Chapter 116
Excessive silence will eventually lead to an explosion. This is what happened to the woman who lost her child.
The couple lived nearby, so when the man was sent for emergency treatment and the woman was restrained and taken away, it was inevitable that someone in the greenhouse would gossip about the inside story of the incident.
To put it bluntly, it was a tragedy caused by generations of prejudice against boys. The woman had several brothers and sisters in her family, and she was in the middle. She was ignored, treated coldly, beaten and scolded at will, and exploited. In order to get a bride price, her parents married her to a divorced man, who is her current husband.
Before getting married, she didn’t know that people said her husband’s first wife died of complications during childbirth. After getting married, she found out that his first wife died just to save money on childbirth. When his first wife was about to give birth, his family locked her in the house, saying that women in the past could give birth on their own, but why are women now so expensive and have to go to the hospital? A trip to the hospital costs thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars, so it’s better to use that money to buy some good supplements after the birth.
As a result, his wife died and the child suffocated to death because he was suffocated for too long. But this matter could not be spread to anyone, so they said that he started the movement prematurely and fell. By the time the ambulance arrived, the child was already dead.
Although the place where they live is not a rural area deep in the mountains and forests, it is quite far from the city. They are not so poor that they cannot afford to eat, but they are not rich either. However, only their family can kill a life for a few thousand dollars. No matter how hard they try to cover it up, there is no wall that is impenetrable.
When she got married, life was fine at first. The man restrained himself a little, but gradually he would beat and scold her whenever he was angry. Of course, he would not beat her too hard. At most, she would just have some bruises on her body. Compared with the beatings and scoldings from her parents at home, this was still light, so the woman endured it. Then she got pregnant and gave birth to a child. With the lessons learned from the past, she was sent to the hospital this time, but the first child was a daughter.
This family favors boys over girls to a certain extent. Not to mention the confinement period, because it was a natural birth, the husband's family asked to be discharged from the hospital the day after the birth. The woman had to take care of the child and do housework. As a result, a few months later, the child was lost. They said that the child was left in the yard to bask in the sun, but it was taken away by human traffickers. The woman wanted to call the police, but the man refused and beat him again. He also said that if the child was gone, he could just give birth to another one.
A year later, the woman became pregnant again, and it turned out to be a girl. But this time her family was not as unhappy as the first time. She originally thought that because the first child was lost, she cherished the second one especially. As a result, a year later, when the second girl was already able to walk, the child disappeared again. She was pregnant with another child at the time.
After that, the woman remained silent. She knew that her two children were not lost accidentally. Even though the third child was also a daughter, she took the child with her without a careless eye this time. She even locked the child to herself when going to the toilet. The man said several times that he wanted to take their daughter out to play, but the woman was unwilling. She even threatened that if her daughter was lost again, she would kill their entire family.
The man knew that the woman probably knew something. Although it was a pity that he could not make any money, he was really afraid that he would push the woman into a corner. Selling children, even if they were his own children, was illegal. He knew a little about the law, so Fenfen had the opportunity to grow up with her mother.
Unfortunately, it was gone in the end, and it disappeared in front of the woman.
"So this man was stabbed to death by his own wife. His death was not unfair at all. He deserved it!"
"It's also the woman's fault that she can't stand up. If she had been a little more resilient, the child wouldn't have frozen to death. She can only eat a few bites of food every day. How can the body survive this cold weather without the calories from food?"
"Who the hell did I offend to get my bed covered in blood!" The person who said this was the one sleeping next to him. Although most of the blood was absorbed by his clothes, some of it still splashed and soiled the surrounding beds. But now that the person had been taken away, they could only curse.
The next day, Mu Nan, who was far away in the residential area, also knew about this. Of course, it was after Da Niu added him as a friend that he told him. When Mu Nan was just sighing and wondering how there were so many parents who were worse than beasts, Da Niu said, "It seems that the father of your brother's classmate is also dying."
Mu Nan's head was immediately filled with question marks: "My brother's classmate?"
Daniel said, "Jiang Xuan, Jiang Xuan came back the day before yesterday and said that he is now a colleague of your brother."
