Chapter 101
Jian Chu and his friends prepared for more than a week and finally booked a car, but he and Xu Ming were the ones driving. Jian Chu could drive, and in order to earn tuition and living expenses, he worked as a designated driver for a long time. Because he sometimes worked very late, often at one or two in the morning, it was inconvenient to go back to the dormitory and disturb the students' sleep. It was too late and the door was locked, so he couldn't go back, so he rented a house outside. Compared with him, Yu Zibai didn't have many opportunities to drive. It should be said that he didn't drive much after getting his driver's license.
Although the yard is usually very quiet, after the neighbors left, Mu Nan probably knew that there was no one in the house, so the whole yard felt even quieter. Apart from sweeping the snow every day, there was nothing else to do, and he had the illusion that time seemed to have slowed down.
Mu Nan held a mirror in his hand and watched Qin Huai cut his hair little by little. Although he needed a little hair to keep warm in winter, he hadn't had his hair cut for a few months and his hair was almost down to his neck. If it was too long, it would be oily and he would have to wash it frequently, so it would be better to cut it shorter. At most, he would just have to wear a few more hats. "Cut it to make me look more handsome."
Qin Huai smiled and said, "Who are you going to show off your handsomeness to?"
Mu Nan hummed and said, "I looked in the mirror myself. Hey, don't cut it too short here. Leave it a little longer. The sideburns need to be a little longer to look good."
Qin Huai: "If you want to cut it, cut it short. Don't you think it's troublesome to wash your hair? It's so cold now. Long hair will dry slowly and you will catch a cold easily."
Mu Nan snorted, "It's you who complains that I always say you're pressing my hair down. My hair is already so short, how can you still press my hair down?"
Qin Huai was cutting Mu Nan's hair: "Who told you to cover your head and turn over when you sleep? Now that it's cut short, it won't press down on you."
Mu Nan likes to toss and turn when he sleeps, and Qin Huai likes to hug him tightly. Sometimes Qin Huai hugs him too tight, and it is easy for his side face to press on his hair. Whenever he tries to toss, he is pulled awake. So although his hair is not as long as a girl's, it still gets pressed occasionally.
Soon, the broken hair was all over the floor. Mu Nan looked at her hair which had become shorter again and looked at Qin Huai with some dissatisfaction: "Your skills are not good enough. There is no style at all in this haircut. You have cut my hair so many times, but there is no improvement at all!"
Qin Huai reached out and stroked his hair: "As long as you feel comfortable, go take a shower."
Mu Nan was not in a hurry to take a shower, and directly took the scissors: "It's time to show your skills. I'll give you a super handsome haircut."
Qin Huai refused ruthlessly: "No need, just help me cut it short, thank you."
Mu Nan felt that he had no room to display his skills, so he simply gave Qin Huai a buzz cut. However, the next day after the hair cut, the person who came to take the temperature informed them that the equipment was in place and they had to go and update their ID cards. Only after they had changed their ID cards would they be eligible for the vaccine.
Mu Nan exploded instantly: "I told you to cut your hair to look more handsome! You're going to take your ID photo when you're so ugly!" The ID photo is ugly enough already.
Qin Huai said with a smile: "Let me see, you are very handsome. It will look good if you cut your hair short. It will not look good if your hair is long. Don't worry, your facial features are good, and you will look handsome in your ID photo."
Identity cards are replaced in batches. Once you are notified of the time, you must go within the notified time. Otherwise, there will be too many people and it will be too unsafe to crowd in. The plague outside has not subsided yet. We have finally done a good job of controlling the place where we live, and we can't let any trouble happen again due to overcrowding. Therefore, we will go in batches directly according to the registered information.
The place to replace ID cards is the greenhouse, but the greenhouse was originally a planting area, and it was previously arranged at the military base. It is a bit far from the residential area, and it is not realistic to walk there, so the higher-ups will notify the time, and people will be brought there and back in batches using military cards.
The replacement point is set up at the greenhouse. One reason is that there is a separate greenhouse there, and the temperature there is too low, so some electronic equipment cannot be used. Another reason is that there are more people at the greenhouse, most of whom gather there. Placing it there can facilitate more people. People in the residential area are in slightly better conditions and have thicker clothes, but many people in the greenhouse may not even have clothes to keep warm when going out.
This was the first time that Mu Nan went out to a crowded place. The last time he went hunting, he went directly to a place with fewer people, and most people would not go out unless they had something to do, so he felt like he hadn't seen many people for a long time. Now their group was basically from the villa area, and they gathered directly in Building No. 1. As for Jian Chu and the others who were not at home, they might have been assigned to the next group. In order to be with his brother, Wu Zheng seemed to have postponed the time for renewing his license, so only Qin Huai and Mu Nan went out this time.
