Chapter 45
The community cooling point here was opened relatively early. Although the community is old, the location is good and there are many large shopping malls around it. They are working overtime every night to install solar energy and mobilize large air-conditioning cooling machines in the high-temperature machine room. After installing a shopping mall, it is opened to residents of the surrounding communities for use.
Quite a few people went to their community. Some of them had not originally planned to go. Although they did not dare to turn on the air conditioner during the day and the high temperature in the house was unbearable, there was no one at home during the day and they would not even know if the door was broken into. The heat was still within the tolerable limit, but if the food was gone, they would really starve to death.
However, after the last attack by doomsday thugs, many people are still frightened. It is not safe to stay at home during the day. Although that group of doomsday thugs have been caught and are about to be shot, what if someone follows their example? After thinking about it, they decided to go to the cold room during the day and try to hide the food at home. Although there is really no place to hide in their residential buildings, unlike in the countryside where there are no cellars and they can just dig a hole in the backyard to bury the food, life is more important than food.
The corresponding cooling point here is in a shopping mall not far behind the community. That shopping mall was just built before the smog. Because it is a high-end shopping mall and it is newly built, many big-name manufacturers have not yet moved in, so it is very empty. Now that the government has used it for renovation, it saves a lot of trouble, so it opened quickly.
Most people in their community choose to go to the cooling point during the day. They go there before dawn and it only takes about ten minutes to get there by foot. They go home after dark, so that the house is not always empty and they can at least take a break during the day. As for the situation inside the cooling point, the first group of people who went in posted photos on WeChat. Some store counters in the mall were basically empty, and then a small space was blocked with special partitions. These small spaces are large and small. The small ones can accommodate three or four people lying down, and the larger ones can accommodate five or six people. Each partition has no ceiling, but it has a door lock. This kind of small single room model is naturally charged separately. For other places like the top floor or higher floors, you can sit anywhere you want. Bring your own mat, chair or folding bed. At a glance, the ground is full of people lying, and there is no privacy at all.
Although it is quiet everywhere now, both during the day and at night, because there is no industrial noise and there are basically no cars on the road, it is probably a psychological effect. When most people in the community go to the cooling point during the day, Mu Nan feels that the community is even quieter, but it is still the kind of empty quiet.
Stretching lazily on the bed, Mu Nan looked at the thick window that blocked his view, feeling too lazy to move. In the past, when he was busy writing comics and racking his brains to come up with new plots, he dreamed that one day he could lie like this every day, not worrying about food and drink, and sleep like a drunk. But when such a life really came, he realized how torturous it was.
Seeing Qin Huai moving a small stool to sit in the living room, with clean water and flour placed aside to make steamed buns, Mu Nan turned over in bed, arched twice like a caterpillar, and moved to the side of the bed near Qin Huai: "Brother, if you can go out now and everything is back to normal, what are you doing at this time?"
Qin Huai glanced at the clock on the wall of the living room. It was four o'clock in the afternoon, so he said, "I should be in the office preparing to work overtime now. The operation and maintenance of a software, the development, promotion and publicity of a new market, these things will never be finished. I might just order some takeout and work until nine or ten o'clock, then treat a few colleagues who are also working overtime to a midnight snack and some wine, and then go home to take a shower and sleep."
Mu Nan: "What if there is no smog, no doomsday, and everything goes as you expected, and you come back to find me after I graduate and take me to City B, then what are we doing now?"
Qin Huai smiled and said, "You should be painting at home now. Then I'll ask you what you want for dinner. You'll order some food, and I'll start looking forward to getting off work. On the way home, I'll buy some food. After we finish eating, I'll take you out for a walk. You'll definitely feel too hot to go out, so I'll lure you out with me by saying we'll go shopping for snacks. We'll go shopping, take a walk, buy your favorite snacks and go home. You'll continue to paint, and I'll work overtime at home. You'll definitely be hungry around eleven or twelve o'clock, so I'll let you have a little midnight snack, then take a shower and go to bed. The next day, I'll make breakfast, drag you out of bed, watch you finish eating, and then I'll go to work while you continue to take a nap. At noon, I'll find a clean restaurant to bring you lunch, and then it'll be afternoon again, and it'll be like this over and over again."
Listening to Qin Huai's description, Mu Nan laughed: "Thinking about it this way, even though it's repetitive day after day, it's pretty good."
Seeing Qin Huai preparing to knead the dough, Mu Nan propped up his head and asked, "Do you want to make flower rolls or steamed buns?"
Qin Huai looked at him: "What do you want to eat?"
