Chapter 52
Mu Nan felt no pressure to ask Qin Huai to help him take a bath. When they were young, they used to take baths in the same bathtub. But when Qin Huai grew up and reached puberty, he was unwilling to take a bath with him. But he was still young at that time and had no idea what the word "puberty" meant. When Qin Huai was unwilling to take a bath with him, he was sad and felt that Qin Huai no longer liked him and didn't want to be his brother.
But the sadness was only short-lived, because although Qin Huai didn't wash with him anymore, he would still wash his back and hair like before, but he didn't go in the water himself. Later, when he grew up, he knew it was embarrassing, so he naturally did his own things. Even now that he has grown up, when Qin Huai said he would wash his back, he didn't think it was a big deal, because it was too dirty and he couldn't reach the back, so it would be nice to have someone to help.
But when he entered the bathroom, Mu Nan took off his shirt and started to take off his pants, his shame finally came back. He pinched the waistband of his pants and was too embarrassed to pull it down. Then he looked at Qin Huai hesitantly: "Just help me brush it like this, and I will wash the back myself after you brush it clean."
Qin Huai seemed to chuckle: "You've grown up, and you're being distant with me? When I was a kid, who would be so unhappy if I didn't give you a bath? You took off all your clothes before you even walked into the bathroom."
Mu Nan's eyes darted around: "Then you would also say that I have grown up. I am so old, how can I be like that?" He should have some shame.
Qin Huai scooped a spoonful of water from the bucket beside him and slowly poured it over Mu Nan's body. He looked at the water washing over his white back that seemed to have its own glow, and said in a slightly low voice: "There are so many people in the dormitory at school, didn't you squeeze in with other boys to take a shower? During military training, we should have all taken a shower in the same bathhouse, right?"
Seeing Qin Huai start to scrub his back, Mu Nan blew water on himself twice. When he was wet, he picked up the soap and started to scrub himself. "No, the conditions for my military training in college were pretty good. In the army, there were four people in a dormitory with their own bathroom, so I didn't have to squeeze with others to wash. I didn't live in the dormitory much in college. I might go there to sleep when I didn't have classes at noon. Anyway, it's not far from home, and I don't have to change buses, so it's convenient to go home."
Mu Nan had just finished speaking when Qin Huai suddenly reached out his hand and seemed to rub his shoulder blade. Touching Qin Huai's fingertips that had become cold after being touched by cold water, Mu Nan shivered instinctively. Of course, it was not because of the cold. In this scorching temperature, his fingertips could not be much colder. But he felt as if Qin Huai's fingertips were electrified, and a weak electric current seemed to run through the place where they touched.
Mu Nan subconsciously turned back to look at Mu Nan: "What, what are you doing?"
Qin Huai stopped him from turning around and didn't let him look at him. He lowered his head slightly and said in a normal and calm tone, "It's a little dirty. I'll wipe it off for you."
Mu Nan said "oh" and rinsed the soap that was stained with mud with water. He handed it to Qin Huai and said, "Here, brush it with some soap and it should be clean."
Qin Huai took it and gently applied it on his back, then used the bath brush to gently brush his back. Perhaps he was too gentle, Mu Nan felt that the brush didn't hit the ground, so he said: "Use more force, how can it be clean if it is so light?"
Qin Huai poked his back and said, "They are all bones. They hurt my hands when I touch them. I am afraid that if I use too much force, you will fall apart. You eat meat every meal. Where does the meat go?"
Mu Nan was a little proud: "I can't gain weight. How many people will envy me for that."
Qin Huai frowned slightly: "You think it's a good thing that you can't gain weight, but it's just that your body can't absorb it well."
If it weren't for the current situation, Qin Huai would definitely find a Chinese doctor to take good care of Mu Nan. He doesn't eat less every day, but he just can't gain weight. It's either because his spleen and stomach are not good or because of absorption problems. Mu Nan was like this when he was a child. He was picky about food and didn't like to eat. Sometimes he would have indigestion if he was fed too much.
At that time, he was still a child, about the time when he was promoted from preschool to elementary school. One morning, Mu Nan was still asleep, and Uncle Mu took him out of bed and took him to a Chinese medicine clinic near their kindergarten. Uncle Mu held Mu Nan and took him with him. The Chinese medicine doctor pinched his palm and checked his body. He said there was nothing wrong and asked him to stand aside and wait. Then he checked Mu Nan and took a very long needle to poke Mu Nan's little hand hard, making blood beads appear, and squeezed something hard. The Chinese medicine doctor was an old doctor with a lot of experience. Although he pierced Mu Nan's hand, Mu Nan did not cry and woke up on Uncle Mu's body as if nothing had happened.
