Chapter 180
They had no idea what kind of apocalyptic survival struggle was going on outside. The people taking refuge in the subway station had already endured for three days. Although the cafeteria turmoil had subsided yesterday, it was not as if nothing had happened. Although the seats in the cafeteria had not changed, an extra number of Self-Defense Force members had been assigned to guard the door. The distance between people in line was at least one meter, and people were not allowed to get too close.
As for the people injured yesterday, although there were some, it was not as exaggerated as the rumors said. There was indeed a pregnant woman who was hit, but she just saw blood, not a river of blood as rumored. She is now lying in the medical station to protect the fetus.
The person most seriously injured was the one who was pushed into the noodle pot by the mentally ill man. He had burns all over his body. There was not enough medicine and limited water for washing, so his condition was not very good.
The mentally ill man is a young man in his thirties. Ever since he failed the college entrance examination and was forced by his family to repeat a year, his mental state has been a little off. He used to be able to communicate normally with people, but he became more and more silent during the year of repeating. However, his parents thought that this was a manifestation of their son's calmness and not only did they not think there was anything wrong, they also felt that the child had become sensible and mature.
As a result, he failed the college entrance examination the following year and ended up only being admitted to a third-tier university. After four years of living a mediocre life, he came back and never looked for a job. He just stayed at home playing games and living off his parents.
The doting mother and the strict father, who have grown up and can no longer beat or scold their children as they did when they were young, have caused the family relationships to become a mess.
The first time this man fell ill was when smog hit the city. People were unable to go out at that time, but he ran out regardless and even beat up his father. Finally, people in the community came to help and tied him up at home. Only then did his parents realize that their child had mental problems.
But when something went wrong, there was no way to treat it. The environment was getting tougher day by day. There was a lack of medical care and medicine for ordinary illnesses, not to mention mental problems, which were even more difficult to treat. Fortunately, he was better than he was worse, day by day, and he survived until now. Unexpectedly, just because he didn't keep a close eye on someone, such a big thing happened.
It is not yet clear whether there will be investigation in the food snatching incident, but the person who was scalded was injured because of him, so his family must bear full responsibility. The pregnant woman who was hit was also innocently implicated. If we can't find the person who hit the person, then we will look for the perpetrator of this incident.
The people who were taking shelter downstairs and had nothing to do except lying down every day watched this incident very enthusiastically. This was a tragedy involving several families, but it was a topic of conversation for many more people after dinner.
Even Cai Wenwen used this incident to educate Xiao Zhu, telling him not to run around and to be careful when walking outside and not to rush around recklessly, otherwise he might hurt others and bring more suffering to his family.
It is said that the parents of the mentally ill young man have been kneeling and begging for forgiveness from the family of the scalded victim.
But how can this be forgiven? The burns were so severe. The man was not very old, only 30 years old, not yet married, and was the financial pillar of the family. How can this be forgiven? Not only did he ruin one person, but the whole family was ruined as well.
Listening to others still talking about this matter with relish, Mu Nan leaned on Qin Huai and played a single-player game on his mobile phone. He didn't mind others gossiping, but he didn't like to participate either. They all have a hard life, so what's the point of gossiping about others?
Song Jia and his friends have already started to find fun during these boring days of refuge. They couldn't bring mahjong with them, but Jian Chu brought playing cards, so they went from counting soybeans to counting rice.
Xiao Zhu took refuge with them for the first time, and then he discovered a new world. He squeezed beside Mu Nan every day without feeling the heat, and got a seat in the movie theater. Although his mother did not restrict him from playing with his mobile phone, what could be in the mobile phone now? He was not very literate, and he could not understand many things. Moreover, he had never watched a cartoon so he was fascinated by it.
This was the third time he ran up to Mu Nan today, and asked eagerly, "Brother, are you going to the movies today?"
Mu Nan looked up at him from the game with amusement: "But brother hasn't finished his work today, so he can't watch the movie."
