Chapter 185
Everyone originally thought that when the temperature dropped in winter, the water situation would be greatly alleviated. If nothing else, they could accumulate some water from the melted snow to at least take a thorough shower. However, the cold wind outside became more and more biting day by day, and the temperature was so low that the asphalt road was frozen, but there was no snow.
Mu Nan looked at the icicles on the window glass. Outside, he could see a small amount of icicles, but no snow at all. He couldn't help but blow a breath on the window. He drew a simple puppy and wondered, "Why isn't it snowing? The temperature today is more than ten degrees below zero, right?"
Qin Huai: "It's minus 17 to minus 20 degrees. Maybe it will snow in two days."
Outside, people wearing community vest uniforms are shoveling ice. Because there is no condition to make straw mats to prevent slipping, the road surface can only be cleaned manually. However, because of this, a lot of relatively easy jobs have been added. Communities with the conditions can set aside a sum from the monthly garbage removal fees and hire people to be responsible for the road ice problem in the entire community.
This job is not tiring, but it is hard to withstand the cold wind and low temperature. If you don't have thick clothes, you can't apply for this position. It's rare to have such a job near home, and you don't have to go too far. Several girls in their courtyard applied for it, even Aunt Yin went.
In the end, only Aunt Yin and Tu Juan were successful in applying for the job. The working hours were not long. They could go home after cleaning their assigned areas at two times in the morning and evening. The salary was not high because it was taken from the sanitation fee, so it was only two yuan a day, and meals were not included. But even so, many people still competed for it, and it was a popular position.
Mu Nan sighed softly, "In the past, it snowed so heavily that people were so annoyed. They were locked in the house and couldn't go anywhere. Now it's annoying even if it's not snowing. I see many people on the forum waiting for the snowmelt to wash themselves clean. They also said that winter is finally here and they don't have to save water anymore. But it doesn't snow yet."
Mu Nan said, "But it's okay if it doesn't snow for now. The weather has been cold these past two days, and Jian Chu's business has been much better. Before, they only sold about 10 to 20 bowls of noodles a day, but yesterday they sold almost 40 bowls. If it snows, the roads will be even harder to walk on. If it's a blizzard, we'll have to close the store, so it's better to wait until it snows later, and don't let it snow too hard, so that they can stay open for a few more days and make more money."
Qin Huai looked up from the computer at Mu Nan: "If it doesn't snow in two days, as the temperature gets lower and lower, it may not snow this year."
Mu Nan immediately looked at him with an expression that said, "What the hell are you talking about?" "It's so cold and there's no snow? How is that possible?"
Qin Huai: "Is Antarctica cold?"
Mu Nan hummed and said, "It's cold. Of course the polar glaciers are cold."
Qin Huai: "Did you know that it hardly snows in Antarctica? The amount of snowfall is even less than the rain in the desert."
Mu Nan felt that he had learned more knowledge from his brother than what he had not learned in high school, but he was afraid that Qin Huai was bluffing him, so he hesitated and did not believe it: "If it's not snowing, where does the white snow in Antarctica come from?"
"Humidity plus cold air condenses over the years, and it is not covered by snow from the sky. So if it is more than 20 degrees below zero and there is no snow now, the possibility of snowing will be very low when the temperature drops below 30 degrees below zero."
Mu Nan didn't quite understand why it didn't snow at minus 20 degrees Celsius, and it would be even colder if it got even colder. But when Qin Huai gave him scientific explanations seriously, they were mostly true. He was immediately surprised as if he had just met this world for the first time: "So the winter without snow is the kind that is extremely cold, but without any white at all?"
The temperature dropped to 50 or 60 degrees but there was no snow. I don't know whether this dry and cold weather is good or bad.
Qin Huai: "It's not that there's no snow at all. We live here, with so many people living together, cooking and washing clothes, generating heat and steam. The humidity will turn into frost as the temperature rises. However, the fact that it doesn't snow even though the temperature drops shows that our current environment is indeed very dry."
Whether it snows or not does not have much impact on their lives. At most, traveling may not be too slippery if it snows, but now the ground is frozen, and they can fall to the ground at any moment.
Mu Nan didn't dare to go out very often. Last time, he went to the yard to see if the well was frozen. As a result, he just took a step and slid directly to the side of the well. If the shed that was blown over by the sandstorm had not had a few frames left fixed to the ground, he would have reached out and grabbed a handful. Mu Nan felt that he might have been torn to pieces and bled on the spot.
After such a scare, he didn't dare to walk with big strides even when going out.
Anyway, the vegetables provided by him and Jian Chu's shop can be delivered directly from the garage to Jian Chu, so there is no need to go out. The power is still on and the floor heating at home has been warmed up after a few days. It would be so nice to wear a fleece pajamas and stay at home comfortably every day. It is better not to go out casually and seek death.
Maybe it was because the house was too warm, Mu Nan witnessed the reproduction of rabbits that day. It seemed that his rabbits would be able to produce rabbit meat again soon.
As for the chickens, Mu Nan simply put the roosters and hens into the cage together. Now that the weather is cold, they can stay at home during the winter, which is the most suitable time for hatching chicks. When there are more hens in the future, the eggs that cannot be eaten every day can be sold to Jian Chu, who will make them into braised eggs or boiled eggs and sell them in the store.
With this plan, Mu Nan suddenly felt that it was great to have their store open. Before, if they wanted to sell these things, they had to find a safe channel. Now, even the Cai family no longer had to find buyers for the mushrooms they harvested. Instead, they could just cut them into small pieces, stir-fry them, and use them as sauce.
