The kayak gradually moved away from the lakeshore, heading towards the center of the lake.
Every now and then, the group collected a tube of water sample, sealed it with a cork, and placed it into the sampling box.
The reservoir was very large, with its source and outlet blocked off; it was almost like stagnant water here with little movement. The water quality differed in various areas, requiring stratified and zonal sampling.
The sampling work was monotonous and dull.
One staff member suddenly brought up a topic of conversation:
"Do you know how many people died yesterday?"
"How many?"
"I glanced at the station's statistics data this morning—over three thousand six hundred people!"
"Sss! So many?"
Although they had seen so many corpses daily that they had become numb, hearing this number still made their backs go cold.
