Si Nan returned home and cleaned the house upstairs and downstairs. He took out the dirty clothes that Cheng Su Ming had taken off yesterday and threw them into the washing machine in the bathroom to wash.
These tasks used to be done by Cheng Suming. After he got home from get off work and took a shower, he would take Si Nan's clothes and put them in the washing machine to wash them.
This time he worked for half a month straight and only rested for a few hours every day. He was so tired that he didn't have the energy to wash clothes, so Sinan naturally did these chores.
In Sinan's eyes, they are husband and wife. The most important thing between husband and wife is mutual understanding, mutual tolerance, and mutual support. Only by working hard can they go a long way.
When it comes to housework, they never distinguish between you and me. Whoever is free will do it, without any idea of who should do it.
After the big drop in temperature, the power supply equipment suffered from freezing, cracking, and damage in the first week, resulting in a power outage at the entire base for a week.
Fortunately, the base had previously recruited a group of experienced electricians to solve the problem. Now the base's power supply is very stable, and there is no problem using any electrical appliances at home.
In such cold weather, people only wash clothes once every ten days or half a month. They have to boil hot water in advance and wash clothes by hand. Otherwise, washing with cold water can freeze people to death.
Sinan is different. Her space has everything she needs for food, clothing, housing and transportation. When there is electricity, she always uses a washing machine to wash clothes.
While the washing machine was humming, she went to the kitchen and connected the fire wall and the kang bed of the entire house, adding a dozen arm-long wooden blocks to keep the temperature of the entire house warm. This way, she would not have to turn on the air conditioner and save some electricity.
When the wood in the fire wall was almost burned, she picked up the fire tongs and placed a ceramic jar on the fire wall. She picked out the charcoal pieces from the burnt wood one by one and put them into the jar. She then covered it with a wooden board to allow the red charcoal to cool quickly in the enclosed space.
Pour out the completely cooled charcoal and put it in a woven bag. You can then take out the charcoal for heating, barbecuing, grilling, etc.
The washing machine is semi-automatic. Because the severe cold froze the well and there was no running water, she could only take ice and snow from outside and put them in the water tank in the kitchen to let them melt slowly.
Every time the washing machine stopped and the dirty water was drained, she would fill the tub with two large buckets of snow water and put them into the washing machine to continue washing. After repeating this process several times, the clothes were finally washed.
Sinan took out the dried clothes one by one and hung them on the clothesline next to the washing machine.
She had been staying in S Province in the southwest, seldom going out to other provinces, and rarely seeing snow. On the third day after the big drop in temperature, she washed clothes. She didn't know what she was thinking at the time, but she hung them on the terrace on the second floor. As a result, the clothes were frozen stiff in less than half an hour, and her pants stood upright in the snow without falling down.
At that time, Cheng Suming was chatting with her via video. When he saw her masterpiece, he couldn't help laughing at her, saying that all the southern children who had never seen snow were like her, completely unaware that many things could not be the same as before in the cold climate. He also repeatedly warned her not to lick the iron bars and telephone poles outside, as it would freeze her tongue.
She was speechless at the time. He really treated her as a child. She was not a fool. How could she lick an electric pole?
There is a fire wall in the house, and the burning firewood makes it as warm as spring. The clothes hung indoors will be slowly dried by the heat and can be put away in two days at most.
Si Nan had nothing to do, so he went up to the master bedroom on the left side of the second floor and lay on the bed, browsing his phone.
She has an electric blanket, and before going to bed every day she would plug it in to heat up the blanket, and then unplug it to prevent the blanket from leaking electricity and electrocuting her.
The blanket was still warm and the room was very warm. She browsed her phone for a while, looked at the video novels she had downloaded on her phone before, and saw if anyone had contacted her. After browsing for a while, she felt sleepy and simply lay down on the bed, covered with two layers of thick quilts, and fell into a deep sleep.
When she woke up again, it was already one o'clock in the afternoon. Her cell phone kept ringing. It was Cheng Suming playing a video for her.
She clicked the call and heard Cheng Suming's anxious handsome features on the other end, "Anan, what are you doing? I called you several times but you didn't answer. I thought something happened to you and was about to go back home to check."
"I'm fine. I took a nap. Maybe I was too comfortable to hear anything." Sinan rubbed his eyes. "It's so warm at home and the bed is so comfortable. No wonder Cheng Wei didn't want to get out of bed. She was eating snacks and playing with her phone on the bed. I was busy everywhere before. Today I took a nap. It was so comfortable."
