A giant wolf with shiny fur stood up, put its two front paws on a half-meter-long horizontal bar, and pushed a big guy out. Underneath was an electric snow shovel made of a thick curved iron sheet more than one meter long, connected to a generator.
The knee-deep snow in the yard was pushed all the way out, and the snow outside was already level with the wall. If it weren't for the daily snow shoveling, the doors and windows of the houses inside would have been unable to be opened long ago.
The plush rabbit jumped up and down in the pushed snow, having a lot of fun.
The coal in the stove was burning red, and mutton and white radish were stewed in the pot, with a faint aroma wafting out.
It's a cruel world of ice and snow outside, but it's as warm as spring inside the house.
Jiang Henian was leaning against the headboard with a pillow under his head and a quilt wrapped around his upper body. He was holding an enamel jug of hot milk in his hand and looking down at He Jinshan who was holding his legs and lifting and bending them continuously.
"Uncle, when can I get up? I've been lying down for too long. I feel like my legs are completely drained. I'm exhausted."
He Jinshan massaged her legs skillfully, his voice lazy and gentle, "A few more days."
Jiang Henian put down his cup, pouted and frowned, "You said the same thing last time, and the time before that!"
There was a circle of milk stains on the girl's lips, like a kitten.
After taking good care of myself for more than half a month, my pale and thin face finally recovered a little.
It's just not enough.
He Jinshan pulled the quilt over Jiang Henian again, took two steps closer, leaned over and kissed her on the lips, licking the goat milk stains.
"It's too cold outside. I can't go out even if I get up. I'll just have to bear it for a while."
Jiang Henian sighed and tilted his head to look at the window on the wall next to the door.
Because there was also a stove in the room for boiling water and baking cakes, in order to prevent carbon monoxide poisoning and maintain necessary air circulation, the farthest window was padded a few inches with a triangular wooden rib.
It was this few-inch gap that allowed the biting cold outside to rush in, and the walls around the windows were covered with frost.
The temperature thermometer hanging in the window has fallen below the bottom line.
"Is everything okay in the village?"
A few days ago, He Jinshan went out and brought back the news that more than a dozen people had frozen to death in the village. The only fortunate thing was that none of them were friends they knew.
He Jinshan stretched out his arm and gently embraced her, saying calmly: "Same old situation, more and more people will probably be unable to bear it and risk coming out to look for firewood and food."
Jiang Henian sighed in his heart, but there was nothing he could do.
She raised her chin, sniffed, and changed the subject: "Are we having mutton stewed with radish today? I smell it, it's so delicious that I'm dizzy!"
He Jinshan pinched her nose and teased: "Puppy nose."
"It still needs to stew for another hour and a half. Can you take a nap for a while?"
"Ah...I really can't sleep!"
Jiang Henian raised his hands exaggeratedly to cover his eyes, with a mask of pain on his face.
The back of her head rested on He Jinshan's chest, she tilted her face up, and blinked her big eyes.
"How about... Uncle, tell me more about your time as a mercenary. You haven't finished talking about the time you went to a private island to assassinate the leader of the South Continent rebels yesterday."
He Jinshan smiled and said, "I'm done. You fell asleep halfway through listening."
Jiang Henian covered his wounded belly and acted like a spoiled child: "I didn't hear you. Say it again. If I can't hear you now, the wound will itch again."
As a result, I naturally listened to the straightforward but wonderful "The Adventures of Master He" for more than an hour as I wished.
…
The extremely long cold wave that swept across northern China brought incalculable losses. Even though disaster relief supplies were gathered and sent to the center of the storm in batches, in this era of material scarcity, more and more people continued to die in their sleep from the cold.
In the face of the wrath of nature, human power is too small.
Incidents of looting of supplies occurred in many places. When order was about to collapse, it was the suppression and control of the disaster relief soldiers that prevented the situation from completely getting out of control.
However, everyone felt panic and despair. Fire had to be kept burning in the stoves and braziers day and night. Even if it was extinguished for only half an hour, people could freeze to death.
The firewood and coal that every household had prepared for the winter based on past experience had long been burned out. Even if they took apart all the chairs and benches in the house to burn, it would be a drop in the bucket.
In the city, even with disaster relief supplies and order maintained, people still struggle to survive.
Wulin Town and several villages adjacent to the Wuling Mountains were the first to be hit, and the situation was even more severe and difficult. Every day, there were families huddled on the kang, waiting to die in despair because their food and fodder had run out.
There were also those who were tenacious and went out fully armed to look for firewood in the pitch-black fog and heavy snow. Some of them were lucky enough to find firewood that could last for two or three days, while others froze to death in the wind and snow, or were blinded by the fog and disappeared in the mountains.
Every day when I open my eyes and look outside, all I see is white snow and fog.
Everyone went from being surprised, to getting used to it, to despair.
Huagou Village is in a slightly better situation among the nearby villages. Due to the incident a few days earlier where someone died due to a roof collapse caused by snow, a broadcast was made and every household rushed to store more firewood and charcoal.
But the snowstorm that lasted for a month still burned out the food supplies in many people's homes, and in order to survive, they had to risk going out.
There are many who go out and never come back.
In the village, the number of chimneys with smoke coming out of the roofs is silently decreasing day by day, which makes people feel more powerless and sad than any crying or wailing.
The snow fell relentlessly, the wind howled wildly, and the cold fog seemed like it would never dissipate.
On New Year's Eve, the wind and snow continued.
There was no laughter, no slaughtering of pigs and distribution of meat, no sound of firecrackers, only more and more roofs that were completely buried and frozen by the blizzard.
Another half month of suffering lasted, and people were in despair.
Early in the morning, someone carefully opened the window a little and found that the strong wind and snowstorm that had raged for a month and a half had weakened and the fog had dissipated a little.
Even when I stretched out my hand, the terrifying and numbing stinging sensation, as if being scraped by thousands of blades, changed.
He clearly felt the cold, but it was not the kind of irresistible cold that would freeze his hand bones instantly and shatter into powder with a single hit.
He excitedly turned around and shouted to his family, "The snow... the snow is getting lighter!!!"
This is a sign, a sign that nature is about to calm down.
Every day after that, the wind and snow became weaker, and gradually, more and more people were able to go out to find more firewood.
The snow that almost buried the house and the whole family was cleared away by tenacious humans for the countless times.
It was nearly two months before I saw the faces of my neighbors again. At that moment, no one could laugh and there were cries everywhere.
A month later.
The sky was clear, the snow had stopped, the ground was covered with a thin layer of snow ten centimeters thick, the temperature was minus 10 degrees Celsius, and there was still sunshine in the sky.
Compared to that catastrophe, this is extremely gentle and friendly weather.
With the concerted efforts of all the people in Huagou Village, the two or three meters high snow on the village roads was all cleared away.
An unprecedented collective funeral bid farewell to all the villagers who died in the disaster.
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