It was dark. Si Nan walked a few meters out of the porcelain shop. After hearing the rolling door close, he made sure that there was no one around. He took out an oversized aluminum iron pot from the space and covered his head with it. He walked along the narrow eaves above the door of the street shop, braving the strong wind and the ice cubes that were blown everywhere from time to time, and struggled to move towards a nearby old community.
When the hail fell, in order to avoid being hit by the hail, she and the tricycle driver hid in a porcelain shop. They originally planned to find a chance to leave the porcelain shop after nightfall.
According to the dream, the hailstorm will last for at least three days, and the heavy rain will last for a long time. As a result, the shops and houses on the first floor in low-lying areas will be very unsafe. She must find a high place nearby, wait for the hail to stop, and then find an opportunity to return to her home.
Because the porcelain shop is located in a long row of shops that are more than 20 years old, with only one storefront and a very low floor, completely separated from the residential buildings upstairs. According to the habits of previous developers in Xingcheng, the floors above these shops are all old residential buildings, and the old residential area formed by the residential buildings is near the shops.
The old residential area is Sinan’s destination.
She safely avoided the hail and various broken trees and large pieces of garbage blown by the strong wind, and finally arrived at the gate of a community called Xingfu Community.
The hail came suddenly and everyone fled in panic to avoid it. There was only an arched iron gate at the entrance of Xingfu Community to keep out outsiders, and there was usually an old man serving as a security guard at the door.
At this moment, the iron gate was open, and the strong wind made it creak. It opened and closed, as if an invisible hand was pushing and pulling the iron gate, and it looked like it was about to fall down.
There is a guard booth next to the iron gate, where the old security guard who was originally guarding the community and a few timid owners hid.
The huge hailstones blown by the strong wind had smashed the glass of the guard booth into pieces. The four people huddled together shivering, looking at the hailstones falling from the sky in the dark night outside, not knowing whether to leave or stay.
Si Nan ran past them with a huge aluminum pot on his head. They only saw a figure disappearing in front of them at an extremely fast speed. The security guard couldn't help but sigh: "Whose resident is this? How dare he run in such heavy hail and rain?"
In fact, Si Nan was hit by hailstones blown by strong winds several times during the movement. Her abdomen, calves and arms were scratched and injured to varying degrees by the big hailstones. The wounds were burning with pain. The aluminum pot on her head was unfortunately hit by a big hailstone. It almost broke through the bottom of the pot with a clang, making her dizzy.
Fortunately, the aluminum pot was a famous domestic product with excellent quality. It was hit by a large ice cube weighing nearly ten pounds. Except for a large dent on the bottom of the pot, there was no major problem.
Si Nan held the big aluminum pot and ran into the Xingfu Community as fast as he could and entered the unit building closest to the community entrance.
At this time, due to the sudden hail and heavy rain, most of Xingcheng's power equipment was destroyed. The whole city was in a state of power outage and it was dark everywhere.
A lot of people gathered at the bottom of a unit building, standing at the stairs watching the situation outside. Most of these people were not residents here. Some were from other units, some were passing by and were lucky enough to hide here as quickly as possible. Some were just people from this unit who were simply bored and wanted to join in the fun.
When Si Nan ran in, a dazzling lightning flashed across the sky. When several aunties saw her, they came over to pull her hand in surprise and said, "Hey, girl, where did you find such a big pot to run back? Aren't you afraid of being crushed to death? A lot of people were killed outside just now. It was scary."
"I was just passing by outside." Si Nan let the aunties take her pot down, followed them up the stairs a few steps, and came to the corner of the first floor.
At this location, even if there is wind blowing in from outside, you will not be hit by hail.
She didn't say where the pot came from, and the aunties didn't care. The auntie who helped her get the pot said, "Girl, are you injured? If it's a minor injury, Miss Lu has some abrasion medicine that can be used to apply on you. If the injury is serious, Miss Lu can't help you. You wait here with them and see when the hail stops. If it stops, call the emergency number and go to the hospital."