He still remembered that day, Mu Nan's appetite was unexpectedly good. In the past, when they had breakfast together, he and Mu Nan always had a bowl of noodles, because Mu Nan would not eat more than two or three bites, and the rest was just enough for him. But that day, Mu Nan ate a bowl of noodles by himself, which made him stunned. Later, Uncle Mu said that they were picking malnutrition, which was specially used to treat poor appetite and indigestion, and they didn't expect it to be effective so quickly.
Probably because of some things that happened in his childhood, he actually believed in traditional Chinese medicine more than western medicine, especially for someone like Mu Nan. If an examination were to be conducted, it would probably not reveal anything wrong with him, but he just wouldn't gain weight. Chinese medicine would definitely be better than Western medicine. Unfortunately, he didn't know if he would have the chance to find a traditional Chinese medicine doctor to see Mu Nan in the future.
Feeling that Qin Huai had been brushing her for a long time, Mu Nan couldn't help but ask, "Isn't it clean yet? Why is it so dirty?"
Qin Huai came back to his senses, scooped water from the bucket and rinsed him twice. His back, which was not dirty to begin with, was now full of the scent of soap: "Okay, it's clean now."
Mu Nan breathed a sigh of relief, threw it away after use, and said quickly: "Then you can get out."
Qin Huai raised his eyebrows: "Don't you want me to wash your hair?"
Mu Nan said, "It's such short hair, it only takes a few seconds to wash it, go out quickly, I'll finish washing it quickly and then you can wash it."
Qin Huai was just teasing him. If he didn't go out, he felt like he was about to explode. As long as Mu Nan turned around, he would be able to see his ugly appearance and couldn't help but find it funny. Even at this time, he could still be so romantic.
Without Qin Huai in the bathroom, Mu Nan took a shower much faster. He quickly took off his pants and scrubbed the dirt off his hands and legs. He didn't buy facial cleansers or anything like that. He just rubbed his face with soap and washed his ears. He felt a little cleaner when he felt that there was no debris on his body.
After washing, I wiped the water off my body with a disposable face towel and looked at myself in the half-length mirror. Although my bones were a little obvious, at least after some time of exercise, I had abdominal muscle lines. I pinched the flesh on my waist and couldn't help but mutter, "Where is it painful? There's so much flesh."
After taking a refreshing bath, I felt as if all the pores on my body were opened and I breathed comfortably. The depressed mood I had when I came back from outside was relieved a lot. Seeing Qin Huai sitting cross-legged on the ground enjoying the breeze, Mu Nan said, "Brother, I'm done, you go and take a bath."
Qin Huai said: "Put away the swimming pool outside and leave a bucket of water in the bathroom. Also, put a few more buckets of water against the wall of the locker, a large bucket of water for daily use."
Mu Nan asked, "How many more buckets should I put in?"
Qin Huai said, "Put five or six barrels in there."
Mu Nan obediently went over to put the big bucket of water in place first. Seeing that Qin Huai didn't want the water from the swimming pool, he carried a bucket of water into the bathroom and couldn't help saying, "A bucket of water is not enough for washing. You are dirtier than me. It's mixed with sweat. You need to wash it thoroughly." During the earthquake, Qin Huai threw himself on him tightly. He was already so dirty, and Qin Huai helped him block so much dust, which would only make him dirtier.
Qin Huai: "No, I just need to wash my face. I have to knock on the wall and go out later, so there's no need to wash too thoroughly. Give me a vest, a black vest will do, and give me a towel."
Mu Nan wanted to say that they didn't lack water. He knew that there would be such a shortage of water. He had saved water the most before, so there was no need to be so frugal: "Why don't you just take a shower? You'll feel better after taking a shower."
Qin Huai pushed him to blow the fan: "No need, I will wash it when I come back tomorrow morning and sleep more comfortably."