Xiao Zhu sighed in disappointment and asked, "What is brother going to do?"
Mu Nan: "Well, I have to clean the mats, mop the floor, and cook. There are so many things to do."
Xiao Zhu quickly raised his hand: "Brother, I can! I can wipe the mat, I will help you wipe the mat!"
When Song Jia finished a round and it was Jian Chu's turn, he saw Xiao Zhu working diligently with bare feet and butt sticking up at the place where they slept, grunting and panting.
“You are using child labor as slaves.”
Mu Nan: "This is what he was taught from a young age: if you want to gain, you have to pay. You can't just open your mouth and call me brother and expect everything to come true. What are you going to eat later?"
Probably from the beginning of migration to the later collective refuge, as long as they were outside, it was tacitly agreed that they would eat together, which was also a way to save fuel. Today they would cook, tomorrow Jian Chu's family would cook, and the day after tomorrow it would be Song Jia's family. In this way, the three families would take turns and no one would suffer.
But the cooking was basically done by Qin Huai and Wu Zheng, and Jian Chu was just helping out now. There was nothing he could do, his cooking skills were not as good as those two.
When Mu Nan was asking questions, Cai Wentao and Daniu came over, but they were not wearing the uniforms of the Self-Defense Forces. Seeing his nephew working hard, Cai Wentao, as an uncle, not only did not feel any pity, but he was even more mean and kicked his butt lightly, causing Xiao Zhu to fall on his face on the mat.
Xiao Zhu turned around in confusion and saw Cai Wentao laughing so hard that he was shaking with laughter. He said angrily, "Uncle! You are so bad!"
Cai Wentao: "Work hard! Otherwise I won't give you food later."
Mu Nan looked at them: "Are you off work?"
Daniu found an empty spot and sat down: "Today is a half-day off."
Although they are taking refuge and cannot stay down here for long, they will still take a break when it is time. They are human beings, not machines. If they don't rest, their nerves will be tense and they will be more tired.
Song Jia said to Daniu, "Then you can eat with us here later."
Da Niu came here originally intending to eat with them, so he simply took out a can from his pocket.
There are still canned foods for sale outside, but there are always some timing issues here. Whether it is agriculture or animal husbandry, there will be some disasters when the harvest is about to come, either blizzards or floods, or other than this sandstorm, so except for some canned foods stockpiled by others before the end of the world, the fresh ones are basically transported from other provinces and cities.
Nowadays, canned food has the lowest transportation cost but the longest shelf life. However, even so, it is still too expensive for many people to afford it. A batch of them will be released online every month and people will compete for purchase speed. In addition, some well-paid units will distribute them as welfare.
Anyway, they had never been able to rob the cans in their yard. Qin Huai said that he could make a plug-in and use it to rob the cans. But seeing that Jian Chu, Song Jia and the others were not very obsessed with the cans, and they would rob them if they could, and it would be fine if they couldn't, Mu Nan didn't want to bother with it anymore. Anyway, they had no shortage of meat, let alone cans.
What the big shots are taking out now is probably the welfare benefits issued by their units.
Daniu handed the can to Mu Nan: "Here, add a meal. I'm not very good at making it myself, so I just came here to eat for free."
Daniu is not very good at cooking, and can only make some sick meals and various nourishing soups. At the beginning, his wife was in the late stage of her illness and could not eat many things, and it was difficult to digest them, so he could only learn to mash various things into paste and feed them to her. It would be too difficult for him to cook normal meals.
Fortunately, there is a cafeteria at his workplace now. Even during breaks, he can go to the cafeteria to buy meals and doesn't have to cook himself. But sometimes, like now, when he gets some good things and wants to have a meal, it will be a test of his cooking skills. As for the family living upstairs from him, although their parents are still alive, they are orphans and a widow, and he is a single man, so he always has to avoid suspicion, so he usually avoids contact with them.
