The force is not small at all.
Zhao Jiahao and his partner had only been practicing for a month and still had a long way to go before they could respond independently. Qin Shiwu was even worse off, as he was a resident trainee without even a formal medical license.
While we can still handle the current situation, it doesn’t really matter whether there is one more or one less of these semi-staff people.
But if something happens to someone on their commute, it can be a real problem.
Compared to this, it would be better for people to stay at home safely.
Both units responded very quickly. Not long after the three of them received the message, their departure time for the next day was finalized.
The dispensable trio had a somewhat depressing night, but Jiang Muyun and Qin Shiwen had a good sleep.
The next morning, Jiang Muyun found that Xiaobai had regained his lively state, almost the same as he was at home before the temperature dropped, as if the impact of the rapid temperature drop on him had completely disappeared.
Jiang Muyun excitedly opened another can of food for Xiaobai, and the two sisters lingered together sweetly for a while. Only after they agreed to go out together with their neighbor did Jiang Muyun put Xiaobai down and start to put on her outdoor gear.
Today is the third day of the drop in temperature. Several people have stockpiled enough food at home to last them more than a month, and everyone has a means of transportation.
However, the water supply in Nanshi has not been restored yet, and only a few bus routes have resumed operations.
The authorities did not issue a temperature drop warning or a notice to resume water supply, but only issued a few notices encouraging residents to store water on their own.
This almost implies that the water will not come for a while.
After two days of water outage, people have fully realized how much water they use on a daily basis.
Washing vegetables, cooking, washing up in the morning and evening, cleaning, and even flushing the toilet all require water.
A 5L bottle of drinking water is only enough for a family to wash up in the morning, and the water after use has no other use except flushing the toilet.
Some families with large families have spent nearly 100 yuan just on buying water in the past two days.
After realizing that the water supply might be cut off for a few more days, most people stopped looking at drinking water sold in supermarkets.
For those who live near rivers or lakes, they can directly break the ice to take water for domestic use, and the sales of water purification tablets and water purifiers have skyrocketed.
Even those who live in residential areas that do not have even an artificial lake have gone to the water station with carts and other means of transportation to buy bottled water.
When Jiang Muyun and his group of five arrived at the water station, the people queuing up to buy water had already stretched out from the door to the corner for about a hundred meters.
"Wow, so terrifying?" Qin Shiwu said in surprise.
Qin Shiwen: "What else? There are only two of us in our family, and we've already used more than half of the water we bought yesterday. If there were four or five people in the family, two or three small buckets of water would not be enough."
Jiang Muyun got out of the car, opened the trunk and took a look: "Sister Wen, how many barrels can your car hold?"
Qin Shiwen gestured and said, "As for the trunk, I estimate it can hold seven or eight buckets. If you count the front, it can squeeze in more than ten buckets, right?"
As he spoke, Qin Shiwen looked at the other three men.
The five of them rode in Qin Shiwen's car, with Jiang Muyun always sitting in the passenger seat and the three men squeezing into the back seat.
Li Anxuan estimated in his mind: "If we really need to squeeze in, we can put a bucket at our feet and hold a bucket in our arms. Then we can fit six buckets in the back seat."
Jiang Muyun nodded. "There's enough space under the passenger seat for two buckets, and I can hold one in my arms. So, if each person buys three buckets, we can definitely carry them back."
Qin Shiwu frowned. "Do we need to buy so much? These large barrels of drinking water must hold about 30 to 40 liters, right? The water outage in Nanshi won't last that long, right?"
Zhao Jiahao thought it was a good idea to buy more: "It's mainly because the weather is so cold, and we both drink a lot of water. This time we bought more so that we don't have to rush back to grab water when we run out."
The most important thing is that he and Li Anxuan don’t have a car. If they don’t buy enough this time and want to buy another one later, they can only borrow their neighbor’s car.
Although they have a good relationship, you can't always bother them.
Several people stood in line at the back of the long queue. Jiang Muyun said, "Anyway, unopened bottled water can be returned, and the buckets can also be returned after the water is used up. It's better to buy more at a time to save trouble."
