◎Happy 74th day: Darkness◎
The snow hasn't stopped even after dark, so the snow still needs to be shoveled.
In this case, lighting tools are very important.
The one they use most at the moment is a 6W camping lantern.
The brightness is sufficient and the power consumption is low. They were trapped in a cave where they were growing vegetables due to a cold wave, and they used this kind of lamp.
A group of people seriously counted their remaining power.
When they first found this batch of power supply equipment in the Nanshan warehouse, each person prepared several sets.
Some time ago, the sun was scorching outside and there was surplus electricity generated by solar energy every day, so they fully charged each portable power bank.
Even if you don't need it for the time being, you should keep it for later just in case.
And now this unexpected situation has come.
Ten people currently have eight fully charged outdoor power supplies, each of which can store an average of 1.5 kWh of electricity. One of them has only more than half of its capacity left, and the others are all used up.
In addition to the outdoor power supply in the big cave for their daily use, there is also an unused outdoor power supply in the cave where they grow vegetables.
Adding up all the factors, they can currently use about 14 degrees of electricity.
"A 6W lamp consumes 0.006 kWh of electricity per hour and can be used even when we're not on the top of the mountain. We have to use the small 1.2W lamp on the top of the mountain. We'll calculate the mobile phone battery capacity as 4000mAh, and a full charge requires 0.025 kWh of electricity." Jiang Muyun sat next to the stove, pulled out a half-burned piece of firewood from the fire and used it as a charcoal stick, and listed the data on the ground.
Lighting tools are important, and timing tools are also important.
After losing daylight, they had to have something else to stabilize their circadian rhythms.
For example, a fixed alarm clock ringtone.
Get your body used to a certain sound so that when you hear it, it means it's time to go to sleep or time to wake up.
Let this sound replace daylight as the new time clue, artificially creating a "natural rhythm" that the physiological rhythm can follow.
"Suppose we don't use our phones on a regular basis, and just leave them there as alarm clocks," Qin Shiwen said, holding up his own phone. "I calculated it before, and it can last for more than two days."
These mobile phones were found by them after the tsunami. At that time, they specifically targeted electronic products with plastic packaging, and they caught a lot of them.
Finally, we sorted through the phones, dried them in the sun, and divided up the ones that were still usable. Everyone had two or three phones. However, they had been subjected to so much extreme weather that the batteries in these phones were not very good.
Otherwise, if you turn on the power saving mode of your mobile phone and only leave the alarm function, the battery will run out after just over two days of standby.
Wu Xingyue rubbed her hands together. "With that calculation, we still have plenty of electricity! It's enough for cell phones and lights, and it won't be a problem for several months!"
Jiang Muyun shook his head: "You can't calculate it that way. Now is different from when we were trapped by the cold wave. No one knows how long this polar night experience period will last."
Chu Buwen simply changed his explanation: "We concluded that it is polar night because the daylight hours are gradually shortening. But what if the lack of daylight is because the Blue Planet has stopped rotating? Or perhaps its orbital period has changed? Judging from the weather conditions of the past two years, I think there's a high possibility that there's a problem with the Blue Planet's orbit."
Li Anxuan added, "It's also possible that there's a problem with both the rotation and revolution. Perhaps the tilt of the planet has also changed, otherwise how could there be polar night at the latitude of Nanshi?"
Zhao Jiahao rubbed his arms. "It's pitch black now, with only the stove giving off some light. Can you please not tell horror stories in this kind of environment?"
"It's possible that the rotation period and inclination change, but it's too scary to stop the rotation." Qin Shiwen also reached out and approached the stove to warm himself. "You guys remember junior high geography by now?"
Jiang Muyun pretended not to hear the last half of Qin Shiwen's sentence: "Anyway, no matter what the reason, we can't predict how long we will lose daylight. Living in darkness for a long time will definitely cause problems with human physiological functions."
Jiang Muyun had experienced the longest "polar night" in his previous life, which lasted for more than two months.
This time was estimated by herself. She regarded each sleep as one day. She didn't know whether it was accurate or not.
After more than two months without seeing the sun, people have to face not only problems such as disrupted biological clocks, decreased immunity, impaired vision, etc., but also more invisible mental illnesses that are more deadly.
