Sheng Youqing put down the wooden longbow in his hand and breathed a sigh of relief, "You don't even look at what I have been doing for the past two months. Every day before dawn I run with Brother Yang for exercise, and whenever I have time I practice combat shooting. My archery skills are not as good as yours, but I can still hit the target."
"Awesome, really awesome! If you hadn't covered me just now, I might have lost an arm. Thank you, dear." Si Nan smiled and said a lot of words to praise Sheng Youqingma. He lowered his head and quickly pulled out the machete that was stuck in the wolf's head. He stared at the other wolves that stopped in time with sharp eyes and great momentum.
Just Sinan and his companions killed nearly ten wolves, and Yang Wentao's patrol team killed four more wolves. This shocked the wolves that rushed down from the top of the mountain in a menacing manner. They had never expected that the prey that they had easily killed before could turn out to be so ferocious.
Seeing that the situation was not good, the leading wolf let out a low roar. The remaining wolves retreated and gathered together. Instead of leaving, they all crouched down, bared their teeth, and looked ready to attack at any time, staring at everyone fiercely.
Everyone else was panicking. Cheng Suming held the bloody scalpel and said with his back to those people, "They already know that we are not easy to mess with. They will not attack us for the time being. Everyone, show your strength and don't be afraid of them. Hurry up and rescue Xiao Pang. Everyone, move and retreat together!"
Before anyone else made a move, Cheng Suming and his team had already dealt with more than a dozen wolves. Such a powerful attack power reassured everyone. Following Cheng Suming's instructions, everyone faced the wolves and slowly retreated to the cave where Xiaopang was. The women and old ladies who surrounded them helped Cui Yongzhi and his team to pull Tingting and Xiaopang up.
"Xiaopang, Xiaopang, are you okay? Let mommy take a look. I'm scared to death!"
While Xiaopang's mother was holding Xiaopang and crying, Sinan quietly walked to Tingting's side and asked Tingting softly, "What candy did Xiaopang steal from you before?"
Tingting sat in her mother's arms, her face covered in dirt. Tingting's mother was wiping the dirt off her face with her sleeve. She was stunned for a moment when she heard what she said, and then she spoke for Tingting: "This matter is over, Mrs. Cheng, you..."
"I don't mean any other reason by asking this." Si Nan interrupted her, "Tingting did a great job this time. I have a few kinds of candies and I want to praise her. I wonder which one she likes."
As she spoke, she took out a variety of candies from the space, pretended to take out some fruit hard candies, soft candies, marshmallows, milk candies and other candies from her bag, and handed them to Tingting: "Which one do you want to eat?"
Tingting's eyes flickered, and she looked up at Tingting's mother, with a look of desire in her eyes.
These candies, which were very common before the end of the world, became rare after the end of the world. Without sugar factories to process them, and in the absence of sugar supplies, one piece of fruit candy could be exchanged for half a pound of rice.
Tingting knew how expensive candy was, that's why she treasured it so much that she didn't want to eat it. On her birthday, her mother gritted her teeth and gave her a pound of rice in exchange for candy, but she didn't expect that Xiaopang would steal and eat it.
She was reluctant to eat her two candies even though they were almost melted, and they were stolen by someone else. Only Tingting's mother knew how sad, angry and upset she was at that time.
Although Tingting's mother later gritted her teeth and exchanged a lot of candies for Tingting, she still couldn't get the candies that Tingting wanted. She knew that this matter had become a knot in the woman's heart. After thinking about it, she said to Sinan with great apology: "Mrs. Cheng, I'm sorry for making you spend money..."
This means that Tingting can take the candies. Tingting's eyes lit up, and she took two round lollipops that looked like cut oranges from the candies in Sinan's hand and said to Sinan, "I want these two orange candies. Thank you, Aunt Cheng."
"Silly girl, you should thank Aunt Si, not Aunt Cheng." Tingting's mother said quickly, "Doctor Cheng's surname is Cheng, and his wife's surname is Si."
Cheng Su Ming's name was too famous, so everyone habitually ignored Si Nan's original name. Every time they saw Si Nan, they called her Mrs. Cheng. Over time, the children all thought her surname was Cheng.
