Chapter 123
The current planting conditions are slightly better than before. In the past, you had to dig the soil yourself, but there was not much soil to dig in the dried and cracked land. Whether the soil was nutritious or not was another matter, and it was difficult to find the source of soil. As more and more residential houses were built, many roads were paved with cement to keep them clean, so there was even less place to dig the soil.
But the higher-ups should be encouraging family farming. With the current food shortage, if the planting of grain can be distributed to each household, the pressure from above will naturally be a little less. So when Song Jia asked if he could buy soil and seeds, although the price was not cheap, they were still available for sale. He also bought a pile of wooden boards, nailed them into strips himself, and filled the soil in strips to plant, just like Qin Huai's family did.
After Qin Huai resigned and went home, the happiest person was naturally Mu Nan. There are a lot of sick people outside now. Although the chance of this patient transmitting the disease to others is very low and there is no need to avoid crowds like avoiding the plague, mosquito bites are even more difficult to prevent. In addition, the weather is getting hotter, and he feels more at ease that his brother can resign and go home.
After resigning, Qin Huai spent several days building the planting house on the roof. He also installed an air conditioner and extended the heating pipe directly to the roof. This way, if there is a power outage in winter, the boiler on the first floor can provide some heat.
After cleaning out the living room on the third floor, the two spent a day cleaning it thoroughly. From now on, the third floor would be their living area, separating the planting area and the breeding area. With a clean living environment, the possibility of getting sick would be reduced a lot.
In order to prevent mosquitoes that might be attracted by the vegetable bowls upstairs and downstairs from flying over, Qin Huai added a layer of screen door to the main door installed on the third floor. He fumigated the door with moxa sticks every morning and evening, lit mosquito coils at the door and window, and turned on the air purifier. He stayed on the third floor when he had nothing to do and almost never needed to go downstairs.
When everything inside and outside the house was in order, the house behind them that had exploded was also rebuilt. The house where the Huang family lived before was badly damaged. The house where the Chen family lived next door was only badly damaged on the third floor, but the downstairs was okay, but the fire spread too quickly so it was burned to ashes.
The only people left in the Huang family were Huang Laoer's wife and daughter, a mother and daughter. The two elders in the Chen family were gone, and the two brothers in the Chen family also broke up, because the younger brother blamed his eldest sister-in-law. If it weren't for Gan Wei, these things in the Huang family would never have happened, so he blamed his eldest sister-in-law for all the deaths of his parents.
The eldest son of the Chen family thought the same thing, but the problem was that he had two children, and his children could not live without their mother, but the family still broke up. Even his mother-in-law, with whom he had a good relationship before, he could no longer treat her rationally. He knew that the fault was not theirs, but it was a fact that his parents were gone because of this, and the once warm family could never go back.
The surviving mother and daughter of the Huang family vented all their hatred for losing their family members on Gan Wei's aunt and cousin. If it weren't for Gan Wei, how could her husband be gone, and not a single member of the Huang family would be left, all because of a woman.
When Mu Nan was just discharged from the hospital, the two families were fighting the most. The Chen family's house only had two floors left, and there was no hotel outside where people could stay temporarily, so the Huang family's mother and daughter moved directly into the Chen family. The two families were either fighting or quarreling every day. This would be hard on anyone. A wealthy family was gone just like that. Who could bear it?
Even though the doors and windows were closed, Mu Nan could still hear it clearly at home. He would pay attention to it at first, but the quarrels were too frequent. Sometimes they would even smash things in the middle of the night. After a long time, Mu Nan became a little annoyed, but no matter how annoyed he was, he could only endure it. The worst that could happen was that he would just wear headphones and watch a movie.
Although his house was severely damaged and many doors and windows had to be replaced, the fact that Liang Yu was killed was a coincidence in the timing of the explosion. Besides, knowing that the other person's entire home was gone, he would not make a fuss over such a small amount of compensation.
