When Cheng Suming and his friends arrived at Xiaopang's house, Xiaopang's grandmother was sitting at the door of the living room on the first floor, hugging Xiaopang's father and crying.
Si Nan followed Xiao Pang's mother in, and the first thing he saw was Xiao Pang's father lying in Xiao Pang's grandmother's arms, his hands tightly covering his stomach. His thin face had changed color with pain, sweat covered his entire forehead, his expression was distorted with pain, and there was a large pool of blood under his body.
Si Nan was shocked. What kind of infectious disease could be so serious that it could cause such pain that it could make people bleed?
"Anan, stand away." Cheng Suming asked Sinan to stand at the door and not go in, and signaled her to wear the mask and not take it off.
Cheng Suming opened the medical box he carried with him, took out a pair of medical gloves and put them on, picked up a small flashlight, half-knelt beside the fat boy's father, checked his eyes and tongue, reached out and pressed his stomach, and asked the fat boy's mother, whose lips were trembling with fear, what the fat boy had eaten recently, where he had been, and who he had met.
The fat little mother answered one by one with a trembling voice.
Cheng Suming came to a conclusion: "Little Fatty's father may have drunk unclean water. There are parasites in the water, which caused parasitic infection. Then mixed with infectious diseases such as dengue fever and plague, multiple diseases broke out at the same time. In this case, you must be mentally prepared."
Xiaopang's mother was stunned for a moment and didn't react to what he was saying, but Xiaopang's grandmother burst into tears and reached out to grab Cheng Suming's hand: "Doctor Cheng, please save Xiaopang and his son. They were fine yesterday. How could they not be saved? Please save them!"
Cheng Suming quickly dodged her hand, stood up, took a step back and said, "In their case, they urgently need anthelmintics, drugs for dysentery, dengue fever, and other treatments. Unfortunately, I don't have that much medicine, so I can only give you some of the powder my wife grows, mix it with water, and see if they can hold on. In addition, I want to remind you that their diseases are highly contagious, so you must wear masks, wash your hands frequently, ventilate frequently, and disinfect frequently, otherwise you will easily be infected."
There are some medicines stored in Sinan's space. Those medicines are for themselves and their relatives and friends to use. Any extra medicines will not be given to others.
Medicines are scarce commodities nowadays. Many people fight over a pill, and even take someone’s life.
He didn't want to be targeted just because he took out the medicine out of kindness, which would cause endless threats to his and Si Nan's lives.
People are selfish, especially after experiencing two doomsday disasters. Cheng Su Ming only wants to live well with Si Nan until the disasters are over. He doesn't care about the life or death of others.
Soon the living room was filled with the sound of the fat boy's mother crying as she held the fat boy, whose expression was distorted and painful, and whose lower body and body were covered in blood.
Cheng Suming put several kinds of pickled and ground herbs into powder in a paper bag and placed it on the table in their living room. He did not take the food that Xiaopang's mother gave him, but placed it at their door and left silently with Sinan.
Before the two of them walked out of the yard, a young man came down from upstairs and asked Cheng Suming in panic, "Doctor Cheng, is the person downstairs beyond help?"
"At present, it can be cured if there is medicine." Cheng Suming did not say anything definite.
The young man understood what he meant, and muttered with a pale face: "It's over, it's over. Our family lives in the same yard with their family. Will we be infected by them? I just heard you asking them who they have contacted with and what they have eaten and drunk. We are just like them. We go out to work every day and meet a lot of people on the way. Who knows who is sick? The stream outside has been dry for almost a week. We have no water to drink, so we go to the reservoir built in the agricultural park to queue up for water. The water there is stored in advance by the military. How can there be parasites..."
Cheng Suming listened to him patiently and told him to go home and wear a mask, not to drink unboiled water, and if he didn't have a mask, he could cut up some old clothes and sew several layers to use as a mask, which could effectively isolate infectious bacteria.
