Chapter 184
Shi Yuanfei asked Qin Huai to meet him, and Mu Nan just asked if he could go with them. When he heard Qin Huai asked him to stay at home, he did not ask to go with them. Anyway, if there was anything, Qin Huai could come back and tell him.
Shi Yuanfei has actually been back for more than half a month, but he needed to be observed and quarantined when he first came back. Although his mobile phone was not taken away during the quarantine period, Shi Yuanfei did not send any messages to the outside world. Some things are not suitable to be said through the Internet. Although this is not a confidential matter and there is no requirement for confidentiality, he still wants to discuss it with Qin Huai in person.
When they met the next day, without waiting for Qin Huai to ask, Shi Yuanfei directly mentioned several former port cities: "These places have now been submerged in the sea."
Qin Huai was silent for a long time before he spoke: "What about the infection in the sea area? Is there any result?"
Speaking of this, Shi Yuanfei's expression became even uglier: "Perhaps, this will be an extinction."
Some infectious diseases on land are difficult to control, and as for those in the sea, they have almost no effective means to prevent the spread of prions in the sea.
When Qin Huai returned home, Mu Nan had just washed some vegetables. He thought that if Qin Huai came back early, he would prepare the preliminary work and cook directly when Qin Huai came back. If he came back late, he would put the vegetables into the space and eat the ready-made food. Seeing that Qin Huai's face was not right, he couldn't help but panic and said, "Brother? What happened again?"
Qin Huai shook his head: "It's okay for now."
Mu Nan: “For the time being?”
Qin Huai hummed: "This year's winter is coming soon. A cold air current has been predicted, so we have to prepare for the winter as soon as possible."
“How soon is as soon as possible?”
Qin Huai: "About three to five days."
What can be prepared in three to five days, but they had already prepared some things for the winter and put them in the garage. Even after the sandstorm, the things in the garage were not affected, so if there was a power outage again, they could still burn the stove.
However, I have to tell Jian Chu and the others about this in advance. If it is too cold, the newly opened noodle shop will probably have to close for the winter. Fortunately, it was clearly stated when I rented the store that if the store is unable to open for business due to reasons beyond human control, such as extreme cold or heat, the rent of the store will be reduced accordingly.
Otherwise, according to previous winters, it was so cold that we couldn't go out for half a year. In this case, renting a shop to do business would mean huge losses.
But if it's just a matter of surviving the winter, then there's no need for Shi Yuanfei to make a special trip to find Qin Huai. Can't he just contact him on the phone? Not everyone can buy oil now, and it would be a waste of oil to go out.
"Is that all? Nothing else?"
Qin Huai said: "Yes, but that is not the current situation. You know about the pollution of the sea area. This is more serious than we knew before. In addition, several cities have been submerged by the sea. The glaciers have not completely melted yet, but it is estimated that they will not melt for a few years. By then, many former countries will no longer exist. I am afraid that we will also become part of the ocean."
The melting of glaciers was a commonplace issue before the end of the world, but it was something that could not be stopped. Now, the high temperatures of 60 to 70 degrees Celsius throughout the year have accelerated the melting rate. However, the impact of the melting glaciers will not only bring back seawater and ancient viruses, but also cause more chaotic global warming.
Mu Nan simply couldn't bear to think about what the world would become when all the glaciers melted. Where would they be able to escape to then?
Qin Huai rubbed Mu Nan's head and said, "Don't worry about it. The higher-ups already knew the news we could get. Maybe a secret shelter has already been built, maybe underground, maybe under the sea. Even if there is nothing, it's the same for everyone. There's nothing to be afraid of."
After hearing these things, Mu Nan lost his appetite and couldn't help but take out a map to look at it: "If the seawater backflows, where can we run? Can we still stay in our country?"
Qin Huai rolled up the map he had just taken out and put it aside: "With your substandard geographical knowledge, what can you figure out? Don't worry, I'm here."
Mu Nan sighed sadly. He had said yesterday that he hoped to live a stable life, but today he heard this news. Although this did not happen suddenly, and it was not a disaster that was about to happen, this kind of foreseeable disaster really made people panic.
After dinner, Mu Nan strolled into the store accompanied by Qin Huai. There were not many customers in the store. At a glance, there were only two people eating noodles. Jian Chu and Song Jia were discussing that they would ask about the price of cornmeal next time. They had a wall-breaking machine, so they would buy the coarse cornmeal, use the wall-breaking machine to grind it more, and make some corn tortillas to sell together.
They cannot just limit themselves to noodles, as that would not make any money. They also plan to ask Mu Nan's family how much kimchi they can provide, and then they can make kimchi cakes to sell, which will probably sell better than simply selling noodles.
This noodle machine can also make dumpling skins, so I can sell some vegetarian dumplings and wontons later.
Just thinking about this can lead to many ways to make money, and suddenly I feel that tomorrow is more exciting.
