◎The 116th Happy Day: The Rain That Never Came Away◎
Even if Jiang Muyun wants to have double happiness, he can't just dig randomly.
The first thing to be started is the reservoir on the mountainside.
The location on the mountainside is neither high nor low. Under normal circumstances, there is no risk of flooding like at the foot of the mountain, nor like at the top of the mountain where all the time is spent climbing the mountain to get water. It is the best location.
The second is the top of the mountain.
Even if it takes a little longer to get around, it's better than needing water after the rainy season. Once you open the reservoir, you'll find it's filled with silt and debris, or even the skeletons of unidentified creatures.
When there is no good location on the mountain and everyone has some free time, they will consider digging a reservoir in a lower place.
Jiang Muyun dug a shovel and said, "I hope we don't have to go down the mountain to dig a reservoir one day."
After all, they dug the pits manually, and there were pits on five hills to dig. This was definitely a time-consuming and labor-intensive project.
If they have dug all the possible reservoirs on the mountain and the rainy season has not arrived yet, it will be so tragic that anyone who sees it will say it is a tragedy.
In addition to digging reservoirs, they also have to take turns to go to the trading market to buy supplies.
Regular drinking water is enough. Unless they come across a particularly good price, Jiang Muyun and others will not exchange the tea, wine and other supplies they have for drinking water.
What they mainly want to exchange are rare materials such as traditional Chinese medicine, solar panels, and batteries.
If possible, they even thought of getting a few more sets of pulleys and installing pulleys on the mountain here, so that it would be more convenient to transport water in the future.
At the same time, various portable ships are also their targets.
There were four life rafts that the group brought back from Nanshan. Two of them were used by them to row out of Nanshan and have now been abandoned. The other two have not been used.
But the life rafts they have are disposable. Once they are pulled out, there is no way to deflate them and retract them for next use, so they are still in great need of boats.
No one knows what the next rainy season will be like. What if Blue Planet is flooded again, or a tsunami hits again?
It's always better to be prepared for this kind of thing.
To get these things, it is not enough to prepare sufficient supplies, it mainly depends on luck.
Especially for materials such as solar panels and batteries, the transfer station officials have a policy of purchasing them through bidding.
That is to say, if a caravan brings these supplies, they can directly contact the official of the transit station, and the official will participate in the bidding with other caravans. If there is no bidding, the transit station will quote the current estimated market price for the purchase.
For the caravans that can get these supplies, they might rather make less money on the deal and sell them well to the transit station officials.
Not to mention that the official transfer station still adopts a bidding policy instead of directly giving a fixed purchase price.
Taking into account the time saved, they will definitely not lose money if they sell directly to the authorities at the market price.
If you want supplies like solar panels, you have to pay a higher price than the official price, or the other party wants to exchange for special supplies that are not available officially, such as a full set of plastic figurines.
So the six of them took turns squatting in the Nanshan Trading Area for more than half a month, and all they gained were some common Chinese medicinal herbs such as Isatis root and an inflatable kayak.
The good news is that they have gradually gathered all the parts needed for the pulley system.
However, these parts were not exchanged in the trading area or with the caravan. Jiang Muyun found them in shops stationed at transit stations of some bases around Nanshi.
It makes sense when you think about it. Since these parts can't be sold at a high price, there won't be any caravans transporting them from afar to sell them.
It is possible that they brought these things back while searching for supplies at nearby bases and stuffed them into the shops.
After Jiang Muyun collected the pulley parts in the store, the other people would occasionally go to the store to see if they could pick up something useful.
The items in the shops are all supplies collected by major bases around South City, and the prices are generally cheaper than those sold by caravans.
However, the shops can only trade with drinking water. Apart from the caravans that specialize in selling fresh water, no other caravans will bring large amounts of drinking water to trade. Therefore, the business of the shops in the current transit station is not very hot.
This also gave Jiang Muyun and others the opportunity to take advantage of the situation.
At the end of January, Zhao Jiahao and Li Anxuan went home to take over the shift from Qin Shiwen and Qin Shiwu. When Qin Shiwen and Qin Shiwu came, they didn't bring much fresh water, but they brought most of the dried mushrooms at home.
They took all these things to the shop and exchanged them for saltpeter and some simple distillation equipment.
If they don't have enough food in the future, they can exchange it for saltpeter. With the amount of supplies they have, they can't starve themselves to death.
But if you miss this period, it’s hard to say whether you can still exchange dried mushrooms for saltpeter.
On the first day of February, they found the last suitable pulley and prepared to install the pulley set on the last hill.