Jiang Muyun pointed at the car behind them and motioned Qin Shiwu to look at the people pushing a cart of water out. "Besides, not everyone has a car. Those who walk several kilometers to buy water, don't they have to buy all the water at once?"
Qin Shiwu thought about it and realized that this was indeed the case.
If Qin Shiwen's car was still drivable, they would probably have come here with a cart, and would have wanted to buy a hundred or eighty barrels at a time to save the trouble of running back and forth later.
Especially as Jiang Muyun said, bottled water is indeed cheap.
But within this cheap range, prices still fluctuate.
By the time Jiang Muyun and his group got to the line, the cheaper brands had already sold out. The cheapest one was now 15 yuan a barrel.
The most exaggerated thing was that they waited in line for more than half an hour. When they arrived at the water station and looked back, they found that the line for buying water not only did not get shorter, but was even longer than when they arrived.
Out of an inexplicable sense of urgency, several people directly asked for twenty buckets, and the water station also kindly gave them a few push-type water dispensers.
The staff at the water station helped them tie the buckets together in pairs with plastic ropes. Zhao Jiahao and Li Anxuan wanted to ask if they wanted to help Jiang Muyun and Qin Shiwen carry two buckets, but before they could say anything, they picked up the water and took the lead.
Five people, each carrying four buckets of water, walked away, attracting a lot of attention along the way.
It’s not because they bought a lot of water. After all, there are many people who come with carts and buy more than ten buckets each.
The main reason is that the clothes Jiang Muyun and Qin Shiwen are wearing are women's styles, and you can tell they are girls even if their faces are covered.
It's okay that the three tall and strong men were able to lift over a hundred pounds with their bare hands. It's really rare.
Jiang Muyun even heard people discussing what kind of work this group of people did.
Jiang Muyun put the water next to the car and shook his hands.
Her current body is not the same as it will be ten years later. She can still carry four buckets of water at a time, but her arms hurt from the weight.
Qin Shiwu let out a long sigh after putting the water down: "It's only a distance of about a hundred meters, and I feel like I've been shortened by at least three centimeters."
Some people may look cool and relaxed when carrying hundreds of pounds of water in one hand, but in fact their faces are flushed red from being buried in their scarves.
After putting down the water, the other people also began to shake their hands silently, with expressions of agreement with Qin Shiwu's words.
Twenty buckets of water were piled up beside the car, which was quite a sight to behold. But the real problem was how to transport them back.
Qin Shiwen opened the trunk and stuffed eight buckets of water into it horizontally and vertically.
Then the three big boys sat in a row in the back seat. Qin Shiwen rummaged around in the car for a while and took out a Swiss Army knife. He separated the tied buckets into four and placed a bucket under each of the three boys in the back seat.
The water was bundled together in two buckets, and each person held a bundle in his arms.
As the space was not big enough, the three of them had to sit in staggered positions.
Sitting in the middle, hunched over and leaning forward, Zhao Jiahao muttered, "I'll definitely buy him a hundred or eighty large buckets and fill them with water every day. I'll never have to come here to buy water again."
Of the remaining three buckets of water, two were at Jiang Muyun's feet, and the other was in Jiang Muyun's arms.
Qin Shiwen arranged the people and water properly, sat in the driver's seat with a fresh look, and stepped on the accelerator: "Your words remind me, why don't we go buy a bucket today?"
The passenger seat was quite spacious, and Jiang Muyun sat comfortably, with even enough time to change her posture.
She leaned against the car door and said slowly, "I'll just buy a few big buckets as backup. I have a lot of small buckets at home, but they can't hold much water and they take up a lot of space. After I buy the buckets, I'll buy a down jacket. I used to wear school uniforms in winter, so I don't have many down jackets. I need to buy a new one."
Li Anxuan thought for a moment and said, "I'll go with you. I'm also planning to buy some winter clothes."
After saying that, he poked Zhao Jiahao with difficulty: "Do you want to go with me?"
It was summer when he and Zhao Jiahao moved in, so they didn't bring many winter clothes.
