◎Happy Day 67: Polite Farming◎

This year's winter is particularly gentle.

The temperature is dropping slowly and steadily, with an occasional gust of north wind, like today's, giving people surprises inadvertently.

The snowflakes fell densely at Jiang Muyun's feet, and melted into the ground before she could see clearly. However, a thin layer remained on Chu Buwen's shoulders.

Jiang Muyun was inspired and turned his head to look at his shoulder, and sure enough, there was a white spot there.

She reached out and gathered the snow on her shoulders, shaping it into a small snowball the size of a dice.

Sadly, even at the end of the world, the snow in South City was still damp, completely different from the dry snow in the north. As soon as Jiang Muyun's little snowball took shape, the warmth from her fingertips melted it into transparent, shattered ice.

The broken charcoal in Chu Buwen's hand had already started to burn along with the flames. After the pungent smell of ash and earth, a faint sandalwood fragrance emerged, and then it was drowned in the dense snow curtain along with the light smoke.

Jiang Muyun took a deep breath and looked up at the sky in a daze.

Chu Buwen put out the fire on the synthetic wood board and placed the small piece of charcoal on the ground: "What are you thinking about?"

Jiang Muyun looked down at the small patch of red-hot charcoal on the ground, flickering in the snow. It didn't last long before it extinguished. She said seriously, "I'm thinking, since they won't be back anytime soon, should we build the reservoir first?"

It was a little after ten in the morning, and the sun was rising late at this time, so their departure time would naturally have to be postponed. If the few people who left didn't move fast enough, they might have just started work at this time.

Even if they returned immediately after the snow started, it would still take two hours to get back from Yishi Furniture City.

This isn't the first or second time that Lan Xing has been smiling but showing a dagger. It looks like normal winter snowfall now. Two years ago, the snow would have melted in a few days, but it's hard to say now.

What if when I open my eyes tomorrow, there is heavy snow outside and the temperature is minus 20 degrees Celsius?

The water in the clay will freeze within three minutes of applying it, so what's the point of building it?

If they don't work quickly before the snow accumulates and the temperature is within normal range, and the temperature really drops later, a large amount of the wood they worked so hard to bring back will have to be used to heat the water tank.

The place where the reservoir is located is the largest flat ground on their mountain, except for the open space used to grow crops.

The reservoir they had dug was over ten meters long and wide. They had also pried out a number of large rocks as they dug, and the depth of the reservoir kept increasing as the rocks fell, until it reached over three meters. The few people left in the pit, responsible for the excavation, had to shovel steps along the side to get out.

When the two men thought about the size of the reservoir, they felt the burden on their shoulders was a thousand pounds heavy.

"Let's go set up the tent over the reservoir first, and collect some snow to melt into water." Jiang Muyun stood up, brushed off the snow on his body, and gathered the freshly burned red charcoal.

They had considered the issue of precipitation before.

If there is another continuous heavy rain, even if they have the water needed to build the waterproof layer, they will not be able to build the waterproof layer during the heavy rain, and they will not be able to store water in time during this rainfall.

So they prepared a rainproof roof for the reservoir early on.

The roof is made up of several large pieces of waterproof membrane cloth, and steel rods and windproof ropes are fixed around the membrane cloth. It looks like a large canopy tent.

When it rains, you only need to embed a few steel rods into the soil, tie them with windproof ropes and ground nails, and you can prevent the reservoir from being flooded directly without a waterproof layer.

Now the precipitation has come, but it is snowing instead of rain, but the principle is similar and their response methods are still effective.

But now there is an additional step of melting the snow.

The two men brought all the charcoal burned today into the cave, and then went to the reservoir to set up the roof.

After the roof was set up, Jiang Muyun and Chu Buwen moved the supplies that were originally placed outside to dry back into the big cave and turned on the ultraviolet lamp to continue disinfecting them.

It was snowing heavily outside. During the time they were packing up, the snow had fallen to the ground faster than it had melted, forming a shallow layer on the ground.

Jiang Muyun stood outside the cave and looked down the mountain through a telescope for a while.

