◎Happy Day 38: Chaos◎
Chu Buwen said that he worked as a material dealer after the end of the world, and Jiang Muyun saw that he was very talented in this area.
In just a few days, he started talking to the two siblings of the Qin family, and the relationship between them progressed by leaps and bounds.
Now that the base's points system has been officially implemented, various temporary positions are in short supply. If you want one, you have to go to the work registration office early to queue up.
There weren't many high-end residential areas near Jiang Muyun's home. Everyone was just ordinary people with a low income. No matter how much money they had in their pockets, they wouldn't be willing to spend twenty-one Jianbingguozi.
Therefore, the points system is extremely popular at the Nan'an community relief center.
Perhaps it was for this reason that the original prices in the relief center only lasted for less than a week before starting to rise slowly.
Jiang Muyun and his friends bought everything they could on the first day.
They bought it after arriving at the relief center, plus the things they had stockpiled before. Currently, they have no shortage of supplies, so the need for temporary jobs is not that urgent.
Jiang Muyun and Qin Shiwen usually take turns going to the work registration office. If they can get a job, they will grab it. If they can't, just forget it.
But Chu Buwen seemed to be quite interested in those.
Even though he rarely gets a job, he has to go to the registration office to punch in on time every day.
When he goes out, he will ask the Qin brothers and sisters to help keep an eye on his home.
This kind of proactive and trusting attitude can easily win people's favor.
In particular, Chu Buwen never asked for help for free. He would often invite a few neighbors to have a meal together.
Chu Buwen had a good grasp of the measure in this regard. Everyone had their own ingredients, and each family contributed a little fuel and seasonings. He was only responsible for cooking.
Even the cooking areas are rotated back and forth between 01, 02, and 09, and they take turns cleaning up the fumes.
In this way, even Qin Shiwen and others who are not very familiar with Chu Buwen will not be too resistant.
And Chu Buwen’s craftsmanship is indeed very good.
Cured meats and staple foods are the most common foods in the relief center. Every day at mealtime, the smell of cured meat and sausage wafts through the relief center, and I can’t get enough of it.
But in Chu Buwen's hands, the most ordinary white rice, combined with the cured meat that everyone finds greasy by the smell, can be transformed into a fragrant clay pot rice.
Chu Buwen put various pickled vegetables and dried radishes on the rice and quickly cooked a pot of salty and fragrant fried rice in the pot.
There are various flavors of noodles and vermicelli to choose from, and Chu Buwen occasionally makes some rice crust to soak and eat.
The home-cooked condiments provided by several companies were simply played with in various ways in Chu Buwen's hands.
For a time, everyone, including Qin Shiwu who had work meals, felt that their living standards had risen sharply.
When Jiang Muyun was eating fried rice with her bowl in hand, she had a moment when she thought that if she had known from the beginning that Chu Buwen had been reborn, she would have to bring him into the group sooner rather than later.
It is said that eating well means sleeping well. After gradually adapting to life in the relief center and seeing a great improvement in the food, Qin Shiwen no longer tossed and turned in bed like he did on the first night.
Although I still can't fall into deep sleep, at least I won't stay awake until dawn.
Thanks to Qin Shiwen's discomfort, he was able to react immediately when there was movement outside.
The rescue point is not quiet at night, but there are fewer miscellaneous noises.
Therefore, the sound of the cloth being cut was particularly obvious to Qin Shiwen.
Jiang Muyun was awakened by Dabai's meowing.
She was used to keeping her weapons at hand when she slept, so when she heard the noise outside, she subconsciously grabbed the crowbar beside the bed. After opening the tent, she found that the noise seemed to come from next door.
Xiaobai also woke up and looked a little anxious.
Perhaps there were too many strangers coming and going in the past few days, and it couldn't tell whether the strangers outside were good or bad, so it could only circle around the door of the tent, making low humming sounds.
Jiang Muyun didn't speak rashly.
She didn't know the specific situation next door, but at this time in the rescue center, no one should take anyone's life.
If she rashly opened her mouth to wake Qin Shiwen up, it might instead provoke his ferocity.