"I'm glad you're okay. It's getting late, and time for lunch. You should get something to eat. I'll get off work around six o'clock today, and I'll come back to make you something delicious."
"Okay, I'll wait for you."
After hanging up the phone, Si Nan felt extremely hungry. He was too lazy to go downstairs to cook, so he took out a takeaway roast duck from his space and started eating.
This dish of Mao Roast Duck contains half a roast duck, duck intestines, tripe, lasagna, duck blood, enoki mushrooms, lettuce, beef and other ingredients mixed together to make Maocai.
Sinan specially asked the boss to make the food spicy and numbing. It tasted spicy and numbing. The ingredients had a strong hot pot aroma, and paired with a bowl of crystal clear rice, it was simply too delicious!
Maocai is commonly known as one-person hotpot. It is so comfortable to eat Maocai in freezing weather.
Si Nan ate most of it and felt that he couldn't eat any more. He put the rest into his space, planning to eat it with the soup when he was alone at noon tomorrow.
After eating, she went downstairs, chopped up some fresh vegetables, mixed them with corn flour, poultry feed and hot water, and fed them to the Dabai couple.
After they finished eating, she played with them for a while, then stood up and slightly opened the windows of the two greenhouses to allow some air to ventilate, otherwise the carbon dioxide inside would be too high and the crops would die.
About two hours later, the stuffy air in the greenhouse felt much fresher, so Sinan closed the window, leaving only a small opening for ventilation.
During this period, she did not stop, but kept walking, doing sideways exercises, etc. to digest the food.
Feeling that the food in her stomach was completely digested, she returned to the room on the second floor, opened the bag of snacks that Sheng's mother had given her, and took out a few bottles of Coke and orange soda from the space, as well as a lot of puffed foods such as potato chips and crispy corners. She sat on the small round cotton sofa in the room, crossed her legs, turned on the TV, and ate snacks while watching TV.
She has been at the Shishan Base for more than half a year. During this period, she has been busy and has no time to rest.
In the first half of the month, she had been running around the base and the information registration office in search of her scumbag father, but she still couldn't find him. She didn't know whether the family had frozen to death in the snow or were deliberately avoiding her.
Today she had a rare moment of free time, so she just wanted to stay at home and be a lazy person, lying comfortably all day and doing whatever she wanted.
Nowadays, television can only receive one channel, and that is the National Central News Channel. Only the country has the money and energy to maintain a TV station almost three years after the end of the world.
The news channel will broadcast news during breakfast and lunch time, and some old movies and TV series at other times, and occasionally some news, so it doesn't seem boring.
When she turned on the TV, the news channel was interrupting the news with satellite footage of global melting ice. Soon the camera zoomed in to show the ruins of high-rise buildings covered in ice and snow in various parts of the world.
The ruined buildings emitted a faint cold light under the reflection of the white ice and snow. There were almost no living humans or animals walking outside. The scene looked desolate and bleak, making people feel suffocated. It seemed as if this world was really hopeless.
A baritone news anchor on the TV station was reporting the TV screen in a somewhat sad voice: "The picture we are seeing now is xxx country. This country is located in the European region. Gas has always been in short supply. When the severe cold weather came half a month ago, many people in xxx country did not prepare cold-proof clothing and bedding, nor did they store fuel for the winter. Many people froze to death in their sleep due to hypothermia... Therefore, we call on the general public not to go out unless necessary, and seek help from the government departments at various bases if they have difficulties..."
People in the base generally don't have televisions and can't watch TV, but in public areas like hospitals and government buildings, there are several large-screen LCD TVs hanging on the walls. Patients inside or parents who are bored and have children will bring their children to squeeze in front of those TVs and watch the only TV station from morning to night.
Si Nan was crunching potato chips, thinking in her heart that people in China basically didn't believe the doomsday warning post she posted before the end of the world. Those people abroad didn't have any doomsday warning reminders. It's also not like their Country Z, where it's been almost three years since the end of the world, and the country and local governments are still holding on, managing the lives of the general public. People abroad probably suffered heavy casualties, and she didn't know how many people are left alive.
The news interruption ended very quickly without any commercials, and the TV station started playing an old, clichéd family ethics drama with a blurry picture quality. I don't know where the TV station got it from.
Si Nan was eating snacks while complaining about the melodramatic plots in the TV series. She didn't know how long it had been before she heard a knock on the gate of the yard outside, followed by a man's voice: "Is Mrs. Cheng home?"
