Chapter 66
If only Da Niu said this, the two soldiers would have somewhat suspected that this man was relying on his ruthlessness to force others to switch houses with him. But now there was the testimony of other neighbors on this floor, and the two soldiers' expressions instantly turned cold when they looked at the old and the young.
Before they could say anything, the old lady of the Zhang family sat down on the ground and began to cry: "I don't want to live anymore! This world is so cruel. My house was robbed and no one cares! I can't go home. The soldiers don't help the common people, but help the evil people bully others!"
Before they could say anything, the man started howling. Although Da Niu had a rough appearance and any expression made people feel ferocious, his eyes were truly innocent. He even subconsciously took a step back when Mrs. Zhang was sitting on the ground, fearing that he would be involved with her.
The soldier glanced at Daniu, who said quickly, "I really didn't force them to move houses. They took the initiative to find my house. Anyway, I suffered a lot in the early stage. Now I finally have an elevator and can go up and down smoothly. I mean, I won't go down no matter what. It's not that the weak are right just because they cry."
The soldier waved his hand with a headache: "You go in."
Old Lady Zhang grabbed the soldier's hand and said, "You can't do this! Soldiers don't serve the people. What kind of soldiers are you? This is my home! We want to move back to our own home now!"
Another soldier who looked a little younger said impatiently: "How can such a good thing happen in the world? You changed the house yourselves, and now you know that the conditions above are better, you come to make trouble. If everyone is like you, you deserve to be beaten to death!"
Old Lady Zhang couldn't stand what she said. "How can you talk like that? You're cursing me to death! Believe it or not, I'm going to report you! What's your name? I'm going to report you to your superior!"
The soldier sneered, grabbed his grandson and pulled him towards the elevator. Seeing her grandson being dragged away, Old Lady Zhang immediately pounced on him, screaming like a pig being slaughtered.
His grandson was silent from beginning to end. He did not resist when being dragged away, but his clenched fists revealed his uneasy heart. He was spoiled by his grandparents. Compared with his parents, he had a deeper affection for these two elderly people. However, being spoiled since childhood did not mean that his values were distorted. He never thought about how bad his family members were. Although he knew that they liked to take advantage of some small advantages, who doesn't like to take advantage? Nine out of ten people would want to take advantage of some harmless small advantages, but when the behavior of taking advantage of others is so bad that it harms people's lives, the nature is completely different.
His grandfather was afraid of being taken advantage of in the elevator, so he refused to give up the water. In the end, he was rescued, but his grandfather was gone. He didn't understand whether a bottle of water was really that important. People said they were willing to repay double the amount, but his father said that his grandfather did it all for him, so that he would have something to eat and drink. But did they really need that bottle of water? No, that's not the case.
After the earthquake, they settled in tents. A family of three luckily escaped, but their child seemed to have asthma, so when they fled, the first thing they took was the medical emergency kit. As a result, that kit disappeared. Later, the child had an asthma attack and was taken to the medical team. He didn't know whether there was any medicine for emergency treatment, but he saw two boards of anti-inflammatory drugs in his own bag that were not there before.
Later, it was clearly his grandmother who said that living lower would make it easier to escape and that climbing stairs would not be so tiring, but now she is turning the tables and accusing others of occupying his house.
Zhang Zicong couldn't stand such a reversal of right and wrong, but that was his grandmother, who loved him the most. Even if there was only one bite of food left at home, he would definitely give it to his grandmother. He couldn't blame her, but he couldn't get over the hurdle in his heart. Apart from silence, he didn't know how to react to face such a family member that he couldn't accept, but couldn't give up.
Because Zhang Zicong was pulled into the elevator, Old Lady Zhang was afraid that these people would do something to her grandson, so she naturally followed them. The two soldiers could not use force to deal with such an old man. Anyway, they would not care about him after getting him down. As for whether Old Lady Zhang would make trouble again, they could not control it. Anyway, Mr. Niu did not look like someone who would suffer any loss.
After the people went downstairs, Daniu came out and moved the wardrobe, blocking the elevator again, and then went back into the house.
After watching the excitement, Mu Nan sighed and said, "Those soldiers have such a hard time. They have to save people, clean up corpses, protect against the plague, and deal with things like this. It's too hard."
Mu Nan said, "They are like a sharp sword, able to defend against enemies and stay quietly in the scabbard when not needed. At times like this, it seems that we rarely see people from the government." But that can't be said, at least the people in their community are still responsible for planning and arrangements, but for some reason, looking at those in military uniforms makes people feel safer.
Qin Huai said: "Their obedience determines their ability to respond to emergencies and disasters. The government can only do some logistics or overall planning, but only the army can reach the people. This is why whenever a major disaster occurs, the first thing people think of to come to the rescue is the People's Liberation Army."
