Chapter 53
Before the two of them had a deep conversation about Youguanglun, the person installing the solar panels came out of the room with the already connected wires, and then pulled them to the generator in another room. The subsequent work was much simpler. According to the drawings, they just had to install the wires of different colors on which sockets and that was it.
When the other party came out, Jian Chu kept silent. Mu Nan was not the kind of person who couldn't control his mouth. It was their own business, so they should solve it themselves. So he stopped talking. The two of them sat on the mat in surprisingly consistent postures, facing the people busy in the room. When Qin Huai came out, he saw Mu Nan's well-behaved sitting posture and said with a smile: "You installed the door by yourself? Great, you must be tired, lie down and take a nap."
Mu Nan shook his head: "Do you want to eat something? Eat more so that you can have the energy to do other things."
Qin Huai said: "I'm not hungry. There are still some steamed buns left. I'll eat some later."
Qin Huai and Yu Zibai installed the generator very quickly. As for whether it can be started and run smoothly, that would depend on tomorrow. The room where the generator is placed is still covered tightly. After all, it is a power generation device and needs to be shielded from the high temperature outside. In the other room where the solar panels are installed, all the covers inside and outside have been removed. After several months, they can finally see the scenery outside through the window, but now, all they can see are ruins. There are no more lights from thousands of homes, and no more lights from cars.
Qin Huai took a look and turned around and said, "Let's go out. It's almost time for us to go down after we clean up."
Yu Zibai nodded, followed Qin Huai out of the room, and then closed the door, but his steps became heavier.
Seeing them coming out, Mu Nan waved them quickly: "Come over and cool down. What do you want to put in your buns? Come and choose for yourself."
Mu Nan took out the snacks that were packed in individual packages, including kelp shreds, lotus root cubes, beef cubes, and the best pickled mustard. Now that Jian Chu and the others were here, Mu Nan could only take out these individually packed snacks. These things were long-lasting. Except for the mustard, the others could only be considered snacks, but now they were suitable to be eaten with steamed buns. If Jian Chu and the others were not here, Mu Nan would probably have taken out some cold dishes and porridge.
Thinking that they would be going to participate in the rescue soon, they would inevitably come into contact with some seriously injured or dead bodies, some mutilated limbs, or even scenes of ruptured stomachs and intestines. They would probably not be able to eat anything when they come back, so they tried to eat as much as possible now, but they didn't know if they would be unable to help vomiting later.
Mu Nan gave each of them a pair of disposable gloves and asked them to eat directly with the gloves on to avoid having to wash their hands. It was better to save water as much as possible.
Yu Zibai smiled and said, "Is this a contribution to your snack stock?"
Mu Nan also laughed: "Of course not. If we leave them for a while, they will be too hot to eat. Let's eat them now while they are still edible. Take whatever you want and put it in the steamed buns. Otherwise, the steamed buns will taste bland."
Jian Chu and Yu Zibai were not the kind of people who liked to take advantage of others, so they only took a bag of diced lotus roots and shared one bag. They tore the steamed bun in half and put the lotus roots inside the bun. The salty and spicy taste did stimulate their appetite.
While they were eating, Mu Nan dragged out another box from the cabinet. Of course, he had put these there before Jian Chu and the others came. Anyway, Qin Huai couldn't hide it from Yu Zibai since he had them with him. If something really happened, Qin Huai would not refuse to give them to Yu Zibai, so he just cleaned them up in front of them.
The waist bag was one that Mu Nan had used before. It wasn't too big, but it wasn't too small either. It could still hold a lot of things. Mu Nan put a bottle of cooling spray, a bottle of pain-relieving and hemostatic spray, some disinfectant hemostatic powder, a small bag of cotton balls, gauze, and a pack of dressings in it. If he accidentally got scratched while moving rocks outside, he could clean and disinfect it at any time. Seeing that there was still a gap inside, he stuffed a few more cold compress wipes in until the bag was bulging.
"Brother, I have prepared everything for you. You must be careful when you save people. Especially, don't step on empty space. Stay away from places with steel bars. Do it within your ability, okay?"
Qin Huai smiled and replied, "I understand. I promise to come back safe and sound tomorrow morning."
Mu Nan handed the waist bag to Qin Huai, then searched the drawer and took out a pack of work gloves. He gave each of them two pairs: "Wear thicker ones to avoid scratching your hands."
Jian Chu, who was watching from the side, exclaimed: "Your family has so many things."
Mu Nan didn't say anything. Qin Huai smiled and said, "I've lived in this old house for more than 20 years. All my belongings are here."
Jian Chu thought so too. They are tenants. Whenever they want to buy something, they have to consider whether it will be too troublesome to move. There is a difference between home and a rental house. Alas, today is another day when I envy my neighbors.