Mu Nan had no choice but to take out a set of clean clothes and towels from the space and hand them to him. While Qin Huai was washing, Mu Nan was putting things away in the house. He had put away all the things when he left before. The whole house was empty, without any breath of life, so he had to put all the things away before Jian Chu and the others came. Fortunately, there were many cabinets in their living room. Even if there didn't seem to be anything from the outside, there were so many cabinets and it was impossible for others to be so rude to rummage through the cabinets, so he could just pretend to do it outside.
Just as he took out everything he could think of from the space and put them outside ready, he heard the sound of knocking on the iron door, and Mu Nan hurried to open the door.
—Opening the door, a scent of soap hit her in the face. Jian Chu had had enough of the sour smell, so she subconsciously sniffed a few more times before she realized, "You took a shower? Do you have water in your house to take a shower?!"
Mu Nan said, "We can save a little bit. We bought a lot of water before. You guys come in first."
Mu Nan opened the door and let them come in first, but neither of them dared to go in, mainly because Mu Nan's house was too clean and they were all covered in dust. If Mu Nan hadn't taken a shower, they might have been more casual, but since Mu Nan had taken a shower, they felt they had to be careful to avoid even the slightest contact with him, otherwise they would dirty the bath water that he had worked so hard to clean.
There was only one rechargeable lamp on at home, but Qin Huai was going to install the solar panels later and would need more lighting, so Mu Nan took out the lamp he had prepared in advance from the cabinet, the kind with several lamps on one line, and connected it to the room where the solar panels were placed. When it was turned on, the whole house was instantly bright.
Mu Nan couldn't help but sigh: "Fortunately, the windows are partitioned and covered tightly, otherwise it would be too conspicuous now that the lights upstairs are on."
Jian Chu stood in the living room and took a curious look. He had never seen a solar generator before. Seeing the floor full of things, he couldn't help but ask, "How does this generate electricity?"
Mu Nan said, "This is for receiving solar energy. We will install it later. The generator is in another room. It seems to need to be connected. I don't know if it has storage batteries or some kind of conversion device. Anyway, as long as there is enough energy from the sun, it can be stored and used for electricity."
As soon as Mu Nan finished speaking, Qin Huai came out. He was a little clean, still with moisture on his body, but he obviously didn't use soap or shower gel. He probably just rubbed it hard with water. When he saw them coming, he asked, "Have you cleaned up over there?"
Yu Zibai said, "There are only a few things at home, it will be quick."
Qin Huai said: "If we are fast, we can probably finish it in the first half of the night. Will you go down together, or will one of you stay up there?"
Yu Zibai looked at Jian Chu and said, "Qin Huai and I will go down tonight, you stay at home."
Qin Huai said: "We'll see if the generator can be started during the day tomorrow, so we'll use the battery to power an air conditioner tonight."
Jian Chu's eyes widened instantly, obviously disagreeing, but Yu Zibai had already thought of what to say, so he said to Qin Huai and the others, "Wait a minute." Then he pulled Jian Chu to the door.
Jian Chu frowned and looked at Yu Zibai: "What are you going to do? What's the point of asking me to stay at home? Are you still worried about people stealing these little things? Or do you think I can't handle the situation outside?"
Yu Zibai said, "The earthquake happened yesterday and many people didn't react. Now they have reacted. Instead of searching through the ruins, wouldn't it be more convenient to search door to door in our building?"
Jian Chu: "Then there's nothing worth stealing in our house." The most valuable things are just some quilts and clothes, not even a few bottles of water. I'm afraid a thief wouldn't even bother to look at them.
Yu Zibai said, "Qin Huai will definitely not let Mu Nan go down. These days, they are mainly searching and rescuing people. There will definitely be a lot of seriously injured and dead people. Mu Nan is not like you who has been working in society for so many years. He looks like he just graduated from college. You see, he seems to be able to adapt well now. I feel that he probably hasn't really realized what the situation is like outside. If he is alone at home and someone is searching every floor and really trying to pry the door open, can he withstand it alone?"
Jian Chu said: "So you just want to keep me at home?"
Yu Zibai looked at him with some helplessness: "Xu Ming has joined the medical team now, which means there are four of us now. We can either act together or help each other. Do you think it's better for you to stay at home, or for me to stay at home? Besides, you just had an injection today, so just take a break and build up your strength. I'm afraid there are still many difficult days ahead, so there's no need to rush. And I remember that you worked part-time as an interior decorator, so you must be more familiar with bricklaying than us. After installing the solar panels and knocking down the wall, you and Mu Nan will have to do the follow-up work slowly at home. We can act separately to save time."