Their family did not want compensation, but the two families behind them and the family next door who were slightly burned by the wind, of course they could not refuse compensation. So what if people died? In the current environment, people die every day. Their own losses were so great, and supplies are scarce now. If the windows and broken doors are not repaired quickly, how can people bear such hot weather? Naturally, there will be chaos every day.
Later, the youngest son of the Chen family was the first to not be able to bear it and left alone. Then one night, the eldest son of the Chen family also left with his wife, children and mother-in-law. After all, his wife was his responsibility and his mother-in-law was his wife's biological mother. Although their relationship could not be restored to the way it was before, he could not bear to abandon his wife, so he took them all with him.
After the Chen family left, the mother and daughter of the Huang family had nowhere to go and wanted to stay. After all, this was a place to stay. However, they could not afford the compensation, and could not defeat the united families, so they finally packed up all the things they could take and left.
The tragedy in the backyard came to an end in front of everyone. As for how they lived the rest of their lives, no one cared. They only thought about it occasionally and cursed at the compensation they had not been able to get back.
Although the lease of the house had not expired yet, everyone had left and the destroyed house could not be left empty, so they simply demolished the two houses and rebuilt them. Thus, among the almost completely unified architectural styles in District 2, two houses with particularly different appearances were slowly built up.
The window of Mu Nan's room faces the back, and one can see clearly outside from the third floor. The house is built really quickly. It didn't take long to build the two small three-story buildings. However, it's probably because there are no conditions for decoration. At most, a layer of putty can be applied, so it's not like sleeping in a brick house.
Mu Nan was leaning on the window to watch the house being built behind. When he heard Qin Huai enter the room, he said without turning his head, "Brother, what kind of residents do you think will come behind this? So many people have died in this house. Even if the whole house is torn down and rebuilt, there will be people who think it is unlucky, right?"
Qin Huai put a few cleaned and disinfected towels on the rack under the air conditioner and said, "It's good to have a place to live. Many people outside don't even have a place to live. Now the temperature has risen again. Today's temperature is 55 degrees, and the surface temperature is already over 70. Who would still choose a house? Besides, our area is considered to have a relatively good environment. It's a single-family house without having to interact with too many people. If you want to live here, I'm afraid you'll have to fight for it."
Mu Nan said with emotion: "Fortunately you decided to live here. If you had lived in that apartment building, who knows what would happen now."
The environment of the apartment buildings in District 1 is not bad now. Compared with the sheds in the outer city, it is already very good. However, the population is too dense. Some families with more than ten people are crowded in a small house of 60 square meters. With so many people going in and out, the elevators alone are crowded every day. Although the water supply is normal after the heat, the water now is deadly. Even people are afraid to take a shower. If there is a wound on the body, it will be easily infected if it is washed with water containing insect eggs. This infection can be fatal.
However, the source of water is not so easy to solve. Living worms can be filtered out, but invisible tiny worm eggs are difficult to filter out. There is not even the conditions to disinfect the water source that supplies millions of people.
Now the population of their residential area has exceeded one million, but these are not the survivors of the entire city. In addition to their residential area, there are several other residential areas. However, the roads are being leveled bit by bit, and vehicles have begun to travel back and forth, and they are also in touch with each other. The current surviving population that has been counted is six million. This is the data after their city updated their identity cards, and those in the city center who are suffering from the plague are not included.
It is naturally a good thing that more people survive, but when new problems arise and there are not enough life-saving drugs, then it becomes a very serious matter.
Although they were locked in the house and had almost no contact with people outside District 3, the coverage of the local area network was getting wider and wider, and naturally more and more things could be seen on the Internet. The situation outside was transmitted through some photos, which was also terrifying. Because of this, Mu Nan was more and more glad that he had followed Qin Huai's first batch and chose District 2, a good location to settle down.
Qin Huai hooked his finger, and Mu Nan jumped down from the bay window and threw herself into his arms: "What are you doing?"
