Chapter 156
When they saw the overwhelming swarm of locusts attacking, they could already imagine what kind of devastation would happen to the house if the door was opened, so they waited in the garage for the people outside to come back. In this way, when the car drove into the garage, as long as the door of the living room was closed, the locusts would not fly into the house.
The video in the group was always on, and Mu Nan watched them killing locusts in the garage in a panic.
Because his brother had returned, even though he was currently with Jian Chu and the others and couldn't come over, at least he was back, so Song Jia breathed a sigh of relief and calmed down again. Only then did he feel like observing the locusts clinging to the car and swarming into the house with the garage door open.
Song Jia pointed his cell phone at the locusts that were still jumping on the ground. The locust was not small, as big as the palm of an adult man. The whole locust was dry yellow, with six legs, each of which was extremely sharp with spikes. No wonder Cai Wenwen was injured so badly in just one or two minutes.
Song Jia picked up the locusts on the ground and couldn't help asking, "Are these locusts normal? Do locusts look like this?"
Cai Wentao glanced at him and said, "Come and help kill the locusts. What are you doing?"
Song Jia: "I observed that a locust this big is abnormal, right?"
Cai Wentao frowned when he saw the one he had stepped on to death. "I don't know. Our country doesn't seem to have suffered many locust attacks. We are in the south and don't pay much attention to this thing. I don't know what this locust that can form a huge 'locust army' looks like. Anyway, it is definitely not the same species as the grasshopper mantis we played with when we were young."
On the other side, Jian Chu was also taking pictures in the garage with his mobile phone. When he came out, he closed the door between the garage and the living room tightly, so if you want to go into the house, you have to kill all the insects that have entered the garage.
Hearing the conversation over there, Jian Chu said, "This should be a migratory locust, but in the science and education films I've seen before, the migratory locusts were not this big."
Mu Nan and Qin Huai, whose home was free of locusts, returned to the bedroom on the third floor. The locusts outside were still flapping their wings and flying around. The large number of them made the dense buzzing sound make people's scalps numb. They also saw that the garage was filled with locusts in the time it took to open the garage door and get a car in. They were still frightened.
Song Jia couldn't get over there for the time being, so Mu Nan could only ask Jian Chu, "Do you want some help?"
Jian Chu shook his head: "No need, the door inside the house can't be opened now. We can only get into the house after we kill all the locusts in the garage. You can't get in either."
Mu Nan asked, "Can these locusts be fed to chickens?"
Yu Feng, who was swatting the locusts, said, "Yes, but these locusts are different from what we know in common sense. They are too big, so it's best to try first to see if the chickens will eat them and if there are any adverse reactions. In the current environment, we don't know if the species will evolve to carry toxins."
After getting to know each other's situation a little, the small group turned off the video. The locusts in the garage needed to be cleaned up. There were too many of them, and they could fly. If you were not careful, you would be pounced on by the locusts, and they would hit you with the sharp barbs on their feet, leaving a bloody mark on your body in an instant. Just looking at the amount of work to be done in the entire garage, and the locusts that flew to the corners and even gnawed on wood, everyone had a headache, but they could only hurry to clean up.
Mu Nan put down the phone and sighed: "Fortunately you are at home, otherwise my family would probably be busy cleaning up the locusts now."
Qin Huai took the notebook and tapped twice. The picture on the notebook flashed twice and then became clear. Mu Nan leaned over to take a look and suddenly got goose bumps all over his body. The picture being played in the notebook was just outside their small courtyard. The camera was projected from the top floor. At this moment, not only their courtyard, but all the houses should be covered with locusts. The sky was filled with dense locusts, and many even brushed past the cameras installed on the rooftops.
Looking at the house covered with locusts, Mu Nan felt dizzy. Even though he didn't have trypophobia, he was forced to develop it.
He even forgot to ask why there was a camera on the roof of their house. He felt so nauseous that he couldn't help but dry heave twice and quickly dodged. This scene was more exciting than watching an extreme disaster movie, because knowing that this was the scene outside their house at the moment, it was more likely to make people feel physically uncomfortable.
The footage is shot without sound, but there is no need to listen to the sound from the video. The sound of locusts flapping their wings densely outside the house is exciting enough.
Qin Huai put the computer on the bed, stood up and poured Mu Nan a glass of warm water: "If you think of this scene as one of those disaster movies you've watched, it won't be so scary."
Mu Nan shook his head repeatedly: "How can that be the same? The situation outside is too terrible now. If we open the window now, we can see that all the houses and buildings are covered with these things, right? Did they fly away quickly? Just like they flew here, there is no food to eat, so they just passed by?"