Fortunately, he had friends who knew Qin Huai and his friends in the same compound. He almost sold the old house at the beginning, but his wife insisted on keeping it, saying that she wanted him to have a way out. If he had sold it, he probably wouldn't have met Qin Huai and his friends. In today's society, it is too difficult to make some reliable friends. Daniu thinks that it must be his wife who is blessing him and protecting him.
The can was pork luncheon meat, a palm-sized can, weighing 150 grams. Mu Nan looked at Qin Huai, who said, "Let's make pancakes, Nan Nan, take out the kimchi."
Mu Nan went to rummage through the bag. Everyone knew that their family grew cabbage, and everyone knew that they made a jar of kimchi after the cabbage was harvested, so it was not strange to take it out now.
Wu Zheng said: "Kimchi luncheon meat patties, I'll make it."
Qin Huai and his family provided the oil, salt, seasonings and pickles, and their family provided the flour. Jian Chu's family used gasoline today. The three families each contributed, which was fair.
Cai Wentao on the side said: "Take us with you, I have potatoes and mushrooms at home."
Wu Zheng nodded decisively: "Then make two kinds, and add a potato pancake."
In the past, it was easy to get sick of eating this kind of cake because it was full of oil. But now what people lack is oil and water, especially some strong-flavored seasonings. Not to mention eating it for two days, you won’t get sick of it even if you eat it for half a month. Eating it is already a very happy thing, so how can you have the right to get sick of it?
But Mu Nan was really a little fed up. It might be because he didn’t drink enough water in the past two days, or it might be because he didn’t eat any fruit. Anyway, his constipation on the first day had come true, which was... quite embarrassing.
Seeing Mu Nan's pale face, Qin Huai smiled and whispered, "Let's hide and drink some yogurt later."
Mu Nan hummed twice as a response.
Cai Wentao next to him began to talk about some news he had heard from his colleagues upstairs in the past two days: "It is said that there will be another strong storm in the future. After this wave passes, the sandstorm will be over, but I don’t know when the yellow sand and dust in the sky will dissipate. But when there is no strong wind, we can go back, but we still have to close the doors and windows, otherwise the house will be uninhabitable."
Mu Nan sighed: "It will take a while, how long will you stay here?"
Cai Wentao shook his head: "I'm not sure about the exact time, but it will probably be just one or two days. We are lucky enough to have followed the instructions from above and come in as soon as possible. Those who hoped to stay at home will be fine, but now they don't know how miserable they are."
Song Jia was puzzled and asked, "What do you mean? Is there anyone else who hasn't come in yet?"
Cai Wentao nodded: "Yes, there was a strong storm yesterday. We heard a rumbling noise upstairs. The gatekeeper said before that someone was banging on the door for help, but the strong storm came right after that. Now the doors of the subway station are electronically locked. Once the evacuation mode is turned on, at least three commands must be input to open the door. Similarly, the evacuation mode must be turned on when closing the door to resist the wind outside. Anyway, there is no way to complete the entire door opening and closing action within one minute."
Mu Nan couldn't help but lean towards Qin Huai and asked, "What about the people outside?"
Daniel shook his head. "I don't know. Anyway, no one knocked on the door today. If someone knocked on the door, we could open the door today because the wind outside is not strong today. It would be no problem to open the door once within a few minutes. But with the strong wind yesterday, if there were still people outside, I'm afraid it would be difficult to survive. They said there was a tornado inside the sandstorm."
Mu Nan whispered to Qin Huai, "Fortunately, we were obedient and followed the instructions given by our superiors. If we had stayed at home and refused to go out, we would probably be worried now."
Song Jia was a little speechless: "I don't really understand what these people are up to. What's wrong with following the evacuation? Why do they act as if the government wants to harm them?"
Jian Chu smiled and said, "What else can we hope for? We just want the sky to be filled with yellow sand so that the cameras can't capture it, and we want everyone to evacuate the residential area and leave the city empty. We can make a fortune by searching a few houses at random."
