Chapter 136

Wu Zheng was really starving this time. The dirt on his body was nothing compared to the fact that he had been hungry for three or four days and had only relied on water to fill his stomach. After eating a few steamed buns, he finally felt like he was alive again and had recovered a little strength. He definitely couldn't stay at his neighbor's house any longer. The other person's house had already been cleaned up, but his house was so dirty that he could smell the sour odor of biological weapons from ten meters away. It would be better for him to go back to his own home.

Qin Huai and the others definitely couldn't let Wu Zheng go back like this. He couldn't just eat a big meal to stay hungry for a few days. Besides, Wu Zheng's house hadn't been cleaned up yet, and it wasn't even habitable. They had originally thought of waiting for Song Jia and the others to come back and see which things they wanted and which they didn't want to clean up themselves, so they didn't care. Now, they're afraid there isn't even a clean place to step, not even water for washing.

Qin Huai said, "Let's go upstairs and clean up. The windows and balcony doors at home are all broken, and there is no place to block the sun. There is a storage room on the second floor. If Song Jia and the others haven't come back today, you can spend the night in the storage room. Nan Nan, go get some water to the bathroom on the second floor and take a good bath first. Fortunately, some bath products at home are not afraid of bubbles and can still be used. Take a bath and have a good sleep. We can talk about other things after we have rested well."

Wu Zheng didn't want to trouble his neighbors, but if he was asked to go back now, he would probably just lie down on the spot. Even if there was food at home, he couldn't eat raw rice without water. After thinking about it, Wu Zheng had to listen to Qin Huai's arrangements first, and make other plans after Song Jia came back.

Mu Nan carried two large buckets of water to the bathroom on the second floor, and placed some shower gels that were only half used in the bathroom to create a normal atmosphere of life. The water was the filtered water that had been isolated at home. Although it was not drinkable, it was still fine for taking a bath. He also found a set of clean clothes for Wu Zheng. Anyway, there was not much else, and there were plenty of vests and shorts in the space.

After Wu Zheng finished washing, Mu Nan gave him a small USB fan plugged into a mobile power supply. The mobile power supply could power the small fan for a whole night. Now there was no electricity everywhere. If it weren't for the mobile power supply, they all knew that his family had solar power, and they probably wouldn't even be able to take out the mobile power supply to use it now.

Wu Zheng washed himself clean, his hair still wet, and walked into the storage room in dry clothes. He lay down on the floor and fell asleep soon after. Niuniu, the little white-eyed dog, insisted on rubbing against her master, and she couldn't be pulled away, so Mu Nan had to let her go. She also left a bag of steamed buns and a bottle of water for Wu Zheng, fearing that he would be too embarrassed to say that he was hungry after recovering, so she put them in the storage room for him to eat when he woke up.

Before leaving, he did not forget to knock on Niu Niu's head with gritted teeth. It turned out that all that meat was fed in vain. It made him so angry!

Seeing Mu Nan coming back angrily, Qin Huai, who had already returned to the bedroom on the third floor, said with a smile: "I've already told you that brainwashing is useless. Dogs are the most loyal."

Unless the owner changes and the dog is kept for a few years, maybe it can still be useful. The owner is right next to it, so it is impossible for the dog to abandon its owner just for a little food. If that is the case, they will not look down on the dog.

Mu Nan snorted, "It's so comfortable to follow me. I can enjoy the air conditioning, eat watermelon, and have meat for every meal. This stinky girl would rather sleep downstairs with Wu Zheng and get hot."

Qin Huai said slowly: "A dog does not mind a poor family."

Mu Nan climbed onto the bed, hooked his feet to the fan and blew it towards him, sighing comfortably: "Now I don't know where Xu Ming is. Will he almost starve to death like Wu Zheng? When we evacuated, we had time to bring food for them. They didn't bring any food when they went to work. How many days has it been? Half a month, right?"

Qin Huai said: "The ranch should be the first to evacuate, because they want to protect the remaining meat and food, so they should not be as miserable as Wu Zheng. Lie down for a while and take a nap. Maybe Yu Zibai and the others will come down today."

