Chapter 171
The family's mahjong army has added a new powerful player. Song Jia and Jian Chu did not expect that Xu Ming could play mahjong so well.
Another round of cards, several people sighed and counted the beans, Song Jia even said: "You are so good at playing cards, why didn't you play cards during the dinner party before?"
Xu Ming chuckled: "I'm afraid that if I beat you guys too hard, I'll be so angry that I won't even be able to eat."
Jian Chu was shocked. Is this something Xu Ming could say? Who is Xu Ming? He is always clean and tidy with a gentle smile. He has always been a responsible and caring big brother. But now he is so arrogant? !
The other person to join in was naturally Cai Wentao. There was no other way. They were not the type who played cards every day and felt uncomfortable without playing. There was no need to find a girl to join in. It would be better to play an all-male game once a week. If Cai Wentao had to go to work and had no time, then they could just play Landlord with three people. But it would be great if Mu Nan could teach them, so they could play anytime.
Unfortunately, Mu Nan was really not born with this talent. Apart from recognizing all the cards, he didn't learn anything else. He can't even make a simple Hu.
Xu Ming said while playing cards: "I'll recommend someone to you later."
Jian Chu: "Who is your partner?"
Xu Ming smiled and glanced at him: "Are you thinking about your partner all day long?"
Jian Chu nodded without any embarrassment: "Yes."
Song Jia threw out a card and drew another one: "If it's not the object, then who is it?"
Xu Ming: "A rice seller, the price of rice is very expensive, definitely more expensive than the price given by the government, but they have the goods, at least they still have the goods now."
Cai Wentao, who had been silent, asked curiously, "Where did he get the rice? Isn't it true that half of the millet on the farm is empty? Aren't they worried about food?"
"That's easy." Jian Chu, who was well versed in the twists and turns, knew how it was done without having to think: "It's the government's. Now there is no limit on the amount of food, but everyone has a quota every week. Some people will use all of their quota to buy rice, and then resell it, and use the money to buy whole grains and coarse noodles from others. Some people work in factories, and it would be a waste if they don't use their food quota, so they sell rice to make some money to cover other living expenses."
Song Jia: "So what's the approximate price of rice?"
Xu Ming: "Last week it was 7.5 yuan per pound."
“Fuck!”
Everyone was in unison exclaiming "Wow!", which shows that they were really shocked by the price. Before the apocalypse, rice that cost seven or eight yuan per pound was already very good rice, not to mention now, when rice is really more expensive than gold.
"This is ridiculously expensive. How much does it cost to move bricks outside?"
Cai Wentao said: "At the beginning, I made three yuan a day. Now that I am an experienced worker, the price has increased to three yuan and a half. But the salary is not the main point. The main point is the meals, but the meals are getting worse and worse."
They are manual workers, so the food doesn't need to be too fine, but it must be enough to at least fill them up. Otherwise, accidents are likely to happen if they are hungry. Now many reconstruction sites are directly controlled by the military, and some rights have not yet been handed over to the government, although in the eyes of the people, the military is the government and the government is the military.
But there are still some differences.
Therefore, the workers' food was not required to be very good, but it was enough to feed them as much as possible with coarse grains or even choking cakes mixed with corn stalks and ground into powder.
There is a kind of pancake available now called "choking pancake". Because it is made too solid, it tastes like chewing wood chips. You can't chew it slowly. People with bad teeth may even find it difficult to bite it. You can only try to swallow it in three or two bites so that it won't be more uncomfortable than not eating at all. But after taking a bite, it really makes your throat hurt.
There was an old man living alone in the outer city who was receiving relief food. Because the shed he lived in was too smelly, when people went to check on him, they found him dead inside. When he died, he was holding this cake in his hand, and there were crumbs around his mouth. After this story spread, some people said that the man was choked to death by this corn stalk cake, and gradually this cake came to be called the Choking Cake.
But if you don't eat it, there is nothing else to eat. This is already the cheapest food nowadays. Even insect meat is more expensive than this cake. You can buy a cake that weighs almost one pound for fifty cents. If the price is lower, you may have to eat mud cakes brought from the north.
