Chapter 347 - 245 Support (Third update asking for monthly votes)
When Chen Xin woke up the next day, Han Ping had already rushed back overnight with supplies from the city center.
Although driving at night is indeed dangerous, considering there’s no sunlight at all now and visibility is the same, this point is completely negligible.
However, Han Ping drove back and forth without rest all night, which was really quite exhausting. When Chen Xin saw him, the sleepiness on his face was undeniable.
"You’ve worked hard, Han Ping. Go wash your face and catch some sleep." Chen Xin, having just woken up, saw Han Ping looking like this and urged him to take a rest.
Han Ping indeed couldn’t hold on any longer. Although the round trip was less than a hundred kilometers, it took him the entire night to go back and forth. He only rested a bit while waiting in the city for the hall to gather supplies. Hearing Chen Xin ask him to rest, he said nothing more and just nodded before going to the car to sleep.
Seeing Han Ping going to rest, Chen Xin then approached the captain who was receiving and inventorying the supplies, and asked, "What supplies did the city hall send over? Looks like quite a lot of stuff!"
The rescue team brought two supply transport vehicles with them, and before going back for aid the previous day, they had already unloaded all the supplies from the vehicle. Now the returning vehicles were packed not only with essential supplies for the rescue team but also with two additional regular freight trucks filled with supplies parked here.
At this moment, all four vehicles were unloading, leaving heaps of supplies in front of Chen Xin.
The captain was also delighted by this, excitedly introducing to Chen Xin, "The city hall allocated two medical tents, with accompanying medical equipment all brought along, and there’s an extra spare tent. Although it doesn’t come with medical equipment, there are enough folding beds and heaters. With these, we can set up two more intensive care units and one mild symptomatic ward, which means the rescue station can accommodate more people!"
"That’s really great! It’s just that..." Chen Xin naturally felt quite happy for this, but recalling the busy nurses he saw while helping in the ward yesterday, he hesitated a bit before asking the captain, "If the number of patients increases, can the rescue team handle it? We didn’t bring many medical staff; won’t they struggle to manage?"
The captain nodded, affirming Chen Xin’s concerns but explained without worry, "No need to worry about that. Lin City Hall has already helped to gather volunteers. A group of volunteers will be coming to help today. They can share quite a bit of the medical staff’s work without a problem."
Upon hearing the captain say this, Chen Xin, although relieved by the increase in manpower, still hesitated a bit. After all, not just anyone could replace the work medical staff do. Volunteers could only take on physical tasks and some basic medical work, and might not be able to alleviate much.
However, having help is naturally better than none, so Chen Xin naturally wouldn’t say much more about this. He just remembered the matter of the young nurse wanting to learn how to use the Exoskeleton from him yesterday and decided to tell the captain about it: "...That’s how it is. I think we should take some time to train everyone in the rescue team on using the Exoskeleton. At least when it’s needed, someone will know how to use it. We can’t have a situation where it’s needed, yet no one knows how to operate it."
"That’s indeed an oversight on my part. I’ll make arrangements today. Chen Xin, do you think you could teach this, or should we have someone else do it?" The captain realized he’d overlooked this matter and was considering who should teach it.
To the captain, Chen Xin seemed like a suitable candidate. Although he was also part of the rescue team, he wasn’t a medical staff member, so relatively speaking, he wasn’t that busy. Assigning him to teach the rescue team’s medical staff how to use the Exoskeleton didn’t seem like a troublesome task in the captain’s eyes.
However, Chen Xin rejected this responsibility.
"I’m afraid I don’t have the time. Yesterday I checked, and the medical tents are still a bit too rudimentary. Even with heating equipment inside, the temperature is very low, which isn’t conducive for patients’ recovery. So I plan to modify the tents a bit." Chen Xin shared his thoughts with the captain, hoping he could coordinate with Lin City’s staff to get the materials needed for the modification.
The captain knew beforehand that Chen Xin had the ability to modify things. After all, Chen Xin was considered a precious national talent. His safety and whereabouts had extensive implications, something the rescue team captain was definitely aware of.
Therefore, hearing that Chen Xin wanted to modify the medical tents to improve their insulation effect was something the captain was naturally happy to see.
However, he still had some concerns, so he asked Chen Xin, "Mr. Chen, what parts of the tent will you be modifying? Will it affect the patients inside? What materials will you need for the modification? I spoke with Lin City’s staff yesterday, and their resources are pretty tight now, so they might not be able to spare any materials."
Currently, Lin City’s resources are in a somewhat polarized state. Supplies like food and daily necessities were brought based on Lin City’s previous population count, but due to the blizzard, the population in Lin City suddenly decreased quite a bit. So, in this regard, there is actually a surplus of supplies.
Yet, apart from these, the coal used for heating is just sufficient since although one refuge center is gone, there are still many people needing warmth, and other refuges have to crank up their boiler power somewhat.
As for medicine and other supplies, they are evidently more strained because previously, railway capacities were prioritized for transporting crucial supplies like coal, leaving insufficient logistics capacity for other materials.
After the captain’s explanation, Chen Xin understood this point as well. While nodding, he thought about it. Although the system’s functions were powerful and those who saw it would automatically understand, Chen Xin didn’t want to draw too much attention. So he said to the captain, "In that case, give me the set of spare medical tents. I’ll use that spare tent for modification, and once it’s done, you can transfer patients to that tent while I modify the other tents."
"That works. Let’s do that! When the volunteers arrive, I’ll assign a few people to help you. As for the materials needed, I’ll ask Lin City’s staff. If they don’t have it, then I’ll have to trouble you, Mr. Chen, to find another way." The captain, after a bit of consideration, agreed to Chen Xin’s request.
Seeing the captain agree, Chen Xin didn’t see the potential shortage of materials in Lin City as a big deal, simply smiling and saying, "Don’t worry, even if they can’t gather the materials, I have other ways. It’ll just be a bit more troublesome, that’s all."