Outside the base, in an abandoned old village, Qiao Qingqing and her family were recovering from the fatigue of a busy day in their sleep.
When she was sleeping, Qiao Qingqing dreamed of the scene of the earthquake in her previous life. At that time, she was detained and the trial for her murder had come down. She looked out the small window in the detention room and could only see a thick black. She thought a lot during the sleepless night. She let herself indulge in the beautiful dreams of the past and didn't care about her upcoming death. Suddenly, the light in front of her eyes was so dazzling that it was impossible to ignore. She thought it was her hallucination until she heard noises from other detention rooms and the guards outside lost their composure and started to talk, and then ran excitedly. Then she realized that it was the sun that came out.
It was around seven in the morning when the eternal night suddenly ended. That day people saw the sun, the rising morning star.
How dazzling it was! The morning sun ignited the depressed and hopeless hearts of many people. Even in the detention room, Qiao Qingqing could hear the excited shouts like the waves outside.
Then everything suddenly turned upside down, the walls collapsed, the iron gate deformed, Qiao Qingqing crawled out of the ruins, and ran frantically in the purgatory on earth, until the injuries on her body overwhelmed her and she fell to the ground. The last scene of her life was the sun and the countless pairs of feet running past her in the hope of survival.
Qiao Qingqing suddenly opened her eyes and looked at the top of the tent. She could hear her mother and mother-in-law breathing beside her. There were also sporadic cries of chickens in the chicken coop outside, which showed that the new environment made them uneasy. She took a while to calm down the remaining emotions in the dream and fell asleep again.
After the move, the family's life changed drastically and the living environment became much worse. However, everyone had experienced the years of fleeing, so they got used to it after a few days of adaptation.
All the chickens raised at home were killed, some were saved, and some were eaten, one meal a day, making the whole family look happy. The ones that could still be raised were brought over to continue raising. The next day, Shao's father and Shao Sheng'an rebuilt the fence for the chickens to live in. The chickens couldn't adapt in the first two days, and the hens laid fewer eggs. After a few days, they adapted to the new environment and clucked for feed. Every day, Shao Shengfei would take them out for a walk. The chickens pecked at the stones on the road and the weeds that had just sprouted. Sometimes, when Shao Shengfei chased them, they would jump and fly. The powerful ones could fly five or six meters in a flash, scaring Shao Shengfei so much that he shouted anxiously: "Dabao, come back!"
"Oh, seeing that they are finally energetic and willing to eat, I can finally put my mind at ease!" Mother Shao smiled happily.
The movement of the chickens attracted the attention of other neighbors, and some came over to ask how to sell the chickens.
These chickens were raised by Qiao Qingqing's family to supplement their meat resources. They had no intention of selling them. If people really wanted to buy them, the price would be very high. After asking several families, they gave up the idea of buying chickens and bought eggs instead. They didn't sell eggs either. Qiao Qingqing said, "We don't sell adult chickens, but we can sell your newly hatched chicks. You can buy the chicks and raise them yourself."
Who has extra food to feed chickens these days?
In the end, only one family bought two chickens, one male and one female. The buyers were the couple we met that night. The man said his surname was Lian, Lian Junhe. After asking about the feed for the chickens at Qiao Qingqing's house, he decided to be more diligent and dig wild grass to feed the chickens.
The supplies Lian Junhe used to exchange for the chicks were half a bag of corn and vegetable cakes that he made himself. Qiao Qingqing's family had never eaten this kind of food before. Shao's father took a bite and frowned slightly, "It's so hard, it hurts my throat, and it feels like sand when I bite it. There must be more than just cornmeal and vegetables in it. Ahem, there must be something else added."
"It tastes weird." Qiao Songzhi swallowed it with difficulty and took a big sip of water.
Qiao Qingqing took a bite without changing her expression: "It's actually quite delicious. This kind of cake is considered a good thing. Many people can't afford it."
"The taste is actually quite good, but I just can't get used to it. Just boil the rest in water," said Shao's mother.
"Alas, we just live too well, this won't do." Qiao Songzhi nodded, "Listen to Axia, the leftovers can be eaten just by boiling them in water."
Qiao Qingqing really thought it was delicious. It became a paste after being boiled and was not tasty at all. As she sat at the door watching over the chicken at home, she held the piece in her hand and nibbled on it slowly. The more she nibbled, the more delicious it tasted.
Life here is definitely not as stable as in the safe community. On the seventh night after settling down, a thief broke into my house.
The thief stepped into the trap and ran away with a scream. Qiao Qingqing asked Shao Shengan not to chase him.
"No need to chase. I added some good things into the trap." Her face looked a little cold under the light.
Shao Shengan thought of the traps his wife had set up and asked curiously, "Did you poison me?"
The coldness on Qiao Qingqing's face disappeared, and she couldn't help laughing: "How is it possible? This is not a TV series." Then she said softly, "I added some acid rain in it. In order not to make a loud noise, that person should not be wearing shoes, at most wearing socks. If he stepped on it, the bamboo would first pierce his feet, and then touch the acid rain--"
Recalling the power of acid rain, Shao Shengan was still frightened: "That's better than poison."