Although they have never eaten it, they have seen people selling it when they were shopping at the market. However, not all the food on the construction site is this terrible. The choking cake is the lowest-end food on the construction site. The people would like to use the construction site rations to feed the whole family. There is a limit on the amount of each meal each person can take. If you eat well, of course you can only have one portion per person. It is impossible to eat unlimitedly. After all, many people have to feed their entire family with one meal on the construction site. If there is no limit, the government cannot afford to support everyone who eats and takes.
For something like the choking biscuit, you would need two, because they are cheap and weigh one pound each. If you bring two back home a day, as long as you can tolerate the unpalatable taste, that's enough food for the whole family for the day.
Now speaking of food, Cai Wentao still wanted to stock up. After all, they had just settled down here, and they only had enough of many things. If something really happened, they would not be able to stay indoors for too long. It was just that the price was a bit expensive, and he was reluctant to buy it himself. But if everyone bought it, he could still follow the herd mentality and grit his teeth to buy it.
"So, are you going to buy it or not?"
Song Jia was the first to shake his head: "No, no, it's 7.5 yuan a pound. It was 7.5 yuan a week ago. I don't know how much it would be now. My brother only makes a few dollars a month. The rent and electricity bills are heavy enough. We can't afford such expensive rice. We can only wait for the government quota every week."
Xu Ming didn't say anything, he just provided them with a channel to buy rice. He bought some himself and thought it was very expensive, twice the government's grain price. Even though he had a lot of savings, this price was still a bit painful.
But after being persuaded by Yu Feng, he came to his senses after the money was spent. However, he had already bought it and could not return it, so he just accepted the expensive price.
Fortunately, he usually eats on the farm, and the rent is shared by Jian Chu and others, so he has basically no other expenses, so his savings can be described as wealthy. Although it hurts to spend that money on rice, it is not unaffordable.
Jian Chu said, "Let's ask Mu Nan later to see if his family wants it. My family can't afford the expensive food. Zi Bai is also on leave now. There is no salary for leave, and we don't know when we can go back to work. We can't spend it recklessly."
Xu Ming: "No need to ask, I already told Qin Huai yesterday that they will contact me if they want."
There was a lot of noise at the farm, but it hadn't affected the construction site yet. So when Cai Wentao came today, he found out that the two people working on the farm were actually on holiday. Seeing that everyone had successfully started chatting, he asked the question in his mind: "Is the situation at the farm really so bad that they have to take so many days off?"
Xu Ming shook his head: "I don't know. Either the situation can be brought under control in the next two days, then everything will be fine and everyone can go back to work after a false alarm, or the situation will escalate, then it will be really serious."
While they were playing cards next door, Mu Nan was watching a movie with his head resting on Qin Huai's body. It was a pet movie, very touching. Mu Nan had prepared tissues, but because Qin Huai's hands were constantly stroking his body, he couldn't immerse himself in the movie at all, and he didn't cry even when he was about to cry.
Another dog ran towards its owner's tear point. Qin Huai's hand fell on his back at some point and pressed lightly on his tailbone. Mu Nan trembled violently, as if he was hit by an electric current. How could he pay attention to the projector in front of him? He turned over and pressed Qin Huai's hand.
"Can we watch the movie properly?"
Qin Huai: "I'm counting your bones."
Mu Nan's head was full of question marks: "Huh?"
Qin Huai's hand was still on his back: "It's all in pieces. Your bent knees make it even more obvious. I'm not raising a brother, I'm raising a piece of pork ribs."
Mu Nan lay back down with the pillow in his arms: "Then don't sleep on your ribs."
Qin Huai chuckled and hugged him up until Mu Nan was completely embraced in his arms, then he said: "Of course I won't sleep with ribs, ribs need to be eaten."
Mu Nan stretched out his hand to tease Qin Huai's abdominal muscles. Originally, when he was planning to make Qin Huai extremely excited, he rolled himself up under the quilt and ignored everyone. However, before he could start teasing him, he received a video message from Daniu in the group.
I thought there was something to discuss in the group chat, but when I opened the video, I heard Da Niu's anxious expression: "Close the gate to the yard, close the doors and windows, there's a commotion over in Building 7!"
