Chapter 99
—In the morning, Grandpa Tong lit two braziers in the woodshed to warm up their car in advance. Otherwise, it would be difficult to start the car in such a low temperature outside. The group of people they met last time took them more than an hour to start the car, which took them only the time to drink a cup of hot tea in the house, and they almost couldn't drive back.
Before leaving, Xu Ming asked Mr. Tong, "Did all the people who went hunting before go to the zoo?"
Old Master Tong, while breaking wood, stirred the brazier in the house to make the fire burn more vigorously: "They all went over there. They thought there were more things to hunt over there."
Mu Nan asked, "Grandpa, have you seen any animals while living here?"
Old Master Tong smiled and said, "Of course I have seen them. I saw a herd of deer not long ago, but they were a bit far away."
Song Jia asked quickly, "How long ago was it? Which direction did the deer go?"
Old Master Tong thought for a moment and said, "About seven or eight days ago, we walked towards Poplar Avenue. But you'd better not go there. They said they were going to build some kind of natural habitat there. I don't know if it was a swamp or an artificial lake. It was completed before the weather got hot, but it's not open to the public yet because a child died there. I don't know if it was green grass or something else that was laid on top. From a distance it looked like a meadow. The parent thought the scenery was nice, so he stopped to take a picture, and then the child was gone."
Grandma Tong came out of the small kitchen and stuffed the hot pancakes into their hands: "It's okay to go there now. It's so cold outside, it's already frozen solid and can't fall off. I've made some pancakes for you with sauerkraut stuffing. You can take them with you on the road."
The old man did it on purpose. They knew that if they didn't take it away, they would not let them go. Qin Huai and the others had no choice but to thank them and took it. Because they had warmed up the car in advance, the car started smoothly. Looking at the two old people standing at the door to see them off, Mu Nan opened the car window and waved to them: "Goodbye, grandpa and grandma, it's cold outside, come in quickly."
The two old people continued to look at them with a smile, until the car drove out of their small courtyard, the two old people sighed, and Mr. Tong patted the snow off his body and said: "Come in, old woman."
Grandma Tong put the door curtain away and threw a few sticks of firewood into the brazier: "They are all half-grown children, about the same age as Chengcheng, but they have to start a difficult life. Their life is hard."
Mentioning their grandson, Grandpa Tong stopped talking. He opened the drawer and took out a box of cigarettes, but did not smoke. He put it under his nose and sniffed it. Under the cigarette box was a photo of a spirited young man in military uniform. Grandpa Tong sat on the kang in a daze. In the morning, there was a group of young men hanging out on the kang, but now it seemed deserted. When people get older, they like lively places, but when they get older, they can't leave their roots. Looking at the snow falling outside again, Grandpa Tong held his wife's hand. Young couples grow old together. There are many sufferings in this world, but there is also happiness. If a person experiences it all in his lifetime, it is worth it.
Based on the information obtained from Mr. Tong, Qin Huai and his companions planned to try their luck at Huyang Avenue. After a period of slack, the snowstorm began to grow stronger again. Qin Huai said, "Let's look for a place to stay early today. If we can't find one, we can only bypass Huyang Avenue and drive back at night."
Song Jia looked out the window with a telescope in hand: "There's nothing but snow. I think we'd better forget about hunting in the future unless we have our own car." - More than a hundred points, how much food can be exchanged? This can be considered as seeking wealth and honor through risk. It's a pity that their luck doesn't seem to be very good.
Mu Nan, who was standing next to him, had been sleeping since he got on the bus with a blanket in his arms. He had been treating this trip as a trip since the beginning. It didn't matter if he gained anything or not, but he could go out and see what the outside world looked like. In his previous life, he had been staying in the private base, eating secretly every day, wrapping himself up as much as possible to keep warm, and forgetting about going out. He almost froze into an ice stick when he just swept the snow at the door, because the private base didn't have any polar cold-proof clothes to change into. He was wearing some winter clothes stored in the space, but in the winter in the south, the thickest he could wear was just a down jacket, which couldn't withstand the low temperature of minus 40 to 50 degrees outside.
