Chapter 137
While Mu Nan was tossing and turning in bed, his neighbor, who had been working hard to clean up all night, slowly got up. The situation on the first and second floors was actually not that bad. At that time, water had entered downstairs, so everyone moved their things upstairs. Therefore, after the flood, some windows in the house were broken and soaked in water. The third floor was the worst hit because there were a lot of things piled up, so the whole house was messy and suffered heavy losses.
Some of the unopened rice and flour are still edible. The 100 kilograms of rice that had been stockpiled were all vacuum-sealed, so they were still okay. But some of the opened things, like soybeans and mung beans, had already been soaked in water, and this water was not clean; it was water that had been used to soak corpses, so they had to be thrown away.
While the sun was about to set and it was still a little bright outside but not too bright to be exposed to the direct sunlight, several people gradually carried out some furniture that could not be repaired from the house. While the furniture was piled up in a mess, a lot of firewood was placed there to dry. Song Jia even began to divide the furniture, chopping up those that could be used as firewood, at least to make the best use of them.
The next day after they came back, the three girls also came back tired and haggard. Seeing that their home was still intact and even the courtyard wall had been repaired, Sun Sisi, who was the most unable to control her emotions, started to cry again.
Song Jia comforted him, "I'm glad you're back safely. Your house was hit by the collapsed wall, but Qin Huai and the others prepared some extra bricks for you when they were repairing the wall. Clean up your house first. If you need any help later, just call me."
Sun Sisi nodded, and seeing the broken furniture they had piled up in the yard, she sniffed and asked in a sobbing voice, "Did your family suffer heavy losses?"
Song Jia sighed: "It's quite tragic. We are completely destitute."
His house was not too badly damaged. After the roof was repaired, he moved all the plants to the roof. He planned to expand the planting area, so he bought a lot of soil and seeds. He just wanted to find some wooden boards to nail a shelf. The soil could not fit on the roof, so he piled it on the third floor. When it was flushed by water, although the bags of soil could still be used after drying, some of it flowed out, making the upstairs and downstairs full of black mud and water. Cleaning it up was a big project.
Jian Chu's family is even worse off. Apart from anything else, the solar panels on the roof alone are a huge loss. As for the electrical appliances in the house, I'm afraid they can't be used. I don't know if the solar generator can still be used. If it can, they can see where to buy a few panels. If not, then they will really be scrapped.
Although they hadn't entered the house yet, seeing the situation in the yard, the girls felt very uncomfortable and they really didn't know when this day would end.
The few of them didn't talk for too long. They just asked about each other's situation. Knowing that they had been taking refuge in the cave on Monkey Mountain for the past few days and nothing serious had happened, they continued to busy themselves. At least they had to clean up a room that could avoid the sun as soon as possible, otherwise the house would be exposed to the sun every day, and even if there was no sun at night, it would be too hot to stay in.
If it was just the heat, it would be bearable. After the previous extreme heat, people's adaptability has been continuously enhanced. But the problem is that after such a flood, the residential areas that were washed did not become clean, but became even dirtier, and the number of mosquitoes continued to increase dramatically. Mosquitoes were already very poisonous, and now they were baptized by the flood, which made them even more poisonous.
You really can't get bitten at all. If you get bitten, you will only get mild diarrhea and fever, but you're lucky enough to survive it. But how many people are lucky enough? Various diseases will break out and people will die every day.
Sun Sisi and the others also said that an influenza outbreak occurred in the cave above them. The reason they came back so late was because they were separated into areas and isolated, with severe and mild cases and those without symptoms. If they had not been careful enough and never took off their masks in the cave, they would have been infected. But some people also wore masks every day, and perhaps because their bodies had poor resistance, they were also infected.
