Chapter 111
Song Jia was just a little fool. Even though he also had a unhappy childhood, he at least had a brother and someone to rely on. What he thought about most every day was how to have fun and how to make money. Other things never crossed his mind. So he had no idea about Gan Wei's little movements when he poured tea or added firewood to the brazier.
But Jian Chu was different. He had grown up through hard work, and the first thing he learned was to read people's expressions. He could tell everything about Gan Wei's little thoughts with just a glance. Not to mention that he was gay, even if he was a womanizer, he would not choose Gan Wei, who had a pair of hooked eyes and a face that showed a restless man. If he really chose someone based on her appearance, sooner or later the Hulunbuir grassland would be on his head.
When I realized the woman's intention, I had to cancel the amusement activity that I had finally found to kill time.
Song Jia was confused: "What's wrong? It's okay to go play every now and then." As for the entrance fees, their family is not rich, but they still have some, and if they are lucky, they can win it back directly, otherwise it would be too boring to stay at home.
Jian Chu said, "Farewell, if you want to play, we can do it ourselves. Making cards is also a way to kill time. Anyway, we have plenty of wood. Don't go to Huang's house. That woman will pounce on you. Aren't you afraid?"
Song Jia looked confused: "Didn't he trip accidentally?"
Jian Chu rolled his eyes and said, "You are the only one who would believe this. Stay away from such a woman. You can't afford to offend her."
Jian Chu had made up his mind not to go play, and Song Jia had no choice but to let him go alone. It was not that he didn't dare, but there was no need. He was not that addicted to playing cards. Besides, if the girl named Gan Wei really had other intentions, it would be better to stay away from her.
So when he had nothing to do, Jian Chu decided to make the cards himself, and called Mu Nan to make it together. Anyway, they were free anyway, and once the mahjong was made, they could play at home.
Mu Nan was a little curious: "Is she pretty?"
Jian Chu smiled and said, "Of course she's beautiful. If she wasn't beautiful, how could she seduce me? I don't know what you like about us. When you poured me some water, you made some physical contact with me without making a sound. If he was a young boy who just started to fall in love, he would be easily attracted by it."
Mu Nan laughed: "Does your Yu Zibai know about this?"
Jian Chu said, "Of course I know. This kind of thing cannot be concealed. A little concealment may cause a big mess. Anyway, I said, as for the Huang family's card room, I will not go there anymore. Stay away from that woman. To be honest, this is the first time I have seen a girl like this. This is the legendary white lotus with a green tea flavor."
Song Jia, who was standing by, suddenly felt like he and Jian Chu were at a different poker venue: "We haven't even exchanged a few words, but you can already sense so many problems?"
Jian Chu patted Song Jia's shoulder and said, "Boy, you are still too young."
Mu Nan hugged the pillow and watched Song Jia and Jian Chu polishing the wood. He said with a smile, "Do you really want to make the cards yourself? You are like Northeastern aunties sitting on the kang knitting sweaters."
Jian Chu glared at him and said, "You are the only one who can describe it. Otherwise, why would we play Landlord?"
Mu Nan said, "Come on, let's pay with soybeans too."
Three people were sitting on the kang, with a low table set up. Each of them held a small basket in their hands. The small basket was woven by Qin Huai, using the straw rope he had exchanged from the exchange point before. Then, according to the weaving tutorial that Mu Nan had placed in the space, he wove a palm-sized basket, which was just big enough to hold small snacks such as melon seeds and beans. It was just right to use it as a capital pool for them.
While they were playing Landlord, Qin Huai was frying spices next to the stove. He had soaked a pot of soybeans last night, so today he could make some crispy beans. He fried them with spices, fried them, and sprinkled them with cumin, pepper and salt. After cooling, they became crispy. In such cold weather, you can eat them for several days without them becoming soggy.
Jian Chu listened to the sound of frying outside and said to Mu Nan and Song Jia, "Do you think this is similar? We are at classmate Mu's house and his parents are making delicious food for us."
Song Jia smiled and said, "It's true, but my former classmates' parents told them to go out and play, and not to make trouble at home. They also gave them snacks, a few dollars at most, and then treated their classmates to a popsicle and that was it."