Moreover, it is unrealistic to expect a young man from the south who is in his prime and full of energy to have many thick clothes in his wardrobe.
Even the few sets of autumn clothes and long underwear I had were barely stuffed into the closet because my mother forced me to do so.
If the coldest winter temperature was no more than minus six or seven degrees Celsius in the past, there would be no problem for them to dress like this.
But now it's 20 to 30 degrees below zero, which is not something you can just endure. This is a temperature that can freeze people to death in the physical sense.
Li Anxuan and Zhao Jiahao have been wearing three sweaters when they go out these days, not to mention autumn clothes and trousers. They are so wrapped up that they can hardly breathe.
I urgently need a thick down jacket to free myself.
Zhao Jiahao nodded frantically: "Go, go, go. I've been thinking about this. I originally wanted to buy those northern clothes online, but now many places' couriers don't ship."
Qin Shiwen said: "Okay, I'll take you to a store later. I bought clothes there when I went to Ji City with my brother before. They are definitely thick enough."
Before going to buy clothes, they had to get water back home.
After the car drove into the garage and stopped, several people tied up the scattered buckets of water again. Five people carried twenty buckets of water, and they stacked them closely in a corner of the elevator, trying not to take up too much space.
In order to prevent the bucket from falling and hurting people, Li Anxuan simply stood in front of the bucket to block it.
Even so, they are not the most exaggerated.
There is a family on the sixth floor of their building. Three generations live together in the family. The elderly couple lives with their son, daughter-in-law, and two grandsons, a total of six people. Their daughter and son-in-law live across the street.
The family simply got four delivery carts to buy water.
When Jiang Muyun and his companions' elevator stopped at the first floor, the grandfather happened to be taking his son-in-law to the elevator next door.
There were five of them and twenty buckets of water, so three more people could get on. The elevator only sounded the overload alarm when it came to the fourth person.
The next door was full with just two people and two carts. The overweight alarm stopped only after two buckets of water were unloaded.
Looking at it this way, the amount of water they bought was not really that much.
The elevator reached the 15th floor and several people carried the water into the corridor.
They had the air conditioner on in their car, so the water was still at room temperature when they got out of the car.
In just a short while after the elevator reached the 15th floor, a layer of ice had already formed on the inner wall of the bucket.
Jiang Muyun squeezed the bucket, breaking the thin ice inside: "I always feel that the temperature is lower today."
Qin Shiwu put the water down and said, "Don't scare me. It will get colder if it gets any colder."
Jiang Muyun took out the key and opened the door: "I didn't say that. It was the professor at our school who said that the temperature might drop further later."
Jiang Muyun paused. "Hasn't this been trending on the search list for days? You guys haven't even connected to Tianyi 3G yet?"
Qin Shiwu frowned: "The official has not yet given a clear explanation for this matter. Maybe the students themselves have misunderstood it?"
Jiang Muyun remained noncommittal. "It's not just the teachers at Xi'an University. Other universities are also having similar discussions. This topic has been trending on the search engines for two or three days now..."
She paused and said with a smile, "Have you seen the official come out to refute the rumors?"
When it comes to a topic that may cause panic among the public, the Chinese government will not turn a blind eye to it just for the sake of freedom and human rights.
On the contrary, in all similar incidents that have occurred before, the authorities have been the first to step forward to clear the Internet and dispel rumors.
But this time there was no official action.
Not only is there no clear public statement, but the behavior of some local governments encouraging people to actively store water and food is also tacitly approved.
Silence at this time is actually the best answer.
The discussion among students of Xi'an University about the abnormal weather, led by Jiang Muyun, has spread to major universities after being spread through Weibo.
What is different from every previous public opinion storm is that this time the information revealed by the uncle parties in major universities is surprisingly consistent.
The temperature may continue to drop, and extreme weather will increase in the future and may even become the norm. Extreme heat is likely to follow extreme cold.
Occasionally, there were two people who sang a different tune, but they would be silenced by other students after they asked them who the professor was and which college he was from.
