Chapter 118
It is common sense that there will be mosquitoes when the weather is hot, but people did not expect that after this extreme cold weather, mosquitoes would proliferate so quickly, catching people off guard.
What is even more unbearable is that there is simply no condition to produce something that can repel mosquitoes. The extreme heat has dried up almost all the plants on the surface, and the extreme cold has left no grass at all. Not to mention plant-extracted mosquito repellent incense and liquid, even chemical preparations are not available.
After a few days of normal temperatures, people were able to go back to work and go out of their homes as usual. However, they didn't expect that they would have to suffer the pain of being sucked blood by mosquitoes after just two days of comfort.
In addition to the itchy feeling after being bitten by mosquitoes, the most annoying thing is being woken up by the flapping wings of mosquitoes beside your ears when you are sleeping soundly at night. If conditions permit, start making your own mosquito nets. If there are no gauze nets, just sew them with bed sheets to cover the entire sleeping place. The temperature is not bad now and it is not hot yet, so even if the cover is a bit airtight, it will not affect your sleep. You can turn on the air conditioner when it gets hot. Anyway, as long as it can block out the noisy mosquitoes, it's fine.
Those who had no conditions would just endure it, covering their heads with quilts. If the noise became unbearable, they would sit up and swat mosquitoes. There were so many mosquitoes that you could kill one with a slap at night with your eyes closed.
Mu Nan took inventory of the mosquito coils in the space. He had bought quite a few of them himself, boxes of them online. Later, his brother bought quite a few more, so there were a lot of them in stock, enough to keep the family lit 24 hours a day. There was also scent-free electric mosquito coil liquid, which was suitable for Qin Huai to take to the office.
Fortunately, Qin Huai now has his own office. If it were mosquito coils, others might smell the odor when they come in, but this kind of scentless electric mosquito coil liquid has no fragrance and no smoke. You can just plug one in under your feet and use it to ensure that there are no mosquitoes where you sit.
They have very strict protection, but others are miserable. Although they have made their own mosquito nets made of thick fabric like curtain cloth, they can't just go to bed and hide in the mosquito net when they get home, and there are many mosquitoes at work. People like Jian Chu work in customer service, and they sit in front of the computer to help people solve problems over the Internet. They sit there all day long, and they only need to move their hands to type on the keyboard. Even if they wear thick clothes, there are always exposed parts of their bodies. Even when they take a shower or go to the toilet, those mosquitoes will bite them wherever they can. It's really a hassle.
At the beginning, the temperature was still a little cool. Although it was not cold, the climate was just right, so wearing long sleeves and long pants was a little better. But it couldn't withstand the daily rise in temperature. In less than a month, it rose directly from zero degrees to more than 20 degrees and almost 30 degrees. When the weather gets hot, clothes can't be worn, and more places are exposed, so mosquitoes can't take advantage of it to suck your blood.
The temperature rose quickly and the snow outside melted quickly. The road was full of wet potholes caused by the melting snow. The snow that had accumulated in the river bank next to them for a whole winter also melted into water. Because of the slope of the river bank, the water in the residential area basically flowed into the river. Fortunately, the river channel was deep, and the sewers that had been dredged before helped with drainage, so the snow water did not overflow. However, the road was damaged before and there was no time to repair it. Many places were bumpy, and the melted water gathered in it. I don't know if this is why mosquitoes bred.
As the weather gets hotter, some people even think bitterly that it might as well get to 60 or 70 degrees to heat the mosquitoes to death. Anyway, there is solar power here, and they have experienced hiding during the day and coming out at night. It is better than being bitten to death by mosquitoes and being unable to do anything about it.
People were only disappointed for a moment about the rising temperature, and then returned to normal. Anyway, from now on, the climate is probably going to be like this. I just don't know if it will be hot all year round, or if it will be cold for half a year and hot for half a year. Anyway, they don't understand the climate, so just live with the cold and hot weather. As long as they have food to eat, a job to work and can make money to live, it doesn't matter how they live.
While Qin Huai and the others were at work, Mu Nan and Yu Zibai cleaned the solar panel on the roof. When the temperature started to warm up, Xu Ming also submitted his job application and has now been successfully hired as a veterinarian at a livestock farm. Dealing with animals is much easier than dealing with people, and there is less psychological pressure. Anyway, Xu Ming rented a car and went to and from get off work on time every day. The work was not busy and he lived a comfortable life. Now there are only Mu Nan and Yu Zibai at home.