Fortunately, Qin Shiwen seemed to wake up on his own. When Jiang Muyun unlocked the door, he heard the sound of something heavy falling next door.
In this case, Jiang Muyun didn't need to worry about the volume of the sound. She quickly opened the door and saw a man running past her door. Jiang Muyun subconsciously kicked him.
The man fell heavily to the ground and slid more than a meter away due to inertia. Dabai let out a sharp cry and Xiaobai rushed out to block the man.
Qin Shiwen leaped up and pinned the man who was trying to get up. He turned to Jiang Muyun and said, "Go get a rope first."
Jiang Muyun noticed a reflection on the man's wrist with his sharp eyes: "Sister Wen, step back."
Qin Shiwen was stunned, and the strength in his hands relaxed for a moment.
The man took advantage of the situation and stood up, with a cold light flashing at his fingertips. Qin Shiwen leaned back to avoid it and completely released his restraint on the man.
Seeing that the commotion here was too loud, many people had secretly lifted the curtain to watch. The man was afraid of attracting the security team, so he had no intention of fighting at all and was about to run away.
The man had probably been scouting the area for a long time, and he happened to steal when only one person was home next door. He was also very familiar with the escape route.
But the two little ones were always blocking his way, jumping around very flexibly. The man wanted to kick them away but could never reach them.
If there is a delay of two or three minutes, the speed will naturally not be fast enough.
Qin Shiwen was chasing her very closely. She was holding a crowbar in her hand, and if Qin Shiwen swung it down, he would definitely be able to hit the man.
It was difficult to accumulate strength during the chase, so Qin Shiwen hit the man on the shoulder. The man just cried out in pain, but did not stop moving at all, and even ran faster.
This guy is experienced, different from the little jerk Xiaobai caught before. If he really runs out of this path, it will be difficult to catch him again.
But Qin Shiwen never dared to act rashly.
There are barriers on both sides of the path, so the stick cannot be hit horizontally, it can only be swung vertically.
The thief was not even as tall as Qin Shiwen. Qin Shiwen was afraid that if he swung the stick, he would not hit the right place and the other person would be killed. Wouldn't she be a murderer then?
This narrow path restricted Qin Shiwen's movements and also limited the man's space to escape.
"Jiang Muyun——" Chu Buwen's voice came from behind.
Jiang Muyun raised his hand and caught a bundle of parachute ropes with a slipknot tied to a heavy object.
"Sister Wen, lower your head!" Jiang Muyun shouted.
As Qin Shiwen bent down, Jiang Muyun threw the umbrella rope in his hand and it landed right around the man's neck.
The man couldn't stop his feet and ran forward two steps after the umbrella rope was wrapped around his neck. At the same time, Jiang Muyun pulled the umbrella rope backwards, the buckle slid, and the rope loop was tightly buckled around the man's neck.
The sudden feeling of suffocation made the man lose the ability to think. The dagger in his hand fell to the ground with a clang, and the man struggled with his hands to pull the rope around his neck.
This time the rope was at hand, and Qin Shiwen didn't give the man any chance. He simply pinned him down and tied him up tightly, then stepped aside and watched Jiang Muyun loosen the rope around his neck.
As fresh air entered his lungs, the man lay on the ground gasping for breath like a dehydrated fish, his occasional struggles appearing extremely weak.
Jiang Muyun picked up the short knife that the man dropped on the ground. It was a high-quality imitation tactical side-jump folding knife of good quality.
Jiang Muyun put away the blade and asked Qin Shiwen, "Is this person here to steal something?"
Although what this group of people eat every day is nothing special, it is not surprising that they are often noticed because the food is so delicious.
Qin Shiwen nodded: "That should be it. He brought a bag with him and even cut off the lock on my door."
Qin Shiwen said this with a bit of depression: "This door is really just for show."
Jiang Muyun smiled and said, "From the third drop in temperature to the opening of the rescue center, there was only this much time. It's good that the authorities were able to get these plastic sheets."
The place where she lived in her previous life didn't even have enough plastic sheets, and many people just hung curtains to cover their faces.
