Cave Refuge-Chapter 141 - 140: Voluntary and Voluntary_1

Just as Dong Tianyu and Ye Liuyun stepped out of the passage, they saw the head of Family Li talking with a few individuals.

Upon spotting the group, Ye Liuyun signalled for silence and tried to quietly lead Dong Tianyu around them, hoping to avoid their notice.

Little did Ye Liuyun expect that this was not a chance meeting. The head of Family Li knew he would come tonight and had waited specifically for him.

But this time, the head of Family Li wasn’t out to gain a small advantage. Having learnt about the availability of ice here, the other underground shelters of the West City District had started to demand ice cubes.

It wasn’t that they were foolish or uninterested in getting nitrates. The Pengcheng Government, knowing about the situation here, directly requisitioned two hundred kilograms of nitrates from this place.

They only left a hundred kilograms in the West City District, and in exchange, they assured that the West City District no longer needed to transport ice cubes to other city districts.

The price of nitrate was relatively cheap before the disaster, a few thousand yuan could buy a ton. The arrival of the extreme cold catastrophe had no significant impact on it.

Unfortunately, the subsequent floods inundated the earth, so a majority of the nitrates stored in the warehouse dissolved in the water as the floods arrived and vanished somewhere with the receding floods.

Now, only a small amount of nitrates can be found on the walls of certain outhouses, and each haul yields only a few grams. It is almost impossible to obtain large quantities.

The source of Dong Tianyu’s nitrate need not be elaborated. Thanks to nature’s gift (the Pengville Port container storage area), Dong Tianyu found not only nitrates but also other purified minerals.

Unlike Dong Tianyu, who casually found nitrates in the Shadow Space, Ye Liuyun’s process of obtaining nitrate was filled with twists and turns. The nitrates he’d brought today had been gathered bit by bit over time.

Initially, when Command Headquarters received the three-hundred kilogram nitrate contribution from Dong Tianyu, they didn’t pay much attention to it. After all, thirty to fifty kilograms of nitrate could produce enough ice cubes to satisfy the cooling requirements of the two-story War Reserve Warehouse Shelter.

While it couldn’t make the shelter feel as comfortable as an air-conditioned room in summer, it was enough to maintain the temperature inside at around thirty degrees with ease.

What’s more, since they had enough nitrate, traders started selling ice in the West City District.

As the temperature continued to rise, the sellers utilized the subway network to peddle ice cubes to other shelters.

Because of this, the officials discovered this ’cooling magic tool’, and following the principle of shared prosperity, the West City District Command Post ’voluntarily’ contributed two hundred kilograms of nitrate, allowing for temperature reduction in other Pengcheng shelters.

Most shelters in the West City District did not currently have wells. The drinking water was temporarily supplied by a few specific shelters.

The main supply of water came from three shelters.

The drinking water provided by the Dragon Mountain Shelter mainly came from Dragon Lake. Although it had undergone many stages of purification, the water quality was quite average. However, it was plentiful, adequate to meet the requirements of several surrounding shelters.

Another was the New River Mine Underground Shelter, an underground shelter built in anticipation of extreme heat. The renovation of the shelter and the construction of connections to the subway network tunnels were carried out simultaneously.

Under continuous 24-hour construction, it took less than two weeks to complete the renovation and connect with the subway network.

This shelter was converted from a purified water plant. The purpose of establishing the underground shelter here was to extract groundwater and ensure sufficient drinking water for the West City District.

The last source of water was the well on the second floor of the War Reserve Warehouse. Although it might not seem much, this well was linked to one of Pengcheng’s main waterways. Unless there was no groundwater left in Pengcheng, this well would not run dry.

When there was a lot of nitrate around, to reduce the temperature in the War Reserve Warehouse, water was extracted from the well and used directly to produce ice, which was then supplied to other shelters.

The device on People’s Square separating the nitrate and water was constructed to improve recycling efficiency.

Although there was water storage in the other shelters, they were still very pleased to receive ice cubes at this time.

After all, the ice could cool them down and even after melting, it could be consumed as drinking water. Therefore, the other shelters were very receptive to the ice cubes sent by the Command Headquarters.

However, as the weather became increasingly hotter, the demand for ice cubes from other shelters grew. When the shelters, serviced by the other two water suppliers, learnt about the availability of ice here, they too began to demand for it.

Even the survivors from New River Mine were willing to endure the hardship of transporting the water here themselves.

Thinking that they had enough nitrates anyway, the Command Headquarters decided to expand ice production. This, in turn, cooled the temperatures of the underground shelter at the War Reserve Warehouse to about twenty degrees.

However, this didn’t last. As more and more people in the West City District underground shelters experienced the coolness brought by the ice cubes, some started secretly selling ice cubes or icy water in other shelters.

In this scorching environment, a fist-sized ice cube or a few litres of icy-cold water was worth several times more than an equivalent weight of food.

Once they tasted the sweetness of profit, more and more people in the West City District started selling ice cubes or icy water.

Just like that, in no time at all, the officials found out. Following the clues, they learned about the West City District Command Post’s use of nitrates to produce ice.

To appease the other city districts, they casually took away two hundred kilograms of nitrates from the West City District. This sudden reduction in the once abundant nitrate supply made the nitrates extremely sought after again.

Just as the saying goes, "It’s easy to go from frugality to extravagance, but hard to go from extravagance to frugality".

If they had never tasted the luxury of coolness, they may have been able to withstand the extreme heat. But because they had experienced it, the discontinuation of a steady ice cube supply led to protests from other shelters in the West City District.

The West City District Headquarters had no choice. It was not their fault that every shelter did not manage their survivors well, showing off any good stuff they had.

Now look, the officials found out and directly took away two-thirds of the nitrate.

The remaining nitrate would not interrupt the ice cube supply to other shelters but would certainly prevent them from supplying large quantities as before. Now, they did provide ice cubes to other shelters daily, but each shelter could only get two to three cubic feet.

It may seem considerable, but after distributing it to each survivor in each shelter, it would be nice if they even got a fist-sized piece.

And with such a drastic reduction in supply, the survivors in the West City District were having a hard time adjusting. Add to that the rising outer temperatures, the survivors were becoming increasingly irritable.

Upon noticing this behavior, the head of Family Li immediately notified Robinson William to have Ye Liuyun collect more nitrate.

He also paid a visit to Mr. Thompson, hoping that Dong Tianyu could bring back some more nitrate, considering his previous single haul of three hundred kilograms.