The snow blocked her view, and she couldn't see the specific situation at the foot of the mountain clearly. However, eight people with several small trailers were quite a large group, and even with the heavy snow, they would not be completely invisible.

When Jiang Muyun returned to the cave, Chu Buwen had already brought back a lot of synthetic wood and lit the fire in the stove.

"Fortunately, we repaired the road in advance." Chu Buwen took out a pile of cloth and left the cave with Jiang Muyun.

If they had not repaired before, everyone would have to climb the mountain road in the snow, which would be more dangerous than Jiang Muyun and the others climbing the mountain in the heavy haze.

Now they had cleared a path, smoothed out some loose rocks and overly steep areas, and as long as there was no ice, there would be no danger in going up the mountain.

Jiang Muyun and Chu Buwen each held a piece of cloth, pulled it open, shook it twice, and spread it directly on the large open space in front of the cave.

Not only the open space in front of the cave, but also the slightly flatter area near the reservoir were covered with cloth by the two men.

After laying out the cloth to collect the snow, Chu Buwen and Jiang Muyun took a few pieces of cloth and a bunch of tools to the reservoir.

The roof of the reservoir was sloping. The two men spread the cloth on the ground and poked the bottom of the tent with a long wooden stick. The accumulated snow fell into the cloth in piles.

After collecting a batch of snow, the two built a fire beside the reservoir.

A deep iron pot was placed on the fire, with a large stainless steel thermos next to it.

Chu Buwen was responsible for putting snow into the pot, while Jiang Muyun filled the thermos.

The moist and loose snow melts into water when put into the pot. After filling it several times to boil a pot of hot water, pour the water into the thermos.

The hot water was poured into the snow pile, and soon the heat in the snow was exhausted and it showed signs of freezing.

However, before the ice could freeze, another pot of hot water was poured in.

After repeating this two or three times, the snow they had collected was soon used up, and the water in the thermos was less than 20% full.

Jiang Muyun sighed as he poured water, "This conversion rate is really worrying. I didn't notice it before when I could melt snow to drink, but now I see that even if I fill three pots of snow, I can't even melt half a pot of water. If we want to fill the reservoir, we really can't just wait for the snow to fill it."

It would be fine if this winter was just an ordinary winter and the temperature didn't drop any further, but this kind of thing can only be thought of in dreams.

The temperature this year doesn't even need to be comparable to last year's. It just needs to be similar to Taipei before the apocalypse. With three or four months of sustained low temperatures, the first snow that falls will be frozen solid.

When the temperature rose, the snow on top melted and flowed away, while the snow on the bottom was still slowly melting.

After a winter, even if the snow piles up three to five meters high in the reservoir, the water left in the reservoir may not be half full. To store water during this winter, we need to find a way to freeze the snow in the reservoir into ice.

The snow knocked off the ceiling had been used up, and a layer of snow had accumulated on the cloth that the two had spread on the ground, which could be collected and melted again.

The snow outside was getting heavier, and the two of them melted the snow faster and faster, finally filling up a thermos before noon.

After having a simple meal by the fire, Jiang Muyun and Chu Buwen began to build the waterproof layer.

Before taking action, Jiang Muyun looked down the mountain and said, "The visibility is almost as bad as it was during the smog."

The snow curtain is blocking my vision more and more seriously. I could vaguely see the situation below the mountain with a telescope before, but now I probably need to rely on a perspective glass to see it.

Chu Buwen pushed the snow on the ground to the sides: "With Xiaobai following them, they will be fine."

Fortunately, Xiaobai was taken out by Jiang Muyun to have fun and became addicted to it. During this period, when Jiang Muyun did not go down the mountain, it followed Qin Shiwen and others every day.

When operating in this kind of weather, animals with keen senses have a natural advantage over humans.

As for the method of waterproofing the reservoir, they had already tested it long ago, and the materials had been moved to the vicinity of the reservoir.

A layer of plastic, a layer of bricks, and then a layer of clay after compacting it.

They removed the pot from the fire, and there was enough water in the stainless steel thermos to worry about it freezing. As the snow fell, the accumulated snow around the reservoir was enough for them to use, so they didn't need to run elsewhere to collect it.

