"Mom? Mom! Mom, wake up!"
Qiao Qingqing shook Qiao Songzhi vigorously to wake her up, quickly put a woolen sweater on her, wrapped her in a down quilt, and fed her hot brown sugar ginger water.
The sudden drop in temperature made Qiao Songzhi shiver in his sleep, but his whole body was too stiff to wake up.
His mind was frozen and his body seemed to be trapped in a layer of ice. Qiao Songzhi wondered vaguely, was he going to die?
Fortunately, she heard her daughter's voice, and her body was wrapped in warmth. A warm current flowed through her throat. The warm current was hot and spicy, piercing her stomach, making her sigh silently and finally open her eyes.
With teeth chattering, Qiao Songzhi used his stiff fingertips to touch Qiao Qingqing, and tried to widen his eyes: "Go, your parents-in-law, go——"
Qiao Qingqing's tears fell: "I'll go right away, I'll go right away, Mom, please wake up quickly."
"I'm fine, fine! You go!"
She went to develop the motor, turned on the floor heating, and then rushed to the attic to meet them. Shao Shengan wrapped his parents in a thick quilt, and Shao Shengfei was crying while putting on his clothes. Qiao Qingqing turned on the floor heating in the attic first, and then took out ginger sugar water for Shao's father and others to drink.
Fortunately, Shao's father and mother were in good health. They had taken them for a physical examination before. They were healthier than her mother. They recovered after drinking hot water and putting on warm clothes.
Qiao Songzhi came up wrapped in a thick blanket to see what was going on: "Everything is okay?"
Shao Shengan said hurriedly: "Okay, Mom, everything is fine here."
"That's good. Why did the temperature drop suddenly? It was so sudden!"
The generator hummed, the floor heating system started, and the floor began to warm up.
"I'll go inform the people outside!" Shao Shengan saw that his family was stable and decided to go out. Qiao Qingqing chased him and handed him a kettle.
"It contains ginger and sugar water. They certainly didn't have time to boil hot water."
Shao Shengan nodded, quickly opened the door and went out. He did not close the door. Qiao Qingqing heard loud knocks on the door and Shao Shengan's shouting from outside.
"The temperature has dropped! Get up! Wake up!"
Back in the house, Qiao Qingqing held Qiao Songzhi in one hand and Shao's mother in the other, gently touching their backs and whispering, "Are you feeling okay?"
"Okay, much better." Mother Shao's voice was still trembling as she spoke, "Qing, Qingqing, I feel so dizzy."
She had just caught a cold and was already feeling unwell.
"You lie down and sleep, I'll take care of Feifei." Qiao Songzhi said.
Before going to bed, Qiao Qingqing pretended to go to the kitchen and took out a midnight snack from the space: "Everyone, have something hot."
She took out hot and sour beef noodles, one portion for each person. Shao's mother's sense of taste had not been very good these days, and she actually felt greedy when she smelled the hot and sour taste.
Qiao Qingqing set up a low table, and the five of them sat on the floor around the table and ate noodles.
The spicy and sour beef noodles were packed from a noodle shop outside, put into the restaurant steaming hot, and taken out as if they were freshly made. The soup base was spicy and sour, the beef was tender, and the side dishes such as enoki mushrooms and corn were soaked in the soup. Eating it would warm your mouth, throat, and stomach.
Shao Shengan quickly came back rubbing his hands, and as soon as he opened the door, a hot and spicy aroma came out. There was an orange stool in the attic, and he saw the back of his wife's head, and he breathed a sigh of relief and said with a smile: "What are you eating? I'm greedy just by smelling it."
Qiao Qingqing went to get him a bowl and brought out two servings of fried dumplings.
The sudden drop in temperature froze the minds of Mr. and Mrs. Shao, and they did not even think about the abnormality. After eating, everyone felt that their bodies were warmed up from the inside out.
"Is this floor heating? It's really nice and warm." Father Shao touched the floor curiously and asked if everyone in Huacheng installed this thing?
Qiao Qingqing shook her head: "No, that's not the case. Huacheng is only cold for a few days in winter, so few people install floor heating. One of my classmate's company was doing this, and there was a discount package, so I did it."
Father Shao praised with a smile: "So studying is very beneficial. Your classmates are really good. They always remember you when they have benefits."
Qiao Songzhi was concerned about his neighbors and asked Shao Shengan.
"I knocked on the door and heard some noise inside. They must have woken up." Shao Shengan stood by the window and answered as he retracted his hand to take back the thermometer.
It was freezing cold outside, and the cold came in through the cracks, making Shao Shengan shiver. He quickly closed the window and pulled up the curtains to block the cold wind.
He lowered his head to look at the candlelight, and the veins on his forehead throbbed fiercely: "Nineteen degrees below zero?"
Shao's father exclaimed, "It was only 21 degrees yesterday, and I saw this thermometer hanging here. How is this possible!" He walked over quickly, took it and looked at it. Not only that, he reopened the window and measured it again.
When I stretched out my hands, it felt like being immersed in ice water. After a few seconds, it became unbearable, as if there were sharp blades made of ice, scraping my skin and cutting my flesh again and again.
