chen Xin’s home was located was the northern gate of Xiang Province. Leaving the administrative boundary of this city meant leaving Xiang Province and entering the territory of E Province.

Chen Xin was quite familiar with this road since his parents used to bring him here for hot springs every year.

Moreover, this city neighboring Xiang Province in E Province was historically renowned. The ancient masterpiece "The Red Cliffs" by Su Shi, that mentions "The Red Cliffs of the Three Kingdoms Zhou Yu" is located in this city named after the same.

Speaking of that historic battle of Red Cliffs, not only is it related to this city, but it also has a deep connection with the city where Chen Xin’s home is.

After all, the equally famous Yueyang Tower was initially Lu Su’s military review tower for training naval forces of Eastern Wu, and the Three Rivers Confluence where Cao’s army and Eastern Wu’s allied forces fought in the battle of Red Cliffs was the entrance of Dongting Lake into the Yangtze River, the confluence of Jingjiang, Yuan River, and Xiang River.

It can be said that the battle of Red Cliffs had a deep connection with these two cities at the time.

However, just as Su Shi’s phrase "The great river goes east, washing away, the heroes of many ages," two thousand years have already erased the marks left by those heroes of the past, and now even the marks engraved on mountain stones have been covered by ice and snow.

Who knows if a hundred years from now, anyone will still remember this legendary battle that took place beneath this ice and snow?

This thought flashed through Chen Xin’s mind, but he had no intention of visiting the ancient battlefield. His planned route was to pass through Chibi City but not reach the ancient battlefield by the Yangtze River.

However, on Chen Xin’s route, there was a hot spring resort, which piqued his interest, along with some nostalgia, considering that it was the resort his parents took him to for hot springs back then.

Since it was on the way, Chen Xin didn’t change his direction. After finishing his breakfast from the cup, he returned the cup to the countertop, washed it clean, poured himself another cup of hot water, and then released the support anchor holding the vehicle steady, started the engine, and continued moving forward.

This area of E Province, due to geological activity, has abundant geothermal resources, coupled with rich water resources, earning it the nickname of the city of hot springs.

In the past, hot springs might only have been leisure tourism resources, and geothermal development might not have been widely applied due to technical limitations. But under current environmental conditions, a hot spring can affect the survival of countless lives.

If a shelter is built around a hot spring, water supply, heating, and power generation can all be resolved using geothermal resources. It can be said that as long as geothermal resources are effectively utilized, one can survive well in this apocalyptic world.

Thinking about this, Chen Xin couldn’t help but lament that although there was a large circle of hot springs around the city he was in, there was no hot spring in the city itself.

Even the hot spring water in his shelter was created due to an earthquake, and even if he wanted to use geothermal resources, there weren’t sufficient resources to utilize, relying only on shallow geothermal energy, which made him envious of the natural geothermal resources of neighboring cities.

However, this has its pros and cons. Rich geothermal resources also mean abundant underground magma activity, and the impact of meteorite strikes may exacerbate geological activities, causing volcanic eruptions in surface vulnerable areas.

This naturally also means danger for areas rich in geothermal resources.

Although there were no volcanoes in the region at the border of E Province and Xiang Province, magma could possibly form new volcanoes due to earthquakes and other reasons, since the volcanic belts and earthquake zones on Blue Planet are highly coincident.

Fortunately, the issues Chen Xin worried about did not occur. Along the way, he did not see any volcanoes, but as he reached the location of the former hot spring resort, using the vehicle’s radar and the drone’s infrared camera, he discovered a shelter built around a hot spring.

"A hot spring shelter? It really is built around the hot spring!" Chen Xin looked at the image sent back by the drone on the screen, feeling a bit astonished.

Although the shelter was constructed around the hot spring and relied on the original hot spring resort, the surface was still covered with a thick layer of snow. However, due to the higher internal temperature, there were very obvious heat sources at the shelter’s ventilation openings and main entrance, extremely clear in the drone’s infrared vision.