Si Nan smiled nonchalantly: "You can call me whatever you want, it's just a name."
She had her own space. Before finding the murderer that Cheng Suming mentioned who killed her, she had been reducing her presence in front of people. She didn't care what others called her.
Si Nan's giving of candy was just a small episode, and everyone's attention was on Xiaopang.
This usually arrogant fat boy now had bruises all over his body, his eyes were wide open, and he looked like he was terribly frightened.
No one had time to wait for Little Fatty's mother to calm him down, so they asked Little Fatty's father to carry him on his back. Everyone gathered together, vigilantly watching the wolves' movements, and retreated towards the convoy halfway up the mountain.
The wolves obviously had no intention of letting them go. When they moved, they moved too.
Cheng Suming asked Yang Wentao to lead the group forward. He, Si Nan, half of Yang Wentao's patrol team, and Sheng Youqing's brother and sister followed behind to prevent a sneak attack by the wolves.
They walked along the way, being cautious, and the wolves followed them at a moderate pace.
After walking for about an hour, the wolves were still following. Sheng Youbin held the long knife in his hand and asked Cheng Suming: "Brother Cheng, we are almost at the base, why are they still following us?"
Cheng Suming walked backwards like him, holding a weapon in his hand, and looked calmly at the pack of wolves about a hundred meters away from them and said, "Wolves have a strong sense of belonging. They work as a team when they go out hunting. Once a member of the tribe is injured or killed, they will track down and retaliate against the opponent who hurt their members. They followed us to see if there are other opportunities to attack."
"Are they going to follow us all the way to the gate of the base?" Sheng Youqing kept holding the longbow and felt very tired: "If we see others at the gate of the base, will they attack others?"
"That's beyond our control." Si Nan stared at the wolf leader who was walking in front. He was huge, baring sharp fangs and looked very difficult to deal with. He said, "Even if ten ordinary people are together, they may not be able to deal with one wolf. No matter how powerful we are, we are not gods. We don't have that much energy to deal with the remaining thirty or so wolves. Our primary task is to protect the people who came out to chop wood with us. The lives of others have nothing to do with us."
"Anan is right." Cheng Suming said, "Anyone who has the courage to go out to chop wood at night is prepared to face danger. We encountered a pack of wolves here, and people chopping wood in other places may also encounter other ferocious beasts. In order to save their lives, everyone will definitely do something to take others down with them. We are busy with our own affairs, and if the wolves really follow us to the base, those soldiers with live ammunition will not sit idly by, so we can just deal with them all."
Cheng Suming's words came true. The closer they got to the base, the more teams of woodcutters appeared, fleeing frantically from the roads in all directions.
They were chased by tigers, lions, leopards, brown bears and other ferocious beasts, and even large pythons, crocodiles, gorillas, monkeys and other hungry and frantic animals. It was like escaping from a zoo, and they screamed and ran to other people's woodcutting teams, using others as their burden to buy themselves more time to escape.
Si Nan and his team were naturally attracted by the beasts as well, but the leader Yang Wentao was very decisive. When someone came, he called a dozen strong men and threw those people out of the team without mercy, thus attracting the attention of the beasts. He called everyone to speed up, and they all used all their strength to push the firewood cart and ran desperately towards the gate of the base.
At this time, searchlights were shaking everywhere at the entrance of the base, and gunshots were heard. Originally there was only one platoon of soldiers guarding the gate of the base, but now the strength has been strengthened to a regiment. A row of cover buildings were set up at the entrance of the base, and the soldiers hid behind the cover buildings, killing all kinds of ferocious beasts that tried to enter the base.
The sound of gunfire naturally scared away many wild beasts. When Cheng Suming and his men rushed to a position about 300 meters away from the base, the group of wolves stopped, wandered in the night for a while, and left unwillingly.
Nearly thirty-five wood-cutting teams went out tonight, with a total of 20,000 people. Most of the teams were attacked by various wild beasts, resulting in heavy casualties.
