When Si Nan and the others went to collect the supplies, Lin Zhongping and an officer wearing a military green iron helmet, one holding a registration book and the other holding a military tablet, carefully checked Si Nan's identity information to see if she looked like the person on her ID card. Only after confirming that everything was correct did they give her the supplies.
These foods are enough to sustain a person for a whole day, so they have to be eaten sparingly. If you feel hungry, you can go to the mountains to find some wild fruits, vegetables, mushrooms and other snacks. But because these things don't grow much, the locals will go to the wasteland outside the town and dig some newly grown grass roots from the soil to fill their stomachs.
After Si Nan and his friends got their supplies and returned home, Sheng Youqing and Yang Wentao pushed the tricycle that was in Si Nan's yard away and made some simple arrangements.
Si Nan and Cheng Su Ming helped the two families with a rough cleanup, and only went home when it was dark and nothing could be seen anymore.
Before leaving, Cheng Suming asked them, "Our glass windows and curtains are all broken, and we don't have many household items. Tomorrow we plan to go somewhere else to look for household items, glassware, and other things to bring back. Do you want to go?"
"Yes, we only brought some simple things like pots, pans, and bowls. The household utensils in these houses are all rotten and unusable. There is not even a bed to sleep on, so of course we have to go outside to find some household utensils."
"Okay, let's gather at 7 o'clock tomorrow morning. We'll go to Keelin County, which is about 20 kilometers away from Boulder Town, to look for supplies."
"Going that far? How long will it take us to ride the tricycle?"
"It takes about six hours to go back and forth. The county is close to the mountains and forests, and its industry is tree planting and selling. The entire county is relatively remote, so there shouldn't be many people looking for supplies. We will leave two people at home to look after the house, and if the rest of us can't come back that day, we'll spend the night there."
"good."
Si Nan closed the courtyard gate, took out the key to open the door on the ground floor of the two-story building, took out a candle from the space, lit it and placed it in the corner of the empty living room.
The candlelight illuminated the night. She took out a square mahogany table and two mahogany chairs that were moved from the Cheng family's annex and placed them in the middle of the living room.
He turned around and closed the door of the living room like a thief, took out a spicy hot pot, a crispy fried chicken, a large bottle of Coke, and two servings of steaming rice from the space, and asked Cheng Suming to sit on the chair and start eating.
"Su Ming, don't just eat the hotpot, have a chicken leg." Si Nan tore off a fried chicken leg for Cheng Su Ming. The leg was crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, and was still dripping with soup. He handed it to his bowl, licked his fingers subconsciously, and went to pull another chicken leg, lowering his head to work hard.
With her own little home, a house with its own entrance and yard and a wall, Si Nan finally doesn't have to worry about her eating food with a strong smell and being smelled by Sheng Youqing and the others. She feels the food tastes especially delicious when she eats it.
Cheng Suming rarely eats fried chicken, but he couldn't help but praise it: "This chicken is fried well. Did you buy it at a fast food restaurant?"
Si Nan chewed the chicken cartilage on the chicken leg and agreed: "I used to think that the fried chicken sold in fast food restaurants was expensive and tasted bad. I got tired of it after eating it a few times. But after not eating it for a long time, I suddenly had a meal and thought it was pretty good."
"It's delicious. If I have a chance next time, I'll learn to make it for you and see if I can surpass the cooking skills of those fast food restaurants."
"Okay, I'll wait for that day. If your food tastes better than theirs, I'll learn from you. Maybe we can open a fast food restaurant."
…
After more than two years of living in the apocalypse, almost everyone’s picky eating problem has been cured.
Si Nan and his friend ate up all the food, even pouring the soup into the rice and eating it together. They drank all the Coke until not a drop was left, and walked outside in the yard burping to digest the food, discussing in low voices how to renovate and repair the house.
Si Nan pointed to the kitchen and said, "The stoves in the kitchen have all been damaged by water and cannot be used. Before the base provides gas, we'd better build a large stove outside the kitchen and build a shed on top so that we can cook with firewood."