However, Mu Nan poured a basin of cold water directly on their heads: "Winter is coming."
Song Jia: "Ah..."
Jian Chu frowned, "Where did you get this news? It's so hot right now. I checked the official weather platform today and it was 57 degrees. I'm afraid it's going to be 70 or 80 degrees under the scorching sun. It's not cool at all."
Mu Nan: "My brother got the news from Shi Yuanfei. It's only a few days. I don't know when the heavy snow will fall. Unless the road is blocked by heavy snow, maybe the store can be open for a while. Besides, the weather is cold, and the noodle shop business should be better. With hot soup and hot noodles, people who get off work may be more willing to come and have a bowl of hot soup."
Although water restrictions have made it more difficult to use water, the weather is really too hot. Even if the store is air-conditioned, even the breath you breathe smells like fire. It is really hard to have an appetite when you see the hot soup noodles. If the weather is cold, the situation will be different. After working outside all day and being frozen, when you see the steaming hot soup noodles, wouldn't you want a bowl of it?
Compared to their concerns about business, Song Jia is more worried about water supply: "If winter comes, will we still be able to pump water from the well?"
They didn't have a well in previous winters, so they naturally didn't know if the well would still be usable when the temperature dropped to that low. If winter comes now and the well can't be used, what will they do with water? Melt snow water?
Jian Chu: "How about building a heating room by the well? It can provide heating in winter and shade in summer."
Mu Nan: "Where's the electricity?"
Okay, that's another question.
Everything else is easy to deal with, but coal and other things still need to be stockpiled before winter comes. Moreover, they received the news in advance. About the coming of winter, perhaps not many people know about it. As the temperature is now as high as 50 or 60 degrees every day, it is long past the time when winter came last year. Many people think that this year may be another year without a cold winter.
Now is the perfect time to stock up on coal.
Mu Nan's family did not stock up. They had already bought a lot last time, and there were plenty in Mu Nan's space, so there was no need to buy more. Besides, he and Qin Huai didn't have much money left. Even the money he earned from serializing comics was cashed out some time ago. They were really poor.
Although they did not stockpile coal, they spent two days moving the coal that had been stored on the first floor to the garage, and then cleaned the first floor inside and out.
The business in the store was not busy, so it was enough to leave Song Jia there to help Jian Chu, so Yu Zibai took two days off and cleaned the heated kang on the first floor with Qin Huai and others, so that they could heat the kang at any time when winter came.
When Wu Zheng was resting, Song Jia stayed at home to help clean with his brother. When Cai Wentao was resting, he brought Xiao Zhu over to play with Niu Niu. Seeing how much noise they made, he also wanted to make a warm kang, but their family was not suitable because the composition of the family population was too complicated. If they wanted everyone to sleep on the kang, they would have to make three kangs.
In the end, Guo Hui did it himself. He made a large bunk bed on the first floor, a big kang, which was covered with curtains. The men slept on one side and the women slept on the other. However, he didn't know when the temperature would drop, or whether it would drop suddenly like before and cause a power outage due to a blizzard. Therefore, the Cai family specially invited Qin Huai and Wu Zheng to help with the kang, for fear that the temperature would drop unexpectedly and they tried to finish the work as soon as possible.
What Wu Zheng and the others didn't expect was that Guo Hui was actually an experienced hand at making kangs, and was much better than what they had figured out on their own.
Wu Zheng also sighed: "If you could have come earlier, we could have saved a lot of materials. Every brick and every piece of mortar costs money."
Guo Hui smiled and said, "My father's generation went to the countryside and stayed there. It was so cold in the winter that they made their own kangs. I grew up on a kang. If nothing else, I can make this thing with my eyes closed."
On the day the Cai family's kang was completed, the temperature suddenly dropped.
When Qin Huai and Wu Zheng went to Cai's house, the temperature was still scorching hot. They only felt cold after the work was finally finished.
Before they went out, Mu Nan came over with clothes and said, "It's getting colder outside." Then he handed a coat to Wu Zheng.
Wu Zheng said: "No need, the temperature hasn't dropped much, just run back."
As soon as I opened the door, a gust of cold wind that made me shiver blew towards me.
Mu Nan smiled and handed him the clothes: "Don't catch a cold, it's more fatal if you catch a cold."
Although the temperature drop last year was not gradual, it did not drop so much suddenly. This year, winter either did not come at all or came with a sudden drop in temperature. In addition, there is no sun at night, which makes it even colder.
Wu Zheng didn't insist. Although it only took three minutes to run home from here, it would be a waste if he caught a cold because of these three minutes.
When the temperature dropped, I turned on the heating in the house immediately, but the heat didn't come on that quickly. I just hope that with the experience of the last cold winter, the electricity consumption can be maintained longer this time.
But what is unexpected is that the biggest problem this cold winter is not electricity, but water.
This winter is cold, but it has been cold and dry. Everything is frozen, but it just doesn’t snow!
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