Chapter 30
Even though the community had made preparations for some time, a large number of people still died overnight.
Zhu Cheng, wearing a thick cotton-padded coat he bought from Tong Shu's family, spent the whole night running around the neighborhood. When Tong Shu saw him the next day, he was squatting at the entrance of the convenience store, smoking a crumpled cigarette.
"Director Zhu, are you done with your work at the community center?" Tong Shu opened the iron gate, gesturing for him to come in quickly.
Zhu Cheng shook his head, looking exhausted. He carefully finished the last bit of his cigarette before slowly getting up, his hands trembling, and followed Tong Shu into the convenience store.
"I thought, I thought that as long as every household had warm clothes to wear, thick blankets to cover themselves with, and enough food to last for months, no matter how tough the winter was, I could lead everyone through it..." The man, who had always been dutiful, was filled with regret: "I wasn't prepared enough. I didn't know that just one night could freeze so many people to death..."
"This isn't your fault, Director Zhu." Tong Shu felt a lump in her throat; she couldn't think of anything else to comfort this person who had experienced several brushes with death in one night.
"I know, but I can't bear it." Zhu Cheng raised his hands and rubbed his numb face vigorously, trying to cheer himself up: "Xiao Tong, do you have any warm clothes and blankets here? Some people don't take the community's words seriously and exchanged the clothes and blankets that were distributed before for other supplies. I have to go and distribute them again."
Upon hearing this, Tong Shu frowned but didn't say anything more: "There's still some in the warehouse. We received quite a lot before. I'll go get it for you."
Zhu Cheng nodded, his voice tinged with apology: "The community may not be able to offer you enough supplies to exchange. I have over five hundred yuan here, I'll give it all to you. I'll make up the rest when the weather gets better."
Tong Shu dragged a sack of blankets out of the warehouse and placed it against the wall. She then took the cash from Zhu Cheng's hand and said, "That's enough. No need to replenish it. If the community needs anything in the future, just come to the convenience store and get it. It will all be included in this money."
"Hey! That won't do..." Zhu Cheng hurriedly tried to stop him.
"Director Zhu!" Tong Shu pressed down on Zhu Cheng's hand, which was trying to take back the cash, and said, "Let's survive first, then we can talk about other things. My family has enough supplies, so you don't need to feel bad about it."
Zhu Cheng simply thought Tong Shuxin was kind-hearted. In these precarious times, although his family had found a way to make a living and were not worried about food and clothing, they had no obligation to lend a helping hand to others. The fact that they could do this was entirely due to their conscience.
In fact, Tong Shu's plan was very simple. She just wanted to have more channels to exchange her family's output faster and in greater quantities.
The community is the quickest way. With Zhu Cheng around, his family doesn't need to travel thousands of miles and risk danger to trade large quantities of goods. Moreover, being in the same neighborhood means helping their neighbors, which is also helping themselves. People can only maintain basic morality and uphold relative justice in a relatively stable environment. If his family chooses to protect themselves in this situation, they will soon become the target of public criticism.
"This, this is so embarrassing." Zhu Cheng's face showed both embarrassment and gratitude. "Our community doesn't give the supplies to the residents for nothing. How about this, Xiao Tong, from now on, when residents exchange your supplies from the community, the community will take half and you will keep half. We'll settle accounts with you once a month. Is that okay?"
Tong Shu wasn't sure if the buyout deal of over 500 yuan in cash would work on the island, but after hearing what Zhu Cheng said, she felt that this method was safer, so she nodded and said, "It doesn't need to be too much. If the community is in financial difficulty, our family can take less."
"It's alright, Xiao Tong, don't worry. As long as I'm alive, I will never let your family suffer!" Zhu Cheng assured him confidently.
"Director Zhu, what are you saying? We will all live well, and I believe you."
...
Tong Shu dragged all the cotton products she had made on the island out of the warehouse and piled them in the hall. Zhu Cheng went downstairs and called over a few young staff members, and together they carried the things downstairs. Tong Shu wanted to help, but was stopped.
"Hey, we don't need you at all! We're a bunch of grown men, we can handle this!"
"The path inside the building is still manageable, but you'll be crossing the ice outside later. It's too slippery for each of you to carry two bags." Tong Shu only went out for a short distance last night and fell flat on her face. Her lower back is still aching.
"We have tools, we made them yesterday, they're really useful for hauling supplies," a young man said to Tong Shu with a smile, then carried two bags of cotton-padded coats and hurried downstairs.
After they left, Tong Shu peered out of the stairwell window and saw several people throwing burlap sacks into several large basins. The basins seemed to have holes punched in the rims, with a thick nylon rope threaded through them. The men picked up the ropes, slung them over their shoulders, and slid away into the distance.
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The temperature plummeted, and apart from Zhu Cheng, no one else came to the convenience store. Since the store didn't have air conditioning, Tong Shu couldn't stand the cold any longer, so she locked the door early and went home via the connecting corridor.
Everyone else was working on the island, leaving only Qin Xiaoxiao in the house.
Qin Xiaoxiao had caught a cold last night, and now her symptoms seemed to have worsened. When Tong Shu opened the door and came in, she was wrapped in a quilt, wearing a fleece-lined woolen hat, holding a bowl of hot and sour noodles, slurping them while sniffling and watching a variety show.
"Ahem, you're back." Qin Xiaoxiao greeted Tong Shu as she entered.