Qin Huai and Yu Zibai ate a little, but they were ready to go out. Before they went out, they asked Mu Nan and Jian Chu to empty one of their backpacks. Saving people is one thing, but if they found something useful, they could bring some back. Seeing Jian Chu filling water for Yu Zibai, Mu Nan ran to the kitchen and took out a thermos from the space behind the kitchen cabinet door. After pouring some water into the kettle, he filled a full kettle with ice and put a bottle of water in Qin Huai's backpack: "Remember to drink from time to time, don't get dehydrated."
Qin Huai responded without any impatience: "Got it, little housekeeper." Mu Nan and Jian Chu didn't sit down again until the two of them went out together. Although they felt a little tired physically after taking a nap during the day, they were not mentally sleepy. Seeing a few bags they picked up when they went upstairs piled at the door, Jian Chu got up and planned to check them out.
Mu Nan handed Jian Chu a pair of gloves: "Put them on and take a look. In case there are some personal belongings inside, it's better to avoid direct contact."
Jian Chuyi thought so too, so he put on gloves and started to rummage through things. The first bag he opened blinded their eyes. The bag was not too big, just an ordinary black briefcase, but inside the bag were bundles of money. The thickness of a bundle looked to be about 10,000 yuan, so this bundle contained 100,000 yuan. In addition, there were a bunch of gold jewelry, including gold bracelets, gold necklaces, gold rings, and gold earrings.
Jian Chu and Mu Nan looked at each other in surprise: "This is too valuable."
Mu Nan shook his head: "Money is no longer valuable, but the gold can be kept. Gold can be used as hard currency at any time."
Jian Chu was still a little uncertain: "Money is worthless? When the outside rescue comes, we will always rebuild here. If we go to other cities in the future, this money can also be used."
Jian Chu treated the earthquake just like other people, thinking it was a local earthquake. As the communication was cut off, he didn't know the situation outside, so he was still waiting for rescue. When he saw money while rummaging through things, he would quickly put it into his bag. He never thought that the world would collapse that night.
Mu Nan also thought so at this time in his previous life. He thought that the earthquake was only happening in their area. Although it seemed a little tragic, just like the cities that had experienced earthquakes in the past, they would be able to wait for rescue and rebuild their homes. Unfortunately, they soon realized that everything was gone.
So Mu Nan didn't say much, just said: "Then you keep the money, we don't want it, let's split the gold in half."
Jian Chu quickly shook his head: "How can that be possible? We can all take half of the things we picked up together."
Mu Nan didn't argue with him. Money was useless anyway. It was hard to burn firewood in winter. Since Jian Chu had given it to him, he would just leave it there.
There was not much in the second bag, just some documents, clothes and a few bottles of water. They definitely didn't want the clothes, but they could keep the water, a few unopened bottles of water, which could be used for drinking or washing. In addition, they also found some gold jewelry and bank cards in the interlayer of the bag.
Jian Chu put the valuables aside, and Mu Nan put all the documents back. "When they go downstairs tomorrow, ask them to put the bag back in the corridor. Maybe they will come back to look for it."
Jian Chu nodded. After all, there were documents and other things in the bags. After searching through all the bags he had picked up along the way, he found more than a dozen bottles of water, seven or eight packets of instant noodles, and a bunch of gold jewelry. After searching through all this, he was sweating even though the air conditioner was blowing.
After temporarily piling up the useless things outside the door and dividing up the valuables, Jian Chu asked, "Are we making money from the national disaster?"
Mu Nan glanced at the small pile of gold on the ground: "Does this count as getting rich?"
Jian Chu looked outside the door, feeling a little restless. He didn't know how many households had returned to the building, but those who had returned should be from the lower floors. After all, the power was out, and the people living on the higher floors might not be willing to climb up. In other words, the upper floors might be empty. He really wanted to pry the door open, even if it would be good to find a few more bottles of water. But just thinking about it, Yu Zibai's disapproving face appeared in his mind, forcing Jian Chu to swear.
Mu Nan, who was taking off his gloves and using a wet tissue to wipe his hands, looked at him and asked, "What's wrong?"
Jian Chu said: "Would you like to search upstairs?"
Mu Nan shook his head: "Let's not do that. Our building didn't collapse. The residents upstairs must have all escaped safely. When they get home, they'll find their homes have been robbed. It will be a huge blow to them. Wait a little longer. We'll go downstairs with them in a couple of days and look through the ruins. We'll be able to find a lot of stuff."
Jian Chu returned to the mat and watched Mu Nan find two small bags and put the gold that had just been divided into them into bags. Then he said, "Do you think my idea just now was immoral?" So it turned out that his values were not right. Normal people didn't seem to have the kind of idea that he had just had.
Mu Nan smiled when he heard that: "No, it's normal. Most people would think this way at this time. I still have a lot of water at home. Look over there, there are so many buckets. If I had nothing at home, I would probably want to collect some food and drinks before others come back. If I have nothing, it's more important to save my life."