Mu Nan thought for a moment and took out a 1-liter bottle of sweet milk from the space: "Let's make milk buns. This milk is delicious and there's no need to add sugar."
Qin Huai poured the flour into the basin, and then asked Mu Nan to open the milk and pour it in little by little. As Mu Nan poured the milk, he sighed softly: "We are so extravagant."
Qin Huai smiled and said, "If I cook for myself, it's not a luxury if I have the conditions."
Now, both he and Qin Huai are very skilled in making steamed buns with dough. However, no matter how skilled he is, he doesn't know whether it's because he lacks strength or psychological factors, he always feels that his buns are not as delicious as Qin Huai's. Seeing that the buns are very well behaved in Qin Huai's hands, Mu Nan couldn't help but said, "You make them simply, but when they are in my hands, I feel like they are not the same thing. Will the steamed buns taste good now?"
Qin Huai said, "There's no smell. The doors and windows are now tightly closed, and there's thick film covering the outside. We've turned on the air conditioner upstairs and downstairs. As long as the neighbors don't cook something heavy, there's no smell."
Mu Nan watched him rub for a while, and couldn't help but said: "Brother, I want to drink Coke."
Qin Huai said without even looking up: "Drink, half each."
Although half of the drink was divided up, at least Mu Nan was able to drink a few sips, and was satisfied. The icy coolness that went down his throat was one of the few comforts in this hot and long summer.
In sharp contrast to them, their neighbors next door are looking at the few remaining packets of instant noodles with a hint of resistance on their faces. Anyone who has eaten instant noodles for a month or so would probably not be able to stand it, and even just the smell would make them feel nauseous, but there is nothing else to eat. Even when they were so poor that they didn't even have a dime in their pockets, they had never lived such a life. They didn't expect that after they have grown up, graduated from college and can work and earn money, they are living a life worse than the darkest period of their childhood.
Yu Zibai sighed and put away the packets of noodles. Jian Chu looked up at him and said, "Don't you want to eat?"
Yu Zibai shook his head: "No, let's cook. There are still some dumplings left. Fry them and eat them with rice. I'm really tired of eating noodles all the time."
Jian Chu looked at Yu Zibai and asked suddenly, "Will you go back?"
Yu Zibai subconsciously asked back: "Where to go back to?"
Jian Chu pursed his lips and said nothing. Yu Zibai then realized what he was asking. He smiled as if to comfort and mock himself, "Do you think I still have a place to go back to?"
His mother passed away early, his father remarried and had another child. His younger brother is ten years younger than him. Other people think they are a family, but he is redundant. His mother even made arrangements for his future before she died, bought him a house and saved some money. As a result, after his father remarried, he didn't even give him tuition or living expenses. He even wanted to transfer the house his mother left for him to his younger brother several times. How could he go back to such a home? In his current situation, he might not even have enough food to eat if he went back.
Jian Chu said as if it was a joke, but also as a test: "If life really becomes difficult, how about I pry open the door of the store? I am also an expert at unlocking locks."
Yu Zibai replied somewhat unexpectedly to Jian Chu: "Okay, you go and pry the door open, and I'll watch out and move the things."
He knew what Jian Chu was worried about. The first time he met Jian Chu, Jian Chu was fighting with a group of thugs. He saw Jian Chu, thin and neatly dressed, which was in stark contrast to the thugs with fancy-colored hair. He thought Jian Chu was the one being bullied, and just as he was about to help, he saw Jian Chu snatch the wooden stick from one of the thugs and then kill him on the spot, and also robbed the thugs of all their money.
However, since he had never received formal training, his disorganized fighting style was probably the result of pure experience gained from many fights, so he was bruised. When he saw him standing at the intersection, he just rolled his eyes and turned away.
The second time they met, Jian Chu was a freshman and became his junior. After getting to know each other better, he learned about Jian Chu's family situation, so he helped him find a part-time job so that he could earn money to support himself and restrain him from doing anything illegal. Whenever Jian Chu tried to solve something with violence, he would always give him an ideological education class. Probably because of this, Jian Chu was always close to him but also afraid of him, for fear that he would do something on the edge of the law and displease him. In Jian Chu's eyes, his image might be that of an old cadre who was inflexible.
But abiding by the law is only suitable for peacetime. If life can only be like this, for the sake of him and Jian Chu to live well, what principles are there that cannot be broken? He can still adhere to certain principles, but life has not forced him to that point yet.
The plump white steamed buns came out of the steamer. Mu Nan poked one with chopsticks and blew on it while eating. He commented as he ate, "I think you can add a little more sugar next time. It has enough milk flavor, but the sweetness is not obvious. You need to chew it a few more times to taste the sweetness."