Mu Nan paused for a moment before saying, "Oh, but our family has a bad relationship with him. We had a falling out and even had a fight before. Now we have no further contact with each other."
This time it was Daniu's turn to be surprised. From what Jiang Xuan said before, it seemed that they had a pretty good relationship. But since Mu Nan said so, of course he believed it. Anyway, the twists and turns involved had nothing to do with him. He was alone and had nothing for others to benefit from. But Daniu still took note of this and decided to stay away from Jiang Xuan in the future. Who knew if he had deliberately asked him for news about Mu Nan and Qin Huai? Although he didn't know much, he didn't want to be used.
After saying this, Daniu added: "We may have to be neighbors again."
Mu Nan quickly sent a few question marks over: "Have you rented a house here?"
Daniu said, "Didn't the Qi family move out of the building behind you? Wang Hui, Qi's wife, quickly applied to rent the house back. Qi still had a few days' rent left, so Wang Hui renewed the rent. But the landlord has changed. In order to prevent her ex from making trouble again and to share the rent, she asked me if I wanted to share the rent. That's not a small three-story building. Their family lives on the third floor, and I'll live on the second floor. We can build a door between the upstairs and downstairs so that we don't disturb each other."
This is a mutually beneficial relationship between Da Niu and them. After spending some time together, Wang Hui and the others feel that Da Niu is a good person. Wang Hui's father used to be a small boss, so he is a decent person. If it weren't for this disaster, Qi Kangmin would have lived a peaceful life with his daughter and would not have dared to mess around. In the current environment, judging from Da Niu's daily behavior, even if they don't have a close relationship, they can still cooperate with each other.
There was a man who looked tough living downstairs, so they felt more at ease living upstairs, and were not afraid of Qi coming over again. It was difficult to rent a house now, especially one with good living conditions, so they renewed the lease of the house first. Someone else would share half of the rent, and with such a large area, it only cost ten dollars a month. It was a separate household and they didn't have to interact with anyone, so it was a good deal no matter how you looked at it.
Da Niu was also satisfied with this matter. He was worried at first, but now that electricity is gradually being connected outside, people have moved back into some houses with heating. He came late, and before he lived in a small single room with a shared bathroom and no heating. He definitely couldn't go back, and he couldn't rent another house either, because there were too many people who had returned from the rescue.
Housing conditions are quite limited. Even if they have been working overtime to build those small low-rise houses, it is not so fast to build a batch of houses that can accommodate hundreds of thousands of people. So of course he is willing to share a house with such good conditions. Isn't it just to live downstairs to provide security for others? As a man, it is his duty to protect the weak within his ability.
When Qin Huai came back, Mu Nan told him that Daniu was also moving in: "There is one less annoying neighbor living nearby. Everyone around is easy to get along with. I feel like the air has become a little cleaner."
Qin Huai said with a smile: "You haven't interacted with others, so whether you are easy to get along with or not is not a problem for us. The air has become a little clearer."
Mu Nan said, "This is where we live. If something bad happens to our neighbors, even though we are just watching the fun, what if we get affected?"
Qin Huai rubbed his worried little head and said, "Okay, go make a fire and start cooking."
When Qin Huai first started working, Mu Nan would obediently cook every day and wait for him to come back to eat the ready-made food. But as time went on, it was not that Mu Nan didn't have the patience to cook, but that he only knew how to cook a few dishes and couldn't cook anything else. If he wanted to change the taste, he had to use up the stock in the space.
So in the end, they still had to wait for Qin Huai to come home from work to cook, but Mu Nan would prepare everything in advance, wash the vegetables, and cut the meat, so that Qin Huai could just stir-fry it when he came back.
While adding fire to the stove, Mu Nan chatted with Jian Chu, and took the opportunity to tell them what Daniu had said to him today. If Daniu came to live with them in the future and anything required collective action, maybe they could get some extra help.
As a result, Jian Chu's focus was obviously diverted: "This Daniu's wife is gone, and Wang Huiyou is equivalent to having no husband. If they live upstairs and downstairs in the future, it is inevitable that they will have some contact. Do you think it is possible for them to become a couple?"
Mu Nan said, "No way. I think we should just let it go with the flow. Don't try to make trouble in front of others. Be careful not to create an enemy."