Only the wood-cutting team led by Cheng Suming and Yang Wentao suffered no casualties. They all pushed their firewood carts safely through the base gate which was delayed in opening by the army.
The leading officer checked their ID information one by one and learned that their team encountered a pack of wolves but no one died. He looked at Yang Wentao and the others with a complicated expression and said, "So many beasts suddenly appeared tonight, causing heavy casualties to the people in the base. If you two have nothing to do tomorrow, you can sign up for our beast-killing operation. You will get a lot of points as a reward."
Yang Wentao shook his head and refused: "I'm on duty tomorrow and don't have time."
Cheng Suming pushed up his glasses and said, "I have several surgeries tomorrow, so I'm not free."
Si Nan was very excited and wanted to join the action, but before he could open his mouth, he was pulled away on the tricycle ridden by Cheng Suming.
Simon:......
"Why are you riding so fast? I want to sign up!"
"We have enough points at home." Cheng Suming rode his bike with long legs and said without turning his head: "Those beasts are no joke. I don't want you to take risks."
Si Nan sat on the pile of tree branches and leaves piled high by the tricycle, enduring the bumpy discomfort caused by the shaking of the tricycle, and said helplessly: "I'm not a doll made of glass that will break if touched."
"I know. I just don't want you to take risks where I can't see you. That would distract me from my work and cause me to make mistakes. If you insist on participating in the beast extermination operation, I will take a day off tomorrow and go with you."
Si Nan was really defeated by his constant worry and surrendered: "Okay, okay, I won't go. Tomorrow I will prepare soil and fertilizer and grow seedlings at home."
A group of people returned to the entrance of the stone house alley, where many family members who had received the news were already waiting.
They saw their relatives pushing the firewood carts back safely, and they all excitedly greeted them, "You are finally back. Earlier, we saw a group of soldiers rushing to the gate of the base to assemble, and we heard gunfire from there. We realized how dangerous it is outside, and we were almost worried to death."
"We are fine." The woodcutter who was reunited with his family told them what happened while chopping wood with a trembling heart, saying, "Thanks to Captain Yang, Doctor Cheng, and Mrs. Cheng, if they hadn't killed more than a dozen wolves fearlessly to scare the wolves, we might have been bitten to death by the wolves."
"That's amazing. I have to thank them a lot."
The families of the woodcutters expressed their gratitude to Cheng Suming and his friends in various ways. Many of them took a large pile of bundled branches or cut trees from their flatbed trucks as gifts of thanks.
Cheng Suming and the others didn't want it, but they were angry and had no choice but to accept it.
It was already one o'clock in the morning when Cheng Suming rode three fully loaded bicycles back to his yard.
He unloaded nearly twenty large trees from the truck and wanted to chop some firewood, but Sinan stopped him: "What time is it now? It will be dawn by the time you finish chopping the firewood. Go inside and take a rest. Leave the chopping to me tomorrow. I'll go boil some hot water. You can take a bath and go to bed so that you can have energy for work tomorrow."
Si Nan pushed him into the living room, turned on the gas stove, turned it up to the highest fire, and boiled a pot of hot water. The two of them took a hot bath together without any reservations, and then went back to the room on the second floor and fell asleep in each other's arms.
When Si Nan woke up the next day, Cheng Su Ming had already gone to work. He left her a note on the bedside table, telling her that the meal was ready and in the pot downstairs.
Si Nan looked at the note with elegant handwriting, and the corners of his mouth curled up slightly. It felt so good to have someone care about him and remember to leave food for him wherever he went. He suddenly felt worthwhile instead of being unworthy in the world. He couldn't even think about being emo.
She got dressed and went downstairs in a very good mood. There was a honeycomb coal that was almost burned out in the kitchen, and a steamer was placed on it. She opened the pot and saw two plump white buns, a peeled and cut yellow and white boiled egg, a cup of steaming milk, and a small bowl of century egg and lean meat porridge. Some green leafy vegetables and pickled mustard were specially added to the porridge. The fragrance could be smelled as soon as the pot was opened.