They were lucky and all came back alive and well: "You didn't see it. The child was only three years old. He had no worries about food and drink for less than a year after he was born. In the following years, he had no comfortable days. His parents raised him to the age of three. I don't know how much effort they put in, for they were afraid that the child would not have food. His mother didn't dare to wean him until he was two years old. It was really because the mother's nutrition could not keep up that she ran out of milk. After a year of hardship, life only got a little better this year. The couple took turns to work to earn money to support the child, but there was another flood, and the child was infected. He had a high fever that wouldn't go away. His mother held him and begged, kneeling down to the soldiers and doctors to save her child. But medicine is not something you can get just by begging, and in the end the child still died."
Song Jia and his friends also saw a lot of such situations in the cave, but there seemed to be no influenza outbreak below them. The most common causes of death were parasites. There were also too many adults and children struggling to survive and desperately seeking death. If there were no friends around to talk to and divert their attention, if they were alone, it would be a physical and mental torture.
Knowing that the overall environment is getting worse and worse, everyone's cleaning actions have become more urgent. The sooner they clean up, the sooner they can stay indoors, and try to avoid the rampant virus and the people who are becoming more and more desperate in this environment. Staying at home can be somewhat safer.
After moving out all the discarded furniture in the house, Song Jia was too hot to move. In order to prevent mosquito bites, they all wore long sleeves and long pants, but even so, they could not stop the poisonous mosquitoes. He was bitten on his arms and face.
Scratching the bag on his body, Song Jia jumped up and down and yelled, "It's over, it's over!!!"
Wu Zheng came over and took a look at him: "Looks fine, never mind, let's stop here today, you go in first, I'll tidy up the yard and come back."
Song Jia really has a huge fear of mosquitoes, but these things are really hard to defend against. Unless you have a protective shield or a golden bell, you can't defend against swarms of mosquitoes at all. You can only pray that your luck is not so bad that you get bit by a poisonous one.
They were a little faster, after all, they were two brothers working together. Yu Zibai was a little slower because he didn't let Jian Chu help. He also covered the cleaned room with dried cloth, especially the sleeping area. Although the cloth was curtain cloth, it was very thick and a little airtight when covered from front to back, it could at least keep out mosquitoes.
Yu Zibai asked Jian Chu to stay in the house. He couldn't be bitten by mosquitoes. He was wearing long sleeves and long pants to work. With Jian Chu's weak physical strength, he might get heatstroke even if he wore shorts and a vest. Fortunately, when Qin Huai and the others came back earlier, they moved all the furniture to the first floor for him, which saved him a lot of effort.
Qin Huai's family had packed up long ago, so they didn't go out. It was very dangerous outside, with a lot of mosquitoes. Even if he sprayed insect repellent on his body, he couldn't guarantee that he wouldn't be bitten, so the best thing was to avoid going out. As for the house, layers of mosquito nets were set up, the house was smoked with various mosquito incense, and the gaps in the doors and windows were taped. Except for the lack of electricity and air conditioning, their family's life slowly adjusted back to the way it was before the flood.
When Song Jia was howling in the yard, Mu Nan had just dug out a mirror from a pile of junk boxes. His hands shook and the mirror almost hit the junk and broke: "What are you shouting about outside? What's over?"
Qin Huai was dealing with the gaps in the doors and windows, and said casually: "It should be nothing, otherwise it wouldn't be a dry howl, but a panicked scream."
Mu Nan picked up the mirror again: "What are you yelling about? It's so scary. Brother, come and take a look."
Qin Huai turned his head and saw him sitting in the mosquito net on the bed fiddling with something. After sticking the last piece of tape on him, he lifted the mosquito net and leaned over: "What's wrong?"
Mu Nan directly pushed his whole face in front of Qin Huai: "Look, are my eyes still red?"
Qin Huai didn't touch it, his hands were a little dirty from applying the tape, but after a closer look, he saw that the redness in his eyes was indeed quite serious: "Does it hurt? Do you feel anything? Lift your head up so I can take another look."
Mu Nan tried to open his eyes to show him, and said, "It doesn't hurt, it's a little itchy, and there's a foreign body sensation, it's quite uncomfortable."
Qin Huai told him not to touch his eyes, and he went to disinfect and wash his hands before coming back: "Your eyes are a little red and congested. Take out the eye drops and try a little first."
