Chapter 96
The building Xu Ming was talking about was the one behind their building. The resident's surname was Qi. This family was quite famous, at least all the residents in their circle knew about it. It was even more famous than the gossip about a group of grown men living with four girls in a yard here.
Previously, their two-family houses were separated by greenery, and there were no actual fences. When the weather was extremely hot, all the greenery was killed by the sun, and the house looked even more bare and unobstructed. When others were still adding things to their homes, Qin Huai and his family were the first to start building a wall, and they built two houses at a time, which was quite conspicuous at the time. Later, home robberies happened too frequently, and more and more people built such walls. As long as they had the conditions, almost everyone built a wall. When the construction started, the Qi family became famous. No matter what the relationship between the two neighboring families was, at least they built walls one by one. But that family, whether it was because they were afraid of being taken advantage of or for some other reason, built the wall directly from their own gate, and only surrounded their half of the area.
If it were just that, it would be fine. Maybe the two families don't get along well and are unwilling to share a large courtyard gate. But I don't know if that family plans to grow vegetables in the yard. When they built the courtyard wall, they enclosed half of the road. Even if other people's yards were expanded a little, at least they left a road for traffic. Their family only left a small road for one person to pass through, and it occupied the front and back. According to their family, their house was originally against the edge of the wall, so occupying the road would not hinder anyone.
Unfortunately, that family was unlucky. The residents of the house behind that family probably didn't want to cause trouble or had a good temper, so they didn't say anything. The resident of the house in front, which was behind Jian Chu and the others, seemed to be surnamed Huang. He didn't say anything at first, as if he didn't care about occupying more territory. It was not until the Qi family's courtyard wall was built that the male owner of the Huang family took a sledgehammer and knocked down the entire wall that occupied their public corridor.
The noise of knocking on the wall naturally alarmed the Qi family, and a fight was inevitable.
There are quite a few people in the Qi family, five elderly people, the old couple, one son and one daughter, the daughter with her son-in-law, and the son-in-law's grandmother, the son with his wife, and the wife's parents, the daughter gave birth to a son, and the son's family has a daughter. There are eleven people in the whole family, but there are only two with real fighting power, the son and the son-in-law. Except for the grandmother, the elderly above are really old. In fact, the parents' generation is only about fifty years old. Not to mention the prime of life, they are also at an age where they can work. However, they have endured a year of extreme heat and experienced an earthquake. Not to mention the extreme environment, just facing this kind of doomsday despair mentality, people's energy has long been exhausted, and their bodies are naturally not as good as before.
The Huang family is a nearby resident, one of which is considered a village in the city. They are two families living together, just like Jian Chu and Xu Ming. Each family lives on one floor. The two brothers have their own families, two sons and one daughter. The two brothers are not very old, only in their early forties, and they used to be hard laborers. In terms of physical fitness alone, the Qi family cannot compare to them. In this match, even if all the old, weak, women and children of the Qi family are mobilized, they will still suffer. In the current environment, it is not the case that if you are old and lie down, others will not dare to touch you. What's more, the Qi family really cannot come out with so many people, because there are not enough clothes and it is too cold outside. Even with their hot tempers, they cannot withstand such a low temperature.
In the end, the Qi family's yard was knocked down and the bricks were smashed into pieces, leaving no room for any damage. The two families had a falling out, but the Qi family did not dare to provoke the Huang family because the two brothers of the Huang family were locals. In addition to their family, there were several other families nearby who were very familiar with their family, so they were considered to be related. If a big fight really broke out, the Qi family would definitely suffer, so they could only endure it.
If that was the only incident, it wouldn't make their family too famous. They are not the only one fighting over territory. The main reason is that their family is too complicated. If they live separately, they can't afford the high rent, and if they live together, there will be conflicts all day long. Even though their house has good sound insulation, it is said that several households nearby can still hear quarrels inside every day.
The most exaggerated incident happened to the daughter-in-law of the Qi family. She might have suffered some injustice. After all, she brought her parents to live with her husband's family. Not to mention being dependent on others, she still had some people under her roof. That day, the couple had a small quarrel and a big quarrel. In the end, they even went to the yard and started taking off their clothes. They said that if they didn't leave them a way to live, they would just freeze to death in front of their house.
The noise was so loud that people from the building opposite them naturally hid in their houses to watch the excitement. At that time, the power and Internet were still on, and the whole process was filmed. The video of the undressing was also posted on the community website. Although it was quickly deleted, many people saw it. In the end, when the Qi family's daughter-in-law was stripped down to a set of underwear, she was pulled in, and their family became famous because of this incident.