When measured again, it was minus twenty degrees Celsius.
"Let's see what happens tomorrow. Let's go to bed first." Qiao Qingqing said.
"Yes, yes, you guys should go to bed too. It's warm in the room. It's okay."
"I'll bring Feifei downstairs to sleep with me tonight. Father-in-law, you take care of mother-in-law."
Father Shao said hurriedly: "How can I be so embarrassed? No, no, no."
Qiao Songzhi told him not to be polite: "Fei Fei is just a child, and he is usually so well-behaved. It's okay for me to take care of him for one night. Fei Fei, how about sleeping with Qiao's mother tonight?"
Shao Shengfei liked the gentle Qiao Songzhi and nodded happily.
The floor heating was on and the room gradually became warmer. Qiao Qingqing watched the temperature on the thermostat slowly rise and finally reach the set temperature of 18 degrees Celsius.
"This temperature is enough. After autumn, the night temperature is only twelve to sixteen degrees Celsius." Shao Shengan called her to bed.
"I can't sleep, you go to sleep first."
Shao Shengan got out of bed and took her hand: "Come on, the bed is warm with the quilt, even if you can't sleep, don't stand on the floor."
Just as I lay down, I heard faint crying and shouting from downstairs, but the doors and windows were closed, so the sound could not be heard clearly.
"Mom asked you just now, but you didn't explain in detail, right?" Qiao Qingqing said softly.
"Well, when I knocked on the door, Grandma Wang opened the door for me. Grandpa Wang seemed to be in poor condition and couldn't even drink hot water. It seemed that the children in the Wang family were also in poor condition. I heard Jiale's sister, Jiaxin, crying. I poured them some water and left... Zheng's family didn't open the door for me. It was Chen Binggang's son who opened the door for Grandpa Tian. The two elderly people were not in good condition either. I left the kettle at their house."
"Sheng An, I don't know why it happened earlier. It's only been four months since the end of the world. How come the temperature has dropped so much? I haven't prepared many things yet—"
As they were talking, crying sounds were heard from downstairs, and Wang Jiale cried out "Grandpa" loudly.
Qiao Qingqing looked numb: "Grandpa Wang should be dead. He had cardiovascular disease. I remember that during the period of severe temperature drop, the Wang family lost three children... After Chen Binggang and his family moved into Grandpa Tian's house, they took good care of the old couple. In the previous life, when the temperature dropped at the beginning, the old couple were fine. They fell ill later... Sheng An, I have prepared a lot. I also want to remind them in advance. For example, on the night of the temperature drop, I can organize an event to let everyone go to bed later, so that they will not be unprepared when the temperature drops. I can also remind them to prepare winter supplies in advance. There is still more than half a year left——"
"Qingqing, this is not your problem." Shao Shengan said to her solemnly, "You have done what you should do. You don't need to blame yourself."
Qiao Qingqing shook her head: "Sheng An, you don't have to think of me as so noble. I don't blame myself. Apart from you, I can't include other people in my scope of responsibility. I am a selfish person. I just want to help others while protecting myself. More importantly, I only consider our own family. Sheng An, last time we had the mudslide, we were sure that the future could be changed. I was very happy at the time and felt that there was hope for a breakthrough in the future deadlock. But now I understand that the future can be changed, and the trajectory of the end of the world may also change."
This was what caused her the most pain.
Her advantage was the resources in the space and the ability to see the approximate date of the natural disaster, but this sudden drop in temperature changed everything.
For example, the earthquake that indirectly caused her death, would it also come early? She planned to leave home with her family and find a flat place before the earthquake, so how could she determine the date now?
"You are too anxious, Qingqing. I told you that you can share your stress with me. It's okay. There is still some time before the big earthquake. Don't be so anxious."
With Shao Shengan's comfort, Qiao Qingqing calmed down and closed her eyes.
After a long time, Shao Shengan fell asleep. Qiao Qingqing opened her eyes and silently called out "space" in her heart.
After shouting several times, the voice finally responded to her and asked her what was the matter.
Why did the big temperature drop come early? Qiao Qingqing asked.
[This involves the laws of the world. Don’t you humans have a saying called the butterfly effect? The world is made up of huge amounts of data, and no one can control it or predict its trajectory. The big drop in temperature should have happened in advance, and I can’t detect it. Qiao Qingqing, for the sake of your maternal relationship, I will give you one last piece of advice: don’t rely too much on anything. The only person you can rely on is yourself. A person’s true strength comes from a strong heart.]
After saying that, it disappeared, leaving Qiao Qingqing with her pupils shrinking and her heart shocked.
It was like a huge bell ringing in her ears. She felt like she was woken up. Her breathing couldn't help but quicken. She felt her heart pounding and she seemed to be able to hear the sound of her heartbeat.
Taking a deep breath and exhaling deeply, feeling her heart slowly calming down, Qiao Qingqing closed her eyes and curled up in the warm duvet.
That's right, the so-called "prophet" of the future is just icing on the cake. People can't rely on those memories to survive. The most important thing is to rely on yourself. It doesn't matter if something unexpected happens, just adapt to the situation and deal with it!
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