Cheng Suming nodded. "It will take a long time to restore the gas supply to the base. We need to build not only a stove outside, but also a small one in the kitchen. We can cook with firewood inside, but also put a gas stove or a honeycomb coal stove next to it. We can use whatever stove we want. We also need to build two kang beds and fire walls like those in the north in the room where we sleep and the living room to withstand the severe cold of the next natural disaster."
The next natural disaster is severe cold, which will occur half a year after the earthquake, at the beginning of summer.
However, the timing of the natural disaster is currently unstable. Cheng Suming is not sure whether the severe cold will come earlier or later, so he must prepare early.
Si Nan tilted his head and looked at him with a smile: "I knew you wouldn't ignore the nearby towns and go all the way to that Jilin County for no reason. I'm afraid you're not looking for supplies, but for me to stock up on more trees and firewood to get through the severe cold."
Cheng Suming did not deny it: "You can't hide anything from you. The possibility of natural gas restoration is very small now. In order to avoid freezing to death in the severe cold, we must store as much firewood as possible before the severe cold comes, so as to cope with the extreme cold weather. Although there are many forests and trees that can be cut in the mountains near Jushi Town, it is purely manpower, using knives and axes to cut enough firewood. It is unknown when it will take time. If we use tools such as chainsaws to cut trees, the noise will be too loud, which will attract other people's attention and arouse their jealousy. Maybe they will report us to the military and cause unnecessary trouble. But it's different in Keeling County. The forestry industry there is originally a forestry industry, and it is normal for people to use and keep chainsaws to cut trees. Maybe when we get there, we can get many trees stored in forestry factories without any effort."
"You have a point, but why don't we just store firewood and tell Cheng Wei and the others?"
"Don't worry. It's still a long way from the severe cold. They have plenty of time to stock up on firewood."
The two walked around the yard for more than half an hour, and felt that they had almost digested the food. Cheng Suming pulled Si Nan into the living room on the first floor, and went up to the second floor from the stairs from the kitchen on the right. He pointed to the room on the left side of the second floor and said, "We'd better live in this room and fix the kang. When the severe cold comes, everything in the world will be covered with ice and snow. Living on the second floor has a much wider view than living on the first floor, and it's not so depressing."
"It's up to you to decide." Si Nan didn't object. He pointed at the broken glass window swaying in the wind and said, "When the time comes, I'll have to find windows that won't be cracked by the severe cold. Also, I'll have to surround the roof with bricks to build a fire wall greenhouse so that I can grow those vegetables in the severe cold."
Cheng Suming said, "We will try our best to find glass. If we can't find it, we will ask the army to exchange it. Bartering is popular now. We can exchange food for what we want. The army is still very welcome. The greenhouse will be repaired together with the kang. I will ask the town government staff in a few days how to sell bricks."
Sinan Space had a large amount of rice and flour stored up, and she would be happy to take it out to exchange for the supplies she wanted. But she didn't know how much food would be needed to exchange for bricks, and whether the extra food would attract the attention of the military.
Si Nan got a headache just thinking about it, and sighed, "When the severe cold comes, I don't know how much coal and firewood I will have to use to ensure that the fruits and vegetables in the greenhouse on the roof can grow normally. Thinking of this, I suddenly don't want to contract the land to grow vegetables. If I contract the land, I still have to take the trouble to build a greenhouse, ensure the temperature in the greenhouse, take care of the fruits and vegetables so that they don't freeze to death, and prevent them from being stolen. Just thinking about it makes me tired, so I'd better forget it."
Cheng Suming smiled faintly: "No matter what you do, I respect your decision. If you want to grow vegetables at home, I will stay at home with you."
Si Nan frowned, "How can that be possible? You are a doctor, you have the ability to treat patients, but you can't leave me at home. When the time comes, our rent, food, lodging, water and electricity will all need points to pay. If I leave you at home, what will people think of me? Didn't you hear those aunties say that they wanted me to follow them and never worry about food and clothing for the rest of my life?"
Cheng Suming said: "Even if I don't report to the army to work, I can open a clinic in our home, treat patients to earn money and food, and then take it to the army to exchange for points."
"Yes, we can also open a clinic in our house." Si Nan suddenly realized: "I have decided to build a greenhouse in half of the yard to grow medicinal herbs. It will be convenient for you to see patients and give medicine. But you must go to work."
