Chapter 163

Actually, Jian Chu and his wife had never met the elderly people from the Tong family, but they had a good relationship with them. However, they felt unworthy of the things they got. In addition, Yu Zibai happened to have a day off tomorrow, so they decided to go there with Qin Huai tomorrow.

Song Jia also wanted to go, just to see the old man off for the last time, at least to make him not feel so lonely. If they all went, there would not be enough seats in the car, and Qin Huai didn't want Mu Nan to go with him, so he left him at home.

The next day, the group set out before dark. When they arrived there, the sky was filled with the setting sun like clouds. Two old people were sitting in the yard, which was shabby but warm. Grandma Tong was lying on a recliner, and Grandpa Tong was hugging Grandma Tong tightly. They both looked peaceful. Although the bodies seemed to have been exposed to the sun and did not look very good, there was no sign of pain on their faces with their eyes closed.

Looking at the direction the two were facing, perhaps after they left this morning, Grandpa Tong moved Grandma Tong out, perhaps to watch the sunrise, or perhaps to feel the warmth of the light for the last time.

Jian Chu and Song Jia's eyes instantly turned red. They sat in the car for a while to calm down a little, then got out and walked to the bodies of the two old men and bowed three times.

Song Jia was saying his final goodbyes, Yu Zibai and Jian Chu were also thanking the two old men for their gift of food. Qin Huai walked aside to make a phone call. The signal here had coverage, otherwise Grandpa Tong would not have been able to contact the people in the residential area before.

There is now a funeral home in the residential area. Except for those who died of illness, most accidental deaths should be handled there. However, the treatment is different. There are too many people dying every day, and the unattended bodies have to wait in line for processing by the above-mentioned funeral homes. Otherwise, they have to pay to deal with it as soon as possible.

Qin Huai was looking for someone who was willing to pay. After telling the address in detail, he waited for almost two hours before a vehicle came. After a simple handover, Qin Huai paid the money, and the people from the funeral home took the two old people away. All that was left was to wait for the time to collect the ashes, and then bring them back here for burial according to the old people's wishes.

After the funeral home's vehicle left, they did not move anything in the house. Grandpa Tong had already handed over all the belongings yesterday. It was probably just the things in the wooden box. The rest were probably some clothes. According to custom, after a person dies, all the clothes they wore during their lifetime must be burned, so Song Jia and Jian Chu cleaned up the clothes in the house, while Qin Huai and Yu Zibai burned the clothes in the yard.

After the last spark was extinguished, several people got in the car and returned.

This incident was not a big deal in their lives. Mu Nan just showed them all Tong Cheng's photo. The world is so big, and even though they might not really meet him, what if that was the fate? So they all got to know his face to be prepared.

When the two old people were sent back to the small courtyard, the Cai family had also harvested a crop of straw mushrooms, which was about a snakeskin bag, weighing about 20 to 30 kilograms. It was not a lot, but it was not a small amount for such a small-scale cultivation.

Yu Feng drove over and took the straw mushrooms away, but the food might have to change hands several times in the process and it would not be possible to get it back so quickly, so he asked them to wait and be at ease.

Song Jia looked at the bag of harvest that was taken away and couldn't help but say, "You must help us sell it at a high price. Whether we will starve to death in the future depends on this wave."

Looking at the guys rubbing their hands together and praying, Yu Feng patted his chest proudly and promised to help them make a fortune.

One batch of straw mushrooms has been sold out, and the second wave has begun. However, after all the hard work during this period, everyone should reward themselves.

Mu Nan looked at the photos they posted in the group, seaweed egg drop soup, stir-fried straw mushroom slices, and a bowl of fragrant white rice, they were so moved that they almost burst into tears.

Song Jia: "It's been a while since I've eaten like a human being. Wow, I never knew mushrooms were so delicious!"

Jian Chu's family also made fried mushrooms today. The main reason was that mushrooms cannot be stored for a long time and need to be sprinkled with water. If they are left dry, they will dry out very quickly. They didn't have many left, so each family only took two to balance the meal. After all, they had to sell them to exchange for food, and they couldn't bear to eat too much.

In addition to stir-fried mushrooms, Jian Chu's family made seaweed egg pancakes today. They didn't make egg drop soup because it was too hot. Today's porridge didn't need soup. I haven't eaten anything other than pasta for a long time, and I never thought that ordinary stir-fried mushrooms could be so delicious!

However, while eating, Jian Chu seemed to smell a faint smell of barbecue in the air, so he immediately asked in the group: "Who is having a barbecue?"

Mu Nan took a photo of the mushroom slices being grilled on a skewer over a charcoal fire and asked: "Dogs have such a keen nose?"

The greasy and cumin-filled mushroom slices made people drool over them even across the Internet. Song Jia said, "I didn't expect it could be done this way."