Before the end of the world, many high-latitude countries will distribute antidepressants to the public after the arrival of winter. The reason is commonly known as seasonal depression, which many people generally refer to as winter depression.
Although this name is not accurate, it can be seen from the name that seasonal depression often occurs in winter, and the main cause is reduced light.
He survived so many natural and man-made disasters, but finally died of depression. It's so unfair.
But the truth is so ridiculous.
There are many people who barely survive day after day of anxiety, irritability and restlessness, and these two short months of darkness have become the last straw that broke the camel's back.
Perhaps due to the different latitudes, Jiang Muyun experienced the polar night in his previous life, which was the third winter after the end of the world.
At that time, she had found the outrageous book, and relied on it to survive the long dark night. When the next spring came, she dusted off the dust, put on her backpack and continued on her journey.
But from then on, she had an additional goal when collecting supplies.
Jiang Muyun didn't want his companions, whom he had finally gotten together with, to die in such a situation. For the sake of everyone's physical and mental health, they must have the necessary light time and entertainment activities.
"Anyway, our vegetables can't be without sunlight for a long time. Why don't we shovel snow in the morning, come back to eat at noon, and then go to the cave where we grow vegetables to bask in the sun with them?" Jiang Muyun suggested.
Areas in the polar night have strong winds and low temperatures, and the continuous damage is high, so the possibility of a sudden cold wave will be relatively reduced. After being well prepared, it will be safer to go out than before.
Qin Shiwen pondered for a moment: "Should we bring the four outside with us?"
She was talking about the two chickens and the two rabbits.
As soon as winter comes, Dabai and Xiaobai start to grow their fur like crazy. They play outside every day and they have to take them with them wherever they go.
The remaining four cubs stayed at home more often after winter.
The two chickens would occasionally come out to improve their meals, but the two rabbits were really nowhere to be seen all day.
If they hadn't seen the amount of food outside their nest decreasing every day, they would have suspected that the two had died early.
Zhou Ying began to put on clothes. "Chickens won't lay eggs without light, so they need to see the light regularly. Rabbits, on the other hand, don't need to be taken out for walks so often. After all, humans are primarily space dwellers."
"Xiaobai." Jiang Muyun shouted. Xiaobai, who was playing with Dabai playing with carbon balls, flicked his tail and ran over. Dabai also jumped onto Xiaobai nimbly.
"Let's go out and see the light." Jiang Muyun wrapped himself tightly, picked up the snow shovel, and took the transporter Xiaobai and the navigator Dabai with him.
The night vision ability of cats allows Dabai to move freely in this environment. Taking Dabai with them to lead the way is a double insurance for them.
An LED lamp with the same wattage is ten times brighter than an ordinary incandescent lamp or more. A 6W LED camping lamp is fine in a sheltered place like a mountainside, but taking it to the top of a mountain and making it sparkle does not seem like something someone who wants to live to be a hundred years old would do.
When several people were shoveling snow on the top of the mountain, they all used small 1.2w lights.
This forces them to be very careful in their movements to prevent themselves from stepping on the wrong place and immediately starting a passionate extreme sport.
On the first day of the polar night, they slept until noon, then went out to add firewood to the vegetables' warm kang, went to the top of the mountain to shovel snow, and returned to the cave to light the lamp with the vegetables. After coming back, the activity of celebrating the freezing of ice was postponed due to practical factors. Several people ended their vacation in tears and cooked a pot of noodles with hot pot base.
At ten o'clock in the evening, accompanied by the familiar high school bell, everyone fell asleep peacefully except for the students who were responsible for keeping watch over the stove.
At six o'clock in the morning on the second day of the polar night, the passionate athletes' march blasted in the cave, and everyone was instantly awakened from their sleep.
The phone they used to set the alarm was Qin Shiwen's, and the ringtones that reminded everyone to wake up and go to bed were also set by Qin Shiwen. Yesterday, when everyone asked her what alarm she had set, she was mysterious and refused to say. But this morning, she gave everyone a surprise.
After hearing the bell, Wang Qingqing and the other three sat up straight. It took them a long time to realize that they had graduated a long time ago.