They can place the bucket directly next to the fire to maintain the temperature, add some snow into it from time to time, and use the water already in the insulated bucket to melt the snow, thus achieving water freedom.

It was not until the two of them had built most of the bottom of the pool that the faint sound of bells came from the mountain.

Jiang Muyun raised his hand to look at his watch. It was four o'clock in the afternoon, which was basically the same time he usually came back.

"It's not that we didn't want to come back early!" Zhao Jiahao, looking disheveled, sat down on the ground after entering the cave. "When the snow first started falling, we figured since we were here, we had to bring back a cart so it wouldn't be a wasted trip, right?"

Jiang Muyun asked him to move to the side so as not to occupy the spot where the ultraviolet light could shine on him: "That makes sense."

"Then we were delayed for a moment, just a moment!" Zhao Jiahao gestured with his hands, "The snow outside started piling up! The speed was ridiculous!"

"And then?" Chu Buwen piled the things they brought back aside and was puzzled to see that they were all covered in mud and snow.

"Then when he came back, he fell into a pit, taking the car with him." Li Anxuan had a blank expression.

At that time, he and Zhao Jiahao were transporting a cart, which was loaded with the most wood. One of them was pulling in the front and the other was pushing in the back.

Zhao Jiahao, who was pulling the cart in front, saw Xiaobai jump into the snow pile, leaving four holes with his four legs. He also jumped and stepped into the snow.

He slipped and fell into a pit covered with debris. Zhao Jiahao fell right into it, taking the cart with him. The previously well-tied timber was scattered all over the pit. Li Anxuan, who was pushing the cart behind him, was unable to stop himself and was also unable to escape the disaster.

Zhao Jiahao was lucky that he was not killed directly.

Several people dug out Li Anxuan, Zhao Jiahao and the car. They were unwilling to throw away the wood they had worked so hard to find, so they had to continue moving it without complaint.

With Zhao Jiahao's example as their first step, and the snow piling up thicker as time went on, they walked cautiously. As a result, they had been delayed until now.

Jiang Muyun sighed, "You're quite something. Zheng Xiang said before that she wanted to dig up a Buddha statue for Wang Qingqing to worship, but I think you're the one who really wants to worship it."

Li Anxuan sneered: "He has a physical defect, can praying to Buddha solve this problem?"

Zhao Jiahao felt guilty and could only whisper back, "I was just unlucky. Why are you cursing at me?"

"That's right." Jiang Muyun also felt sorry for Zhao Jiahao.

Zhao Jiahao was so moved that he wanted to give Jiang Muyun a hug on the spot.

Jiang Muyun looked at him covered in mud and water, and took a few steps back without leaving a trace. After avoiding him, he continued, "If Buddha can't solve it, we can always pray to the gods."

Qin Shiwen asked curiously, "What god?"

Jiang Muyun pondered for a moment: "Wenquxing?"

Zhao Jiahao, who felt that he had given his love to the wrong person, tried to act like he was heartbroken in front of everyone, but after being ruthlessly rejected by Jiang Muyun, he could only do the hard labor honestly.

Jiang Muyun and Chu Buwen had spent the entire afternoon building only half of the bottom of the reservoir. Now that they were working together, their speed was much faster.

It gets dark early in winter, and it was snowing heavily today. It was already dark at around four in the afternoon. In order to speed up the work, a few people just hung up the lights, and it was officially completed at around six in the evening.

The built water tank still needs to be dried.

Jiang Muyun spent a huge amount of money to light several piles of charcoal fires at the bottom of the pool, then removed the ceiling supports and sealed the entire reservoir tightly with several layers of membrane cloth, leaving only a ventilation hole at the steps.

In the winter when the sun won't be seen for who knows how long, they have invested a lot of money in both electricity and carbon for this reservoir, and the sense of urgency is extremely high.

High school graduate Jiang Muyun hammered nails into the ground while saying, "When the apocalypse is over and I look for a job, I'm going to put 'extremely strong self-management skills' at the very front of my resume."

Wu Xingyue regretted it deeply: "If I had been more self-aware before, I would have been stuck in a big factory, dying like a 007. I might be living in a luxurious shelter right now."

