◎Happy 53rd day: Grain seeds and gifts for the door◎
The next morning, taking advantage of the dim light, several people began to set up early warning devices.
The big bell that Qin Shiwu brought back was originally an electric bell, but after being modified by several people, it became an ordinary large bell.
The hammer-shaped spring in the middle is connected to the trap cotton line buried in the soil, which serves as the alarm of the main early warning system and is hung on the platform at the top of the mountain.
Chu Buwen tried to hear the sound. If it was during the day, everyone should be able to hear the sound of the bell, but it would be hard to say at night.
So the remaining small bells were used as a supplement to the main early warning system and connected to the caves of several other people.
As long as the main early warning system is triggered, these small bells will ring.
The only problem is that this device needs to be reinstalled every time it is triggered, which is as troublesome as the previous stone device, except that it will not be accidentally triggered by a little wind and rain.
The bare mountains forced them to go out and collect all kinds of debris, and also made it difficult to hide many lethal traps. Only this simple rope trap played the greatest role in this environment.
With the early warning system, there is no need for people to keep an eye on the surroundings during the day, and there is no need to stand guard on the top of the mountain in the cold at night. It feels like installing a door in your home.
Now that the door is installed, it's time to buy other furniture for the house.
Jiang Muyun and others repeated the operations of the first day, looking for a location based on the map and the vast empty water surface.
This time the scenic spot was close, and we arrived there in about an hour.
After going underwater to explore and determine the exact location, we can accurately locate the scenic spot.
Jiang Muyun and Chu Buwen, who had a way to retreat, did not choose to go to the residential area outside the ancient town to find food, but ran directly to the commercial street of the ancient town.
Jiang Muyun’s first target was the supermarket.
There are two chain supermarkets in the ancient town commercial street, and Jiang Muyun chose the one closest to the inside.
When Jiang Muyun swam in through the broken window, he stirred up dust all over the floor, making the water inside the supermarket extremely muddy. Even with the flashlight on, there was no visibility at all.
Jiang Muyun groped her way into the supermarket, hoping that the environment inside would be a little better, otherwise she would have to float to the surface to breathe and then come down again.
Who knew the situation inside was even more serious.
Jiang Muyun didn't dare to continue groping, for fear that he would get lost underwater, so he had to surface first, take a breath, and then go back into the water to grope.
Judging from the distribution of dust in the supermarket, it doesn't look like it was abandoned after the rain.
Could it be that this store has been closed for a long time?
Jiang Muyun reached out and groped around in the store.
If that's the case...
That’s great!
This scenic spot should have been abandoned since the extreme cold.
The scenic area is located in a remote area, making life inconvenient already. Now that there are no tourists, the residents outside the ancient town who rely on the scenic area for their survival naturally have to find other ways out.
Except for those who have sufficient supplies at home and have no worries about food and clothing and are willing to stay here in peace and quiet, everyone else has to go to prosperous areas, or at least areas where they can buy food to make a living.
Social order had always existed before the heavy rain. In fact, because of the existence of the "water purchasing team", the military's protection of villages, townships, and towns was even tighter.
Since the residents who stay here have enough food and clothing, there is no need for them to challenge the military's ability to do things for the few supplies in the supermarket.
After the heavy rain, the houses here are not tall enough, so they will be the first group of people to be relocated, and there will be no chance to buy for free.
The rice and flour here may have been sold out at the beginning of the extreme cold, but other things must still be quite complete.
Jiang Muyun groped through the gray water, throwing everything he touched into the space to identify what it was. He kept the useful ones and threw away the useless ones when he left.
Jiang Muyun was not wrong. The store had all kinds of snacks and drinks, a lot of condiments in various plastic packages, and a complete range of daily necessities.
Jiang Muyun only collected a part of it into the space, and then took out all the things that could be used at the moment and put them into the net bag. When she floated up, she even held a broom in her hand.
Wang Qingqing and the others who stayed on the boat took the supplies she handed over and asked in surprise, "Where did you find the broom? Do you still have it?"
Jiang Muyun pointed in the direction of the supermarket. "There's a chain supermarket inside, but a lot of things have been washed away. There's also a thick layer of dust and the water is murky, so you can't see clearly down there. I need to go look for something else soon, so I suggest you wait a little while until the water calms down a bit before going in. Be careful when you go in, and make sure you know where the things you want are before you go in."
