Because of its special geographical location and proximity to the mountains, Giant Stone Town is relatively remote compared to other towns. Before the end of the world, many young people in Giant Stone Town were not used to the slow life here. After working hard and buying houses in big cities, many houses here were left empty and uninhabited.
Because many houses in Jushi Town are made of local materials, the hard rocks from the stone mountain are chosen. The rocks are carried down the mountain piece by piece, grinded into stone bricks with a saw, and then piled up with cement to build houses. These houses are of much better quality than the red brick houses made of fired mud.
With Yan Hongyi's special instructions, and Lin Zhongping's intention to please Doctor Cheng Suming, if he has a headache or fever, or if his family members are injured and need medical treatment, he can find Cheng Suming for treatment.
Lin Zhongping specifically called his eldest son, Lin Jianyuan, a man in his thirties who looked quite shrewd, wore glasses, and was also a government worker. He took Cheng Suming and his group on a tour around the town where there were houses. He also explained to them the origins of the empty houses and why some very old houses had not collapsed.
Cheng Su Ming understood what he meant. The reason why he took the trouble to show them around for a long time and show them where there were vacant houses was simply because he wanted them to choose their ideal place to live. After choosing, they would owe him a favor, and the two sides could interact with each other in the future.
Now they stopped on an ancient stone bridge. Under the bridge was a stream about five meters wide and of unknown length. The stream flowed with clear snow water that had melted from the top of the snow-capped Dashishan Mountain, the highest mountain in altitude.
Standing on the stone bridge, they could clearly see the moss-covered stones of all sizes at the bottom of the stream. Under the branches and leaves that sank to the bottom of the water, there were many small fish, shrimps and crabs hiding.
On both sides of the stream are blue-tiled houses or two-story stone houses.
Most of the houses have broken tiles and moss-covered stone walls. They look old and unique, giving people an eerie and cold atmosphere.
Lin Jianyuan said: "These houses were built by people who came here to open up wasteland more than a hundred years ago. It is said that the country sent an army to survey the area and accidentally discovered this place. Later, they decided to build a secret base in Dashi Mountain, and the foot of the mountain was developed by the people brought by those soldiers. These houses were originally built here because there was no such advanced equipment to dig wells and get water at that time. Those people saw that the stream water was extremely clear and drinking it directly was as sweet as mountain spring water, so they were too lazy to dig wells and built houses next to the stream for easy water. Due to the limited technology for building houses at that time, the area of these houses was not large, but because they were made of hard mountain rocks, the quality was very good. Even after a hundred years, only one-third of these houses collapsed during the earthquake."
The stone mountains are divided into Big Stone Mountain and Small Stone Mountain. The low mountains next to Jushi Town are collectively called Small Stone Mountain. Among the mountains, there is a high mountain with an altitude of 5,400 meters, which is Big Stone Mountain.
Si Nan held tightly the two geese in his arms, which wanted to splash into the water as soon as they saw it, and asked in surprise, "Dashi Mountain was built as a military base many years ago?"
"Yes, this was originally a secret that had to be kept secret for three generations in our town of Boulder. Now that it has been made public, there is nothing to fear."
Lin Jianyuan said: "The base was built secretly. It was used to store military weapons and equipment. Therefore, there has always been a team stationed in our village. It has also become a red tourist attraction. People say that the military team came here to mine mineral resources. We have mountains and streams here, and the climate is quite pleasant. People in the town used to grow rapeseed for a living. In spring, the rapeseed flowers are in full bloom, which looks very beautiful. There is a secret railway built by the soldiers at the east entrance of the town. Many years ago, a section was separated and a steam train was built for the people in the town to serve as another tourist attraction. People are taken in by train to travel. Although the terrain here is remote, it can be regarded as a scenic spot."
"No wonder there are traces of man-made construction everywhere here. It must have been difficult to open up the land here back then." Cheng Suming looked around and turned to everyone, "Mr. Lin took us to see a lot of houses. Do you want to live in a large red brick building, a homestay, a guesthouse, or these old houses?"
Cheng Wei said, "Wen Tao and I will live wherever you guys live."
Sheng Youqing also said: "It's better for us to live together so that we can take care of each other if anything happens."
Cheng Suming turned his gaze to Si Nan: "It doesn't matter where I live, it's up to you to decide."
Si Nan felt a little pressure for no reason as she had to decide where so many people lived. She hesitated for a moment and said, "Actually, there is something I haven't told you. When I was very young, before my mother died, she brought me here."
"I was about four years old at the time. Because I was too young, my memory is a little fuzzy. I only remember that my mother almost missed the train ride, so I ran from the train station with her in my arms to squeeze onto the train, and then came to this town to find my aunt."
"My aunt married here and for some reason she severed ties with my mother. My mother came to look for her, but she refused to see us. Later, my mother cried and hugged me and left."