"Why are you so persistent in getting me to work?"
"It's not obsession, it's that I know what you're worried about. I can't keep you by my side all the time just because of my safety, can I? You have a skill, you should always put it in the right place where you are needed, instead of burying your talent for me and letting it gather dust in a corner where no one knows about it. I let you go out to work, not because I care about the points, but because the military has news and power that we don't know. I hope that while you can shine in the military, you can also gain news that outsiders don't know, get the corresponding power, and protect our family and friends."
Cheng Su Ming was silent for a long time before he said, "If this is what you want, I will report to the army after we finish our work at home."
"That's right." Si Nan was satisfied and took his hand and walked downstairs. "I haven't taken a bath for several days. I have some hot water stored in my space. I'll get a big bathtub and we can take a bath together."
Cheng Suming's eyes were deep, his Adam's apple rolled, he stared at her intently, and said in a low voice: "You said that yourself."
That night, Si Nan and his friend lay on the big bed in the living room and had a comfortable sleep.
The next morning, the first thing Si Nan did when he got up was to move all the tables, chairs and beds in the living room into the space to avoid being seen and aroused suspicion by Sheng Youqing and the others.
After she and Cheng Suming simply washed up and had breakfast, Sheng's mother, Cheng Wei, and the Dabai couple were left at home to look after the house, while the rest of them rode tricycles and headed towards the target low point.
The civil communication network in Jushi Town was still under reconstruction. They had no actual map and relied entirely on the detailed map of Province S that Cheng Suming had downloaded to his mobile phone, which he then drew on three pieces of paper as a simple map as they headed towards Keeling County.
They rode tricycles out of Boulder Town, naturally attracting a lot of people's attention.
Now most of the means of transportation have been scrapped after being soaked in water for a year and a half. The only ones that can be used are the vehicles stored in high places by the military in advance and a small number of vehicles stored by people themselves. It is really strange to suddenly see someone riding a tricycle around.
Cheng Suming was riding a tricycle in front, and Sinan was sitting in the back of the tricycle. Seeing the envious eyes of people along the way, a hint of pride suddenly appeared in his eyes.
This is probably something that others don't have, but I have, and it's a slightly perverted pleasure that arises in my heart.
When passing the checkpoint on the entrance road to Shishan, Si Nan's face became solemn when he saw a long line of ragged and dusty survivors who had come to Shishan for refuge.
This was only the second day after she arrived at Giant Stone Town, and more than 5,000 survivors received the news and came to the foot of the stone mountain for shelter. In the days to come, the number of survivors coming for shelter would only increase exponentially, and by then the entire base would become a melting pot with all kinds of people.
She felt a sense of crisis in her heart. She knew the information earlier than others and arrived at the foot of the stone mountain earlier, but she only grabbed a house in advance and nothing else.
If you want to live better than others, there is no other way except to hoard more supplies.
After leaving the Shishan area, Si Nan and his group rode along a winding mountain road for about three hours under the guidance of Cheng Suming, and arrived at the collapsed sign entrance of Jilin County.
The soil here is not as hard as that in the stone mountains, and the surrounding mountains and forests are tall. During the earthquake, the movement of the earth's crust caused rocks in many mountain ranges to shatter and slide down, resulting in half of the small Keeling County being buried under rocks.
The county town, which had already been reduced to ruins by the earthquake, suffered a second severe blow, and more than half of the residents of Killeen County died and could not be rescued.
Although the Shishan Military Base sent a troop to carry out rescue and search for supplies after the earthquake, because the entire county was severely damaged, the army had no plans to activate large-scale equipment to search the ruins for the second time, so this became the target of Cheng Suming's search.
They followed the severely damaged road and entered the county town with difficulty, and came to the north of the county town which had been damaged for the second time near the foot of the mountain.
Cheng Suming said to Yang Wentao in the ruins: "As usual, we will act separately. If we find a large amount of supplies that are piled up in the deep and cannot be taken out, make a mark and gather here before 5 pm to exchange information. We will then find a way to take the things."
Yang Wentao said: "I can do either."
"Can you look for things by yourself?" Si Nan saw Yang Wentao looking for supplies alone and asked worriedly, "Why don't you go with Youqing and the others? If anything happens, you can have someone to take care of you."