Mu Nan resisted the urge to rub his eyes. He took out a medicine box full of eye drops and handed it to Qin Huai. Then he kept looking at his eyes in the mirror. His eyes were red and a little swollen before. He thought it was because Qin Huai made him cry last night. But he had a nap this afternoon and had rested. Now his eyes were getting redder and itchy. He felt something was wrong.
Qin Huai found an eyewash and asked Mu Nan to wash his eyes first, then found some moisturizing eye drops for him to put in. Seeing that Mu Nan kept pulling his eyelids with his hands, he slapped him and said, "I told you not to do it. Maybe it's because of you pulling your eyelids like this that they turned red."
Mu Nan sighed, "I'm just afraid that there are bugs in my eyes. Haven't you seen some news reports about people catching live bugs in their eyes? It's the same as mine. It feels like a foreign body and it itches. I pulled open my eyelids to take a good look. Now there are parasites. How can I not be careful?"
Qin Huai said sullenly, "Don't scare yourself. Put on the eye mask and lie down. I'll give you some eye drops. Maybe you'll be fine after a night's sleep."
Mu Nan sighed and lay down obediently. However, he had overslept during the day. Although it was not too late now, he was not very sleepy. In addition, the foreign body sensation in his eyes was uncomfortable. He kept scaring himself with all kinds of imagination and tossed and turned, unable to fall asleep.
Qin Huai was just about to get on the bed to lie with him when he heard Yu Zibai calling Xu Ming in the yard. Mu Nan sat up suddenly and reached out to take off the blindfold: "Xu Ming is back?"
Qin Huai pressed him down and laid him down: "He should be back. I'll go check. Lie still and don't scratch your eyes. Be more aware of yourself, okay?"
Mu Nan said "oh", turned over, took out a pillow and lay there motionless.
Qin Huai went downstairs. Yu Zibai and Xu Ming were talking. Even Song Jia came over while scratching himself.
Xu Ming looked at them and said, "It seems that everyone is fine."
Yu Zibai asked, "Where have you been taking refuge these days?"
Xu Ming said: "It was right over there at the farm. We didn't have time to evacuate, and many things couldn't be moved. In the end, we could only rush to hide in the upper floors and desperately blocked the doors with sandbags. Fortunately, when the water reached the farm, it had been blocked by the houses in the residential area, so the impact was not that strong. In the end, most of the farm office building was submerged in water. We waited until the water receded and the entire farm was cleaned up before returning."
Qin Huai asked, "Are there any casualties?"
Xu Ming nodded with a serious look on his face: "Yes, but he didn't drown. He died of electrocution."
Song Jia was surprised and said, "The power was out before the water came. How could I get an electric shock?"
Xu Ming said: "I don't know what happened. They were just about to rush to the kitchen to grab some food before the water rushed over, but as soon as they got into the water, their bodies suddenly stiffened and they fell straight down. Three people died, but the rest survived."
It was really unfair to die by electrocution. The whole residential area was without electricity. Who would have thought that there would still be electric shock? They didn’t know the other people. They just sighed a little and then paid attention to Xu Ming himself: "Do you want to eat something? Have you been hungry these days?"
Xu Ming shook his head: "I'm not hungry."
It was not known whether Yu Feng was too experienced or had quick reaction, but while others were moving sandbags to block the door, he ran to catch a few piglets. The pigs were only a month old and weighed only ten pounds each. He caught three of them. Later, after making sure there was no electricity in the water, he dived into the kitchen that was already flooded to the ceiling and turned over some cans.
Fortunately, the farm has its own kitchen with canned food and other things, otherwise I really don’t know how I would have gotten through this period of time. Fortunately, he is a good swimmer, otherwise he can only hold his breath for thirty seconds at most, so I really don’t know how I would have gotten through this time.
So Xu Ming looked at them and smiled: "Not only are they not hungry, they have also eaten meat for several days, although it is dry meat without any seasoning."
Song Jia swallowed subconsciously: "It's great. I haven't eaten meat for a long time."
