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In the locked, dim room, several black figures were squatting densely packed together.
He Zhennan followed Wang Yutian inside, holding a lighter he took out from his pocket. The dim light of the lighter illuminated the entire room. A fishy smell mixed with unpleasant odors floated throughout the room. Several barefoot women had their lower bodies wrapped in quilts, their hands and feet tied, and their mouths blocked. They were sitting huddled together in the corner of the room.
After seeing the two of them come in, all the women looked at them in unison with flickering eyes, but no one asked for help. Instead, many of them had vigilance and fear in their eyes.
It was not until Wang Yutian hurriedly tore off the ropes and cloth strips on his daughter and wife, and they hugged each other and cried loudly, that the women's eyes relaxed and were no longer as vigilant and fearful as at the beginning.
In the dim firelight, He Zhennan counted the people in the room. There were six people in total, four adults and two children, all women. These women and children were all skinny from hunger, and looked very miserable. Some of the women had red and swollen faces, and their exposed arms and the backs of their hands were bruised and purple. They looked so pitiful. Whenever He Zhennan looked over, these women would subconsciously shrink back.
The unpleasant smell in the room was not only the smell of rotting flesh and blood, but also some obvious smell left behind by sex between a man and a woman.
Looking at the group of women and children in front of him, He Zhennan frowned. It was not convenient to say more at this time. After taking out a dagger and cutting the ropes tied on these people's hands, he repeated what he had said to Wang Yutian.
Anhai Village is hundreds of kilometers away from the county town, but living in the county town, according to the current situation of the county town, these women and children in front of them probably have no way to survive.
As far as he knew, there were still many people in the county who were secretly eating human flesh.
Thinking about the situation in Wanxi Village and then the situation in the county town, He Zhennan couldn't help but sigh in his heart. The distance was only twenty or thirty kilometers apart, but the situations on both sides seemed like a chasm, one in the clouds and the other in hell.
Even though Wanxi Village also experienced an earthquake and a snowstorm, its chief, Zhao Xingguo, managed the entire village in perfect order. Even though houses collapsed and everyone was freezing, there wasn't even a single thief in Wanxi Village, while people in the county town had already started eating people alive.
If the leaders of the county had used the guns and manpower of the police station to comfort the victims in the county, and uniformly distributed the first batch of relief supplies, and severely punished robbery and theft that occurred in the county, how could the county become what it is today?
"That's true. We also know that there is a temporary base in Anhai Village, but Anhai Village is two or three hundred kilometers away from us. A few women like us with children walking such a long distance might encounter some accidents along the way... It's safer for us to stay in the county." An older, thin woman gathered her long hair, put on her messy clothes in a hurry, and said with a worried face, not caring about being shy.
The other women and children who were originally happy because they were rescued could not help but look sad and worried.
"Yeah, it's dangerous anyway, I might as well stay here with my husband and family. They died in the earthquake before, and their bodies were all buried in the ruins of our home. Instead of living so lonely, dying with them is also a good choice." Another woman cried softly, obviously feeling that going to the temporary base hundreds of kilometers away was not such an easy thing.
Who wants to die while still alive?
These women had survived such humiliation before, so it must be a lie for them to say that they don’t want to go to the temporary base now.
He Zhennan frowned and sighed, "Since you don't plan to leave the county, then you should pack up. This group of people should still have a lot of food hidden. Gather the food and I'll take you to the department store on the county's commercial street. The situation there should be relatively safe, and you can go there to make a living for a while."
In the past two days, he not only found out about this group of people, but also found out about the situation at the department store. It was still guarded by people from the county government and the police, and ordinary people didn't dare to attack them at all.
If these women want to continue living in the county town, they can only follow the people from the county government.
"But... I remember that the department store is no longer accepting people... because the things happening here have been causing panic among the people. Many people wanted to live there, but they were directly kicked out..." The older, thin woman frowned and said worriedly.
"You don't have to worry about this matter. Leave it to me." He Zhennan frowned.
Although he couldn't send them to the temporary base, it should be possible to find a way to get the people at the department store to accept them.
"Really?!" Several women asked in unison with their eyes shining.
If they could live in the county town’s department store, they would definitely be able to survive and be rescued there!
"Well, you guys should hurry up and pack up... These guys should have hidden a lot of things, you can clean them out." He Zhennan nodded in response.
"Then can we go too?!" When Wang Yutian heard that he could live in the department store in the county town, he immediately lost all desire to go to the temporary base. He hugged his wife and children and looked up at He Zhennan expectantly.