Seeing that they were done, the people around them who were woken up dared to open the door and come out, and discussions gradually spread among the crowd.
"A thief?"
"He must have been caught. Looks like he was beaten pretty badly."
"Well done! This kind of person has no conscience. He still cares about other people's life-saving food at this time."
"A bottle of water was lost at my house yesterday. Could he be the one who did it?"
Chu Buwen handed Jiang Muyun a piece of clothing and said, "With such a big commotion, the security team should be here soon."
There are several security teams patrolling the rescue point 24 hours a day, and the pattern is similar to that in the community before.
"Thank you."
Maybe she had developed cold resistance, but Jiang Muyun felt that the temperature in the rescue center was quite high. She wore a short-sleeved shirt when she slept at night, and she felt very cold when she got out of the quilt.
Jiang Muyun took the coat and put it on, feeling a little better. "I heard that catching a thief now costs 50 points. I don't know if they'll give more points for someone like him with a knife."
There was a commotion outside the crowd. Chu Buwen stood on tiptoe and took a look outside. "Really? Did you hear that from your other two neighbors?"
The security team came and handcuffed the man skillfully.
Jiang Muyun took the rope handed to him and returned it to Chu Buwen: "I forgot you haven't met them yet. The two on the side are them. The tall one with the scar on his face is Li Anxuan, and the other one is Zhao Jiahao."
Zhao Jiahao and Li Anxuan stood in the team and nodded to a few people as a greeting.
The person leading the team this time was an acquaintance, Captain Wu, who had previously handled murder and robbery cases.
Captain Wu, holding a lantern in hand, ordered the thief to be taken away. He then asked, as usual, "Who participated in maintaining public order? We need to register them so we can distribute the reward."
Chu Buwen took a step back, indicating that this matter had nothing to do with him.
Jiang Muyun didn't know why he didn't want to collect the points, but he couldn't ask now, so he reported himself and Qin Shiwen first.
Qin Shiwen was a little surprised, but saw Jiang Muyun shaking his head slightly at her.
Qin Shiwen looked at Jiang Muyun and then at Chu Buwen, raised his eyebrows and said nothing.
Captain Wu checked the information they had reported and said in surprise, "It's you. You were the ones who caught the murderer before, right?"
When the crowd around watching the excitement heard this, their eyes towards Jiang Muyun and the others suddenly changed.
murderer?
Have these two girls ever caught a murderer?
This is not something these little thieves can compare to!
Jiang Muyun smiled and said, "That time it wasn't us who caught him."
Captain Wu thought of Xiaobai: "That's right, your family has a hero dog."
Xiaobai squatted at Jiang Muyun's feet and responded with a "woof".
Captain Wu was a little embarrassed when he said this: "The prisoner you captured earlier is now serving his sentence in a special prison. But your reward is still under review, so you may have to wait for two days."
Jiang Muyun and Qin Shiwen hadn't expected that there would be any follow-up to that incident, so they naturally didn't care much about it: "It's okay, we understand."
After Captain Wu took the man away, the onlookers dispersed.
Not many people can sleep well these days. Everyone is generally sleepy. After watching the excitement, sleepiness comes over them.
Only Qin Shiwen was worried about the dilapidated door of his house.
Qin Shiwen sighed: "It doesn't matter if the mosquito net is scratched, I still have a spare one, but what about the door?"
Jiang Muyun gave her some advice: "This door is made of plastic anyway, so just burn it and glue it down a bit and use it."
Although it cannot stop thieves, it is good to allow thieves to have an extra procedure and make more noise when breaking into the door.
If Qin Shiwen hadn't heard the little thief's movements tonight, he might have run away when Jiang Muyun came out.
Qin Shiwen was helpless: "This is the only way."
Thanks to the bundled sale offered by the boss when they bought the LifeStraw, they now have magnesium rods and no shortage of fire tools, so the three of them can use lighters to burn the plastic.
After barely patching up the crooked door, Qin Shiwen found a way to be cheerful: "Just looking at the style of this door, it looks like a doomsday shelter."