Wu Xingyue clutched her chest and said in pain, "Oh my God, this song was my nightmare during my adolescence. Can we make a deal and change it?"
Qin Shiwen also looked a little frightened, but she refused to admit defeat: "Why change? Isn't this a good effect? It will lead everyone back to the vibrant high school campus."
Jiang Muyun never expected that after all these years, his heart would still skip a beat when he heard this song. "Too cruel, really too cruel... What brand is this phone? Why is there this in the built-in alarm clock?"
No Chinese person can fall asleep peacefully to the melody of the Athletes' March after graduating from high school!
Wang Qingqing grabbed her half-grown hair and said, "Help! Help! Can you please turn this thing off? I feel like I'm about to take off like a fledgling eagle any second!"
Jiang Muyun was sleeping next to Qin Shiwen. She dragged her broken soul over Qin Shiwen and turned off the alarm clock with such force that it seemed as if she wanted to smash the screen of her mobile phone directly.
As usual, I go out in the morning, add firewood to the children's warm kang, go home for dinner after shoveling the snow, and then take the children out to light the lamps in the afternoon after dinner.
But this time when they were lighting the lamps, they brought various carefully selected thin wood pieces. Qin Shiwen and Zhao Jiahao and others prepared to make a set of Three Kingdoms Kill to kill time.
Chu Buwen brought over some usable cardboard boxes, and was eager to write a script on the spot. He hoped that everyone would supervise each other and not come to watch while he was writing, so as to prevent someone from using cheats when the script started.
After lighting the lamp for eight hours, everyone added firewood to the stove before leaving, mixed in some charcoal, and then returned to the cave to pack up, wash up and prepare for rest. If they still didn't have enough fun, they could go skiing on their children's ski slope in the dark.
After a few days of this regular life, boredom began to set in.
There are fixed things to do every day, and I act according to the time plan. After today, I know what to do tomorrow. Even playing games feels like completing a task step by step.
"This shouldn't be the case." After a round of Three Kingdoms Kill, Zhao Jiahao lay on the kang, puzzled. "I didn't feel bored during daily training before, so why am I so depressed by playing games every day now?"
Wang Qingqing lay down next to him: "I have a little bit too. Haven't you noticed that we haven't been playing Werewolf scripts these past few days? We have absolutely no patience for deduction."
Jiang Muyun is quite experienced in this situation.
Biological rhythms are not so easy to adjust. In the first few days, everyone is not used to it and there is always a feeling that "today is not over yet".
In their subconscious mind, life these days is actually just repeating certain things several times a day, and it is hard not to feel bored.
Jiang Muyun circled the vegetable cave and finally stopped beside the pile of containers. "How about we take the foldable bathtub to the bathroom so we can soak in it whenever we want?"
A folding bathtub is a water storage device. When the water was out, almost everyone had one. They brought a few back home for the convenience of bathing.
Now there are ten of them living together. Since the kang is large enough, they can sleep separately at night without disturbing each other. For physiological problems, they have set aside a space outside the cave where they can get some warmth, but they have not thought about a place to take a shower.
The terrain of the cave is high on the outside and low on the inside. Drainage is a problem if you want to take a shower. It is also troublesome to boil water and pour water when taking a bath. In addition, you don’t need to take a bath so frequently in winter, so they only have a wash room. After washing, they have to carry the basin out to pour water.
But now they are free anyway, and they feel that what they have the most is time. It doesn’t matter if they can just take a bath and relax, so it doesn’t matter how many times they go back and forth.
A few people who thought it didn't matter to go through so much trouble set their sights on Xiaobai, who wanted to have fun every day.
The Little White Sled Project has officially opened for business.
Dabai leads the way and Xiaobai drives, one person at a time, first stopping at the passenger's home, then delivering the goods to the big cave in the dormitory, and finally returning to the terminal.
They are not in a hurry to move everyone's bathtubs at once. They will move a few today and a few tomorrow. Those who line up in the Xiaobai team first will enjoy the bathing service first. As for the order of getting on the bus and the number of departures per day, it will be decided by Maogong Navigation Dabai and the driver Xiaobai.
