Chapter 187
Many people think that a winter without snow is just like this, except that the wind is a little colder and the road is a little more icy and slippery.
The ice-shoveling workers have increased their working hours and wages. The wages are increased based on the number of households in the community. Each household has to pay an additional five yuan per month, which is the cost of road de-icing.
In the past, the road was cleaned once in the morning and evening, but now it is cleaned three times a day, morning, noon and evening. But even so, a layer of frost will quickly form on the road as soon as the cold wind blows.
However, due to the frequent cleaning, everyone's travel is not too restricted. It is okay as long as you are a little careful when walking. After all, the cleaning fee of five yuan per household per month is not cheap. It is equivalent to a quarter of their rent. People have to feel that the money is worth spending.
For example, some communities are not well off and the money they earn each month is barely enough for their own food and drink, so they really cannot afford the extra cleaning costs. The neighborhood committees in those communities are also very humane. They directly arrange a schedule for each household, and when it is their turn, they will be responsible for shoveling ice and cleaning an area according to the arrangements. Because the cleaning is relatively intensive, a household will be on the schedule at least twice a week.
But most people agree with this approach. If they don't have money, they can only work hard. They can't just sit there and do nothing. They don't have the conditions to stay at home for the entire winter to avoid the winter.
The travel problem has been temporarily solved, and solutions to the water problem are also being sought. It's not that there is no water now, although the amount of water is not much, but at least there is still some. The only problem is that every water station is frozen. It has been more than a month since the beginning of winter, and the temperature has dropped to more than 30 degrees below zero. Even people will be frozen if they stay outside for a while, let alone the water stations.
So the management came up with an idea: sell ice buckets directly, and people could take the ice home to melt into water for drinking. However, the places to buy ice were far and near, and not as widespread as water stations. Some people had to walk for half an hour on the icy road to get there. It was very tiring going back and forth, but for the sake of water, they had to endure it no matter how troublesome it was.
Some people specialize in collecting ice cubes, such as those on the eaves of houses, on rooftops, and on some street lamp poles. They collect as much as they can every day. When a certain amount has been accumulated, the water, which is not really dirty, can be boiled for taking a bath, which saves some money. There are always more solutions than problems.
In order to survive, the ancients could even grind stones into weapons. Even more so now, as long as we work hard to overcome them, we can still live.
We have tried our best to overcome what can be overcome, but some things cannot be overcome by just endurance, for example, as the temperature gets lower and lower, clothes that can no longer keep you warm are no longer suitable.
The coldest winter here has never reached minus ten degrees Celsius. Although the wet cold is sometimes colder than the dry cold in the north, the temperature conditions are like this. Therefore, most of the winter clothes sold here are just ordinary duck down, goose down and cotton. How can you survive the freezing temperatures in the polar regions wearing ordinary winter clothes?
In the winter of the previous year, most people in the entire residential area survived by relying on greenhouses. But this year, because of advance preparations, greenhouses were also prepared, and the conditions were naturally better. However, not everyone could live in them. It is normal in this environment that a penny can make a person die. So Xu Ming, who was seconded to the farm and has not returned to it yet, has become busy again.
There are too many people who have suffered frostbite, frostbite disease, and freezing to death.
Without going into the hospital, looking at the empty streets outside, the quiet neighborhood, the icy white road surface and the white sun that is so hot that you can hardly feel the temperature on your body, you will have the illusion that time is peaceful.
Once you enter the hospital, you will see the cruelty and helplessness of this world vividly.
It’s not all bad after the winter. At least people can bask in the sun. Even if it’s not warm, at least they can see the light and replenish calcium. Moreover, the temperature is so low that there are no mosquitoes. Finally, we don’t have to worry about being bitten by mosquitoes outside and getting infected accidentally.
I don’t know if it’s because the government has made sufficient preparations, or because this winter has been sunny without snow except for the low temperatures, but the electricity is still available. Mu Nan even lamented that the charcoal fire prepared this year may not be used.
Of course it would be best if you don't need to use it. You can turn on the floor heating in the whole house so that you can feel warm wherever you go. You don't have to build a greenhouse for the vegetable pots, rabbits and chickens at home. It is so convenient. It just wastes electricity every day.
Every time he saw the electric meter turning, Mu Nan wanted to take out the spare solar panels in the space. Although they could afford the electricity bill, wouldn't it be better to save the money to buy more rice and flour? But this was just thought. It was not troublesome to take the solar panels, but the trouble was how to connect them to the road. Mu Nan was too lazy to bother, but fortunately his brother could make money and could afford the electricity bill.
Xu Ming had said before that a batch of pork would be released soon. Maybe because the sudden arrival of winter disrupted the plan, the pork was not released. Mu Nan almost forgot about it. Anyway, his family had no shortage of meat, so he didn't think much about the pork. As a result, when he was watching a movie with Qin Huai, he received a desperate call from Jian Chu, asking him to go to the online mall to refresh and grab the pork.