I don't know what was going on on Daniu's side, the camera was shaking badly. I guess he was running while video chatting with them. After he said this, without waiting for their reply, the screen went black.
Qin Huai frowned, stood up, pulled open the curtains and looked outside. It was very quiet and there was no sound, but he still went downstairs to check the yard.
Several people who were playing cards also received the video message in the group, but when they clicked on it, they only heard what Daniu said about a commotion. If they didn't hear anything more, the video message would be closed. In this situation, they definitely couldn't continue playing cards. They happened to see Qin Huai doing something in the yard, so they all ran down quickly.
"What's going on? What was Daniu talking about just now? No one answered my call!"
Qin Huai: "Daniu said there was a commotion in Building No. 7 and asked us to close the doors and windows, but he didn't say why."
Qin Huai said as he looked at Song Jia: "Is your brother back?"
Song Jia shook his head in panic. His brother worked in a factory and it was not time to get off work yet.
Qin Huai: "Call Wu Zheng and tell him to stay in the factory for a day. We don't know what's going on in Building No. 7. Since Daniu called to remind us, the problem must be serious. I just checked the gate to the yard and it's tightly closed. Let's go upstairs first and deal with any situation as we see fit."
Song Jia hurriedly walked aside to call Wu Zheng. Yu Zibai also came down. He didn't hear the video call. He was cleaning the house just now. He saw them all standing in the yard, so he came down to check the situation.
Jian Chu shook his head at him: "Let's go back first and talk about it later."
Mu Nan stood on the balcony on the third floor and suddenly said to them, "I saw a fire over there."
Everyone hurriedly looked in the direction Mu Nan pointed, but because the lights on the roadside were particularly bright at night, as bright as daylight, and their courtyard wall was very high, reaching the height of the second floor, so they could not see what was happening in the distance at all when standing in the yard.
Cai Wentao felt a little panicked by what Mu Nan said, and said directly: "I'll go back first. Please inform me in time if there is any news." He had to go home and wait, otherwise if something really happened, his mother, sister and others would be left at home, and they would definitely be scared to death.
Song Jia responded and opened the iron gate for Cai Wentao. After seeing him quickly running back home, he quickly locked the iron gate and also locked several internal locks.
Everyone looked at each other. Xu Ming said, "Go back first, close the doors and windows. If there is any movement, notify the group. Someone should go to the girls' place to notify them."
Song Jia sent a message directly to Sun Sisi, asking the girls to protect the house, and then took Niuniu into the house. His brother was not at home today, and if anything happened here, he felt that he would scare himself to death at home.
But seeing that they were in pairs, he felt embarrassed to butt in. Although Xu Ming was alone, his relationship with Xu Ming was not as good as that with Jian Chu and Mu Nan. In fact, they did not have much contact.
In just three seconds, Song Jia weighed many possibilities in his mind, and finally hugged Niuniu's neck pitifully and sighed: "Luckily you are with me."
After Qin Huai went upstairs, he took the telescope from Mu Nan's hand and looked into the distance. Building No. 7 was still a bit far from them. It would take more than ten minutes to walk there. He couldn't see it from downstairs just now, but after reaching the third floor, he could vaguely see the fire over there.
Mu Nan stood nearby and looked over there nervously: "Is there a fire? There is no wind today, will the fire come over here? If there is a fire, shouldn't Daniu remind us to clean up our things and prepare to escape the fire? Why did he ask us to close the doors and windows?"
Xu Ming, who had come up at some point, also came to the balcony and said through half of the balcony wall between them, "There's a boss who has contracted a farm and lives over there."
Mu Nan frowned immediately: "It's the farm again. After robbing the farm, they are going to kill people at home. How deep is the hatred?"
Xu Ming turned his head to look at Mu Nan: "You should never underestimate the word jealousy. In the past, whether it was jealousy or hatred of the rich, they were all bound by moral bottom lines. In the current environment, what kind of moral constraints can we expect? That's why those people can do anything."
Qin Huai patted Mu Nan's head and said, "Go get some sleep first, and then I'll take over. I have to keep an eye on the outside today. If there's a commotion, I'm afraid I'll need some energy to deal with it."
