Chapter 40: Extreme Cold Weather Arrives
After night fell, everyone clearly felt that the temperature had dropped a lot.
Qin Muxue took out the thermometer and found that the temperature had dropped below zero. It seemed that extreme cold weather was coming.
Fortunately, they had collected supplies in various buildings before and had already collected a lot of cold-resistant items, so they were sure to have no shortage of clothes.
Everyone wore thermal underwear, fleece sweaters, super thick down jackets and snow boots.
This time the weather will not be as capricious as before. The temperature will get lower day by day. Adults can bear it, but mainly the elderly and children.
Fortunately, Qian Yan, the only baby here, is not afraid of the cold. He has the power of fire since birth. As long as people get close to him, they will not feel cold, but instead feel warm like spring.
Chi Ze was muttering, "It's so cold."
He rubbed his hands vigorously. Because he lost the bet with Qin Muxue, he was still taking the initiative to take care of Qian Yan. After he picked up Qian Yan, he suddenly felt a warm breeze like spring breeze. After he moved away from him, the warmth disappeared.
In this way, Chi Ze walked back and forth beside Qian Yan. The warm feeling suddenly appeared and disappeared, which made Chi Ze feel very strange.
"How can there be a feeling of heating when there is no electricity now?" Of course he couldn't figure it out no matter how hard he tried. Looking at the baby staring at him curiously, he opened his mouth and laughed.
The baby's laughter was crisp and hearty. Chi Ze couldn't help but hug him and said, "Oh, baby, your body is so hot. You may have a fever!"
Qian Xinran immediately explained: "The baby was like this when he was born. He is not sick. Don't worry."
Since the mother had explained it, he did not ask any more questions. Besides, the baby looked healthy as he waved his fists. He had just drunk a lot of milk powder and was in very good spirits, not like he was sick.
When it’s time to go to bed at night, everyone crawls into thick sleeping bags. Now, someone will take turns to be on duty every night, and usually one person will take over every three hours.
Now it was Qin Muxue's turn. She was wrapped in a thick blanket and sat beside the fire, warming her palms. The yellowish light illuminated her cheeks. At the moment, everything seemed to be going well.
She took out a book and took out a chocolate from her pocket and stuffed it into her mouth. The bitter taste of dark chocolate spread in her mouth. Qin Muxue happened to see a funny part in the novel and laughed softly.
Pearl looked at Qin Muxue, transformed into a huge form, and nestled beside her. Qin Muxue turned around and saw a huge calico cat wrapping her with its thick tail.
Baozhu also gathered around her, and the three of them leaned against each other, making her feel very warm.
She rubbed the cats and dogs' heads. They had natural coats and were not as afraid of the cold as she was.
Qin Muxue read the book for a while and was actually immersed in it. Seeing how serious she was, Ding Manman didn't have the heart to disturb her. She lowered her head to look at her watch and found that it was already early in the morning. Manman, who had come to take her place on night duty, was looking at her with a smile on her face.
"I wonder what you are looking at so intently? I don't even have the heart to disturb you."
"I always couldn't calm down to read before, but now I don't know why, I get addicted as soon as I start reading. This is Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey."
"I know that author. She wrote Pride and Prejudice, a very famous book abroad."
“I just feel that the description of human nature in the book is very interesting.”
Qin Muxue moved a little, and there was another empty seat in Pearl's huge tail. Ding Manman sat in it and couldn't help but sighed, "It's so warm."
Qin Muxue took out a small pot and placed it on the fire to heat up the milk. When the milk was half heated, she poured it into a cup and handed it to Ding Manman, "Here, drink some more hot milk."
I also prepared some hot goat's milk for Zhenzhu and Baozhu. She was not used to drinking goat's milk as she did not like drinking milk with a fishy smell.
Ding Manman held the cup and said, "Do you want to sleep for a while? It's almost dawn."
Qin Muxue then looked outside and saw that the sky was already turning white.
Grandma Qu had already gotten up to prepare breakfast. As soon as she got out of her sleeping bag, she couldn't help but sigh, "It's so cold."
The winters here in the Northeast are very cold, but even in the countryside, people have fires in their homes, so it's never as freezing cold as it is now.
As soon as she stood up, she put on the thick down jacket that Qu Yanbai had prepared for her. She wore several layers of clothes inside and outside, and wrapped her head and ears with a scarf.
