Chapter 9 Mutated Spinach
The cold wave lasted longer than the residents of Jiangcheng thought. Within half a month, the cold wave did not change at all, and the temperature did not show any sign of rising. Jiangcheng, which used to be spring-like all year round, now has a temperature of around minus ten degrees Celsius. Every day, the howling wind and snow hit people outside the house, and the biting cold penetrated into the bones inside the house.
Nowadays, residents of Jiangcheng stay at home if they can, and most companies have switched to working from home. Because the number of deaths caused by hypothermia is increasing, and there is no trend of decline. In the north, hypothermia has become a life-threatening killer that makes people shudder. In Jiangcheng, this disease is relatively rare, but it has also claimed the lives of dozens of people. This has also made Jiangcheng residents more cautious, turning on heating appliances all day and all night to provide temperature in the house, for fear that they will accidentally get hypothermia.
Gu Nian didn't want to go out because of hypothermia, but when he thought about the fact that this natural disaster would continue, if he couldn't adapt to the cold, it would be difficult for him to survive if he encountered danger in the future. The unfit will be eliminated, which is always the unchanging law of nature. Gu Nian gritted his teeth and still exercised outside for two hours every day.
Jiangcheng is still supplying electricity, which largely ensures the indoor temperature. Supplies on the market have become scarce, and people are frantically buying all kinds of daily necessities, especially winter supplies, such as cold-proof clothing, electric heaters, small solar heaters, electric blankets, etc., which are no longer available in stores, and people can only find them through connections.
Jingli paid the renovation team twice the price, and finally persuaded Lao Liu to renovate his villa. However, due to the urgent time, the latest insulation layer like Gu Nian's was complicated and took too long to renovate, so Jingli's family only had time to install ordinary insulation. There was no time to install floor heating in the whole house. Jingli listened to Gu Nian's advice and installed electric heating in the living room, his and his grandfather's bedrooms, that is, the first floor of the villa, and the basement, but gave up on the second and third floors of the villa.
Jingli went out again in the severe cold, got back ten solar generators from somewhere, and started to install them in the house for emergency power generation. Under the severe cold, many wires became very fragile, especially old wires. Even heavy snow could directly crush the poles. There have been many large-scale power accidents in the north, and Jiangcheng would also lose power from time to time.
Everyone was praying silently. The cold wave had lasted for half a month. It was time for it to go away and return to normal temperature. At this moment, without any warning, the temperature in Jiangcheng dropped to minus 30 degrees Celsius in one breath.
If people can still move when the temperature is minus ten degrees, then minus thirty degrees is no longer suitable for human survival. In the entire Dragon Country, only the northernmost extreme cold areas will have a temperature of minus thirty degrees during the coldest time. I didn't expect that in the southern Jiangcheng, this temperature could actually appear directly!
The Jiangcheng government issued an emergency notice, requiring all supplies in the city to be centrally managed, with distribution points set up in each community. Residents must go to official distribution points to purchase supplies, with purchase limits set on a per capita basis. To this end, the government issued a detailed purchase limit plan, with half a pound of pork worth 50 points, a pound of rice worth 30 points, and a pound of vegetables worth 60 points... Each person cannot purchase more than 200 points per day.
Gu Nian got up early in the morning, put on two thick sweaters, two thick woolen pants, a long fur coat, a pair of snow boots, leather gloves and a leather hat, and fully armed, she pushed open the door of the villa and went to the glass greenhouse built in the villa's own garden. When the villa was renovated, as soon as the decoration team built the glass greenhouse, she immediately planted spinach, Chinese cabbage and other cold-resistant vegetables. As for cucumbers and other vegetables that like warmth, she also planted some.
Because of the severe cold, although the temperature in the glass greenhouse was slightly higher than the outside environment and it was protected from the wind and snow, the plants still did not grow well, the sprouts grew sluggishly, and some seedlings even froze to death in the soil. Gu Nian had to come to the greenhouse from time to time to replant, hoping to leave more plants that could withstand the severe cold.
Every time this happened, Gu Nian's mood inevitably became heavy. Under this natural disaster, what was the difference between humans and these plants? Only those who could adapt to this severe cold could survive.