Qin Huai lifted his chin and pecked him lightly on the lips: "I want to kiss you."
Mu Nan turned his head away and refused to be kissed. Qin Huai pinched his waist and Mu Nan fell on Qin Huai. Just as he was about to fight back, he heard the sound of the iron gate in the yard being opened. The two stopped playing and went to the balcony, opened the curtains and looked outside. It was the girls' car coming back.
Street lights have been installed outside now. The weather is too hot, and almost all workplaces have started to reverse their day and night schedules. It is impossible to go out during the day, so some activities that can be done outside have to be moved to the night. In order to facilitate people's travel, the authorities have begun to reorganize the street lights district by district. Although not as bright as daylight, at least those street lights are not the dim ones before. They are large spotlights with high wattage, so they are very bright. Anyway, now they are powered by solar energy, and there is enough electricity, so people can be seen clearly from a distance.
Because he could see clearly, there were only three people in the car that came in. Thinking of Hu Xuan, whose leg had to be amputated due to an abscess infection, Mu Nan asked about the situation in the group.
Hu Xuan was infected more than a month ago. The situation was very serious at the time. There was no way to clean the wounds and deworm some parts of her body because some of the worms were about to drill into her bones. In order to prevent further infection, the hospital recommended amputation.
If a beautiful girl has an amputation, how will she live in the future? Now is not the past when there were many job choices and even if the conditions were too bad, she could receive social assistance. Now that she has lost a leg, how many people are willing to take care of this burden?
Hu Xuan couldn't accept this reality. Why did she have to undergo amputation just for a few abscesses?
In the end, it was her sisters who repeatedly assured her that even if they got married in the future, they would live together and take care of each other. It is better to rely on sisters than on men. Even if they are sisters you met halfway, you have been together for so long, how can you not trust each other?
After much persuasion, Hu Xuan was finally persuaded to accept amputation, because without surgery, even amputation could not save her life.
The operation was naturally successful, but follow-up treatment and prevention of infection are the most critical.
After Hu Xuan had the operation, they went to see her together. Each household gave money and things. Mu Nan's family still had one rabbit left from their first litter, which they had planned to raise until it was five or six months old and eat for themselves. Now that Hu Xuan had undergone such a major operation, she needed to replenish her body, so Mu Nan gave her a rabbit and some tomatoes and peppers. These were the only things his family could give away.
However, Hu Xuan's recovery was not good. One reason was the shortage of medicines. Many medicines for post-amputation surgery were not available. Another reason was that the hospital environment was not very good. With the outbreak of parasites, the hospital was overcrowded. There were all kinds of extra beds in the wards, and even the corridors were full of people sleeping. All kinds of people came and went, especially those who were infected with parasites. The worms drilled in their bodies, and the screams one after another could not be quiet for a moment.
Hu Xuan didn't get enough rest in the hospital, and the food she ate was not nutritious. Her condition got worse and worse while she was in the hospital, so the doctor prescribed some medicine for her and told her to go home and recuperate.
It's been less than a week since she came back. Yesterday, Hu Xuan seemed to have a fever and was rushed to the hospital in a very bad condition. Several girls didn't come back all day yesterday. I don't know if there are no more beds available in the hospital. They can't help with this matter in the hospital.
The reason why Jian Chu was able to get an extra bed earlier was that although the situation was very serious at that time, it had not erupted to such a serious extent as it is now. So there is no way to find a backdoor for Hu Xuan now. They can only see if there are other ways, such as delivering meals, and those of them who are at home and not working can help.
Mu Nan originally wanted to ask about Hu Xuan's situation, but before the girl replied, he heard a very miserable cry, which sounded like Sun Sisi's.
Mu Nan and Qin Huai looked at each other: "Something seems to be wrong?"
Qin Huai asked, "Go and have a look?"