Because the Cai family planted a lot of potatoes, they sold those left by the previous owner, but the soil pots were still there. After some consideration, they planted peppers on one floor and planted potatoes on the other two floors.
So from now on, side dishes like spicy and sour potato shreds will be ordered from the Cai family. Aunt Yin's cooking skills are pretty good. She also taught Mu Nan how to pickle chopped peppers. Although Qin Huai also knows how to do it, what Qin Huai learned were all tutorials he found on the Internet. He didn't have any unique skills. Aunt Yin taught her an exclusive secret recipe, and it tasted much better.
But Qin Huai is very busy now. Apart from focusing on the game, he doesn't know what else he is doing. Anyway, he is typing on the computer every day. Mu Nan can't understand it either. Those programs keep flashing on the screen, so fast that he can't even see abcd.
So Mu Nan simply gave the peppers harvested from his home directly to the Cai family and asked them to process them. He only needed to provide kimchi. This made it much easier for him, and he could also have an extra income regularly. The little money he earned from planting could be used to pay the electricity bill.
Probably because they saw that the noodle shop they opened was doing better and better business, and there were frequent inspections nearby, it seemed quite safe, especially since insurance could be purchased in this market, which could ensure the safety of one's property to a great extent. So more and more shops opened in that row, some of which sold some things bought in the city, and the others almost all sold food.
The saying "food is the first necessity of the people" is deeply engraved in the hearts of Chinese people. Although the current environment is difficult, the most profitable thing is still selling food. Although the price of food is not cheap because of the increasing cost of raw materials due to the shortage of supply, there are still many people willing to buy it.
Because more and more shops are opening, and there are market stalls in the small square every day, more and more people come here to shop. It is estimated that the authorities had originally planned to plan a shopping mall here. Although the place where the shopping mall was originally built has been converted into a primary school, the large shopping mall behind is still under construction. By then, these stalls will definitely be regulated, and when the scale becomes larger and larger in the future, the development of commerce will definitely be picked up again.
Originally, the opening of more and more shops should have become a hot topic, but unfortunately everyone's attention is still on this weird climate. It has been half a month since the beginning of winter, and not a single snowflake has fallen. There are many pipes on the ground and even on the walls, and even the water station is frozen. It is so cold and there is no snow. The water station is frozen and can't pump water. How can people live like this?
The well in their yard was not in good working order, but they reacted quickly. There were some bricks left over from building the courtyard wall, and they later went out and bought some more. They built a small house directly next to the well. There were five families in one yard, and each family produced one ton of coal a day. A large iron stove was placed next to the well, and the charcoal fire was burning every day so that they could use water.
Because there is still water in the yard, the noodle shop can continue to operate. Even because it is frozen outside and water is difficult to obtain in many places, the noodle shop business is even better. Some people just want a bowl of clear soup noodles, giving more soup and less noodles. A bowl of clear soup can be drunk by a family of three for a whole day, and it still contains oil and salt. Although it is expensive, at least they can survive.
Looking at the two people who were settling accounts and smiling happily, Mu Nan, sitting on the floor of Jian Chu's living room, holding Niu Niu in his arms, also laughed.
Jian Chu handed the account book to Mu Nan: "This is Xiaocai's money, and this is the money to pay back your brother this month. Take a look. If there is no problem, I will transfer the money to you."
Mu Nan took a look. He hadn't carefully calculated how much the side dishes would cost to avoid losses, but it was roughly this much anyway, so he nodded: "No problem."
Jian Chu asked him to sign the monthly statement and then transferred the money to him.
Mu Nan returned the notebook to Jian Chu: "So how much net income did you make this month?"
Jian Chu counted towards Mu Nan, who was immediately pleasantly surprised: "So many! It seems that the decision to open a store was the right one!"
Jian Chu was also happy. He opened the store and Yu Zibai went to work. The income of the two of them was enough to support a family. Although he was happy, he was not too excited. "If we can keep it up for a few months, the cost of opening the store will be recovered, and then there will be profits. But I don't know how cold this winter will be. If there is a heavy snow in two days, we will have to close the store."
Mu Nan said, "My brother said it's very likely that it won't snow this year. It's already minus 27 or 28 degrees Celsius today. If it doesn't snow at this temperature, then there probably won't be any snow this year."
Song Jia next to him was immediately surprised: "It's not snowing? It's so cold and it's not snowing? That's impossible."
Regarding the fact that it was cold but there was no snow, Mu Nan gave them some knowledge he had learned from Qin Huai. Jian Chu's eyes lit up: "If there is no snow, as long as we keep shoveling away the ice on the ground, can't we open the store all winter?"
Mu Nan shrugged: "I don't know what will happen when it gets colder later, so let's just take it one day at a time."
They had never experienced this before, so it was indeed hard to describe. Just as Mu Nan said, they would open the store one day at a time. However, regarding the store, Jian Chu said to Mu Nan, "I heard that after the mall is built, the store will be rented and sold on a yearly basis."
Mu Nan didn't understand: "What do you mean?"
Song Jia said: "It means you pay a certain amount of money to buy the right to use the property for a certain number of years. Compared to monthly rent, it is cheaper to buy it outright, and others can also recover funds faster to develop other projects. It is a win-win situation."
Mu Nan shook his head and said, "No, my brother said that we should save more money now and be prepared to run away at any time. We should not mess around with real estate if we can."
This confused the two people: "What do you mean? What do you mean by running away?"
Qin Huai had discussed this matter with Mu Nan and gave them a little hint so that they could be mentally prepared.
"My brother said that the glaciers may be melting faster. Maybe in a few years, our area will become an ocean."
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