The chain supermarket is not very big, and the shelves in the middle are basically all collapsed, so people can get a general idea of what's inside by standing in the window.
Wang Qingqing and the others agreed. Jiang Muyun took a deep breath and continued to walk towards the supermarket.
If you want to settle down, you need too many odds and ends, and it is impossible to find them all in a few minutes. Jiang Muyun went back and forth several times before he found most of the odds and ends needed for the home, and took out the missing parts from the space to fill in.
Jiang Muyun also got a few small stools, a colorful folding table, a camp bed that he didn't know if it could still be used, a 2L bucket of Coke, several dozen 330ml cans of sparkling wine, some strange drinks, and some canned fruit.
Most of these were looted by her after she went to the supermarket warehouse.
The shelves outside were in disarray, and it would take some effort to get supplies from inside. It would be better to go directly to the warehouse.
The supermarket warehouse had no ventilation windows, so water had simply gotten in. Aside from the rice and flour, all other supplies were intact.
Especially the canned fruits, all of them survived and squatted in the same place without moving.
However, Jiang Muyun had fresh fruits in her space and was not very interested in this kind of sweet canned food. She stuffed some into her space just in case, in case she suddenly felt like eating it one day.
The same goes for other kinds of supplies. This kind of small supermarket sells commonly used items. Jiang Muyun picked out some that he didn't have and stuffed them into the space, and left the rest untouched.
Jiang Muyun is not very interested in canned fruit, but other people might need it.
Wang Qingqing and her friends hadn't eaten fruit for a long time, so they were quite surprised to see the canned fruit.
When Jiang Muyun carried these up, Zhao Jiahao sighed at Jiang Muyun's luck.
At this time, canned fruits can still be salvaged. I don’t know how they survived the large-scale purchase.
Jiang Muyun climbed onto the boat and after listening to Zhao Jiahao's words, he said, "We were so short of water before, and this thing doesn't quench our thirst, so why buy it?"
While the number of people eating it might be relatively small, it's likely quite high. Everyone knows it's better to be prepared. If you're truly dehydrated, canned fruit can be a great way to replenish your body's fluids, so there's no reason to miss out.
She was more inclined to believe that the items left in the supermarket were deliberately hidden and not sold to the public.
Because she found a camp bed in the supermarket warehouse, and there were bedding and daily necessities around the camp bed, it was obvious that someone had lived in the warehouse.
The second time Jiang Muyun went into the water, she not only brought up the usual supplies but also a bunch of white fences. There were a lot of these fences, made of metal. If someone wanted to fence off the entrance to their cave, they could just go down and pick up a few.
Chu Buwen was even more outrageous. He brought up two folding clothes racks.
If canned fruit is a luxury item, then clothes drying racks are a necessity. They immediately followed Chu Buwen down to continue moving the items, and even brought two for Qin Shiwen and Qin Shiwu who stayed behind.
But in this way, the space on their life raft was almost taken, so they had to go back to deliver the things.
With the pulley system, the group was able to transport supplies at an incredible speed.
Jiang Muyun and the others didn't even need to transport it. As long as they took all the supplies off the life raft, Qin Shiwen and Qin Shiwu could get them up there.
Returning to the scenic area again, Jiang Muyun went to the residential area and looked around for a while.
Jiang Muyun knew that the villagers might have the habit of digging cellars, and these uniformly built small houses might also have them, so when she entered a house that did not look deserted, she paid special attention to whether there was any shadow of a cellar entrance nearby.
The first one didn't find a cellar, but Jiang Muyun found some sweet potato flour and bean curd sheets. Judging from the words on them, they seemed to be specialties from other places. The outer packaging had been soaked and deformed, but the inside was sealed well.
The backyard of the second house was very large. As soon as Jiang Muyun entered, he saw a half-broken wooden board.
Jiang Muyun didn't even need to look for it to see the half-exposed dark cellar entrance.
Do villagers have the habit of vacuuming their homes when storing food?
Jiang Muyun felt that his situation was hanging.
She wouldn't have her face washed by decay as soon as she entered the cellar, would she?