"You want to go to the department store too?... Then let's go together." He Zhennan nodded, and did not refuse Wang Yutian. He just leaned against the wall, closed his eyes and said no more.
His biggest problem now is not to persuade the county leaders to take in these people, but how to conceal his whereabouts while persuading them.
He had stayed in Wanxi Village for so long just to make them believe he had perished in the earthquake, that he was no longer alive. This way, when he returned, he wouldn't alert them and would catch them unawares. It would be a waste of time to expose his whereabouts just by sending these people to the department store.
"I still have to be careful." He Zhennan said to himself.
…
Wanxi Village had no idea what was happening in the county. The villagers slept better at night because of the patrol team. After Qin Suyun sold her chickens to Aunt Wang and Aunt Liu, she closed the door and went to rest.
The village chief was inspired by Qin Suyun's use of solar panels. The next day, he found several strong young men in the village and two men who were proficient in circuits. They dismantled the solar panels and batteries of the solar street lights on both sides of the village road, brought them back to the village and installed them as village street lights.
Most of the solar street lights on the road had collapsed due to the earthquake, and some were even looking shaky. It was not very convenient to have no lights in the village at night. If someone sneaked in from the back mountain and hid somewhere, the patrol team might not be able to find the other person's trace.
Their village can be considered to be recycling waste. Don't raise any moral or immoral issues with Zhao Xingguo, or whether these solar street lights are public facilities.
Now that the whole society has become like this, who still cares whether solar street lights are public facilities?
The six thieves caught by Qin Suyun were locked in the woodshed and starved for two days before being thrown out of the village.
These guys were almost dumbfounded when they saw the newly built red brick protective wall at the entrance of the village, which was more than six or seven meters high and more than one meter thick!
If they were not originally from Wanxi Village and had just been caught and beaten up by the villagers, they might have directly given a thumbs up to this thick and tall protective wall.
"Boss, why don't we ask them if they're still accepting people?... Let's just stay here... I think the people here seem pretty reliable." The fourth brother, who had been thrown out of the village, scratched his head, looked up at the six or seven-meter-high protective wall, and said expectantly, "If we work hard in the village, they'll probably agree, right? It's such a long way to the temporary base, and there might not be much food there. It's better for us to stay here and relax."
He had read a lot of science fiction novels before, especially those about doomsday bases.
It's all said in the book that those bases all require residents entering the city to pay a large amount of supplies before they can enter. If they don't have enough supplies, they will be locked outside the base and cannot enter. In addition, people in the base have to complete various tasks every day to get newly allocated supplies, otherwise they can only live in the worst place in the base and wait to die.
The six of them don't have any professional skills and can only do petty thefts. When they go to the base, their lives might be even worse than outside!
Thinking about those days, the fourth brother didn't want to leave the familiar place in Yunhai City.
"Are you dreaming? Didn't you see they've already thrown us out?" Lao Liu curled his lips in dissatisfaction. "The other village already despises us, so how could they possibly let us live in the village? Besides, if we live in the village, we won't be allocated any farmland. How will we eat and drink in the future? We can't just steal from the village again, can we? If we do that, I'm afraid we'll be beaten to death by those guys in Wanxi Village."
"You guys don't need too many."
The crew-haired young man, known as the boss, clapped his hands, drawing everyone's attention to himself. He said, "When we left the county town, didn't we already decide to go to the temporary base? This village has only built a protective wall, which is definitely inferior to the temporary base organized by the government. We will definitely live no worse off in the temporary base than here. Even if it's a little harder, it will definitely be safer than here... After the earthquake and snowstorm, our lives will return to normal after the reconstruction. Maybe when the people above see that we are from the disaster area, they will help us allocate more land for housing. Okay, stop looking, let's go! lest we waste time. If we turn back, we won't have far to go before the sun sets again."
"Oh...Okay then, boss, we'll all listen to you." The fourth brother looked dejectedly at the tall and thick protective wall.
Following the young man with a crew cut, they walked in another direction. When they entered Wanxi Village to steal things, they hid the things they had brought with them in another place and did not carry them with them. Now, they were going to that place to dig out the luggage they had brought from the county town.
Since the snowstorm stopped, everyone started to clear the thick snow, sweeping out all the snow that fell in the backyards and vegetable gardens of every household and piling them into piles.
Seeing this, Qin Suyun also followed everyone's actions, but there were not many places where she needed to clear the snow. Apart from her front yard and back yard, she only needed to clear the snow on the roof and around the greenhouse.