Looking at the refuge in front of him, Chen Xin did not rush forward. Although he was curious about what a refuge built around a hot spring would look like, he did not directly visit this refuge.

He had just set out a few days ago, and the supplies in the car were quite abundant, so there was no need to replenish them.

Moreover, even if he needed to replenish supplies, Chen Xin preferred to do so after entering Chibi City instead of at the refuge in front of him.

So, although he was curious about how the refuge utilized geothermal resources, Chen Xin was not the kind of person who would take risks out of momentary curiosity. After considering for a while, he gave up the idea of contacting the refuge.

Continuing along the road, just in case, Chen Xin released a second reconnaissance drone to monitor the situation both in front and behind him while also turning on the radio next to the console.

In this car, Chen Xin had installed a high-power shortwave radio. Under good conditions, this radio could transmit signals up to 6,000 kilometers away, and indeed, last night, out of boredom, he received a message in Russian.

Chen Xin didn’t understand Russian well. He tried sending a reply in English, and the other party seemed very excited, babbling a lot, but Chen Xin barely understood any of it. Both sides talked at cross purposes for a long time but did not establish effective communication.

However, Chen Xin could tell that the other party was quite happy to receive the message, as their tone was full of excitement.

Shortwave communication is not particularly difficult, as long as the frequency and conditions are suitable, talking to people from all over the world is possible.

For instance, the radio that Chen Xin just turned on was transmitting a kind of voice he couldn’t understand at all, nor could he distinguish what language it was.

Feeling somewhat helpless, Chen Xin adjusted the radio frequency but didn’t receive any other signals.

This left him with a sense of regret, so he had to turn off the radio again and continue driving forward.

The road between this hot spring refuge and Chibi City seemed to have frequent vehicle traffic, likely from exchanges between this hot spring refuge and Chibi City, which made the road much more navigable.

Chen Xin drove along the tire tracks, speeding up considerably. According to his estimates, he might reach Chibi City before noon.

Though it was a road, in reality, it was covered by snow, and even the roadside was flat, with the fields Chen Xin remembered deeply buried beneath the snow.

"I wonder if the fields can be farmed once the snow melts..." Chen Xin couldn’t help but think, but he quickly chuckled wryly to himself.

No one knows when the snow will melt. The soil has lost the presence of plants and animals, and the ecological cycle should be gone. Even if the ashes from the previous global fire serve as an inorganic fertilizer to enhance soil fertility, this more than one-meter thick snow will likely turn it into a muddy swamp when it melts.

Perhaps by then, humanity might no longer need to cultivate fields? After all, waiting for the snow to melt is a long process, and during this time, affected by extreme cold and lack of sunlight, agricultural production methods should undergo significant changes.

Currently, agriculture relies entirely on greenhouses and artificial light sources. Even when sunlight returns in the future, growing crops on the ground would require building greenhouses and clearing the snow, which is not an easy task.

With the long-term progress and advancement of human technology, perhaps by that time, humans will adopt more efficient planting methods instead of traditional farming.

Maybe I can develop in this direction?

Chen Xin recalled his upgraded planting greenhouse at home, feeling that such a multi-layered planting system had great promotional value. However, he still had no way to replicate this system elsewhere. Perhaps he could study it further when he returned.

Having made up his mind, with no other movement visible behind him, Chen Xin planned to retrieve the second reconnaissance drone.

However, just as he was about to do so, the sky suddenly lit up. A bright fireball illuminated the dark sky, cutting through it amidst rolling smoke, descending toward the earth.

Chen Xin stared in astonishment at the massive fireball, dumbfounded by the sight before him. It had been more than half a year since he last saw the sky light up like this.

Yet as the fireball got closer to the ground, he was awakened by the gradually brightening light. In a flurry, he slammed on the brakes, bringing the car to an emergency stop while hurriedly lowering the stabilizing plow beneath the car to secure the vehicle, preparing for the impact from the fireball’s crash.