Chapter 47: The Battery

New Year's Eve night was quite dreamy, really just like a dream.

After the loss of both the internet and television, Gao Yuan hadn't stayed up late for a long time, but today, he truly experienced a sleepless night.

So early the next day, when Gao Yuan had to forcefully stay awake by the radio, he was indeed suffering.

Looking at the familiar radio and thinking about the countless blessings from last night, Gao Yuan suddenly felt like he was being pushed out of his comfort zone.

Being forced to confess wasn't so bad, the trouble was that there was something wrong with the radio's battery.

What was the problem? It was that the battery didn't have much power left, and it couldn't be recharged.

Actually, Gao Yuan did have a solar charging device, but the solar panel was too small. How small? Folded up, it was about the size of a palm, and unfolded, it was about the size of a magazine; as for the battery pack, it wasn't much bigger than a pack of cigarettes.

So this solar charger was just for show, because if it was used to charge a phone, it would be hard to say who was charging whom.

The reason why Gao Yuan didn't dare to keep the radio on all the time was not only the fear of Aliens releasing another Electromagnetic Pulse, but also the fear of the battery dying.

There were a total of twenty 18650 batteries and a power bank with a capacity of 20,000 milliamp hours. Now, the power bank was out of charge, and there were 12 batteries left with some charge. However, the radio couldn't use the 18650 batteries, and if Gao Yuan wanted to charge the radio's battery, he had to use four 18650 batteries to do so.

In short, it was both troublesome and wasteful of batteries.

As Gao Yuan guarded the radio, ten minutes after the agreed call time had passed, he finally turned off the radio. However, under normal circumstances, he would have turned it off after waiting no more than two minutes.

No sooner had he turned off the radio than Xiang Weiguo knocked on the door. After entering, he immediately asked, "How did it go, did you call?"

"No."

After saying that, Gao Yuan sighed deeply and said with furrowed brows, "It wasn't a big deal to be happy last night, but now the shortwave radio is out of power."

"I know, but how did you use to charge the radio before?"

"We had a solar charging device, but the battery is broken, either damaged by the Electromagnetic Pulse or just broken."

If the shelter had a radio, then how could they not have such an important thing as a solar charging device?

While Gao Yuan was talking to Xiang Weiguo, Luo Xingyu woke up. She groggily asked, "What time is it, did you make the call?"

"Just go back to sleep, it's fine. Get up for breakfast later."

Xiang Weiguo also had a look of worry on his face.

The batteries would inevitably run out one day. If they couldn't be recharged, the radio would eventually run out of power too. If it ran out before Yu Shunzhou called, it would be okay, but if it happened the other way around, that would be troublesome.

"No, we have to find a way to recharge it."

Xiang Weiguo seemed very determined. He waved his hand and said, "There's no difficulty that can't be solved; it's just a broken battery. No problem, we'll find one that works."

"But after the Electromagnetic Pulse, weren't all the batteries short-circuited?"

Xiang Weiguo shook his head and said, "Electromagnetic pulses definitely affect all electronic devices, but you're overestimating their power. They can indeed cause irreparable damage to sensitive electronics, but a battery is a very simple thing. At worst, it causes a short circuit that fries the battery, which can be fixed."

"Really? But do you know how to fix it?"

Xiang Weiguo smiled and said, "If you can fix cars, you can generally fix batteries. They're very simple. But do you have an inverter? If the inverter also got damaged by the Electromagnetic Pulse, then there's nothing I can do."

```

"The inverter isn't broken; it's just the battery that's damaged. It was old to begin with, and it's been sitting here for several years. It's the long period of disuse that's done it in. As for the inverter, since it's been kept in the metal box the whole time, it's fine."

Wei Guo slapped his hand down and said, "Alright, we have a plan."

"What plan?"

Luo Xingyu sat up from the kang bed, still looking confused, and said, "Brother Yuan is so silly. There's a solar streetlight not far from the village we went to. Uncle Xiang and I were just talking about it the other day."

After yawning, Luo Xingyu sat up.

Gao Yuan was stunned for a moment before saying, "Right, every solar streetlight in the village is an independent solar power generation system. If we take the batteries out and fix them, then we'll be able to charge again! But how was I supposed to know Uncle Xiang could fix batteries?"

Wei Guo waved his hand and said, "Actually, I thought of this a while ago, but we've had so much going on and didn't urgently need to charge anything, so I didn't bother fixing it. Now that we need it, let's go and take a battery out tomorrow, fix it up, and see if it works."

This meant the charging issue was potentially resolved.

"Uncle Xiang, how confident are you that you can fix a battery?"

"I can't say I'm 100% sure, but I do have about a 90% confidence."

"Good, then I'll charge the radio first."

At least the radio wouldn't be running out of power anytime soon. Gao Yuan immediately set about charging the radio. However, Wei Guo smiled and said, "Today is the first day of the New Year. Let's not rush around. I'm going to start the dough, and later we can all make dumplings together."

They had run out of cabbage and radishes. The only vegetable they could find was potatoes, which didn't seem suitable for dumpling filling, but Gao Yuan and the others still had a few scallions.

These scallions were precious and not something they would ordinarily eat, but if they were going to make dumplings, they couldn't have a filling of pure meat.

By now, Gao Yuan and the others were sick of eating meat.

Wei Guo made the dough and rolled out the wrappers, while Gao Yuan and Luo Xingyu helped with making the dumplings. Neither of them knew how, but as long as they managed to make something that resembled dumplings, it counted.

After eating their meal, they would normally train, but it was the New Year, so they couldn't keep training. Gao Yuan and his group were taking rare time off.

Finally, noon arrived and with it the prearranged time to use the radio. Yet, no sound came from it.

Eventually, Gao Yuan couldn't hold back any longer. Even though it was New Year's Day, that didn't prevent them from looking for some fun.

"Uncle Xiang, shall we..."

"Let's go!"

Wei Guo immediately stood up and said, "Bored out of my mind, since you want to do it, let's just go. Just make sure we're back before your afternoon communication time."

Luo Xingyu said delightedly, "That's great. If we can charge things in the future, we'll be able to use the flashlights whenever we want, the walkie-talkies whenever we want, and even chat with people on the radio."

"Radios aren't meant for just chatting, but..."

After giving it some serious thought, Gao Yuan realized that the radio was the only way he could stay in contact with Yu Shunzhou, but other than that, chatting was indeed the only other function left.

Thinking about idly chatting with someone from who knows where on the radio, just like chatting online in the old days, seemed like a pretty great thing.

So Gao Yuan quickly changed his tone.

"That's right, if we can charge it, then we can use the radio to chat all we want. Let's go, no time to waste, let's go get a battery and talk about it when we're back!"

```