This greenhouse, which cost a lot of money to build, is very sturdy. During the entire snowstorm, she did not go to the greenhouse to take a look.
I thought the greenhouse had already been damaged by hail and heavy snow, but unexpectedly, the greenhouse built with steel bars was completely intact! Even the previous hailstorm didn't damage the plastic film on the outside!
Qin Suyun was really surprised when she saw this. She had originally thought that after she had cleared the snow in the greenhouse, she would find someone to help cover the greenhouse with plastic film again. Now it seems that there is no need for that at all, as there are plenty of spare plastic films at home.
But there is no need to trouble others or waste money again, isn’t that better?
The only troublesome thing was that the snow around the greenhouse was thicker than the snow piled up against the wall of her house, and if she was not careful, she would easily get her head and face soaked by the snow.
It took Qin Suyun three days to clear the snow in the front yard, back yard and around the greenhouse. After the snow was cleared, Qin Suyun collapsed on the sofa and didn't want to move.
At this time, some of the fruits on the third floor were already ripe and hanging heavily on the branches, waiting for Qin Suyun to pick them.
The fruits and vegetables grown with Gypsum Ficus microcarpa are good in every way, with good taste, good appearance and short growth cycle. However, if they are kept hanging on the tree, they will age faster than when they are picked. Therefore, when these fruits and vegetables are ripe, they must be picked in time, otherwise they will fall directly from the tree.
This time the concentration of jade dew was slightly higher than usual. In just seven days, the original fruits were ripe. The time for picking the fruits was naturally shorter. She had to go upstairs to pick the fruits on time.
Qin Suyun rubbed her aching waist and swollen arms, and went upstairs to pick fruit with the bamboo basket that had been prepared long ago.
Hei Dou followed Qin Suyun lightly, without becoming clumsy at all due to the weight gain during this period. He was still the extremely agile black cat. Looking at Hei Dou's extremely well-behaved and furry appearance, Qin Suyun couldn't help but squat down and touch Hei Dou's furry little head, and rubbed his two little black paws by the way.
"Meow~~..." Hei Dou tilted his head back and did not resist. Instead, he rubbed Qin Suyun's palm happily, looking like a well-behaved kitten. If Hei Dou's body size had not increased by more than twice, this action would have looked even cuter and more adorable.
After stroking Heidou's soft, fluffy fur several times, Qin Suyun felt very satisfied, but she muttered to herself, "It feels like I haven't touched Heidou for two days. Heidou's fur doesn't seem as soft as before... Instead, it's a bit similar to the hard bristles on Dahei and the others' backs... Could it be that because Heidou's body has grown larger, his fur has become coarser?"
Unable to figure out what was going on, Qin Suyun stopped thinking about it and continued walking up to the third floor with the bamboo basket in her hand.
Zhazha squatted on his bird's nest, smelling the fragrance of the fruit and counting the peaches hanging on the tree with contentment.
"Ga ga ga... 22, 23, 24... 38, 39..." Every time the macaw counted forward, its bean-sized eyes brightened a little. When it counted to 40, the whole bird seemed to be enveloped by the rich and sweet fruit fragrance in front of it.
Zhazha swallowed, looked left and right, and seeing nothing was happening around him, he jumped out of his nest. His eyes were fixed on the biggest, reddest, and most delicious peach on the tree. He flapped his wings and was about to fly over to pick the peach and bring it to his nest.
All it heard was the sound of footsteps, accompanied by a familiar melody, which entered its ears. Then two familiar figures came. Just as it was about to peck at the peach, its movement froze. It lost its balance and almost fell directly from the peach tree.
"Zhazha, what are you doing?" Qin Suyun stared at Zhazha, narrowing her eyes dangerously.
She had warned Zhazha before that the fruits at home had to be divided equally before they could be eaten, and that no bird or dog was allowed to steal them beforehand. This little creature had agreed to this before, but now he looked guilty, as if he was about to do something bad.
"Ga gaga...chi chi~~" Zhazha held on to the tree trunk and took two steps back from the branch where the peach was hanging. He tilted his head and blinked innocently, as if he didn't understand what Qin Suyun said at all.
The corner of Qin Suyun's mouth twitched. This bird spirit was so good at adapting to the situation that even its cry turned into the chirping of a bird. It would be unfair to Zhazha's superb acting skills if it was not awarded an Oscar. Looking at its innocent little appearance, it was even more superb and pitiful than those actors in previous TV dramas who pretended to be innocent.