Not long after Si Nan and Cheng Su Ming walked out of Xiao Pang's yard and crossed the stone bridge, they saw a dozen large military trucks driving up and parked on the stone road beside the stream.
A large number of soldiers wearing full protective clothing, carrying disinfection sprayers and holding sealed weapons got off the bus. After getting off, they held a loudspeaker and shouted to everyone: "Everyone stop all outdoor activities, go home and be quarantined at home!"
The people walking outside were stunned for a moment, and they all shouted: "We are not sick, why do we have to be quarantined?"
"Yes, we are not sick, why do we have to be quarantined?! We still have to go out to work to earn food and support our families. If we are quarantined, what will we eat and drink?"
"My son is still working in the factory. Does this quarantine require everyone to be quarantined where they are? What will they do if they have no place to live, no water to drink, and no food to eat?"
"My child is still attending a private daycare school behind the Shishan government office. If they want to be quarantined, they have to wait until I bring my child back."
…
People reacted, became excited, and wanted to leave.
An officer who was not wearing protective clothing, but was wearing an officer's uniform and a mask, raised his gun and fired a shot into the air.
The violent gunshots scared everyone and they all stood there in a daze.
The officer held the megaphone and said, "Everyone, please be patient! The infectious diseases caused by the pests and rats are extremely serious and are spreading from person to person. In order to prevent everyone in the base from being infected, the military and the government have decided to suspend all work activities in the base. Please cooperate! We will solve all the problems you raised one by one."
"As for the current food and drink problem, we will distribute water to everyone during the home quarantine period until the disease is under control."
"If you have children who go to school or work outside, you can come to us to register and we will collect statistics and send the children home."
"Please go back to your homes and wait for our people to come and register! People who have fever, vomiting, limb pain and weakness, bleeding, etc. need to report and be sealed off for isolation! Medicines will be delivered to your door in the coming days."
No one wanted to go home, mainly because the incident happened suddenly and no one was mentally prepared.
But those soldiers had a tough attitude. They stood in a row, blocking all exits, and the guns in their hands were not to be underestimated.
A few men forced their way past the soldiers and tried to leave, but the soldiers suppressed them without hesitation, knocked them to the ground, tied them up with ropes, and threw them on a military card.
The leading officer told everyone that those who disobeyed the home quarantine would be taken to a centralized quarantine center. Everyone could imagine what kind of life they would live there.
Of course, everyone can imagine what it is like to be in a centralized quarantine center, because ten years before the end of the world, the world was caught in a highly contagious viral epidemic.
The virus crisis lasted for many years, and everyone is well aware of the chaos. If you don't want to go to the quarantine center and experience the crowded conditions and chaotic food and accommodation, you can only stay at home. At least you can move freely at home.
People gradually left for their homes, and the originally bustling streets and alleys soon became deserted and quiet.
The soldiers began to register and disinfect every household. If there was a sick person at home, after completing the registration and disinfection, the soldiers would put up seals outside the house to remind everyone that there was a patient at home.
At the same time, everyone should supervise each other. If anyone who is sealed up escapes, you can call the military's internal inspection hotline to report it.
If the report is successfully verified, there will be a large amount of points and food as a reward.
Many people were interested in getting food without any effort. They would lie by their windows or in their yards to see if any of their neighbors ran out, ready to report at any time.
The Shishan base directly called a halt to all outdoor activities in all places, from public places to residential areas, various units, factory areas, production areas, agricultural parks, etc., all of which were collectively controlled by the Shishan military.
Everyone knew from the news released on the internal online forum of the Ishiyama military, from the family members in the hospital, and from the content broadcast by the country's only news station on TV that this insect and rodent infestation was not an isolated incident at their base, but a disaster occurring across the country and the world.
The infectious diseases brought by insect plagues and rodent infestations in the Stone Mountain Base are now too serious. If we don’t stop it, everyone in the Stone Mountain Base will be infected with infectious diseases. By then, there will be no medicine to treat them, and everyone will die together.