Jian Chu sighed: "Then I won't have this treatment. I have never brought classmates home. That home is not a home."
Mu Nan played cards while saying, "I would bring classmates home, but that was only when I was in elementary school. When I was in junior high school, my brother was in high school and was going to take the college entrance exam, so I couldn't bring classmates home to play because it would make noise. When I brought classmates home to play when I was young, my grandmother would prepare a lot of snacks, such as jelly, potato chips, chocolate, and she would also cut a fruit plate and make a rabbit out of watermelon rind."
The two of them said with envy: "That's great." Then they couldn't help but ask curiously: "Have you ever had a fight with your brother? There must be something like puberty."
Mu Nan thought for a moment and said, "Of course we have quarreled. It's inevitable that we don't quarrel. My brother is very fierce. When he loses his temper, he doesn't say anything. He just looks at you like that, and that can make you cry."
Song Jia was also curious: "What do they usually quarrel about?" He seemed to have never quarreled with his brother. The two of them always discussed things together. His brother would ask for his opinion, and he would ask his brother before doing anything. Thinking about it this way, it seemed that they had never quarreled.
Mu Nan said, "Why else? It's because he secretly ate sweets and had a toothache, drank two bottles of drinks and had diarrhea, or he forgot the time when playing outside and came back a little late. Wow, that dark face, it's scary."
Jian Chu smiled unkindly: "This is not a quarrel at all, you are just being scolded unilaterally."
Mu Nan said, "No, we just had a quarrel. One time I went to play basketball with someone after school. Because we changed the court, the court we had been playing on was occupied. The new court was a bit far away. At that time, I got out of school at five o'clock, and usually I would play for a while and get home at six o'clock. As a result, I was half an hour late that day. When I got home, there was no one at home. It was almost seven o'clock when my brother came back. He had a dark face and wanted to eat me. Then I realized that my brother went out to look for me, and he was only half an hour late. Is it an exaggeration?"
Qin Huai opened the curtain and placed the first pot of fried soybeans on the table for them: "What's wrong with half an hour? You know how much can happen in half an hour. It's a good thing that I didn't beat you up to teach you a lesson."
Mu Nan glanced at him and smiled, but was given a cold look by Qin Huai.
Jian Chu has found a new love. Although the Huang family is missing Jian Chu and the other two, they can still get three card tables together. The main reason is that there are many people coming to play, and many of them who come a little later will not have a seat. However, as for the fact that the two of them will not go, the Huang family did ask about it when they were sweeping the snow. Jian Chu just said that his family is strict and does not allow him to go out and have fun. As for the girl named Gan Wei, he did not mention her at all. It is said that their two families are relatives, so they will come to help when there are many people. Jian Chu did not mention it. It was originally something he observed and analyzed by himself, and the girl did not show it so obviously. If he said it, he might be blamed for it. So let's just stay away. Anyway, they don't go out, and it is impossible for others to come to their door directly.
Gan Wei really couldn't go to the door. She still had to have some dignity. She wanted to find a long-term meal ticket with good conditions, not really fancying the person's reckless throwing herself at him. If she really went to the door directly, the person would just say sorry. If she met someone with better conditions in the future, how could she hook up with him? When she didn't see Jian Chu and Song Jia for a few days, Gan Wei casually asked, "Why didn't those two good-looking boys come?"
Gan Wei is not very old, only in her twenties. It is normal for a little girl to like handsome boys. The eldest of the Huang family laughed and said, "Those two good-looking boys are under the control of their families."
Gan Wei wanted to find out more, but since the other party was not coming to visit, it was useless for her to ask more. After all, now is not like before, when people could keep in touch through the Internet, or by treating the other party to a meal or going out to play. Now everyone is cooped up at home, and if one party does not have the intention, then the relationship cannot be maintained.
Gan Wei waited for several days, but still didn't see them come to play cards again. Even though he was unwilling, he had to give up. Seeing that the Huang family's card game had become stable, with one game every afternoon and evening, and the family collected a lot of things every day, while their family only needed to pay some firewood, coal and tea, and their life was more comfortable than anyone else, Gan Wei changed his target. The eldest son of the Huang family's eldest son was also 24 years old, about the same age, and not ugly. The key was that the Huang family could make money, and it was a big family with many relatives and friends around. In troubled times, what could be more stable than this?
