Chapter 78

Shi Yuanfei directly settled his soldiers in the first townhouse at the entrance of the community. This made it easier for the people he brought with him to find them at the first opportunity if anything happened. All those who had chosen a place to live were required to come and register. Anyway, this was the current situation. It was enough to have a house to avoid the sun. The subsequent order planning would come slowly. At least he had to wait for him to take his men to the base to check the situation. If the situation at the base was okay, they would drive back to the camp where the military headquarters was as soon as possible.

No one knew what the situation was like in the camp after they had been away for so long. Although they were able to contact the military, the signal was unstable, so they could only rush to contact the military. The most important thing was to hope that the plague would spread more slowly and fewer people would get sick.

Not many people noticed Shi Yuanfei's departure, since there were still soldiers in the house over there. Qin Huai and the others did notice it, and they even hoped that Shi Yuanfei could leave faster and the situation at the military base could get better, so that they could rebuild faster. It would only be a month before it snowed.

The supplies brought by the army logistics can last for a while. Those who handed in supplies and ate with the soldiers were given three days of food at a time. The food was only naan and bread, plus a bottle of water every day, nothing else. These three days were for them to reorganize and rest. Because of the supplies Qin Huai and his friends handed in later, and Qin Huai and Shi Yuanfei had a good relationship, as if they had some kind of friendship, Brother Xu did not hide it from them: "We will start to gradually reorganize here in three days. We need to find a way to repair the broken brick walls, check the damage of the water and electricity facilities, and check the situation of the solar power station. So we will recruit some people by then. At present, we can only calculate points according to work and exchange them for food. You can start to consider whether to earn these work points to eat, or look around for empty houses to settle down."

Brother Xu gave another reminder: "Although there are few people here, there are still bodies in the ruins that have not been cleared out. If you want to search the ruins, please be careful. I won't say more. We will come to check every day before dawn. If anyone has a fever or is sick, we will immediately take them to the vocational school in the back for isolation, and they can't continue to live here."

Qin Huai nodded: "Thank you for letting us know, we will be careful."

Everyone took the distributed food back to their homes and put it away, then gathered at the door to discuss. Everyone preferred to hurry up and find some things while there were not many people here. Once more people gathered, it would be difficult to find anything.

Jian Chu calculated, "In addition to food, there are also various supplies. We also need to find some electrical appliances that we didn't use before because we thought it was troublesome. Otherwise, when the electricity is available here, we don't have air conditioning, electric fans, or even an induction cooker. It will be difficult to eat. We can't eat even if we have rice and noodles."

Song Jia sat aside and touched Niuniu without saying anything. Wu Zheng said directly: "I am not familiar with this place and have hardly been here. However, Niuniu can smell the food, but I am afraid we have to find the electrical appliances ourselves. Anyway, I will follow you. It will be safer with more people."

Yu Zibai glanced at everyone and said, "Should we all go together, or should we leave someone behind to look after the house?" They had worked so hard to build this house, and now when they came back, everything was gone, and there was still some food in the house.

Qin Huai shook his head: "Don't worry about that. The houses here have been registered. Those who came with the team have basically chosen their accommodation. Those who are still walking will probably be taken to the vocational school behind to settle down temporarily. There will be no problem with the houses."

Jian Chu: "Then where are we going now?" There is no ground here. The vast land and sparse population make it safer, but it also means there is nothing to turn over.

Qin Huai spread out the map and pointed to an area: "We should be here now. This way is the solar power station, this side is the vocational school, and this circle is basically all universities or vocational colleges. Where there are students, there must be business districts. It's just that I don't know which way to go now."

Xu Ming pointed to a place on the map and said, "This is the business district, right? We can try to go around here first. There may not be any food, but it would be good if we can bring back some furniture and appliances."

Jian Chu couldn't help but ask, "How are we going to tow it? With just our small trailer and bicycle?"

Qin Huai said, "We can go this way and take a look at the situation first. If we can carry it with us, we can carry it. If we can't carry it with us, we can discuss a solution later. When we come back, we can go around from the top."

Xu Ming looked at him and asked, "Do you want to go to the power station?"

Qin Huai nodded: "I won't consider those large generators, but if the solar panels can be moved, they will be useful in the future. If not, these things can be exchanged with the government in the future."

Qin Huai put the map away and said, "That's it. Let's go. If we go early, we can look through it more."

Song Jia carried Niu Niu to the front basket of Wu Zheng's bicycle. Although the basket was a little small, Niu Niu had half of her body outside even if she squeezed in. Fortunately, the dog was well behaved and tried to curl up and not move around to avoid falling off. Mu Nan looked at her with envy: "She is so well behaved and sensible."

Song Jia stroked the dog's head and sighed, "Those who don't know better have become food on the plate. Animals are sensitive by nature. I'm afraid they know that the world is not doing well. They may be afraid of being abandoned, or they may be afraid that their owners will have a hard time."