She grabbed Zhazha from the branch. Due to inertia, Qin Suyun grabbed Zhazha's back directly, revealing the bright red feathers on its belly. She was just about to reach out and give the little thing a chestnut.
But the bird started to show off again.
Zhazha: "Little cabbage, the fields are yellow~... Only three or two years old, and no mother... I, Zhazha, have a miserable life... 嘤嘤嘤嘤~!!!"
Qin Suyun: "..."
I haven't seen it for a few days, and I didn't expect that this bird has learned to meow by following the TV dramas on the phone... Does it think it's a meowing monster?
Qin Suyun lowered her head and stared at Zhazha without saying a word, her face showing no emotion.
Why is this guy so difficult to please?! It's time to use my trump card!
"Why are you looking at me~~! I'm shy, you bastard~!" The wings behind him were held in Qin Suyun's palms. Unable to cover his cheeks with the wings, Zhazha performed a difficult move, hooked up his bird claws, and covered his face shyly, while his small eyes as big as beans glanced at Qin Suyun secretly through the gaps between his claws.
Qin Suyun: "..."
I have no idea where it learned this from! I've never watched a TV show like this, and I don't even have a video like this saved on my phone!!!
Seeing Qin Suyun speechless because of the naughty bird Zhazha, Hei Dou became a little unhappy. His ears were pulled into an airplane shape and his tail was swinging back and forth in annoyance.
"Meow! Meow!——"
With two cat meows, Hei Dou jumped up from the ground, climbed up Qin Suyun's trouser legs and jumped onto her shoulders. He stared at Zhazha from a condescending attitude, with indifference in his cat eyes.
The big parrot that was stared at by Hei Dou was trembling. The parrot that was originally chirping about being a shy ghost now seemed to have its mouth frozen in ice. It didn't say a word. Even every muscle and feather on its body didn't move, as if it had turned into a fossil bird in an instant. But its pair of bird eyes stared at Hei Dou pitifully, with a look of begging for mercy in its eyes.
God knows how Qin Suyun could see the plea for mercy in such a pair of small eyes!
"Okay, little guy, be good and listen... go play over there. I'm going to start working. Don't disturb me." Qin Suyun rubbed Zhazha's head, making the originally soft feathers all frizzy, and put Zhazha on the branch on the other side with a smile.
This afternoon, she had to pick all the fruits quickly, otherwise when she woke up at night, all the fruits would probably be ripe and fall to the ground, and it would be a waste if the fruits were broken.
Since He Zhennan had lived at home for a long time, the batch of fruits that Qin Suyun had collected before had long been consumed. Even Zhazha had been eating peanuts and radishes in the past few days. The quality of the food had been downgraded from fruit to radishes, and Zhazha was very unhappy.
Don’t think that Zhazha doesn’t know the difference in taste between fruits and radishes. In fact, it knows it very clearly.
The matter was covered up like this. Zhazha flapped his wings happily and planned to fly back to his nest. Even though he didn't eat the peach just now, he escaped a disaster, which was enough to make him happy. After all...
Zhazha didn't want to be beaten at all, especially for a bird with such noble bloodline as it. How could it be beaten by those stinky cats and dogs?
Being enslaved by them on a daily basis is fine, but after being beaten up by them, it still has to save face, okay?! If it continues like that, it will be really humiliating!
“Meow~ Meow~~——”
Zhazha's happy and cheerful look caught Heidou's eye. Heidou immediately put on a stern face, jumped off Qin Suyun's shoulder, and climbed directly onto the fruit tree where Zhazha was standing.
“Meow! Meow!——”
Hei Dou wagged his tail and directly ordered Zhazha to help Qin Suyun pick fruits, especially those high up on the trees.
This way, Qin Suyun would not have to climb up and down the stairs and be very busy, and she could also save a lot of energy.
“Ga ga ga~——”
Upon hearing such an order, Zhazha almost jumped three feet high from the tree, and excitedly clucked in disagreement. It was a macaw with noble blood, how could it do such a menial job?
“Meow!——”
Heidou stretched out his two front paws, squatting on the tree trunk with his feet. His brown cat-like eyes stared coldly at Zhazha, and his tail twitched in dissatisfaction. If this lowly bird didn't help pick fruit today, he would pluck it out tonight. Then he would see if a bird of noble pedigree could still be noble after being plucked.
"Ga—"
Zhazha was threatened by Heidou. He stood on the treetop with a wronged look on his face and his head hung, like a primary school student who had done something wrong.