When Gan Wei changed his target, they started replacing the electrical wires in this area. Although this residential area is considered a new one and many of the equipment are new, due to the living environment, the originally installed electrical wires had a general level of protection against high and low temperatures. As a result, power outages occurred when the temperature was too high or the ground was too deep. Later, the cable factory was quickly rebuilt due to environmental reasons. Using the data transmitted from the central government and based on the changes in existing materials, all the machines that could be repaired were repaired, and they began to remake the cables reluctantly. The new batch of cables can better prevent and control high and low temperatures. After the latest batch of cables were tested and stabilized, they were immediately supplied to the base and greenhouse. All the cables there have been replaced and the circuits have resumed normal use. Now they are starting to replace them in batches in residential areas, but because there are too few electricians, the progress is very slow.
But even though it's slow, at least there are people carrying out the renovation project in the wind and snow, so many people are looking forward to it. They don't complain about the speed of the project at all. They just hope that electricity can be connected faster. Only with electricity can they feel that there is hope for the future.
Before the power was turned on, the network was actually the first to be restored, because now it is an overlay network, and there is no need for a network cable to enter the house. All you need to do is to re-maintain the base station and turn on the power, and the network will be restored. So when Mu Nan was playing a single-player game on his phone, he suddenly found that he was connected to the local area network, and he was immediately surprised: "Brother! There is network!"
Qin Huai tilted his head and took a look: "It's good. It should be powered by the base station."
Mu Nan quickly said, "I'll bind my ID card and see what the interface looks like."
Mu Nan downloaded the identity app according to the download instructions on the government website. He entered his ID number and went through facial recognition and other procedures before finally logging in. There were many small programs to choose from on the main interface, including official announcements, an official mall, and a detailed statement of funds. He only had three hundred yuan in assets, but with the current market price of a few yuan a day, three hundred yuan was considered very wealthy.
Mu Nan glanced at Qin Huai's phone. The money was all in his brother's account. The previous salary plus various miscellaneous items and the exchange of previous prey, his brother's account was only one hundred away from two thousand. The main reason was that although he had earned a lot before, he also spent a lot. Anyway, he always felt that the so-called money was not as secure as food, so he spent as much as possible, but he didn't expect that there was so much left.
"Shouldn't the financial power of the family be handed over to me?" Qin Huai glanced at him and said, "I'm afraid you'll use the money to secretly buy candy."
Mu Nan glared: "If you want to eat, you should buy meat secretly, why eat candy?"
Mu Nan took out a fully charged power bank from the space: "Do you want to send it to the next door?" There is internet, so it should be enough to charge a mobile phone.
Qin Huai said: "This power bank can only charge four mobile phones. There is no sun now, and the solar charger may not work if it is left outside in the low temperature during the day. It is better to wait. Didn't we change the line yesterday? The line has been changed to the house behind us. The whole second district should be almost replaced, and it will be powered soon."
Mu Nan thought so too. It would be exhausted again soon after charging. There was no point in bothering. It would be better to wait for the call. So he put the power bank into the space and started to check his phone. Because the greenhouse was the first to receive power, some people had already posted on the forum. But maybe some of them couldn't find a place to charge or something. Mu Nan added the number they exchanged last time, but there was no response. But there was no rush. They were all here anyway and he could add them eventually.
After browsing the forum, Mu Nan went to look at the official shopping website. There were already quite a few things there, including food, drinks and daily necessities. Because online payment was enabled, things were no longer just one or two yuan, and there were even things that cost a few cents. However, a certain amount had to be reached for delivery, otherwise one could only pick it up at Building No. 1 the next day.
Mu Nan looked at the prices of the items and said, "Why do I feel like I've gone back to the 1960s and 1970s? Prices were like this back then, every penny, right?"
Qin Huai laughed and said, "You still know things from sixty or seventy years ago?"
Mu Nan chuckled, "Although there are no elders to reminisce about the past with me, I have read a lot of novels. Even if you haven't eaten pork, you have seen pigs run. I also know that in that era, you needed tickets to buy everything, food tickets, meat tickets, and even a kettle."