"But during the time my mom was staying, I often sneaked into this town by myself to run around and play. The locals in the town were very nice to me, thinking that I was a lost child of a tourist. They often enthusiastically gave me candy and water and wanted to help me find my parents. What impressed me most was a kind aunt who took me to her house to play for half a day, cooked me delicious pork bibimbap, and fried two golden fried eggs for me! Her house was right by the stream. It was summer at that time. When I went in, there was no air conditioning or fan on, but it was very cool and there were not many mosquitoes. I think the houses on both sides of the stream are pretty good."
Everyone was silent for a moment as they didn't expect her to have such a past. Suddenly, Lin Jianyuan asked, "What's your aunt's name? Maybe I can help you find her."
Si Nan thought for a moment and said, "It seems her name is Liu Fenlan, and my mother's name is Liu Shulan."
Lin Jianyuan's expression suddenly became strange. He looked Si Nan up and down, and after a long while he said, "This world is really small!"
Sinan:?
"My mother's name is Liu Fenlan." Lin Jianyuan smiled bitterly, "But she died eighteen years ago when she gave birth to my brother. Before she died, she told me about her and your mother. If you are interested, I will invite you to our house for a meal and tell you about it. Since we are relatives, I will not hide it from you. I suggest that you live in the house by the stream. According to the order issued by the military, these old houses built along the stream will not be moved. They said that the characteristic houses of Jushi Town should be preserved. If you live here, you will not move and will not be crowded with others. If you live in other places, they may be demolished and rebuilt into high-rise buildings, and then you will have to live together with others. Mrs. Cheng, no, cousin, I am revealing the inside information to you because we are cousins. You must keep this matter confidential! If you have no objection, come with me and I will find you a few better houses."
Just talking about the past and recognizing each other as cousins, Si Nan looked at everyone with a complicated expression. Everyone agreed, and she followed Lin Jianyuan.
The crowd followed Lin Jianyuan along the bluestone path beside the stream for about half an hour. Lin Jianyuan stopped in front of a two-story house. "This house belongs to my great uncle's family. Many years ago, they moved to a big city and sold it to my father at a low price. My father asked him to use it as my wedding house. My father has always left it empty and has not resold it or rented it out. I have always lived in our old house and have no intention of moving in here. Mainly because I thought that maybe one day my great uncle's family would come back to live here, but now it has been more than two years since various natural disasters, and they have no news. This house will be given to you, my cousin. There are also two better houses in other places..."
"I live in the house next to Si Nan!" Sheng Youqing said hurriedly before he finished speaking.
"I live here too." Cheng Wei followed.
"Are you sure?" Lin Jianyuan said with a strange look on his face, "Someone died in the house on the left. A woman was hanged on the second floor beam. No one has lived there for many years. The house on the right had a lot of cracks during the earthquake. The tiles and beams on the entire second floor were damaged. Are you sure you want to live next door to her?"
Cheng Wei was suddenly speechless. A house where someone had died and a dilapidated house did not sound good.
Sheng Youqing said: "I grew up under the red flag and believe in atheism. It's just that someone died. There's nothing to be afraid of. Our family lives in that haunted house."
Cheng Wei hesitated for a while and looked at Yang Wentao. Yang Wentao said, "If you don't want to be separated from your brother and sister-in-law, you can live in the house on the right. Use cement to repair the cracks, and it should be habitable. If it really can't be lived in, we can think of a way when the time comes."
The house matter was finalized.
Just in case, Cheng Suming said to Lin Jianyuan: "We won't live in your house for free. You should charge the market price to avoid gossip."
Lin Jianyuan wanted to forget it, since they were all relatives and he didn't need that little money. After thinking about it, he said, "In a few days, the military should come up with a policy for survivors from other places to rent or buy houses. At that time, they will no longer use coins to buy houses, but the new points system stipulated by the military. If you think it's suitable, you can use the points to buy a house from me and live here forever."
Si Nan was moved by what he heard, but when he thought of the subsequent natural disasters, he shook his head and said, "Forget about buying a house. Look at how many people spent their entire life savings to buy a house before the end of the world, but an earthquake brought them back to the time before liberation. People nowadays are lucky to be alive, so why would they buy a house? Let's rent your house, and we'll give you whatever price the military gives us."
Lin Jianyuan said, "We are all relatives. You must give me a 50% discount when you rent my house. Don't be polite to me. Normally, my father and I should visit you and your grandmother and uncle every year, but because of what happened that year, it is difficult for us to come, so...you guys are busy. At around 6 o'clock in the evening, the army will give three days of free food to the new survivors in front of the government building square. Remember to come and collect it."
After he left, the three families went to their own yards and started cleaning up.
Their houses are not very large, with the main house being about 100 square meters, the yard being 50 square meters, plus a wall.