Qin Huai didn't know either, and there was a not-so-good situation. If there had been no fire in Qinghe, the locusts' next stop would definitely be Qinghe. Along the mountains over there, the plants that had deep roots in the ground and could absorb groundwater had not been killed by the sun. Those dense forests would have become a feeding paradise for these locusts.
But the wildfire over there is still burning, which has blocked the locusts' progress in one direction. And this side is a human settlement area. The smell of food and the smell of plants in indoor fields may attract locusts to linger here and refuse to leave. If that is the case, the situation is really not optimistic.
Mu Nan leaned on the bed, with his back to Qin Huai's computer, and took out his mobile phone to check the situation in other people's homes. He just happened to receive another official group message, informing him that the locusts are too dense now, and people should stay indoors as much as possible and not go out. People at home should close the doors and windows, etc.
At this moment, various forums and community groups are discussing locusts. Some people even took photos through the windows. The windows in the photos were completely dark, with only some tiny gaps showing a hint of light from the street lamps outside. If you look closely at the windows, you can see that it is not the windows that are black, but the locusts that are clinging to the windows so densely that they block the entire view.
Someone posted this photo in the group and asked whether locusts are phototactic and whether they would fly away if the indoor lights were turned off.
Someone quickly responded, saying that locusts are attracted to light, so either block out all indoor light sources or turn off all lights. Haven’t you seen that the street lights outside are already densely covered with locusts?
[I originally planned to wait for the locusts to come and catch them, but now I feel like I'm delivering food to the locusts.]
[I just want to know, do locusts eat people? If people are exposed to such a dense insect area, will their lives be in danger? ]
[Don't go out. This is a lesson I learned the hard way. I was wearing a mosquito repellent suit, but it was torn into rags. Some locusts even ate the gauze of the suit, and I was also injured! ! [Picture][Picture][Picture]]
[When the sun comes out tomorrow, these locusts will fly away, right? ]
[I just saw someone in the outer city post a photo of someone being bitten to death by locusts. I don’t know if locusts in the past would eat people, but now they obviously will. [Picture]]
That person sent the photo of the outer city to the group. It can be clearly seen that there is a person lying on the ground with his stomach broken and intestines spilling out, a ball of blood. A bunch of locusts are clinging to the person's body, and it is not known whether they are eating him. But such a photo can indeed cause panic among people. If this omnivorous herbivorous insect turns out to be able to eat humans, it would be really fatal.
Mu Nan handed the photo he saw in the group to Qin Huai: "Brother, look, these locusts are eating people!"
Qin Huai frowned slightly and took away Mu Nan's phone: "Okay, go take a shower. Maybe these locusts will fly away before the sun comes out tomorrow."
Mu Nan sighed: "Do you think they are afraid of high temperatures?"
Qin Huai didn't think that the number of locusts was too large. It was impossible for them to fly out in groups at night to find food like humans, and then cleverly find shelter in buildings during the day. The fact that they could come all the way from the north in such large numbers obviously meant that these locusts could withstand the high temperature of the sun.
But there's no point in thinking about these things now. We can only see how the situation develops tomorrow.
In residential areas, the situation in places with better housing conditions is still under control. As long as you stay indoors, you can temporarily avoid the locusts.
But in some residential areas in the back, such as those living in row buildings and tube buildings outside the ten districts, the situation is not good, because the windows are too weak to withstand the fierce impact of so many locusts. Some people even watched their windows crack with fine cracks after being hit by the locusts flying fast, until they were shattered, and they screamed in despair.
Some people ignored the pain of the locusts clawing at their bodies and cutting their flesh, and stood outside with locusts all over their bodies, using blankets to block off the window glass to prevent it from being broken.
Some windows were shattered before anyone could even protect themselves, and the houses were instantly occupied by locusts. Anything that the locusts could chew was destroyed, including tables and chairs, bed sheets, quilts, and even cotton wool, as well as the fragile humans who were barely wearing any shirts because it was too hot, all became food for the locusts.
In the outer city, the situation was even more tragic. Some lived in shacks, which at least had doors and windows to provide some protection, but more people lived in randomly built plastic sheds. The waterproof plastic sheeting could only block the sun, and there was not even a door. When the locusts came, it was like they entered an uninhabited area, rushing in and destroying without restraint.
It was a little late when the news was received, and there was a shortage of manpower. Most of the soldiers and vehicles in the base had gone to Qinghe for rescue. They did not leave too many people here. It was not an easy task to transfer all the people in the outer city who had no houses to the vacant square in the eastern suburbs.
The environment in the outer city is originally full of old, weak and sick people. The elderly people fell to the ground before they could wait for the evacuation rescue. When the evacuees came, a group of people pushed each other to get on the bus. Those who were pushed to the ground and didn't have time to get up were trampled to death by the people running behind.
Some had already climbed onto the car, but were pulled down and fell headfirst to the ground and died.