Si Nan put down the snacks in his hand, didn't rush to answer, stood up and walked to the window, opened the window a little, and looked downstairs.
There were five people standing outside the yard. They were all dressed very thickly, covering themselves tightly from head to toe, so it was impossible to tell whether they were men or women.
Si Nan put on his clothes, took out a crossbow with fine iron arrows from his space, walked from upstairs to the gate, and asked through the gate: "Who is it? What's the matter?"
"I'm Wu Ming. Several of my brothers have frostbite and colds, and we want to buy some medicine from you." Someone outside answered.
Si Nan remembered this Wu Ming. He often came to her to buy medicine. He had long hair and a mustache. He looked like an artist. He was smiling and seemed easy to get along with.
But the world is quite chaotic, and even if you know someone, you can only look at their face but not their heart. When Cheng Suming is not at home, if someone comes to buy medicine, she will not open the door unless they are familiar neighbors.
She asked the other party about his symptoms through the crack in the door and what medicine he needed to buy. Then she went to the Chinese medicine garden to pick some fresh herbs, and added some dried herbs in advance. She took a wooden ladder and climbed up the wall, with a basket hanging on a rope in her hand. She asked the other party to put the food as consultation fee into the basket first. After she pulled it up and checked it, she put the medicine in the basket for them.
The wall of her courtyard was deliberately raised to two meters, and many sharp blades and glass pieces were inserted on the wall. If someone wanted to climb over the wall, she would run back to the house and lock the door immediately, and at the same time call the patrol team where Yang Wentao was to come and deal with the intruders, so she was not afraid of people outside climbing over the wall.
After the transaction was completed, the five men took the medicine and left. Si Nan made sure that they would not climb over the wall, then he went downstairs and slowly returned to the house.
The five of them were less than fifty meters away when one of them stopped and turned to look at Si Nan who had disappeared over the wall. He whispered, "He's quite alert."
"What should we do now?" another person asked in a low voice, "It has been confirmed that the head is hers."
The man held the anesthesia needle in his pocket and said calmly, "Don't worry, we have plenty of opportunities."
In the afternoon, Cheng Suming came back from get off work, and Si Nan told him about what happened before: "I didn't feel good. I always felt that Wu Ming and the people behind him were coming for me, so I didn't open the gate."
"Wu Ming?" Cheng Su Ming thought of the fifty people he asked Sheng's mother to help inquire about a few months ago, among whom was Wu Ming. The answer he got was that they had entered the base's communications department and had been maintaining the base's network communications equipment. There were no major problems.
He had taken the initiative to contact those people before, and on the surface, there seemed to be no problem, but in his heart, like Si Nan, he had a bad feeling towards those people. He frowned and said, "In the future, try not to go out alone. If you need to go out, ask me or Yang Wentao, Sheng Youqing and others to accompany you. Also, keep the doors and windows closed at home. Don't open the door to strangers who come to buy vegetables or medicine. I'll see if I can find a dog to watch over the house in a few days."
Si Nan used a towel to wipe the snowflakes off his eyelashes. "Where can you find a dog? I already have two geese at home, and I find it troublesome. If I raise a dog, I will have to take care of its eating, drinking, defecation and urination. I think it's troublesome."
Cheng Suming said, "There are several families in Shishan who have dogs. I remember a while ago a patient asked me if I wanted a puppy. She said her dog had a litter and she couldn't keep it alive, so she wanted to give it to someone who could keep it. I didn't want it at the time. I'll go to the Information Department to contact that person tomorrow at work and ask. If he hasn't been given away, I'll bring him back to keep him. I'll take care of his feeding, drinking, defecating and urinating, so you don't have to worry."
Si Nan nodded: "It's up to you to decide. What are we going to eat tonight?"
Cheng Suming took the handkerchief from her hand and wiped his hair which was a little wet after the snow melted. "We'll eat whatever you want to eat."
"It's so cold, hot pot is the best choice, but hot pot has a strong smell. I'm afraid the smell will get into Cheng Wei's noses, and it will be hard to explain the source of the hot pot base."
Si Nan said with a tangled look on his face, "How about we have a barbecue? I just happened to have a jar of charcoal today, which is perfect for barbecue. Also, I had a roast duck and maocai for lunch, which tasted pretty good. I'll take one out for you to try, and we'll have these two dishes for dinner."