Even Wu Zheng next door found a job in an electromechanical factory. He had the basic knowledge. Although he had not worked in this field after graduation, he had studied the major for several years. At least he could learn the basic equipment much faster than those who had no basic knowledge. It's just that his monthly salary is relatively low, only one hundred and twenty yuan a month, which is only four yuan a day, but it includes one meal, and he just has to watch over the equipment, which is not as hard as moving bricks. Anyway, Wu Zheng has worked for a while and has a good impression of this job.
The electromechanical factory was a little bit ahead of the Information Building. Wu Zheng would ride their bike every day and then ride to the electromechanical factory after arriving at the Information Building. He got off work early, so he could ride to the Information Building before Qin Huai and the others got off work, and then come back together.
It's hard to calculate the car rental fee for four people, so just charge fifteen dollars per person per month. The extra money is used to buy gas, and the rest is saved for next month. Although they have a good relationship, some things can't be vague. Even if they are not the kind of people who care about things, if they calculate it clearly, they can get along with each other more openly.
Yu Zibai stood on the roof, connecting the water pipes to flush water onto the solar panels. Mu Nan was watching from below. There were some places that Yu Zibai couldn't see, so he pointed. After a cold winter, the solar panels were naturally not frozen, but the snow had accumulated for a long time, so some places needed to be cleaned and the circuits checked at the same time.
When Yu Zibai was cleaning the solar panels upstairs, he saw that the Huang family behind them were also installing solar panels, so he sped up the cleaning and handed the subsequent cleaning to Mu Nan: "I'll go to the back and ask where they bought the solar energy."
Mu Nan nodded: "Go ahead." If Jian Chu and the others could also buy one, they wouldn't have to be so frugal with electricity in the summer. His family consumes a lot of electricity as well, and they raise rabbits and grow vegetables upstairs and downstairs, and they all can't stand the heat, so it would naturally be better to have one more set.
Yu Zibai was gone for a while before coming back. Mu Nan had already washed the roofs of both houses with water and was washing the ground in the yard on the first floor. When Yu Zibai came back, Mu Nan hurriedly asked, "How is it? Did you ask where you bought it?"
Yu Zibai said, "It was a private seller who didn't want money and only accepted grain transactions. They bought a set of generators and a few solar panels and used a thousand kilograms of rice."
Mu Nan calculated the current grain prices. One dollar can buy two kilograms of rice on the official website. It is the kind of white rice that is not very good. In other words, if converted into money, it is 500 yuan for a set of equipment. 500 yuan is not expensive, but it is not cheap either. Now the monthly salary for a slightly better job is 200 to 300 yuan. For example, his brother's current salary is more than 200 yuan, but most jobs like Wu Zheng's make more than 100 yuan a month.
By this calculation, it would take at least half a year's salary of a person without food or drink to afford it. However, solar energy is not a disposable product. If you calculate based on last year's hot year and the electricity bill for the whole summer, it will take about two to three years to pay for itself, which is not bad.
"Will you buy one? My generator is pretty big. Can we connect two of them? In this case, two solar energy systems should be more than enough to power the whole house."
Yu Zibai said: "Wait for Jian Chu and Xu Ming to come back tonight and ask them. The main thing is that we have the money, but it's hard to get rice."
There is a purchase limit on rice now, and their family only has a few hundred kilograms of grain in stock, which is definitely not enough. Even if they spend money to buy more, they can only buy a little at a time. But people won't keep their stuff and wait to sell it to them. Just now when I went to the Huang family to inquire, there were already three or four people asking about solar energy.
Mu Nan said, "Why don't you contact the seller first? Ask for some rice and see if they want tomatoes and peppers. If they do, I'll sell them to you and you can trade. Oh, and there are rabbits. They've grown for more than a month and are now very big. Each rabbit weighs at least four pounds. They can be sold, too."
Yu Zibai thought it was a good idea. They could trade a lot of things. If the other party did not limit themselves to rice, it would be easy to do. However, there was no rush. His family could make the decision on their own, but they had to wait for Xu Ming to come back to discuss it. Once it was installed, it would definitely be shared by the two families.
Yu Zibai took a big broom and washed the place where Mu Nan had flushed the water. After a while, the ground was rinsed clean. The water flowed out through the drainage pipes in the yard and did not accumulate in the yard. After this flush, the whole yard felt a little refreshed.