Qin Shiwen, a social veteran, cruelly interrupted the young man's fantasy: "What good things are you dreaming of? Housing prices in the Fourth Ring Road area of ​​South City are already 50,000 yuan per square meter."

Zhao Jiahao spread his arms and said, "But we now have a hilltop in the 40th ring road of Nanshi!"

Wu Xingyue: "Is forty rings so bad? Fourteen rings is about right, right?"

Qin Shiwu: "From a geographical point of view, we should be in the 14th ring of Yi City, right?"

Wu Xingyue was shocked. "At least the 14th Ring Road of Nanshi is still within the Nanshi area. Shouldn't the housing prices in the 14th Ring Road of Yishi be cut in half at least?"

I never expected that even though I was the king of the mountain, I was still a poor guy.

The only consolation they had was that they were used to winters without heating. It was only five or six degrees below zero, and they could handle it with their righteous spirit. There was no need to heat the kang, so they could save on firewood tonight.

The next morning, Jiang Muyun opened the door by knocking on it.

The door of Jiang Muyun's house opens outwards, but the snow outside piled up to Jiang Muyun's thighs overnight, blocking the door directly.

Jiang Muyun finally managed to open the door a little, and was about to continue pushing it out when he found that the door seemed to have encountered new resistance.

She wrapped herself up like a bear and squeezed out of the small space with difficulty. She couldn't keep her footing and fell directly into the snow pile at the door.

Xiaobai probably thought Jiang Muyun was playing some game of jumping into the snow pile. After seeing Jiang Muyun fall down, Xiaobai immediately jumped on Jiang Muyun happily. Jiang Muyun was caught off guard and was almost crushed to death.

"Help..." Jiang Muyun held her waist and stood up with difficulty. She hugged Xiaobai, who was about to pounce on her, and threw him into the snow pile, creating a big snow pit.

Xiaobai played for a while where he fell, flopping and rolling back and forth in the snow pit, showing no intention of getting up.

Jiang Muyun let Xiaobai go to entertain himself, and only then did he have time to check the situation at the door.

It snowed so heavily last night that half of her awning collapsed, and the collapsed part blocked the door. No wonder she couldn't push it open no matter how hard she tried.

The snow had subsided at this moment, but the wind had started to blow again. Jiang Muyun checked before going out and saw that the temperature inside the cave was minus six degrees Celsius, and outside it was at least minus ten degrees Celsius.

Jiang Muyun retreated back into the cave, carefully tucked his trouser legs into his boots, then found a basin and went out.

She was now wearing a down jacket and cotton pants that she had bought herself, which she had brought back when she returned to Nanshi.

It looks a little dirty, but the outer fabric is still waterproof, and it is enough for her to fly freely in the snow.

Jiang Muyun started clearing the snow from the doorstep of his house.

A shovel is useless for snow piles of this size, and it is a little faster to pile it up to the side with a basin.

After clearing an area at the door, Jiang Muyun also wanted to dismantle the awning.

Now only one side of the awning was still standing. After Jiang Muyun pulled that support out of the ground, the remaining snow on the roof immediately gathered and slid down, blowing a wet and cold wind onto Jiang Muyun's face.

Xiaobai is just a nuisance at this time, and his role is not even as good as those of the two chickens that are quietly hibernating.

At first, Jiang Muyun had to clear the snow while keeping an eye on Xiaobai to prevent it from diving into a snow hole and getting stuck.

Later, after it happened so many times, Jiang Muyun saw that it was happily digging into the snow, so he simply ignored it.

Anyway, these mutant animals are more clever than each other. If there is real danger, they will run faster than anyone else.

No one called each other this morning, and everyone was busy clearing snow at their doorsteps.

In the afternoon, they finally cleared a passable path. They went to the reservoir to reduce the pressure and weight of the membrane covering the roof, and then gathered in the big cave again, dragging their bags.

Qin Shiwen rubbed his hands excitedly: "Such a heavy snow, is it enough for us to wash clothes every day?"

