◎Happy Day 32: Don’t Want to Go Home◎
Jiang Muyun poured water on his hands while taking a deep breath. The warm water had already frozen before it reached the ground.
She finally separated her finger from the thermometer, and the first thing she did was to put it in her sleeve and rub it to keep warm.
Jiang Muyun huddled her hands together to comfort herself, saying that she just hadn't experienced extreme cold for too long and it wasn't a big deal.
Amid the sharp sound of wind and sirens, the community became lively again after a long absence.
Jiang Muyun did not rush out at this time. She just connected her phone to the charger and placed it by the fire, waiting for it to slowly warm up.
This small coal stove has a pretty good heating effect, and the phone responded quickly.
The power outage has been going on for some time and not many people have access to the Internet, but the authorities still issued a notice online.
When the third major cooling came, all countries jointly issued a statement, announcing to the public that the blue planet had officially entered an ice age.
Not long after Jiang Muyun finished reading the notice, she was still thinking about checking the comment section, but the network was disconnected, so she had to give up.
It was seven o'clock in the morning and it was still light.
Jiang Muyun and Qin Shiwen were walking on the road, wearing clothes so heavy that they had difficulty moving. They had their heads and faces tightly wrapped with dense scarves and hats. In order to avoid the sharp cold wind, they subconsciously lowered their heads and moved forward with difficulty.
The two of them are planning to go to the provincial team's training base.
The previously dispensable trio, who had successfully taken over despite a shortage of staff, were called back to work before dawn today.
Now the Internet is down and the operator's signal is gone. Except for some special lines, no calls can be made.
Qin Shiwen couldn't contact the person in charge of the provincial team in the morning. She was a little worried about the situation in the team, so she planned to go to the base during the day to check.
Whether it's due to weather or security issues, now is not the time to go out alone.
Jiang Muyun didn't try to persuade her, but just said that he would go out with her to take a look.
She had originally planned to stay at home to avoid this turbulent period of order and disorder, but now the situation outside has changed, and Jiang Muyun's plan must also change.
If she cannot obtain external information in a timely manner and actively adapt to the external environment, then no matter how much she stores in the space, she will just be a precious goldfish kept in a fish tank.
It seems that life is comfortable and away from danger, but in fact, things may turn bad at any time.
Qin Shiwen covered his hat with one hand, grabbed the crowbar with the other, and covered his scarf with the other. His voice was intermittent and carried to Jiang Muyun's ears through the wind: "To be honest, I kind of regret going out today. The wind hurts my eyes."
Jiang Muyun also had a similar attitude: "Don't give me that. If you don't go out today, I think you'll have a headache."
The wind was very strong today, so strong that Jiang Muyun, who had to wrap himself tightly and even had difficulty moving, felt like he would be blown away if he was not careful. From time to time, he had to use the crowbar in his hand to steady his body.
The temperature was very low. Jiang Muyun had checked before leaving the house. It was -65 degrees Celsius, only two degrees higher than it was in the early morning. At this temperature, any exposed skin was in danger of frostbite at any moment.
With extreme cold and strong winds, the weather outside should be bleak.
But there are a lot of people outside now.
More than the national shopping spree.
Everyone wrapped themselves tightly in thick clothes and silently crowded towards the shopping window.
In the dense crowd, the only sound you could hear was the cold wind whistling past, rustling clothes against each other, and weighing heavily on people's heads.
Long queues had formed in front of the shopping windows in the supermarket square, stretching all the way to the street outside. The crowd maintained a noisy silence.
It seemed as if everyone was talking, yet it also seemed as if no one was talking. The sound floating in the wind was more like the buzzing of a swarm of insects, making it difficult to distinguish.
Everyone's figure and appearance were obscured, but everyone looked obviously tired and confused.
Food and water had long been out of stock, and other useful items were also available in limited quantities.
Judging from the length of the queue today, even if they queue here for a whole day, they probably won’t be able to buy much useful stuff.
But strangely, even so, people still subconsciously choose to gather together.
It seems that when everyone has the same thing to do, the panic in my heart will subside a little.
Jiang Muyun and Qin Shiwen struggled to make their way through the crowd. She nudged Qin Shiwen with her elbow, motioning her to look to the back of the supermarket.
There were rows of military trucks parked there, and lines of soldiers were carrying items wrapped in cotton cloth into the supermarket.
Qin Shiwen shielded his eyes with his hands: "Are they transporting supplies?"
Jiang Muyun didn't think so. "They're already open for a limited time and in limited quantities. It's useless to ship in more supplies. Unless the authorities are ready to lift the purchase restrictions."
But everyone knows that is impossible.