On the ninth day of the polar night, when everyone went to bask in the sun with the vegetables, Jiang Muyun and Qin Shiwen chose to stay in the big cave together to take a bath.
The moment he was wrapped in hot water, Jiang Muyun felt that his whole body had collapsed from a neat square with clear edges and corners into a loose pancake.
The hot bath soothed everyone's inexplicable mental fatigue. In the next few days, they lived in peace and quiet. Even the athletes' march that woke them up every morning became lively and lovely.
Everyone calmed down, and ghost story lovers led by Jiang Muyun returned to the stage, digging out all kinds of folk stories and talking about them.
As the conversation went on, the protagonist changed from "Once upon a time there was a man named Xiao Ming" to "I have a relative in my hometown" and finally to "Something happened to me when I was five years old."
It's appropriate to tell ghost stories at this time.
The atmosphere is peaceful and the details are stimulating, which can satisfy both those who like activity and those who like quietness. It is a versatile option.
The ghost story activity ended on the 25th day of the polar night, and the landmark event was that Wu Xingyue was scared to tears on the top of the mountain.
Wu Xingyue claimed that her eyes were almost frozen, so she strongly protested against their use of various ghost stories to reshape her worldview.
It all started when they were shoveling snow on the top of a mountain one day when they spotted a group of people passing by quietly.
At this temperature, the snow is as hard as cement, with only the first layer still soft. Walking feels like slipping and drifting, as if I'd drunk two bottles of Erguotou before leaving the house.
Not to mention those who are going on a long journey in this weather, even if Jiang Muyun and the others want to go home to get something, they would rather bring food to Xiaobai.
So if someone would run to the wilderness in such weather, it is naturally impossible for him to move back and forth on foot.
If Jiang Muyun can raise Xiaobai, then those wealthy people before the end of the world might not be unable to raise pets.
Otherwise, what if someone is lucky enough to get a mutant animal after the apocalypse?
So in Wu Xingyue's eyes, the group of unidentified creatures were just floating across the snow.
If it were just that, it would be fine.
The problem was that the group of people were all wearing light-colored clothes and were covered up completely. All their luggage was covered with light-colored cloth, and a lot of snow had fallen on it.
Most of their group's parts were barely noticeable when viewed from the snow.
Only the head is different.
I don't know which genius among the group came up with the idea, but they used fluorescent paint to draw extremely abstract facial features on the part that was suspected to be the head.
Late at night, all you could see was a group of green things floating across the snow in a line. Wu Xingyue, who had been fooled by the "I've seen them before" and "my neighbors from my hometown" stories these days and had begun to doubt the world, almost fell over.
Chu Buwen held up the telescope and observed carefully for a while: "From a distance, it looks like a green mass that is very scary. When you zoom in and take a closer look, it is even scarier."
Jiang Muyun put down the telescope and patted Wu Xingyue in understanding. "To be able to draw two eyes and a mouth to such a terrifying effect, the opponent is really not simple. I don't blame you."
Wu Xingyue struggled to wipe the ice off her face and choked out a sob, "I'm not going to listen to ghost stories anymore. I've already decided what family I want to be reborn into in my next life."
Zhao Jiahao casually replied, "You're quite good at making connections."
Wu Xingyue thought he was trying to comfort her and was about to express her gratitude, but Zhao Jiahao continued, "People who are killed by ghosts usually can't be reincarnated. They will either be eaten or trapped here for the ghost and continue to look for another scapegoat."
Wu Xingyue shoveled the snow onto Zhao Jiahao.
Jiang Muyun interrupted them in time: "They seem to be heading towards the holiday villa."
Zhao Jiahao put down the shovel he was about to use to fight back, and came over to observe carefully through the telescope: "Robbery at this time? So dedicated?"
Li Anxuan elbowed him and said, "There are only a few people on the other side, are you trying to rob us with your heads?"
Judging from the number of green lights, there are only seven or eight people on the other side.
As for why the exact number of people could not be counted, it was mainly because there were several balls of green light that Jiang Muyun looked like the drivers of the team.
The same kind as Xiaobai.
"If they were to rob someone, it would have to be a surprise attack. How could they be walking around in the streets wearing fluorescent paint?" Jiang Muyun shook his head. "They must be the survivors who wanted to join Captain Yu and his men, so they painted themselves to show their friendship."