And most importantly, there are a lot of things in his space, so he doesn't lack that one thing, but maybe others just lack that one thing at home, and maybe they can survive because of that one mouthful of water or food. So it's normal for Jian Chu to have such thoughts. He doesn't have such thoughts just because he has the confidence to survive. Jian Chu asked, so he naturally said what he thought. If Jian Chu didn't ask and did it directly, he wouldn't think there was anything wrong.
Jian Chu sighed. It was just an idea. If he really had to pry the door open now, he might not be able to get over it because of the ideological education lessons Yu Zibai had given him over the years. Looking at the lights in the room, Jian Chu said, "Turn off the lights and sleep for a while. Save some electricity. If the solar panel is not installed tomorrow, this battery can still last."
Mu Nan also felt that there was nothing to do. Although he might not be able to sleep, after all, he was still worried about Qin Huai outside, but there was no point in just sitting there. He might as well lie down and sleep if he could. If he couldn't sleep, he would count the things in the space. Before turning off the lights, Mu Nan put two bottles of water on the ground, one on Jian Chu's side and one on his side, so that he wouldn't have to get up to get water when he got thirsty.
The room fell into darkness again, with only the air-conditioning fan still humming. Mu Nan turned sideways with his back to Jian Chu. After just a moment of separation, he already missed his brother.
At this moment, Qin Huai had already registered with the soldiers in charge of their community, and then followed them to start clearing from the center of the community. The residents here were more densely populated, and there were more people buried underneath.
Someone saw Qin Huai and Yu Zibai wearing gloves and asked hurriedly, "Where can I get the gloves?"
Qin Huai said: "From home."
The man was surprised: "Home?" What kind of home is there now? Looking around, everything has collapsed.
Qin Huai said: "Luckily, my house didn't collapse and I live on a low floor. I went home and took a look. I found my gloves and they were still usable."
Hearing this, the people nearby felt a little uncomfortable. Of course, this discomfort was not because they were jealous of others who had gloves, but because their homes were still there, unlike them, who had lost their homes and didn't know whether their family members were still alive. Thinking of this, their hearts suddenly ached, and they moved the stones fiercely while shedding tears.
Maybe they were lucky, as they were in charge of the rescue and cleanup. They hadn't moved for a while when they heard some noise from below. Yu Zibai was the first to hear it, but he couldn't hear it clearly because the noise was too chaotic. Everyone was moving bricks and throwing stones around, so he shouted, "Stop! Stop!"
Hearing his shout, the others subconsciously stopped and asked, "What's wrong?"
Yu Zibai asked, "Listen, is there any sound coming up from below?"
The others quickly pricked up their ears to listen. The person closest to the source of the sound almost fell to the ground, and then shouted in surprise: "Someone is still alive! There is still someone alive down there! Come and help, hurry up!" The voice was so loud that it broke. People around who heard it quickly gathered around, and the speed of moving the bricks and stones instantly increased countless times.
Soon a gap was created in the area where they were. Someone leaned over the hole, shone a light and shouted, "Is there anyone inside? If there is, please make some noise."
The sound of hammering steel bars came from below again, which cheered up many people. Their neighborhood was full of high-rise buildings, more than 20 floors. If people on the lower floors were fast enough, they might be able to run out when the building collapsed, but people on the higher floors could only wait to die. So it was more like clearing corpses than rescue. In the hour or so of clearing, many mutilated corpses were cleared out, and almost no living people were seen. It was really lucky to find survivors at this time.
After more than two hours of struggle, they finally made a hole for someone to go down, because there seemed to be a pit inside, probably some building stones piled up on top of each other, which created a safe space, which was quite high from the ground, so they could only let someone go down to check the situation and use a rope to hoist the person up. It was obviously unrealistic to expect the person below to climb up by themselves.
However, no one had any experience in rescue, so who should go down became a problem. Qin Huai had learned about this, but had no actual experience. He checked the environment inside and thought that if he was lucky and there was no secondary collapse, it would not be difficult to rescue the people. Just as he was about to try, someone came out and said, "I'll do it. I have experience. I have participated in earthquake rescue operations before."
Hearing that he had experience, the people nearby hurried forward to help tie the rope, and they slowly lowered the man down. There was no movement for a while, because they were afraid that the noise would be too loud and cause vibrations, so they didn't dare to shout loudly. After a while, someone pulled the rope from below, and the people who had been waiting hurriedly pulled the rope up quickly. Someone kept shining a flashlight inside, and when they could almost see the man, they excitedly shouted: "Hurry up, hurry up, it's a child!!"
When the first child was pulled up, he was unconscious and his face was deathly pale, but at least he was still breathing. Someone carried the child directly to the military resettlement site. They finally rescued one child. If the rescue had been delayed, all their efforts would have been in vain.