Qin Huai: "If you want something sweet, I'll make you some sugar-filled buns."
Mu Nan shook his head: "That's too sweet."
Qin Huai was amused by his picky mouth: "You are the one who talks about luxury, and you are also the one who is picky."
Just as Mu Nan was about to retort, he was startled by a sudden cry from outside the room. The bun that was not firmly poked on the chopsticks fell off. Mu Nan quickly picked up the bun. He was picky, but food could not be wasted. Fortunately, it fell on the bed, so it was not dirty. After putting the bun back on the chopsticks, he asked, "What's going on?"
Judging from the crying sound, it was very close to them, as if it was just outside their house.
Qin Huai said, "I'll go take a look, you stay in the room."
Mu Nan couldn't stay there any longer. Just when he was about to follow to take a look, he saw the steamed bun in his hand, so he quickly retracted the space. He didn't want to show anything when eating, not even a steamed bun.
However, the crying sound did not come from outside their house. Because they were on the same floor and only separated from them by a patio, the distance was very close, so they could hear it more clearly in the house.
The source of the crying came from the house next door, which was separated from them by a patio. Standing at the doorstep, one could turn around and see the situation of the residents across the patio. At this moment, a woman with disheveled clothes and messy hair was kneeling on the ground crying for something, and the middle-aged man who was being begged by her on his knees had an embarrassed look on his face. He wanted to push away the woman who was pulling him, but probably because she was a woman, he didn't want to use too much force, and his expression became more and more embarrassed.
Qin Huai turned around and pushed Mu Nan, who had just shown his head and had not yet seen the situation on the other side clearly, back into the house: "Eat your steamed buns."
Mu Nan asked curiously, "What's going on?"
Qin Huai said: "It's probably a relationship dispute."
It’s already this late, you can’t even get enough to eat, and you’re still having relationship disputes. You’re too idle.
Usually when something happens, there will be some well-informed people in the group. Although many people on their side went to the cooling point, there were also many who stayed behind. The noise was so loud that it was sure that more than just their family heard it, so Mu Nan turned on his phone to see if anyone knew what was going on.
As a result, I really saw the cause and effect of the whole thing.
This woman lived on the 20th floor, just above them. At around 8 or 9 in the morning, she asked for help in the group, saying that her husband suddenly had a severe stomachache and wanted to trade instant noodles for some painkillers. But everyone was asleep at that time, and even if there were a few people who were awake and saw the message, they didn't have painkillers at home.
But even if they do have it, they probably won't exchange it with others at this time. After all, you can get a big bag of instant noodles every three days. You can't buy painkillers now even if you have money. The pharmacies outside have been closed for a long time. If you want to buy medicine, you have to go through the community and then register at the hospital. Only after seeing the doctor will you be prescribed the right medicine. People are not allowed to hoard it. Now whoever has the medicine will guard it tightly, for fear that it will be gone when they need it.
So even though some people in the group replied to her message, they were all helpless and helpless. So the woman tagged the community and asked for the community's phone number. At this time, she could only ask the community for help. I don't know how the community responded to her. After that, she didn't speak in the group. But it's easy to understand that in broad daylight, who can go out? Even if you can withstand the heat and use an umbrella to block the sun, it won't take a few minutes for the exposed skin to turn red. The milder ones are sunburn, which can be cured by applying some sunburn medicine. The more serious ones will cause burns and blisters after a while. It's hot and painful, and it's very torturous. But these are also some injuries on the surface of the skin. If you overestimate your physical strength and heat resistance, and faint outside from the sun, it will be fatal. So the community can only reply to her that they have contacted the hospital and will arrange a vehicle to take her to the hospital as soon as the sun sets.
But it was obvious that the woman’s husband couldn’t wait until the evening. At around 1:00 p.m., the woman asked for help in the group again, saying that her husband was in great pain and couldn’t bear it any longer, and asked someone to help her.
It was very hot at that time, and some families did not replace the air conditioner in advance like Mu Nan's family, so they did not dare to turn on the air conditioner during the day. People felt dizzy due to the heat, so who had the time to care about others? So the whole group was filled with women's requests for help, but there was no response.
Not getting a response, the woman switched from the community group to the material exchange group. This group included not only residents of their building, but also residents from other buildings. There were quite a lot of people in it. As soon as the woman asked for help, some people asked her with concern and gave her advice. However, all they could offer was to ask her to feed her husband more water and turn on the air conditioner to cool down the temperature. There were also some people who made remote diagnoses, asking where it hurt and whether it was appendicitis or something else.