Mu Nan said quickly: "Then you go and rest first. It's obvious that they can't make trouble now. I'll stay here. If they come over later, I'll have to rely on you."
Qin Huai asked Mu Nan to rest not because he really wanted him to replace him, but because he didn't want him to pay too much attention to this matter and scare himself. However, he did have to be prepared if the matter affected him, so he went into the house without hesitation.
Qin Huai lay on the bed. Mu Nan opened the curtains and the thermal insulation baffle on the bay window sill and paid attention to the noise outside. In order not to disturb Qin Huai, and having to listen to the noise without wearing headphones, he couldn't do anything else to kill time, so he simply took a blank sketchbook and started drawing.
He hadn't drawn a portrait for a long time, not counting the cartoon-style ones. Qin Huai happened to be sleeping and motionless, so he could be used as material.
As he was painting, the outline slowly shifted from the face to the body. However, Qin Huai was wearing a vest and a small blanket covering his body. This posture blocked his great figure, but it didn't matter. He couldn't see his imagination, and the feeling of touch, the texture and lines of the muscles, were all imprinted in his mind and could become scenery in the sketchbook at any time.
Unfortunately, he didn't have much paint, as he was not very interested in oil painting. He mainly painted on the computer using software, so the only colored pencils he had were those he had bought at the stationery store before. He didn't buy too many paints. Now, if he wanted to fill a drawing board, not to mention other colors, even the white alone was not enough.
Mu Nan sighed silently, and once again felt the annoyance of not being able to control Dabai enough when he was studying.
When the general outline was formed and only some details needed to be slowly modified, a gunshot broke the tranquility of the night.
Mu Nan's hands trembled with fear. Qin Huai opened his eyes almost instantly, jumped up from the bed, and quickly came to the window. He lowered the screen outside and put up the heat-insulating baffle inside the room. "Send a message in the group and ask them to cover the light in the room tightly. If that doesn't work, turn off all the lights."
Mu Nan said "oh" quickly, but he couldn't even type clearly. No matter how he pressed the button, he kept making mistakes, so he just sent a voice message.
There were several more gunshots, accompanied by a lot of noisy voices, shrill shouts, and panicked escapes.
Qin Huai turned off the lights in the living room on the third floor. The two of them carefully hid behind the curtains of the balcony door on the third floor. Qin Huai held a crossbow in his hand and carefully observed the movements outside.
The troops must have been dispatched. They were on the third floor and could see clearly with the help of the street lights that a group of people were fleeing in panic, and behind them were well-trained soldiers chasing them. The people in front wanted to climb over some people's walls to hide, and some people wanted to climb over the wall on their side, but their wall was too high. If they didn't have any tools to help them, they couldn't reach the top of the wall even if they jumped.
As a result, he wasted time to escape. After falling to the ground, he had no time to get up before he was pinned down by the soldiers who caught up with him.
Looking at this situation, the few people in the house who were carefully observing the movements outside suddenly breathed a sigh of relief. At least someone was in charge. It was now obvious that the soldiers were controlling the situation. Although they didn't know what exactly happened, at least it was not so chaotic that no one was in charge.
Just when they thought the chaos would soon be over, a sound that was clearly different from the panic rang out. It was a cheer of joy, a roar of excitement, and even a shout of unbridled enjoyment.
As the sound came closer and closer, Mu Nan grabbed Qin Huai's arm tightly, because he saw that the man was riding a motorcycle. The person sitting at the back lit a gasoline bottle and smashed it directly towards the building surrounded by the courtyard wall.
The glass shattered and the gasoline inside splashed, accompanied by the already ignited flames, and a raging fire was about to break out. Sparks splashed onto the sunshade outside the window and ignited instantly.
The two buildings in front of them were set on fire almost instantly.
What made Mu Nan even more terrified was that the motorcycle had already come towards them, and the person on the back seat had lit a gasoline bottle and was about to throw it towards their yard.
However, the next second the gasoline bottle was not thrown out, but an arrow shot directly into the man's hand. He felt a pain and the oil bottle in his hand slipped. Because the cloth used as an ignition point was not plugged tightly in the bottle mouth, the cloth loosened suddenly and the gasoline inside poured out. The fire had been ignited, and one can know what happened next without watching.