Chu Buwen put his hands in his pockets and posed. "That's not something you can say. Floods are a common occurrence in all doomsday legends. We live in an underground garage now. If there's a flood, we'll all be gone."
There was indeed a great flood after the extreme cold in the previous life.
But by then the temperature had risen and people had moved out of the shelter.
Jiang Muyun: "Just shut up. If you believe or spread rumors, I'll take you to the Public Security Bureau to exchange for points."
Jiang Muyun thought about how the cooling time in this life did not match that in his previous life, and when he heard what Chu Buwen said, he felt that it was unlucky.
Chu Buwen knew what she was worried about: "We should believe in science, okay? The temperature outside is so cold that even popsicles feel cold. By the time the ice melts and a flood occurs, the temperature will have risen long ago, and we won't need to live here anymore."
Jiang Muyun raised his elbow and nudged him, then said with a smile, "You're talking to me about science now?"
Ever since the temperature started dropping, nothing that has happened in this world has been scientific.
Qin Shiwen yawned. "The temperature outside is quite idealistic right now, but human body functions still need to be scientific. I'm sleepy, why don't you two go back to sleep?"
Yawning is contagious.
Sometimes, just seeing the word "yawn" will make me want to yawn unconsciously.
Not to mention it's the middle of the night and you have to watch someone yawning in front of you.
Jiang Muyun and Chu Buwen were unable to escape either. They yawned loudly and said, "Let's go to sleep. After what happened tonight, we should be able to keep quiet from now on."
Unless the thief has accomplices and is determined to take revenge on them without fear of being caught.
But judging by how he acted tonight, his accomplices are probably just bad friends.
Everyone went back to their own homes, but Dabai turned around and followed Xiaobai back to the nest, looking like he didn't want to go home anymore.
Chu Buwen pointed at the two balls of black hair and said, "I knew they must have mutated. Let's have them guard the door later. We can catch any thieves and earn points."
Speaking of points, Jiang Muyun suddenly remembered Chu Buwen's actions just now: "Then why didn't you want the points just now? Don't tell me you are upright and noble."
Chu Buwen lowered his voice awkwardly and whispered in Jiang Muyun's ear, "Didn't I say I fooled people before?"
Jiang Muyun looked at him with a strange look in his eyes: "Have you ever fooled the officials?"
Chu Buwen: "Not really."
Chu Buwen confessed honestly, "Before, I was afraid that the order volume would attract attention, so I only ordered goods from large factories. But you should also know that with the number of private orders like ours, even large factories have to wait for a long time to accept them. Then I built a platform for myself that was neither too high nor too low."
Chu Buwen spread his hands and said, "The communication is still going strong. The more times I report this information, the greater the risk of being discovered."
Jiang Muyun sincerely admired: "You are really a talent."
This platform must be very high.
The key is that he was really fooled.
Chu Buwen: "I was in a hurry at that time. I had no choice. It was all forced."
At that time, he was thinking about buying all the things quickly and hiding them in the shelter, and then going to the West Market to find Jiang Muyun, so naturally he had to go as quickly as possible.
The few of them had a fight in the first half of the night and no one knew whether it was a blessing or a curse, but in the second half of the night they all slept well. Even Qin Shiwen had a good sleep that he hadn't had in a long time. Jiang Muyun was stunned by his adaptability.
The efficiency of the rescue center is quite high, and it may be because Captain Wu helped them after he returned.
The next day when Jiang Muyun went to charge his phone, he found that there were 120 extra points behind his identity information.
The thief caught at the rescue point only got 50 points, and the extra points should be the reward for catching the murderer before.
One hundred and twenty points is a huge sum of money at the relief center, and normally doing temporary work only earns ten points each time.
Jiang Muyun spent all the points he got.
She has no shortage of rice and flour now, whether it is visible or in the space, so she exchanged these points for cigarettes and alcohol.
After the end of the world, cigarettes and alcohol will still be luxury goods.
There will be no shortage of markets for this product, and even if the country resumes production later, it will not prioritize supporting the tobacco and alcohol industries, and the prices of tobacco and alcohol will only get higher and higher.