Although everyone was asked to quarantine at home very suddenly, no one was mentally prepared, but after the soldiers promised to send the younger children back to their homes, the base would provide water and water during the quarantine period, and everyone's restless mood gradually settled down and began to cooperate with the base military's work.
After Si Nan witnessed the sealing of Xiao Pang's yard, he and Cheng Su Ming had just returned home when several soldiers knocked on their door and asked for registration: "Hello, we are from the XX unit. At the request of our superiors, we need to register everyone in the base. Please register and verify your ID information, then open the door and let us in for disinfection."
The soldiers were all wearing protective clothing, so their faces couldn't be seen clearly, but they all had the badges of their units on their chests. Besides, now that they were suddenly under home quarantine, no one should dare to pretend to be a soldier and cause trouble at this juncture. After Cheng Suming and the other man finished registering, they let the other party into the yard to disinfect and kill insects.
Several soldiers carried sprays and sprayed disinfectant all over the building, inside and outside.
When they saw that their home was clean and tidy, with almost no mosquitoes, cockroaches, rats or other creatures, and that they had two greenhouses, two large white geese and a dog, the soldiers were surprised to see that the dog changed from a fierce and ferocious look to a warm and enthusiastic look behind them at the command of the hostess.
When leaving, a soldier said to Cheng Suming, "Doctor Cheng, right? Actually, with your medical skills, we recommend that you return to the hospital to work. There are too many patients in Shishan Hospital and the military hospital right now, and there are not enough medical staff. The pressure is very high. If we can have one more medical staff join us, I believe that with our joint efforts, we can overcome this epidemic as soon as possible."
"Thank you for your suggestion. I will consider it." Cheng Suming smiled and replied to the soldier. Thinking of the miserable situation of Xiaopang and his son, he reminded the soldier: "Recently, the streams in Shishan have dried up. Many people have no water to drink and are looking for water sources everywhere. Many people lined up to get water from the reservoirs stored by your military. After drinking the water, they developed serious symptoms of parasitic infection. Please be sure to inspect and disinfect the existing reservoirs to avoid large-scale infection of people in the base and an outbreak of insect pests."
The soldier said he understood, "We will report this to our superiors and conduct disinfection and inspection of the existing reservoirs. Thank you, Dr. Cheng, for reminding us."
Si Nan looked at their departing backs, feeling uneasy. He turned around and said to Cheng Su Ming, "You should tell Yan Hongyi about the parasites in the water and ask them to pay attention to this matter. I always feel that..."
Before she finished speaking, Cheng Suming interrupted her, "Don't feel it. If you feel it, it's definitely not a good thing. I will contact Yan Hongyi immediately and tell him about this."
Si Nan looked at his back as he called Yan Hongyi, speechless, "Are you treating me like a jinx, afraid that what I say will come true?"
After thinking about it, she felt that she seemed to have the potential to be a bad mouth recently. Every time she mentioned something bad, it would always come true.
She shuddered involuntarily and whispered, "It can't be so weird."
The days of being locked down and isolated at home were difficult. At the beginning, the military government did follow the normal procedures to provide everyone with enough drinking water and all the supplies people needed to ensure everyone's normal life. When the pharmaceutical factories produced medicines, they also delivered medicines to seriously ill patients at their homes.
But as time goes by, the number of infections remains high and the death toll increases. What's more, the speed at which pharmaceutical companies produce drugs is far behind the speed at which people get sick.
The supply of water is also gradually decreasing. Some people want to go out, but as soon as they go out they will be taken to a centralized quarantine center. Recently, everyone at the Shishan base has been living in dire straits.
Early in the morning of that day, Si Nan heard crying outside. She was eating ice cream and standing at the window of the greenhouse on the third floor looking into the distance. She could only see a few blurry shadows appearing on the opposite river.
She finished the rest of the ice cream cone in her hand in a few bites, took out a telescope from the space, and saw several government workers in protective clothing carrying two bodies out of the yard of a house about 500 meters away from her and putting them into a vehicle parked on the road at the door. The family members followed the bodies and cried in grief.