Jiang Muyun turned on the flashlight and shone it into the cellar.
Unexpectedly, there was no rotten food inside, but there were quite a few large jars with round bellies, each of which was two sizes larger than the wine jars commonly seen in TV dramas.
Jiang Muyun saw that the mouth of the jar should have been sealed with mud, but a lot of it was forced to become open under the erosion of water.
Jiang Muyun breathed a sigh of relief that his face wasn't washed by the rotten sewage, and at the same time he became curious about what was in the tank.
What kind of thing needs to be packaged in such a large cylinder?
If it is grain, wouldn't it be inconvenient to take it out by placing it in a large vat at such a height?
Jiang Muyun exerted force with his hands, grabbed the entrance and entered the cellar.
She first put several large vats that were well sealed into the space, and then looked at the remaining broken ones.
Jiang Muyun couldn't tell what was in the tank at first glance, he could only see a black mass.
Could it be that the food has rotted inside?
Jiang Muyun was a little disappointed.
The large vats she stored in the space only took up less than half of the entire cellar. It would be a pity if the remaining food was soaked and spoiled.
Jiang Muyun shone his flashlight into the tank and saw a hint of different color in the darkness.
The color is quite fresh and the shape is straight.
Jiang Muyun was shocked.
She tried to reach out to get something out of the tank, but she stirred up the nearby water and almost fell into the tank.
Got it!
Jiang Muyun held an irregularly shaped solid in his hand, from which a long, thin branch extended.
Jiang Muyun clasped his hands together, protecting the unidentified object in his palms, and swung his legs to swim straight up.
Wow——
Jiang Muyun surfaced, took two deep breaths, and after stabilizing his body, he raised his hands in front of him and carefully exposed the object he was protecting in his hands to the sunlight.
On a black lump of earth, a small, curled, white sprout was trembling. From time to time, the sprout would branch out into a small branch, and the top of the branch was slightly green.
It's a sprouted potato.
Jiang Muyun couldn't remember how long it had been since he had seen such a tender life.
Zhao Jiahao, who was on the boat, saw Jiang Muyun clasping his hands and not moving after floating to the surface. He asked curiously, "What's wrong? Are you feeling unwell?"
Jiang Muyun swam towards the life raft with his legs swinging, and carefully showed them what he had in his hand.
"I think I found the seeds." Jiang Muyun's voice was very soft, as if he was afraid of scaring the little thing in his hand.
After the end of the world, all kinds of animals and plants began to evolve rapidly in order to adapt to the environment, and even humans' resistance to extreme weather increased.
People will go hungry simply because acid rain and insect pests make it difficult for the land to grow food that humans can eat.
Acid rain is called acid rain, but it is more appropriate to call it poisonous rain.
After the poisonous rain, the land was polluted and a large number of plants died. The surviving plants had basically mutated, and 99% of them were infected with toxins.
The small amount of land that was not contaminated by the poisonous rain and some non-toxic plants also suffered heavy losses due to insect plagues several times.
The surviving plant species did not have a production volume sufficient to be used as staple food by people and could only be circulated as luxury goods.
But acid rain hasn't fallen yet, and the pests in the fields haven't become rampant.
The grain seeds found at this time have not been contaminated and the land is also in good condition. There is no reason why the food grown now cannot be eaten, right?
Jiang Muyun had a planting plan before, but because the mung beans didn't sprout, she didn't dare to take out the seeds casually, for fear that someone would notice something unscientific.
But these grains now have nothing to do with Jiang Muyun.
These were stored in the cellar, and when she discovered them, they had already sprouted on their own!
Jiang Muyun excitedly held the small green seedling in front of the group: "What kind of seedling is this? It looks like food! I found it in a family's cellar. Should we be able to take it home and plant it?"
Zhou Ying, who had just surfaced, pulled Wu Xingyue over to look at it for a while, and said in disbelief, "It looks like a potato. It looks like it just sprouted not long ago."
Zhou Ying calculated the time in her mind: "It must have sprouted during the rainstorm, so it didn't drown when it was submerged in water later?"
Jiang Muyun knew nothing, so how could she dare to speak on such matters?
Jiang Muyun humbly asked, "If potatoes can sprout, is it possible that other crops can sprout as well?"