According to the family living next door, the woman's husband secretly hid flour to make pancakes for his parents, and let his wife's parents eat thin rice soup that could be used as a mirror to look at their faces, not even porridge. They also said that the two old people stayed at home all day and didn't consume anything. The family only had this condition, so the daughter-in-law should bear more. In the end, she did bear it at that time. The parents-in-law were not too unreasonable. They knew that they were relying on their son-in-law now, so they ate less and didn't starve to death. Unexpectedly, she found her parents-in-law hiding in the house eating pancakes. They also stayed at home and couldn't go out to work. Her husband did earn points outside, but she did not do less housework at home. Why did her parents only drink thin soup, but you hid in the house to eat pancakes?
This made her feel very aggrieved, for herself and for her parents. She didn't mind being treated harshly, but she couldn't bear to see her parents suffer the same injustice with her, so she made a fuss and even froze to death in front of their house to see if they would have the face to see people in the future.
Mu Nan also knew about this at the time. After all, he had nothing to do and could only hold his phone and scroll through videos. Coincidentally, he saw that video and asked Qin Huai to watch it with him. After watching it, they found out that the protagonist in the video was actually a person who lived in the building behind them, so close to them. At that time, someone revealed the cause and effect of this incident. He also sighed to Qin Huai, saying that although there were not many people left in their family, there were advantages to having fewer people. Although they had to rely on themselves and had no one to help them, they could avoid a lot of troubles.
But they didn't know about the wild boar, so Jian Chu looked at Xu Ming curiously: "How did you know? There is no electricity or internet now."
Xu Ming said, "When we were shoveling snow yesterday, didn't we clear the snow behind the yard? At that time, the Huang family was clearing the front door of their house. It was probably because they rarely saw anyone, so they chatted for a while. They lamented that the Qi family had some bad luck and actually dragged back a wild boar. No one knew where they found it, but it seemed to have frozen to death and was not hunted by them. The wild boar was not big, but it was not small either. With the people in their family, they really might not have the hunting skills."
Mu Nan looked at Qin Huai: "Can we eat animals that died of freezing?" He seemed to remember Qin Huai saying that animals that died of freezing should not be eaten.
Qin Huai said: "It's better not to, because you don't know whether it died of freezing or freezing due to illness. Some diseases cannot be killed by high temperature cooking."
Jian Chu said: "So there are wild boars around us? Should we go hunting?" To be honest, he was a little eager to try it. Several months had passed since the last time he ate meat, and that was in the summer.
Xu Ming: "That's all I'm saying. I hope some edible animals will pass by our yard. Then we can shoot them from a distance from upstairs and maybe kill them."
Jian Chu clicked his tongue and shook his head: "It's too good to imagine. What's the difference between this and meat falling from the sky?"
Xu Ming just mentioned this casually as he thought of it. As for hunting, although they had weapons, no one had ever done it. Even the alpaca last time was bitten to death by Niu Niu. Of course, if the neighbors had this idea, he would be willing to put it into practice. He would just stay at home and do nothing all day. He was almost done with the books he had found in the ruins of the business district. He didn't know how long this winter would last, so it would be great if he could hone one more survival skill.
After eating and drinking, Jian Chu helped Mu Nan wash the dishes before they went home. Before leaving, Jian Chu said that once his deck of playing cards was finished, he would have something to do in the afternoon. As for the deck of playing cards, he had been making it for a week and the materials had not yet been collected.
After they left, Mu Nan lay back on the kang, wrapped himself in the quilt in a comfortable position, hugged a small trash can and started to eat melon seeds. A bowl of bacon and bean shreds only made him half full. He deliberately saved some food in his stomach so that he could have a midnight snack later. Just thinking about sitting on the kang with Qin Huai, watching a movie and eating skewers, made him feel comfortable.
Qin Huai added charcoal and firewood to the stove. Compared with firewood, charcoal lasts longer. He added it now and added a little more when he went to bed later. He didn't have to worry about it all night. After renewing the warmth, Qin Huai lifted the thick cotton curtain and saw Mu Nan stuffing food into his mouth like a little hamster. He couldn't help but smile and said, "Just finished dinner."
Mu Nan moved to the side to make some room for Qin Huai: "Sunflower seeds don't take up space in my stomach."
Qin Huai took off his heavy coat and got on the bed. Now the power was out and it started to get dark outside at around four o'clock. In order to prevent the light from leaking out, Qin Huai specially set up two ropes a little outside the kang bed. He hung a curtain on one of them for cover, and a cotton-core curtain was set up on the side close to the kang bed. It was windproof and warm, thick and opaque. When the light was turned on, the entire kang bed was bright.
After Qin Huai sat up, Mu Nan asked, "Do you want to go hunting?"
Qin Huai said: "I have this idea, but I have to fix the heating of the greenhouse upstairs at home first."
Mu Nan was a little curious: "It's so cold, are there still animals outside? Can we hunt in winter?"