It has been half a month since the Shishan base was sealed off. This scene occurs every day. The speed of drug production cannot keep up with the speed at which people get sick. The dead must be taken away for incineration and disinfection as soon as possible, otherwise they will be infected to their surviving family members and neighbors.
Many relatives of the deceased could not accept the fact that their loved ones had passed away, and felt that there was no end in sight for the lockdown and isolation at home. Many people took advantage of the midnight to escape en masse without hesitation.
At first, the government military would try to stop them, but the more they tried to stop them, the more resistance they aroused among the fleeing people, and many conflicts occurred, even resulting in bloodshed and loss of life.
Several soldiers had their protective clothing torn during the conflict with those people, and unfortunately they were infected with a mixture of multiple infectious diseases that became an upgraded version, code-named N79 by the Shishan Military Medical Research Institute. Because the newly developed drugs from the pharmaceutical factory were sent to Shishan Hospital at that time, they had no medicine to treat them, and they all died that night.
From then on, the military and government staff would not stop them. Anyone who escaped would be directly driven out of the base by the Shishan military personnel and put on the base's blacklist. They could go wherever they wanted, and the Shishan base would never let those who escaped come back. Everyone parted ways and lived in peace.
Those who escaped thought they could find a new life after getting out, or at least find herbs to treat themselves, but they were dumbfounded after getting out.
It was dry outside, with snakes, insects, rats and ants crawling and flying everywhere. It hadn't rained for a month and a half, so the ground was cracked and many crops had died. Even if they found herbs for temporary treatment, they would not be able to walk far because of lack of food and water before they became so hungry and thirsty that they would faint and be eaten by the wild beasts roaming the wild.
Those who had better conditions, with food stores, bicycles, scooters, carts and other means of transportation, originally wanted to seek refuge in other bases.
They walked for several days and nights, and went very far away, but did not see any private bases or other gathering places. They only saw the skeletons of corpses that died of plague and infectious diseases.
Only then did they realize how difficult it was for them to survive on their own in the face of severe natural disasters without the protection of the large base.
When those restless people received the messages sent back by the escaped people and learned how difficult the environment outside was, although they had doubts in their hearts, they all understood that in the face of natural disasters, they were as small as ants. If they really had to leave the stone mountain base, how long could they survive outside with their meager survival abilities?
Gradually, everyone settled down and accepted the reality. Although they saw people around them die every day and many people were experiencing the pain of losing their loved ones, they had no choice but to wait.
"Two more people died." Si Nan put away the telescope and turned to say to Cheng Suming who was artificially pollinating peppers in the greenhouse.
After Cheng Suming finished pollinating, he stood up and said, "Birth, aging, illness and death are normal. The natural disasters now have changed their order. We don't know what the next natural disaster will be. All we can do is go with the flow and try to survive. You don't have to mind these things."
Si Nan sighed, "I don't mind it, but I feel that natural disasters come one after another, leaving no chance for people to breathe. Everyone is completely exhausted by the natural disasters. Living is not necessarily better than dying."
"You're saying those negative things again." Cheng Suming reached out and flicked her forehead, changing the subject: "What are you doing today? Are you still fetching water and cooking?"
During the half month that they were quarantined at home, Sinan was bored and felt that he could not just sit at home. Apart from daily physical exercise and tending to the fruits, vegetables and herbs in the two greenhouses, he spent the rest of his time drawing water from the well and storing it in the space.
Due to the dry weather and no rain for a long time, the water in the well is getting less and less. We can't get ten buckets of water a day. We have to wait for it to slowly come out before we can get more water the next day.
In the remaining time, she focuses on making various cooked and ready-to-eat foods.
The current natural disasters are unpredictable. She cannot guarantee how long she and Cheng Suming can stay in the Stone Mountain Base. One day a devastating natural disaster might come and destroy the Stone Mountain Base. It would be inconvenient for them to make a fire and cook in the wild while they are fleeing in a hurry. It would be better to make more cooked food and put it in the space so that they can take it and eat it whenever they want.