Isn’t it because of the official purchase restrictions that people are still willing to queue up now?
No matter how rich you are or how early you arrive, at most you'll have to queue one more time than me and buy ten more kilograms of coal. This difference is acceptable to everyone.
Once the purchase restriction order is lifted, the crowds of people rushing to buy supplies and speculators will immediately run wild, and even soldiers with guns may not be able to stop them.
Qin Shiwen pulled his scarf up a little more. "What if they're planning to increase the amount of coal they sell? For example, they could buy 20 or 30 kilograms at a time. With the temperature right now, we'd need to light at least three stoves in a room, and maybe even put one under the bed."
Jiang Muyun couldn't help but laughed twice into her scarf.
Indeed, if the room in your home is relatively large, it is best to put a small coal stove under the bed at night, otherwise the quilt will not be warm enough.
But this picture really... looks a bit like teppanyaki?
As soon as Jiang Muyun relaxed, he was immediately blown by the wind and staggered two steps.
Qin Shiwen grabbed her and said, "Be careful. Or you should go home. If a robber comes to me dressed like this, his knife won't be able to scratch my skin."
Jiang Muyun stood firm and waved his hand: "It's not just to accompany you, but mainly because the internet is down now, and I have to go out and see what's going on outside. I can't stay at home all the time."
Qin Shiwen acknowledged this, but Jiang Muyun was her younger sister after all, whom she had watched grow up.
Even though Qin Shiwen knew that Jiang Muyun was already an adult who could take responsibility for herself, she would still occasionally show some elder mentality.
It's just that Qin Shiwen is very sensible in this regard. When Jiang Muyun makes it clear that she can do it, she usually chooses to believe Jiang Muyun and respect her approach, just like today when Jiang Muyun insisted on going to the base with her.
The provincial team's training base is some distance away from Jiang Muyun's residential area. It usually takes about twenty minutes to get there by car.
But in today's situation, Jiang Muyun and Qin Shiwen walked for two hours.
There are too many people on the street.
There were long queues in front of almost every sales window.
Sometimes when they found their road blocked by people queuing, it was no use shouting "We are not buying anything, we are just passing by" eight hundred times. They either turned back and took a detour or squeezed in.
But having a large population also has its advantages.
Jiang Muyun had heard Li Anxuan and the others talk about highway robberies before, but she and Qin Shiwen didn't encounter any of them along the way, and arrived safely at the provincial team's training base.
The electric door of the base was frozen, so they could only enter through the small door on the side.
Qin Shiwen was wearing two layers of gloves today, so his fingers were extremely clumsy. It took him a lot of effort just to take out the key and unlock the door.
Jiang Muyun has been to the provincial team's training base before.
Before Qin Shiwen retired, Jiang Muyun would occasionally come to the base to see her.
Compared with the training base in Jiang Muyun's memory, this place can almost be described as dead.
After turning the corner of the administrative building, with the shelter of the building, the two finally broke free from the evil wind.
Jiang Muyun scratched the ground with her toes, leaving an arc on the ground.
"It looks like it's been abandoned for ten or eight years." Jiang Muyun tapped his heels on the ground twice, as if to knock off the dust on the toes.
Qin Shiwen led Jiang Muyun into the dormitory building. "This building has a back door, and it's close to the back door of the base. They usually don't go out here after the temperature drops. But I handed in the key to the back door yesterday, so we can only come in through the front door."
"The team just announced yesterday that the athletes who haven't returned home will be provided with official accommodation. We were supposed to arrange for underage athletes to return home in batches a long time ago, but a few kids on the team are completely unwilling to do so. They also said that if the base can no longer accommodate them, they'll rent a house outside."
Qin Shiwen was so angry that he laughed as he spoke: "These unfortunate kids have made up their minds. We can't catch them if they run away. The team is afraid that they will really sneak out and find a place to live, so they dare not force them. They can only persuade them slowly."
"Those stubborn guys haven't been convinced yet, and the temperature dropped this morning. If they've already been taken away by the authorities, then everything's fine. If they haven't left yet, they should be staying in 101 and 102. Director Zhou from the team should be taking care of them for now."
Those who are still staying in the provincial team training base are basically children who have not yet reached adulthood.
Older athletes may have businesses in Nanshi or find ways to return home after training is suspended indefinitely. They will not stay in the training base at this time.
The vast majority of underage athletes were taken home by their families as soon as the training was suspended.
But not everyone has a home.
It’s like the little girl under her command that Qin Shiwen has always been thinking about.
The girl is only fifteen years old this year. She grew up in a sports school. After joining the provincial team, she rarely went home. She has to send money back home every month to supplement the family income.