Mu Nan nodded, then changed his clothes. Although it was hot, he had to wear long sleeves and long pants when going out, and spray mosquito repellent. If he wore short sleeves and shorts, even mosquito repellent would not be able to stop the attack of mosquitoes.
Because Sun Sisi's crying was so loud, even Song Jia and Yu Zibai came out. Jian Chu had no choice because his health was too poor and he was still being nursed. Yu Zibai wouldn't let him go out at all. It would be too dangerous if he got bitten.
Sun Sisi was sitting at the gate of her house crying. Yang Jing, who had just parked the car in the garage, also had red eyes. Song Jia looked at them and asked, "What's wrong? Is Hu Xuan in bad condition?"
When Song Jia asked, Sun Sisi cried even louder. Tu Juan, whose hair was cut even shorter, said, "Hu Xuan... is gone."
Several people looked at each other in bewilderment. Yu Zibai frowned and said, "She was still able to talk yesterday. She even said hello to us when you left."
Yang Jing said, "We couldn't get into the hospital. There wasn't even any medicine. We couldn't get an appointment. We queued for a whole day, but still couldn't get an appointment. We wanted to ask for medicine first, but there was none. We asked Xuanxuan's previous attending physician, but he said the hospital couldn't spare any medicine. We finally found a place to lie down. We kept doing physical cooling, but the temperature didn't go down. The amputation site didn't heal and became infected and festered."
Sun Sisi cried and said, "She said she wanted to eat Bo Zai Gao, which was something she could only eat when she was a child and very sick. She said she wanted to eat it, and said that if she had known earlier, she would have returned home, even if she had listened to her family and got married early. She held my hand and called me mom, and kept saying sorry, saying that she missed home and wanted to go home, wuuuu..."
Tu Juan rubbed Sun Sisi's hair. Sun Sisi and Hu Xuan had the best relationship. Sun Sisi was lively and outgoing, while Hu Xuan was quiet and elegant. Compared with her and Yang Jing, who had a bit of a hot temper, Hu Xuan was the most tolerant of Sun Sisi. They both lived in the same room. Now Hu Xuan is gone. Before she died, she held Sun Sisi's hand and said those words. This must have had the greatest impact on Sun Sisi.
Sun Sisi was tired of crying, sobbing and mumbling: "I couldn't find the bowl cake, and I didn't even let her have the last bite..."
Mu Nan asked Yang Jing in a low voice: "So, has Hu Xuan been taken away?"
Yang Jing nodded: "After one week, go and collect the ashes with her ID card."
The few people didn't say much in the yard. After knowing the general situation, they went back to their homes. There were too many mosquitoes outside and they couldn't stay for long. Besides, the people were gone, so there was nothing to say. In addition to feeling the horror of the red-headed mosquito and the mutant tapeworm again, they asked everyone to be more vigilant. Facing the current environment, they had no other way.
Qin Huai and his family had to pass through three doors to go home. One was their own front door. After entering the door, they walked around the place on the second floor where mosquito coils were lit twice, then entered the door on the second floor and sprayed diluted floral water at the door on the third floor to disperse the mosquitoes. Although they generally couldn't see any mosquitoes here, the third floor was a residential area, so they had to be careful before going in.
After putting on so many layers of protection, I went up to the third floor, took off my clothes and went into the bathroom to take a shower. After such a short while, I was already covered in sweat due to the long sleeves and long pants. I thought that there would be nothing else that required me to go out, so it would be more comfortable to take a shower before entering the bedroom.
After taking a shower, they are not done yet. They wipe each other's bodies with a face towel soaked in floral water. On the one hand, they check if they are bitten, and on the other hand, the floral water can prevent prickly heat. It is easy to get prickly heat when the temperature is too high and the weather is too hot. After going through all these procedures, they can eat and watch movies comfortably in the room.