Jiang Muyun described to Zhou Ying the cellar where she found the potato.
Zhou Ying thought for a moment after hearing this and said, "Perhaps those jars contain these kinds of grains and seeds that are easy to preserve."
After all, Zhou Ying grew up in the village and was not a farmer who was really knowledgeable about farming. She could only make half-guessings based on what she knew.
"The cellar and the vat should be designed to withstand extreme weather. They are probably sealed because they keep things dry and fresh easier?" Zhou Ying asked uncertainly.
Some people seal and dry them to keep them fresh, while others seal and ferment them. Zhou Ying is not sure what the difference is.
Zhou Ying wasn't sure about this, but she was certain about other things: "Potatoes need water and oxygen to sprout, and they can't be completely submerged in water, so these sprouts should have appeared after the rain and before this place was flooded. But some seeds need to be soaked in water to germinate."
Zhou Ying said confidently, "If this family really kept some grain seeds that weren't destroyed by the previous low temperatures, then quite a few should have sprouted by now."
Jiang Muyun was overjoyed. Zhou Ying had paved the way for him!
Jiang Muyun's consciousness was picking and choosing in the space, picking out all the newly sprouted seedlings she bought at the market.
"Then I'll go back and take a look. If there are other seedlings, we'll take them all back together. When Chu Buwen comes up, tell him to wait a moment. I'll be there soon!" After Jiang Muyun said that, he pulled a piece of cloth from the boat, dived into the water and disappeared.
A few minutes later, Jiang Muyun floated to the surface of the water and spread out the cloth bag in his hand. It was filled with seedlings that had already turned green, or seeds that had just sprouted white shoots.
These seedlings are of all kinds. Even Jiang Muyun herself can't tell what she stuffed in there. Anyway, she just throws in a few that look like they have just sprouted.
She had just gone back to the cellar to check, and she had really checked, but the things in those jars looked pretty much the same as when she first brought them up, with even fewer sprouts, and the only things were potatoes and sweet potatoes.
Jiang Muyun can recognize sweet potatoes because she likes to eat sweet potato vines.
With the help of the space, she collected these things very quickly. Now the extra potatoes and sweet potatoes with sprouts, as well as the bunch of seedlings that Jiang Muyun had secretly stuffed in, were all wrapped in this simple cloth bag.
"No need to go down. Only these few have sprouted. The others that haven't sprouted look spoiled and don't look like they are edible." Jiang Muyun raised his hand high and handed the cloth bag to Wang Qingqing on the boat.
Zhou Ying did a rough calculation and said in surprise, "That's enough! There are only ten of us, and we don't have much land. This is enough for planting!"
Jiang Muyun thought about the acid rain and insect plagues that would come later, and asked tentatively, "Should we plant them directly in the ground, or use some container pots?"
Zhou Ying thought for a moment and said, "If it can be planted in the ground, it would definitely be the best. But now... I think potted plants are better."
Zhou Ying felt something was amiss, and added, as if to make matters worse: "After the mountain was washed away by both heavy rain and tsunamis, the surface soil layer must not be very thick. There's not much difference between ground-planted and potted plants. And potted plants can be moved back to the cave and hidden. If people see the ground-planted plants amidst the lush greenery on our mountain, they'll definitely attract robbers."
The most important thing is that if there are any natural disasters or man-made disasters outside, the plants planted on the ground will have to leave it to fate.
Although Zhou Ying added the second half, everyone could hear what she meant earlier.
Jiang Muyun thought of the UV lamp he had brought back: "Should we find some more UV lamps? I heard that to increase grain production, we have to control the light or something."
Zhou Ying didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "It's not that exaggerated. There are many reasons to use lamps to increase lighting. But we can definitely prepare a few light tubes. I just don't know if we can find them."
Chu Buwen said, "Aren't we going to the commercial street later? We can see if there is a tableware disinfection cabinet in the kitchen and remove the light bulb from the disinfection cabinet to use."
Especially for disinfection cabinets that have not been damaged by debris, there is a high probability that water has not entered the interior.
The light bulb that Jiang Muyun had removed before could not be used. Firstly, water had entered the disinfection cabinet, and secondly, she was in a hurry and turned on the power without waiting for the light bulb to completely dry.