Qin Huai pushed Mu Nan behind the curtain. He didn't mind Mu Nan looking at the corpse, nor did he mind Mu Nan watching him kill people, but he didn't want to die in flames and become a shadow in Mu Nan's nightmare.
The person in the back seat of the car screamed. Gasoline had been drenched on his body. The fire could not be put out for a while, and he was hit by an arrow. In a panic, he and the cyclist fell to the ground as well. On the ground was the oil bottle that had just rolled over, and the burning gasoline that was scattered all over the ground. The two of them fell to the ground and were inevitably covered in fire.
The perverted roar of joy just now instantly turned into a shrill scream.
People wear less in hot weather, and most of their skin is exposed. Now it is in direct contact with the fire, and the burning pain is something that most people cannot endure.
Before they could suffer for too long, the soldiers chasing after them arrived, but they had no other tools except guns, so they could only try to put out the fire by stepping on it.
Others moved the motorcycle away. This motorcycle also ran on fuel and could easily explode when exposed to high temperatures.
Soon, all the people who were probably hiding in their homes and watching came out. They didn't come out to watch the fun of these two people, but because there was a house on fire in front of them. If they didn't help put out the fire, the fire would definitely burn over. If it burned to their house, they would be doomed. So even if it was just for themselves, they were desperately trying to put out the fire.
Qin Huai asked Mu Nan to stay at home. He handed the crossbow to Mu Nan and pulled away the bed sheet when he went downstairs.
Xu Ming and the others also came down with them. The fire had started over there. They were collecting water in the yard. They left a few buckets of water in the yard in case of any situation, and loaded the rest directly onto the tricycle. The two buildings in front of them were on fire, which were still a bit far away from them. Running back and forth was too tiring, so it would be more convenient to load more water at a time and ride the tricycle over there.
Qin Huai opened the yard door and handed the bed sheet to the soldier who was still helping the arsonist put out the fire. The soldier took the bed sheet and swung his arms to hit the two men. No matter whether they died or not, the fire had to be put out. This was a residential area and any spark could mean a disaster.
"Hurry, hurry! Is there any water? Is there anyone in the house?"
"No! You can't put out gasoline with water! Find some cloth, find some quilt!"
"It's almost burning here, who has a shovel? Someone come and help!"
"There's another building burning in front of us. Is there anyone trying to rescue them? Why can't I see any movement?"
Some people were shouting for help, while others were desperately trying to put out the fire. The water that Xu Ming and his team brought on their tricycles came in handy. They did not use the water to put out the fire directly, but instead wet the curtains, sheets or thin quilts they had found, and beat them to put out the fire.
They didn't know what the situation was like in other places. By the time the area where they lived finally quieted down, it was already dawn.
Mu Nan and Jian Chu did not leave the yard, but they did not stop either. They kept filling water. Others who had dug wells and lived nearby were also desperately fetching water to put out the fire. Some were even thankful that they had fetched water in the first place. Otherwise, with their remote location close to the river, it would take three to five minutes to ride a bike to the water station, and they would not know how to put out the fire.
When there was no more noise outside, Mu Nan and the others were so tired that they couldn't even lift their hands. Xu Ming, Qin Huai and the others also came back covered in dirt.
Seeing that Qin Huai's face was all black, Mu Nan quickly got up from the ground and ran over: "Are you injured? Did you rush into the fire?"
Qin Huai stretched out his hand and drew a black mark on his face, then said with a smile: "No, I just helped carry people, I didn't enter the fire scene."
He has always been very sensible when it comes to saving people and his own safety.
Song Jia slumped on the ground and looked up at them: "Are there any casualties?"
Xu Ming shook his head: "I don't know. Someone will take care of the rest later. I'll wait for notifications. I was so busy putting out the fire just now that I didn't care about anything else."
Mu Nan sighed and looked at the sun that had already risen. "Let's go back first. The sun is out. If there is anything, let's get some sleep first. I'm so tired. I really don't understand what these people are trying to do."
What can they gain by burning to death those people who live in the so-called rich areas? Is it just the pleasure of venting? The world is already perverted enough, and human beings are still killing each other.
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