Mu Nan sighed again that it was so hard, and then became happy again: "It seems that the Zhang family will not be able to come back. It's so strange. I obviously don't have much interaction with their family, and it seems that I haven't said anything to them until now. Why do I instinctively dislike their family?"
Qin Huai smiled and said, "Maybe it's because of the incompatibility of their auras. That Grandma Zhang is a restless person. If her family runs out of water and food in the future, she won't just shut herself in and endure it slowly. She will definitely ask the neighbors for help. If you help her, she will be greedy and take advantage of it. If you don't help, I'm afraid you will curse her ancestors for eighteen generations. So it's hard to have any good feelings towards such a person."
Mu Nan wiped the sweat off his body from watching the fun, then sat on the bed and fanned himself with a small fan: "Xu Ming didn't come out just now, I don't know if he was hiding behind the door watching the fun."
Qin Huai: "How many days has he been in self-isolation?"
Mu Nan crawled over and flipped through the calendar: "It's been seven or eight days, there shouldn't be anything wrong. Do you think he will live in Jian Chu's house by then?"
Qin Huai shook his head: "If the temperature doesn't continue to rise and stays at this level, he would probably prefer to stay at home and use the air conditioner."
People like Xu Ming seem close to you, but they are actually very distant and not easy to make friends with. But at the same time, as long as you don't make enemies, they won't take the initiative to plot against you. In today's society, even brothers can betray each other, so it's not easy to find a friend you can confide in. So it's good to be able to cooperate with each other without harming others and others not harming you.
Thinking of this, Qin Huai couldn't help but rubbed Mu Nan's hair. He was so lucky to have Mu Nan by his side in this life.
Mu Nan, who was suddenly rubbed on the head: "The expression you just had..."
Qin Huai smiled: "What expression?"
Mu Nan: "...It's like my puppy is so cute."
Qin Huai smiled even more when he heard that. Isn't that very cute?
She didn't know whether the Zhang family went to the military headquarters to make trouble again, or came upstairs again later, but because the elevator door was blocked, she couldn't move such a heavy wardrobe by herself, so she had to go downstairs. Anyway, after that, their floor returned to peace. But Jian Chu said that they could often hear a woman coughing from Daniu's house at home.
At first, Jian Chu was worried that someone in their family might be sick, but they have been living here for almost half a month, and the coughing has been going on, proving that the person is still alive. Even if he is sick, it should not be an infectious plague, otherwise he would not have survived for so long. But after all, there seems to be a patient at home, so Yu Zibai sprays the door with the disinfectant for people and pets that he brought back from Xu Ming's pet hospital several times a day. There is no need to save it now. Although I don't know if it will work, it is better than doing nothing.
Compared to Yu Zibai's pet spray, Qin Huai would wear protective clothing to disinfect the corridor every day. They had prepared a lot of disinfectant at the beginning, and if they didn't use it now, when would they use it? Although the elevator and stairs were blocked, they were afraid that sick people would pass by, and the anti-theft doors on the stairs could stop people but not rats and mosquitoes. The disinfectant could at least disperse it. After all, the smell was still quite pungent. Anyway, they felt at ease living at home by spraying it once a day.
Qin Huai would light mosquito coils at the entrance of their house and the balcony door every day. Mosquito coils could not be used at home because it was sealed and airtight, so they could only be lit at the door. Now, except for the door being opened occasionally to go in and out, all the gaps in other places were sealed with tape, so there was no need to worry about mosquitoes. The protection inside and outside had reached the extreme, and the rest could only depend on fate.
After a busy day, seeing that it was almost dawn, Qin Huai and Mu Nan ate a little and went to bed. However, Mu Nan did not sleep very deeply. He kept waking up and down restlessly. He could not sleep any longer, so he took out his cell phone to check the time. It was not even noon. Usually they were sleeping soundly at this time. Since he started to reverse his day and night schedule, he seldom woke up at this time.
As soon as he moved, Qin Huai woke up. Before he opened his eyes, he reached out to the side and gently patted Mu Nan's body: "What's wrong? You keep tossing and turning."
Mu Nan lay down for a while, and couldn't help but sit up. Qin Huai quickly turned on the small lamp at the head of the bed and got up as well: "What's wrong?"
Mu Nan frowned uncomfortably: "I feel a little stuffy."
Qin Huai got out of bed and turned on the main light in the living room. Mu Nan squinted uncomfortably. Qin Huai touched his forehead and asked, "Are you feeling uncomfortable? In addition to chest tightness, what else is causing you discomfort?"
Mu Nan shook his head: "I feel like it's going to rain."
Qin Huai was stunned: "Raining?" He walked to the window, lifted a corner of the window to look out. The sun was shining brightly in the sky, and there was no sign of rain at all.