The thief stumbled and fled, but the more he ran, the more pain he felt in his foot, like a piercing pain. He felt the fine sand on the road seeping into his wounds, and in addition to the pain of being pierced by a sharp object, there was also a pain that seemed to corrode his flesh and blood, causing him to stumble and fall to the ground.
There was no sound of pursuit from behind, so he crawled to the corner, gasping for breath and turned on the flashlight. The flashlight was running low on battery and the light flickered a few times before going out, but the ten seconds were enough for him to see the wound on his foot.
"Woo..." He let out a painful groan from his throat.
"There seems to be some sound——"
"That sounds scary, don't go out!"
"I'm afraid it's a thief! Damn it, I'm going to go out and catch the thief. The cake we lost before must have been stolen!"
"Don't go outside, it's so dark..."
The voice of the resident came from the next room.
The thief bit his sleeve and dared not make a sound. After he calmed down, he took off his clothes, wrapped his feet, and limped away to his home.
"Go back to sleep, the thief probably won't come again." Qiao Qingqing said to her family.
When the patrol team came over, Qiao Qingqing also met someone she knew.
Liu Zhaoyun was surprised to see Qiao Qingqing: "Why do you and your family live here? Has something happened at home? Do you need help?" She remembered that Qingqing's family lived in Ping'an Community, which was one of the most popular core new communities.
"My family has a bit of a disaster phobia, and we're afraid of the upcoming big earthquake, so we sold our house and moved here."
After listening to Qiao Qingqing's explanation, Liu Zhaoyun somewhat understood but also somewhat didn't understand.
"In recent years, many people have developed a fear of natural disasters. Alas, there is nothing we can do about it, but how can we bear to sell our house? It will be troublesome to buy it back after selling it, as the house price has almost doubled compared to before!"
"It's okay, let's get through this hard time first, and arrange future matters later." Qiao Qingqing couldn't tell anyone other than her husband and mother about the earthquake. After that, the so-called new community, the so-called outskirts of the base, and the so-called wild areas of the base all became the same place. Everyone was on the same survival line, and they would go wherever they could survive. The houses in the core community were no longer important.
"Then you have to be careful. The outskirts are definitely not as safe as the safe communities."
Qiao Qingqing smiled and nodded: "You too."
After saying goodbye to Liu Zhaoyun, Qiao Qingqing walked back to her home and saw her husband killing a chicken. On the small bench was a stainless steel basin filled with chicken blood. Shao Shengan quickly stuffed the bled chicken into the freshly boiled hot water. When he heard the noise, he looked up and said, "Are you done talking? Why don't you bring her home to sit for a while?"
"Zhao Yun said he had to go on patrol, what happened to this chicken?" It didn't look very big, why was it killed?
"This rooster was pecked to death by a hen." Shao Shengan said, "That Dabao."
Dabao is the first hen to lay eggs among the chickens hatched from the fertilized eggs stored in the space. Mother Shao loves her so much that she named her Dabao. The chickens hatched from fertilized eggs before the apocalypse were called the first generation chickens by Qiao Songzhi. The chickens hatched from the eggs laid by the first generation chickens were divided into the second generation chickens, and so on. The later the chickens, the better the physique and the bigger the size. Dabao is one of the few hens in the first generation that has fully adapted to the new environment. She is fat and plump. She looks particularly imposing when she raises her neck and spreads her wings. She has a bad temper. Even if she occupies a small compartment by herself, she will peck at the chickens in the next compartment through the gap in the fence. She is very domineering. There are few chickens in the second and third generations that can compare with her.
Shao's mother felt that Dabao had excellent bloodline and was worth continuing to breed, so she often personally selected roosters with good physique to keep him company, and those roosters were often pecked by him and made to crow.
Qiao Qingqing laughed when she heard it: "I guessed it was this one. This is the third one."
"It's the fifth one!" Shao's mother came out of the house and moved two stools. "Qingqing, sit down - this is the fifth one. Oh, why is Dabao so bad-tempered? Just now when I went to feed it, I found this rooster lying motionless in the corner. I knew it was bad! It's been bitten to death again!"
After sitting down, Shao's mother moved the basin of chicken blood over and carefully added salt and water into it.
"Is this enough salt?" She looked up and asked Qiao Qingqing.
"That's enough. I'll take it in and put it away after it solidifies." The chicken blood stored in the space could not be eaten up. After the chicken blood solidified and was cooked, she poured it into the bucket. Now there was a large bucket of processed chicken blood in the space.
After putting the chicken blood in, Qiao Qingqing went to the inner room to take a look. Shao's father and Shao Shengfei had gone out to walk the chickens. Her mother was sitting in the tent, sewing clothes with a lit candle. Qiao Qingqing realized that it was Feifei's coat.
"Mom, why don't you turn on the light? It's so dark."
Qiao Songzhi looked up and said, "No, I'll just sew a little and it will be done soon. The candlelight is enough. Sheng An is killing a chicken outside, you can go and watch."
"I'll keep you company."
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