Around six o'clock, the woman asked for help again in the supplies group, saying that she couldn't find anyone in the community and that her husband was dying, had vomited blood twice, and was almost in shock. In the voice message the woman sent, she cried very desperately and also sent a photo of her husband vomiting blood.
Then the group leader of the supplies group came out, first comforted the panicked woman, and then said in the group: "It's useless to take painkillers since he has already vomited blood. Now we don't know whether your husband has simple gastric bleeding or digestive tract bleeding. There is no other way except to send him to the hospital."
There is no need for the group leader to say this. Everyone knows that if a person has already vomited blood, he will not be able to survive by taking medicine at home. He must be sent to the hospital.
Then the group leader said, "It's already past six o'clock. The sun will set in two or three hours. Do you think your husband can hold on a little longer? If not, we are very close to the hospital. There are no cars on the road right now. It only takes two or three minutes to drive there. It's completely possible to stay outside for two or three minutes to resist the heat. I have a car, but I don't have any gas. If you can find some gas, I can drive you there."
After the group leader said this, many people praised him as a good person. It was really not easy for him to stand up at this time.
But the woman's family didn't have a car, and naturally no gas. The community did have one, but it was a five-minute walk from them, so how could it be delivered at this time?
So the woman begged in the group again: "Who has oil? I will buy it, any amount is fine! Please give me some oil, just enough to drive to the hospital, I will buy it in the community and return it to you, I can also double or triple the amount! Please help me, I really don’t know what to do, please!"
The group leader immediately spoke up, "If you have gasoline, share it with others. Today you helped others, and tomorrow maybe others will help you. This group is for exchanging information and supplies. If you keep the gasoline at home and don't drive, it's useless. After this lady sends her husband to the hospital, go buy some from the community and give it back to you."
But after the group leader said this, many people said that they didn't even have a car, so where would the oil come from? Maybe they really didn't have any, or maybe someone had it but didn't want to give it away. In short, the matter was at a stalemate again.
At this time, someone said, "If there is no oil, anyone with an energy vehicle will do."
This statement made many people react, and they began to ask who had an energy-powered car. The group owner then tagged someone in the group and said directly: "Master Fan, I remember that your car is half oil and half energy-powered. If it is convenient for you, please help this lady."
The person tagged by the group owner is a Didi driver. Since there are fewer and fewer cars on the road and gas stations have closed, Master Fan would drive his gas truck for a run every night. He only takes a few orders a night and the money he earns is enough for him to stock up some things. There are a few people driving gas trucks in their community, but there is only Master Fan in their building. The group owner happened to have ridden in this master's car before and always remembered him, so he tagged him and hoped that he could lend a helping hand.
It was unknown whether Master Fan had not seen the group or had seen it but did not want to care, so he ignored it. The woman had finally grabbed a life-saving straw, so she of course held on tightly, and asked the group owner for Master Fan's house number, and then she went directly to his house to beg for help, which led to the scene that Qin Huai saw when he came out.
Mu Nan pricked up his ears to listen to the noise outside. Some people in the group continued to chat and waited for the next words. Some even said that it was really cold-blooded to watch someone in danger and not help. They were a bunch of people who talked without any hesitation.
Mu Nan said: "I hate this group owner."
He knew the group leader, a man in his thirties who lived on the eighth floor of their place. Probably before the earthquake, he had left people with the impression that he was capable of leadership. After the earthquake, there was a period of time when no one knew whether there would be aftershocks, and some places collapsed badly, so the government built resettlement tents. Regardless of whether their houses collapsed or not, they could live in the resettlement tents and receive water and food every day. It was at that time that the group leader began to take on the overall leadership, and the number of people around him gradually increased from a dozen to dozens, and these people later formed a team under the leadership of that man to carry out a sweep of materials from the collapsed houses.
He was alone at the time and didn't want to join any team, so he followed a group of scattered residents to search through piles of ruins every day. However, he acted alone and didn't seem to have much fighting power. The things he found with great difficulty were snatched away by that group of people on the grounds that the territory was theirs.
He couldn't rob or beat them, so he could only silently endure it, but he hated that group of people for sure. And looking at the style of this group leader, those who were helped in despair would naturally thank him, and other people who were watching would definitely think that he was a good person and would believe him, but the people who were asked for help were inexplicably kidnapped by morality. If they helped, they would be embarrassed, and if they didn't help and the other person died, they might even feel guilty and uneasy, or even think that they had killed him, how unfair.
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