Si Nan brought all the food to the living room one by one, sat at the table, and ate while thinking that Cheng Su Ming really treated her like a pig. There was so much food, before the end of the world, it would be amazing if she could eat half of it.
Now I don’t know if it’s because she exercises every day, or because he feeds her too much and her appetite has increased, but anyway, after eating so much, she feels that it is just right, without feeling bloated or choking.
After washing the dishes, she started working on the two greenhouses.
The severe cold weather is coming soon. According to the scene in the dream, it will snow all the time for a whole year. The sunlight will appear very rarely, and the crops in the greenhouse will have difficulty growing. Therefore, strong light is needed to promote crop photosynthesis.
A few days ago, the base sent many electrician teams to reinstall electrical wires in all the houses in the base. Sinan specially gave a lot of rice and flour to those electricians and asked them to connect wires to the four vertical racks ordered on the roofs of her two greenhouses, and install an LED fill light socket every five meters to facilitate her installation of LED lights for lighting.
The base's current power supply can basically meet the needs of all buildings, but the electricity bill is not cheap. Three kilowatt-hours of electricity cost one point or one kilogram of rice, which is equivalent to one-third of the salary of an ordinary job. Many people do not turn on the lights until dark, and do not use electricity, saving as much as possible.
There are a lot of supplies in Si Nan's space, and Cheng Su Ming has a basic salary of at least 100 points every month. Even if Si Nan uses a lot of electricity from morning to night, she can afford it.
Sinan didn't have much idea about planting. He just lived with his uncle when he was a child and helped his uncle and aunt with farm work in the fields, so he had a certain understanding of basic planting.
Before the end of the world, she had downloaded and read a lot of information about planting. She knew that if she wanted to grow fruits and vegetables in a greenhouse during the cold winter, in the absence of sunlight, it would be best to install LED fill lights.
This lamp has low power consumption, high luminous efficiency, low heat generation, and longer life than other types of lamps. It can not only meet the needs of crop growth, but also save energy. If you choose a red light LED fill light, it can promote crop growth better than ordinary white light or blue light.
Of course, different crops require different colors of light. Sinan only grows some fruits, vegetables, and Chinese herbal medicines for his own consumption. He gives away or sells the leftovers, so he didn't take it so seriously and just installed the few purple-red LED fill lights that he had stockpiled before the end of the world.
She spent the whole morning turning and stirring all the soil in the two greenhouses by adding common fertilizers, nutrient soil, and previously collected poultry manure.
The Dabai couple ran around beside her, and occasionally Dabai stretched his neck and pecked her butt in a mean way.
During the two months of various renovations at home, Si Nan saw that Dabai was very aggressive. Every day, it would peck at the buttocks and thighs of the construction workers fearlessly, making the workers angry and amused. She could only hand them over to Sheng's mother next door to take care of them before dawn every day.
Mother Sheng loves them very much. She takes them wherever she goes and treats them like her own children.
They were also happy to follow Mother Sheng, mainly because in order to reduce the burden on Sheng Youqing and his sister, Mother Sheng took on a lot of laundry, shoe and sock washing jobs behind their backs in exchange for some firewood and a small amount of food and clothing. Every day she carried a plastic basin to the stone steps under the stream to wash clothes. The Dabai couple, who loved playing in the water, could just follow her to play in the water.
Mother Sheng took them to the stream more often. The neighbors nearby all got to know the Dabai couple. They knew that they were the geese raised by Sinan and were quite friendly to them.
However, there are always some short-sighted people who want to catch the Dabai couple and stew them for food. How could the clever Dabai couple be caught by them?
Many times, those thieves who tried to steal chickens ended up losing more than they gained, and were instead pecked by the Dabai couple. There were also many neighbors who had been treated for illnesses by Cheng Suming, or who were kind-hearted and would drive away the thieves who stole geese. Si Nan was naturally very grateful to those neighbors.
The Dabai couple have been with Si Nan for two and a half years. After getting to know each other's temperaments, Dabai began to let himself go and pecked Si Nan's limbs and butt every day.
It didn't really want to peck Si Nan, it was just being servile. It always liked to bite Si Nan gently. When it saw Si Nan getting angry, it would run around proudly and cackle to laugh at her.