The weather was good on the day I renewed my ID card. The wind and snow stopped and there was a little sunshine. Although that little sunshine didn't bring any warmth, it was better than strong winds and heavy snow.
They took the main road to Building No. 1. As there were always patrol vehicles on the road, the snow was cleared regularly and grass mats were laid to prevent slipping. Along the way, they met many people who were also walking towards Building No. 1, young and old, adults and children. Some of the children were probably rarely allowed out of the house, and when they saw the snow on both sides of the road was almost higher than themselves, they were so excited that they ran around throwing snowballs.
Mu Nan was led by Qin Huai's hand as they walked slowly. Although the ground was covered with grass mats, it was still a bit slippery. During their walk, they saw at least three people fall to the ground. However, they were well-dressed and quickly got up as if nothing had happened. Mu Nan looked at the scene in front of him and couldn't help but say, "From this point of view, it doesn't look like a disaster year at all." The people wearing thick clothes and the children playing around, although their hair was bare, were covered with snow, which made the whole environment look different. At least it was much better than what he saw in the private base in his previous life.
At that time, the control may not be strict, or there is no one to control it. The founders of the private bases are always thinking about extorting money from the masses. There are many cases of robbery and murder, especially some women are more dangerous. Of course, in this era, men are not safe, especially good-looking ones. Anyway, in his previous life, even though there was water, his face was never cleaned. So this comparison further reflects the benefits of following the national government in times of crisis.
Qin Huai said: "I just hope it gets better year by year."
After arriving at Building No. 1, we waited for a while before the military truck arrived. Military trucks are used to transport supplies. There is naturally no place to sit in the back carriage. If you stand, you may not be able to stand steadily as the vehicle starts, unless you are squeezed like sardines in a can. In the end, there were fifty people in one car, and everyone sat down on the spot. It only took ten minutes for the car to drive over. Although the air was stuffy and there were many people, I was afraid of catching a cold. I was afraid that I hadn't taken a bath for the whole winter, and my body smelled a little, but I could still bear it. Anyway, Mu Nan and Qin Huai wore masks with scented tablets under the scarves wrapped around their faces.
Arriving at the planting base, Mu Nan saw a row of bungalows of considerable size. Qin Huai had said before that these bungalows were built as planting greenhouses to block the sun in summer and snow in winter. If one wanted to grow crops, and the climate remained so extreme, they would have to grow them indoors. However, there should be people living inside now, but he didn't know how many people could live in such a large bungalow.
Mu Nan was just wondering when the soldier who was in charge of leading the team to register and take photos satisfied his curiosity. The place for taking photos was in a bungalow in one of the greenhouses. The soldier led people in, and the originally quiet environment suddenly became noisy. A greenhouse was built in the bungalow, and people who came here to avoid the cold lived in the greenhouse, just like the previous planting greenhouses, except that the whole greenhouse was larger, and the insulation film was also hung on the roof, so there was no need to consume the support of the internal space. There were densely packed people inside, because there was a temperature difference between the inside and outside of the insulation film of the greenhouse, and the water vapor caused by the temperature difference could not be seen clearly inside, but it was still vaguely seen that many people were sleeping directly on the ground, and they might have spread a quilt. Because there was not enough space, they slept close to each other, almost sleeping next to each other.
In fact, the conditions in the greenhouse were barely acceptable at the beginning, at least there was enough space for people to walk between each other, so it wasn't so crowded that people were almost pressed together. But as more and more people moved in, those who were rescued from outside and those who had passed the quarantine observation were gradually moved into the greenhouse. There was no electricity or gas, and no way to heat. After all, only a few people could afford to live in the house. Most of them had almost nothing after the earthquake. If they didn't live in the greenhouse, they would just freeze to death. So when the living environment became worse and worse, no one left. It was better to squeeze in than to freeze to death outside.
Mu Nan subconsciously moved closer to Qin Huai. If he felt that it didn't feel like a disaster year on the way here, now that he was in the greenhouse, everything he saw reflected the difficulties of the disaster year.
There is a separate office in the bungalow. The office was previously used for soldiers on duty. With so many people living together, there will definitely be some conflicts. Moreover, the crowds are too dense, which is not conducive to disease prevention and control. Therefore, at least two offices were built in a bungalow, one for soldiers on duty and the other for medical staff on duty. Now one of the offices has been cleared out as a place for taking photos and registration. People go in one by one. I guess they need to check their fingerprints and fill in information. The process is quite slow. If it is not their turn, they can only stand in line at the door and wait.