The journey was still fruitless. Qin Huai and Xu Ming changed positions halfway through. When the car stopped, Mu Nan woke up. Although he didn't get enough sleep, he had slept for the whole morning and was a little hungry. He stretched his body and tilted his head to look out the window. Then he saw a ball of white passing by. Mu Nan quickly said to Qin Huai, "I seem to see something moving, but I don't know if it's because I'm dazzled."
Qin Huai asked: "Where?"
Mu Nan pointed outside his window: "Over there, there are piles of snow of different heights."
Qin Huai said, "You and Song Jia stay in the car, Niuniu, come with us to take a look."
When Niuniu heard Qin Huai calling her, she quickly got up from the back seat of the car. Song Jia patted Niuniu on the head and said, "Go, find some meat to eat. Find more meat, okay?"
Niu Niu whimpered, as if responding to Song Jia, then rushed from the back seat to the front seat and got out of the car with Qin Huai.
Xu Ming looked around carefully and found that the snow on a path was a little shallow, as if someone had walked on it not long ago, so he followed the trace. Niu Niu followed them obediently, keeping her head down and sniffing the ground, until they passed a snowdrift and started digging with her claws.
Qin Huai and Xu Ming hurried to help. When the snow pile was dug open, a white shadow suddenly jumped out. Niu Niu chased after it nimbly and bit a fat rabbit. Her sharp canine teeth bit the fat rabbit's neck tightly and swung it left and right violently. Qin Huai hurried forward and grabbed the rabbit's ears, and Niu Niu immediately let go.
Mu Nan and Jian Chu leaned against the car and looked out. Although the wind and snow were so strong that they could not see clearly, they could still see Niuniu's pursuit clearly. Seeing that they seemed to have reaped some rewards, they were immediately happy. No matter what it was, at least they did not return empty-handed.
Xu Ming walked to the hole and reached his hand inside to explore. He was wearing thick gloves, and there wouldn't be any ferocious creatures in the rabbit hole, so he wasn't afraid of being bitten. After groping for a while, he pulled out a fat rabbit. The rabbit was not a pure white pet rabbit, but one with grayish-white fur.
Xu Ming picked up the rabbit and took a look. It was easy to tell that it was wild. It had fierce eyes, a small head, and a very ferocious nature. When it was caught in his hands, it struggled hard and even made some shrill noises.
Xu Ming opened the bag he was carrying and threw the two rabbits in. Qin Huai pointed to the hole, asking Xu Ming if there were any more rabbits in there. Xu Ming understood Qin Huai's meaning and nodded. There were more. When he was groping just now, there were more than one rabbit in there, but the hole was a little deep and it was not easy to catch them.
After digging in the hole for a long time, Xu Ming took out five rabbits in total. Including the one that tried to escape at the beginning, they now caught six rabbits.
Mu Nan ran to the driver's seat and slowly drove the car over. Qin Huai opened the door and threw the rabbit in the cloth bag into the car. He took another cloth bag and said, "You guys stay in the car. Xu Ming and I will look for it. There may be more than one nest."
Mu Nan nodded: "Be careful."
For fear that the noise of the car would disturb the animals hiding in the snow, Mu Nan did not get too close. He only followed them a little after they had gone far away.
However, they did not find the second rabbit nest, but found a nest of snakes in a tree hole that was only half left. The two wore thick gloves so they were not afraid of being bitten, but Xu Ming still chopped off the snake's head as soon as possible. The blood froze after a few drops, proving that the snake was just hibernating and not dead, otherwise it would not bleed after the head was chopped off. After confirming that there should be nothing else to catch here, Qin Huai and Xu Ming got in the car, Xu Ming drove, and Qin Huai sat in the passenger seat.
Six rabbits and two snakes, the harvest is not bad. Mu Nan looked at the rabbit that was still kicking the cloth bag and said, "Can we raise these wild rabbits at home? Rabbits seem to reproduce very quickly."
Xu Ming said: "Don't even think about it. We don't have the conditions to raise one at home. The temperature, food, and clean living environment are very laborious."
