Many people did not sleep that night. Qiao Qingqing's house had been remodeled, so the sound insulation was better. With the floor heating, the family had a good sleep and woke up the next day refreshed.
"The water outside is freezing!"
After getting up, Shao Shengfei went to the balcony to play as usual. Suddenly, he screamed. He looked down and saw that the green onions he had been taking care of were frozen. He cried out sadly: "Mom and Dad! My green onions have turned into popsicles!"
When Shao's father and mother heard the noise, they also got up. As soon as they stepped out of the room, they couldn't help but hiss, "It's so cold outside!"
"I'll close the door to prevent the heat outside from escaping." Shao's mother hurriedly turned around and closed the door.
"Mom, I'm going to turn off the generator. It's been working all night and needs to be rested. The floor heating system in the house will also stop after the power outage." Qiao Qingqing walked out of the utility room where the generator was placed. When she heard Shao's mother talking, she looked up and shouted at the bottom of the stairs.
Mother Shao understood: "Then we still have to close the door. It's still warm inside. Closing the door can keep it warm."
That's true, Qiao Qingqing agreed, "Mom is really thoughtful." Shao's mother smiled shyly.
"I'm making breakfast. Let's cook some hot porridge for this cold day." Shao Shengan poked his head out of the kitchen. "Mom, you don't like ginger, but you can't not eat ginger in this weather. I cut a lot of it and put it in the porridge. I'm going to make fish fillet porridge."
Qiao Songzhi smiled bitterly: "It's so cold, even if you don't like ginger, you have to try to eat it. Go ahead and put more."
"It's just past six o'clock and the sky isn't even completely bright yet - the glass is all frozen." Shao's father wiped the glass with his hand, but he could only wipe off the moisture on the side of the glass inside the room; the ice on the outer layer of the glass was solid.
He looked at the escape window, peered out through the gap in the aluminum alloy escape window, and explained with astonishment: "The water outside has actually frozen too?!"
Qiao Songzhi and Shao's mother also went over to see, and they were all shocked by the scene before them.
Qiao Qingqing also leaned over and looked at the scene outside quietly.
She had seen it just now when she got up, and when she saw it again now, the shock in her heart was still as great as before.
The turbid and chaotic flood water no longer ripples, and the debris in the sewage no longer shakes and collides with the waves. They are all solidified into rigid postures, lying in a mess in the equally rigid ice layer. At first glance, it is a vast expanse of endless yellow turbid ice - at first glance, it would make people mistake it for a muddy ground, with all kinds of debris and garbage half buried in the ground.
Following this escape window, Shao's father and the others were deeply shocked. The cold weather rolled through the ice and scraped towards their faces, piercing their skin, keeping them awake at all times so that they wouldn't think they were dreaming.
It’s all real, everything in front of me is real!
"It's so cold." Shao Shengfei rubbed his hands, got out from his father's side, came to Qiao Qingqing and asked, "Sister, all my onions are dead, what should I do, sister?"
Qiao Qingqing raised her head slightly, stood on tiptoe to touch his head, and said softly: "It's okay, we can plant it again later. Onions are very strong and will definitely survive again."
Shao Shengfei bent down and nodded obediently: "Okay. But I want to go fishing. I haven't seen any fish today."
"Let's go fishing later. There will be opportunities."
"Mom and Dad, stop looking and come to the living room."
Mr. Shao was about to close the escape window, but Qiao Qingqing stopped him: "Dad, we need to get used to this temperature. Let's open the window to let the air circulate."
"One, two, three... thirty-one degrees below zero?" Mother Shao stuttered as she looked at the thermometer hanging on the wall.
Qiao Qingqing had hung the thermometer there early in the morning. Hearing this, she said, "When I first hung it up, it was minus 30 degrees Celsius.
The temperature has dropped again in a while. You guys go wash up first, I'll get some hot water ready."
Everyone washed their faces and brushed their teeth, and threw the dirty water out, which turned into icy mist before it hit the ground.
"Oh oh oh! It's so beautiful!" Everyone was in a heavy mood, only Shao Shengfei remained lively and innocent, finding it novel and interesting.
I had breakfast in the master bedroom. It was indeed a little warmer inside the room than outside. I took a thermometer and it was actually below zero. But compared to the minus 30 degrees Celsius outside, minus 7 or 8 degrees was already considered warm.
"This fish is good, but why doesn't it taste like crucian carp?" Shao's father felt strange while eating. He remembered that the fish caught from the water at home were either crucian carp or tilapia. Why did the fish in the porridge taste like sashimi?
"It was frozen at the bottom of the refrigerator at home, and I dug it out." Shao Shengan said casually.
Mother Shao blinked: "But the power supply to the refrigerator at home has been out for a long time, and there is nothing in the freezer."
"Qingqing, take your brother out to play for a while."
Qiao Qingqing glanced at him and asked Shao Shengfei to go out with her.
"Actually, I have a mysterious space. I had a predictive dream before the flood, so I stockpiled a lot of supplies in the space." Shao Shengan made up a story that scared Shao's father and mother. Qiao Songzhi also acted surprised as if he heard it for the first time.
"In short, you don't have to worry about not having enough food or supplies at home. There will be plenty. I only told Qingqing about this first. It was Qingqing who helped me prepare the supplies. Mom and Dad, Mom Qiao, Qingqing and I lied to you. The money from selling the shop and buying a house was all used to buy supplies..."