Mu Nan put down the water pipe and sighed: "If the temperature continues to rise, we will probably have to turn on the air conditioner in two days." It's almost thirty degrees now, but although the temperature has risen, maybe we have just turned from winter and the temperature of the entire surface has not been exposed to the sun, so it is not too hot, and we don't even need to turn on the electric fan at home.
After a few days of intense sunlight, it’s time to switch directly to air conditioning.
Yu Zibai looked at Mu Nan and asked, "Have you started serializing comics online?"
Mu Nan nodded: "Yes, I started serializing it two days ago, and the paid platform has just been completed. However, you can't get clicks and make money immediately after you update. Anyway, there is no rush, just take your time."
After Mu Nan finished speaking, he asked Yu Zibai curiously, "What about you? Have you decided what kind of job you want to do? Otherwise, why don't you grow vegetables at home? I've seen a lot of people digging outside recently. I guess they all want to grow something at home. After all, the house is so big, it's not like there's no environmental conditions."
Yu Zibai said, "I have applied for a farm and plan to give it a try, mainly because I want to learn something." He had thought of this a long time ago. The world is not good now, and food is the most important thing, even more important than making money. In fact, Mu Nan's family is very good. One person goes to work, and the other stays at home to start a small farm.
But they all figured it out on their own and none of them had much experience. At least when he asked Mu Nan for advice, Mu Nan just told him by rote how much water and fertilizer to use. However, when some vegetable roots rotted, leaves turned yellow, or even did not bear fruit, Mu Nan himself didn't quite understand why. He just said that if this happened, they would just pull the vegetables out and feed them to the rabbits.
Therefore, Yu Zibai still planned to learn systematically if conditions permit. No matter how much money he could make from this job, at least the skills he learned would be his own. You never know if you will have to rely on luck for your livelihood in the future.
Mu Nan thought this was a good idea, and quickly said, "Then you can learn more and teach me. I have been serving the little dish basin at home in this way, but the growth is not very good, but at least it has borne fruit."
Yu Zibai smiled and said, "I just submitted my resume, but I don't know if I can be selected. After all, I'm not a professional in this field."
Mu Nan wanted to cheer him up, but this was indeed a mismatch between his major and he would be so disappointed if he was not selected, so he could only comfort him, "If you are selected, let's have a dinner together to celebrate. If you are not selected, you can apply for other jobs. What we lack now is talent, so there is no need to worry about not having opportunities."
Yu Zibai smiled, accepting the comfort. Before entering the house, Mu Nan asked, "Are there many mosquitoes in your house?"
Yu Zibai said, "A lot, but the moxa sticks your brother gave me the day before yesterday are very effective. Fumigate three times in the morning and evening, and close the doors and windows tightly. The mosquitoes will be much stronger. Fumigation once will kill the moxa sticks. One stick can be used for a period of time. Is it enough for your family?"
Mu Nan nodded: "It's enough for now. I'll see if the government can find a way to disperse the mosquitoes. There are so many of them that it's a disaster."
Not to mention the government, the government is also annoyed. Although most people are now vaccinated, there is no guarantee that some diseases will not be transmitted through mosquitoes. The rampant mosquitoes are not a good thing. It seems that after a winter of incubation, these mosquitoes have mutated.
It has been discovered that these mosquitoes do not match the currently known mosquitoes. They are red-eyed, red-headed mosquitoes with hooked teeth on their beaks. The key point is that their reproductive ability is extremely strong. It only takes three days from eggs to adults. If it were not for the real data in front of them, they would even think that the world might have gone crazy. The reproduction speed is too fast, which is why it has caused such a disaster.
In order to prevent these mosquitoes from causing too much harm, the authorities had to allocate medicines based on the existing resources to kill them, especially in some ditches that had not yet dried up, which were important breeding areas for mosquitoes.
The time for extermination will be notified by the higher authorities. According to the reproduction rate of these red-headed mosquitoes, a large-scale extermination will be carried out in each district. During the extermination, people will be asked to close the doors and windows of their homes tightly. This insecticide is also harmful to the human body. If strong medicine is not used, these mosquitoes may not be killed.
The effect of the first round of insect extermination was quite significant. In order to clean up the mosquito corpses, large-capacity industrial vacuum cleaners were used. The vacuum cleaners were pushed from one area to another for cleaning. The corpses of insects killed in all residential areas were piled up into mountains and burned. How big can a mosquito be? However, such tiny insect corpses could be piled up into a small mountain. This shows how terrible the reproduction of these mosquitoes is after a winter of evolution.