Niuniu, who was squatting at Song Jia's feet, licked her tongue when she heard the word meat, then turned her head to look at Qin Huai, then moved her eyes down to Qin Huai's hand, and when she saw that there was no food, she turned back. If Mu Nan saw such a realistic Niuniu, he would definitely pull her ears and call her a white-eyed dog.
Everyone in the yard returned safely, and there was no need to rush to say some things. The house had not been cleaned yet, and they were probably exhausted after being outside for a while, so after understanding the situation a little, they went back to the house first. However, before going back, Qin Huai asked: "There are no bugs in the eyes, but they are red and itchy, and there is a foreign body sensation. What does it usually mean?"
Xu Ming thought for a while and said, "This is probably an inflammatory infection, such as accidentally splashing some sewage or touching the eyes with dirty hands. But now, considering the situation after the flood, in addition to the possibility of sewage entering the eyes and infecting parasites, there is also the possibility of acute hemorrhagic conjunctivitis, that is, pink eye. In any case, if conditions permit, quickly use anti-inflammatory drugs for treatment, such as erythromycin and tetracycline eye ointment. These have a certain therapeutic effect whether it is common inflammation or pink eye, if these drugs can still be found."
Song Jia said, "Pink eye disease. If you had it as a child, you won't get it again, right?"
Xu Ming said with a smile: "This is a misunderstanding. Acute hemorrhagic conjunctivitis is caused by a dirty environment and is highly contagious. It doesn't mean you won't get it again if you've had it before. As long as the environment carries the pathogenic bacteria, you may get it again. There is also the perception of pink eye when you were a child. You will be infected just by looking at it. This is also a misunderstanding. However, this disease is indeed highly contagious, especially in close contact."
Xu Ming said as he looked at Qin Huai: "Is it Mu Nan's eyes that are red?"
Qin Huai nodded: "Yes, but I still have some eye drops at home, I'll try it on him first."
Xu Ming said: "If you have medicine, it's not a big problem. You should also be careful. Close contact is highly contagious. If the medicine has no effect after a few days, it's best to see a doctor. Without an examination, it's just speculation as to what the situation is."
Qin Huai said, "Let's take a look first. We've been isolated for the past few days to avoid infecting you. If there's anything, let us know. If there's nothing else, we won't go out."
After Qin Huai returned home, he smoked the upstairs and downstairs again. However, the windows downstairs had not been repaired yet, so there was no point in sealing the door. He could only seal the bedroom temporarily.
Back in the house, Mu Nan was lying in a spread-eagle position. When he heard the noise, he sat up: "Xu Ming is back? How is he? Is he as miserable as Wu Zheng?"
Qin Huai said as he disinfected himself: "I'm back, I'm fine, I've been eating meat for a few days, I'm not as miserable as Wu Zheng, is the eye drops stronger?"
Mu Nan lay back and said, "No, it's still itchy."
Qin Huai opened a box of erythromycin eye ointment. Regardless of whether it was an inflammation or not, erythromycin eye ointment could be used. It didn't have much effect. However, after taking off the eye patch and peeling back his eyelids, his eyes were obviously redder. Qin Huai said, "It really could be conjunctivitis. It's as red as when you were a child."
Mu Nan was shocked: "Isn't it true that if you have had pink eye you won't get it again?"
Qin Huai found it funny. This perception was exactly the same as Song Jia's. "Don't move. I'll give you some medicine for two days to try."
Mu Nan sighed, closed his eyes and rolled his eyeballs, allowing the ointment that had just been put into his eyes to penetrate evenly into his eyeballs, while reminding him: "Remember to wash your hands and disinfect them, or you should also apply some medicine. You haven't had it, so you are more likely to be infected than me."
Qin Huai patted his head and said, "Stop worrying about me and go to sleep with your eyes closed."
Mu Nan said, "How about we sleep in separate beds? Otherwise I'll infect you."
Qin Huai pinched his face and said, "Sleep with me."