There were more than twenty people standing at the corner of the first floor, twelve of them were injured to varying degrees, with heads hit, broken hands and feet, and ice arrows sticking out of their bodies... They were all leaning against the wall, groaning softly, and another six were only slightly injured, sitting on the stairs above, sighing sadly.
The aunt in her fifties who calls herself Miss Lu and three other aunts live on different floors of the apartment building. They are well-known square dance enthusiasts in the community and are also well-known for being enthusiastic. No matter how hot the weather is, whether there is electricity or not, or even without music, nothing can stop them from dancing square dance.
When the hail fell, they reacted quickly and led their families back home. Later, they saw many people outside who did not have time to run, or could not run fast enough and were killed or injured. After screaming in shock, they stood downstairs to see if they could help. Those who were waiting at the corner had their wounds basically treated by them enthusiastically.
Si Nan's heart moved, and he pretended to be in pain, "Miss Lu, I'm injured, but not seriously. It's already late at night, and the hail won't stop for a while. Can I stay at your house for one night?"
Miss Lu was a little hesitant when she heard that. Although she was enthusiastic, she was also cautious, especially since their old neighborhood had poor security. Before the high temperature, thieves often came to their neighborhood to steal things, and after the high temperature, many people with ulterior motives came to steal and rob. She had experienced a lot in the past five months and would not easily take in outsiders.
Si Nan saw her hesitation, and when there was no lightning, he took out two small loaves of bread from his backpack, secretly stuffed them into Miss Lu's hand, and whispered in her ear: "I won't live here for free, this is my accommodation fee. If there is no room at your house, I will find someone else."
When Miss Lu heard this, she immediately said, "There are only two elderly people in my family. My daughter got married a long time ago, and her room is empty. My daughter, you can live in my house."
As she spoke, she held the small bread tightly in her hand and hid it, afraid that others would see it, and pulled Si Nan upstairs.
Supplies are in short supply now. Although Ms. Lu is a retired employee who receives a four-digit pension every month, her daughter is also very capable. She works for a large company in the capital and transfers living expenses to her every month. She has no worries about food and clothing before the high temperature.
But after the high temperature, her family didn't have much food stored and had to rely on government assistance. The two elderly people in the family were frail and sickly, so she had to share her food and drink with the elderly. During this period of time, she went from a plump middle-aged woman to as thin as a bamboo pole.
Now someone was willing to pay for food and stay at her house for a night, and it was a weak girl who looked harmless. Even though it was just two small loaves of bread, Miss Lu was still very excited in these difficult days when food was hard to come by.
Two small loaves of bread can fill the stomachs of two elderly people with bad teeth. As for her, as long as she can have something to eat and drink to fill her stomach and not starve to death, that's enough.
Because Xingfu Community is an old community, there is no elevator. The highest floor is the eighth floor. Miss Lu lives on the fifth floor. There are six households on each floor, all of which are small two-bedroom apartments. Everyone opened up the original balcony in the living room and divided it into a small room, thus turning it into a three-bedroom apartment.
Miss Lu lost her husband early in life and had only one daughter. Many years ago, she felt sorry for her daughter's hard work in studying, so she moved into the small room, let her daughter sleep on the side, and her parents-in-law lived in the master bedroom.
When her husband died, she was still young and quite pretty. In order to avoid being coveted and bullied by others as an orphan and a widow, and also to prevent thieves, Miss Lu built her small home into an iron wall many years ago. Not only were all the windows replaced with sturdy, durable and indestructible bulletproof glass, all windows were installed with anti-theft windows, and even the roof of her small compartment was renovated with thick reinforced concrete. Now she lives in the side bedroom, and the small room is empty for Sinan to live in.
The small room was about 15 square meters, with a single bed and a small sliding wardrobe. There was a window at the clinical position, but it was closed. There was a howling wind outside and hail was hitting the glass, but there was no sign of damage to the glass. Sinan was quite satisfied with the room.