Outside the house, Qiao Qingqing took Shao Shengfei to play with toys. She was distracted by the master bedroom, thinking about how Shao Shengan was fooling his parents. As she thought about it, she remembered what her mother had said to her in private.
The two of them were hanging clothes on the terrace, and her mother said:
"Qingqing, Sheng An is indeed doing this for your safety, and I'm glad he treats you so well. But Qingqing, human hearts are the most unpredictable. He took the danger away, and your halo is naturally gone. Listen to what your mother has to say carefully. I have never doubted your relationship with Sheng An, and I also see how much his parents love you. But that was in the past, before the end of the world you mentioned. I'm only worried about one thing, whether his parents will look down on you in the future and think that his son is capable and you are not worthy of him. Qingqing, this is also an opportunity. Don't blame your mother for being too realistic and speculating too hard on people's hearts. Your mother is doing this for your own good."
At that time, Qiao Qingqing didn't say anything, just hung the clothes in silence.
In fact, what her mother said, after listening to Sheng An's decision, she had thought about this possibility. She had been with her in-laws for too short a time, and everything was indeed good at the moment, but after experiencing so much darkness, she was more defensive than anyone else. Her in-laws and her eldest brother were just incidental to her love for her. The only people she truly trusted were her mother and Sheng An.
If her parents-in-law really had other thoughts, she was very confident and not afraid at all. She never doubted Sheng An's sincerity towards her, but was only worried that her husband would be caught in the middle. It was the end of the world, and there were only a few people in the family. If they could not unite and have different thoughts, and blood relatives could not be separated, Sheng An would be the only one in trouble.
Qiao Qingqing turned her gaze back to the room, feeling calm. Compared with the sudden apocalypse, the possibility of her parents-in-law changing their minds was not worth mentioning.
The door opened and Shao Shengan called her, "Let's go downstairs and take a look."
Shao's mother cleaned up the dishes and came out, smiling and asking Shao Shengfei to come over: "Go upstairs with your dad to clean up the vegetables, be good."
Shao's father smiled at Qiao Qingqing, his smile was the same as usual, but his eyes were wandering, and it was obvious that he had not absorbed what his son had just said. He walked upstairs with a light step, as if he didn't even notice Shao Shengfei following behind him.
"Leave the door open to let the smell go - I remembered that the clothes on the terrace were confiscated! They must have been frozen into popsicles. I'll go check." Qiao Songzhi waved to Qiao Qingqing, then strolled upstairs behind Shao Shengfei.
"Let's go." Shao Shengan stretched out his hand, and Qiao Qingqing walked over and took it.
The three-layer security doors were covered with a layer of frost, and they felt cold to the touch.
“It’s a bit slippery.”
Qiao Qingqing handed him a towel and then opened the door layer by layer.
There was a layer of ice on the floor outside the door, and the non-slip boots made a squeaking sound when I stepped on them.
"Be careful, it's slippery." Shao Shengan walked in front and knocked on the door of Zheng's house next door first.
The person who opened the door was Zheng Tiehui. He was dressed warmly and offered to go downstairs together to investigate the situation.
701. Grandpa Wang really passed away. The family did not sleep all night and was very haggard. Grandma Wang forced herself to thank Shao Shengan for the hot water he brought last night. She choked up and said, "At least, at least I had a taste of the hot water before I left. The child at home is also sick. The house is very messy, so I won't invite you to come in and sit down."
The rest of the Wang family looked depressed, just like Zheng Tiehui, with dark circles under their eyes from staying up late, and their lips were frozen purple. Several children were wrapped up like bears, wrapped in quilts, but they were still weak from the cold, groaning with half-open eyes. Qiao Qingqing knew that two of the younger generations of Grandma Wang's family had been hospitalized for eating lotus roots before, and their bodies probably had not recovered completely before the temperature dropped sharply, which was a great challenge for the children.
The situation in Room 702 was not bad. Mr. Tian and his wife both managed to survive. Fortunately, Chen Binggang was alert at night and took measures immediately to prevent the two elderly people from freezing to death at night.
Chen Binggang held Shao Shengan's hand and thanked him repeatedly: "It was really dangerous last night. Your hot water really helped a lot. I will boil a new pot for you later."
"Don't be so polite, we are all neighbors."
Everyone dressed like bears, went downstairs fully armed, and decided to explore the new terrain downstairs.
Qiao Qingqing decided to go down first. The rope originally hung on the window of the corridor on the seventh floor had frozen and could not be held, so she tied a new rope, put on thick mountaineering gloves, held the rope tightly and pushed down. Her boots pushed against the wall, and ice chips fell off with every push.
Shao Shengan held his breath and leaned over to look at her, not even daring to warn her out loud for fear of startling her.
After Qiao Qingqing landed safely, stood firmly on the ice, looked up and waved at him, he let out a breath, climbed up to the windowsill and followed her.
The ice under her feet was solid enough. After stepping on it a few times, Qiao Qingqing looked around. There were figures moving in the distance, and there was a sound of knocking on the ice from a certain direction. The cold wind was howling, and there seemed to be crying sounds in the wind.
Overnight, the landscape changed dramatically, and Qiao Qingqing deeply felt the insignificance of human beings.
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