It was quite quiet outside in the afternoon. Even if you had just come back from the mountain, you probably wouldn't have chosen daytime. The sun now was the same as it was last year. You couldn't stand the sun in broad daylight. It would get you sunburned in minutes.

Because the firewood was dried, there was no need to worry about fuel. In the evening, Qin Huai steamed a pot of rice, cut some kimchi, and poured a small dish of beef sauce. It was a very comfortable and full meal for Wu Zheng, but for Mu Nan, it was just a makeshift meal.

They have been so happy these days since they came back. They are surrounded by fruits and snacks, and they take turns having hot pot and barbecue. They are not afraid of being smelled by others. After eating hot food, they take a bath and lie down next to ice cubes. They have been sneaking around too many times, so the days when they can let go and enjoy themselves seem particularly luxurious.

Once we return to the time before liberation, we still need to adapt.

After dark, the noise in their neighborhood suddenly increased. I don’t know if it sensed that another owner was coming back. Niu Niu sat on the second-floor balcony, wagging her tail and looking eagerly. Then she saw a group of people coming from a distance and immediately started barking excitedly.

Wu Zheng scolded, "Be quiet!"

Niu Niu stopped screaming, but was still jumping up and down excitedly, and couldn't help whimpering.

A few people went downstairs and opened the gate of the courtyard. Soon Song Jia and his friends came in with some large luggage on their backs. When they saw Wu Zheng, they ran over happily: "Brother! You're back!!"

Wu Zheng took Song Jia's bag down: "I'm back. I almost couldn't come back." Song Jia asked quickly: "What's wrong? What happened?"

Qin Huai said, "Come inside first, there are a lot of mosquitoes outside."

Because both sides had not cleaned up yet, everyone went up to the second floor of Qin Huai's house first. Mu Nan was still telling them about Wu Zheng's miserable appearance when he just came back in the morning. They were all shocked to hear that he almost starved to death. Although they had little freedom in the cave during this period and had to eat frugally, at least they did not starve. They did not expect that the situation on Wu Zheng's side was so serious.

Song Jia's nose was sore, and he said with a little fear: "I shouldn't have asked you to go to the factory when it was raining. Fortunately, nothing happened. If something really happened, what would I do?"

Wu Zheng patted Song Jia on the shoulder and said, "You have come back safely."

Qin Huai looked at Yu Zibai and said, "Why did you delay for so many days?"

According to the information he had received before, the reply would arrive no later than three days, but it has been five days.

Yu Zibai said, "It's all about who leaves first and who leaves later. To be honest, life is so hard now, but the government protects us too well. They think we will compromise if we make a fuss. In fact, the more we make a fuss, the less likely the government will encourage this kind of behavior. They will just pin down all the people in the cave and not let them move. They will deal with the people inside after everyone outside has left."

Mu Nan suddenly exclaimed: "You guys didn't make any trouble, so do I still have to deal with you?"

Yu Zibai shook his head and said, "Not really. We just detained them. After everyone outside had left, we dealt with the ones who had caused the most trouble. We arrested them, recorded their information, and some of them even gave out the names of other instigators to protect themselves. As a result, they started fighting each other. You know what caves are like, with sharp edges everywhere. A slight bump could result in death."

Qin Huai frowned: "Did someone die?"

Song Jia shrugged, "I don't know if anyone was killed, but there was blood, and they were carried out. The evacuation of the cave outside took two days, and this delayed them by another two days, so we only returned now. We were lucky that we were hiding from people the whole time and didn't get to go forward. We returned relatively early. The people who initially wanted to leave are still in the cave and haven't returned yet."

Wu Zheng couldn't help but say, "You still don't learn your lesson. You can have food if you behave yourself at this time. If you want to make trouble with the higher-ups, you are just looking for trouble."

Qin Huai said, "It's good that you're back. We've moved some of the broken furniture in your room to the first floor. You can help clean it up. You can get water from Building 1. There's a water truck every night at 12 o'clock. There may be few people back these two days, so there's not much restriction on the amount of water for now. But now that most of the people in District 2 are back, I guess everyone will start to limit how much water they can get."

