Wasteland Border Inspector-Chapter 374 - 148: Guardian Spirit Spider, Investigating Dapo Town!_4
When they returned to the street, the oppressive feeling from underground instantly dissipated, and the rain drizzled on their faces with a cool freshness.
The two of them took a brief rest and then continued to explore the Jiajiale Supermarket and the office building in the town center.
The so-called supermarket could no longer be distinguished from the surrounding buildings.
The glass-embedded facade had become a gap, with the edges of the cement cracked into powder from freezing, which lifted into fine dust when stepped on, mixing with the rain fog to choke one’s throat.
As they stepped inside, what the soles crushed wasn’t broken glass but plastic that had been turned to powder by the sun.
It was probably the packaging bags from those bygone years, long since faded in color.
Looking up, the iron roof had been stripped completely, revealing the crisscrossed beams.
The paint on the wood had faded to a gray of the same color as dust, in some places bore tiny holes bored by insects, which shed wood chips at the slightest breeze, like scattering a handful of fine ashes.
The ground was worse, for anything usable or visible had already been turned upside down by scavengers over the years.
The floor tiles were pried up to the point where the cement underlay was exposed, collecting yellow earth washed in by rainwater.
As for the shelves... only a few shallow scratches near the wall hinted at the once orderly arrangement.
As they walked toward the town center, the roadside weeds gradually lowered, revealing the mottled exterior of the office building.
The wall paint had peeled off in large patches, like newspaper torn away, and the bricks underneath had swelled with rainwater. Cheng Ye rubbed the wall, causing crumbs to fall off.
However, being an old government building, the materials used were still solid.
Except for the small annex buildings outside, which had been dismantled beyond recognition, even the steel bars were twisted and removed, leaving square black holes.
Perhaps because dismantling the main building was too difficult, scavengers only took away what could be removed with a wrench.
"The power of time..." Jiang Chuan mused at the entrance of the hallway, his eyes swept over the floor fragments scattered like cookie crumbs on the ground. "This building used to be newer than our checkpoint’s duty building back then, and look at it now."
Cheng Ye’s gaze fell on the wall, where a few lines of words had been soaked to a pale blue by time, like someone had written with water-dipped fingers, the strokes blurred to the point of being almost illegible.
One could only rely on memories to piece together that it might have said ’for the people’ or ’service’.
As they went upstairs, each room only had half a wall left, the interior frames long destroyed.
Throughout the building, not a single piece of iron or glass shards could be found, as if anything that could be called an "item" had completely disappeared with time, leaving only these empty shells, slowly wasting away into yellow earth in the wind.
They reached the rooftop terrace, where they stood on the edge, looking out over the surroundings.
Here, the view was excellent, capturing the entire outline of Dapo Town:
Everywhere were decaying houses from the old era, collapsing roofs of residential buildings looked like gnawed bread, and wild grass crazily grew between broken walls, weaving a green carpet that spread to the farther villages, forming a patchwork of dilapidated dwellings faintly visible in the mist.
Yet, speaking objectively, this was still better than the pure Wilderness, at least there were remnants of civilization left, preventing the feeling of emptiness of drawing one’s sword and looking blankly around when standing here.
The key to this trip, the White Water River, was on the northern side of Dapo Town.
Rain washed away the fog, with visibility of about one kilometer.
The wide main stream converging from Lin River was split into two near Dapo Town.
One continued winding north, about twenty-five meters wide.
The other was diverted toward Dapo Town, about ten meters wide.
The two rivers had distinct colors, the one winding away likely being the Yellow River, extremely turbid and obviously carrying a lot of sand and mud.
And the white river leading to Dapo Town, as the name implies, had a strange cyan-yellow color, with the water surface shimmering like scattered copper pieces.
"The width is fine, but the water level is really not low..."
Cheng Ye frowned slightly, leaning forward a bit.
From the height, it was clear that the White Water River’s surface was nearly level with the riverbanks on both sides, with the floodplain below already submerged, and even the surrounding lowlands were pooled with water, threatening to turn into a marsh.
This was not a good omen.
If the water level continued to rise, the core area of Dapo Town would be underwater, and the idea of building a Satellite City would be nothing but a pipe dream.
To avoid this situation, several solutions flashed through Cheng Ye’s mind.
Emergency dredging and temporary diversion were undoubtedly the most direct methods for now.
Utilizing engineering machinery to clear the Yellow River silt and debris, widen the main channel’s water passage section, would sharply decrease the pressure on White Water River.
Additionally, on the outside of weaker embankment sections, temporary diversion channels could be excavated, directing the overflow water to the uninhabited wasteland far away, using natural depressions to buffer the pressure.
Once the water level dropped slightly, work could begin on reinforcing the riverbanks, even enclosing a temporary sub-dike to prevent the current from eroding the embankment’s foot and causing breaches.
In the long term, the best method would be river course diversion and retention basin planning.
The Lin River’s Water Series was developed but lacked storage space. Combined with the excess meanders of the two rivers obstructing flood discharge, straightening and digging a new river segment would shorten the flood discharge path, converting the original river meander section into a flood retention zone, naturally balancing the watershed’s hydrology, supplying groundwater during dry periods.
At that time, water pipes could be laid directly across to meet Dapo Town’s needs.
Of course, implementing such a plan in modern times, even just negotiating relocation, and farmland occupation would be massive headaches.
Yet, in a wasteland environment, as long as there were sufficient labor and machinery available, it could be easily achieved.
The challenge lay in gaining the support of Happiness City’s upper echelons and applying for sufficient funding.
"I definitely can’t manage this alone; Wenlu County’s involvement is necessary..."
Cheng Ye quietly pondered.
The water intake pier Lin Bao mentioned was built on the embankment about a kilometer north of Dapo Town.
The grey stone wall unearthed a section in the mist, its crenellation worn by wind and rain but still evidently strong from back then.
"That must be an excellent fishing spot..."
Cheng Ye suddenly chuckled, his gaze resting on the protruding concrete platform of the pier.
This part of the structure extended into the water, just right to avoid the shallows near the shore, ideal for fishing.
Yet, with the current flow volume and speed so great, let alone fishing, it would be challenging to even stabilize a rod.
Perhaps casting a net might yield a sizable catch.
As for the deteriorated hydroelectric station, hidden in the mist, it remained unseen, but it should be downstream.
"Want to go down and take a look?"
"Let’s go!"
...