The walls of the houses that Cheng Wei, Yang Wentao, and Sheng Youqing's family had their eyes on were almost all destroyed, and they didn't have the keys to the houses, so they could only break down the door locks to get in.
The house that Lin Jianyuan let Si Nan live in was always managed regularly. Not only was the wall in good condition and there was a door lock, but even the thick silt and garbage that had been soaked by stagnant water in the house had been roughly cleaned up.
After Si Nan opened the gate with the key and went in, he saw some tender green weeds growing in the four corners of the yard. He just put the Dabai couple down and let them destroy them.
Walking in, the format of the two-story building is a set of two with a main room in the middle. However, the room on the right side of the first floor has been converted into a toilet and kitchen. The kitchen is not large and is next to the toilet. The toilet is an old-fashioned squat toilet with a lot of mud underneath. If you want to use the toilet, you have to empty out all the mud underneath.
Going up to the second floor, two rooms and the living room were filled with messy household utensils, all covered with mud from the dry river. They were obviously unusable. It would be nice to take them all downstairs and break them into pieces to use as firewood.
What surprised Sinan was that the roof of these two floors was not like other houses with suspended beams and covered with tiles. Instead, the roof of this building was a flat roof sealed with cement, forming a terrace with stairs going up. In other words, she could fill the entire square and spacious terrace with soil and grow vegetables on it!
Cheng Suming was sweeping the dust and dirt in the house with a broom. Hearing her words, he agreed, "If you don't want to go out to work and earn points, you can grow some vegetables at home and exchange them for points from the military."
There are several ways to obtain points now. One is to exchange points for labor work, one is to make significant contributions, and the military government will reward points, and another is to take various useful materials to the military in exchange for points.
After the earthquake, the world will enter a new cycle of natural disasters. Under severe weather conditions, every supply becomes extremely precious.
The rising water level that year caused many crop seeds to be submerged, rot and disappear. Although the country and some people stockpiled crop seeds in advance, it was not easy to grow fresh fruits and vegetables in the subsequent natural disaster environment.
Therefore, fresh fruits and vegetables are in short supply, and in certain natural disaster environments, they can earn more points.
Si Nan held a wet towel in his hand, wiping the dirt and dust around the house and said, "If that's the case, I think I will not only grow vegetables at home, but I will also rent two acres of land to grow crops. Then maybe I can achieve my financial freedom."
Cheng Suming said: "As for planting, the Xingcheng military will requisition all the land that can be planted and plant it uniformly. It may be difficult for private individuals to contract land for planting."
"Am I only able to cultivate the one and a half acres of terraced land at home?"
"That's not necessary. If you really want to contract the land to grow crops, I can ask Chief Zhou and Yan Hongyi to come up with a solution. If that doesn't work, you can also apply for a related planting position."
"What's the point of that?" Si Nan curled his lips. "Working for others and being your own boss are two completely different concepts and two different mentalities!"
Cheng Suming turned around and smiled at her with a gloomy face: "Okay, I understand what you mean. I will find Yan Hongyi later to see if I can rent two acres of land for you to farm."
"That's better. If we can really rent it, it'd be best to sign a long contract, starting from three to five years! I don't want to harvest the vegetables I planted just before the contract expires and I can't harvest them. I'd be so angry."
"Okay, I'll do as you say."
After cleaning the first floor, the two put the garbage into the large-capacity rice bag that Si Nan took out from the space and piled it at the door. Then they went to the second floor and moved all the rotten tables, chairs, benches, old sofas, refrigerators, washing machines and other things that had been soaked in water to the yard downstairs. Holding a hammer, they dismantled and knocked down all the burnable things, and then cleaned the second floor again.
By the time they were almost done cleaning up, it was almost evening. Sheng Youqing from next door climbed on top of their wall and called out to them, "It's almost time for dinner, go get your meal."
Seeing her dishevelled appearance, Si Nan couldn't help but say to her, "There's a door but you don't go through it. Why are you climbing a wall? The wall is covered in moss, and you don't mind the dirtiness."
"It's already dirty, so I don't care." Sheng Youqing chuckled, "Luckily we are close to the stream, so we can carry a paddle and fetch water anytime. Otherwise, the room would be so dirty that we really wouldn't be able to clean it."
This creek was opened up by soldiers many years ago. In order to prevent excessive melting of snow on the top of Dashishan Mountain in summer from causing floods and destroying the houses in the town, the creek was widened and deepened to about ten meters from the land.
If people wanted to fetch water from the creek, they had to walk down the layers of stone steps and then climb up again.
If you use it a lot, climbing back and forth can be very tiring.
Si Nan knew this and felt that it was inconvenient to fetch water from the stream. Now there were not many people and the flowing stream water looked okay, but when there were many survivors, everyone would wash this and that in the water. There would be no worries if you were in the upper part, but who knows how dirty the water would be downstream.