"Yes, Brother Yang, let's go together." Sheng Youqing was thinking this. She and Sheng Youbin were alone and weak. If they were robbed on the way, she didn't have the confidence to deal with it. If she could go with Yang Wentao, who was tall and powerful, it would be much safer.
"Okay, let's go together." Yang Wentao did not object. He pushed the tricycle, took the simple map drawn by Cheng Suming, and headed to the large shopping mall in the west.
After they left, Si Nan looked around to make sure there were no outsiders in the surrounding ruins. She put the tricycle into the space and smiled at Cheng Su Ming: "Let's go to the place you like."
The two men traveled lightly, carrying backpacks and their weapons, and stepped carefully on the collapsed ruins. It took them about an hour to arrive at a timber processing plant located on a mountainside surrounded by trees.
They originally wanted to see if there were any ready-made cut down trees piled up in the forest farm and move them directly into the space.
Unfortunately, as soon as they arrived at the entrance of the forest farm, they found that there were many people living inside. In order to avoid unnecessary trouble, they did not go in, but turned around and climbed up the mountain along the forest path.
This climb took another hour. Mainly because they were afraid that the noise of sawing trees would be too loud and would be heard by the people at the forestry farm at the foot of the mountain, so they had to climb to the top of the mountain.
After reaching the top of the mountain, they stopped to drink water and rest for a while. Si Nan took out two electric saws from the space and asked Cheng Su Ming to teach her how to use them. She then tried to saw a tree that was thicker than an adult's waist.
The trees planted on this mountain are mainly pine, fir and birch. The high temperature weather a year and a half ago caused a forest fire, which caused all the forests in the nearby mountains to be burned and could not be extinguished.
The mountain was covered with dead and burned trees. Many of the trees remained standing, while others lay flat on the ground because they had grown too large to be moved away by the people of Killeen County.
Nowadays, many small trees and grasses have grown in these mountains and forests, but it will probably take a long time for those trees to grow into big trees and restore the green mountains and forests of the past.
With so many dead trees ready-made, Sinan had no pressure in sawing the trees. No one wanted these huge dead trees anyway. She didn't have to destroy the forest and could get the fuel she wanted. She was having a lot of fun sawing the trees.
After a year and a half of being exposed to wind and sun, the dead trees are basically dry and brittle on the outside, but still very heavy on the inside. The main reason for this is that it rained heavily when the water level rose before.
It is also because of this that the trees on the mountain are too heavy, and if the trees are too big, basically no one can carry them, so no one wants them.
Fortunately, the electric saw was very effortless to saw. Cheng Suming was worried that Si Nan could not control the strength of sawing the trees and would be knocked down by the trees. Therefore, he was responsible for sawing down the trees that were still standing, and Si Nan was responsible for sawing all the fallen trees into short sections of one meter in length. After sawing, they were all thrown into the space, and then they would be taken to the yard and chopped into small pieces with an axe.
Time was running out, and they had to meet up with Sheng Youqing and his team before five in the afternoon, which meant they only had half a day to saw trees.
There were twenty high-powered electric saws stored in Si Nan's space. Two people held the electric saws, one felling the tree and the other felling the tree trunk. In a short while, large sections of trees were knocked down, and the tree sections piled up into a hill. They soon disappeared and were moved into the space by Si Nan. After the two men finished sawing one place, they moved to another place.
In one afternoon, the two of them changed three electric saws. Cheng Suming worked hard to cut down trees and only sawed less than thirty large trees.
Sinan desperately sawed the tree trunk into pieces. He felt his hands were numb from the constant vibration of the electric saw, and he only saw less than fifteen pieces.
She was so tired that her arms were as soft as two noodles and she couldn't lift them. As the agreed time was approaching, she could only throw the remaining twenty uncut trees into the space and walk down the mountain with Cheng Suming weakly.
She moved all the fallen trees and dry branches she encountered along the way into the space. She was lucky enough to move about ten trees as tall as an adult's waist into the space. In addition, there were piles of branches that formed small hills, which were probably enough for the two of them to burn for two to three years.