More people were exposed and were pounced on by countless locusts. The shrill and piercing screams of fear and pain echoed among the panicked crowd.
Everyone wanted to survive, so they desperately ran to the car that could take them to a safe place, but the car had limited capacity and some people were always unable to get on in time. Those people had said excitedly before that if they could catch a lot of locusts, they could sell them for money, but in less than half a day, these people had become food under the locusts' sharp feet.
The invasion of locusts has thrown the entire residential area into chaos. Even in Area 2, where the conditions are the best, Mu Nan can hear terrible screams coming from afar from time to time. Qin Huai wanted him to wear headphones and watch a movie to distract his attention, but Mu Nan refused. He was afraid that if he couldn't hear the outside sounds, if something was damaged by locusts, he wouldn't be able to rescue it in the first time. So the terrible screams outside were terrible, but he still insisted on paying attention to the movements outside.
The number of locusts far exceeded their previous expectations. Mu Nan said to Qin Huai with some concern: "The squad leader lives in the outer city, right? Can he handle this situation?"
Qin Huai thought for a moment and said, "I'll send him a message. If he can't stand it outside, ask him to tell me his address and I'll go out to pick him up."
Mu Nan hurriedly said, "I'll go with you!" It was so dangerous, he was worried about letting Qin Huai go out.
Regardless of whether Wang Xiaoli helped them before or not, it was a fact that he had helped them, so he had to repay the favor.
In this life, he contacted Wang Xiaoli, so Qin Huai came back. In his previous life, he was looking for people blindly, and in the end he never saw Qin Huai until his death. So even if Wang Xiaoli just helped out without any trouble at the beginning, the favor was real. So if he wanted to go out to save people, he would go with Qin Huai.
Qin Huai said, "We have to leave someone at home to open the garage door and clean up the locusts that have entered the garage. Besides, we don't know whether Wang Xiaoli needs our help. I'll contact him first."
Mu Nan took out the ugly green protective suit from the space and asked, "Can this thickness withstand locusts?"
Qin Huai looked at him with amusement and asked him to put away the biochemical-grade protective suit: "No need, it's the same if I wear a windbreaker. Even if I go out, I'll be in the car, so it won't be a big problem."
Mu Nan frowned: "What if the locust punctures the tire? And what if the window glass is broken?"
Without waiting for Qin Huai to say anything, Wang Xiaoli replied. Because his wife was a little mentally unstable, and Wang Xiaoli was not a lazy person with no skills, he still lived in the outer city because the application for residence in the inner city was still in line. But even if he lived in the outer city, he lived in a shack close to the inner city with slightly better security conditions.
So after receiving the government's notice, Wang Xiaoli returned home as soon as possible, brought a lot of food, and covered the fragile doors and windows of the shed. Now he and his wife are hiding in the house. Except for the fact that the sound of locusts hitting the shed is a bit loud and scary, they can still hide in the house for now.
Seeing the message from Wang Xiaoli, Mu Nan also breathed a sigh of relief. On the one hand, he was relieved that Wang Xiaoli and the others were safe, and on the other hand, he was relieved that Qin Huai didn't have to take the risk to go out and save people.
Wang Xiaoli also had a lot of feelings. Although he had been with Qin Huai for two years in high school, and because of his personality, he got along well with most people in the class, but it was just good. Like many people, friends in elementary school, junior high school, high school and college, after graduation, those friends became just a thing of the past.
Not everyone is lucky enough to have a childhood friend who is as close as a brother.
But he did not expect that Qin Huai, who did not have much interaction with him in the past, was still thinking about him at this time. No matter what, it was a very wonderful thing to be cared for by someone at this time.
It was late at night, but the noise outside didn't decrease at all. Qin Huai asked Mu Nan to take out the food while he went to cook. These locusts probably wouldn't leave for a while. They were not like what they imagined, flying over in a swarm, destroying everything quickly, and then flying away. It was unknown how many days these locusts would stay outside.
When Mu Nan and the others started to eat, the two families next door had just cleaned up the locusts in the garage. Wu Zheng also ran back to his home covered in locusts. Yu Feng, who drove them back, couldn't drive away, so he had to stay temporarily.
There was a gay couple living downstairs, and as a grown man, it wasn't a good place for him to live over there, so he could only live in Xu Ming's house on the third floor.
Xu Ming didn't care. Someone had risked his life to drive them back, and now they were trapped. He couldn't ask someone to drive back at this time. Besides, Yu Feng lived in a row of five-story buildings with several households in a row. He didn't know if the thin glass window could withstand the pressure. It would be better for them to stay and take shelter first.
As a result, when Mu Nan was still eating shrimps, he heard some banging and hammering next door. He knew that Yu Feng would stay here temporarily and go back after the locusts retreated, but he would not stay here for two days and then make trouble upstairs.