But after the temperature dropped, her family refused to let her go home, saying that she had no worries about food and drink in the provincial team, while her family was in poor condition and they could not find a way to come to Nanshi.
Even a fool knows it's an excuse.
In Jiang Muyun's previous life, some of her roommates came from ordinary families, thousands of miles away from Xishi. But their families still managed to find ways to travel thousands of miles to Xishi and bring their children home.
The athletes who made it to the provincial team were all from the province. How difficult could it be for their families to pick them up at the provincial team base? It was simply a matter of not being able to afford it.
There are more than one girl in the provincial team who is in a similar situation as that little girl.
It is normal for a group of teenagers, generally around fifteen or sixteen years old, to be unwilling to go back when their families are almost abandoning them.
Jiang Muyun followed behind Qin Shiwen, thinking about his situation in his previous life, and patted Qin Shiwen soothingly: "You have to have some confidence in our government, don't be so sad."
At this point, everyone knows that the future situation will not be good, but they still leave their underage children to live alone outside. One can imagine what kind of people their family members are.
For these children, going home may be worse than living with the authorities.
Qin Shiwen pulled her hand away: "Your eyes are X-rays, right? You can even tell that I'm frowning?"
Jiang Muyun snorted and laughed: "I don't think you still need to look at it?"
Qin Shiwen nodded in agreement: "Oh, yes, you are the blind fortune teller who set up a stall under the overpass. Master Jiang, why don't you calculate which way to turn next?"
Jiang Muyun gave her a look of disdain and raised his chin towards the metal sign hanging on the wall: "101-105, left turn arrow. Even a blind fortune teller could see such a big sign."
Qin Shiwen felt much better after the fight with Jiang Muyun, and he knocked on the door with a bit of a briskness.
"No one answered? Was he taken to the dormitory arranged by the authorities?" Jiang Muyun came over and said when he saw that no one opened the door after Qin Shiwen knocked several times.
Qin Shiwen turned the door twice but it didn't open. The door was locked: "I hope so."
There is no signal now. Qin Shiwen can neither contact Director Zhou nor know where the accommodation arranged by the authorities is. He can only say "hope".
Qin Shiwen is not the only one who can't let go of those children.
When Jiang Muyun and Qin Shiwen left the dormitory building, they happened to run into the sprint team's coach. He was also worried about the kids on the team and had come over early in the morning.
Qin Shiwen briefly explained the situation to the other party, and just as the three of them were leaving the training base, they ran into someone else walking back in. They introduced the other person as the swimming team coach.
While they were hiding in the sheltered area at the door and talking for a while, several coaches came to the outside of the training base.
On the way back, Jiang Muyun teased Qin Shiwen: "Your provincial team coaches are all like parents. They treat their athletes like their own children, and that's what they do."
Qin Shiwen pressed the tip of his tongue against the roof of his mouth. "What do you think? I spend more time with the kids on my team than I do with my brother."
As he spoke, Qin Shiwen thought of the biological parents of these children.
Qin Shiwen sighed and avoided the topic directly: "Let's go back and take another road. We won't be crowded with people there."
Jiang Muyun raised his hand to block the wind: "It's good to have a lot of people. At least the wind is less in the crowd."
Qin Shiwen was desperate: "Forget it, I don't believe you didn't smell that smell just now."
Jiang Muyun was silent.
really.
Maybe it's because everyone is wearing thick clothes and covering themselves tightly, so you can't smell much of the odor from a distance.
But they couldn't help but squeeze through the crowd, and meeting someone along the way was like a lottery.
Occasionally, when you meet someone with a strong body odor, or come into direct contact with someone's hair, the smell can make your head hurt.
It's cold now and there's no electricity. Even if there's water at home, no one dares to take a shower, let alone wash their hair.
Now there is no hair dryer to use, so I want to wait for the icicles on my head to complete the sublimation process by themselves. It is unreasonable for this person not to stay in bed with a high fever for three days.
For people with short hair like Jiang Muyun and Qin Shiwen, it's not so bad; they can just wipe it with a towel and keep it clean. But for people with long hair, it's a disaster.
But even so, many people who like long hair are unwilling to cut the hair they have grown for many years.
At the end of the day, most people just feel that their current life is difficult, rather than thinking that it is the end of the world.
At least before the temperature dropped this morning, even if some people complained that the end of the world was coming, they still held the hope in their hearts that "as long as we can survive this winter, everything will be fine."
Even though the weather is so cold.
It’s a good thing that the weather is so cold now.
If this were summer, people wouldn't take a shower for two or three months, and would often carry dozens of kilograms of things up the stairs. The smell of the crowds together would probably be pickled into biological weapons.