Cai Wentao shook his head: "It's a pity that they lost their lives. We don't know how many people who didn't evacuate with us will die. We could have all survived this sandstorm safely, but someone chose to die."
The second strong wind came during the day. Although they were on the second underground floor, they could not hear the noise above very clearly. In addition, daytime was the time when most people slept, so many people did not even react.
Because Qin Huai and his friends were sleeping next to the subway platform, they would be able to detect any wind noise inside the subway track immediately.
Mu Nan was still sleeping. Because he was nestled in Qin Huai's arms and surrounded by people he knew, he was not on guard at all. The slight sound of the wind did not wake him up, but Qin Huai opened his eyes immediately.
The second person to wake up was Jian Chu, who was sleeping next to Mu Nan. However, Jian Chu probably wasn't asleep, so when he heard the sound of the wind, he sat up to check. Seeing that Qin Huai was awake, he glanced at the tunnel and whispered, "Is the wind coming?"
Qin Huai nodded. It should be the wind coming. Only when there is a strong wind above will there be some movement in the tunnel.
Although this subway station seems to be enclosed, it is not airtight. It is not a completely enclosed space because the entire gate is closed. The sewer pipes are all vents, so if there is a strong wind above, people below can also feel it.
After about an hour or two, the wind outside seemed to have reached its strongest. The sound of the wind in the tunnel became louder and louder, and even some things placed on the ground were blown over.
Mu Nan woke up naturally because of the loud noise. This was not the first time there had been a noise, so they were somewhat experienced. They sat obediently in their seats, waiting for this strong wind to pass.
Mu Nan: "After this strong wind passes, can we go home?"
Qin Huai: "It should be. We may need to wait for another two days to observe the situation outside, but overall, this storm should be over."
Mu Nan hugged Qin Huai tightly, not feeling the heat and leaning against him: "I don't know what happened to our family, and whether the house is still there."
Qin Huai smiled and said, "The house is definitely still there, but I don't know if the roof is still there."
Mu Nan sighed again when he heard this.
Qin Huai hugged him up and rubbed his stomach gently with one hand: "Didn't drinking yogurt yesterday have any effect?"
Mu Nan buried his face in Qin Huai's shoulder and rubbed it: "Maybe my mind is too strong."
Although he was resisting going to the toilet in his heart, his body reacted honestly. He drank yogurt and ate watermelon, but to no avail. Mu Nan suspected that after they returned, Qin Huai might feed him grass for half a month to regulate his stomach.
Jian Chu did just the opposite of him. He probably ate light meals at home, and because he was seriously exhausted last time, he would definitely have diarrhea if he ate anything oily. This was also the reason why Song Jia teased him about finding a toilet while on duty when Jian Chu said he wanted to take the Self-Defense Force exam last time. In just this short period of time, Jian Chu had already gone to the toilet twice.
Mu Nan gave him two thumbs up: "What a warrior."
Jian Chu rolled his eyes and said, "You think I want to? This is simply torture from both inside and outside."
Jian Chu was so tired that he lay down. Yu Zibai was cooking noodles. The noodles were knife-cut noodles made by Aunt Yin. None of them had mastered this skill. Although Qin Huai knew how to cook, he was too lazy to bother with kneading the noodles and cutting them. The key point was that Mu Nan didn't like noodles, so he didn't study much about noodles.
While they were making breakfast, the talkative uncle who had asked them if they wanted to sell chickens was chatting with a group of people not far away. It seemed that the person who was scalded had an infection from the burns. Anyway, the high fever wouldn't go away. There was no special infection medicine for burns, and the person had died.
Then the higher authorities sentenced the family of the mentally ill young man to be fully responsible, but they did not have the money to pay a large sum of compensation all of a sudden, plus the deceased young man had to support his parents, so in the end the family of the perpetrator was sentenced to transfer 30 yuan in compensation from their account to the account of the deceased's family every month until all the compensation money was paid off.