She thought it would be a good idea to dig a well at home to use water if there was a chance, which would be convenient and hygienic.
Because they were worried that some ignorant people might steal their supplies, Sheng Youqing's family and Cheng Wei's tricycles were locked in Si Nan's yard. Si Nan also left two geese at home to watch over the house. Then everyone went to the square in front of the town government building to line up to receive supplies.
Their appearance naturally attracted the attention of many locals, mainly because there were not many survivors from other places appearing in the town. In addition, they were of normal body shape and ruddy complexion, and did not look like they had suffered, so some curious local aunties and uncles asked them.
"Hey? You guys are calling? Where do you live? What did you do before? How many people are there in your family? Why are you here? Are you married?"
The two middle-aged ladies in their fifties who were standing in front of Si Nan asked her questions. Si Nan answered them one by one without getting too serious about the main points, emphasizing that her husband was a surgeon, her aunt married here, and she came here to stay with her relatives.
The two aunts who asked her questions, one was curious about who her aunt was, and the other was curious about Cheng Su Ming, who was standing behind her and looked gentle, handsome and well-mannered. They couldn't help but greet Cheng Su Ming warmly.
"Oh my, doctors these days, especially surgeons, are as rare as pandas. You are so lucky, you are a college graduate, and you have a good husband with a 'iron rice bowl' job. When the base is built, you will have no worries about food and clothing just by relying on your husband."
Compared with their rejection of outsiders, Si Nan, who came to live with her relatives, was obviously classified as one of their own and was much more friendly to her.
Si Nan smiled but said nothing. A woman's value is never reflected in who she marries. Even without Cheng Su Ming, she can support herself well with her own hands, not to mention that she still has space.
But she couldn't say these words to these aunties whose ideas were not in line with hers. The more she explained and refuted, the more excited they became. She could only listen to them quietly and follow the long line slowly moving forward.
The two aunts chattered for a while, and finally sighed: "Our place was taken over by the military before the water rose. At that time, the military took us to the military air-raid shelter built on the mountain and lived there for a long time until the water receded. On the morning of the earthquake, many people got up early and ignored the advice to go down the mountain to check on their own families. As a result, they encountered aftershocks and many people died in their own homes. Although the military has been managing our food and drink, what we hope most is that our hometown will return to its former state and we can live freely. But now our town has been taken over by the military and is going to be built into a safe base. I don’t know how many outsiders will be taken in in the future. I heard that many of those outsiders are like bandits, burning, killing, looting and committing all kinds of evil. When I think about living in the same place with those people, I feel that the future will be unbearable."
Someone nearby replied, "Yes, yes. I heard that those refugees from other places even dared to rob the army's supplies. How brave do they have to be to rob!"
"This is nothing. Didn't you see the army that came today? They brought over 60 or 70 handcuffed criminals, saying they were letting them participate in the construction. But no one can guarantee that those criminals will not run around or attack us civilians. After the base is built, will they be settled here and live with us?"
"To be fair, things are different now. If we hadn't been managed by the army, we would have been in trouble by outsiders. I think we are much luckier than outsiders. At least the army didn't forcibly requisition our houses. They only said that vacant and surplus houses could be requisitioned voluntarily, and they also said that we locals would be given priority to choose easy jobs to earn points. I think that's pretty good. It's almost our turn to receive supplies. Don't talk. It's not good for the soldiers to hear us."
A large pile of supplies was piled up in front of the government building. Local town government staff and military personnel, holding pre-registered books, checked information with the people queuing up.
It is different in other places where personal identity information cannot be retrieved due to communication network interruptions, but it is different here.
Giant Stone Town has a military network dedicated to the military, which is not open to the public and is usually limited to internal communication. Now, in order to register the information of the survivors who come here, the relevant technical personnel have restored the national household registration ID card information before the end of the world. Every survivor who comes to Giant Stone Town must register, and then the staff will conduct a network comparison.
If the identity information is correct, survivors who have no criminal information before the end of the world can receive one kilogram of rice, two packs of compressed biscuits, a can of canned fruit, and two tablets for treating dysentery and diarrhea.
If the identity information is wrong, you can re-register for comparison. If the comparison cannot be made, the identity is unknown, and there is a criminal record before the end of the world, sorry, you will be arrested on the spot and sent to the west of Giant Stone Town, where you will be guarded by armed soldiers and forced to do the most arduous hard labor such as firing kilns, moving bricks, making cement, building houses, etc.
While Si Nan and his group were queuing, two identities were matched incorrectly. The military gave them two chances to think again about their names and where they lived. If they couldn't remember their ID numbers, they could just state their registered residence.
The two men stammered and could not explain themselves, and even tried to escape. Without saying a word, four soldiers from the army grabbed the two men, handcuffed them, and took them away.
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