Mu Nan rode on his bicycle and looked at Niuniu in front of him: "We are lucky to have you as the masters. If it were someone else, no matter how smart they were, they might not have a good life."

There was no weight on the vehicle and the trailer was empty, so they rode their bicycles easily to the business district behind the school. That was a commercial center that had only been built in the past two years. There was a large shopping mall and many office buildings under construction around it. However, because it was built outside the Third Ring Road and the subway had just been opened, there were not many people shopping here before the end of the world. It was said that there were more salesgirls in the mall than tourists inside. Later, it was not known whether the mall was requisitioned as a cooling point, but during the hot period, the mall was probably closed, and no one should be buried underneath. However, even so, Qin Huai and the others were still very careful, wearing masks, gloves and protective clothing.

It might take them ten minutes to drive there, but they rode for nearly an hour. This was because there weren't many construction debris blocking the road. Looking at the unfinished houses and shopping malls in the distance, everyone sighed heavily. Searching for something usable from such a pile of ruins was a huge project that made people tired just thinking about it, but if they didn't search, they would have nothing to use.

Xu Ming said, "Well, split up and don't waste time together. I see some shops haven't collapsed completely, so check on those that are still standing first. But don't go too far away, and make sure you're within earshot so you can shout if anything happens."

Everyone nodded. Mu Nan followed Qin Huai. Fearing that Xu Ming was going alone, he looked back and saw that Xu Ming was traveling with Yu Zibai and the others. He didn't say much. Seeing Qin Huai walking directly to a cake shop that was half collapsed but half still standing, Mu Nan said, "Even if there is still food inside, it will be spoiled after being exposed to the sun for so long."

Qin Huai: "Look at the electrical appliances. Maybe you can find some knives, pots and pans."

Mu Nan glanced at the others who had already walked away to find their targets, and whispered, "When will we get our tricycles out?"

They had discussed it at home before, looking for things and exploring the roads in the next few days. If the road is easy to walk on and can be passed by tricycles, they will take a tricycle out. Otherwise, they don’t have any means of transportation, and even if they find large household appliances, they can’t carry them back. So they observed the road conditions along the way, and if they think it is easy to walk on, it is better to take it out early if they can. The tricycles were bought in the second-hand market, some are slightly newer and some are older. Of course, the one taken out at this time must be the old one, and they also sprinkle some dust on it, otherwise it will be a bit strange if it is too clean.

Qin Huai said: "Don't worry, take a look first."

Mu Nan pulled out an oven from the back kitchen: "Brother, is this thing useful?"

Qin Huai: "Put them at the door first. They are certainly useful. You can also exchange them as second-hand appliances later. But we have to put our daily needs first." Although they have enough, they still have to move some of them home. Now there is no place for exchange or purchase by the government, so things can't just appear out of thin air at home.

Mu Nan rummaged through the drawers and cabinets inside. There was nothing edible, but there were a lot of plastic bags and small paper plates for cakes that might have eight or ten in a bag. Mu Nan took out all of them. He could use them as bowls in the future and just throw them away after eating without having to wash them. He even found a box of candles at the very back. Although they were all long and thin birthday candles that didn't look very durable, they were candles after all, so he put them outside as well.

The two turned the cake shop upside down, but unfortunately the freezer was smashed by the collapsed objects, and the only appliance that seemed to be usable was the oven and a few wiring boards. The two piled the things at the door, and Qin Huai asked Mu Nan to take out the tricycle directly from the store, sprinkled some broken bricks on the tricycle, and then asked Mu Nan to put the things on the tricycle first and then push it out.

There is no need to waste too much time on the ruins that need to be turned over. First, turn over all the stores in this entire business district that have not collapsed or have collapsed less seriously.

Mu Nan came out of the store and saw Jian Chu crawling out of a mobile phone store. The inside of the store was fine, but the door was blocked, so he could only crawl in and out: "Is there nothing inside?"

Jian Chu saw them pushing a tricycle and was immediately shocked: "Fuck, you guys are so lucky, is this tricycle still usable?"

Mu Nan nodded: "Yes."

Jian Chu said, "Wait a minute, I found a lot of mobile phones inside, all unopened. I thought it was too tiring to move them since they were neither edible nor usable. Now that we have a tricycle, let's take some back. If communication is restored someday, we won't even have to buy mobile phones."

Mu Nan said, "Well, I'll go with you. Do you have any computers or tablets? If so, take them all." It won't be long before communications are restored. It's not known how long it will take for the main network, but the local area network will still be fine. By then, these things can be sold for new currency.