Because of the lack of water, they had never washed the clothes and quilts they dug out from the ruins. The only way to clean them was to clear off the dust and dry them in the sun.

I could just endure it when there was no water, but now that water is right in front of me, I can’t just keep wearing dirty clothes!

Jiang Muyun's clothes are only dirty on the outside, the inside is clean. But if you can wear clean clothes inside and out, who would want to be covered in dust every day?

"Come on, boil some water!" Jiang Muyun placed a large rice cooker pot on the stove.

They couldn't find the large iron pot commonly used on rural stoves, so this rice cooker pot is the largest pot currently available.

Other containers such as thermoses were also brought out.

No matter whether there is sunshine outside or not, everyone is tired of sleeping in piles of dust.

If they couldn't hang the clothes outside, they would hang them in the cave. Except for the clothes they were wearing and the quilts they would cover themselves with tonight, almost all the other washable items were brought in.

From today on, they must all be clean children!

Everyone divided the work into two groups, one group was responsible for boiling water and the other group was responsible for setting up the clothesline.

They used a stove connected to the kang. When the fire started, the temperature in the entire cave slowly rose. The efficiency of boiling water in the big pot to melt snow was extremely high.

Jiang Muyun first filled the bucket with snow and pressed it tightly, then placed the bucket on the kang to wait for hot water. Often, half of the snow in the bucket would melt before the hot water boiled.

Once the water is boiled, pour it into the bucket and stir it to make a basin of water at the right temperature.

The others followed Jiang Muyun's example and filled their kang with all kinds of containers, and the clothesline over there also took shape.

Considering that they still had large items like quilts to hang out to dry, everyone went home and brought over the tables, chairs and benches they had retrieved earlier.

The cave was filled with all kinds of messy debris, and in the end everyone had to clear an area outside the cave to wash clothes.

Now that people have no shortage of water, they are particularly arrogant when washing clothes. They just throw the clothes away after using them once without feeling any regret at all.

They filled all the empty containers with snow and placed them in the cave to melt slowly. Sometimes the snow melted slower than they could use the water, so they added a little hot water from the stove and then added some more snow to the pot.

Under the temptation of clean clothes, there was no need to assign people to melt the snow. Everyone consciously replenished the snow after use. The snow near the big cave was cleared by them, and an ice waterfall was directly formed where the water was poured.

The cleaning supplies that he had found before and could only look at but not use now came in handy. The long-lost fragrance of laundry detergent made Jiang Muyun intoxicated.

After the flood receded, they never smelled this smell again!

Since there were limited containers and it was impossible to wash all the clothes at once, everyone chose to wash their underwear first.

Various autumn clothes, autumn trousers and sweaters were the first to be hung on the clothesline.

The outer clothes are bearable, since they are not worn next to the skin, but the inner clothes are really unbearable.

As a result, when everyone's autumn clothes were washed and hung out to dry, everyone was dumbfounded.

The cave is only this big, and there are ten of them in total. Not counting the large cotton-padded jackets and trousers, and the single clothes that cannot be worn temporarily, there must be hundreds of pieces of clothes to be washed.

The cave was completely packed.

The last few sweaters could not be stuffed in, so the tables, chairs and benches that had been moved in earlier to hang out the cotton-padded clothes and quilts came in handy.

Li Anxuan directly requisitioned all the small stools, put them together to form the shape of clothes, and finally carefully put a sweater on it.

His sweater was too big, so he put it on a small stool and mopped the floor directly. When stacked together, it was too thick, and it might not be dry even after two or three days of use. He had to move a few stools over to try to put it together.

Jiang Muyun watched the whole process of him setting up the rack to hang sweaters, then looked at the sweaters in his hands, and quickly grabbed a few folding tables.

In the end, tables, chairs and benches were spread all over the floor. The quilts and cotton clothes that were originally the highlight were not washed at all. They were all moved out of the cave and piled up like a small mountain at the door.

Jiang Muyun threw the last quilt onto the pile of clothes. "I've been working all afternoon, but I haven't even washed the big clothes yet. Why do I feel like I've worked for nothing?"

Qin Shiwen is a cultured person: "We are just putting on a stage to sell tofu. The business is not big, but the airs are big."