Mu Nan asked curiously, "What are they doing, hammering and hammering?"
Qin Huai mobilized the camera outside and could only see someone doing something on the balcony next door. However, because the camera was facing outwards, it could not capture the scene inside the house, so it was not very clear.
So Mu Nan simply sent a message to Xu Ming, asking him what he was doing over there.
Xu Ming, who was busy dealing with a few locusts that flew in due to the open balcony door in the living room, sent a voice message: "Yu Feng is hammering nails on the wall of the balcony door, preparing to hang two quilts. Ordinary curtains can only block the sun, so hanging some quilts will prevent collisions. By the way, he tied a snakeskin bag to the railing outside, intending to catch the insects in the urn."
Mu Nan was shocked. He didn't expect this to happen. He turned to look at Qin Huai and asked, "Why didn't we think of tying a snakeskin bag on the balcony to hold the locusts? Dried locusts can be used to feed chickens, right?"
Qin Huai: "If you want, you can tie it now."
Mu Nan shook his head repeatedly: "Forget it, forget it. I don't want bugs in my house. I'll spend money to buy them later. I feel that there are so many locusts now. Whether it is the government or the people with a little bit of conditions, like the one next door, there must be a lot of people catching locusts. The price of dried locusts will be very cheap in the future. I will buy more and save them to feed the chickens."
There was no medicine at Song Jia's house, so Cai Wenwen's wounds could only be washed with clean water and healed on their own. Aunt Yin also had some cuts on her body, but not many, and the situation was not serious. However, facing this situation, perhaps infected by Cai Wenwen's crying, even Uncle Cai's eyes were red. It was not because of the wounds on his daughter's body, but because of so many locusts, and they came from the north. Now the Qinghe fire is still burning. Just thinking about the days to come makes people panic.
Song Jia was also helping Wu Zheng clean the wounds on his body. He rushed over from Jian Chu's house, and it might have taken him only thirty seconds to run. There were at least ten bloodstains on his body. No one knew what the locusts had eaten. There was no condition for disinfection, so washing was necessary.
Wu Zheng asked Song Jia, "How much food do you have left at home?"
Song Jia said, "I still have ten kilograms of flour, four bags of rice, each bag weighs almost fifty kilograms, and some soybeans and mung beans. Last time, I exchanged some cornmeal with Jian Chu that he got from selling egg cakes. I couldn't help but dig up the soil and take a look at the potatoes planted upstairs last time. They are growing well, but it will probably take some time before they can be eaten. However, the alfalfa can be harvested. Mu Nan said that I can exchange food with his family then, whether it's rice, flour or sauces. It seems that his family still has a lot of kimchi left, but it's been a bit too long, so he said he's going to use it up quickly. His cabbage is almost grown, so we can make fresh ones then."
After calculating the family's assets, Song Jia said, "We can keep these things indoors for several months. We don't have to worry about food for the time being. We also have a well for water, so the situation is not too bad."
Wu Zheng said: "Yu Feng said in the car today that half of the rice in the indoor fields is empty shells."
Song Jia didn't know much about planting, but he knew what empty shells meant, and he immediately asked nervously, "Why? Is it because there isn't enough fertilizer, the soil doesn't have enough nutrients, or there isn't enough sunlight? If half of the shells are empty, then won't the yield be very small?"
Wu Zheng didn't know why nearly half of the shells were empty. According to Yu Feng, many experts were consulted to check the situation and discuss countermeasures. Some said that there were too many white grubs before, which damaged the soil and the roots of the plants that had been planted, so there were so many empty shells. But no matter what, it was a fact that the situation was not optimistic.
Now we are suffering from the locust swarms again. How are we going to live in the future?
Thinking that Mu Nan and the others might not know about this yet, Song Jia quickly told the small group about it. Food is already in short supply, and now the farm's harvest has become like this. It is hard to imagine how severe the shortage will be in the future.
Mu Nan sighed after reading the message. He had a lot of food in his space, but it was not inexhaustible. He had only bought so many supplies before. It was not easy to ensure that he and Qin Huai would have enough food and clothing for the rest of their lives. After all, if the purchase was too big, it would definitely be discovered. In this era of big data, if someone was really investigated for suspicious behavior, they could even find out how much rice you ate for lunch.
He sighed again, it would be great if he could grow vegetables in his space.
Qin Huai saw his worrying look and said with a smile: "If nothing else, at least the potato harvest can relieve a large part of the pressure. In the future, the focus of the farm may be directly on drought-resistant and high-yielding plants such as potatoes and corn. As long as there is something to eat, the situation will not be too serious."
Compared to their side, the situation in the north is probably more serious. There is water shortage and drought, and they have also experienced a locust plague. If there is a crop failure there as well, then life will be truly difficult.
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