This time they went to dismantle the light tubes again, picking out those that had not been soaked in water. After taking them out, they exposed them to the sun for a few days first. There was no reason why they couldn't put together enough usable ones.
After this matter was finalized, several people continued to take turns going into the water to move supplies.
Whether to plant or not is a matter for the future. What they need now is something to eat immediately.
Before leaving, several people went to the commercial street. In addition to removing the light bulbs, their main target was the large stainless steel thermos.
There are many snack shops on this commercial street, and they all like to sell a local specialty porridge, so this kind of thermos is easy to find.
Jiang Muyun thought that if he could get more of these barrels to store water, they might be more reliable than a reservoir. After all, they have lids and are well sealed.
After she returned, she shared this idea with several other people, and everyone agreed with it.
There is no such thing as too much water to store, and even less such as too much water. They could take a few more and even if their own caves couldn't hold them all, they could put them in the shared cave.
And since it is a potted plant, it definitely needs a container.
Forget about those made of ceramics. In this environment, a few of them will break, and there is no need to go through the trouble of digging out the intact ones from the pile of fragments. Those stainless steel square pots in the snack shops on the commercial street are quite suitable.
However, they had already searched for most of the food near the scenic area today, and if they went again, they could only find some snacks, drinks and daily necessities. It seemed not worth it to make another trip just to buy these things and a few thermos buckets and pots.
Tomorrow is the sixth day after the tsunami. Some people who were not seriously injured have almost recovered by now. There will inevitably be more people searching for food outside. The difficulty and danger of finding food will increase in the future. We can no longer afford to waste time.
Jiang Muyun watched as everyone began to discuss the pros and cons of going to the scenic area tomorrow, and was momentarily bewildered. "Who in their right mind would think of going to a scenic area to plunder supplies? It's so remote, we can go there later when we have time."
They will go to the scenic area today, firstly because there is still food to search for there, and secondly to get some water transport tools to prevent the water from receding too quickly.
Now that the food has been searched for and the tools for transporting water have been obtained, even the seedlings brought back by Jiang Muyun have been buried in the ground one by one by Zhou Ying himself to nourish the roots. According to Zhou Ying, the weather has been normal in the past few days, so they can be planted in the ground for a few days to nourish the roots, and then moved into containers after they have developed well.
With this calculation, if they go to the scenic spot later, they will just store more water later.
Even without those unplanned thermoses to store water, they have already dug the reservoirs.
The discussion among the crowd stopped instantly.
yes.
Why are they going tomorrow?
There is no food there, it won’t be any problem to go back in a few days.
Even if you wait until the water level starts to drop before getting a bucket, there is still time.
Jiang Muyun's words led everyone to completely forget that they were in a hurry to store water in the first place because they were afraid that a large number of corpses would transform the flood into corpse water.
Chu Buwen looked at Jiang Muyun, but Jiang Muyun turned his head away as if nothing had happened.
If you have a choice, of course you should drink clean water.
But if you have to use the time you spend collecting food to store more "clean" water, it's not worth it.
Others may not know, but Jiang Muyun and Chu Buwen know that the foods that can be collected now are all out-of-print products, and it would be a loss if they collect one less package.
Qin Shiwen remained calm and composed. "Then our plan remains unchanged. We'll search the residential area tomorrow as usual, and then the day after tomorrow we'll start searching the integrated plaza. As for the scenic area, we'll wait until the water level starts to drop."
Zhao Jiahao: "You're right. I need to go back and get some sleep, and then think about which brand of game consoles I should look for when I go to the integrated plaza."
Wang Qingqing: "Yes, yes, there are so many specialty stores over there. We can identify the right target and then strike, which will improve efficiency and save time."
Everyone dispersed, and Jiang Muyun said with a smile, "No water transport tonight? Have you filled up the reservoir?"
Chu Buwen patted Jiang Muyun and led her outside: "We had a great harvest today, so reward yourself with a night's rest. Which brand are you going to get?"
Jiang Muyun glanced at Xiaobai, who was running around with Dabai on his back, and said, "Let's get one with voice control."
Although Xiaobai cannot use it now, as Xiaobai's sister, she can try the product for Xiaobai first.
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