Jian Chu: "I thought of it, but I'm too lazy to bother. Only Qin Huai has the patience to light the stove in such a hot weather just to roast those two little mushrooms."

Mu Nan looked at the messages they sent in the group and smiled. There were only mushrooms in the photo, but there were more than just mushrooms outside the photo. There were many other vegetables. They didn't dare to grill the meat directly, so they used the ready-made ones. In addition to meat, there were also lettuce, enoki mushrooms, eggplant, potatoes, and stinky dried tofu. It was a rare opportunity to have a barbecue openly, so of course they had to do it without restraint.

If they are lured in by the aroma, just leave the mushrooms and potatoes out; they'll all smell of cumin anyway, so it doesn't matter.

The slightly looser supply of supplies made the people in the small courtyard feel relaxed for two days. During these two days, another piece of good news happened, which was that the fire in Qinghe was completely put out.

Mu Nan never knew that a fire could burn for so long. After the fire was put out, the higher-ups planned to transfer some of the people from the north to Qinghe for reconstruction, but this was also on a voluntary basis.

The government has opened registration channels on the official platform. There are pros and cons to going to Qinghe. The pros are that you can get a job immediately and get priority in housing allocation. If you are willing to settle down in Qinghe, now that the fire has been put out, there are still traces of previous residences, and maybe you can find something in the ruins. In addition, Qinghe currently has no shortage of water. After all, its geographical environment is close to mountains and water.

The disadvantage is that everything has to start all over again, which is of course a difficult process. Many of those who fled from the north are exhausted, both mentally and physically, and it is difficult for them to bear the hardship of reconstruction. But if they stay here, they have to rely on hard labor to make money, and they still live in shelters, which are small compartments in a large factory building with only a place to sleep, a public bathroom, and no kitchen.

If you want to have your own house, even if it's just a one-bedroom or a small brick and tile room, instead of a wooden house, it's hard to say how long you'll have to wait. Even if they are a country with infrastructure, it's not possible to build a house for everyone on the ground in just two or three days.

There are people who have signed up to go to Qinghe, but not too many. Most of them are young people. If they stay here, they will do hard labor and can only earn enough to make ends meet. They don’t know when they will be able to settle down. If they go to Qinghe now, they may still have a chance. Some of the elderly can’t move anymore. They just follow the government’s arrangements and don’t want to go through the trouble of moving.

Although some people have left, Kangyun still has population pressure. However, due to the increase in population, the construction speed in many places has accelerated a lot. Not long ago, there was only a school project with a foundation, but now a teaching building has been built. Of course, other places are still under construction, but the five-story teaching building is almost ready for use.

Students will be accepted starting from primary school. Students in junior high and high school are old enough to work and earn money. Nowadays, not many families have such good conditions to send a money-earning laborer to study. If junior high and high schools are really opened, it is not known whether a class can be filled.

In addition to students, teachers are naturally indispensable. A teacher registration channel has been opened. There is not much threshold for registration, but it is said that an exam is required. You need to take the exam to determine which subject you are applying to be a teacher of, and then you will compete for the position through evaluation.

The opening of the school and the reconstruction of Qinghe have added a number of new jobs, giving people more topics to talk about after dinner.

Especially in their area, the conditions are good and there are several families with children. They look forward to school starting soon every day, even though life now is far worse than before and the lack of food and clothing makes many children become very sensible at a young age. But no matter how sensible they are, they are still children, not cats or dogs who can be locked aside with a rope and left alone.

Some parents really hope that their children can continue to go to school. Although life is hard, their knowledge and vision cannot be limited by the current environment. Only by seeing a wider world through books can they get out of the current predicament.

Some parents treat schools as daycare centers simply to save trouble. They even know that the school will provide students with meals. In order to save food expenses for the family, they have to send their children, who cannot earn money for the family, out of school.

In any case, the reopening of the school has greatly increased the activity level of the entire residential area.

Mu Nan also sighed to Qin Huai: "Fortunately, we live in the edge of the river. I heard that those who are closer to the campus can feel the joy of being awakened by the ringing of the school district bell."

Qin Huai is rebuilding the chicken coop. The roosters and hens need to be separated, and nests and isolation fences need to be built. The chicks that were hatched some time ago can now run around the ground. They started out as the size of a palm, but they are growing bigger every day, and now they are the size of two palms each.

A few days ago, Qin Huai distinguished the males and females. There were four chicks, three males and one female. It was terrible. This was really bad luck. Qin Huai even comforted Mu Nan: "At least there are not four roosters."

Mu Nan was already thinking about eating Rooster Eighteen in his mind.