Someone posted the photos online, and everyone in the residential area who had a mobile phone and internet access saw them. They were so scared that they couldn't stop getting goosebumps. It was so disgusting. Some people even strongly called for this kind of extermination to be carried out once a week. Now that the weather is warmer, all kinds of insects have begun to multiply, especially the cockroach plague last year. It's still disgusting to think about it now. We must never allow these pests to become a disaster again.
Seeing those photos, Mu Nan felt sick. Their family started using mosquito nets early, and they had put them up as soon as mosquitoes appeared. They also had mosquito coils at home, and they lit a plate of them upstairs and downstairs every day. It has been hot these two days, so the doors and windows of the house are closed and the air conditioner is on. They also spray mosquito repellent on their bodies when they go out, so the bites are not a big deal. But seeing the photos of burning mosquito corpses still sounded a wake-up call for them.
Qin Huai said: "Bring out some screens. I will cover the doors and windows with a layer of screen. I will also put a layer of screen on the second and third floors and the entrance to the main door. I will also put a layer of screen in places like the bathroom and kitchen to prevent mosquitoes and cockroaches."
Originally, Mu Nan thought that there was no need to go through so much trouble. Now the air conditioners are turned on upstairs and downstairs in the house, and mosquito coils are lit every day, and there are no mosquitoes in the house. But when he heard Qin Huai mentioned cockroaches, Mu Nan couldn't bear it anymore and hurriedly took out the rolls of gauze. Cockroaches are much more disgusting than mosquitoes. If a layer of gauze can be installed in every place with a door in the house, it can indeed effectively eliminate them.
The place they live in now is no longer the small two-bedroom, one-living-room apartment they used to live in. They can just tidy up and clean the house. There are three floors upstairs and downstairs, so it will be difficult to deal with cockroaches if there are any.
So while Qin Huai was resting at home, the two of them started working at home. They had to cut the gauze themselves, sew magic stickers, and install it into a double-leaf door curtain, so that it would not affect entry and exit and could effectively block mosquitoes. In addition, Qin Huai also hung a layer of mosquito net where they slept. It was the kind of princess gauze, nailed on the roof, and the mosquito net was hung on all four sides, covering the entire bed. There was also a mosquito net like a vegetable cover on the bed, with double layers inside and outside, and I don’t believe that mosquitoes can still bite like this.
Qin Huai gathered the mosquito net on all sides and pressed it under the mattress, leaving the side at the foot of the bed hanging down to the ground so that it would be easy to lift and go in and out: "In the future, when you have nothing to do at home, just lie on the bed and play. Put the mosquito coils farther away. They are said to be harmless and smokeless, but it's still bad for your health if you smell them too much."
Mu Nan nodded in response: "I know. You have to be careful when you are outside. Remember to tell me when you run out of the mosquito repellent in your bag and I will refill it for you. It's so hot outside now, can you still drive the car?"
Qin Huai said, "It's not too hot. It's not even 40 degrees yet. The car is fine. When it gets hotter, it might start to hide during the day and go out at night. But if the day and night are reversed, we have to wait until the temperature is above 50 degrees."
Mu Nan was sitting on the sofa, trimming her nails, and said, "It seems that people have enough experience in dealing with summer this time. I saw that the houses at the back had already installed heat insulation and sun protection equipment."
Qin Huai smiled and said, "It's not the first time we've experienced extreme heat. It's old experience. We'll install it in a couple of days. Have you asked Jian Chu and the others when they can get the solar energy?"
Mu Nan: "The day after tomorrow, the small truck has been rented, with 600 kilograms of rice, 20 kilograms of tomatoes, 20 kilograms of peppers, and four rabbits. Do you think it's worthwhile to change to a solar one?"
Qin Huai said: "At present, it is cost-effective. Once they get the solar energy, the family can save on electricity bills, and there is no need to worry about power outages due to high temperatures. Isn't that female rabbit giving birth again? She is about to give birth, right?"
Mu Nan opened the notebook and said, "It will be at least half a month. I don't know when it will happen. I can only infer it from the changes in the mother rabbit's habits and her growing belly. This time the little rabbits are born, there will be grass to eat. I harvested one crop and put it in the space. It's almost time to harvest the second crop. Unfortunately, the planting area is limited, so it can't be used as their staple food. The staple food should still be sweet potato vines."