And it is estimated that the paint was applied after someone came here.
Otherwise, they wouldn't have discovered the row of green lights in the snow until now.
Li Anxuan asked, "Do you want to send a message to Captain Yu and the others?"
Jiang Muyun shrugged. "That's unnecessary. Captain Yu and the others might have already discovered us. If we flash the signal now and it gives the wrong message to the people down there, and they come straight towards us, it would be a wasted trip."
It is already difficult to tell the direction in this kind of weather. If they keep flashing signal lights on the top of the mountain, people might mistakenly think that the signal is for them and turn around and run straight towards them.
"Get to work." The fluorescent man walked away. Jiang Muyun put down the telescope and sighed, with a bit of unspeakable regret.
On the 30th day of the polar night, Jiang Muyun discovered people migrating to the holiday villa for the second time.
This time, the people had no means of transportation. They relied on their two legs and a few broken wooden boards, carrying a bunch of belongings and walking from the direction of Nanshi.
Their movements were stiff and numb, rarely even looking up to check their direction. Just as they were about to pass the resort, a beam of light shone before them.
Several people paused for a few seconds, their almost stagnant brains struggling to function. It took a long time before they continued to move, moving in the direction of the light column.
"It seems that Captain Yu and his men are really willing to accept the survivors, otherwise they would not take the initiative to show them the way." Jiang Muyun withdrew his gaze.
Chu Buwen shoveled the snow down the mountain and said, "Maybe they have their own plans, but it's a good thing to have a survival base nearby."
If Captain Yu and his team's base can be stabilized, future trade and information flows will be more convenient.
Wang Qingqing scraped the last bit of snow off the top of the mountain. "If there really is a survival base, we could stay there for a while. I've never seen what those high-end resorts look like."
"I can't leave." Zheng Xiang smiled. "We keep all our things here. What if our house gets taken away if we leave?"
After clearing the snow on the top of the mountain, several people continued to clear it down.
Jiang Muyun poked the snow with a shovel: "The snow today is not thick at all."
The snow has been quite light these days, so it's completely fine to shovel it every few days.
"But what else can we do if we don't shovel the snow?" Qin Shiwen sighed.
Although they tried hard to maintain a normal routine every day and told themselves to be optimistic, the long period of darkness inevitably made their mood a little low, and even the passionate athletes' march could not awaken their vitality.
If there were no internet connection now, Qin Shiwen would have tried using the music from radio gymnastics as his wake-up call.
Just when they stopped shoveling snow and began to daydream and pretend to enjoy the scenery, Jiang Muyun thought of the group of fluorescent people who passed by a few days ago.
This group of people have become so depressed even though they have the conditions to maintain their physiological rhythms and try every possible way to find entertainment activities to adjust their mood. How do those fluorescent people maintain their mentality?
Jiang Muyun recalled the artistic level reflected in their paintings.
"Why don't we stop shoveling the snow and go play with ice sculptures?" Jiang Muyun exhaled a cloud of white mist as he spoke, and in the blink of an eye it condensed into frost on his eyelashes.
Wang Qingqing was a little tempted: "But how do you carve an ice sculpture? I don't know how to do it at all."
Jiang Muyun gestured to her: "Hey, we can play that kind of game. First, freeze the ice into ice bricks, and then use the ice bricks as building blocks."
"To be honest, it doesn't sound like it has anything to do with ice sculptures." Although she said so, Wang Qingqing's emotions were visibly aroused.
"Who cares what it's called?" Zhao Jiahao led the way down the mountain. "I want to show you my first-prize-winning level in the building block competition! Watch me build you a replica of an ice castle!"
Jiang Muyun was very respectful and praised him: "Yes, yes, Little Red Flower Kindergarten. I remember it was a spectacular scene back then!"
A group of people were ambitiously looking for a place to build an ice castle, but they ended up using ice bricks that had been frozen for a day to build a foundation.
Seeing the bell for the end of get out of class ringing again, Chu Buwen decisively turned off his phone.
Everyone pretended not to hear the alarm on their cell phones and continued to carry water outside to freeze ice bricks.