Jian Chu said: "I'm not that stupid and lacking in emotional intelligence, okay? It's just fate. Maybe this is fate."
While chatting with Jian Chu, Mu Nan reported the content of the chat to Qin Huai and asked, "Do you think it's possible that they will be like Jian Chu said?"
Qin Huai said: "Who can say this kind of thing well? Just go with the flow and don't make fun of it in front of others."
Mu Nan said: "Although I think it is definitely better for a person to have a partner, I also feel that if it is just to make do, it is better to be alone." Anyway, he feels that people only have one heart, and it is enough for it to beat for one person once in a lifetime. Although he does not think remarriage after a widower is a bad thing, after all, the real society is like this. No matter how deeply they love, few can stay with each other for a lifetime. But it is not good to match someone up not long after they lost their wife. This is not a good thing, and it may even create hatred.
Qin Huai took the soft eggplant out of the pot, poured a large bowl of bone soup from the pot next to it, asked Mu Nan to bring the dishes to the small dining table, and quickly stir-fried some vegetables: "Okay, go wash your hands and eat."
Mu Nan washed his hands, then sat on the kang with two bowls of rice: "I still think that I need to learn how to cook. It's not enough to just learn one or two dishes."
Qin Huai said: "It's enough if you can eat. Let me see your hands."
Mu Nan stretched out his hand to Qin Huai and said, "It's all healed. You can see it's not red anymore."
Qin Huai looked at the red marks on the back of his hand caused by the oil. Fortunately, there were no blisters. "You still need to continue applying the medicine."
Mu Nan was naturally fair-skinned, and she hadn't been out for the past year or two, nor had she been exposed to the sun much, which made her skin even fairer. Therefore, the places that were burned and red were particularly obvious. This was not a big deal, as it was only the back of her hand that was burned. If she accidentally overturned the frying pan one day, she would really regret it.
Mu Nan sighed and said, "Do you know what you are doing? You are like those people who want to call an ambulance for a small cut. Who hasn't been scalded by cooking oil? It's no big deal."
Qin Huai: "I didn't..."
Mu Nan interrupted him immediately: "Shut up! No flags allowed!"
Qin Huai said while eating: "Meat will be available for sale in two days."
Mu Nan was pleasantly surprised: "Really? Then the sale should be limited. Did they say when it will go on sale? Are the animals raised in the farms grown up now?"
Qin Huai said, "They are not from here. They were transported here from other places. They used to live in the outer ring area. They moved out of the city immediately after the earthquake. Now they seem to have rebuilt in Anshan City. They took away a lot of supplies, such as live poultry. After such a long time, they have bred a lot, so they transported a batch of meat here to relieve the food pressure here."
Mu Nan said, "There must be a lot of people vying for it. I will vie for it too. It doesn't matter if I can't get it. There is meat for sale. If you bring lunch, I can bring meat with me openly."
Qin Huai said: "The company has benefits, and we have a separate quota here, so it will be easier to buy than the official sales."
Even though they have meat at home, they still don’t forget their friends: “Do Jian Chu and the others have this benefit?”
Qin Huai said: "That's unclear. They are not from the same department. The sale of meat will be announced on the official website. If their department does not have a welfare quota at that time, then it will be the same for those who grab the mall. Anyway, it all depends on hand speed."
Mu Nan said: "It depends on the balance of the account. The meat should not be cheap."
After finishing the meal, Mu Nan remembered what he had forgotten: "Brother, is Jiang Xuan's father dying soon? Do you know about this?"
Qin Huai narrowed his eyes slightly and turned to look at him: "How did you know?"
Mu Nan said, "Daniu said that Jiang Xuan went back two days ago and his parents were still in the greenhouse. The temperature has hit a new low in the past two days. His father got frozen. His health was not good to begin with and he is about to die."
Qin Huai breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that Jiang Xuan had found Mu Nan through some unknown channel, trying to show weakness and ask for help from Mu Nan: "It is true. The temperature outside is too low. Even if the greenhouse is heated as much as possible, it still can't withstand some people with physical illnesses."