Jiang Muyun thought for a moment and said, "Nowadays, almost every supermarket and large market has opened a shopping window. I think it's difficult to avoid them completely. It's better to go back the same way and try to go around the back of the supermarket, such as the parking lot."
Qin Shiwen had no objection, as long as he didn't force his way through the other team.
They took detours from behind supermarkets, shopping malls and other buildings, and did avoid the crowds a few times, but they were also often asked to turn back.
Qin Shiwen rubbed the corners of his eyes, which were a little painful from the cold. "Why are they all delivering goods to the shopping mall? And they are all so secretive."
They tried to pass behind the building several times, but they always encountered rows of soldiers transporting things.
Often, as soon as the two of them glanced at each other, they would be immediately turned away.
Jiang Muyun had some guesses about the situation.
She asked Qin Shiwen: "Sister Wen, do you have enough coal at home? I want to come down and buy some more coal for backup in the next few days."
Qin Shiwen frowned and calculated: "My family has enough for now. Have you used up yours?"
Jiang Muyun shook his head: "There are still quite a few. But the temperature is getting lower and lower now, I want to buy more, just to be safe."
Qin Shiwen responded: "I'll go with you."
She paused, then continued, "You didn't check the group this morning, did you? Li Anxuan must have heard something, saying that we must store more coal in the next two days, as the temperature seems to be continuing to drop."
Although there is no change in the weather forecast, after experiencing several abnormal temperature drops, everyone's trust in the weather forecast has obviously reached rock bottom.
Jiang Muyun smiled and continued, "What's so good about that? If this evil wind continues to blow, the temperature will definitely drop."
Qin Shiwen sighed: "The weather is getting weirder and weirder. Anyway, it's never a bad idea to buy some more things to keep."
The weather is definitely getting weirder.
It was just cold before, but there was hardly any wind. Even during the two previous sudden drops in temperature, it was calm outside.
The temperature drop this time was smaller than the previous two times, but the fierce wind made people's skin hurt, as if it could blow the temperature from minus 60 degrees to minus 80 degrees.
When Jiang Muyun and Qin Shiwen joined the queue, countless residents in northern China were facing the real minus 80 degrees Celsius.
While the temperature in South City was still within the range of minus 60 degrees Celsius, almost all high-latitude areas on the blue planet had entered an extremely cold hell of more than minus 80 degrees Celsius.
This cold wind blowing from the polar regions of Blue Planet instantly destroyed the last batch of cities on Blue Planet that relied on technological means for heating.
At minus eighty degrees Celsius, a healthy adult can easily break a steel pipe with bare hands.
Currently on the Blue Planet, no city has infrastructure that can withstand such cold.
The previous two cooling events occurred at the same time, but this time the cooling was strangely in line with common sense.
This incident did not make anyone who knew about it feel at ease, but instead made the situation seem even more difficult.
Just as what was said in the joint statement in the early morning, this "reasonableness" is more like proving that the cooling of the blue planet is not an isolated incident that will pass, but that it has truly entered an ice age.
If the satellite image of the blue planet were released now, anyone who has completed compulsory education would be amazed.
Before we knew it, the sea had begun to freeze.
The cold, pale color began to spread from the coastline to the distance, and even the famous ice-free port was not spared.
The air on land is so dry that it is difficult for ice to form even on glass.
And now, the sea seems to be closing itself in.
Jiang Muyun didn't know whether the Pacific Ocean was covered at the moment, but she felt that she was about to be sealed by this evil wind.
She went to the provincial team base with Qin Shiwen today. After returning, she did not go home. Instead, she queued in the square for another day and bought a few bags of anthracite.
As soon as it got a little warmer at home in the evening, she felt pain and itchiness in the corners of her eyes.
I took out a mirror and saw that it was red and swollen.
Jiang Muyun was very familiar with this kind of mark. It was definitely frostbite.
Jiang Muyun blinked hard and took out a tube of frostbite ointment from the space.
She had prepared both frostbite ointment and burn ointment, but compared to the burn ointment, Jiang Muyun didn't prepare much frostbite ointment, only a dozen tubes, and the brands were also very mixed. She just bought some when she saw the discount.
The reason is simple: we help in emergencies but not in poverty.
Frostbite is not the same as burns; you can develop tolerance through training.
Some people will get frostbite if they stay in an environment of minus ten degrees Celsius for two hours, while others can live in a place with an average annual temperature of minus sixteen degrees Celsius all year round.
If Jiang Muyun's body couldn't adapt to the temperature and build up tolerance, it would be useless even if she buried herself in frostbite ointment.