Song Jia was more concerned about the food: "Can wild rabbit meat be eaten?" Xu Ming had already educated him on the fact that he was afraid of anything with the word "wild" in it. He was afraid that after eating this meal, he would be cremated in the next meal.
Xu Ming said, "You can eat it, but the meat must be cooked thoroughly. Wild rabbits, pheasants, and wild boars are not that scary. It's just that the Qi family was unlucky and ate dead sick pigs. The ones we caught are alive and kicking, so they are a little safer."
Mu Nan thought for a moment and said, "Six rabbits may not be enough for us to eat. It seems that this time, we can only have a small meal."
Qin Huai suddenly said: "No need to speak so early."
Mu Nan leaned over the back of the chair and moved closer to him: "What's going on?"
Qin Huai said: "Look ahead, is there a row of footprints?"
Their car was going downhill just now. Now that they were on the top, they could clearly see a series of animal footprints on the snow. It seemed that a group of animals had passed by here. Judging from the snow covering the footprints, the group of animals might have just left. Xu Ming said, "Maybe we are lucky and found the herd of deer that Grandpa Tong mentioned."
Xu Ming drove along the footprints and soon saw a herd of deer. They were sika deer. Xu Ming said, "I know there is a large breeding farm near Sanjiu Road that specializes in breeding sika deer and ostriches."
Although Mu Nan is a local, he knows the names of some areas outside the Third Ring Road, but he is not so clear about which district they belong to and where they are: "Is Sanjiu Road close to here?"
Qin Huai said: "Not close, it's across the district."
Song Jia clicked his tongue twice: "This herd of deer can cross the region to come here, and still survive so many, shouldn't we say they are very lucky?"
Xu Ming said: "The weather was too cold. This place is rather desolate. There are no cars and it is impossible to get here on foot. Although it is possible to find usable cars after the earthquake, there is almost no fuel. That's why they were lucky enough to survive." Otherwise, how could such a large group of animals survive until today when there was a shortage of food?
Soon the noise of the approaching car startled the herd of deer, but those sika deer were most likely from a breeding farm. They seemed accustomed to the noise of vehicles and did not run around in panic, but ran away in a group at a faster speed. Xu Ming stopped the car and said, "Let Niu Niu out and try." Although the sika deer is several times larger than Niu Niu in size, since Niu Niu was brought out and her hunting ability was deliberately trained, how could she miss such a good opportunity.
After putting Niu Niu down in the car, Qin Huai opened the window and shot from a distance with a mechanical crossbow. Mu Nan also took his small crossbow and began to aim, while Niu Niu quickly rushed towards the herd of deer. When the dog approached, the deer finally panicked and began to flee. Niu Niu, with her hunting instinct, jumped up and bit the neck of the deer closest to it. The deer fell to the ground in pain and struggled desperately. However, the more it struggled, the tighter Niu Niu bit.
Mu Nan missed the target several times in a row. The deer were running and the wind and snow were obstacles. Even Qin Huai missed the target several times. Fortunately, his arrow, which had already missed the target, happened to hit one of the deer because two deer collided in panic, and his arrow went straight into the deer's neck.
The harvest of this trip depends on now. Xu Ming ignored those that fell to the ground and continued to drive the car to chase the deer. There was no other people here anyway, so he could just go back and pick them up later. After Niu Niu killed one, she immediately changed her target, running wildly in the snow with her agile figure, her white fur almost blending into the snow.
After chasing for nearly an hour, the deer had already scattered, mainly because they didn't have many arrows left, and they didn't know how many arrows they could pick up on the way back. Song Jia called Niuniu back. The dog was frozen silly after running in the snow for so long. Fortunately, it kept running, so its paws were not frozen, but they were still cold. Song Jia quickly rubbed its paws to warm them up.
They caught four deer in total, three big ones and one small one. The small one weighed more than 100 kilograms, and the big one weighed at least 500 to 200 kilograms. Niu Niu killed the big one and the small one, and the other two were shot by Qin Huai. Mu Nan's arrow accurately hit the butt of one of the deer.