When their ice and snow castle was basically completed, a familiar and exciting tune could be heard faintly from the cave.
The ice sculpture artists who had been busy in the dark all night with the faint light, immediately clamored to appreciate their creations in the bright sunlight when they heard that it was time to turn on the lights.
After turning on the lights and taking a closer look, they found that the ice and snow castle built by ten people through division of labor only had ice and snow in line with their original plan.
Jiang Muyun pondered for a moment: "How should I put it? There's a kind of... reckless beauty."
In short, the infrastructure game briefly became the paradise of several people in the dark. Every day, a group of people were busy freezing ice bricks and building blocks. Although they made a lot of strange things because they were reluctant to turn on the lights, the fire of art was still burning brightly on the hill.
But maybe the fire was too strong, and recently their hobby has changed from playing with blocks to building blocks and then smashing them.
Until one day they witnessed a bloody conflict on the top of the mountain.
It seemed that both parties in the conflict were heading to the holiday villa, but for some reason they suddenly started arguing and eventually developed into a fight.
Even though Captain Yu had already started firing warning shots, neither side showed any intention of stopping.
They were like a group of enraged beasts, biting each other madly until all the people on one side fell down and only two people on the other side still had the strength to stand.
The last two people standing took shovels and smashed the heads of everyone on the ground one by one, even their companions were not spared.
Then he laughed heartily at the red and white ice chips on the ground.
Jiang Muyun looked at the way they smashed people's heads crazily, which was very similar to the way they smashed ice sculptures.
None of them said anything, but after returning home, they gave up their hobby of smashing ice sculptures and switched to splitting ice pieces with their hands.
It is to pour a large and thin sheet of ice, then place the ice sheet on two piles of ice bricks and break it with a knife in one hand.
If the ice sheet breaks before the ice bricks are placed on it, you are out.
In order to study the optimal ratio between ice flake size and thickness, Qin Shiwu has recently returned to high school to study physics diligently.
Then he caught a cold.
Qin Shiwen went back to get medicine for him. Before entering the room, he rubbed his face twice to suppress his smile.
Qin Shiwen, holding a cup of cold medicine that hadn't expired, sat next to Qin Shiwu and said softly, "Fame and status are important, but you have to take care of your health, brother."
Qin Shiwu was so angry that he coughed twice and tears welled up in his eyes.
Jiang Muyun hurried to comfort the patient: "What nonsense are you talking about in front of a patient! This is just a weakened immune system, it's normal!"
It is indeed normal.
Because colds are generally not contagious, and after Qin Shiwu caught a cold, others also caught it.
Even Li Anxuan, who had the best physique, coughed twice.
Wang Qingqing sighed as she stirred the large pot of cold medicine brewing in the pot and poured a cup for each of them: "If you don't take this medicine now, it will expire. It's not a loss at all."
They can only calculate the time roughly now. They dare not take any medicines that will expire in the next few months. They only dare to use a small number of medicines that are estimated to have a shelf life of one or two years left.
Zhao Jiahao was not happy to drink this, so he chose to open a new packet and swallow it dry: "Back then, I had to swallow my medicine with cola, and it had to be sugar-free."
Jiang Muyun didn't have such elegant hobbies. She pinched her nose and gulped it down. Then she heard Zhao Jiahao, the provider of the cold granule, say, "Did you drink it? Did you drink it all?"
Seeing everyone in the room nodding obediently, Zhao Jiahao said with satisfaction, "Then remember to give me five ice blocks each. Five dollars a pack, no bargaining, no cheating."
Wang Qingqing hadn't expected this. She immediately put down her cup and angrily pulled out a packet of instant powder from her bag and threw it into his arms. "Five yuan a packet! Are you a reincarnated goose spirit who specializes in extortion?"
Zhao Jiahao laughed arrogantly: "You've already drunk it, and you're still going to spit it out?"
Qin Shiwen was heartbroken: "It's dark and gloomy! It's dark and gloomy!"
Chu Buwen: "Yes, there is sunlight."
Wang Qingqing couldn't believe it: "You two actually opened a black shop together?"
Jiang Muyun: "It really is! There really is daylight!"
"I'll pull the sled tomorrow, liar!"
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