She took out two packs of instant noodles with mushrooms and chicken from the space, walked into the dimly lit living room with a small candle, and said to Lv Yanmei who was patiently feeding two elderly people in their 80s with small breads, "Miss Lv, these two packs of instant noodles are for you."
This flavor of instant noodles was one of the foods distributed by the government every week a few months ago when the temperature was high, so it doesn't look out of place to bring it out now.
However, Lu Yanmei was still a little surprised. She took the two packs of instant noodles and said, "You still have instant noodles to eat now?"
Now the government only distributes long-lasting aged rice, flour, sweet potatoes, potatoes, onions and dehydrated vegetables. Instant noodles are rarely distributed and are now very rare.
"I don't really like this flavor of instant noodles, so I've been keeping it at home." Si Nan sat on the sofa next to her and said to her, "I went out today to visit my friend. She and her daughter were starving, so I carried a backpack and put half of the food and drinks I usually stored at home in the bag. I didn't expect to encounter something like this."
Lu Yanmei was fifty-six years old and had experienced everything. She could tell at a glance that there was something else behind her words. She sighed and said, "Just say it, girl. These two packets of instant noodles were not given to you for nothing."
"Then I'll be frank. I don't know when this hailstorm will stop. I hope that while I'm staying at your house, you won't take in other outsiders. I don't want to be crowded with others."
Si Nan glanced at the two elderly people sitting in wheelchairs opposite her, waiting to be fed with their cloudy eyes open, "In return, I will give you a fixed amount of food every day, such as two loaves of bread and two compressed biscuits, or four sweet potatoes or something like that?"
If these foods were sold outside, they would easily sell for several thousand or even tens of thousands of yuan, and the supply could not keep up with the demand. Lu Yanmei was moved and agreed immediately: "That's exactly what I was thinking. I don't want to take in some people with unknown origins and cause trouble for myself. I think you look kind, my girl. You can stay as long as you want."
Reaching a consensus in their minds, Lu Yanmei gave Si Nan an almost used abrasion medicine. She was worried that the temperature would drop, so she would be very cold in a short-sleeved shirt, so she kindly found two sets of clothes that her daughter had worn before and gave them to her.
Si Nan thanked him, returned to the small room, closed the door, sat on the bed, took off his clothes, took out an outdoor flashlight from his backpack, turned it on, and shone it on himself.
My thighs and arms were just scratched. I just need to spray some medicine on them and they will be fine in two days. My waist and back that were not covered by the aluminum pot were hit by several hailstones and my skin is bruised. Fortunately, there are no serious internal injuries. I just need to apply some medicine on them and they will be fine in a while.
After applying the medicine with a grimace, he put on the plain floral autumn long coat and black down jacket given by Lu Yanmei. They fit him well. Si Nan took out his mobile phone and saw that the temperature had dropped to twelve degrees. He experienced the feeling of winter for half a day. With trembling hands and feet, he threw the wet clothes he had taken off earlier into the space and would take them out to wash when he had the chance.
Soon she took out five packs of instant noodles, a dozen sweet potatoes, potatoes, five packs of compressed biscuits, and four small loaves of bread from the space, and stuffed them all into her large backpack.
Influenced by Cheng Suming's habit, she would carry a backpack whenever she went out recently, not for anything else, but just to avoid being seen when taking things out of the space.
Fortunately, she carried a backpack before going out, otherwise when she paid Lu Yanmei for the room tomorrow, she would not know how to explain where the food came from.
After treating the injury, she felt hungry, so she took out a bowl of light-flavored three-fresh porridge from the space and started eating.
This was one of the takeaways she had specially ordered before the high temperature. It was packed in a cylindrical paper box and was still warm when she took it out. It contained lean meat, dried shrimps, bamboo shoots, and some lettuce together with raw rice porridge. The porridge was very thick. Every bite had crispy bamboo shoots, fragrant lean meat, dried shrimps for flavor, and refreshing lettuce. It tasted fresh and delicious in her mouth. After eating a bowl of this, accompanied by a cup of hot honey grapefruit tea, Si Nan felt her cold body warming up.