Qin Huai looked at the calendar on his phone: "The temperature should drop this month, and then it will be cold for another month before summer comes again."
Mu Nan nodded. According to his memory, this was the case. When the weather got hot again, he would no longer have the advantage of being a prophet. He had no idea whether the days ahead would get better or worse.
Mu Nan glanced at the snow outside and said, "Brother, if the temperature suddenly rises, will our house be flooded?"
Qin Huai shook his head: "Probably not. The water will flow downhill directly into the river. I just don't know how long this river filled with snow can last without drying up again."
Speaking of the river, Mu Nan licked his lips and said, "I want to eat fish, boiled fish, grilled fish."
Qin Huai naturally agreed to his request for such a small matter: "Then let's eat grilled fish. You can't eat boiled fish now. It's too spicy."
Mu Nan lay on Qin Huai's body: "Another year has passed. Do you think those who haven't eaten fish and some seafood products for almost two years will be greedy?"
Qin Huai: "If I let you not eat for two years, will you be greedy?"
Mu Nan nodded: "If you have food or not, you may not be greedy. But if you can't eat it, you will definitely be super greedy. It's November and December soon. The four seasons are completely messed up."
On the day when electricity was connected to District 2, another happy thing happened. The little rabbits that Mu Nan had been looking forward to were finally born. There were seven rabbits in a litter. As for whether they were male or female, he didn't know yet. He didn't dare to get close. He put out food and water every day and didn't even dare to clean up before running out in a hurry, for fear of scaring the female rabbit and making her eat her own cubs.
Because there was electricity, internet, and communications were restored, Mu Nan took photos of the mother rabbit feeding the baby rabbits and sent them to Jian Chu.
Jian Chu was immediately shocked: "!!!!"
Mu Nan laughed and said, "Now that you have a baby, you won't have to worry about meat when it grows up."
After a while, Jian Chu came over, went up to the second floor, and looked inside through the crack of the door with Mu Nan: "How did you do that?"
Mu Nan knew Jian Chu was coming, so he put away the sweet potato vines and green leafy vegetables, and put in some weeds cut from the pot and some tomato leaves: "Just keep it like this, give it water and vegetables, wild rabbits are easy to raise."
Jian Chu looked at Mu Nan with a puzzled look. Wild rabbits are even harder to raise than domestic rabbits. They are very temperamental and will go on hunger strike or bang their heads against the wall at any time. It is not necessarily that you can just give them some water and food and they will fend for themselves. And the vegetable shed behind their house, although the fruits in it are small, the peppers and tomatoes have all borne fruit. Look at the few pots he raised on the kang, they are all wilted, not to mention bearing fruit, the leaves are barely growing.
With this comparison, Jian Chu couldn't help but sigh: "Perhaps you really have a talent for farming. You can make anything you raise grow."
Mu Nan said, "No way. I raised chickens before, but they are all gone. If the chickens were still alive, I would have brought them with me when I migrated here, and now I would have eggs to eat."
After saying that, he remembered the rabbit that Jian Chu and his friends had taken back before, and asked curiously, "Where is your rabbit? Did you eat it?"
Jian Chu nodded: "There is no food to feed the rabbit. You can't make rice and flour to feed it. Besides, it won't eat even if you feed it. Anyway, it gets thinner and thinner. Finally, I killed it and froze the ones I couldn't finish in one go. Now I still have half of it left. I thought I would roast it and eat it when it gets too hungry for meat."
Mu Nan said, "Now that we have internet access, you can ask the customer service of the official shopping mall if they have a greenhouse. You can buy solar energy. If there is one, buy it quickly and plant some vegetables. If I can raise another litter and your vegetables are grown, I will give you two. If you can feed them, you won't have to worry about meat."
Speaking of this, Mu Nan suddenly remembered that he had not bought the seeds for grass yet, and quickly took out his mobile phone to ask the customer service of the shopping mall about the seeds. However, he didn't know if they were very busy, so there was no response. Mu Nan was not in a hurry. If there was no response, he would just wait. The shopping channel had just been opened, so it must be very busy.
"By the way, my brother has to go to work again."