Before Qin Huai and the others came, Yu Zibai and Jian Chu had already searched a trendy brand store, but there was nothing in the store. It should have been emptied and closed before. However, the trendy brand store had installed curtains. They took down all the curtains that could be taken down and just happened to be moving them to the car. "It's definitely not possible to cover the whole house with these. Let's cover the sleeping area first. We can find it later."

Before they left, they removed all the membranes installed in the house and handed them over to the military. They didn't know whether they could get those membranes back after the military settled here. Those membranes were very thick, much better than these curtains that could only slightly block out the light.

Seeing that there was an oven in the car, Yu Zibai asked, "What can be cooked in an oven?"

Jian Chu poked his head out of the door of the mobile phone store and said, "There's a lot we can do. Come and move this box of mobile phones over. Mu Nan is still flipping through the tablets. I'll go help him."

Yu Zibai and Qin Huai hurried over to help move the items: "Tell Nan Nan not to look through the items too much. We will just quickly clean this area out today. We don't need to empty out everything in the store."

Jian Chu nodded and went back into the cave. After a while, another box was pushed out from below, and then he and Mu Nan came out of the cave. Mu Nan patted the dust off his body and said, "There are still some in the warehouse behind that, but there are not many left. Anyway, we only took these. Hey, where's Xu Ming?"

As soon as Mu Nan finished speaking, Xu Ming came over from the corner dragging a piece of cloth: "Here, you found a tricycle, coincidentally, I found a home appliance store."

Several people hurried over to help Xu Ming get the things. Although there was a lot of dust on the outer packaging boxes, the rice cookers and other items inside were still brand new. Xu Ming said that there were still quite a few in the store, but those displayed on the counter outside had fallen to the ground and were broken. Fortunately, there was still some stock in the cabinets, including rice cookers, induction cookers, and some pots. Fortunately, they came early. If they came two days later, by the time the people here reacted, they might not even be able to find a spatula.

Xu Ming looked at the tricycle that was filled halfway and sighed, "It's a good thing you have a map, otherwise we would have to rely on ourselves to find it and we wouldn't know when we would get here." If it weren't for the map in Qin Huai's hand that allowed them to go straight here with a purpose, it would take them an hour to ride here. If they had to grope around without a purpose, these things would not have waited for them.

Seeing that there were still vacancies on the tricycle, Jian Chu said, "Let's keep looking forward. What time is it now? How long will it take until dawn?"

Qin Huai glanced at his watch: "It's almost time."

Xu Ming: "Then we still have some time. We will go back at three o'clock. There are a lot of things on the road, so we will take turns riding. We will have two hours to prepare on the road, which is a little more than enough."

Mu Nan: "Then are we still going to the power station?"

Qin Huai shook his head. "No, there are too many things. It's too tiring to ride there. If we go back early, we can ride there to take a look. We have a map. We don't need to take too many detours to follow the map. There is no one living in that area. The road should be smooth. It only takes half an hour to ride there. If there is enough time, we can look for it. If not, we can still get a general idea of ​​the situation."

Mu Nan nodded: "Hurry up, where should we go? Do we need to act separately?"

Yu Zibai said: "Let's do it together. More people means faster speed. It would be more labor-saving to load directly onto the truck."

As they were talking, they saw Song Jia and Niuniu running over. They thought something had happened, but Song Jia panted and said, "Wow, where did you find this? It's just in time. Niuniu found a pickled cabbage shop over there. There are a lot of sealed jars of pickled cabbage. We just opened a jar. It's still good, but it's too heavy. I don't know if you want it."

Jian Chu quickly said: "Yes! How can I not eat when there is food!" Wouldn't it be stupid not to eat at this time!

Several people pushed bicycles and rode tricycles towards the pickled cabbage shop that Wu Zheng and his friends had found. The pickled cabbage shop had completely collapsed. If it weren't for Niuniu, they probably wouldn't have turned it over. Seeing them riding tricycles over, Wu Zheng was also surprised: "There are still some things inside, but I don't know if all of them are good or some are bad."

There is a sealing layer on the sauerkraut, I don't know if it's glue or something else. A jar that was just opened and randomly sampled was good. They can't open all of them and sample them. After all, the opened ones need to be eaten quickly, otherwise they will lose their sealing and go bad easily, especially in such a hot day.

Jian Chu said, "There is one jar that is good, and I guess most of them are good. Bring it up. Don't do too much today. It would be a loss if this porcelain jar was broken on the way. Anyway, keep it in there, and come back tomorrow."

He said in a somewhat strange tone, "These things seem to be able to last even at high temperatures. Why didn't the owner of this store take them away? When food was scarce before, this kind of pickled cabbage was also very valuable."

Mu Nan said, "That requires the boss to still be here. It's possible that it died before the extreme heat or during the extreme heat. If the boss is still here, it's impossible for him to leave the food in the store like this."

Thinking of those who had died in the past year, the relaxed mood of picking up treasures everywhere became a little heavier. Everyone stopped talking and hurried to load the things into the car.

