Chapter 174
Stockpiling food is not something you can do just by thinking about it now. Food is in short supply everywhere. Unless you have the money to pay a high price, anything imported will not be cheap.
So even though Jian Chu, Song Jia and others were anxious to stockpile food, they had no choice but to succumb to reality.
However, this incident also reminded Mu Nan. Thinking that for safety reasons, he should stay at home as much as possible, and since there was nothing important to do at home, Mu Nan simply took inventory of the entire space.
Fortunately, when he put the things into the space before, he had a plan and did not put them in randomly. Now he didn't need to reorganize the things he had put into the space before the end of the world. He just needed to count the number in his mind and make a new statistics.
But this is also a big project. In addition to the boxes of goods, there are also many packaged ready-made dishes, as well as the cooked food that his brother has been making at home every day for the past few months. Up to now, only a small portion of it has been eaten, and the remaining quantity of each portion must be counted.
The things stored after the end of the world were a bit messy and needed to be taken out and reclassified. He could directly see the things in the space through his consciousness, and he could see what was inside even through the cardboard boxes, but he couldn't move them directly in the space, so he could only take them out.
Because a lot of things were collected directly after the end of the world, especially some rice and flour, which were of average quality. He and Qin Huai had better rice to eat, so they didn't eat the ones they bought later. Now it's a good time to vacuum-pack the ones that hadn't been cleaned before, two kilograms per pack, so it will be more convenient to take them out for barter later.
As he went in and out, he also went over everything in his mind. The things he had stockpiled before were not just the hundreds of thousands of goods he had stockpiled before, but the tens of millions of goods that Qin Huai had prepared. The number was so huge that the items and quantities he had reorganized took up almost five pages.
After counting and organizing all the things, Mu Nan felt a sharp pain in his head, obviously from overexertion.
When Qin Huai returned to the room, he saw Mu Nan lying on the sofa with a fever-reducing patch on his forehead. There was a reorganized catalog on the coffee table next to him. After a quick glance, Qin Huai put the catalog aside, then sat down on the sofa, let Mu Nan rest his head on his legs, and rubbed his head.
"It's not an urgent matter, just take your time. You don't have to give yourself a headache to feel better."
Mu Nan snorted and turned his face towards Qin Huai's lower abdomen without saying anything. The unique scent of Qin Huai lingered on his nose, and he felt inexplicably sleepy. It didn't hurt much this time. It was far less stimulating than the last time when he went to collect the goods. It was just that his head felt swollen and uncomfortable, and he would be fine after lying down for a while.
Under Qin Huai's regular and gentle massage, Mu Nan fell asleep quickly. Qin Huai gently lifted his head and pulled a pillow from the side to cushion him. After making sure that he was still sleeping soundly after the noise, Qin Huai squatted beside him, tore off the fever-reducing patch on his forehead and put a new one on.
Mu Nan was sleeping on the sofa while Qin Huai was sitting on the floor. He input the catalog he had just sorted into the computer, and then directly drew a table to reclassify all the items into categories, food in one category and supplies in another. This way, if he wanted to look for something, he could just look for it in the big category without having to look through the entire catalog.
After finishing the statistics in the table, Qin Huai printed it out, cleaned up the records in the computer, checked the time, and then got up to cook.
Thinking that if the dish was too light, Mu Nan would probably have no appetite. There happened to be a duck in the refrigerator. This kind of tender duck was not suitable for making soup. Old duck soup was more delicious. Qin Huai simply made a pot of casserole duck, dry-fried it all with beer, and added a few chili peppers to make it taste better.
While the pot was boiling, Qin Huai heard Mu Nan's phone ringing a few times, so he went back into the house to take a look. Mu Nan was still sleeping, and the screen of his phone on the coffee table had just dimmed. Afraid that someone would send him a message and wake him up, Qin Huai unlocked the phone directly. They had each other's fingerprints recorded on their phones, so they were not afraid of each other seeing them.
The message was sent by Jian Chu, saying that there were a few more stalls at the small market today, selling some heating supplies, which were all found in the city. They were some scattered items, and they were repaired if possible. After accumulating some usable ones, they came here to set up stalls.
Because we don’t know whether there will be winter this year, and whether it will be cold again in a few months, these heating items are quite popular. They saw the news in the group yesterday, and knew that there would be a stall there today, so they thought about going over to take a look together.
Qin Huai directly used Mu Nan's phone to reply in his small group: "He is asleep, he won't go."
It was so cold, simple and direct that one didn't need to think to know who was replying. Jian Chu replied with an emoticon of "OK" and went with Song Jia, the two girls next door, and the brothers and sisters of the Cai family. Regardless of whether they were going to buy or not, it would be good to go and have a look and understand some market prices.