Fortunately, Jian Chu's chick was a female. They were lucky. The chick that was born almost four or five days later in Song Jia's family seemed to be a male. But because the chick was still small and they were not experienced in raising chickens, they could not distinguish it carefully at the moment. They could only wait until it grew a little bigger to distinguish it. But this was mainly because Song Jia was unwilling to give up and did not want to believe that the only chick was actually a male.

Including the two big roosters that were originally left, Mu Nan's family now has almost five roosters, but it is not cost-effective to sell them now that they are so young. It would be better to raise them a little bigger and then sell them.

There are too many chickens and the house is very noisy, especially the roosters, which like to crow. Mu Nan wishes they could grow up overnight and sell them all.

In order to facilitate their counting, Yu Feng exchanged all the food obtained from the mushrooms for rice. There was not much, less than 200 kilograms. Qin Huai and Mu Nan directly vacuum-packed them in bags of 10 kilograms each and put them in the space. There was no other storage method that could preserve food freshness better than his space.

The family also harvested a batch of cabbages. Mu Nan told others that he kept a few to make a jar of kimchi. He had made a lot of kimchi at home before, but he didn't have many opportunities to sell them out to eat. Now that he had the raw materials, he naturally had to sell some of them out. As for the ones grown at home, Mu Nan didn't give them away for free, but sold them at a low price, five yuan per cabbage, and only one cabbage per family. The rest of the cabbage was sold by Qinhuai outside.

Instead of doing these things themselves, they contacted Wang Xiaoli. In addition to working, Wang Xiaoli would also make some extra money by reselling things. Unfortunately, the supply of goods was too limited. Now they were short of food, clothing and other necessities, and he had no strong connections, so he could only do small things.

Qin Huai also had some intention of helping Wang Xiaoli. He was sure that Wang Xiaoli could find a way to sell the cabbage, so he gave the cabbage to Wang Xiaoli and said, "You decide the price yourself. You know the market better than us. You can take the commission we agreed on before."

Wang Xiaoli felt a little embarrassed, mainly because Qin Huai and his friends had given too much in profit. Letting him take 30% was a no-cost business for him and it was a huge profit. Although he knew that his old classmate wanted to help him, he always felt that this was too much of a disadvantage and he felt unworthy of it.

Seeing Wang Xiaoli's expression, Qin Huai said, "Don't think that I let you earn more. This is risk sharing. We save trouble and work. It's you who deals with people, so we don't lose out even if you make 30%."

Now that things have come to this, Wang Xiaoli can no longer be hesitant, so he simply agreed: "Don't worry, I promise to make more money for you and not let you lose money."

Qin Huai: "You should also pay attention to safety. If something really happens, the food will be gone. Anyway, we grow it ourselves, so safety comes first."

After Qin Huai finished explaining, he left him two cabbages and told him about the inventory of cabbages, so that he could have some idea in mind. When he found a buyer and negotiated the price, he could go to him to get them at any time. Then he left his house.

Mu Nan was worried about Qin Huai going out alone, as there had been several vicious murders here before. Plus, he knew that the outer city was very chaotic, so he insisted on following him. But Qin Huai didn't let him get out of the car. Anyway, they could see Wang Xiaoli's house from here, so Mu Nan didn't force him to get out of the car and follow him. He just waited in the car.

Seeing Qin Huai return empty-handed, Mu Nan smiled and said, "Did you make the deal? Then let Wang Xiaoli sell it. Wouldn't it be unsafe if someone targeted him?"

Qin Huai said as he fastened his seat belt: "Everything has risks. He has explored some underground trading markets a lot, so he will be more careful than us. Since he agreed to this, he must have known what he was doing. Don't worry."

Mu Nan sighed: "Why do we have to work so hard? We have enough food and drink, but we are so tired and we have to run outside every day."

Qin Huai stepped on the accelerator and started the car: "This is called being close to life. Otherwise, if you stay in the house eating and drinking all day, you will lower your vigilance against this environment."

When the car was driving towards home, a burst of terrified screams suddenly broke out in front, and the crowd fled in panic.

Mu Nan was startled and leaned against the car window to see what was going on, but the distance was a bit far. They were in the driveway and the incident happened near a residential building. There were more than ten districts here, but Mu Nan didn't know which one it was because he had hardly been there before.

The houses were built later, and because they were planned, they did not look dirty or messy, but the population was densely populated, and there were all kinds of insulation and sunshades, and everything looked inconsistent, making the environment look particularly messy. At this moment, the crowd was fleeing, and there seemed to be two people lying on the ground. In the panic of the crowd, he seemed to see someone holding a knife and attacking indiscriminately.

But before he could take a closer look, Qin Huai sped up and drove out of the chaotic area.