There are a lot of plants on the mountain now, and they don't go up the mountain every day, so it is unrealistic to clear a path. They can only install the pulley system on protruding boulders or cliffs.
But there is an advantage to this.
That is, the water reservoirs on the mountain are quite far away from where the pulley assembly is located. All the reservoirs are equal, and there is no saying that one pool is the most convenient for drawing water.
When Qin Shiwen and Qin Shiwu came, in addition to dried mushrooms, they also brought good news.
The chicks in Jiang Muyun's family have started to brood.
This means that after they successfully eat fresh rabbit meat, they are not far from fresh chicken!
Jiang Muyun felt that all his previous investments in those two rebellious cubs were not in vain!
"And the rabbits born in the first litter have reached maturity. We have already changed the nest for the rabbits before we came. Now we are just waiting for the female rabbits to bear babies." Qin Shiwen said.
Zhou Ying was so moved that tears welled up in her eyes: "I finally have some hope for the future. I'm digging the reservoir and I feel like vomiting. Holding a shovel is more difficult than digging my own grave."
It was too hot during the day and we were afraid to go out, so we stayed at home and learned about various poisonous animals and plants from Old Man Li.
It was quite interesting at first, until Qin Shiwu said one morning: "This feels like returning to finals week." Instantly killed everyone's novelty.
Jiang Muyun looked at the small card with the knowledge points written on it and tried to comfort himself: "Finals week... isn't finals week good? Compared to the precarious life now, working 996 in the past was really a blessing."
Zhou Ying said dazedly, "But we've already endured the hardships of finals week and the precarious life we're living through. We're stuck between a rock and a hard place."
Jiang Muyun was speechless: "There's no need to be so sensitive at a time like this."
The sensitive Zhou Ying spent the day like finals week and became a bonded laborer at night. He had no water to take a shower after work, and he had to mechanically repeat the same thing for a long time. It didn't take long for him to feel his mentality explode.
Zhou Ying had no interest in eating during this period. She would only feel better when it was her turn to go to the trading area to buy supplies.
So when it was time for the second shift change at the end of February, Zhou Ying and Zheng Xiang went back to replace Wang Qingqing and Wu Xingyue.
At least there is plenty of work to do at home, and I can rotate between planting vegetables and feeding rabbits every day, so I don’t have to dig soil and pry rocks as soon as I open my eyes.
Wang Qingqing and Wu Xingyue were quite excited when they first arrived.
Wang Qingqing said that she had never seen so many people since the tsunami. Even the population density of the South 1 Base was not as high as that of the transit station.
Wang Qingqing was curious about everything in the transit station and even studied the traps on the mountain for a long time. When it was her turn to go to the trading area, she was so excited that she couldn't stop for a moment and would chat with anyone she met.
But after the two of them dug the soil for a month, this excitement disappeared completely.
"What kind of life are you living here? It's just like what a laborer in the Middle Ages was like." Wang Qingqing said in a desperate tone and looked tired.
Jiang Muyun handed a basket of soil he had dug out of the pit to Chu Buwen, and he was puzzled when he heard it: "How can it be so serious? The intensity of our work digging the reservoir is not high. We can just take a break when we are tired."
Wu Xingyue tearfully said, "It's not the intensity of the work, it's the endless grind. As soon as one is finished, there's another. There's no telling when it'll stop. It's terrifying."
It's like when you're hiking a mountain with a tour group and you're exhausted, but you ask the tour guide how far it is, and he always says it's almost there.
Ask eight hundred times and you will get the same answer: "Soon."
When I looked up, I found that the stairs had no end.
This is more terrifying than telling you explicitly: "Today we will climb three thousand steps."
Jiang Muyun used one hand to push himself up and climb out of the pit. He brushed off the dirt and said, "What's so scary about this? Think about when the disaster struck. Did we know when the temperature would rise or fall, when the sun would come out and when it would rain? We didn't know, did we?"
Jiang Muyun patiently coaxed him: "If you don't know when you can finish digging the pit, then just dig slowly. We don't have a deadline, and no one will come and kill us if we don't finish it on time. It's better to dig a pit that you never finish than to wait for rain that never comes, right? If it doesn't rain, people will die."
Wu Xingyue had just been bending over and digging for too long, and was so tired that her head was dizzy. She was actually led into an trap by Jiang Muyun and nodded in response to his words.
It’s better not to wait until the pit is dug than not to wait for the rain.
