Chapter 10: Can't Hold On Any Longer
1067 Words
Chapter 10: Can't Hold On Any Longer
Jiang Yue Sheng spent several nights thinking it over and finally came up with what seemed like a complete escape plan.
He noticed that the exhaust fan in the dormitory's public restroom was relatively easy to remove.
He could take the fan down first, then crawl through the square hole where the fan had been installed, making his way into a closed passage that led to the sewer maintenance shaft.
From there, he could descend into the maintenance shaft and use something hard to dig through the foam foundation of the floating island. He could tunnel through the foam and create a hole, then crawl into the seawater beneath the floating island. Holding his breath, he could swim from under the island to the dock, then find a cargo ship about to depart. Using suction cups, he could attach himself to the ship and escape.
He wasn’t sure how long he’d have to stay submerged in the water. Even if the ship traveled at five hundred kilometers a day, was the mainland less than five thousand kilometers away?
He would need at least ten days' worth of fresh water and food.
The thought of escaping excited him, his heart racing. But the possibility of suffocating beneath the floating island or dying in the water made him nervous and fearful.
Yet when he thought of his mother and grandmother, both desperately waiting for him, he steeled his resolve. He had to escape quickly, and at the very least, send a message to his mother.
He knew that his mother had lived on the lunar base for a long time and her heart was weak. She might not be able to bear the pressure of his disappearance for long.
He began to notice everything around him that could potentially be used in his escape.
He saw two empty oil drums next to the trash bin outside the cafeteria. When no one was looking, he quickly grabbed them and hid them under his bed.
A neighbor from the next bunk asked him what he was doing with the oil drums, and he replied that he wanted to cut them open and use them as toolboxes. The truth was, he planned to use them to store fresh water.
He also noticed two tile workers near the factory who had suction cups for handling ceramic tiles. When they weren’t paying attention, he secretly took the suction cups back to his dorm and hid them in the toilet tank.
At every meal, he would take an extra steamed bun, secretly bring it to the dock, and cut it into slices to dry it out on the forklift’s roof, saving it for later.
At night, when everyone was asleep, he would quietly crawl out through the restroom’s exhaust fan, making his way to the maintenance shaft. There, he would use a stolen steel file to dig through the foam.
After fifteen days of hard work, he finally breached the foam foundation of the floating island, digging about six meters deep.
By then, he had almost finished preparing the rest of what he would need for his escape.
Two more days passed, and a cargo ship arrived at the dock with a displacement of about six thousand tons. After finishing the loading with the forklift, Jiang Yue Sheng decided that tonight was the night. He estimated that the ship would likely depart by morning.
In the dead of night, he quietly woke up, first carrying the two water-filled buckets on his back, then tucking the plastic bag filled with dried steamed buns into his clothes. He tied a bundle of rope with two suction cups around his waist and slipped quietly toward the restroom.
Expertly, he removed the exhaust fan and used the rope to lower the two water buckets. Then, he crawled through the hole where the fan had been.
Everything went smoothly.
He crawled with the water buckets into the shaft he had already dug through. Using his feet to grip the jagged foam he’d dug up, he slowly descended to the bottom. Below him was the seawater.
He stopped for a moment, securing the two water buckets tightly to his waist with the rope. With a splash, he jumped into the sea. After diving another two meters, he reached the bottom of the floating island.
Since the two water buckets were intentionally not filled to the brim, they had some buoyancy. He used this small amount of buoyancy to press his body against the foam at the bottom of the floating island.
He quickly used his hands to pull himself along the foam toward the dock. After about forty to fifty seconds, when he was about to run out of breath, he finally reached the dock. As soon as his head broke the surface, he began to gasp for air.
Seeing that the cargo ship he had loaded earlier was still there, he swam toward its stern.
When he reached the stern, he found that the rudder was large enough for him to sit on. He climbed up and sat on it.
Since he figured it would still be a while before the ship left, he tied himself to the rudder with the rope.
After sitting there for a while, he began to feel drowsy and soon fell asleep.
He didn’t know how long he slept, but when he groggily woke up, he heard a roaring sound. He opened his eyes to find that it was already dawn. The ship seemed ready to depart.
The water around him started to churn, the waves growing stronger as the ship’s engine powered up.
The massive propeller, located just in front of the rudder, began to kick up water, and the splashes grew so large that they nearly engulfed him.
Panic set in. He had never planned to sit on the rudder, nor had he imagined how fierce the waves from the propeller would be. The force of the water was too much for him to withstand if it went on for too long.
But at that moment, he couldn’t find anywhere else to hide except on the rudder.
He decided to endure for a little while longer, hoping to move to a safer spot once the ship was farther away from the floating island. Then, he could use the suction cups to attach himself to the deck.
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