The heating in the house was on full blast. Tong Shu nodded to Qin Xiaoxiao, took off her hat, gloves, and mask, and let out a long breath. Then she went to the bathroom to wash her hands, ordered a bowl of spicy hot pot, and brought it to Qin Xiaoxiao's side. The two of them watched a variety show together.
"You two are so carefree." After a while, Wang Jie came out of the room and said sourly when he saw the two sisters huddled together.
"Then you come over here too," Qin Xiaoxiao said casually, glancing at him sideways.
Wang Jie shook his head and smiled helplessly. His face and hands were covered in mud, which he carefully washed off before going to the kitchen to cook himself a bowl of noodles.
Qin Xiaoxiao and Tong Shu were both pampered by their families from a young age and knew absolutely nothing about cooking. Only Shu Li was stricter with Wang Jie, telling him that boys should do more housework, and that girls nowadays are spoiled and no one wants to marry a man who can't do anything and become a maid. She repeatedly brought up Qin Xiaoxiao and Tong Shu to deepen Wang Jie's understanding. Therefore, among the three younger generation, Wang Jie was the most talented.
"Oh dear, the three of you have already started eating. I've made too much food." Shu Hua came out of the small island carrying a large pot of maocai (a type of Sichuan hot pot). When she saw the three people sitting around the coffee table, some eating rice noodles and others slurping noodles, she immediately became furious.
"Wow! It's maocai! I can have some more." Qin Xiaoxiao's eyes lit up as she looked at the pot of bright red maocai.
"Then, then I'll try some too." The three of them picked up their chopsticks and gathered around the table.
Shu Hua was almost amused by them, and playfully scolded them to sit down first and wait for everyone to arrive before eating.
As they spoke, everyone came out of the room, some washing their hands, others serving rice, and soon they were all sitting around the dining table.
Qin Jiaqiang shoveled down two mouthfuls of rice, then downed a bowl of seaweed soup in one gulp, sighing contentedly, "Brother-in-law, the automatic sowing and harvesting machine you made is indeed quite useful, but cotton seed removal is still done by hand, and the workload is too great! My older sister needs so much cotton every day, and my older brother and I are about to break our backs."
Shuli was also worried: "I thought the progress was already very fast, but it turns out that the supply is far from meeting the demand. Shushu emptied the warehouse again this morning. It will take several more days to make this much more. Brother-in-law, why don't you think about getting a cotton carding machine first?"
Tong Songming was at his wits' end. Although he had design blueprints and could make almost any machine he could think of, this was precisely the most difficult job because no one else could help him. From materials to processing into parts, everything had to be done on the island, and then the assembly was another huge undertaking.
Tong Songming's face seemed to bear the marks of time, and he said with a weathered look, "I'll try my best."
Judging from her father's expression, Tong Shu, through the special connection between father and daughter, roughly sensed that Tong Songming was probably struggling. After dinner, she specifically sought out Tong Songming, who was resting in his room, and asked him about the situation.
"Sigh, Shushu, Dad's fine," Tong Songming said. "Given the current situation, we have to do it whether we want to or not. We can't rely on others. If your aunt and the others just do it by hand, how long will it take? Dad will work on this a little faster. One machine is equivalent to more than a dozen people's work. The sooner we finish, the sooner things will return to normal. I still want to take your mother to travel the world." After saying this, Tong Songming showed a longing smile.
Looking at her father's expression, Tong Shu felt a pang of sadness. She had only guessed that the mission reward could change the world, and her whole family had firmly believed it and worked hard to achieve the mission goal, which was completely different from their initial doubts about the island's existence.
Tong Shu squeezed Tong Songming's rougher hands, thought for a moment, and said, "Dad, with that machine of yours, is there any experienced mechanic who can help?"
"Master craftsman? Where can I find a master craftsman?"
"Don't worry about that for now. Tell me first, or do you mean you have to do the whole thing yourself?" Tong Shu asked.
Tong Songming pondered for a moment: "The materials for the machines we make now are all collected from the island. On the island, we can use our minds to process different materials into the parts we need, but we still have to assemble them ourselves. But later I tried to bring the materials out once, and it didn't work at all. No matter how I thought about it, the materials were still materials and couldn't be processed into parts. However, the parts could be brought out and assembled."
As Tong Songming spoke, he took out a nut from his pocket: "Look, this nut is made by me using ore from the island. Anyway, the machine will be used on the island after it's finished, so I just put it in place and let your two uncles transport it away."
After listening, Tong Shu already had a plan in mind: "Dad, if you produce the parts on the island and I find experienced craftsmen outside to assemble them for you, wouldn't that be faster? If possible, like Uncle and Aunt said, let's make a few more deseeding machines and cotton ginning machines and put them outside for use. Then we can hire a few more people to help us with production, right? Then our family can openly produce cotton products in the future."
Upon hearing what Tong Shu said, Tong Songming felt a surge of excitement, but then hesitated, "It is indeed a good idea! But will it expose our family's secret?"
"As long as we offer enough benefits and come up with a plausible reason, someone will naturally explain the rest of the details for us!" Tong Shuxin gritted her teeth and went all out.
"Okay! Let's discuss it as a family. If there are no problems, then let's do it this way."
Tong Shu put the nuts that Tong Songming had given her into her pocket and went off to hold a family meeting.
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