After replying to the message, Qin Huai put Mu Nan's phone on the small dining table in the living room, and took out a box of frozen chicken wings from the refrigerator. He let them thaw first, and waited for Mu Nan to wake up. He would see whether he wanted to eat roasted or fried chicken wings. He could then put them in the pan directly. It wouldn't take long.
Mu Nan was awakened by the aroma of the casserole duck. He stretched comfortably and twisted himself on the sofa. He started calling for his brother before he even opened his eyes. Qin Huai poked his head out of the door: "Are you awake? Do you want to eat grilled or fried chicken wings? We have a casserole duck."
Mu Nan tilted her head up to 90 degrees and rested it on the armrest of the sofa, looking at him. Her voice was still hoarse from just waking up: "Fried chicken wings."
Qin Huai: "Get up and wash your face. The chicken wings are fried and we can eat."
Mu Nan subconsciously went to look for his phone. Qin Huai walked out and said, "The phone is in the living room. Jian Chu just called you, and I called him back for you."
Mu Nan followed him out without even putting on his slippers: "What do you want from me?"
"I asked you to go to the market, where are your slippers?"
Mu Nan ran back to the room barefoot with his phone in his hand. He glanced at the chat history and saw nothing serious, so he ignored it and went to wash his face. Only then did he feel refreshed.
There was a crackling sound coming from the oil pan, accompanied by the tempting high-calorie crispy aroma. Mu Nan opened the refrigerator door, poured two glasses of juice, and sat at the small dining table in the living room waiting for dinner.
Before the meal arrived, I received a video sent by Song Jiafa in the group. The video was of a small square, but a group of people were pushing and shoving at the water station, and seemed to be having a conflict.
Mu Nan quickly sent a question mark to the group, asking what was going on.
Jian Chu didn't type, and replied directly: "You woke up, what did you do during the day instead of sleeping?"
Mu Nan knew that Jian Chu was teasing him, but he couldn't say that they didn't do that during the day and he was just tired from organizing the goods.
Fortunately, Jian Chu was just joking, and soon several voice messages came in, briefly describing the situation in the small square.
Simply put, the water problem is becoming more and more difficult. Although the water station has begun to limit the number of times you can fetch water, the amount of water output is getting less and less. With less water output, it takes more time to fetch a bucket of water. As more people come to fetch water, the queue becomes very long. Therefore, people from other districts who are closer to here will ride their bikes here to fetch water in order to save some time queuing.
The water stations were originally set up by the government and built around each district just to facilitate water use. They are not the property of any particular district, so it doesn't make any difference where you get water.
However, there are not many people living in District 2, and several residents have previously jointly invested in digging wells in their own yards, so there have not been many people queuing up for water here. Now that people from other districts are constantly coming here, more and more people are queuing up here.
The weather was already hot, and when they saw some residents who did not live near them taking up their water resources, conflicts were inevitable.
A few days ago, because the arson incident had just happened and a heavy sentence had been handed down, the entire residential area had become quiet. Even if they were angry, they didn’t dare to make too much noise for fear of being made an example.
But as more and more people crowded over, and the water was dripping only a little, the line in front became very long, and the people behind were urging them impatiently, some even saying some sour words about community xenophobia. If they met someone with a hot temper, they would get angry and just swing the buckets at people, and then a fight would start.
This was not the first time that this had happened. Other districts also often had group fights over trivial matters, so Mu Nan just watched the fun and asked in the group: "Aren't you afraid of getting hit? Did you buy anything?"
Jian Chu: "I didn't buy anything. I don't think I'll need an electric heater. If the power is on, the whole house doesn't need any additional heating. If the power is off, it won't be useful. I don't think I'll need a small charcoal stove. If there's no electricity, I'll just use the stove in winter. I don't need a small stove like that."
Song Jia interjected, "Things are extremely expensive. That little sun costs more than 20 yuan, and it's not as good as the one we found in the shopping district before. There's also a kind that you can hold in your hand, which seems to be made of ceramics, and is the size of a palm, and it also costs more than 20 yuan. It's better to find a glass bottle, wrap it with a towel, fill it with boiling water, and warm your hands."
Mu Nan was gnawing on fried chicken wings while listening to them complaining about the high prices outside. He then put away the bones he had gnawed on and brought Niu Niu over to play with him later and gave her the bones to eat.
Jian Chu asked Mu Nan: "I saw some down jackets for sale, they look quite new, do you want to buy some? If you want, go early, it seems like there are quite a few people buying them."
Mu Nan replied in the group: "No, my winter clothes are still wearable. I'm not growing any taller anyway. As long as they're not torn or fat, I can wear them forever."
There are plenty of clothes in his space, both cheap and expensive. This kind of winter clothes are very durable and one piece can be worn for ten years. Anyway, there are enough for him and his brother to wear for a lifetime, so there is no need to waste money on buying them.