Qin Shiwu stretched out his hand and calculated for a while: "Don't worry, according to my observation of the night sky, our business will be big tomorrow - if we keep the kang heated tonight."

Chu Buwen, upholding the spirit of thriftiness, suggested: "Since the kang is already burned, why not just sleep in the big cave tonight?"

Jiang Muyun suddenly stood up and said to Chu Buwen, "That's not right!"

Everyone looked at her in bewilderment.

Chu Buwen was only a second away from pointing to the sky and swearing that he simply thought it was a waste not to sleep on the burned kang and had absolutely no other dirty thoughts.

Jiang Muyun added the next sentence in time, not giving him a chance to swear: "Haven't we finished digging out all the charcoal we burned yesterday?"

They dug a total of six charcoal kilns. They only dismantled one of them yesterday when it started snowing, but the other five charcoal kilns are still full!

Jiang Muyun calculated the time and thought it should be cooked by now.

While it's just getting dark, hurry up and collect the carbon, otherwise it won't get damp if you bury it.

It's not just their charcoal kiln, we should also check out the reservoir.

The snow outside never stopped falling. Jiang Muyun and others had just cleared a path in the morning, but in the afternoon, the snow had accumulated by more than ten centimeters.

This thickness of snow did not actually affect their movements, but they were afraid that the snow would melt and turn into ice after being stepped on, so they simply cleared the snow to both sides as they walked.

Jiang Muyun specially dug out all the charcoal first, and then everyone took the newly burned charcoal to the reservoir.

The membrane covering the reservoir was bearing pressure that it shouldn't have to bear at its age. Even though the load had been reduced once, the place where the wind rope was connected on the side still looked a little shaky. Everyone was frightened by the sight and quickly removed the ground nails, picked up the membrane and went to shake off the snow on the side.

The pool wall, which had only been baked for one night, was still not completely dry, and the charcoal they brought was just enough to help.

Jiang Muyun cleaned up the charcoal ash from last night's burn and kept all the unburned charcoal fragments for reuse.

Jiang Muyun felt a little relieved of his heartache, holding the mentality that supplies are not considered to be owned as long as they have not been put into storage.

Relight the charcoal fire and put the film back after clearing the snow.

Taking into account the compressive resistance of these membranes, they deliberately added several fulcrums under the membranes.

Otherwise, if there is another heavy snowfall tonight, the reservoir may become a snow pit tomorrow morning.

But the next morning, when everyone went to clear the snow from the reservoir, they found that the membrane had not collapsed, but there were still a few round, dirty clumps of snow in the reservoir.

It can move, and when it moves it looks like half a meter long.

Jiang Muyun covered Wang Qingqing, who was looking surprised and wanted to scream, with his hands, and Chu Buwen silently covered her with the membrane again.

Jiang Muyun said calmly, "It's like this. Considering the flexibility and combat effectiveness of both sides, my suggestion is peaceful negotiations."

Wang Qingqing humbly asked, "Can this be peaceful?"

Jiang Muyun looked up and looked for Qin Shiwu: "Brother, do we have any knockout drugs or something like that? The kind that Xiaobai can't recognize?"

Qin Shiwu was puzzled: "Are your preferences so retro and complicated?"

Jiang Muyun lifted a corner of the membrane to show him: "I understand. Just try to understand it."

Qin Shiwu took a look inside and said in shock: "Snow Rabbit?"

Jiang Muyun signaled him to keep his voice down so as not to startle anyone. "Look at the color of its fur, and then look at the way it's actively trying to get into the charcoal fire. Does it look like a snow rabbit?"

Wild rabbits that have grown to the size of snow rabbits are relatively common animals in the apocalypse.

It has strong vitality and reproduces quickly, so it is very suitable for domestic breeding.

But the reason why it has such strong vitality is that it has a strong physique and a diverse diet. It can eat both meat and vegetables. Its hind legs can break people's ribs.

If you want to raise it, you must first consider the issue of its strength, otherwise it is hard to say who will eat whom in the end.

But since it was already delivered to her door, it would be impolite for her not to try it.