Several people carried the dead deer to the back of the car, and Mu Nan pulled out the arrow from its buttocks: "At least it hit the target, even though it only hit the buttocks."
Qin Huai said: "Not bad. We have no experience in this first time. We are very lucky to have such a harvest."
Four deer, a bag of rabbits, the rabbits were still alive, this trip completely earned back the money, and there was still a lot of money left. Several people tied a cover on the back and returned to the residential area. The things in the car could not be shown to others openly, and they had to cover them up. On the way there, because they were not familiar with the road conditions and had to observe the surroundings, they walked very slowly. On the way back, there were traces of driving past, so there was no need to worry about potholes that they had not walked through, so the return speed was very fast, almost like flying.
The few of them returned directly along the original route, as they had experience so they could return faster. Naturally, they passed by the courtyard of the two elderly people from the Tong family. Xu Ming got off the car and gave two live rabbits to the two elderly people. They had earned a lot of meat and were not short of this. The two elderly people lived alone here, and although there was a lot of food in the cellar, there was not much meat. They had accepted each other's kindness, and now they had the conditions, so they naturally had to give back something. Without waiting for the elderly to refuse, Xu Ming dropped the rabbits and ran out.
Old Master Tong couldn't catch up with them. He looked at the two rabbits tied up in the house with red eyes and sighed: "They are all good children."
They kept rushing back and it was already midnight when they returned to the base. They drove directly to Building No. 1, where there were always soldiers on duty. For example, the handover of rented vehicles was also in Building No. 1, but if there was a handover of goods, they had to go to the Logistics Department, which was a greenhouse built later. Some soldiers on duty lived here, and some warehouses for goods were also set up here, but ordinary people were not allowed to enter. They could only go in with soldiers.
It was late at night, and the people in the logistics department had gone to bed early. When they heard the noise outside, they thought something had happened. But then they saw a car driving in, and then they saw the cover of the trunk being opened. They were immediately surprised: "What kind of luck are you guys? This is too good to be true."
Qin Huai got out of the car and helped them drag the four deer off the car. It took more than ten hours to get back, and the deer were already frozen stiff.
Xu Ming asked: "If I hand these in, how will the points be calculated?"
The person in charge of logistics said, "Four points are equal to one pound of meat, weighed directly, including skin and bones." As for selling the meat outside, the price is of course not this much. The new currency has begun to be promoted now, and one point is equal to one dollar. It's just that due to heavy wind and snow, some machines and equipment were stuck on the road and haven't arrived yet. Once we have the conditions to replace the new ID cards, there will be no points anymore, and the only way to pay is online.
Qin Huai asked, "Where's the live rabbit?"
Xi from the logistics department: "Are there any alive? Let me see?"
Mu Nan took the rabbits from the bag and gave two to Grandpa Tong. There were four left. One was bitten to death by Niu Niu, leaving only three alive.
The soldier in charge of the handover skillfully turned the rabbits over to check. There were three rabbits, one female and two males.
Because they were caught in the same nest, Mu Nan said, "They could be mother and son, father and daughter, or brothers and sisters."
The soldier from the logistics department said nonchalantly: "Rabbits can also breed with inbred relatives as long as they can be kept alive." The disadvantages of inbreeding are some genetic defects, slow growth and high mortality rate, but there are not many living creatures that can be kept in captivity now, so as long as they can breed successfully, other things can be dealt with later.
The rabbit that died last was asked about it. As long as it is cooked thoroughly, it is still okay to eat. This place is not a jungle area, so the meat is not as virus-carrying as some jungle meat. The deer are obviously raised in a farm, but for safety reasons, they still have to go through a quality inspection. It is too late today, so these things will be left here. After they have checked and found that the meat is ok, they will see how much they want to take back and how many points they can exchange for.
Qin Huai and his men decided to divide the fawn, and exchange the other three plus three live rabbits and two dead snakes for points. By the way, they also informed the location of the two elderly people of the Tong family. Regardless of whether Grandpa Tong and Grandma Tong were willing to come to the base or not, at least let the soldiers know that there were two elderly people over there. Let them go and take a look. It was icy and snowy here, and if anything happened they wouldn't be able to even ask for help.