The official silence and the consensus of public opinion have made those who originally regarded the temperature drop as an isolated incident become skeptical.
After Jiang Muyun finished speaking, he took the water home without waiting for anyone to reply.
The four people who heard her words frowned unconsciously.
Li Anxuan took out his cell phone, sent a message to his family, and decided to buy a few more winter clothes, the thicker the better.
Jiang Muyun saw the expressions of several people out of the corner of her eye, and after closing the door, she smiled with a look of success.
She was the one who started the hot topic online these days, and she has been paying attention to it.
With Xi’an University taking the lead, people’s vigilance against low temperatures has increased a lot.
The five words "professor of the school" are much more credible than the title "expert on the Internet".
The topic of past life was brought up by various unknown uncles on the Internet, as well as some big V public intellectuals.
Under this premise, even though the authorities in the previous life also allowed these topics to spread, there were still not many people who believed in them.
After all, it's only twenty degrees below zero. There are many places on Earth where the temperature is twenty degrees below zero in winter, and people there still survive, don't they?
This time, people's attitudes towards this disaster have changed to varying degrees depending on the source of the news.
The most obvious thing is that Jiang Muyun’s roommates are now in their respective homes.
In their previous life, their families found a way to take them back home when the third abnormal drop in temperature first appeared.
This also shows that many people were either curious or cautious when faced with the first two abnormal temperature drops.
At least before the official statement is made, the number of people who are afraid of such abnormal climate is not the majority.
It was not until countless people suddenly lost their lives in the third major temperature drop, the authorities urgently set up rescue points, and news of disasters in many foreign countries reached the country that people realized that this was not a simple climate anomaly or a low temperature disaster, but a global disaster.
Jiang Muyun's reminder to several neighbors had a very good effect.
When buying water storage containers, the few of them thought again and again and did not choose ordinary plastic buckets that are easily damaged. Instead, like Jiang Muyun, they chose soft buckets with stronger toughness, which are the folding bathtubs that are very common on the Internet.
This was something Jiang Muyun had planned long ago.
While it's uncertain whether Nanshi will ever see its water supply restored, it's always a good idea to have extra water storage containers. Ideally, they should be portable, so you can take your belongings with you if you need to relocate.
In an environment characterized by droughts and floods, water storage containers are incredibly valuable. And not everyone has the resources to dig a pit to store water.
Moreover, this is the South City, where the walls of the buildings are very thin, and the warmth and cold-proofing effect is far inferior to that of buildings in northern cities.
If the temperature continues to drop, even if the air conditioner in the house can still be used, there is no way to guarantee that the temperature in every corner of the house will be above zero degrees.
They couldn't keep the buckets in the bedroom all the time, and there wasn't enough space in the room for them.
The material of this bathtub is flexible enough that even if the water inside freezes, it will not directly crack the tub.
Thanks to their unusual route, they avoided running into people rushing to buy plastic buckets.
The few of them bought the bucket smoothly and followed Qin Shiwen to the clothing store.
The full name of this clothing mall is Clothing Wholesale Mall. The shops inside are next to each other. The hangers at the door are full of bulging cotton clothes. The aisle, which was originally not spacious, has become a narrow single corridor.
The person in the middle almost walks close to the clothes on the hangers, and is always worried that he will knock over the hangers on both sides.
As soon as Qin Shiwen got out of the car, he and Qin Shiwu led the way in front.
The temperature dropped suddenly, and many people came to this clothing store to buy clothes or purchase goods. The space inside was already not spacious, and now it felt even more difficult to move around.
Led by the Qin brothers and sisters, several people rushed around in the store like moles, and finally waited until the brother and sister stopped in front of a store.
The door of the store was half open, and because of the crowded clothes, it was impossible to tell whether there was anyone in the store when standing outside.
Qin Shiwen introduced the shop to the others: "This shop is owned by a relative of one of my father's comrades. Travel agencies in Nanshi that take groups north need to order cotton-padded clothes, and they basically order from this shop. The owner specializes in tour group business. My brother and I bought clothes here when we went to Jishi. They can withstand temperatures of -40 or -50 degrees Celsius without a problem."