A total of five jars were dug out. One of them was quite large, like the kind with a round belly for wine. It was probably quite full inside. It was quite heavy to carry. These five jars took up the remaining half of the space on the bike. Although some things could be piled on top, the bike would be too heavy and it would be difficult for one person to ride.

They thought they wouldn't gain much, but after only being there for a short time, they hadn't even checked two stores and they already had so much that they couldn't even store it all.

Mu Nan: "Let's go back. We can't load any more. Let's come earlier tomorrow and try to make two trips."

Jian Chu said, "I didn't expect to get such a big harvest. Many of the storefronts here didn't collapse seriously. Why didn't anyone come to turn them over? There should be people living around here."

Yu Zibai stuffed some things into his bag, trying to reduce the weight of the tricycle. "Apart from food, the people living nearby probably don't need anything else. What do they need these rice cookers for? There's no water or electricity. Maybe they don't even have a place to live. What else can they look for besides food and drink?"

On the way back, carrying the heavy weight of happiness and harvest, everyone felt relieved. The house was ready, and furniture and appliances were being added bit by bit. The anxiety of leaving a familiar place and coming to this unfamiliar place also dissipated a lot. Jian Chu was still sighing to Yu Zibai: "Fortunately we are here, otherwise if we stayed there, we don't know what the situation is now."

Qin Huai said: "We won't all act together later. Let's go with three people. Wu Zheng, does your family need solar panels?"

Wu Zheng nodded: "If we can have it, we will definitely use it. If we can use the supplies to replace a solar generator in the future, we won't have to worry about power outages."

Qin Huai then said to Yu Zibai and Xu Ming, "Since you guys live together anyway, only one of you needs to go. Who's going?"

Yu Zibai said, "Let me go. I'm considered an experienced hand." Compared to those who had never been exposed to these things, he was considered a skilled worker.

When they got home, they did not take the main road in front. Although the side door was still locked, the side wall had collapsed, so it was convenient to take a shortcut and not pass by other people's houses. After parking the car at the door, everyone began to move the things down quickly and put them in the yard of Jian Chu and Mu Nan's house. As soon as the tricycle was empty, the three of them immediately went to the solar power station, trying to get there and back earlier.

Jian Chu said, "Let's move into the house first. Otherwise, it seems a bit unsafe to count things here with the lights on."

The things were placed at the door of Jian Chu's garage. Once the door was opened, they could just move the things inside. So the four of them quickly moved the things into the house. After everything was moved into the house, Mu Nan went home and got a rechargeable lighting lamp.

The rice cooker took up a lot of space, so Xu Ming paid special attention when he took it. He only took four, just one for each family. The induction cooker didn't take up as much space as the rice cooker, so he didn't look at it. He took what he could move. He took seven at once: "Let's go and have a look tomorrow. It would be best if each family can stock up two. In case one of them looks good, we can have a replacement if it breaks during an earthquake. There's no electricity now, so we can try it."

Mu Nan nodded: "Okay, then you can each take two first. Anyway, there is no way to start a fire now, so my family will take one first."

Jian Chu looked at the pans that had fallen to the ground and said, "There are only three of these pans. Do you have any more in the store?"

Xu Ming shook his head: "I didn't pay attention. I thought I took a lot of things and there were still some places I didn't look through carefully."

Mu Nan: "You guys take it first, we still have a small milk pot for cooking, no rush."

Jian Chu was afraid that Mu Nan would suffer a loss, so he quickly said: "It's okay, we'll look for it carefully tomorrow. If we can't find it, this one will be given to you first. Anyway, Xu Ming lives with us, so we can eat together then." There were not many personal belongings now, all of which were dug out from the ruins together, so there was nothing wrong with eating together.

They took down a lot of curtain cloth in the trendy brand store, five or six pieces in total. Each family took one piece to cover the window. After all, they had to sleep during the day, and in order to avoid the sun, they slept in the corridor at the door of the room during the day.

Looking at the empty house yesterday, which was successfully filled with some things today, Jian Chu looked at Mu Nan: "Luckily, your brother is here."

Mu Nan looked at him strangely: "There's my brother? A map?"

Jian Chu shook his head: "No, Captain Shi specifically went to your brother to tell him about this. Otherwise, we live upstairs and have no idea of ​​the news. Although we will definitely come here in the end, after all, the main force has moved, but by the time we come, I'm afraid we won't have such good conditions."

Mu Nan smiled, lying back and fanning himself with one hand, thinking that if he and Qin Huai hadn't been here, Jian Chu and his friends might have been the first group to arrive. Without them, there would be no electricity, so Jian Chu and his friends might not have stayed upstairs and stayed indoors. They might have been the first group to arrive here. Fortunately, he had Qin Huai, otherwise his life would have been too miserable.