However, the vegetable garden today was a little different. Gu Nian noticed a spinach seedling. A crop of spinach had just grown in the glass greenhouse. The other spinach seedlings were only half a foot long, with frosted leaves, half green and half yellow. But there was a spinach plant among them, a foot long, much taller than the others, with shiny, watery leaves that stretched out freely.
Gu Nian was going out to buy supplies today, so he didn't have time to observe carefully. He only left this spinach plant and pulled out about twenty other small spinach plants. He hurriedly put them in the villa, then pulled the shopping cart and left the villa.
Jingli was also pulling a small cart, waiting for Gu Nian on the roadside. The two had communicated in advance by mobile phone, and met up as soon as possible to avoid losing body temperature while waiting outside. Jingli made a gesture, pointing in the direction of the supermarket, and Gu Nian nodded. The two did not dare to speak, fearing that the wind and snow would enter their mouths, so they walked to the supermarket one after the other.
Nowadays, the roads are often frozen, and the municipal government is unable to send so many people to carry out snow and ice removal work. Driving has become an extremely dangerous thing, so everyone has to brave the cold and walk to purchase supplies. It took the two of them nearly 20 minutes to walk a short distance of 700 to 800 meters before they entered the supermarket. The supermarket near the villa area was requisitioned as the official material distribution point of the community. The supermarket turned on a high-power electric heater to control the temperature at around zero degrees. When Gu Nian and Jing Li entered the supermarket, they actually felt that the room temperature of zero degrees was extremely warm.
Although Gu Nian and Jing Li arrived early, there was still a long line in the supermarket. Jing Li bought some meat and rice noodles, and Gu Nian also bought a small amount of meat and rice, but left most of the quota for some chocolate and candy. The two left in a hurry. When they left, they could still see a long line in the supermarket, and many people were waiting to buy and receive today's supplies.
The two walked in silence towards the villa area. They arrived at Gu Nian's house first, and Jing Li's house was a little further in, but Jing Li indicated that he wanted to sit at Gu Nian's house for a while.
In such cold weather, Jingli would normally go home directly, but he stayed at his house. Did he have something to discuss? Gu Nian opened the door and invited him in.
After entering the house, Jing went straight to the point and asked, "Have you felt anything unusual recently?"
"Abnormal? Do you mean the weather is abnormal?" Gu Nian asked puzzledly.
Jing Li hesitated for a moment, then said solemnly: "What I am going to say next may be a little mysterious, but you must listen." He said solemnly: "I have a friend who works in a scientific research institution. He told me that this cold wave will not pass. It may take half a year or a year. You must be mentally prepared."
He looked at Gu Nian's expression and saw that she was thoughtful and not defeated by the news, so he continued: "During the cold wave, you can't stay in the house all the time. You must insist on going out to exercise and improve your physical fitness. Maybe you can resist the cold and walk freely in such a temperature. It is said that if you use some long-standing martial arts or body-building methods when exercising, it will have miraculous effects. This cold wave may cause humans, animals and plants to evolve."
Jing Li told Gu Nian a lot more, repeatedly hinting that Gu Nian must be prepared to resist natural disasters, and then left.
Gu Nian quickly gave half of the spinach that he harvested from the small garden this morning to Jing Li and asked him to take it away.
Jing Li waved his hand to refuse. Fresh vegetables are in short supply nowadays. The government must use electric heating to provide greenhouse temperature to grow vegetables. Therefore, vegetables are more expensive than meat now. He knew that there was a huge glass greenhouse in Gu Nian's villa, which was full of vegetables. Only two or three out of ten vegetables could survive, so there would be vegetable production.
Gu Nian insisted on giving it to Jing Li: "Didn't you and Grandpa Jing also set up a few flower pots in the living room to grow vegetables? It's the same when you grow them and return them to me. Besides, Grandpa Jing is old and he can't live without vegetables."
Jing Li hesitated for a moment before taking it. He repeatedly told Gu Nian to go out and exercise, to see if the Gu family had any ancestral skills, and if that didn't work, to learn Jing family martial arts from him, and then he left.
Gu Nian was confused by what she heard. After sending Jing Li away, she pondered the matter carefully and suddenly remembered the juicy spinach she saw in the villa. Could it be that this spinach had mutated?
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