Some children were curious and tried to pull at the insulation film. Perhaps they had never seen it before, and they even wanted to lift it up to see what was inside. However, their parents pulled them back and said, “I told you not to touch anything outside. Do you know there are many germs and viruses inside!” As they said this, they pulled the children away, and they stayed away from the insulation film with a look of disgust, as if it was some dirty thing filled with germs.
Others didn't think there was anything wrong with the mother's reaction. Those who came here together were all from the villa area and those who can still live there now don't have bad conditions. It's normal for them to dislike this kind of crowded living environment.
But Mu Nan saw that there was also a child inside the insulation film. He was very thin and small, with dirty and torn clothes. He was sitting on his own bed, looking at them. His exposed hands and feet were dirty, and his hair was messy, as if it had been cut by a dog. There seemed to be no adults around him. He just sat there, staring at them eagerly.
The boy who was pulled away by his mother was wearing winter clothes that were a bit big but still fit him well, including a scarf, gloves and a hat. In order to appease the child who was restless and kept playing around, the mother even gave him a candy.
Without waiting for him to look again, Qin Huai pulled him over and said, "No matter what time, rich and poor and class will never disappear."
Mu Nan hummed: "I'm just taking a look."
He just sighed a little. Even in times of peace and prosperity, such gaps have always existed. It's just that in his previous life, he could only see such gaps on the Internet, but now it happened right next to him, so he couldn't help feeling a little touched.
They were the first group today, so they didn't have to wait long before it was Qin Huai's turn. Mu Nan went in first and was asked to take off his clothes, hat and scarf, show his entire face for a photo, and then go to the side to fill in information such as name, age, ID number, education level, place of origin, etc. Fortunately, Mu Nan remembered his ID number and filled it out quickly. Then he was asked to record his fingerprints and his iris. It seems that assets will be virtualized in the future, and the requirements for identity authentication will be higher, so the procedure will be more complicated.
Mu Nan registered, took the receipt for picking up his ID card, and went to the door to wait for Qin Huai to come out. After standing there for a while, he heard someone shouting, "Qin's little brother?"
The voice was very close, but Mu Nan didn't realize that it was someone calling him. After all, no one would call him the Qin family's younger brother, so he would pay attention to the call. It was only because he was more sensitive to his brother's last name that someone came closer and called him again: "Qin family's younger brother."
Mu Nan turned around and was a little surprised to see the person calling him: "Daniu?"
The person who called Mu Nan twice was none other than Da Niu, their neighbor for some time. However, when they saw each other again after a few months, the previously strong and sturdy Da Niu seemed to have lost a lot of weight. Even though he was wearing more clothes, one could still see that he was thin. He should be living in this greenhouse. He was holding a lunch box in his hand, a disposable transparent lunch box, but it must have been used repeatedly, and looked a little dirty and worn. There were only two steamed buns in the lunch box, but with a body size of Da Niu, it was definitely not something that two steamed buns could fill him up.
Seeing Mu Nan standing at the door of the office, Daniu asked, "Are you applying for an ID card?"
Mu Nan nodded: "Yes, what a coincidence, do you live here?"
Daniu pointed in the direction of the greenhouse and said, "Yes, we lived there. Where do you live now? Are you still together?"
Mu Nan hummed: "We live in District 2, we are all together, and we are neighbors."
Hearing this, Daniu smiled and said, "That's good. You made quite a lot of noise when you left, so some people living in the corridor upstairs knew about it. As soon as you left, they all came down the next day. There were too many people, and I couldn't fight them all. The iron door of your house was directly pried open, and the same went for the two families next door. They even had a fight over your empty houses, and blood was shed."
If the situation hadn't gotten out of control, he would have wanted to stop them. After all, he still lived there and wanted the living environment to be a little better. But he couldn't stop them. In order to have a place to live, they were scrambling for land like crazy.
Hearing that his house was broken into, Mu Nan still felt a little uncomfortable. In his heart, the house where he had lived for more than 20 years was his home. But he had expected these things before he left, so he just sighed and asked, "Did you come with the car later?"
Da Niu said, "I followed the car, but I came late, so the house was gone. I used to live in the shed, a small single room with a monthly rent of three points, but there was no heating over there, it was too cold, so I moved here."
As soon as Daniu finished speaking, Qin Huai came out. He was also a little surprised to see Daniu. Although he knew him, he immediately walked to Mu Nan's side and stood in front of Mu Nan: "What a coincidence."
Daniu laughed heartily and said, "I knew your brother was waiting for you here. It seems that you, the first group that came here, really paid a lot but gained a lot. It's not easy to rent a house here now, but living here now is not completely without benefits. At least you won't freeze to death, and you can still have food to eat."
Mu Nan asked, "Is the food here cheap?"