Although they haven't returned to their homes yet, just thinking about it can make them imagine how devastated the houses would be after being flooded.

Hearing Qin Huai's words, Song Jia immediately began to frown: "If we only give 500 milliliters of water a day, we can only use it for eating. How can we clean the house? Is there any water in the river next to it?"

Mu Nan nodded: "Yes."

Without waiting for Song Jia's eyes to light up, he continued, "Yesterday I saw someone specially make a long hook to salvage the floating corpse."

Song Jia: “…” The plan to clean up the mess with water was instantly shattered.

Mu Nan said, "Why don't you stay on the second floor first? There are mattresses there. Sleep on this side of the corridor during the day to avoid the sun. Wait until the water pipes in the room are repaired and water comes back before you clean up."

This was something he and Qin Huai had discussed before. The reason their house was so clean could be attributed to the fact that they had pumped a lot of water in the past few days. As I said earlier, there were fewer people before and the amount of water was unlimited. But if the water is limited now, there is no way to clean the house. People cannot live in an environment that is too dirty and messy. So they will temporarily take them in on the second floor. There are air mattresses anyway. But it's so hot that it doesn't matter if they sleep on the floor.

At worst, they could just be more restrained up there, and then go up and put all the things that shouldn't be outside into the space, and he and Qin Huai could just sleep on the floor.

Yu Zibai said, "Don't worry, let's go home and check what we can do. Let's see how much water we can get at night. I hope the buckets and kitchen utensils at home are still there. Now that the house is still there, we are lucky enough."

When Jian Chu entered the yard before, he saw some bricks falling beside the yard and said, "If we can't find glass to repair the windows, can we seal the windows of the room? If you want to live away from the sun, live in the room. If you want to live in a ventilated place, you can live in the living room or bedroom. It's best to seal a room that is completely away from the sun."

Mu Nan said, "It's okay to live in a room without any windows for a day or two, but will it be depressing to live there for a long time?"

It would be okay to let him sleep in the storage room for a few days, but if he had to live there for a whole summer, or even for the rest of the winter and summer, in a room without windows, the mere thought of it would be depressing.

Yu Zibai said, "Well, let's seal the windows of the small second bedroom first, and then see if there are any replacement glass windows for the main bedroom. We'll talk about it later."

At least the place we live in during this period needs to be tidied up. Although there is a storage room at their house, it is too small and is not a suitable place for sleeping for a long time. If we can find a few more windows in the future, we can then open the sealed windows.

After taking a short rest at Qin Huai's house, several people went back to their homes and started cleaning up. After they left, Qin Huai mopped the second floor again. They all came back from outside. Although most of the water on the ground had dried up, they were afraid that something might have been on their shoes, so it was safer to disinfect and mop the floor clean.

Mu Nan went upstairs and cleaned up some things on the third floor. There was actually nothing much to clean. There was just a container in the bathroom, and now they were using water from the container. Then there was the bed in the room, and an inflatable swimming pool surrounded by large ice cubes. If someone came up, it would take less than a minute to take these things away, so just leave them like that for the time being.

After Mu Nan looked around, he climbed onto the bed and started eating grapes. Qin Huai finished cleaning up the second floor and pushed the door open. Mu Nan held up a peeled grape and fed him: "Don't we have to help them?"

Qin Huai ate the grapes he handed over and shook his head, saying, "No, they cleaned up the house themselves and we can't help much. They can just call us if they need anything."

Mu Nan: "Can we eat something tonight? We didn't have enough food in the afternoon."

Qin Huai wiped his hands and sat on the bed: "What do you want to eat?"

Mu Nan: "Snail noodles!"

Qin Huai glanced at him and said, "A bowl of snail noodles, the smell will last for three days. Are you sure you want to eat it?"

Mu Nan sighed: "Okay, let's eat teppanyaki, okay?"

Qin Huai nodded: "A little bit."