Hearing Yu Zibai say this, Jian Chu reluctantly accepted it. And thinking about it, it was true. Mu Nan was alone. If he was unlucky and someone came up to pry open the iron door, the solar generator alone would be a heavy loss. If he was injured in the dispute, it would be more serious. If a knife or iron rod hit him, Mu Nan's small body would be killed in an instant. Thinking about it this way, it was better to have more people stay at home to take care of him. He and Mu Nan could take care of each other at home, and Yu Zibai could also move around with Qin Huai without worry.
The two of them reached a temporary consensus. After returning to the house, Yu Zibai asked Jian Chu and Mu Nan to sit in the living room and fan themselves, while he and Qin Huai went into the room to install solar panels. He had never come across this before, but he was a science student after all, so he quickly got a direction after holding the blueprint.
Mu Nan knew that Qin Huai was planning to let Jian Chu stay with him today. Perhaps he didn't just take out a battery because he didn't want to show off his wealth. He probably wanted to have someone with him. Safety might not be the first thing to consider right now. After all, the earthquake had just happened and it hadn't completely disrupted the order. He probably wanted someone to accompany him to distract him so that he wouldn't have too many random thoughts when he was alone. Anyway, Mu Nan probably figured out what Qin Huai was thinking. In order to make Qin Huai feel more at ease, he didn't mind going along with Qin Huai's arrangements.
Seeing that Qin Huai and Yu Zibai had both started fighting, Mu Nan looked at Jian Chu: "How are we going to knock down this wall? There's even a cabinet built."
Jian Chu had done this before and was quite skilled at it, so he asked, "Do you have any tools? Hammers, or an electric drill would be even better."
Mu Nan dragged the entire toolbox over. Jian Chu looked at it and smiled: "The tools are quite complete. We only need to demolish this wall. First, knock down the cabinet. The cabinet is made of wood, so it's easy to knock down. The wall panels behind it are probably made of thin bricks, so it's easy."
Jian Chu found the tools and started working. As for Mu Nan, he asked him to help hold something to hold the wooden board. As it turned out, it was just as Jian Chu expected. The wall of their balcony was made of a thin brick. They didn't even need an electric drill. They knocked it all off with a little effort. Because there were only bricks and no steel bars, it was easier. The solar panels in the room hadn't been installed yet, but they had already opened up the balcony.
After getting through, he stepped out from Mu Nan's house to their balcony. It was pitch black outside, with only a few lights and busy figures below. It was too dark to see clearly, but the tall buildings that he used to see from the balcony were gone now. It was much more intuitive to see from above than from below, and Jian Chu couldn't help but tremble slightly.
Seeing him staring blankly outside, Mu Nan drew his attention back: "Jian Chu, is this size okay? Do you want to measure the size of the door?"
Jian Chu came back to his senses, exhaled slowly, hummed, and turned to go into the house. The balcony door Qin Huai mentioned was just an anti-theft door, but it was made according to the width of the corner of the balcony, so it was a bit big. Jian Chu and Mu Nan measured the dimensions together, and then started to work with cement. Although Mu Nan had supervised once before, he still had no idea how to do it. Seeing that Jian Chu was very skilled, he couldn't help but ask, "You can do these?"
Jian Chu smoothed the edges of the knocked-off bricks while saying, "Yes, I did. I worked part-time before, following those masons outside to do decoration for others, such as laying tiles, making ceilings, and installing doors. Although I am not as steady as those old masters, if you are not particular, it is okay to do it carelessly."
Mu Nan asked, "If we smooth it out today, can we install the door tomorrow?"
Jian Chu said, "No need to wait until tomorrow. With the temperature right now, the door can be installed before daybreak. After it's exposed to the sun during the day, it will be solid. Then we can use the glue to seal the gap and we'll be done."
The door was installed faster than they thought, but the door was too heavy. Jian Chu and Mu Nan had a hard time dragging it in. Qin Huai and Yu Zibai came to help install it. In order to prevent the door from being damaged by the high temperature, they covered it with two layers of film cloth removed from the room and made sure that the door lock could be smoothly entered and exited. Only then was the job done: "I left a hole here. When the time comes, we can run the wires out from here. We don't even have to open the door. If anything happens, this is like a back door for escaping."