Qin Huai nodded, "Yes, not all animals hibernate. In fact, very few animals hibernate. It's just that in winter, some animals don't move as frequently in order to store energy. And there's also the concept of winter hunting. Now I don't know if the animals that are still active here were once in the zoo, and I don't know how many animals there are in that zoo."
Mu Nan: "That zoo is quite big, a semi-wild animal park. There are lions, tigers, leopards, wolves, and all kinds of cranes with clipped feathers. There are hippos, crocodiles, and a group of zebras. There are also a lot of monkeys. The monkeys are kept on the monkey mountain. They are particularly nasty. They jump on people and grab their hair to eat. They won't let go unless you give them. There are gorillas, black bears, and pythons. Except for the aquarium which has not yet opened, there are all the usual zoos."
Qin Huai: "No wild boars?"
Mu Nan shook his head: "It wasn't there when I went there, but I don't know if it's there later."
Qin Huai said: "It seems that many wild animals have become active after the earthquake. Animals reproduce much faster than humans. When the living space of humans is reduced by nature, it may be their time."
Mu Nan was not worried at all about this: "Reproduction is great. The more we reproduce, the more we can eat. We couldn't grow food last year, and we can't grow food this year either. One disaster after another has slowed down the pace of human self-rescue. Now that things are finally going a little smoother, the next focus should be on agricultural planting, otherwise the national treasury can't afford such consumption year after year. Before food is grown on a large scale, it's good to have more meat to eat. But there shouldn't be a wildlife protection law now, right? If we continue to protect it, I think there will be more animals than humans in the future, and it's impossible for animals to enact a law to protect humans from the wild."
Qin Huai smiled and said, "I have figured out a way to try. The pipes cannot be made outside. It is too cold outside and will freeze. Open an opening between the first and second floors. We have prepared a lot of pipes. Just connect the pipes to heat them and cover them with a layer of bricks. If it is fast, it can be done in two or three days. You can talk to Jian Chu and ask them to prepare more shooting tools now. When I finish my house, we will go out for a walk."
Mu Nan looked at him: "Take me with you?"
Qin Huai: "You want to go? It's very cold outside."
Mu Nan said, "I think, we have a lot of clothes anyway, several layers of cold-proof and warm clothes. We have to shovel snow outside every day anyway, and hunting just means walking a little further, why not give it a try?"
Qin Huai did not object and agreed straightforwardly: "Then I'll take you to try it."
When Qin Huai and Mu Nan were working on renovating the pipeline at home, something happened to the family that had eaten the wild boar. The pig they dragged back should have been an immature piglet, not very big. There were eleven people in the family, and there was not much meat after skinning and boneless it. Plus, it was freezing cold, and the leftovers were hanging in the yard, where they would freeze solid in a short time, so they kept the wild boar for themselves and didn't exchange it for any points.
The pig was discovered by their daughter and son-in-law. When they were moving the snow at the gate of the yard to the road outside, they found the wild boar frozen into an ice stick in the snow. The two were a little hesitant at first, after all, they didn't know how the pig died, but they still dragged it back. Even if they handed it in, they could get some points in exchange. As a result, the old and young in the family hadn't seen meat for so long that they were reluctant to exchange it for points. They hadn't seen any oil for nearly a year or two, so they gritted their teeth and thawed the wild boar, and it naturally became a meal.
Because of the last incident, Qi's son and his wife had a rift. They took off their clothes in the yard and the video was posted online. Any man would feel a little uncomfortable about this. The fight was so fierce at the time. If they didn't have a daughter and the parents of both sides were trying to reconcile them, and the environment outside was like this, they really couldn't live like this. But on the surface, the last incident seemed to be over, but the thorn in their hearts was still there. This time, they had a fight again over wild boar meat. The man bluntly said that this was brought back by his sister and brother-in-law, and since they were going to separate, they didn't have to do the housework or cook, so they shouldn't come to eat this bite of meat. He also said that if it weren't for his daughter, he should have kicked her out long ago.
Things have come to this point. That woman, Wang Hui, no matter how much she craves meat, she would never put her self-esteem on the ground for a bite of food. She has even thought about it. The next time the soldiers come to patrol, she will take her parents and daughter to the greenhouse. Even if she has to squeeze with others in the greenhouse, she will sweep the snow, clean the place, and do the most tiring and dirty work, so that she can support her parents and daughter. Instead of coveting such a few bricks and tiles and living a life that is not a human being, it is better to live with dignity outside.
In the past, I made a fuss because I still had hope in my heart. Now that I don’t even make a fuss, it means I really have no hope anymore.