Seeing the two little girls reading in the cat's arms, she smiled from the bottom of her heart, "You two are so hardworking, reading late into the night!"
"Grandma Qu, you're awake." Qin Muxue didn't feel anything when she saw Grandma Qu, who was wrapped like a zongzi, in front of her. It was not until Grandma Qu said she was going to the cabin to get some things that Qin Muxue said, "I'll go with you!"
I stuck a few hot packs on my underwear, put on several layers of clothes, put on a thick down jacket and snow boots, and put on a hat.
As soon as the two walked outside, the cold air hit them in the face, causing Qin Muxue to sneeze a few times, "It's really cold!"
Grandma Qu smiled and said, "You are from the south. The winter in the Northeast is also very cold. You need some time to get used to this kind of cold."
Qin Muxue felt that her whole body was shaking uncontrollably. It seemed that she would need to put a few more hot packs on her body.
She came out to see how the yacht was doing, and Grandma Qu came out to get some ingredients from the yacht. She had prepared some leavened dough for making sticky rice dumplings before, and now she was about to get it to make sticky rice dumplings.
Qin Muxue discovered that a layer of ice had formed on the flood. She stepped on it and jumped, but the ice surface did not react at all. It seemed that the ice here was very thick.
Qin Muxue looked up and found that it had started to snow lightly. When they came to this floor before, she saw a store selling ski equipment nearby. She could take Qu Yanbai and the others to that place to search and see if there was anything useful.
Qin Muxue took out the thermometer and saw that the temperature was minus ten degrees Celsius. When she was in Xuanwu City, they were in the tropics and it was summer all year round. There was no such thing as winter. Now that it has suddenly entered winter, she really can't adapt.
"Xiao Qin, if you feel cold, come in quickly and I'll make you some sticky rice dumplings!" Grandma Qu saw that her ears were red from the cold and told her to go back quickly.
Now that the temperature has dropped sharply, Qin Muxue must put away the yacht first.
After Grandma Qu went in, she put all the things on the yacht into the space, and then placed the yacht in the area specially for transportation.
After doing all this, she already felt her stomach growling with hunger. When the weather gets colder, the body consumes more calories, so she gets hungrier more easily.
Grandma Qu has already started making sticky rice dumplings. The flour has been fermented in advance: first soak the glutinous rice for half a day, then wash off the sand, which is called "washing rice". After that, let it dry most of the time, grind it into flour, mix corn flour and glutinous rice in a certain proportion, and then knead the flour with cold water. Ferment it like making white flour steamed buns, and wait until it smells sour before starting to knead the dough with your hands.
The filling is made by cooking red beans or kidney beans, mashing them into red bean paste, adding fine sugar, and shaping them into a filling ball as big as a core. The bean filling ball is wrapped with kneaded yellow rice flour and rolled into a bean bun shape. This is how the sticky bean bun is made.
Seeing how nimble Grandma Qu was, Qin Muxue immediately wanted to go over and help.
"Oh, why are you helping? Just wait to eat. Conditions are limited now, so I will do whatever I can for you. I happen to have the ingredients here. We can make some sticky rice dumplings, which are easy to preserve and can be eaten as dry food on the road." Grandma Qu felt sorry for these little girls.
Within the limited conditions, she tried her best to make some delicious food for them.
Ding Manman scratched her head embarrassedly, "Originally, I should have done all this."
Ever since she fell ill, Grandma Qu and Grandma Wu have taken care of her. She is very sleepy and spends a lot of time resting with her eyes closed during the day.
"I, an old woman, can't help you much, but I know that you two are really good to me. I only have Yan Bai as my grandson. After spending some time with you, I have already regarded you as my granddaughters. I want to do something for you within my ability, so that I can feel the meaning of my old bones."
As soon as he finished speaking, Grandma Wu also stood up to help. The two old ladies wrapped the sticky rice dumplings like rice dumplings, and soon they made a lot of them.
Then steam it in a pot for twenty minutes, and soon a pot of hot sticky rice dumplings will be ready.
It was also the first time for Qin Muxue to eat this kind of buns, while Ding Manman had eaten it when she was a child, but had never eaten it again since moving to Xuanwu City.