But Mu Nan said that it felt like it was going to rain, so the possibility of rain was very high. He was more sensitive to rain than the weather forecast. He had been like this since he was a child. As long as the weather was about to change, especially in the summer, before the rain came down, he would feel particularly damp and stuffy. Although rain could cool down the temperature, it was not necessarily a good thing to rain at this time. Not to mention that the rain would spread some viruses further, the supplies that had not yet been collected from the ruins would probably be washed away by the rain. Not to mention, the bodies that had not yet been removed from the ruins would be soaked by the rain. Just thinking about it made the situation serious.
Mu Nan did remember that it rained at this time in his previous life, and the plague broke out particularly fiercely after the rain, but he naturally couldn't remember exactly when the rain fell. Not to mention that it had been almost a year or two, even if it had been a month or so, he might not be able to remember the date when it rained on a certain day. But now this stuffy feeling before the rain was telling him that the rain was about to come.
Although the air conditioner was on in the room, Mu Nan still felt too stuffy to lie down. However, he was also very sleepy. Qin Huai had no choice but to reach out and pull him to him, just like he did every rainy season when they were children: "I'll hold you and sleep for a while."
Mu Nan shook his head: "You are so grown up, and you still want to sleep in my arms. If you can't sleep, just don't sleep. Anyway, it won't be stuffy after the rain. You go to sleep and I'll watch a movie."
Since Mu Nan wasn't sleeping, how could Qin Huai sleep? He simply asked Mu Nan to take out the pot of cooked chicken feet. The feet had been cooked before, but removing the bones was a delicate job. At that time, there were still many dishes with spices that had not been cooked, so these things that took time and would not produce too much smell were left in Mu Nan's space, just to kill time when he couldn't go out but couldn't make any noise or smell too strong.
Mu Nan took out a long low table from the space, and placed the computer on one side. He then leaned on the bed with a pillow in his arms to watch a movie, and placed the food box on the other side. A cushion was put on the bed, and Qin Huai placed the big pot of chicken feet on the cushion. Next to him was a lunch box specially for bones. It was easy to debone the cooked chicken feet, and the bones could be removed with a knife. Mu Nan looked at the chicken feet bones that still had some meat on them, and said, "Are you going to throw away these bones?" He felt it was a waste to throw away anything that could be eaten.
Qin Huai: "You can keep them. They can be used as soup base, to make bone soup. The soup can be used to cook noodles. At least it is more nutritious than noodles cooked in plain water."
Mu Nan said, "That's a good use of the bones. If we have a dog at home, we can boil them and feed them to the dog."
Qin Huai smiled and said, "You can eat it if you want if it's cooked. It can also supplement calcium."
It took Mu Nan a while to react: "I'm not a dog!"
Qin Huai laughed, and his movements became more and more skillful and fast. Soon, the pot of chicken feet was cleaned up. He asked Mu Nan to put the bones and pot into the space, and asked Mu Nan to take out the soup that had been prepared long ago, and poured it all into the food box that contained the chicken feet and sealed it: "Put it in the refrigerator for two days and then put it in the space."
Mu Nan: "I see that they debone the chicken feet and cook them again in this soup base to make them more flavorful."
Qin Huai: "It will be tasty this way. If you want to eat it hot, just heat it up when the time comes."
Mu Nan smelled the spicy lemon scent in the air and couldn't help but ask, "Brother, can I have some chicken wings?"
Qin Huai turned his head and glanced at him, thinking that he was not feeling well at the moment, so he indulged him a little: "You can only eat a little."
Mu Nan quickly got up, took a lunch box of small wings, and two cans of Coke: "Brother, you have worked hard, come and cool down."
Qin Huai took off his gloves and wiped his hands with a wet wipe before taking the Coke.
Mu Nan put on gloves and took out a small trash can that he could hold on his body. He put a small trash bag inside it so that he could spit out the bones he had gnawed. In the past, he would spit out food with more bones than meat when he had almost gnawed it. Now he would eat the small crisp bones that he could chew, and would chew the ones that he couldn't chew cleanly without leaving any meat before spitting them out. As a result, he ate very slowly and he had even finished watching a whole movie without eating much.
Just when I was about to look for the next movie, there was a sudden loud bang outside, and then it started to rain like water.
Qin Huai got out of bed, drew aside the curtains and looked out. The sky, which had been sunny for most of half a year, had finally turned gloomy, with dark clouds and heavy rain.