Mu Nan quickly went online to check what was going on, but the network speed was not that fast. It was estimated that the news had not been released yet, so there was no news. He could only put down his phone: "Fortunately we drove, brother, you should come here less often in the future. You see, last time you came here alone, a murder happened here. This time I came with you, and something happened again. Don’t you think the risk is too high?"

Qin Huai: "I think he won't come here again unless there is something special. Wang Xiaoli has already applied for a rental house. The location is not bad. It's in District 7."

Mu Nan: "District 7? Is that very close to us? District 7 and District 2, they don't feel that far apart."

Qin Huai smiled and said, "It's farther away, even farther than the outer city. District 7 is over there at the power supply station, and it's separated from our residential area to the south and north. It takes about half an hour to drive there."

"Oh, that's fine too. It's safer than being in the outer city. I don't know when the outer city will be properly rectified."

Qin Huai was not optimistic about rectifying the outer city: "It is easy for a chaotic area to form, and no one needs to care about it. But if you want to rectify the chaotic area, unless you can disperse and resettle the more than 100,000 people in the outer city, so that the elderly and the weak can have someone to rely on, and the homeless can have food and drink, or use tough measures to supervise the employment, it will not be easy to rectify it."

Mu Nan just said that. He felt that as long as there were no major disturbances, the higher-ups would not bother to mess with the residential area that had been rebuilt with great difficulty to a temporarily peaceful and gradually balanced state. Only when everyone's stomachs were filled would they have the energy to improve their lives.

When they got home, what they had seen outside was reported on the news.

The attacker was a man. When everyone was queuing up to get water, he suddenly took out a knife and attacked indiscriminately. There is no exact statistics on the number of casualties yet, but it is said that there were a few who were able to run away after being scratched, and at least three who fell to the ground after being stabbed and their lives are unknown.

At that time, many people were queuing up at the water station to get water. The stations were not very densely packed, but not far away either. So when the man took out a knife from his body, many people did not react. By the time they reacted, several people had already fallen to the ground.

The pressure of survival is great now, one thing after another. The price of rice has increased just after the locusts passed. It has only been a few days since the price increase, and water purchase restrictions have begun again. Mu Nan then realized that in addition to receiving it for free once a day, he can only buy one extra bucket of water, no more.

Some people say that the authorities are forcing people into a dead end. For an average family, one bucket of water may be enough for a day's food and drink consumption, but some families grow vegetables. Even if they have to endure the heat and not use air conditioning, they still want to keep the vegetables at a suitable temperature. They endure drinking less water and dare not let the seedlings in the house become thirsty.

Before, people could at least pay for water, but now that water use is restricted, many people are going crazy.

Mu Nan quickly exited the news and entered the community group to check the news. Sure enough, people in the community group were talking about this matter. They were not talking about the murder that had occurred, but about the water control issue. Many people were dissatisfied, saying that since the government advocated family planting and now restricted water, what could they plant? Isn't this forcing people to have no way out?

"Brother, water restrictions have started again. There weren't any restrictions yesterday."

After dinner yesterday, they wanted to go out for a walk, so they called Jian Chu and Song Jia and dragged their cart to the square to fetch water. They also chatted with people while waiting in line and tried to find out if there was any new news or if there were any new stalls in the small market. But there wasn't much else, just that there were more people selling fried locusts in the past few days. They didn't hear any other news about water restrictions.

Qin Huai: "It was only announced today. I just checked the official website and it was announced at around 5 o'clock that water purchase restrictions will be imposed starting today."

At around five o'clock, they were counting the cabbages that could be harvested upstairs and downstairs. After completing the statistics, they went out directly without looking at the news released on the official website.

Mu Nan went back and read the news. The whole story was that the man had a seriously ill mother who was paralyzed in bed. He had a child who had just resumed night classes shortly before the earthquake. The child was trapped in the school during the earthquake and died. His wife stayed with him for a while, but unexpectedly his mother suddenly became paralyzed. During the flood, in order to save his mother, he didn't have time to grab his wife, and she was washed away. No one knew whether she was alive or dead.

Just now, his mother didn't make it and passed away. Although the man was devastated and even had the intention to die, he still wanted his mother to go in peace. However, because he had already received free water once and bought water again today, he was restricted from buying water the second time. At that moment, all his devastation condensed into the last straw.

He went home calmly, took a knife, carried the bucket, queued up at the water station again, and then went to the newspaper office frantically.

However, many people's comments under this news did not criticize the man, but instead blamed the government and complained about the world. Many were even negative, saying that it would be better for him to just die and be done with it.

Mu Nan suddenly didn't know what to say. The man was pitiful, and the innocent passerby who was stabbed to death was also pitiful. However, he was just a spectator to other people's joys and sorrows. What had a greater impact on them was the water restriction. Even groundwater was restricted. Who knew how long their private wells could last.