Daniu shook his head: "It's not cheap. It comes with a meal card. A month's meal card is ten points, and it includes one meal a day. One meal is a staple food and a big pot dish, or two staple foods, or two dishes. You can't be full, but at least you won't starve to death." The price doesn't sound expensive, but the prerequisite is to find a job. Although now as long as you are willing to do it, the higher-ups will arrange something for you, but because there are too many people, some jobs are taken in turns. You work one day and get paid one day. If the points earned in a day can sustain your life for a period of time, then you can arrange for other people. No one can do the same thing over and over again, otherwise there will always be people without work and no way to earn points.
Mu Nan looked at the two steamed buns in his box: "Does this count as two staple meals?"
Daniu nodded: "Yes, there are only two a day anyway, half in the morning, half at noon, and one at night, otherwise I will be too hungry to sleep at night."
The bun was not small, but not too big either, only about the size of an adult's fist. It was indeed not enough to fill you up, but you wouldn't starve to death either. Seeing that Daniu only had one portion of food in his hand, and thinking about how much he loved his wife, Mu Nan's heart tightened slightly: "You..."
Seeing Mu Nan's expression, Daniu knew what he wanted to ask. He smiled slightly, but did not show any sadness. He continued to smile and said, "My wife has gone to heaven to enjoy happiness. It's good that she doesn't have to suffer in the world. In fact, she should have left a long time ago. I was reluctant to let her go and forced her to stay, but she didn't live a good life for a few more days."
His wife was diagnosed with cancer a few years ago, when they had been married for only two years. However, it was not discovered too late, and there was still hope of cure with timely treatment. At the time, he was in good condition. Although he had no elderly or young children, he had three houses, all left to him by his parents. Two of them were relatively new, in good locations, and priced at nearly 30,000 yuan per square meter. In order to pay for his wife's treatment, he sold one of them.
Fortunately, the money for a house was enough, and after almost half a year of treatment, the result was good.
They originally thought that this was the end of all the hardship, but they did not expect a relapse two years ago. Although the doctor had said before that they would be at high risk and prone to relapse within five years, they had always been very careful and did not even plan to have children for fear of ruining their health. They went for a physical check-up almost every quarter to feel at ease, but the thing they feared most still happened.
Once the disease relapses, it is very serious. The speed of treatment cannot keep up with the speed of cancer cell metastasis. Soon the liver area and lymph nodes were occupied by cancer cells. Seeing his wife unable to eat or drink and even attempting suicide when she was in excruciating pain, he begged and stayed with her, hoping that she could hold on a little longer. Maybe if she did, there would be a glimmer of a miracle.
Unfortunately, he sold another house, but this time, he could not fill the bottomless pit. Just when he was about to sell the last house, his wife begged him, saying that he could not lose both his wife and his money, and asked him to leave a way out for herself. She also said that if he sold the last house, she would give up suicide. In this way, the house in the dilapidated neighborhood was saved.
When the doctor finally told him to eat and drink, it was almost a death sentence. The weather had already warmed up. He stayed in the hospital with his wife during the entire smog period. Fortunately, they were in the hospital at the time, otherwise they would not have been able to go to the hospital if there was any problem. However, after enduring the smog and even the earthquake, the miracle he was waiting for did not come.
In fact, he should have given up earlier. If he had given up earlier, his wife wouldn't have to suffer for so long, eating and drinking poorly, taking handfuls of painkillers, and living one more day was torture. But he couldn't bear to do so. That was the girl in the white dress who he wanted to marry at first sight when he saw her when he was a student. He hadn't made her happy for the rest of her life, so how could he bear to give her up.
Everyone has different joys and sorrows. Although Daniu only mentioned it briefly, Mu Nan had no interest in digging into other people's wounds. Before leaving, Mu Nan left Daniu a contact number and address. Although it is difficult to travel and there is no electricity now, there will always be a way in the future. It never hurts to add more people you know to your phone and contact them when you have the chance in the future.
They left home early in the morning, and it was already afternoon when they finished dealing with their ID cards. The car dropped them off at Building No. 1 and picked up the next group of people who were already waiting. Mu Nan and Qin Huai were about to walk back. Fortunately, the distance was only one community away, but the snowy road was not easy to walk on.
But I don’t know if it’s because I took off my clothes outside today, or because I got a little cold wind on the way there and back, but after Qin Huai’s strict control of his diet for three meals a day, my stomach, which hadn’t been used for a long time, began to make its presence felt. In the past, the occasional discomfort was just some bloating or acid reflux, and it would be relieved by drinking something hot. But today, it started with a stabbing pain. This pain was too familiar to Mu Nan. This was always the prelude to his stomach problems in the past. He couldn’t help but cover his stomach with his hands in his clothes pockets. Mu Nan was a little panicked. He didn’t want Qin Huai to see him having stomachache.
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