Mu Nan chuckled and rolled over happily on the bed. He asked Qin Huai to turn the fan over, took a small table from the space and placed it on the bed, put up the tablet, and continued watching the unfinished TV series.

After taking a few bites of grapes, he felt that the grapes were a bit too sweet, so he took out a bag of potato chips and a glass of watermelon juice from the space. Qin Huai continued to tinker with the air conditioner. He didn't know if he could restore it after it was all cut open. But it didn't matter. If he couldn't, he had a spare one in his space.

When it was almost twelve o'clock, Qin Huai and Mu Nan put on protective clothing, and sprayed a layer of insect repellent on the inside and outside of the protective clothing. Qin Huai went to the garage to get the tricycle, and Mu Nan went to knock on the door next door.

Song Jia came down with the bucket and was surprised to see the tricycle parked in the yard: "Are you going there on a tricycle?"

Mu Nan said: "Of course, otherwise it would be exhausting to carry the water for washing the floor over and over again."

That makes sense! Song Jia quickly said, "Wait, I'll change to a bigger bucket."

Mu Nan shouted at him, "Bring whatever containers you have, just in case you can get more water."

There was no need to keep anyone in the house, as getting water was quite quick. It only took three minutes on a tricycle. Because you had to swipe your ID card to get the water, everyone went together. The tricycle was filled with various barrels, and other people rode bicycles. Fortunately, these things were not afraid of being soaked in water. After being soaked in water for so long, they were placed in the yard to dry and were also greased with a little Qinhuai oil, so there was no problem riding them.

Not many people know that they can get water at twelve o'clock. There is no signal on mobile phones now. Except for those who have returned for a day or two, or those who live near Building 1 and can see what is happening, most of those who just returned today don't know yet, so there are not many people queuing up to get water.

While they were waiting in line, Song Jia felt something was a little strange around him: "Why do I feel like something is missing nearby?"

Mu Nan: "Do you feel that the surroundings have become a lot more spacious?"

Song Jia nodded repeatedly: "Yes!"

Mu Nan pointed behind them and said, "Building No. 1 collapsed."

The others also turned around to look. The only apartment building left was gone. They couldn't help but hissed, "It collapsed? Where are the people in the building?"

Mu Nan said: "Most of them have been relocated, but some people feel that they live in high places and refuse to follow the relocated people. I don't know the specific situation, so I didn't go there. Anyway, when I came to get water these few days, I saw many people rummaging through things there."

It is estimated that there are not many survivors left. If it was just the house collapsed, maybe some people could be dug out like in the previous earthquake. There were survivors in so many tall buildings that were destroyed by the earthquake. But this time it was a flood. Once the house collapsed, the flood came back and even if they were not crushed to death, they would be crushed and drowned underneath.

Jian Chu couldn't help but shudder: "Almost."

Song Jia was also scared. Yes, it was just a little bit off. If it wasn't for the fact that it was really inconvenient to live in an apartment building with Niu Niu, they would definitely not have chosen the villa building in District 2. There were only two brothers in them, living in a small three-story house, and the monthly rent was not small. Looking back now, it was really just a little bit off.

After a while of talking, it was their turn to drain the water. There might not be many people coming to get water today, so there was no limit. After everyone swiped their ID cards, they filled all the buckets on their tricycles. They also reminded everyone: "If you want to drink it, try to boil it for ten minutes."

Everyone nodded. There was a precedent of a person who was infected with parasites and almost died. That meant they dared not drink water carelessly.

On the way back, Yu Zibai's turn to ride. The others were afraid that someone might enter the yard, so they rode their bikes back quickly. Only Wu Zheng and Qin Huai followed Yu Zibai. Although the water was free, they were afraid that someone would see so much water and rob people on the road. They were not afraid of robbing the water, but they were afraid of robbing the tricycle.

After returning home, Qin Huai and his friends carried a bucket of water. Although they put three large buckets on the car, the three largest buckets all belonged to him: "Each of you take a bucket back and clean the place you live first. I will leave the tricycle outside. You can ride it again and see if you can fight a second time."