After eating and drinking, she put the empty cardboard box into the space, and then found a deserted place to throw it into the trash can to avoid exposing herself.
Her space is very large, so large that one can't see the end of it at a glance, and can hold a lot of things. The things she bought before the high temperature were separated by type. When she wanted to take something, she just needed to use her mind to go in, find what she wanted, and control her mind to move it out.
For garbage that is inconvenient to throw away, she puts it as far away from various supplies as possible to avoid making the supplies smelly.
After counting the remaining supplies in the space, she began to feel sleepy. She had been running around for so long and her body was aching and tired. Now, she just wanted to have a good sleep and replenish her energy.
She turned off the flashlight, lay down on the narrow single bed, and covered herself with the soft quilt given by Lu Yanmei. She did not fall asleep immediately, but took out her low-battery cell phone and tried to contact Cheng Suming, Gao Moli and others.
Naturally, she couldn't get through, and the network also showed no signal. She had no choice but to refresh and change lines several times, but it was still the same. She could only take out a spare power bank and charging cable from the space to charge her phone, and gradually fell asleep amid the crackling and rustling sounds of heavy rain and hail.
When he woke up again, he was startled by a knock on the door. Si Nan glanced at the mobile phone next to the pillow. The phone was fully charged and showed 5:01 in the morning. It was much brighter outside, but the sky was still gloomy.
Lu Yanmei's voice came from outside the room: "Girl, are you awake? It's time for breakfast."
Si Nan, with messy hair, opened the door a crack and saw Lu Yanmei standing outside with dark circles under her eyes. She looked seriously sleep deprived. He couldn't help but ask, "Did you make my breakfast?"
"Yes." Lv Yanmei held a small bowl of steaming instant noodles in her hand and handed it to her: "My two elderly people wake up early and get hungry quickly. I picked up a big hailstone on the balcony last night and put it in a bucket. It has melted into water this morning. I have water to cook noodles. Eat it while it's hot. It won't taste good if it gets cold. Eat it before going to sleep."
That bowl of noodles was obviously the size of an entire packet, and there was quite a bit of soup as well. It was the mushroom and chicken noodles that Si Nan got yesterday, and Lu Yanmei picked out so much just for her, so the remaining packet of noodles had to be shared among the three of them.
Si Nan looked at Lv Yanmei's gentle smile, and for some reason she thought of her late mother. She hadn't felt the love of a mother for a long time. Her eyes suddenly turned red. She pushed the bowl away and said, "Thank you, Miss Lv. You guys eat. You don't have to cook my portion. I have some food in my bag. You guys can eat more."
Lu Yanmei was stunned for a moment and wanted to say something, but Sinan said, "Don't feel burdened and think that I should have a share of the food I gave you. Don't forget that we are just renting each other, and it is only natural for me to give you food as rent. I will make myself something to eat when I am hungry, so don't worry about me. By the way, can you boil water here?"
There are many kind people in the world, and she will appreciate the kindness of strangers, but she should not have too much contact with them.
Too much contact will only make you soft-hearted and do many unwise things. Sinan doesn't want to have more contact with Lu Yanmei and thus worry about her. It is better for them to distance themselves from the conflict of interest.
A trace of disappointment flashed across Lv Yanmei's eyes, but she quickly recovered and said, "You can boil water. This is an old neighborhood, and many people are not used to natural gas. They are still using the old honeycomb coal stove. I stockpiled a lot of honeycomb coal in the kitchen a long time ago. There is not much water available when the temperature is high, so we rarely use fire. If you want to cook instant noodles or boil water, you can use the water in the bucket."
"Okay, thank you."
In addition to the large amount of tap water that was running out, Sinan's space also contained tons of drinking mineral water, so she was not short of water.
