Chapter 14

Mu Nan poked at his phone and said to Qin Huai who was processing corn ribs: "Brother, the residents next door added me and asked if I could sell them some corn."

Qin Huai turned his head and took a look, then smiled and said, "Maybe they smelled the fragrance. Give them two. Forget about selling them. How many people live next door?"

Although they lived on the same floor, there were not many old residents. Qin Huai remembered that half of the people on their floor were tenants, coming and going, and he didn't know how many waves of people had changed over the years.

Mu Nan shook his head: "I don't know either."

Their house is actually separated from the neighboring house by only a balcony. Before the balcony was completely enclosed, you could see the neighboring house by just stretching your head out from the balcony. But now that the balcony is enclosed, it is completely separated. But if you look from the door, Mu Nan's house is only close to Qin Huai's house, which is opposite his door. The distance to the neighboring house is to the left and right of the elevator, separated by a whole corridor. So who lives next door, how many people live there, that is really unknown.

Qin Huai said, "Then give him two. Even if most people like to eat corn, they won't buy too much. I bought you the individually packaged ones, which are just two in a pack. I guess you have a child at home who wants to eat it after smelling the fragrance. Two is enough for the child."

Mu Nan nodded and replied to the WeChat message, "Then the soundproofing in their house is pretty good. I haven't heard any noise from the kids."

Mu Nan replied to Yu Zibai who had added him: No need to buy it, corns don’t cost much. But I don’t have many corns left, so I’ll give you two. I’ll put them in a plastic bag and tie them to my iron gate. You can come and get them.

After a while, Yu Zibai sent a WeChat reply, and Mu Nan quickly said, "Brother, the neighbor said he wanted to give us a bottle of pickled cabbage, but I said no, we have pickled cabbage at home. He said they pickled it themselves in their hometown and gave it to us to try. It's just two corns, in exchange for a bottle of pickled cabbage, isn't it too much of a bargain? Or give us a few more?"

Qin Huai said, "That's not necessary. Just keep it if it's given to you. You're a neighbor after all. If they need anything in the future, just help them if you can."

Mu Nan said okay, then went to find a small plastic bag and tied the corn to the iron door. After a while, someone knocked on the door. Mu Nan was about to open the door when Qin Huai stopped him: "You stay in the room, I'll go."

Qin Huai casually picked up a mask at the door and put it on before opening the door. He originally thought that the neighbor next door would be about the same age as his father, but when he opened the door, he saw a young man who was about the same height as him. Although he couldn't see his appearance because of the mask, he should be a handsome guy just from his exposed eyebrows.

Yu Zibai was a little surprised to see the person who opened the door. He had seen his neighbor next door before, who should be a college student. He was pale and thin and always wore headphones. He seemed to live alone. Sometimes when he met him in the elevator, he always looked lazy and sleepy. He had lived here for almost three years and had never had any eye contact with this neighbor, let alone saying hello or getting to know him. So when he saw that it was not the neighbor he expected, Yu Zibai was surprised.

But Yu Zibai quickly came back to his senses, smiled and said, "Hello, my name is Yu Zibai, I live next door to you, thank you for the corn, this pickled cabbage is made by my aunt in my hometown, it tastes okay, but it's a little spicy, you can try it if you don't mind."

Qin Huai took the pickled cabbage and said, "My name is Qin Huai. It's just some corn. You are too polite. We are all neighbors and young people. We can take care of each other in the future if there is anything."

Seeing that the other party was easy to talk to, Yu Zibai felt a little relieved. Hearing this, he said, "In special times like this, the saying that a distant relative is not as good as a close neighbor is reflected. There are only me and my friend in my family. He was so tempted by the smell of corn from your house that he couldn't help but think that he had lived here for several years and hadn't gotten to know his neighbors, so he took this opportunity to come and get to know them."

Things were exchanged and they got to know each other. Although they wore masks, they had been outside the door for a long time. Even though there was no fog in the corridor, they still felt unsafe, so they didn't say much. They said goodbye and went home. As soon as Qin Huai came in, Mu Nan asked, "What were you talking about at the door? It took so long."

Qin Huai sprayed the pickled cabbage bottle with disinfectant and placed it on the shoe cabinet at the door to dry. He went into the bathroom to wash his hands before coming out and saying, "I thought it was a family with children, but it turned out to be two young people, not too old, about the same age as me. We got to know each other and I think we can take care of each other if anything happens in the future."

Mu Nan said, "Any ingredients to add to the bone soup? Kelp, radish, or lotus root?"

Qin Huai: "What do you want to eat?"

Mu Nan said, "Lotus roots, I bought quite a lot, especially the pink lotus roots that are good for stewing soup."

Qin Huai hummed, "Take it out first. Prepare the soup base today and add the lotus root tomorrow. Otherwise, it will become rotten tomorrow if it is simmered overnight."