They chatted for a while in the group. Jian Chu also took some photos of stalls selling winter supplies and sent them to the group. Mu Nan enlarged the pictures and took a look. He basically had all the pictures in his space, so he was not interested anymore. He put down his phone and started to eat duck legs seriously: "I think winter may not come this year."
Qin Huai dug out the duck heart and gizzards from the bottom of the bowl and placed them on top of the duck meat so that it would be easier for him to pick them up: "It's the same whether you come or not."
Mu Nan opened his phone, looked at the official temperature today, and sighed, "It's been almost half a year since a drop of rain fell."
There has been no rain for nearly half a year, and the sun is scorching every day. They have a well in their own yard so they don't feel much, but people who can only rely on the water station for food and drink can obviously feel that water is becoming more and more of a problem.
Some people only became alarmed at this time and prepared to grit their teeth and dig wells in their own yards. However, some people in the community group said that the well water in their yards seemed to be less recently, and it took half a day to pump up a bucket of water. Therefore, spending money to dig a well now would not make much difference, after all, they were all at the same depth.
Someone in the group was giving some scientific advice, telling everyone not to believe everything they heard, saying that there is a lot of water under the surface, which has been supplying the entire earth for billions of years. How could it dry up in just one or two years of high temperature and little rain?
But no matter how others explain it, it is a fact that water is becoming less and less.
Qin Huai's yard is fine. They paid some extra money and gave chickens to the workers to dig the well deeper. So the surface line of their well is different from the depth of the water station, but it is not much deeper. It is just a little bit deeper, and the situation is much better than outside.
This time, before the people could panic, the authorities released news that they had begun drilling deep wells and were really exploiting water resources like oil. Now only the state apparatus has the ability to exploit to that depth, so no matter what, it cannot be worse than previous droughts and famines.
Mu Nan looked at the news and asked curiously, "Why don't people in the north do this? I heard that a few days ago, there was another group of people coming from the north. I saw someone secretly took photos of them. They were so tall, but so skinny that they looked almost as thin as adults. There was also a news report that a person finally made it here, but because he was thirsty for too long, he suddenly saw water and drank it uncontrollably, and ended up choking himself to death."
"Because of different geographical environments, some places are already short of water. It is not possible to get water just by drilling deeper. Moreover, if you drill too deep and extract too much water, the surface will collapse. There is a standard for all these."
Even on their side, the drilling site selection has been explored for a long time. It's okay for shallow surface water wells as long as they are not excessive, but deep groundwater is not so simple to just drill down and pump up. There are many professional and technical things to consider in the middle, and even the purity of the water needs to be monitored. So extracting water is not as simple as it seems.
Mu Nan put down his phone and focused on the puzzle piece that had returned to the arena again: "I hope the well water in our yard doesn't dry up. We spent so much money to draw it."
Qin Huai sorted the puzzle pieces for him, and then saw that he was holding a picture that was obviously in a very conspicuous place. He just couldn't find it and searched for a long time. Qin Huai didn't remind him, but just touched his head and said, "Just play for a while, otherwise your eyes will go blind."
Mu Nan looked at the one in his hand that he had been looking for for at least ten minutes and still hadn't dropped: "Will there be any extra ones that will confuse people?"
Qin Huai stretched out his hand and pointed at an empty spot. Mu Nan immediately said, "Hey, I said this one looks very similar. I almost found it. Tsk, don't bother me here. It's because of you that I can't concentrate!"
Qin Huai waved his hands in the air and said, "Do you see this?"
Mu Nan tilted his head and looked at him with questioning eyes: "What is it?"
Qin Huai: "This pot is big and round."
Mu Nan, who was successfully amused, jumped on the puzzle on the coffee table with great joy. Seeing Qin Huai walking out of the room, Mu Nan hurriedly shouted, "I want pudding!"
He had it in his space, but he was too lazy to take it, so he wanted to wait for Qin Huai to give it to him.
Qin Huai took one out of the refrigerator for him. The pudding was made by himself, so it was not sealed. He just put a spoon in it and handed it to him.
When I went to the rooftop to water the vegetables, I saw Yu Zibai and the others gathered around the well, looking at something from the balcony on the third floor, so I shouted downstairs.
The people downstairs looked up, and Jian Chu said, "Nothing, just watching the water flow. The water flow has become smaller in the past two days."
Qin Huai used the light from the street lights coming in from outside to see the water flowing out of the plastic pipe. It could best be described as a trickle. It looked normal when he had fetched water yesterday.
Jian Chu squatted beside the bucket, watching the water flowing down bit by bit, and sighed: "I hope it won't dry up."
Yu Zibai: "Probably not for now."
Hearing Qin Huai's shout, Mu Nan came out from inside the house: "What's wrong? Is there no water in the well?"