If she could make herself feel more comfortable, she would usually take a bath to make herself feel more comfortable, but this was someone else's home, and she couldn't boil water for a bath there. She asked Lv Yanmei if she could boil water because she smelled the aroma of instant noodles. The mushroom stewed chicken noodles that she didn't like before suddenly tasted delicious when she was hungry. Since she had decided to separate the benefits, she would of course cook the noodles herself.
When she passed the living room with a pack of mushroom and chicken noodles, she saw Lu Yanmei feeding two elderly people again.
The two old people, the old man was in a daze, with his mouth open holding noodles, and he didn't close his mouth for a long time. Lu Yanmei had to help him close his mouth before he could chew slowly.
The old lady seemed to have Parkinson's disease. Her head was tilted, her hands and feet were shaking, and she couldn't speak. She kept calling out "Yiyi ah ah" and seemed very hungry and wanted to eat. Lu Yanmei patiently cut the soft noodles into pieces with a spoon and fed her mouthful by mouthful.
When they had almost finished eating, Lu Yanmei ate the few broken noodles left in the bowl, drank up the noodle soup, and took the bowl to the kitchen's water bucket to scoop some water to wash it.
Si Nan felt very upset when he saw this. Under the great disaster, life was not easy for the people. Many people abandoned their wives and daughters, and even their own parents, just to have food and drink.
And Lu Yanmei, many years after her husband's death, did not choose to remarry. Instead, she raised her eldest daughter alone and respected her two elderly parents-in-law without any complaints or impatience. What a rare and precious quality this is.
Si Nan let out a sigh and cooked an extra packet of noodles. He deliberately said that he cooked a large portion of instant noodles and couldn't finish it, so he gave half of it to Lu Yanmei.
Lv Yanmei understood her thoughts and accepted it with tears in her eyes. After they finished eating noodles in the living room, Lv Yanmei took the initiative to help Sinan wash the dishes, and then said to her: "I will go downstairs to see what's going on outside. If you have nothing to do, can you help me listen to the movements in the master bedroom? If the two old people want to drink water, please help me pass the water. If they want to go to the toilet, come down and call me."
As she spoke, Lu Yanmei handed her a spare key, her eyes full of trust in her.
Sinan nodded and agreed.
The two elderly people in the family were pushed into the master bedroom by Lu Yanmei. Si Nan stood at the door and took a look. One was sitting in a wheelchair in a daze, and the other was lying on the bed groaning. There was no problem at the moment, so she sat in the living room, took out her mobile phone, and looked around for a signal to contact Gao Moli and the others.
About half an hour later, Lv Yanmei came back with a piece of news: "My daughter, yesterday's hail killed a quarter of the city's population. Although the hail was smaller this morning, it still continued. A few well-informed people in our community asked around and heard that the government organized the army and firefighters to rescue the injured citizens today, but because there are too many affected areas, it will take a while to rescue them. In addition, the water caused by the heavy rain is already half a leg deep, and the residents on the first floor are trying to squeeze into the homes of residents on higher floors."
One hailstorm caused a quarter of the death rate in Xingcheng. If it were a global disaster, how many people would die?
Si Nan sighed, indicating that she understood, and returned to the small room. When she was hungry, she ate the food in the space, and when she was thirsty, she drank mineral water. Except for going to the toilet and collecting the room fee, she did not go anywhere else and stayed there for two days.
That night, she was suddenly awakened from a half-sleep state. After waking up, she heard Lu Yanmei's very short cry for help, and soon there was no sound.
The room was dark. Outside, there was still a violent storm, and the sound of hailstones hitting the glass windows could be heard. However, amidst the sounds, Sinan heard light footsteps and hurried voices coming from the living room outside. His hair stood on end immediately. He took out a crossbow, a crossbow, and chili powder from his space, got out of bed gently, and stuck behind the door of the small room to listen to the movements in the living room.
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