The soldiers took them home. It was too late and they couldn't just let them walk back. It was so cold outside and they would probably freeze to death on the way back. They were too tired in the past two days. Those who drove were tired, those who rode were tired, and they were tense all the way. They couldn't sleep well at night. So they went back to their homes and had a good rest first, and they would think about other things later.
Qin Huai and his family's stove was always burning. When they left, they opened the garage door and said that if they didn't come back for two or three days, they would ask Jian Chu and others to come and help add some fire to prevent it from going out. When they returned home, the fire in the stove was still quite strong, obviously having just been added.
Mu Nan took off his clothes and sat directly by the stove, while warming himself, he said: "It's still more comfortable at home. Will we go hunting again next time?"
Qin Huai said, "No, I'm not going. I got so much this time because I was lucky. I don't need to go out so often. Maybe more and more people will go hunting in the future. If we keep going like this throughout the winter, we can go out once every two months. Even if there are more people hunting, I'm afraid there will be fewer and fewer animals to be hunted."
Mu Nan nodded: "That's not bad, I won't be too busy and tired for life, but I won't be completely locked up at home. Brother, do you want to take a shower? Do you want to eat something after taking a shower?"
Qin Huai said, "If you are hungry, you can eat a little. Take a shower first. After that, we can sit on the kang and eat. You take a shower first. I will go upstairs to check the vegetable garden."
Mu Nan took out a large wooden barrel right away. The water inside was also hot water that had been prepared long ago. He took a bath next to the stove on the first floor and could light a fire to keep warm. If he took a bath in the bathroom, it would be really cold. He would need to use the residual heat for a long time in advance to keep warm. Fortunately, he wore more clothes in winter and didn't sweat, so he just rinsed it lightly. After ten days or half a month, he would use the residual heat in the bathroom to take a thorough bath. Living his current life, he, a native of the south, finally got the joy of scrubbing his body.
The fire in the house has not been extinguished, and the heat upstairs has been maintained. The crops planted on the second floor have already broken through the soil, and the fruits on the third floor are also growing well. If this continues, we will be able to harvest in half a month.
It was a little late, and the midnight snack was too greasy and not very good. Maybe it was because he hadn't eaten it for a long time. Mu Nan suddenly wanted to eat instant noodles. Unlike others, he had been eating good meals since the government started distributing relief food, but he had never eaten instant noodles, especially since Qin Huai didn't let him eat instant noodles. Come to think of it, he seemed to have not eaten it for two years.
Qin Huai couldn't stand his eager look, so he said, "One portion, one person and half."
Mu Nan didn't expect Qin Huai to let him eat a portion by himself when it was almost time for bed. Although there wasn't much instant noodles in a portion, and a grown man could finish it in just a few bites, he was still very satisfied to be able to eat it. After eating, Mu Nan sighed, "Sometimes it's good to just soak it and eat it. Sometimes it's great to cook it separately with toppings and cheese."
Qin Huai said with a smile: "You haven't even finished this meal yet, but you're already thinking about the next one?"
Mu Nan put the empty instant noodle bucket into a bucket of snow, waited for it to melt, washed it, and then put it back into the space. Anyway, he usually put away such reusable things, just in case they come in handy one day.
After eating a little to fill his stomach, he wasn't full, but not hungry either. Then he lay down on the warm kang, feeling completely relaxed. Mu Nan began to feel sleepy.
Just when she was about to let herself fall asleep, she was suddenly moved and directly into Qin Huai's arms.
Mu Nan turned over and said, "No, I'm so tired."
Qin Huai put his arms around his waist and held Mu Nan tightly in his arms: "I just want to hold you to sleep, what are you thinking about? Or are you saying one thing and thinking another, and you actually want it?"
Mu Nan kicked him in the quilt: "You are the one who says one thing and means another!"
Qin Huai clamped Mu Nan's somewhat cold feet between his legs and kissed his earlobe: "Sure enough."
Mu Nan snorted: "What?"
Qin Huai: "It's still more comfortable at home."
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