Wang Hui's parents also realized that this son-in-law did not want to live a good life. Qi Kangmin's family background was average before. If not very poor, it was definitely worse than theirs. Even his sister's job after graduation was arranged by their Wang family. But in times of peace and prosperity, they could still live. Qi Kangmin had a stable job and his salary was neither low nor high. Anyway, the couple had no mortgage or car loan, and the children's education funds were also supported by the elders of both families. Of course, because their family conditions were slightly better, they received more support, such as extracurricular interest classes, which were always provided by them. Anyway, they only had this one daughter. If they didn't treat their granddaughter well, who else could they treat well?
When this disaster came, at first they might have thought that the world would return to the way it was sooner or later. The son-in-law was quite nice at first, but as time went on, his true nature gradually exposed itself, especially after they settled down here. They were old, and the two old parents-in-law did not go out to work, so how could their daughter let them go out to work? In the end, the only ones who could earn points outside were Qi Kangmin and his sister's husband. All of a sudden, the son-in-law, who was originally quite nice, became unrecognizable day by day. All the affairs of the family, the clothes and meals for so many people, were all taken care of by their daughter. Although Qi Kangmin's sister would also help, her help was only to take care of her own naughty son. In that family, the Qis were the masters, and they were just a burden.
Wang's father was not a pedantic person. He felt that since his daughter was married, no matter what, he would persuade them to reconcile rather than divorce. If he were pedantic, he would not have been able to build up his family fortune from scratch. He only had one daughter and one granddaughter, who he had raised since childhood. Even though life was difficult now, they could suffer and endure, but they could not let others bully them.
Looking at his daughter who had already made up her mind, Wang's father sighed and said, "Then go. I am still able to move and I can support you and your daughter as well as Xiaobao."
Wang Hui couldn't stop shedding tears. No matter what plans she had made in her heart, the uncertainty and confusion in the future could not be eliminated. She didn't know if her decision was right or not. But in this so-called home, she was treated like a servant and even looked down upon as a burden. Her self-esteem and pride were intolerable.
Just as she was thinking about it, her daughter pushed the door open from outside. Looking at her seven-year-old daughter, Wang Hui could no longer hold back her tears.
Little Baoer threw himself into his mother's arms and wiped her tears. The little child should have been in danger of being killed, but he had become sensible and well-behaved after being tortured by disasters. "Don't cry, mom. When I grow up, I will make money for you to buy meat. We won't eat their meat."
Wang Hui sighed and rubbed her daughter's hair: "Mom is fine, go eat, and after you finish eating, Mom has something to tell you."
Xiao Baoer shook her head: "I won't go." She knew who truly loved her. Her grandparents, who loved her before, no longer loved her: "I don't want to go. They are a family, and I am the outsider."
Wang Hui immediately hugged her daughter tightly. This was another reason why she wanted to take her parents and daughter away. If Qi Kangmin was just mean to her, she could endure it for the sake of her daughter. In this world, it would be more difficult for her as a woman with a child. However, as Xiao Baoer's father, Qi Kangmin wished he could hold his sister's son in his palm and pamper him. Just like Xiao Baoer said, they were a family, and her family was just outsiders to the Qi family. What else could she expect from a man who didn't even want her own daughter?
The patrols were not conducted every day, basically once every three to five days. Wang Hui secretly hid the things she had packed and waited for the soldiers to come for patrol, and then she left. But unexpectedly, the day after eating the meat, it was Qi's mother who felt unwell first, with a low-grade fever and vomiting and diarrhea. If only Qi's mother was sick, they might not have thought too much about it, but then Qi Kangmin's sister's son began to vomit and have a fever. I don't know if it was because he was young and ate a lot of meat, but his condition was more serious than Qi's mother's. When the attack occurred, the child was not fully conscious.
Suddenly, two people in the family had serious symptoms. Although the reactions of the others were not as severe, they still felt abdominal discomfort. Naturally, I thought that the problem must be with the pork.
Wang's father looked at the family and saw that they all had some symptoms. He was a little worried that they were not suffering from gastrointestinal problems caused by suddenly eating meat, but that the wild boar itself had died of illness. So he didn't wait for the patrol car, but directly took all the clothes and things he could wear and carry, and headed towards Building No. 1. There were soldiers stationed there. As long as they wore thicker clothes and didn't stop on the way, they could still make it. It was better than staying at home and getting infected.
No one in the Qi family expected that Wang Hui and the others would leave. Even Qi Kangmin felt that Wang Hui could only rely on him in this life. If she had the courage to leave, she would not have made such a shameful scene last time. So they did not take any precautions at all. The few clothes in the house that could be worn for work and going out were also taken away by Wang Hui in the chaos. After they settled their sick mother and children, Qi Kangmin remembered that Wang Hui did not come out to help despite the commotion at home. He covered his stomach, which also felt a little uncomfortable, and went upstairs angrily, only to find that the room was empty. His wife, children, and father-in-law and mother-in-law were all gone.
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