They had an electric barbecue pot, but Si Nan felt that meat grilled over charcoal fire was more fragrant. She took out a square brazier from the space, and then took out a square rack with double-sided handles that could be used to put the meat in and grill it on both sides. She placed them on the brazier and asked Cheng Suming to clean the grill.
She went upstairs to pick some fresh lettuce, zucchini, cucumber, oyster mushrooms, and shiitake mushrooms. She also took out the konjac meat from the space, washed it, and cut the zucchini, konjac, and cucumber into long slices.
Meat products, such as pork belly, are cut into slices one centimeter thick and ten centimeters long. Beef and mutton are also cut in this way. Some frozen pork intestines, chicken legs, and chicken wings are also cut into flower-shaped slices. Salt, MSG, pepper, chili powder, a little soy sauce and barbecue sauce are added together and stirred to season them in advance. Also, cut some garlic cloves and make a dry dipping sauce made of pepper, chili powder, a little MSG and salt. Wait until the charcoal fire is fully lit and start grilling the meat.
Various slices of meat, chicken legs, chicken wings and pork intestines filled the entire barbecue rack. After a while, the pork belly, pork intestines, chicken legs and chicken wings were sizzling with oil, and a rich barbecue aroma came out, making people unable to help but swallow their saliva.
The mutton and beef were cut thinly and curled up slightly when roasted. Sinan was afraid that the beef and mutton would be overcooked and difficult to chew, so as soon as the meat just changed color, he used tongs to put the roasted beef and mutton into Cheng Suming's dipping sauce dish.
After picking up all the roasted beef and mutton, she continued to put beef and mutton in the empty space. She also took the time to turn over the sizzling pork belly, pork intestines, chicken legs, etc., so that both sides could be evenly heated and roasted until golden brown. Then she put the roasted beef and mutton slices into Cheng Suming's bowl.
"Anan, don't give me any more. There's enough in my bowl. Grill it and eat it yourself." Cheng Suming picked up a pair of scissors, cut the roasted pork belly into slightly smaller pieces, and put them in her bowl: "Eat more."
Si Nan was not polite either. She picked up the roasted, golden brown pork belly, which was 30% fat and 20% lean, dipped it in a little chili sauce and put it in her mouth. The aroma of the roasted pork belly, with the fragrance of the barbecue seasoning and the thick and spicy taste, was so delicious that she squinted her eyes. After eating a few large pieces of meat, she felt a little greasy. She then roasted some fruits, vegetables and mushrooms to relieve the greasiness, ate a piece of garlic, and ate it with sweet rice. The meal was particularly satisfying.
After dinner, the two cleaned up the dishes and the barbecue grill. It was already dark outside.
I don’t know if it’s because of the natural disaster or the bad weather, but the wind and snow were stronger at night than during the day. The cold wind was howling, and some people’s things that were not properly placed were blown to crackle.
Every time this time came, Sinan would open a small gap in the windows of his permanent bedroom, the living room on the first floor, and two greenhouses to allow ventilation to prevent air from being blocked inside and causing carbon dioxide poisoning, suffocation, and fainting.
Because the snow was too thick, Si Nan was afraid that the roof would collapse and that the door would be blocked by the snow and frozen and unable to be opened. So he had to climb up to the roof of the second floor with a wooden ladder every day and use a long wooden push rod to push the snow down.
Then sweep the snow in the yard into a pile, compact it into a rectangular shape, leave it outside for a while to freeze into large ice blocks, and put them into the space.
If natural disasters occur again during high temperatures in the future, these ice cubes can be used to cool down.
Today Cheng Suming was at home, and he was the one who climbed the wooden ladder and pushed the snow off the roof. Sinan was holding the ladder from below, looking up at him: "Be careful, don't fall down, just move one end when pushing the snow."
These are the skills that Sister Wang, who lives in Northeast China, taught her. Take a long piece of wood and nail a long pole in the middle to make it a convenient and easy-to-use snow pusher.
Before shoveling snow, use a shovel to shovel the snow on both sides of the house, and then use the snow shovel to push it from top to bottom a few times, and the snow on the entire roof will fall off in large flakes.
Cheng Suming climbed onto the roof and did as he was told. "Stand aside, don't let the snow crush you."
Si Nan uttered a cry and jumped to the side. Cheng Suming grasped the snow shovel and exerted force. Sure enough, large flakes of snow on the roof fell down.