As for the family of the pregnant woman, the child was saved, but the family of the pregnant woman suffered an unexpected disaster. Who knows if there will be any problems with the child in the future after this incident? Anyway, they are clamoring for compensation, but the compensation is not much, only ten yuan per month for nutrition expenses, until the child is born.
The couple is not young anymore. Although they had a child early, their son is in his thirties and they are only in their early fifties. But after years of hardship, they look like they are in their seventies in their fifties. Now they have so much debt because of their mentally ill son. No one knows how the family will survive in the future.
The talkative uncle was still there saying, "It would be better to take my son with me to die and put an end to it all. There is no point in living like this anyway."
Having said that, death also requires courage. Some people do not have the courage to seek death even when they are in despair.
Originally according to the above predictions they would have to take shelter there for at least seven days, but the sandstorm moved very quickly, with only two waves of extremely strong winds passing through. According to weather forecasts, there should be a few more waves of air currents passing by, but the wind would not be strong, so there would be no need to take shelter there any longer.
The gates were opened and a number of police officers were dispatched to check the situation outside. On the fifth day, a broadcast notified people to pack up and prepare to leave in an orderly manner according to the area.
When they came, their car was quite heavy because they put two buckets of water in it. When they left, all the water was used up and only the empty buckets were left. They had also eaten most of the things in their backpacks, and had also used up the watermelons and cabbages in the past few days, so they left with ease.
Everyone originally thought that the sandstorm was over. Although the sky outside was not clear, at least the sun had returned. However, when they lined up to walk out, they saw the same sky full of yellow dust with zero visibility, just like when they came. Except for the mess on the ground caused by the strong wind, there was not much change.
They were hiding underneath and really didn't feel much, at most they heard a few rumbling noises. When they came up again, they realized how terrible this sandstorm was. However, because the visual distance was too short, they couldn't see the situation in the distance clearly and could only grope their way towards their home.
The neighborhood committee turned on the loudspeakers again and asked people to go back and check the situation. If the house was severely damaged and uninhabitable, they should register with the neighborhood committee. If it was habitable, they should stay at home. There would be several more waves of air currents, which would also bring some strong winds, but there would be no problem as long as they stayed indoors with doors and windows closed.
They had heard these words on the broadcast several times when they were in the subway. Eager to know what had happened to their house, Qin Huai and the others headed straight towards home.
When I walked into the community, I saw debris all over the floor, including glass, walls, and even some curtains or bed sheets that were rolled out from the house. I was immediately disappointed.
But because they were exposed, they had difficulty breathing, let alone speaking. They could only walk into the house, praying in their hearts that their house would not be damaged too badly.
When they finally reached the outside of their courtyard wall, everyone didn't know whether to feel disappointed or relieved.
The roof was gone, the courtyard wall collapsed, and looking downstairs you could even see half of the wall exposed. The doors and windows were broken into pieces, and a lot of things in the house were blown out by the wind. Although the door was still there, the balconies on the second and third floors were in a mess, it was a terrible sight.
The good news is that their house is still there and has not been uprooted. Apart from that, it is probably because an additional floor was added on the top floor, so the damaged floor is the additional floor. If the situation inside the house is not too bad, they can just replace a window. However, since they haven't entered yet, they don't know how bad the inside is.
Jian Chu, who was standing next to Mu Nan, said in a muffled voice, "Should we just replace the windows with iron doors this time?"
By replacing it with an iron door, there is no need to cover it and there is no need to worry about it breaking again. These doors and windows have been replaced many times over the years.
Mu Nan turned his head and looked at him: "Good idea, we can try it." He didn't want to replace the doors and windows anymore. Although there are factories that produce glass now, after this disaster, he didn't know how long he would have to wait in line to place an order for replacement.
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