Jian Daodao from next door got to eat the corn as he wished, and even gave half of it to Yu Zibai with a spirit of dedication: "You have worked hard in exchanging the corn, and this is a reward for you!"

Yu Zibai found it funny to see him come alive again after getting rid of his previous decadence: "Thank you so much for being so generous."

Jian Chu waved his hand: "Why are you being polite? We are all brothers."

After saying that, Awoo took a bite of the sweet corn and immediately felt that life was happy. The two of them shared a corn and put the other in the refrigerator. They bought a lot of things in the group, including various vegetables, meat, bread and cakes, but they didn't see corn, so they would eat the remaining one next time when they were hungry.

As a result, at night, Jian Chu leaned against the balcony door again, smelling the bone fragrance in the air, with a melancholy look on his face.

Seeing him like that, Yu Zibai didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "Why don't we just follow other people's recipes for our three meals a day? I think other people's recipes are all good. Want to drink soup? I'll ask for some bones in the group tomorrow. There are quite a lot of people buying bones recently. Don't be tempted by others."

Jian Chu rolled his eyes at him and said, "Which eye of yours saw that I was greedy? I'm just thinking about life. Sitting here and looking at the empty streets outside can calm my restless heart. What soup? I don't want to drink any soup."

He is a student who just graduated this year. Although he hasn't received his diploma yet, he has been earning his tuition and living expenses since college. It's not easy to support himself these years because he has to go to school and work part-time. He doesn't have much savings. He has been staying at home for so long this time, and he is really a little impatient. He doesn't know how many days he can survive if he spends more than he earns.

His roommate is a graduate student who also graduated this year and had received an offer from a large company. However, a global pandemic forced him to stay at home. Although his roommate's life was not as difficult as his, his family was not wealthy. His mother died early and his father had his own family and never took care of him. Therefore, Yu Zibai did not have much savings. The two of them could not afford meat except to scrimp and save.

Anyone who dares to go out now is risking his life. It is normal for prices to soar, and with no one going out, almost the entire society has come to a standstill. It is not an exaggeration at all that green onions that used to cost two or three yuan now cost thirty or forty yuan. It is not easy to have food to eat. No one knows when a special medicine will be available, when the world will return to normal, and no one knows what will happen tomorrow. In this situation, how can they afford to buy bones that cost hundreds of yuan per pound to make soup?

The despair in this world is not only felt by the sick people. It's just that all eyes are now focused on mycosis fungoides. Other financial pressures are not as important as life in the eyes of those who have no worries about money.

There are many people who worry about money, and there are also people who don’t. Whenever there is a group purchase, as long as Mu Nan sees others buying, he will follow suit. The amount he buys is not much, just enough not to be too conspicuous, but he buys so many times that the volunteers in charge of delivery know their family and even joked, “There are only two people in your family, you and your brother. You bought a lot of things. It will be a waste if you can’t finish them.”

Qin Huai smiled and said, "My brother has been learning how to cook online recently, making steamed buns and pork buns. It's rare for him to have something to distract his attention, so we can't discourage his enthusiasm. He definitely won't waste anything. These foods are so expensive now, and we can't afford to waste them."

Thinking about the current prices, the volunteers all felt pained: "That's right, we can't even afford cabbage."

While things were being counted, Jian Chu also came out wearing a mask. Volunteers would usually notify the group which floor it was on, and ask those in the group who saw the message to come to the corridor to get the things. But if others didn't see it, they would still knock on the door. But it would be better to save as much trouble as possible.

When Jian Chu came over, the volunteers had just counted Qin Huai's things. Vegetables, meats and several kinds of fruits were piled all over the floor, and Qin Huai was carrying them home in bags. Jian Chu had also seen the neighbor next door, but yesterday Yu Zibai said that there was another person in his family, who was taller and stronger than the college student, named Qin Huai. Seeing the person taking things, Jian Chu guessed that this person should be Qin Huai. The college student they had seen before should be at home, and seemed to want to come out to help take things, but Qin Huai pushed him in and didn't let him out.

Jian Chu walked forward and stopped at a distance. Although she was wearing a mask, she could still smile from her tone as she said, "Hello, my name is Jian Chu. Thank you for the corn you gave me yesterday."

Qin Huai turned around and smiled friendly: "You're welcome. I also want to thank you for the pickled cabbage. My brother really likes it."

Jian Chu smiled and said nothing more. He reported his house number to the volunteers. They only bought some vegetables, two bags of food, not much. This little was almost enough for their food for a week. It was not that they ate less, but they could not afford it. A pound of radish cost twenty or thirty yuan, and this was the price suppressed by the government. Some private vegetable vendors were even more outrageous, but they had many varieties and they were fresh, so naturally there were people who bought them. Now the government-regulated prices are so high. If they continue to stay at home and cannot go out, I really don’t know what will happen in the future.