She bought frostbite cream just to make herself feel better during this period of adaptation.
Jiang Muyun applied medicine to herself in front of the mirror. She felt as if eight hundred ants were crawling on her face, and she took a deep breath of cold air into her lungs.
After applying the medicine on himself, Jiang Muyun remembered that Qin Shiwen had also said that his eyes hurt during the day, so he ran to knock on the door of 1502 and asked her if she wanted frostbite ointment.
A few minutes later, Qin Shiwen opened the door and saw that his eyes were red and swollen.
Qin Shiwen refused to take her frostbite ointment, but for the sake of convenience he didn't want to make another trip, so he simply pulled Jiang Muyun into the house.
Jiang Muyun looked at Qin Shiwen applying medicine in the mirror, then looked at the redness and swelling at the corner of his own eye, and felt that the scene looked a little familiar.
Qin Shiwen in the mirror carefully applied the ointment to the corners of his eyes, taking a deep breath and making a hissing sound when it touched his eyes.
Jiang Muyun suddenly remembered why this scene looked familiar to her.
Jiang Muyun said solemnly: "Sister, we really look like we went out and got beaten up."
Qin Shiwen immediately understood and she couldn't help laughing: "Why does it look so familiar to me? It's like that TV show where the hero gets beaten up and the heroine applies medicine to him. It hurts when she pokes him, and then the heroine asks tearfully, 'Are you okay?'"
Jiang Muyun recalled the novel he'd read a few days ago, in which the heroine escaped ninety-nine times and even managed to perform a medical miracle by digging out a kidney with her bare hands. He connected the plot perfectly: "Then the hero grasped the heroine's hand, and the two mutes finally learned to speak human language. So, another medical miracle has occurred."
"What kind of clever person came up with this plot?"
Qin Shiwen's hands were shaking from laughing, and he accidentally used too much force and poked the red and swollen skin at the corner of her eye. The pain was so severe that she almost cried.
Qin Shiwen finished applying the medicine with great difficulty, and Jiang Muyun went home with the frostbite ointment. As soon as he opened the door, he saw Xiaobai still as energetic as before, and from time to time he wanted to jump on Jiang Muyun and do something big.
Now Xiaobai is getting stronger and stronger, and his fur no longer looks like that of a local dog. It looks like he has undergone genetic mutation and successfully transformed from a local dog into a sled dog.
Jiang Muyun looked at Xiaobai running around the house and had the idea of taking it out again.
Xiaobai's current reaction has proved that it can fully adapt to low temperature environments.
The only thing Jiang Muyun needs to worry about is whether Xiaobai will become dog meat hot pot on someone else's table.
Jiang Muyun played with Xiaobai for a while, and decided to take Xiaobai out.
Anyway, if I don’t go out now, Xiaobai won’t be able to hide when I go to the rescue center later.
It is not like those two quail chicks. It is impossible for them to stay in the tent obediently every day.
It would be better to take Xiaobai out now. If he really encounters someone with bad intentions, he can train Xiaobai to protect himself.
Judging from Xiaobai's current size and strength, he should be a large dog when he grows up, and he should have some killing power.
If Jiang Muyun really just treated it as an ordinary pet dog, Xiaobai would become a hot pot sooner or later.
When the wind was a little weaker the next day and Jiang Muyun took Xiaobai downstairs, she didn't know whether she should be happy or sigh.
Xiaobai, who hadn't been out for a long time, started to play around as soon as he walked out of the corridor, and Jiang Muyun almost couldn't hold him back.
After seeing Xiaobai having fun outside, and then seeing it circling around Jiang Muyun and Qin Shiwen obediently while they were queuing, Jiang Muyun felt a rare sense of guilt.
Qin Shiwen rubbed Xiaobai's furry head and said, "Why don't you take Xiaobai out for a walk more often in the future? Look how well behaved this child is."
Jiang Muyun and Xiaobai looked at each other for two seconds: "I did have this plan."
If you are just taking Xiaobai from the community to the supermarket, there won't be any big problems along the way.
The proximity between the residential complex and the supermarket means that the soldiers on duty in the supermarket and the soldiers patrolling the residential complex are also very close to the road outside.
If you encounter someone you can't beat, at least you can run away.
If you want to train your puppy to protect itself, it is really appropriate to bring it to the square.
Unfortunately, Jiang Muyun had a good plan, but the good boy Xiaobai was a two-faced person.
Jiang Muyun finished shopping in the afternoon and left the square. When she was putting coal into her backpack, she didn't hold the tow rope tightly in her hand, and Xiaobai, who had been following her obediently, suddenly rushed out.
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