Plus, they're small, easy to carry, and inconspicuous. Buy some now and trade them in later, and you'll never lose out.
This trend has already appeared in the relief centers, with many old smokers offering food in exchange for cigarettes.
Qin Shiwen's family also had no shortage of staple foods. She exchanged her points for some frozen dishes, and the rest for cigarettes and alcohol.
The two of them spent their points in a low-key manner, but the rescue center became lively because of this.
The thief they caught was like turning on a faucet.
These days, whether he was charging his phone or going to the cafeteria, Jiang Muyun often heard about a household in a certain district catching a thief and receiving so many points in exchange.
I don’t know if it’s because the number of petty thefts in the rescue center has increased dramatically after everyone was trapped underground for a while, or if someone was caught before and the news just hasn’t been released.
But Jiang Muyun's side was really quiet for a while.
Even though everyone knows that they have official reward points, they may be able to exchange them for a lot of supplies.
Even though Qin Shiwu has been very busy these days, there are only three people in their corner all year round, and no one comes here to take risks.
Qin Shiwu hasn't come back to sleep for several days.
The medical department was extremely busy during this period, and even Qin Shiwu was dragged onto the operating table.
Living underground is very difficult.
In the first week, the rescue center was bustling with activity every day, with no quiet moment.
After half a month, the bustle turned into a state of sudden and sudden disturbances, and conflicts began to break out frequently among the restless crowd.
Your family accidentally pushed the partition of my house, and a roll of paper was lost in his house, which was suspected to have been stolen from the neighbor next door.
None of them were big deals, but they often caused chaos, with some even resorting to knife fighting. The medical department was filled with the smell of blood every day.
When the rescue center was first opened, many people would choose to go out for some fresh air during the day.
But as the temperature drops, the risk of going out for air during the day increases.
There is a family of three living in Unit 05, District 7. The father likes to go out for some fresh air from time to time.
Perhaps he had taken a few gusts of wind while out and about, and suddenly developed a high fever in the middle of the night. By the time his family discovered him and took him to the hospital, his body was already cold.
With this precedent, everyone only dared to stay at the door for a short while before going out.
Thanks to the heating in the rescue center, the temperature at the door is acceptable.
As the days go by without daylight, more and more people go to the shelter to relax, and more and more conflicts break out in the shelter.
Until the last day of 2023, when Jiang Muyun and the other two were getting together to have a New Year's Eve dinner, the lights above their heads flashed twice and suddenly went out.
The crowd, suddenly plunged into darkness, was silent for a moment, and then erupted in a huge wave of noise.
Then came the sounds of various heavy objects falling to the ground, mixed with cries and screams.
The scattered lights that were originally on in the rescue point were drowned out by the crowd after a few seconds.
Jiang Muyun turned off the gas stove the moment the power went out: "Go to the corner, quickly."
Qin Shiwen reacted instantly after seeing Jiang Muyun's action, and raised his hand to turn off the small light in his house.
Chu Buwen picked up Dabai and Xiaobai as soon as the power went out, and stood by the door.
After the area fell completely into darkness, Chu Buwen whispered, "The door is this way."
Because of the venue, the three of them had dinner at Qin Shiwen's place today.
But seeing that the rescue point fell into chaos in the darkness, the corner was naturally the safest place at this time.
Several people followed the baffle to Jiang Muyun. After Jiang Muyun closed the door, several people worked together to move the tent and blocked the door tightly.
As soon as the door on this side was blocked, someone came in from the next door. Things fell to the ground with a clang, and even the partition in the middle shook violently a few times.
The baffle near Area 7 02 has begun to sag, as if someone is pressing on it.
Jiang Muyun kicked the dented area directly back, and the person shaking the partition cursed: "Fuck, you wait over there."
Chu Buwen lowered his voice and said, "Just come and try."
The man next door immediately increased his strength, but was stopped by his companion: "Why don't you get something and leave? Why are you wasting time in an occupied room?"
The man cursed and kicked the partition again.
Before he could leave, the power supply in the rescue center was restored and the lights came on suddenly.