The thunder was so loud, it was like it was hitting my ears. I don't know if it was because everything collapsed after the earthquake, so the sound was unobstructed, and it was as if it was going to split the sky apart. Although Mu Nan had a premonition that it would rain, he was still startled by the thunder. The tip of the wing in his hand fell on the bed with a snap. Fortunately, he was afraid that oil would drip onto the bed, so he laid a mat specially. So he glanced at Qin Huai who was looking at the situation outside the window, and quickly picked up the fallen one and put it in his mouth.
Qin Huai lowered the curtains again and checked the kitchen and bathroom to see if there was any water seepage through the sealing tape. The room where the generator was placed was sealed tightly and no water got in. As the weather in the other room was gloomy and there was no sun, Qin Huai closed the windows. He just didn't know how long the rain would last. The power stored in their generator could only last for three days at most.
After Qin Huai finished checking his home, he heard screaming and cheering outside. It had been almost a year since it rained. The scorching sun was hanging high in the sky. It had been a long time since they had seen rain and how long had it been since they could go out and see the light of day. Many people even thought that this might be a sign that the disaster was over. After the rain, the climate might slowly return to normal, just like the smog that suddenly came and disappeared before, the strange heat would also dissipate with this rain.
It was raining, so Mu Nan put all the things that shouldn't be outside into the space, for he was afraid that the people next door would suddenly come over. Sure enough, after a while, Jian Chu called him on the intercom.
Jian Chu: "Mu Nan, Mu Nan, are you awake?"
Mu Nan: "Awake."
Jian Chu: "Want to go to the balcony to watch the rain?"
Mu Nan thought about it and realized that there was nothing wrong with the rain. The problem was the bacteria and viruses that the rain had bred in the ruins, so he looked at Qin Huai and asked, "Do you want to go out?"
Qin Huai said: "Let's take a look. There are a few solar panels outside. Let's go out and check them out."
So the two of them opened the door. Jian Chu and Yu Zibai were already standing on the balcony. When they saw them, they sighed, "They say it will rain after an earthquake. I didn't expect it to take so long to rain."
Yu Zibai looked at Qin Huai: "How long can the generator consume electricity on a rainy day like this?"
Qin Huai said: "Maybe less than three days."
Jian Chu sighed: "I don't know how long this rain will last. Will it cool down the temperature? Can we catch some of the rainwater? Forget about eating and drinking, but taking a bath is also possible."
Mu Nan said: "I don't know, but it seems like there are quite a lot of people taking a shower."
Mu Nan was holding a telescope in his hand. The view was now clear. He could see the resettlement sites far away clearly with the telescope. After all, the clouds had blocked the sun, but the daylight was still there. Many people ran outside the tent to take a shower. In this heavy rain, if they didn't take the opportunity to take a shower, those whose homes had collapsed would not have enough water to wash.
Jian Chu thought about it and simply went back to the house to get a bucket to collect water. No matter whether the rain water that fell from the sky but had not yet hit the ground was dirty or not, at least it should not carry any viruses. It would be good to save it for taking a bath. They still had some water at home now. If they really ran out of water, they would have to drink the rain water in order to survive.
Seeing Jian Chu trying to tie the handle of a bucket with a rope and hang it outside the balcony to collect water, Mu Nan simply found two rubber tubes in the house and two large funnels, put one end of the rubber tube on one end of the funnel, and tied the funnel upright with a rope to the balcony railing. Then he put the other end of the rubber tube in two buckets. Jian Chu's family needed to collect water, and if their family didn't collect water, it would seem like there was too much water, so they simply collected it all at once.
Jian Chu looked at Mu Nan and said, "Your family is very well equipped, even with a funnel."
Mu Nan: "I bought it when I needed to pack some large bottles of daily necessities." In fact, he didn't remember why he had a funnel, but he remembered seeing it when he was organizing a pile of miscellaneous items in the house. As soon as he thought about it, he could directly "see" from the space which box the funnel was in, so it was easy to find it.
Although it was raining, it was still hot outside because the rain had not yet soaked the ground. The temperature rose more like a steamer, so they didn't stay on the balcony for long before going into the house. Anyway, Jian Chu and the others didn't have to go out. They could just pull open the membrane on the balcony to see if the bucket was full. If it was full, they could just knock on Mu Nan and the others' balcony door and ask them to come out to change the bucket.
Many people, like Jian Chu and his friends, whose first reaction when seeing the heavy rain was to find ways to collect rainwater, even those living in tents in the camp tried their best to find containers to collect rainwater. Some simply stood in the rain to scrub their bodies. Those who found some toiletries while rummaging around found them very useful, and washing their hair and taking a bath was like New Year's Day.
The military did not stop them from doing so, and some soldiers even couldn't help but take a shower together. After all, there was too little water, so little that even drinking water had to be saved. The leaders were not as happy as the masses, watching the sudden heavy rain. They thought more long-term, how would they survive the plague that could no longer be stopped after this heavy rain?
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