Sometimes when Si Nan gets angry, I kick him, pinch his neck and throw him away, but he doesn’t get angry and will continue to do it next time.
This time it carried Si Nan in its mouth and ran to the corner of the rooftop greenhouse with Xiao Bai a long time ago. It stretched its neck and clucked and laughed at Si Nan's slow reaction.
Si Nan was busy all morning and was so tired that he didn't have the energy to chase it. He picked up a piece of dirt and threw it on Dabai's feathers on his back, which had been washed clean by Sheng's mother. He scolded him angrily, "Damn Dabai, you are getting more and more daring! You dare to pick on me every other day. Are you bullying my good temper? If you have a temper, go pick on Su Ming, or pick on me in front of him. Let's see if he will scold you or not!"
Dabai's cackles suddenly stopped. He turned around angrily and used his beak to clean the dirt off the feathers on his back, as if nothing had happened.
It only plays with Si Nan because it is familiar with her. How could it dare to provoke that male devil? It’s not like it wants to die!
Si Nan sat there for a while, feeling that she had caught her breath and felt much more comfortable. She walked downstairs. Dabai and Xiaobai followed her closely, walking with their big webbed feet and clumsily following her downstairs.
When going downstairs, Si Nan looked at the time. It was already around one o'clock in the afternoon, time for lunch. No wonder she was so hungry.
She first took out some food mixed with cornmeal and poultry feed from the space and fed it to Dabai and Xiaobai. She was too lazy to cook, so she ate a meal with a canned potato and meat rice that Cheng Suming brought back from the military canteen. She then took out various fruit and vegetable seeds that she had stockpiled for a long time from the space and began to prepare for breeding.
Fruits and vegetables that are suitable for growing in greenhouses and have high yields include cucumbers, lettuce, eggplants, tomatoes, peppers, leeks, rapeseed, garlic sprouts, spinach, zucchini, various beans, cowpeas, winter melons, bitter melons, loofahs and many other vegetables.
Sinan plans to plant three kinds of vegetables in each square grid. He will plant short crops such as strawberries, onions, garlic, leeks and lettuce on the concave wall of the fence, and vine crops such as beans and melons near the wall. He will also plant some seasonal fruit trees such as peaches, grapes, persimmons, oranges, etc. in the four corners of the wall. In this way, he can plant at least 30 kinds of fruits and vegetables, and have the freedom to eat whatever he wants.
For seeds of vegetables like tomatoes, peppers, pumpkins, bitter gourds, cucumbers, etc., she took out one moist paper towel after another, wet them, wrapped the seeds in the paper towels according to categories, and put them into small sealed bags one after another to germinate them.
Most seeds take seven to fifteen days to germinate if they are not germinated with hot water and germinate in winter.
Si Nan had just applied fertilizer to the soil, so it was not suitable to plant crops in the short term. He was afraid that the various fertilizers would not be absorbed by the soil and the excess nutrients would damage the roots of the embryo.
So she did not soak the seeds in boiling water, but chose to use moistened paper towels directly to germinate them. In this way, when the seed embryos grow out, the soil in the two greenhouses can also be used to grow crops.
As for the cultivation of Chinese herbal medicines, when Cheng Su Ming was treating patients, a patient once came to Cheng Su Ming to pay for the medicine because he picked some of the herbs that were common before the apocalypse. After the apocalypse, many forests caught fire and many Chinese herbal medicines were burned to extinction. Only the herbs that grew in a few places were left.
Cheng Suming picked up some herbs with relatively intact roots for her, plus the intact Chinese herbal medicines she had intentionally exchanged for at the exchange market where people gathered spontaneously some time ago. At present, she can plant Chinese herbal medicines that she thinks have more medicinal value, such as isatis root, mugwort, honeysuckle, plantain, motherwort, dandelion, thistle, selfheal, lantern grass, trifoliate acid grass, daylily, etc. These weeds that used to be everywhere in the fields, but actually have great medicinal value. She will wait until the soil has completely absorbed the fertilizer before planting them.
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