Yang Wentao from next door heard the noise and also climbed onto the roof to clear the snow. Seeing the tools in Cheng Suming's hand, he squatted on the roof next door and asked, "Does your thing work?"
"You're not half northerner, why are you asking me?" Cheng Suming pushed the snow off the roof behind him, and as the snow fell to the ground, he exhaled white air and said, "You've never used this kind of snow pusher?"
"I don't go to the north often. The place is different, and the tools for clearing snow are also different." Yang Wentao used a shovel to scrape the snow off the roof. "Tomorrow I will also get a gadget like yours to clear snow and see if it works."
After cleaning the roof of the two-story building, Cheng Suming came down the wooden ladder and pushed down the snow on the greenhouse, woodshed and chicken coop in the yard one by one.
When Si Nan came to the base, she had planned to take some breeding eggs out of the space and hatch chicks to raise. Later, she was worried that the chicks would not be able to survive in the extremely cold weather. Even if they were raised, they would have to be kept indoors to avoid freezing to death, which would make the house stink. So she gave up the idea and planned to raise chicks after the severe cold.
While Cheng Suming was clearing the snow, Si Nan took a big broom and swept all the snow into a pile. Seeing Cheng Suming finished his work, she grabbed a bunch of snow, rolled it into a snowball, and threw it on Cheng Suming's head.
Cheng Suming's hair, face, and glasses were suddenly covered in white. He stood there as if frozen in place, looking extremely funny.
Sinan laughed out loud: "Did you get hit silly? Come and hit me. I've never seen such heavy snow and such cold weather. As a southerner, I'd feel really bad if I didn't play snowball fights."
"Then you have to be careful, I throw snowballs very accurately." Cheng Suming curled the corners of his mouth slightly, reached out to wipe the snow off his face, lowered his head and made a big snowball, pretending to throw it at Si Nan.
Si Nan quickly ran away: "Hahaha, you can't hit me."
"Don't run. Snowball fights are more fun when you fight head-on." Cheng Su Ming didn't indulge her this time and chased her with a snowball in his hand.
"I don't want to. The snowball in your hand is so big that it must hurt if it hits me."
"Trust me, no matter how big the snowball is, it won't hurt much if it hits you. Don't forget that you are wearing a thick winter coat."
"I don't believe it. Don't lie to me, a southerner who has never had a snowball fight."
“It doesn’t hurt.”
“No.”
"Stop and let me hit you."
"I don't."
The two of them circled around the yard, he chased her and she couldn't escape even if she had wings.
As Cheng Suming ran, he broke the snowball in his hand into several small ones and threw them at Sinan. Occasionally, she would stop and make two snowballs to fight back. The two of them played and laughed, which made this deserted courtyard a lot more lively.
When Sheng's mother heard the noise coming from the yard next door, she turned around to look at Sheng Youqing, who was half-lying on the kang bed in the living room, sitting awkwardly and playing with her phone. Then she looked at Sheng Youbin, who was also sitting on the other side of the kang bed, holding a medical nursing book and studying seriously. Sheng's mother sighed silently, "Xiao Nan and Xiao Cheng next door have a really good relationship."
"Mom, if you are envious, you can also find a partner. Youbin and I won't object." Sheng Youqing understood the meaning of her words and was afraid that she would urge her to find a partner, so she quickly changed the subject.
Sheng Youbin agreed without even looking up: "My sister is right. Mom, if you find a suitable partner and want to find a life partner, I won't object."
"Go away, you are so dishonest!" Sheng's mother gave them both a cold look and said, "I am old now, and your father just passed away. How can I find a partner again? Mom is saying..."
Sheng Youqing and the other person looked at each other, and they could see each other's helplessness in their eyes.
Before, they all thought that Sheng's mother was the most open-minded mother and would not urge them to get married. Now they know that before the natural disaster, Sheng's mother thought that they were too young to be in a relationship. After the natural disaster, life was difficult in the first two years. She thought that they could not even support themselves, so they should not fall in love and bring trouble to others.
Now that they have settled down in the Shishan base, the three of them all have their own jobs and they are no longer short of supplies. Looking at the loving faces of the two young couples next door, she also wants her children to find their own happiness. So, like most parents, she talks about finding a partner in front of them every day.
The brother and sister had gotten used to her nagging during this time, and when they heard her nagging again, they both tacitly kept silent and listened to what Mother Sheng said in silence, occasionally agreeing with her so as not to hurt her feelings.
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