Mu Nan quickly applauded: "Awesome!" His neighbor was simply an amazing person.
Seeing that Jian Chu was still covered in dust, Mu Nan said, "Do you have any clean clothes? If not, I have a vest here. You can keep the clothes you picked up earlier for going out. It's better to wear them at home to keep cool. We still have some water at home. You can take a shower first. There is only one air conditioner and it's too hot to sleep on the bed. I'll spread a mat on the ground and we can sleep on it."
Jian Chu quickly said: "No, we still have some water, I'll wipe it off later."
Mu Nan carried a large bucket of water and walked to the bathroom: "Just wash it casually, rub it with a towel, there is a basin here, you can use the basin to collect water, and the dirty water can also be used to flush the toilet."
Jian Chu felt that it was too extravagant to take a shower with water, but since everyone else had done it, he felt that he would be looked down upon for being too unrefined, so he could only wash his body with as little water as possible. However, after taking a shower, he felt much more relaxed, and his body felt much more relaxed. When he came out, Mu Nan had already spread the mat on the ground, and was lying on the ground looking at his phone. The things that had been removed from the house had been cleaned up and piled on the corridor outside, because a layer of snakeskin bags had been spread on the ground before, and the bags were rolled up, so the ground was still relatively clean.
Qin Huai and Yu Zibai were laying out the wiring in the room. They were not professionals and were not very good at it. Fortunately, Qin Huai had watched a lot of videos in advance and consulted professionals when buying solar panels. It went smoothly after some trial and error.
Jian Chu stood at the door and looked at the two of them: "Do you need help?"
Yu Zibai said, "No need. We're almost done here. You can go out and enjoy the air conditioning." There was also a fan at their door, but it was just an ordinary electric fan. Jian Chu had just taken a shower, so there was no need for him to sweat again.
Seeing that they didn't need help and Jian Chu didn't understand these things, so as not to make things worse, he didn't bother to get involved. So he returned to the living room and sat on the mat. The cool air from the air conditioner blew on his body and relieved a lot of the heat. In such a hot temperature, it was like going to heaven in a second: "Can this ice crystal still be used? It can actually blow out cold air."
Mu Nan said, "It's still okay. Although it's melted a little, we have frozen a lot of ice in the freezer. When I looked at it just now, the ice crystals were still ice cubes. It will be fine tomorrow after tonight."
Jian Chu asked casually with emotion: "Why did you prepare a solar generator? It's so life-saving."
Mu Nan and Qin Huai had already discussed their excuses: "During the epidemic, there was a power outage. Later, the temperature kept rising, and my brother was afraid that the power supply would not be able to handle it, so he bought a set to keep at home. Even if it is not used, it can be installed after moving to a new house. I didn't expect that it would be used in such a situation."
Looking at the boxes of food neatly stacked on the ground, Jian Chu said, "Do you think our country can recover this time? We don't know when the rescue will arrive."
Mu Nan: "Yes, as long as humans don't all become extinct overnight, they will be able to recover."
Jian Chu smiled and said, "I used to feel that my life was quite hard. I saw that others only needed to focus on studying and didn't have to worry about anything. Unlike me, I had to earn every penny for food and drink. But now I feel that I was really happy back then. At least I had a goal to work towards every day. Now, I don't know what tomorrow will be like."
Mu Nan said, "What else can it be? Just live day by day. It's fine as long as the people around you are still here. And now you should be thankful for all the hardships you've endured in the past. Without the skills you learned under the pressure of life, you wouldn't be able to install the door so smoothly today. If we had to figure it out on our own, we might not be able to get the door fixed until tomorrow."
Jian Chu glanced at him and said with a smile: "That's true, if you lose something, you will gain something."
Mu Nan asked curiously, "You and Yu Zibai are really not a couple?" If they were just friends and roommates, that would be too close. It felt like even if they weren't a couple now, it was just that the last layer of paper window hadn't been broken. Anyway, there was a lot of potential.
Jian Chu subconsciously glanced at the people in the room, but they spoke in low voices, and the two people in the room were concentrating on installing the solar panels, so they obviously didn't hear it. So Jian Chu asked back: "Why do you think we are a couple?"
Mu Nan said: "It's the aura and atmosphere. There's light in the way you look at each other."
Jian Chu said with a smile: "Such Qiong Yao's words? Then I would say that there is also light in the eyes when you and your brother look at each other."
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