Chapter 174 After the Earthquake
This is inferred according to common sense. Although the current situation is special and disasters occur frequently, there are still traces of signs before earthquakes.
Explaining these things is not completely beyond cognition.
After calming down, the two men sped up their work and harvested the hay and transported it back.
Sure enough, by evening, clouds began to gather in the sky, and dark clouds moved towards them from afar.
"It's going to rain."
Zhao Yeqing quickly lit the charcoal basins in the sheep pen and chicken coop.
According to the current development trend, this rain means the beginning of a drop in temperature.
But she forgot the current weather conditions. Even though the temperature rose before the earthquake, it was still more than ten degrees below zero.
When dark clouds appeared above her head, she realized that it was raining, but when the rain fell on the ground, it turned into ice chips.
Although not as heavy as the previous hailstorm, the hail was still falling so densely that they couldn't go out at all. When they heard the noise on the roof, they both felt a little uneasy.
The ice chips that have fallen will inevitably cause the temperature to drop in a short period of time.
The next day, before dawn, Zhao Yeqing was awakened by the cold. He was not drowsy as usual before going to bed, but woke up all of a sudden.
The fire in the fireplace had gone out, Mu Xi was not by her side, and his watch was still on the bedside table. He must have just gone out.
She stretched out her hand and took the watch from the bedside table. The temperature displayed on it was -21°.
And that’s just the room temperature.
The door of the room was pushed open by Mu Xi. He was holding a bundle of firewood in his hand and there was some ice on his head.
"Are you awake? Don't come down yet. It's too cold outside. Wait for me to light the fire."
Last night before the two of them went to bed, there was a fire in the fireplace, but the firewood went out before it was completely burned.
Mu Xi put the firewood on the ground and said, "I checked everything yesterday, but I forgot to check the chimney on the fireplace. The chimney cap was shaken off, and when I got up in the morning, the inside was wet with ice."
He got up in the morning, climbed onto the roof, reassembled the chimney, and brought in dry firewood.
Zhao Yeqing put on his coat and got out of bed without waiting for the fire in the fireplace to light up.
Mu Xi opened the lid, letting the wet ashes in the fireplace fall into the ash pit below.
In a hurry to start a fire, pine wood was used, and two less flammable beech woods were piled on top.
As the flames grew, the room was gradually filled with warmth.
She curled up cross-legged in the rocking chair, covered with a soft rabbit fur blanket, waiting for the water on the fireplace to boil and pouring it into the small kettle.
The small kettle contains previously dried plum blossoms. When they are soaked in water, you can smell their unique fragrance.
The ice outside had stopped forming, and it was neither raining nor snowing, but there were gusts of cold wind, and the window glass was rattling.
When Mu Xi came in with breakfast, the wind blew so hard that he couldn't close the door. Zhao Yeqing hurried over to take the breakfast, and Mu Xi then had his hands free to close the door.
"Have a cup of hot tea to warm yourself up."
Mu Xi first showed her his watch, which showed the outdoor temperature, -26°.
Then he picked up the cup and drank the tea.
Zhao Yeqing rubbed his frozen red hands to warm them up. "It looked like the temperature was going to rise, but it dropped back down again."
She rubbed the food and blew on it, and Mu Xi held her hand in return, "You eat first, I'll just roast it."
Breakfast is steamed buns and a plate of braised beef. I can't touch water in this weather. Even if I touch hot water, my hands will become cold in a minute. The alternating cold and hot weather can easily cause frostbite.
After climbing up the roof to repair the chimney in the morning, my hands felt a little itchy.
Sure enough, in the afternoon, Zhao Yeqing suddenly grabbed his hand and frowned, "Why do you have frostbite?"
Mu Xi spread out his fingers, which were somewhat red and had some spots that looked like blisters.
"Just sit still. Chilblains are hard to treat and can easily recur. I'll get you some medicine."
There was no frostbite medicine at home, so Zhao Yeqing put on her coat, opened the door and went out. The wind outside was not as strong as in the morning, but it still made it difficult for her to open her eyes.
He went to the original owner's house, took some dried hawthorns, dug out a radish from the cellar and returned to the house.
He dug a small piece of ginger from the soil in the planting pot, mashed the ginger and hawthorn, and applied it on Mu Xi's left hand.
Cut the radish into slices, heat it over the fire, and then apply it to the chilblains on your right hand.
"Wait and see which one works better."
These methods were used by my grandmother on my grandfather who got frostbite while patrolling the mountains in winter. These methods are only suitable for the early stages of frostbite and cannot be used once it becomes serious.
Chilblains were itchy and painful. She stared at Mu Xi, trying to stop him from scratching when he couldn't help it.
Mu Xi didn't know whether to laugh or cry, "I won't catch it. I'm not a child anymore. I can still hold back."
Because Mu Xi had a criminal record, when he was a child, there was frost on Meishan Mountain. He was very naughty and ran out to play, and he got frostbite on his hands. Frostbite was painful and itchy. Grandma Mu was very distressed and told him to stop scratching, but he ended up scratching and the blisters broke.
The pain in his hand had not yet healed, and Grandpa Mu slapped him twice on the butt.
When Zhao Yeqing woke up the next day, he looked at his hand and found that the condition had not worsened and it was recovering well.
Ginger and hawthorn seem to be more effective than radish slices.
Zhao Yeqing threw the remaining radish and beef brisket into the pot to make soup.
I was too lazy to cook, and it was too cold and neither of us wanted to go out.
A pot of radish and beef brisket soup, served with noodles, lasted the whole day.
By the third day, the temperature had dropped to minus 32 degrees Celsius.
"It seems that after the earthquake, it was not just a simple drop in temperature, but also a cold wave."
The drop in temperature after the earthquake seemed to give winter a push, and the cold wave instantly swept across the entire earth, and the temperature continued to drop.
The walls in the room felt icy to the touch.
Within a week, the temperature dropped to minus 40 degrees Celsius.
Fortunately, the two of them did not slack off some time ago and chopped the firewood back, otherwise they would have no firewood now and would have been shivering in bed in such a cold temperature.
Occasionally, when I went to the bathroom, the white air I exhaled instantly froze into white frost on my eyelashes and eyebrows.
The cold wind made my face hurt, and within a minute it turned red.
It's spicy and painful.
The skin care products she brought with her were hardly used except for facial cleanser when it was too hot in the summer. Now every time she goes out to the bathroom, she has to apply some facial cream when she comes back, otherwise her face will turn red and painful.
Originally, as long as the fire was lit in the fireplace, the room would be warm.
Now the only way to feel warmth is by being near a fireplace.
If it was just the low temperature, it wouldn't be so uncomfortably cold, but it was also windy, and the perceived temperature dropped several degrees.
After half a month, the wind and the temperature drop finally stopped.
The temperature was fixed at minus 45 degrees Celsius.
Zhao Yeqing opened the door and saw the originally snow-covered meadow, which had taken on a new look.
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