Mu Nan also sighed: "Today, Daniu said that a child froze to death last night. He said that the child's father was too cruel and didn't feed the child enough for a long time. The little girl was so thin that only a layer of skin was left. So she died of hunger and cold. Then the child's mother stabbed her husband to death in the middle of the night."
Qin Huai said, "What's the point of stabbing her to death now? It seems like revenge for my daughter. If she can be starved to death now, then she must have been tortured in the past. Her mother is also half responsible for her death."
Mu Nan felt the same way, but the child was gone, and the couple ended up in such a desperate situation, so he didn't comment. They have enough food and clothing now, and it would be a bit easy for him to comment on others with the attitude of a bystander who has nothing to do with him. So just live your own life well, and learn from other people's sufferings.
Jiang Xuan's father was really in poor health. He passed away before he even got an appointment at the hospital. There were too many elderly people like him who died from hypothermia. Although his father was not even sixty years old, sixty years old in peacetime was completely incomparable to sixty years old after experiencing such a long disaster. Jiang Xuan's mother had a bad premonition, so she called her son directly.
Jiang Xuan was at work at the time, but there was really no way to save the situation in this situation. Others could do what they could to help, for example, they arranged a car to take Jiang Xuan to the greenhouse and gave him a few days off so that he could take good care of his mother. But there was nothing more that could be done. Death is too common nowadays and has almost become a part of daily life. So even if they wanted to give more help, they didn't have the extra energy.
People are still queuing up to rent houses, and the construction of low-rise buildings is actually ongoing. They are also afraid that such a terrible earthquake will happen again. In addition, too many people have died now, the area is vast and sparsely populated, and low-rise buildings are always easier to build than high-rise buildings.
The buildings they are currently adding are small six-story buildings, which can accommodate at least dozens of households. But even though they are a world-renowned infrastructure power, the current limitations of manpower, material resources and climatic conditions mean that the speed of infrastructure construction cannot be accelerated. Therefore, if you want a house to settle down, you have to wait in line.
So when Jiang Xuan's father passed away, the problem became what to do with his mother. How could he feel at ease letting his mother live alone in the greenhouse? However, his unit did not have the conditions to take her to the dormitory. The dormitories in the unit were all eight-person rooms, and some rooms were not enough and had to be relocated from offices. There was no room to accommodate family members.
The death of his father and his mother having nowhere to go made Jiang Xuan's hatred for Qin Huai gradually deepen, but what could he do? He had to rely on others for even his food and clothing. Under the current conditions, he could only endure it. However, looking at his mother who had aged overnight, Jiang Xuan secretly swore in his heart that sooner or later, he would trample Qin Huai under his feet and pay back what he had endured today a thousand times.
If Qin Huai knew what Jiang Xuan was thinking, he would definitely laugh at him for being really brainless. He was not the protagonist of the counterattack flow, so why did he think that swearing an oath would be useful? However, although Qin Huai did not know what Jiang Xuan was thinking, he never minded speculating on others with the greatest malice.
The reason why he was deceived by Jiang Xuan was that they met when they were teenagers and he had not experienced what happened abroad. His mind and skills were too immature. Also, there was a network between him and Jiang Xuan. As long as Jiang Xuan did not reveal obvious flaws, who would maliciously speculate about someone who had already been classified as a friend?
Now that Jiang Xuan's true face was exposed before him, he could guess with his toes what Jiang Xuan would be thinking. A person like him would never look for the reasons within himself, or even look at the matter rationally. Jiang Xuan would definitely blame others for his own miserable condition and his father's death, for example, blaming him for not saving his father and thus hating him deeply.
So after learning about the death of Jiang Xuan's father, the thing Qin Huai thought about most while sitting in the office was how to get rid of this man. Knowing that the other party had deep ill intentions towards him and his Nan Nan, it was not his style not to strike first. If he really had to wait for the other party to do something before fighting back, how stupid he would be. As for whether it would be too vicious to kill the other party before he did anything, he would rather poison him than risk his own and Mu Nan's safety. It was enough for him to be foolishly deceived once.
But there is no rush for this matter. Jiang Xuan doesn't have the ability to do anything at the moment, so just take it slow.