Song Jia looked at them and asked, "Is one bucket of water enough for you?"

Mu Nan nodded: "It's enough. I've already finished cleaning my house. There's a little left at home. One bucket is enough for eating, drinking and washing."

After the two families moved their respective water buckets into their homes, Yu Zibai and Song Jia rode their bikes to try again. This time they didn't let Wu Zheng and Jian Chu run along, in case they ran out of water, it would make them tired. Perhaps because not many people would come tonight, they gave them some more water. Anyway, the water could be used sparingly today and could be used to clear out a room for people to live in.

While the neighbors were busy working in the night, Mu Nan had already finished his teppanyaki and was hugging his pillow, preparing to fall asleep comfortably. Now that the neighbors have returned, they can sleep more soundly at night, especially since they know that they are going to clean the house at night and rest during the day.

But while sleeping, his body suddenly became heavier. Mu Nan's eyes widened instantly. Seeing Qin Huai's vague outline hidden in the darkness, he immediately gave in: "Brother, I'm so tired, please let me sleep. It's been so hard these past few days. I have to move so many things and wash so many things. Wow, I'm really tired."

Qin Huai gently stroked his cheek: "Have you eaten well these days?"

Mu Nan didn't dare to say against his will that the food was bad, but he couldn't say it was good at this time either, so he remained silent.

Qin Huai chuckled and said, "Look, the rabbit has grown fat, so it's time to eat it. This little sticky cake is covered with honey, so can we start eating it?"

Mu Nan struggled to shake her head, but Qin Huai tied her hands and said in a bad tone: "I didn't work hard enough before, it's my fault, I will try harder this time, okay?"

Mu Nan whimpered and wanted to cry. He was allowed to be so mean and flirt, and now he was trapped! It had been several days since this happened, and there was no need to reload the game like this.

Facts have proved that for people who never get tired of eating meat, they will eat it in moderation every day. But if they suddenly haven't eaten a single bite of meat for ten days or half a month, they will be so greedy that they want to eat it alive, not to mention that the piece of meat has no awareness and keeps dangling in front of their eyes.

The next day, Mu Nan, crying while biting the corner of the quilt, completely understood Qin Huai's sinister intentions. No wonder he had granted his requests these days and allowed him to eat whatever he wanted, even letting him drink two cans of Coke. It turned out that he was waiting here. It seemed like this was Qin Huai's last meal.

Qin Huai rubbed him gently: "Don't be angry, dear, what do you want to eat? I'll make it for you."

Mu Nan pulled the small blanket and covered his entire head with it, refusing to talk to Qin Huai. He was simply not a human being. Most importantly, his eyes were swollen from crying. He was simply not a human being!

Qin Huai rubbed the little head that was curled up in the tortoise shell through the blanket: "If you don't want to order, then I'll go cook noodles. How about tomato and egg noodles?"

Mu Nan pulled back the blanket and angrily said, "I don't want to eat noodles. You made me tired to death and you give me noodles! Doesn't your conscience hurt?"

Qin Huai picked up the angry man and hugged him in his arms: "You ignored me again. There is only rice and noodles at home. I don't have the ingredients to make anything else for you."

Mu Nan muttered, "Who told you to be so excessive?" Just say it to coax him once, and say it with high quality and depth. If he believes such nonsense again in the future, he will be a fool!

Qin Huai kissed him on the forehead: "Okay, I went too far, I'll make you something delicious to compensate you, what do you want to eat?"

Mu Nan felt that it would be a bit hypocritical to continue to be angry. After all, he had felt comfortable before, so he went down the stairs: "I want toast, the French kind, with cheese and bacon."

Qin Huai naturally agreed, took the necessary materials, and put him back on the bed: "Lie down for a while, I'll call you when I'm ready."

As soon as Qin Huai left, Mu Nan rubbed his waist on the bed with his teeth bared. It was a lesson learned from blood and tears. He decided to force Qin Huai to eat vegetarian food this week. If Qin Huai refused, he would bite him to death!