But today, both of them were in no mood and went back to the room and lay down on the bed. Although they didn't have much interaction with the girls, they had lived there for almost a year and they still had some basic friendship. They lived so close and now that the person was gone, it was impossible for them to just pretend nothing happened. Moreover, this was the first person they knew who was gone. Before leaving yesterday, Hu Xuan waved goodbye to them.
Mu Nan lay in Qin Huai's arms for a while and whispered, "Sun Sisi seems to be still crying."
Qin Huai stroked his smooth arm gently: "Of course, we've lived together for so long, and a living person is gone just like that. Looking at the things around us that still have the breath of each other's life, it's probably not easy to get over it all of a sudden."
Mu Nan: "The scene of them moving in playfully and happily seems like it just happened yesterday."
Qin Huai didn't say anything, but the gentle caress of his hand continued. Mu Nan just sighed, thinking of what happened not long ago, and thinking of Hu Xuan, and said: "If you didn't prepare the anthelmintic, Jian Chu would be gone too."
If Qin Huai had not prepared carefully, he would not have bought the anthelmintic and would not have thought about it. Without the medicine, Jian Chu could not be saved. They had no medicine, and now that the parasites were out there, they must have lived in fear and anxiety every day. Now that they had the medicine, they had a little more confidence than others. It was really fortunate that Qin Huai had prepared comprehensively.
Qin Huai said, "Take the imported box in a few days and eat one pill for daily deworming."
Mu Nan turned to look at him: "Is it bad to eat so densely?"
Qin Huai: "No, it's been more than a month. The daily deworming pills can be taken once a quarter. You almost drank water with insects in it last time, so it's better to be more careful. After you take it this time, remember the time. If there is no problem, take it once every six months, mainly for prevention."
Mu Nan nodded, turned over, and hugged Qin Huai: "I hope the higher-ups can find a way to deal with this kind of insects as soon as possible. It's more unbearable than the sun. You just need to hide from the sun. These mosquitoes bite people everywhere, and the food may be contaminated by the mosquitoes. There are also unclean water sources. It's terrible."
Qin Huai pulled the blanket up a little and covered Mu Nan's shoulders: "Sleep?"
Mu Nan snorted, "I can't sleep."
As soon as Qin Huai raised his hand, Mu Nan said, "Don't hypnotize me."
Qin Huai smiled and said, "If you really can't sleep, you still can't sleep even if I touch the back of your neck. You are obviously sleepy, why do you have to stay awake?"
Mu Nan leaned into Qin Huai's arms and said, "I just feel that it's not good for me to fall asleep while others are sad."
"What's wrong with this? We can't share each other's joys and sorrows. Go to sleep. The female rabbit is about to give birth again, right?"
Mu Nan hummed, "It should be these two days. My belly has gotten really big. I should have given birth a week ago, but I don't know why it hasn't happened yet."
Just as Mu Nan finished speaking, the phone under the pillow vibrated. He took it out and saw that it was Yang Jing talking in the courtyard group. Mu Nan said to Qin Huai, "Yang Jing is asking if we can bury Hu Xuan's ashes in the courtyard after we bring them back, near the wall over there."
Qin Huai: "Let them do whatever they want, we don't care." Anyway, neither he nor Mu Nan are the kind of people who care about these things, so they don't think there's anything wrong with burying ashes in the yard.
Seeing Yu Zibai replied "OK" in the group, Mu Nan also replied: "It's okay, you guys can do whatever you want, we don't mind."
After Yang Jing sent a few words of thanks in the group, he stopped talking. Mu Nan put down his phone, sighed again, and didn't think about it anymore. He hugged Qin Huai tightly, closed his eyes, and fell asleep.
The next day, when Mu Nan opened his eyes, Qin Huai said to him, "The female rabbit gave birth to eight rabbits this time."
Mu Nan instantly swept away the shadow brought by yesterday's death, and ran to the second floor without washing his face or brushing his teeth to see the eight new lives. Life is like this, with ups and downs and occasional surprises.
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