Mu Nan had suffered from conjunctivitis when he was a child. When he was in elementary school, a classmate in his class had red eyes. Some classmates started to make a fuss and called that person a red-eyed monster. When the teacher found out, he quickly asked the parents to take the student back home. As a result, within two days, more and more students in the class got sick, and Mu Nan, who had poor immunity, was not spared.
But Qin Huai didn't get it. Even though they said the virus was highly contagious at the time and asked him to sleep separately from Mu Nan, he couldn't fall asleep without someone around him. He couldn't sleep well at night, which made the disease worse. In the end, he had no choice but to sleep together again, thinking that they had been in contact for so long and it would be unavoidable if they were really infected.
In the end, Mu Nan recuperated for more than a month before going to school, and Qin Huai also observed at home for a week. However, he was not infected. He was just worried that if he was infected, he would infect others if he went to school, so he simply took a week off.
As a result, he was not infected when he was a child. The next day, Qin Huai found that his eyes were a little red. However, this confirmed that Mu Nan had conjunctivitis, and there was no other big problem. It was enough to confirm this. The treatment medicines were all in the space. Although they were not specially prepared to prevent this disease, he still had some impression of how he treated Mu Nan when he was a child and what kind of medicines he took.
Mu Nan looked at Qin Huai who was infected by him and sighed: "Okay, the two of us red-eyed rabbits can be quarantined at home in peace."
Qin Huai applied the medicine to himself first, and then took out another ointment to apply to Mu Nan to avoid cross infection with the same ointment: "Do you feel stronger today?"
Mu Nan shook his head: "No, it's still itchy and feels like there's something in it, but it's okay. Can we just use medicine? I remember getting injections when I was a kid. It was so cold in the middle of winter that I had to get an injection from the bed."
Qin Huai said: "That's not pink eye. No injection was given for pink eye. The one you mentioned should be mumps."
Mu Nan said, "You remember it so clearly. I have a miserable life, suffering from minor illnesses all the time."
Qin Huai glanced at him and said, "So exercise well and eat less heavy food. It's best to keep healthy from now on."
Mu Nan lay on the bed and covered his ears: "Ah, I'm deaf, I can't hear anything, ahhhh."
To make up for it, Mu Nan has been feeding fresh grass to the rabbits since he came back. The skinny rabbits have become fatter every day. Unfortunately, they are still very small. Looking at the rabbits in the room, Mu Nan said, "When our eyesight gets better, their rooms should be clean. Then we can kill a few of these rabbits and eat them."
Qin Huai said, "Feed them a little longer. There's not much meat left for each one."
After feeding the grass, Mu Nan went to the top floor to fiddle with his vegetable leaves. Because the windows on the top floor were also broken, the two of them simply installed a few layers of sunshade curtains. The tomatoes and peppers had been killed by the heat. Such a stuffy temperature was really not suitable for planting. Even without the scorching sun, it was still difficult for them to grow. A few died a day, and soon all the tomatoes and peppers on the entire floor were dead.
Pulling the last few seedlings out of the soil, Mu Nan sighed as he returned to the second floor to feed the rabbits: "When will the electricity come back? Fortunately, we have a lot of ice, but no matter how much ice there is, it can only feed ourselves and the rabbits. Putting ice on the top floor without even a window to plant is too wasteful."
Seeing Qin Huai tinkering with the air conditioner on the third floor and then the one on the second floor, Mu Nan squatted beside him and said, "I don't know if the one upstairs has been repaired yet, and you've taken down another one. If it can't be fixed, then we'll only have one air conditioner left."
Qin Huai cleaned the inside of the air conditioner and said, "Try it. If it works when the power is turned on, use it. If it doesn't work, take out the spare one and put it in the bedroom. Wait until this period of time has passed before trying other ones."
They have to keep raising the rabbits, but they don't have to plant any crops on the soil upstairs for the time being. The flood has collapsed several apartment buildings, and the entire residential area has completely lost all its crops. It's not certain whether they can recover from this disaster. If they can't, it's a waste of energy to deal with these things at home. Let's take a break first. Even if they don't have to worry about food and drink, they are really tired from doing this over and over again.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