Qin Huai: "Also, the water flow is a little bit smaller."
Mu Nan sighed and said, "I don't know where I can get custom containers now. If so, we can store a few more buckets of water in advance to be prepared. But water has a shelf life, right? Forget it, it won't last long."
It's not like his space, it doesn't matter how long it is kept.
Qin Huai patted Mu Nan on the back of his head: "Does water have a shelf life?"
Mu Nan looked at Qin Huai in great surprise: "Water has no shelf life?" How is that possible? As if he had never drunk the water, there was a date printed on the mineral water bottle!
Qin Huai: "Then tell me, if water has a shelf life, then why is the earth still drinkable after so many billions of years?"
"Uh...because they haven't seen the light?"
Qin Huai never had any expectations for Mu Nan's IQ, but at this moment he still wanted to pry open his brain to see what was inside.
Jian Chu downstairs also looked at Yu Zibai in confusion and asked uncertainly: "Water has no expiration date?"
Yu Zibai patiently explained, "Water has no shelf life. As long as water is in a flowing state, it will never expire. That's why there is the saying of running water. If it is bottled, the expiration date marked on it does not refer to the water, but the use date of the bottle's material. If it exceeds a certain number of years, the container will decompose harmful substances, so it will expire."
Yu Zibai added, "But if we just bottle the water, it won't last long, because once it's in a container, it loses its fluidity and becomes dead water. Without strict sterilization, the microorganisms inside will continue to grow, and it will become undrinkable after a while."
Mu Nan and Jian Chu, who were upstairs and downstairs, looked surprised and said, "So damn it."
Because the water flow in the well in the yard has become smaller, everyone in the yard has been worried for a few days. There have been constant flooding incidents outside these days. If the well in the yard can't produce water, then it would be a waste of all the money spent on digging such a well.
But after several days of observation, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. There was still water and the flow rate had not changed. It was just a matter of time period. If it was daytime, probably because there were not many people outside drawing water at the water station, the water output from their well would be very large. If it was night, probably because there were too many people drawing water, the water output would be less.
Mu Nan was still puzzled: "Isn't our well deeper? How come it seems that the water we draw is all connected? There are more people drawing water over there, so there is less water on our side."
Qin Huai: "It's just a little more than ten meters. It's not that if you add one meter, that one meter of distance can separate the upper and lower water sources. Water is inherently fluid. It can only be said that when the water station outside can't produce water at all, our ten-meter depth still has a chance of producing water."
Fortunately, in order to facilitate fetching water, a roof was built on the road connecting the door to the well, so they can come out to fetch water during the day, which only takes five minutes to heat up. As long as they are not exposed to the sun, it’s no big deal to heat up for a while, just like going into the boiler room.
Probably to ease the tension in the entire residential area caused by the previous turmoil caused by the fish and the issue of water sources, the authorities simply issued a subsidy benefit as the second batch of potatoes from the farm happened to be harvested. Local residents of Kangyun could go to their respective community committees with their ID cards to receive a 100-gram packet of dried potatoes.
The first batch of potatoes were planted on trial basis, and there might not be enough seeds, so the planting area was not large and the harvest was relatively small. The second batch directly removed the rice that was carefully planted but ultimately only yielded half an empty valley, and planted drought-resistant potatoes and corn instead. Rice may not be considered for the time being as the planting conditions are not good. If rice is still planted, some people will probably starve to death because they cannot afford it.
Regarding farm planting, the authorities have always been semi-transparent, and will update the growth process and approximate yield on the official website. No matter how much the harvest is, it is better to let the public know than to know nothing and be instigated to panic and cause trouble.
People like the Cai family who have lived here for a period of time and have rented houses under their names are considered local residents. Those northerners who have just arrived not long ago are not considered local residents, so they cannot receive the benefits. In addition, the cost of the policy that was introduced a long time ago, that the entire family will be punished for the crime of one person, has now become apparent. The families of those criminals cannot receive this kind of benefit.
Looking at the official notice, Mu Nan sighed: "How big can one hundred grams be? Why not just give each person a potato? One hundred grams of dried potatoes is more than just one potato. After drying and dehydration, I don't know if a pound of potatoes can produce one hundred grams."
Qin Huai was rummaging through the worn-out black short-sleeved shirt he wore when going out. "A potato comes in different sizes. This is a benefit from the higher-ups. It would be bad if we had a dispute over the size. Let's just use dried potatoes. One hundred grams per person, no more, no less. Change your clothes. Take out the dark eyeshadow or contouring one you bought and apply it on the exposed skin."
If you don't go out every day, eat well and drink well, your skin will become white and reflective. This is not a good thing to do outside.
Mu Nan sighed again. He went through so much trouble for those 100 grams of dried potatoes and consumed the limited amount of contouring sticks. He didn't know whether he made a profit or a loss.
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