If it weren't for this experience, it would be quite difficult to find winter clothes that can withstand temperatures of dozens of degrees below zero in Nanshi. They would probably have to wander around major shopping malls for a long time, or even try their luck in mountaineering equipment stores.
Qin Shiwu pushed aside the clothes blocking the door and called out, "Aunt, I'm Xiaowu, are you free now?"
A female voice came from the store: "I'm going to order something, you guys take a look first."
Qin Shiwu lowered his head and squeezed into the store with difficulty. The rest of the people also followed him and tried to squeeze into the store.
There was no way, the place was really small. In the short time they were standing at the door calling for people, many people behind them were urging them to make way.
The store is not very big, and after the five people came in, the store was already full.
None of them had ever chosen a thick cotton coat by themselves. They touched this one and looked at that one in the store, and they just thought that each one was similar.
Fortunately, the boss was quick and came out from behind a pile of clothes in a short while.
"You two brought your friends to take care of my business, so I have to give you a discount today. Tell me what you plan to buy." The middle-aged female boss had a bright smile on her face and greeted the Qin brothers and sisters after coming out.
Jiang Muyun had a clear goal: "I'll buy the warmest kind, preferably something that's easy to move around in, both clothes and pants."
Zhao Jiahao and Li Anxuan also nodded repeatedly.
Keep warm and move easily, that's the most practical thing in winter. It doesn't matter whether the style is good or not, they are freezing to death, how can they care about these things.
The boss reached out and pulled out two pieces from the pile of clothes. "Then it has to be this style. Xiaowen and Xiaowu bought the same style before. It happens to have both men's and women's styles, a complete set of clothes and pants. What do you think?"
Jiang Muyun pinched it and found it thick but not heavy. The down inside was also pressed flat and did not puff up into a big ball.
After trying it on, I found that it is very convenient to move around in and the warmth retention effect is first-class.
In the air-conditioned clothing store, Jiang Muyun took off his down jacket and thin cotton jacket, and only wore this one, but he felt a little hotter than before.
Comparing it with the several sets of polar cold-proof clothing in the space, Jiang Muyun felt that the warmth retention of this suit was only slightly lower than that of the polar cold-proof clothing.
Jiang Muyun only planned to buy one set this time to exchange with the polar cold-proof clothes she had stockpiled.
Li Anxuan, on the other hand, bought three sets at once, and even bought a set one size larger, saying it would be convenient for him to add clothes inside later.
Zhao Jiahao bought two sets, and Qin Shiwen and Qin Shiwu also bought an extra set for replacement.
The boss readily gave them a 20% discount. Jiang Muyun guessed that the boss gave them the purchase price directly because of the Qin brothers and sisters' face.
After Jiang Muyun finished buying clothes, she had almost all the supplies she needed to get through the day. She was in a good mood and hummed a song as she took out her key to open the door.
As soon as the door opened, Jiang Muyun was caught off guard by Xiaobai.
Xiaobai was unusually enthusiastic today. He kept tickling the corner of Jiang Muyun's clothes and humming non-stop.
Jiang Muyun was confused: "What are you doing today? Did you scratch my nest?"
Xiaobai tried to bite Jiang Muyun's trouser legs, but Jiang Muyun was wearing hiking boots and thick cotton pants, and the trouser legs were stuffed directly into the boot shaft. Xiaobai bit it for a long time but failed. Finally, he was so anxious that he used his head to push Jiang Muyun forward.
Jiang Muyun had no choice but to put down the things in his hands and follow Xiaobai's force.
Xiaobai pushed Jiang Muyun to the edge of the museum shelf.
On a table slightly above the museum shelf, there was a plastic ball that was out of tune with the painting style of the entire living room. There were two things that looked like chicken wings sticking out of the ball.
It was the incubator that Jiang Muyun had brought back from the farm before.
At this moment, the two eggs in the incubator have disappeared. Two tender yellow fluffy balls are nestled in the remaining half of the eggshell, looking around curiously and timidly.
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