Dabai pushed Chu Buwen directly onto the top of the tent, and then took advantage of the height of the tent top to jump again, easily crossing the baffle and reaching No. 02 next door.
Then a man's screams were heard from next door.
Xiaobai was yelling anxiously in the house. Jiang Muyun reached out and removed the support poles of the tent. Several people grabbed the most convenient things around them and went out.
Xiaobai rushed out at an extremely fast speed, heading straight for a man holding a bag of rice in his arms, and bit the man's calf.
It was lunchtime when the power went out, and it was warm inside the rescue center, so no one was wearing thick clothes.
After Xiaobai took a bite, the man screamed subconsciously, raised the bitten leg, jumped a few times on the spot, lost his balance, stumbled and fell to the ground.
Dabai stood at the fulcrum of several metal poles and let out a long "meow".
After Jiang Muyun and his companions pinned the man down, they discovered that there were three bloody scratches on his face.
Chu Buwen went back to get a rope, and several people tied up the man and carried him back.
In addition to the bag of rice in the man's arms, they also found a lot of Qin Shiwen's family things on the man.
The security team arrived quickly, led by Captain Wu, and Zhao Jiahao was also in the team.
When Zhao Jiahao saw Jiang Muyun and the others, he quickly ran over and asked, "Are you okay?"
Jiang Muyun pointed to the man tied up nearby and said, "It's okay. We caught him red-handed. Are you taking him back to deal with him?"
Zhao Jiahao nodded: "Just leave it to us."
As he said this, he was about to drag the man away.
Chu Buwen suddenly said, "Wait a moment."
Zhao Jiahao looked at him with confusion.
Chu Buwen pointed at the man and said, "Rope."
Zhao Jiahao slapped his forehead and said, "Oh, oh, oh, this guy was so honest when he was tied up, I forgot about it. I'm a newbie, sorry."
As he spoke, Zhao Jiahao took out a pair of handcuffs from behind his waist: "Thanks for reminding me, otherwise I would have been scolded again when I got back."
After handcuffing the man, Zhao Jiahao handed the untied rope back to Chu Buwen: "Brother, what kind of rope is this? It seems to be of good quality."
Chu Bu Wen smiled and said, "The 11-core 750 parachute rope is not easy to buy right now, so I just asked one more question."
Zhao Jiahao exclaimed: "You must be using this for rock climbing, right?"
Chu Buwen took the rope and skillfully wound it into a bundle: "See if it's strong, just buy it casually."
Someone in the security team called Zhao Jiahao's name. Zhao Jiahao responded and said hurriedly, "I'm still on duty. I'm leaving now. Please pay attention to your safety."
Zhao Jiahao dragged the man to find Captain Wu, and was then assigned to another resettlement site to deal with the accident.
The rescue center was now in a mess, with the barriers torn to pieces and injured people lying on the ground everywhere.
Many people were cooking just now, and countless pots, pans and stoves were overturned in the chaos.
Some were burned, some were trampled, some were beaten in disputes, and many were even stabbed.
Fires broke out in many places within the rescue center, but fortunately, the fires in most places were not big, and the residents were able to put out the fires themselves after the power supply was restored.
The few fires that had already started were put out immediately by the Public Security Department and did not affect too many people.
The security team tied up several simple stretchers and prepared to allocate some manpower to send the seriously injured to the medical department first.
Jiang Muyun and a few others helped, carried the man onto the stretcher, and went back to clean up their own house.
Not long after, the broadcast in the rescue point sounded.
The official announced on the radio that the outside temperature has dropped again. In order to protect the personal safety of residents, free entry and exit to the rescue point will be suspended starting tomorrow.
The sudden power outage just now was probably caused by another drop in temperature.
Jiang Muyun and Chu Buwen looked at each other, and Chu Buwen shook his head slightly.
Neither of them had ever heard of the fourth temperature drop in their previous lives.
Jiang Muyun said softly, "The situation is not that bad."
It is better to recognize the changes on Blue Planet now than to be caught off guard when they conclude based on experience that the disaster has passed.
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