For the past half month, she has been making various cooked meats with Cheng Suming. For example, the last time they went out hunting, they only took one-third of the prey they hunted to the logistics department to exchange for points, and the rest they divided among themselves.
Si Nan and his companion cut more than a dozen wild boars, deer, ostriches and other animals weighing two to three hundred pounds into pieces and made them into jerky, smoked and cooked bacon and sausages, braised meat, stewed soup, braised, stir-fried, etc. They made thousands of different kinds of meat and placed them in the space.
Si Nan said, "We don't need to fetch water today. We need to save the water for my uncle and his family. We can scald the skin and hair off the pheasants and rabbits and cook them. If there is an empty pot, we can steam some simple buns and steamed buns, and steam some rice to make rice rolls and sushi."
"Then you can use the gas stove and honeycomb coal stove in the kitchen. I'll also clean out the old pot in the yard, and I'll light a fire outside to steam buns."
"Okay."
It gradually became quiet outside, and I guess the car carrying the body had left.
Si Nan and Cheng Su Ming went down to the kitchen. They first cleaned the pots and lit the fires on the two earthen stoves in the kitchen and the yard, then started the honeycomb coal stove, and then got the gas stove started.
Meat, stir-fried dishes, stews and the like were all cooked in the kitchen. Sinan deliberately closed the kitchen doors and windows and blocked all the small gaps to prevent the strong smell of the cooking from drifting away with the wind and attracting hatred.
She took out more than 30 pheasants and more than 20 wild rabbits that were placed in the space. After removing the hair and internal organs with hot water, she put ten pheasants into the big pot on the earthen stove in the kitchen, added some dried mushrooms, a small amount of medicinal herbs such as red dates and wolfberries, and stewed a pot of delicious and fragrant clear-boiled chicken.
Ten of the remaining twenty chickens were put together with the five rabbits, chicken feet, peeled eggs, quail eggs, lotus root slices, kelp knots, tofu slices and the like taken from the space, and put on the honeycomb coal stove with some marinade, peppercorns and chili peppers to make an attractive spicy braised dish.
For the remaining ten chickens, boil half of them and chop them into pieces and serve them cold, and stir-fry or braise the other half. Do the same with the rabbit.
However, the rabbit head was specially cut off and made into spicy braised rabbit head. Five fatter rabbits were also left and placed on a charcoal rack and roasted into sizzling roasted rabbits.
Sinan was busy in the small kitchen, controlling the fire on the three stoves and cooking the food herself. As the doors and windows were closed, she sneezed continuously because of the chili peppers in the pot when she was making spicy chicken and diced rabbit with ginger.
Fortunately, she wore several layers of masks, otherwise she would not be able to bear the spicy smell circulating in the room and lingering around her nose.
Cheng Suming heard her sneezing outside and asked from the door, "Anan, how about you come out and steam the buns while I go in and cook?"
"No need. If I open the door now, the smell will spread out. I'll just fry a few pots and it won't last long." Si Nan answered in a low voice while frying the vegetables in the pot.
Seeing that she insisted, Cheng Suming had no choice but to let her go.
No matter how hard they tried to protect themselves, the smell of cooking would still get out. Even if it was just a faint smell, it would be smelled by people who had stayed at home for a long time and ate the same food every day.
"I think I smell meat again."
"I smell it, too. There's also the smell of chili peppers."
"Who's making delicious food again?"
"At this time, only a few families can afford to make delicious food."
"I really envy them for having enough supplies. It's been more than half a month since the lockdown, and everyone is just eating steamed buns and drinking porridge, but they can eat meat and fish. It's really the same people but different fates."
"Yes, it's fate!"
Si Nan couldn't hear what those people were saying. By the time she finished cooking all the dishes, a day had passed.
In the meantime, she and Cheng Suming had a simple meal with the ready-made steamed buns. They did this day after day, making different kinds of food every day.
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