Soon, the rope that had been lowered made another sound, and everyone pulled it up together. This time it was an older girl. The girl was in okay condition. Although she was a little exhausted, she was still conscious and was crying weakly for her mother.
Qin Huai walked over, tore off a piece of chocolate that Mu Nan had put in his bag and put it into the little girl's mouth: "Wait a little longer, your parents will be rescued soon."
Before he could finish his words, there was a vibration under his feet. Qin Huai picked up the little girl and ran to the side. The others also retreated in a hurry. In just a few breaths, the hole that had just been opened collapsed again.
Everyone's faces turned pale instantly, and they immediately rushed forward to dig open the hole: "Hurry up! There are still people inside!" In addition to the people who were buried underneath, there were also people who went down later to rescue them!
It was almost dawn, and everyone was exhausted and sat on the side of the road. Finally, the collapsed hole was dug open, and the people inside were carried out. There were a few more pieces of cloth covering the morgue. One of them was the man who took the initiative to go down to rescue. The man was Zhang Bin, 32 years old. Seven years ago, he was still in the army and participated in an earthquake rescue. He saved countless people that time. Seven years later, he personally rescued two children again, but he himself no longer had a tomorrow.
Seeing that they hadn't returned even when it was already daybreak, Jian Chu and Mu Nan, who hadn't slept all night, couldn't sit still any longer. They opened a gap at the door and listened to the movement on the stairs. Especially Mu Nan, he knew that rescue was also very dangerous, because what collapsed was a high-rise building, not a low-rise bungalow. If you stepped on empty space and fell into it, the space inside might be very deep, and there were some exposed steel bars, which could poke you if you weren't careful. Mu Nan had seen too many such situations in his previous life. At that time, he was timid and didn't dare to go to many places. He only dared to crawl on some flat ground, so he avoided a lot of dangers. Because he knew the danger, he panicked when he saw that Qin Huai hadn't returned even when it was already daybreak.
After waiting for a long time, until they were about to go downstairs to look for someone, they finally heard footsteps coming up the stairs. At this time, the only people who climbed up so high could be Qin Huai and his friends, so Mu Nan rushed to the door and shone the flashlight towards the stairs: "Brother? Are you back?"
Qin Huai responded, and after a while, Mu Nan finally saw them and felt relieved.
Before he could ask why it was so late, Qin Huai came up and hugged him tightly. Mu Nan was stunned for a moment, and subconsciously touched him: "What's wrong? Are you hurt? Are you hurt?"
Qin Huai, who had not stopped for a moment the whole night, said in a hoarse voice: "You are not hurt, let me hug you."
Mu Nan could only try his best to stand firm and support Qin Huai's entire body weight.
Jian Chu, who was standing by, quickly ran towards Yu Zibai: "What's wrong with you? What happened?"
Yu Zibai shook his head at him. Although he also wanted to find someone to hug like Qin Huai and absorb some warmth and strength, the relationship between him and Jian Chu had not yet reached that stage, so he could only say: "It's okay, I'm just tired. I saved a few people and dragged out a few bodies. I didn't stop all night."
Mu Nan patted Qin Huai's back gently: "The solar generator can operate normally, but it needs to store a little electricity to drive the air conditioner. We will have electricity at about noon. Let's go home first, take a good shower and have a good sleep."
Jian Chu also said to Yu Zibai, "Let's go home too. We've been waiting for you for a long time but you didn't come back. Mu Nan and I connected all the wires. Solar power can't power the air conditioner yet, but electric fans are fine. We later swept the stairs on the other side and picked up several bottles of water. Go wash them first. Don't save water. After all, you moved corpses before, so you'd better be careful. Let's go back first."
Yu Zibai nodded, and followed Jian Chu back to their respective homes.
There were no outsiders at home, so Mu Nan asked Qin Huai to sit on a small stool, took out an air-conditioning fan from the space and blew it towards him. He gave the air-conditioning fan from home to Jian Chu and the others, and wiped his face and hands with a wet towel. There were indeed no wounds on his body, but there were many scratches on his hands. His hands were wrapped in gloves, and he sweated a lot. At this moment, his entire palms and fingertips were whitened by sweat, which made Mu Nan's eyes red.
Qin Huai rubbed his hair and smiled softly: "Nannan, I have never felt so deeply that we are still alive. It's great."
Mu Nan squatted in front of Qin Huai and looked up at him: "Why don't we not go out tonight? Let's take a day and take it slow, okay?"
Qin Huai lowered his head slightly and kissed Mu Nan on the forehead without any distractions: "It's okay, seeing you makes everything better."
Mu Nan was amused by what he said: "You talk as if I am your life-extending elixir."
Qin Huai looked at him with a smile in his eyes and thought to himself, you are not a life-extending elixir, you are my life.
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