A sticky bean bun was stuffed into each of their hands. The hot bun felt warm in their hands. Qin Muxue took a bite. It was soft and sweet. It tasted different from the bean buns with red bean paste filling. This sticky bean bun had a glutinous texture. It seemed that you would be addicted to it after eating it once. She ate five sticky bean buns in one breath.
"Woof woof!" Baozhu also felt greedy and wanted to have a bite. Qin Muxue threw one to Baozhu, and she swallowed it whole, still feeling a little unsatisfied.
After they finished eating, everyone woke up one after another.
Captain Huang looked at the snow outside and felt a little worried. "If it continues like this, how are we going to act? The river is frozen."
Qin Muxue looked at the thermometer. In just a short while, the temperature had dropped another 5 degrees. It was now minus 15 degrees Celsius.
She knew that this was far from enough. The temperature would continue to drop and they had to maintain their own temperature, otherwise they would either starve to death or freeze to death.
"I know there's a snow equipment store nearby that hasn't been flooded yet. Let's go see if there's anything we can use and be prepared just in case."
Qu Yanbai nodded and agreed with her suggestion. "Let's set off now while everyone can still adapt to the temperature. Otherwise, when the weather gets colder, I'm afraid everyone won't be able to adapt..."
He knew the pain of extreme cold. First-degree frostbite is relatively mild. The main symptoms are: redness and swelling of the skin, itching of the frostbitten area, edema of the skin, and a tingling sensation. But it's okay, it will heal after a while, and the skin will peel off once.
Second degree frostbite is more serious. It mainly damages the dermis. Not only is the skin red and swollen, but there are also blisters filled with blood and increased pain.
Grade three frostbite is more serious. The entire layer of skin is damaged, the skin appears black or purple-brown, and the pain sensation is lost.
During the Ice Age, many people suffered from third-degree frostbite, and some were so frozen that they had to have their limbs amputated to save their lives.
The most important thing now is to find a means of transportation on the ice. Ikezawa found a few skates in the building, but they were all women's and none of them were suitable for his size.
In the city of Dajiang, people have the habit of skating in winter, so it is normal to find ice skates. He even found a small sled, which was just right for a dog to pull. He looked in the direction of Baozhu. Baozhu was reluctant at first, but Qin Muxue nodded at him, so he endured it silently.
Qin Muxue helped Zhenzhu put on the shoes that had been specially made for her. Although she was very reluctant, she was more afraid of the feeling of stepping on the ice, which was too cold.
Baozhu not only has shoes, but also a down jacket specially made for dogs. She is well-trained and can move nimbly even when wearing clothes and shoes.
And this time, she had to go with them to search for supplies and had to walk on the ice.
By unanimous decision, they prepared to move together. This time, Pearl became a complete porter. Fortunately, those heavy objects were easy for her to carry.
Everyone was dressed warmly, wrapped up with hot packs stuck all over their bodies. As soon as they walked out of the door, the temperature seemed to drop a lot, and the oncoming snowstorm was like an ice knife scratching people's faces.
Qin Muxue was wearing goggles and could still see clearly what was around her. Fortunately, the blizzard had not yet reached the point where it was out of control.
Qian Xinran hugged Qian Yan, who was emitting waves of warmth, so she didn't feel too cold. Chi Ze also protected them and thought to himself: It's not as cold as I imagined. Little did he know that this was all thanks to Qian Yan.
Qian Yan is very smart. He is still young, and the heat he radiates is only enough to cover the area of two adults. Moreover, the range of the radiation has no effect on the ice layer at all. His control ability is very strong.
Seeing this, Qin Muxue no longer worried about them.
They walked in the snow and ice, and everything around them was white. Soon a building appeared in front of everyone.
There was a thick layer of ice under my feet, and snowflakes were covering the ice surface at a speed visible to the naked eye, making a crunching sound when I stepped on it.
Grandma Qu was suddenly startled by something under the ice. "Yan Bai, what is that?"
Qu Yanbai took a look and found that there was a corpse under the ice. Through the ice, the dead man's eyes were wide open, as if he was not dead. No wonder Grandma Qu was so frightened.
"Grandma, it's just a corpse, don't be afraid."
"No, I just saw a large group of white creatures flashing by. Maybe my eyes are blurry!" Grandma Qu patted her chest and tried to calm herself down.
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