Jian Chu looked at Mu Nan: "It's so cold outside now, can we go out?"
Mu Nan nodded: "I heard that the small offices before have all been converted into information buildings, and more people have been recruited. Now we have nearly 200,000 people here. Anyway, we have recruited a lot of people who are interested, but they still need to take the unified examination, but my brother doesn't need it, he has already been converted to a regular employee. He is the person in charge of the unified examination. Because the weather is too cold, accommodation will be arranged after the communication department is officially operational."
Jian Chu exclaimed, "Accommodation? Qin Huai wants to live outside? What about you?"
Mu Nan waved his hand: "How could he live outside? My brother won't live outside. If he wants to live outside, he will definitely take me with him. My brother has asked and found out that he can rent a car. It's not a hunting car, but an ordinary small car. It costs 30 yuan a month, and the gasoline is purchased separately. He will drive it to and from get off work. The roads are paved every day, so there is no need to worry about the traffic being difficult. As long as he doesn't get cold on the way to and from get off work, it's fine."
As for the cost of renting a car, which is not cheap in comparison, it doesn't matter. His brother's salary after becoming a regular employee is not low, and he can afford it alone. What's more, he can also sell vegetables. There is no need to worry about the consumption of gasoline. Until now, the piles of oil in his space have not been consumed, and there is more than enough.
Jian Chu sighed: "I don't know when we can have a job."
Mu Nan said: "You should look at the official website and forums more often. Many places will recruit workers for factory reconstruction. It depends on what you will do at that time. Will you still move bricks?"
Jian Chu thought about it and hesitated: "I don't know either. Hey, it's too difficult to choose a career. Let's see when the time comes. I'll go back and discuss it with Zi Bai. Physical labor can't be done for a long time. My body may not be able to bear it for a long time. But it's not certain that I can find a suitable job for mental labor. Let's get through this winter first and see what the situation is after winter."
The current situation is indeed very confusing for many people. On the surface, as long as you are willing to work, you will not starve to death, but what you do are some things that are precarious or have no technical content. To a certain extent, this kind of thing is actually quite insecure. For example, infrastructure construction is a hard job, but a project always has to end. Especially for people like Jian Chu and Yu Zibai, if they have the conditions to choose, they may not be willing to do the hard work, or they may do it temporarily, but they certainly won't do it forever. How to change careers and where to go at that time are all confusing things.
Mu Nan couldn't give any advice on other people's confused future. Although he himself was not confused, his confusion was based on Qin Huai's confidence and the existence of space. If he were in their shoes, he might be even more confused than Jian Chu and the others. So all he could do was talk to Jian Chu to prevent them from having too much pressure in choosing a career and having nowhere to vent.
The car that Qin Huai rented has been parked in the garage at the Information Building. As there are not many cars, at least there are not many cars except Qin Huai at the moment, a room has been specially opened on the first floor for parking. Half of the entire Information Building is under reconstruction, and the other half has been rebuilt into a closed small building with central air conditioning and heating, so the rooms on the first floor also have heating, so that the car can drive there but get frozen there and unable to drive back.
On the first day back to work, although he knew that meals might be provided there, Mu Nan still did not count on the canteen and prepared a meal specifically for Qin Huai. The rice was fried rice with chopped pickled peppers and minced beef. Anyway, the colors of beef and venison after being fried into minced beef were quite similar. There was a big bowl of fried rice, and another small box with tiger skin peppers and a tomato soup. The tomato soup was egg drop soup. Mu Nan beat eggs into it, but there were no eggs for sale outside at the moment, so he carefully scooped out all the egg drops. Anyway, the soup from boiled eggs could have some nutrition and flavor. This was the best thing he could get for Qin Huai to eat outside. Other good things could only be eaten secretly at home.
Seeing Qin Huai going out early in the morning again, Mu Nan pulled his clothes reluctantly: "Message me when you arrive. Be careful when driving on the road. Even if you have snow tires and the snow has been shoveled, it is still easy to slip."
Qin Huai looked at Mu Nan who was reluctant to leave and kept muttering. Mu Nan pulled him into his arms and kissed him on the lips: "Be good at home and wait for me to come back."
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