It was not until the end of May that Wu Xingyue arrived at the transfer station for her second shift change and found that everyone had dug all the places on the mountain where water reservoirs could be built. When she was about to start on the flat land at the foot of the mountain, she realized something was wrong.
Wu Xingyue collapsed as she shoveled the dirt. "No, it's true that not being able to wait until the pit is finished is better than not being able to wait for the rain. But we can't finish digging the pit now, and we can't wait for the rain! What's the difference?"
Jiang Muyun said calmly, "Yes, yes. At least now you're only thinking about the pit and not the rain. Isn't that a much better mentality?"
The last time it rained was a year ago.
As far as Jiang Muyun knew, the entire Jiangnan region where Nanshi was located, including the surrounding provinces and cities, had not seen rain for more than a year.
When Jiang Muyun and others first arrived at the transfer station, a set of plastic figures could be exchanged for 10L of clean fresh water.
But now in the West Suburb Transfer Station, even the most extravagant people would not exchange fresh water for these useless things.
To make matters worse, the number of caravans coming to the transfer station to sell water is also decreasing.
Originally, everyone thought that according to the previous rules, at most there would be drought for half a year and flood for half a year, but it would not rain forever.
Even in February, many people felt the rainy season was approaching, and the price of fresh water plummeted, leading to fewer people stockpiling water. For a time, caravans selling fresh water even vanished from the western suburbs transfer station.
But no one expected that this drought would last until now.
This continued until even the mutated plants on the mountain turned from lush green to withered yellow, and every day was a scene of barely surviving.
By the end of March, everyone realized that something was wrong, and everyone started stockpiling water as much as possible.
During this period, nearly half of the caravans entering and leaving the transit station every day were water sales teams organized by the eastern city.
But gradually, April and May came, and the rainy season never arrived.
Everyone panicked.
Except for places like Haishi near the sea, all places are hoarding large amounts of water.
Nanshi is stockpiling, cities further west that have suffered from drought for a longer time are stockpiling, and even places like Linshi that are closer to Haishi are stockpiling.
The price of fresh water is getting higher and higher and is no longer affordable for ordinary survivors.
Even ants try to survive, let alone humans?
If you can’t buy water or can’t afford water, then just grab it.
After the news of the misfortunes of several small water-selling teams spread, the survivors who had originally planned to make more trips while the price of fresh water was high all gave up the idea.
Rather than taking the risk of traveling on the road to trade, it is better to honestly hide all the water you can get.
Nothing is more important than your own life.
Up to now, apart from a few large caravans still selling fresh water at high prices, there is no other place to buy water at the West Suburb Transfer Station.
It should be said that in all the areas affected by this severe drought, there is no place that dares to sell water to the outside world.
The survivors who once avoided the sea city out of fear of tsunamis and wars are also thinking about migrating.
Whether there is a tsunami or not is a matter for the future. We can hardly survive now, so how can we worry about anything else?
Moreover, at this point, the situation in Nanshi may not be much better than that in Haishi.
In the past, the stability of Nanshi was due to the fact that no one had any firearms, and when conflicts arose, they would just draw their swords and hack at each other, which was no more lethal than fighting with guns and ammunition.
However, as a large number of foreign caravans entered Nanshi, either to trade or to kill and rob, some firearms fell into the hands of ordinary survivors. It was not uncommon for survivors walking outside to hear gunshots from time to time.
Comparing the two, some people will naturally be attracted by Hai Shi.
Soon, the first group of survivors who migrated eastward gathered on the national highway in the eastern suburbs of Nanshi.
People packed their bags and carried their little belongings as they struggled forward.
They had no lighting at night and could only travel by moonlight.
During the day, I would find a forest or building and hide myself inside to avoid the sunlight.
They will eat anything they find, including weeds, tree roots, and insects, as long as it doesn't kill people. Even moist soil becomes a treasure that everyone fights over.
With each passing day, a few people would be missing from the team, and with each night that fell, new survivors would silently blend into the team.
At this moment, Captain Yu suddenly came to Jiang Muyun.
"We have placed an order with the East China Sea Base. The transaction is to exchange potatoes for fresh water." Captain Yu handed the handwritten transaction contract to Jiang Muyun.
Although Jiang Muyun didn't understand why Captain Yu suddenly told her this, she still took the contract and looked at it carefully.
When she saw the content of the transaction clearly, Jiang Muyun's hand holding the contract suddenly clenched.
Jiang Muyun was shocked: "Five tons of unmutated potatoes?"
Jiang Muyun looked at Captain Yu with a hint of disbelief in his eyes.
Where did he get so much clean soil?
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