Mu Nan quickly replied to the message in the group, then went to the online store and watched the countdown for the pork to be put on the shelves. He couldn't help but spit: "It's put online quietly, aren't you afraid of being scolded?"
Qin Huai took a look and said, "The purchase limit is two kilograms. It seems that the amount released this time is not much, but it is not too little either. It is quietly released online to block some people who are unlucky and have not been discovered. Now the entire residential area has a population of over a million. This population number would naturally be a small matter in the past, but now, the server that the government has patched together would probably be paralyzed in an instant. This is probably why the news was not released in advance."
Mu Nan stared at the countdown above and sighed: "Jian Chu and the others are so amazing, they can even figure out this." Looking at the last three, two, and one, Mu Nan also held his breath and rushed to grab it. Maybe because not many people knew about it this time, they were able to grab it smoothly. Mu Nan took the photo and paid in ten seconds, then exited to look again. There was still some stock, but as soon as he refreshed the page, a small round stamp of sold out appeared.
"Not many people know that I couldn't even hold out for a minute. Thirty-five per pound, two pounds is seventy. How much did pork cost before? I've forgotten."
Qin Huai: "In the past, the price ranged from more than ten yuan to thirty or fifty yuan. Although they were all pork, the price varied depending on the source of the meat, and there was also a difference between frozen and chilled."
Mu Nan sighed: "Frozen pork is now more expensive than before."
Because there weren't too many people trying to grab the meat, almost everyone who was notified by Jian Chu got one. Jian Chu had previously said in the group that if anyone wanted to give away the extra meat, he would give it to them. It was rare to buy meat, and he wanted to make it into meat sauce and sell it for a while. Anyway, the weather was cold now, and the meat could be frozen for a long time, so he was not worried about it slowly being consumed and going bad.
Mu Nan and his friends kept one pound and transferred the rest to Jian Chu. They didn't ask Jian Chu to pay them right away. Anyway, if they added a bowl of noodles with pork sauce, they would definitely earn back the money quickly and pay it back slowly.
Sure enough, as soon as a noodle shop launched its meat sauce noodles, the business, which had been good since the weather turned cold, became even better. With just a little bit of meat sauce and a bowl of noodles costing eight yuan, there were still many people buying it and there were queues.
Some people use a small bowl to hold the meat sauce, and take it home with the oil and meat, which can last for three days if they save it.
In addition to the noodles with pork sauce, another best-selling item is the kimchi meat pie. It is a palm-sized pie that is greasy and filled with kimchi and minced meat. A pie is more expensive than the noodles with pork sauce, at nine yuan each. It is made with a lot of oil and ingredients, including real flour, meat and vegetables, so it definitely cannot be cheap. But even though it is expensive, many people grit their teeth and want to buy it.
There is no way, it is just too delicious. These years, almost everyone is short of oil and salt, so how can they resist the temptation? When the oil cake is put into the pan, the sound of the oil frying makes people drool. Many children in their teens will come and squat at the door after school. There is a little heat next to the stove, so it is not too cold, and they can smell the fragrance. It feels like if they don’t smell it every day, it’s like they haven’t eaten for a day.
It gets dark early in winter, and it is already completely dark at seven or eight o'clock. Now the roads are icy and the temperature is even lower at night, so the time to get off work is basically set earlier, and no later than six or seven o'clock, unless you are working in double shifts indoors.
Jian Chu and his team closed the store at eight o'clock every day. Yu Zibai and Wu Zheng would go directly to the store to help after work, and then the four of them would walk carefully on the icy road home in the night.
Seeing them from afar, Mu Nan lay on the balcony and turned on the large spotlight installed at the door. The night lights on the roadside were very bright before, because everyone was out at night and stayed at home during the day, so the lights at night were as bright as day for the convenience of life.
Now that winter is here, people no longer need to stay out at night and stay at home during the day. The brightness of lights at night is naturally lowered a lot, and it is dim and yellow, barely able to illuminate.
As soon as Mu Nan turned on the light, the person who came back immediately looked up. Song Jia waved at Mu Nan, and Mu Nan waved back.
Qin Huai came out of the house, put his arm around Mu Nan's waist, and watched the people outside slowly coming in pushing a small tricycle. There were several empty buckets on the tricycle. Those empty buckets would be filled with water and freshly made noodles every morning and taken out. If the food sold quickly, they would come back early. If the food sold slowly, they would come back no later than eight or nine o'clock. They would bring back the unsold food to eat themselves.
Under the light, there is a group of tired but steady figures. The person standing next to him is chatting with the people downstairs with a smile, talking about the interesting things that happened in the store today and how the business is today. In the past, Qin Huai never thought that his life would be like this one day, but now that it is like this, he feels that maybe life should be like this.
Although life is not easy, but we have those few good friends, a close lover, and a seemingly hopeless but still able to work towards a bright future.
After everyone downstairs finished unloading the goods and went home, Mu Nan turned off the headlights on the roof, then rubbed his arms and urged, "Come in quickly, it's so cold."
Qin Huai smiled, followed Mu Nan, and stepped into the warm light in the house.
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