Although the chirping of birds and cats here attracted Qin Suyun's attention, she had no idea what they meant. She just thought that Hei Dou was teaching Zhazha a lesson for what had just happened, and she didn't take the chirping of the cat and bird to heart at all.
As long as they don't fight each other to the death, Qin Suyun will not care about them.
It is their freedom to do whatever they like and eat whatever they like. She does not have the time to take care of these things. Since the snowstorm stopped, she has been busy all the time. After all the vegetables and fruits in the glass house on the third floor are put away, she will prepare to grow seedlings.
The greenhouse cannot be left empty. It's time to clean it up and plant other seedlings.
In this way, people in the village will not find it strange when they see it, and the action of growing various fruits and vegetables in the greenhouse can be regarded as being in sync with other people in the village.
Qin Suyun was thinking about these things in her mind, but she did not stop or slow down the work at hand. In fact, as she picked the fruits faster and faster, she still followed the old rules. Qin Suyun picked the fruits from under the trees first. After all the peaches, lychees and other fruits under the trees were picked, she would build a ladder to pick the fruits from higher up.
However, what he didn't expect was that when he started to pick the peaches below, he saw Zhazha, who was originally standing on the treetop, flapping his wings and flying up to help peck the peaches. With Zhazha's light peck, the yellow peach rolled down from the tree.
Qin Suyun was stunned, thinking to herself, "Oh no! This peach has fallen from such a height and will surely break into pieces, making it inedible." But then a black figure flashed, and Hei Dou jumped up and grabbed the fallen peach. With a few light steps, Hei Dou put the peach back into the bamboo basket that originally held peaches.
I don’t know how black beans do it?
She clearly saw with her own eyes that she was putting the black soy milk and peaches into the bamboo basket, but there was no trace of damage or teeth marks on the peaches. They were as smooth as if she had picked them with her own hands.
"This is too amazing!" Qin Suyun murmured, and almost forgot the action of picking fruits in her hands.
After watching a few times, Qin Suyun saw that Zhazha and Heidou were working together happily (??), so she stopped caring about Zhazha and Heidou. Since Zhazha and Heidou wanted to help her, she let them go.
"If you've worked hard, just leave the rest of the work to me later." Qin Suyun curled her lips into a smile and continued with her work.
Although the glass house on the third floor is only over 100 square meters, it still took Qin Suyun nearly three hours to pick all the fruits from the trees. If it weren't for Hei Dou and Zha Zha helping her, it would probably take her even longer.
After cleaning up the third floor and sending all the picked fruits to the kitchen on the first floor, Qin Suyun planned to clean up and start cooking dinner.
After a long day of hard work, Qin Suyun only planned to make some simple and convenient food for herself. If it weren't for the many furry friends at home, she would have been so tired that she would have just wanted to eat instant noodles at night. However, for the sake of these furry friends at home, Qin Suyun decided to make some delicious treats for them as usual. Not to mention that Zhazha and Heidou helped all afternoon today, Dahei and the others brought back three pheasants and four rabbits from the mountain.
With so many rabbits and pheasants, it would be unreasonable not to reward the heroes of the family.
But she would have to wait until tonight to deal with these pheasants and rabbits.
Qin Suyun was very skillful in cooking rice and frying dishes. She was now much faster than before. The aroma of meat filled the whole kitchen. Xiaoqi and the others were all queuing up with their plates in their mouths, waiting for their meals.
“Gurgle gurgle—”
The foodie Xiao Wu couldn't help but swallow his saliva, and his pair of dog eyes were as bright as two small light bulbs.
Oh my god! It smells so good. I must catch more rabbits when I come back!
While swallowing their saliva, they waited for Qin Suyun to serve them dinner, beef and stewed chicken. The dogs in the house ate happily. Hei Dou also ate very happily, wagging his tail with great satisfaction.
With cats, dogs and birds, Qin Suyun feels very secure even though life is harder than before.
………………
At the entrance of Wanxi Village.
On the pitch-black road, illuminated only by the white snow, two black figures were staggering towards the village entrance. A patrol member standing at the sentry post at the village entrance was holding a telescope and looking around. When he turned around, he saw the two black figures.
The man was startled and quickly patted his companion, "Daxin, hurry up and look, hurry up and see if there are two people coming towards us? Those two guys over there can't be those bandits from the county town!"
The man called Daxin was startled and quickly raised his telescope to look in the direction the other party was pointing.
In the moonlight and the reflection of the snow, the two staggering black figures were very conspicuous!
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