On the day Jiang Xuan came back from vacation, the meat had just been counted. Their Civil Communications Department was allocated a quota of 50 kilograms of meat. The meat supply was too scarce, and coupled with the transportation and current breeding costs, the price of meat was ridiculously high. Fifteen yuan for half a kilogram of meat, the price of meat was almost catching up with the price before the end of the world.
But what were the prices before the end of the world and what are they like now? In comparison, meat is simply too expensive. But it has been almost two years, and many people have not been able to eat a bite of meat. Now that meat is still available for sale, those who have the means should grit their teeth and spend some.
Chinhuai has developed a small program that allows everyone to fill in their pre-order intentions. Some people may want to buy more, while others may not have the money to buy. It would be a waste if they don’t use up the quota internally, so they asked people to fill in their intentions first and make a preliminary statistics.
Some people have no money and have transferred all their money to their families. However, the rent, electricity, water bills, rice, flour, grain and oil for their family members are all money, and there is not much left. Let alone a pound of meat, they can't even buy half a pound of meat.
Some single people have saved a lot of money. After a little calculation and gritting their teeth, they can buy one or two kilograms of food at one time. Anyway, the weather is cold, so they can save it and eat it slowly without worrying about it going bad.
Zhou Chuanghong asked Zhang Qi and Shu Bin in the small group: "How much did you buy?"
Zhang Qi: "No money. My family just bought some rice and only have a few dollars left. I'm waiting for my next month's salary. How can I get money to buy meat? Will you buy it?"
Shu Bin: “No.” He also transferred all his money back. Although he was careful and saved a few dollars every month, he was not completely broke. But when he asked for money to buy meat, his wife said she had no money. After paying for all the fees and buying all the food and supplies, she said she had spent all the money. She even asked him to borrow some money from his colleagues. It was enough to buy a pound of meat.
Shu Bin was so angry that he almost laughed. A pound of meat cost thirty yuan, which he could indeed afford with his monthly salary. But the problem was that he might not get a share of the meat. What was he trying to gain? He worked so hard, but in the end he couldn't even eat the meat. If he didn't have money, he wouldn't buy it. What else could he buy?
Zhou Chuanghong said, "How about we buy one catty together? One catty is ten taels, and three yuan is one tael. Two or three taels of meat can make a lot of wontons. How do you think?"
Zhang Qi thought it was a good idea. He really couldn't afford to buy a pound at once, but buying it in batches did not seem unaffordable. Shu Bin also agreed. He bought some for Zhou Chuanghong to make wontons and he would not take any back. He would use the money he earned to eat himself.
Finally, when everyone had filled out their preferences, Qin Huai saw that there was still about ten kilograms of quota left. He told everyone and confirmed that there was no increase and that no one needed to buy for relatives or friends. He then said, "If everyone is sure and has no objection, then transfer the money to me and I will distribute it to you when the meat arrives."
The fat guy who was very capable but loved to eat sighed regretfully while paying: "I don't have enough money, otherwise I would have bought them all. It's such a waste to have so much money left."
Qin Huai smiled and said, "No waste, I'll take all the ones you didn't finish."
Pangpang was so envious that he was drooling.
Jiang Xuan, who was sitting not far away, was slightly moved, but before he could make any plans, someone whispered to Qin Huai, "Boss Qin, will it be bad if you are caught reselling?"
The superiors had said before that this was a benefit for them, and that buying in large quantities for reselling was not allowed, and that such behavior would be strictly investigated. How many people are eyeing Qin Huai's position now? In such a complex workplace environment, isn't it that only when you step down that others have a chance to take over? Anyway, he likes Qin Huai very much, and he is capable and responsible, so he doesn't want to change his leader at all. If he changes to someone who is particularly difficult to get along with, wouldn't it be even more difficult?
Qin Huai smiled when he heard this: "It's just a few pounds of meat, what's so worth reselling? My brother loves to eat meat, and the little meat we have at home is almost gone. If you have the conditions, buy him some more and keep it in stock. Who knows when we'll have meat next time."
Hearing him say this, Fatty couldn't help but ask first: "Boss Qin, do you still need a younger brother?"
Qin Huai glanced at him emotionlessly: "Thank you for the invitation, I'm not short of anything."
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