Of course, she wanted to build a greenhouse to grow vegetables, and if she had to burn wood to keep the fire wall warm during the cold season, she would need a lot of coal or firewood. She had stockpiled some coal but didn't know how long it would last, so it would be best if she could stockpile more firewood.
However, if I want to stock up on firewood after leaving here, I can only go back to Shishan to stockpile it. I just don’t know if I can chop firewood as freely over there as I do here.
The two of them went down the mountain. Cheng Suming saw that she was really tired, so he squatted down and said, "Come up, I'll carry you."
Si Nan shook his head: "My hands are just tired, not my feet. I can walk by myself."
Cheng Suming patted his back and said, "Come on up. It's still an hour's journey from here to the agreed location. You're more tired than me. Lie on my back and take a nap."
Si Nan was indeed very tired. Seeing that he insisted, she stopped shirking her responsibilities and lay on his back obediently, asking worriedly, "Will I be very heavy?"
"No." Cheng Suming carried her on his back and walked forward towards the gorgeous sunset. "If I can't even carry your weight, then I'd be a failure as your husband."
Si Nan was deeply moved. He gently put his arms around his neck and leaned on his broad shoulders, smelling his unique and refreshing scent. He looked at the gradually receding ruins covered with the glow of the sunset glow, and said softly with red eyes, "Su Ming, do you know? I have never been carried on the back of any man since I was a child."
Cheng Suming hummed and listened to her continue: "When I was very young, my parents quarreled. My mother was so angry that she ignored me for the first and only time and left me to my father to take care of her. She went back to her parents' home. The kindergarten was very far away from home and it took a long walk to get there. It rained the next morning after my mother left. I followed my father halfway and couldn't walk anymore. I wanted my father to carry me. But my father said, 'You are not my son, you are just a money-loser. What qualifications do you have for me to carry you? Don't you see how heavy you are? Can I carry you? ! '. But at that time, I was only 4 years old and weighed less than 25 kilograms! Since then, I never dared to let him carry me again, and I refused along with others. No matter where I went, I gritted my teeth and insisted on walking by myself. Later, when I grew up and fell in love, I went out for a walk with Zou Shichu one time. He suddenly wanted to carry me on his back. I hugged his back with joy, expecting him to carry me. But he couldn't get up. He kept asking me what I had eaten recently and why I was so heavy. He said that I was too fat and a man couldn't carry me..."
Cheng Suming paused, feeling her tears falling on his clothes, which were a little cold. He tilted his head with a distressed look and said, "It's all in the past, don't think too much. You have to remember that you are not heavy at all. No matter what you eat, how much you weigh, or what you look like, if an adult male cannot carry a woman, that is the man's problem, not your problem as a woman, so don't feel inferior and worry about your weight."
"Okay, I'll remember it." Si Nan was so moved that her heart was filled with warmth and sweetness. She reached out to wipe away her tears, stopped thinking about other things, and lay on his back, closed her eyes and fell asleep.
An hour later, she was awakened by Cheng Suming. They stopped in front of a collapsed hotel. Half of the wall was still standing, blocking the view of the surrounding area.
"Are you tired?" She got off Cheng Suming's back and reached out to pinch Cheng Suming's arm to relax his muscles.
"Not bad." Cheng Suming twisted his neck that she had been holding, and reminded her: "Take out the tricycle and get some supplies from the space."
Si Nan nodded, took out the tricycle, and placed some dusty daily necessities that he had found on the way to Xingcheng on the tricycle. The two of them pushed the tricycle out of the ruins of the hotel and walked forward for about ten minutes. They did not see Yang Wentao and the other two.
Si Nan looked around in confusion: "Why haven't they arrived yet? Were they delayed on the way, or did they misread the time?"
Cheng Suming said: "Yang Wentao always wears a clockwork watch. Logically, he wouldn't have misread the time. He must have been delayed on the way. Let's eat and drink something here and wait for them."
"What do you want to eat?" Si Nan asked him while sitting on the bed of the tricycle.
Cheng Suming sat next to her in the back. "Eat some bland food. We've been wandering around in Keeling County for so long, and apart from the 20 or 30 survivors who looked like several families living together in that forest farm, we haven't seen any other survivors. Something is wrong. It's better not to eat strong-smelling food to attract targets."
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