There were quite a lot of people who went there on the day of trading solar energy, even the big guys were drafted in to serve as strong soldiers to increase the number of people. The main reason was that they brought a lot of things, and the things they exchanged were very expensive. Although this was in a residential area, they still had to be on guard in case there was any black-on-black action. They would not have any intentions towards others, but others should not try to take advantage of them either.
Fortunately, the transaction between the two parties went very smoothly in the end. A set of solar generators plus six solar panels can easily cover the household electricity consumption. In addition, they had bought a few more panels before, so they moved four of them here. Because if they exceeded the load, the generator could not bear it. The rest were installed on the roof of Qin Huai's house. After the electricity was distributed, Mu Nan did not have to worry about the load being too heavy. He had used electricity sparingly before, for fear that the circuit breaker would trip due to excessive consumption.
After feeding the rabbits and watering the plants, Qin Huai also put up the insulation cloths upstairs and downstairs. As for the insulation baffles inside the house, there was no rush as the temperature was not that high yet. It would still be in time to install them after it got really hot.
The two of them were sweating all over. Just after taking a shower and preparing to go back to the room for dinner, Mu Nan received a message from Song Jia in the group chat: "Song Jia asked me if there is anything to relieve itching at home. It seems that he was bitten badly. Should I give him toilet water or ointment?"
Qin Huai said, "Use ointment. He seems to have been bitten quite badly. He kept scratching himself in the car and even broke a few of his wounds. It's quite serious. Floral dew may not work."
Mu Nan said, "Oh," and replied in the group: "There is anti-itch medicine, come and get it."
Soon Jian Chu also showed up: "Wipe some on me too, Damn, I'm going to be bitten to death."
Mu Nan: "Come here, it's an anti-itching ointment, try applying it first and see if it works."
Soon the two of them came over, and Mu Nan took the ointment to the first floor, where there was a wooden sofa so there was room to sit.
Mu Nan saw Jian Chu rubbing his stomach with a pale face and asked, "What's wrong? Is your stomach uncomfortable?"
Jian Chu sighed: "Maybe I drank too much iced drink because I wanted to cool down. It's okay. I'll be fine in a while."
Mu Nan handed the ointment to them: "Here, this is it, although I don't know how effective it is in relieving itching."
Song Jia said: "We used you. Don't use the remaining medicine on us. The mosquitoes are too poisonous. The itching is unbearable."
Mu Nan said, "I'm at home and haven't gone out. I've got a layer of screens like this covering my house, and I haven't been bitten. I still have some floral water, but the anti-itching effect of floral water may not be as good as this ointment. Use it. Maybe there will be anti-itching medicine for sale soon."
They also hope that medicine can be sold soon. If medicine and mosquito repellents are available anywhere, they would not ask their friends for it even though they know that these things are extremely scarce. They are so itchy that they want to tear off a layer of skin.
Song Jia started to wipe his legs directly. His legs were bitten the most severely. Mu Nan's scalp tingled when he saw it: "How many mosquitoes are there in your unit? They are not all around you to suck your blood?" There was almost no good meat on his legs, and there were even large and small bites. It made people with claustrophobia suffer.
Qin Huai came down soon after: "How is it? Does this medicine relieve the itching?"
Jian Chu blew on the medicine while applying it. It must have some cooling ingredients in it. It felt cool and comfortable. "It's effective. I decided to wear long sleeves when I go out tomorrow. I've never been bitten so badly by mosquitoes since I was a child."
Song Jia handed the ointment to Mu Nan: "My back is itchy too, please help me rub it."
Mu Nan took the ointment, lifted his clothes, and saw that in addition to some densely packed small bites on his back, there was also a large red and swollen lump. What a fierce mosquito it must be. Fortunately, he had prepared everything and provided protection for his brother in the office, otherwise it would be his brother's turn to apply the ointment now.
Just when Mu Nan was about to apply medicine to Song Jia, he saw the bag on his back seemed to move. He immediately moved closer to take a look curiously, then let out a cry and took a big step back in fright, bumping into Qin Huai.
Jian Chu and Song Jia turned to look at him: "What's wrong?"
Mu Nan turned to look at Qin Huai: "Brother, go and have a look, is there anything moving in the bag on his back?"
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