That night, Shao Shengan had a dream.
The dream was very dark. He saw a familiar figure walking in the darkness, hunched over and cautiously moving close to the wall. In the buildings on the roadside, some rooms were lit, and the light shone through the windows, so the road was only slightly brighter, not completely dark and invisible. The woman was wearing a tattered military coat, and she walked quickly close to the wall with her head down.
Even without seeing her face clearly, Shao Shengan recognized her. It was his wife Qiao Qingqing.
He had a hunch that this was the "previous life" his wife had mentioned. Where was this place? Was it the survivor base that his wife had mentioned would appear in the future?
Just as this thought came to mind, a pair of hands reached out from the darkness. The hands were cracked and rough, with black mud under the nails, and they grabbed the woman forcefully.
Shao Shengan was extremely anxious, but he couldn't move, so he could only shout for help. But he found that he couldn't make a sound, and could only watch as the hands exerted force and pulled the woman to stagger.
The woman didn't make any sound. She even held the hand with her backhand and leaned forward. With her other hand, she took out a notched kitchen knife from her pocket and chopped it down hard without blinking.
A hoarse scream sounded, and the woman raised her leg and kicked the man, throwing the severed hand away, with an unmoved expression from beginning to end. She put away the kitchen knife, continued to walk forward, and soon disappeared in the alley. Shao Shengan followed her blankly. He saw the woman walk through the dark alley, come to a large area of shanties, and enter a small house. She lay down in the dark to sleep, and Shao Shengan saw her holding the kitchen knife under her right hand.
This dream was too real. Shao Shengan looked at the figure in the darkness and his heart was in a knot.
I don't know how long it took, but suddenly the lights outside came on, and this dark world finally had some light. There were street lights in the shantytown, and the nearest street light was about a hundred meters away from the woman's residence. The woman woke up when the lights came on, and she packed her things and went out. When she went out, she was still fully armed, with only a pair of eyes exposed. There were many people traveling, and everyone walked quietly and rarely talked. When she walked under the street light, the woman stopped to look at the street light, her eyes numb.
Shao Shengan finally saw her face. The moment he saw it clearly, he felt a piercing pain.
It was a face covered with scars, all old, coiled on the cheeks and forehead like centipedes. The woman stared at the light for a while, until she felt her eyes were blurry, then she looked away, stared down at the shadow under her feet for a while, and then she continued to walk forward.
"Qingqing!" Shao Shengan shouted loudly and stretched out his hand to her.
Although no sound was made, Qiao Qingqing stopped and looked back with a look of surprise.
But soon, all the joy on her face disappeared, and she returned to numbness and indifference. She muttered, "I heard it wrong again," turned around and continued walking slowly forward.
"Qingqing!" Shao Shengan chased after her. Qiao Qingqing in front of him was getting farther and farther away. The darkness swallowed him and he felt unprecedented despair.
In the room, Qiao Qingqing was awakened by Shao Shengan's talking in his sleep. She didn't dare to wake him up. When she heard him calling "Qingqing", she knew that Shao Shengan was dreaming about her.
What did you dream about? Why did you scream so sadly?
Shao Shengan struggled to wake up and felt the warm body in his arms. He breathed rapidly and touched Qiao Qingqing's face with trembling hands.
"Qingqing?"
"It's me, you had a nightmare?"
He let out a long sigh and hugged her tightly. His strength was too great, and Qiao Qingqing was not very comfortable, but she did not say it, but hugged him and patted his back gently.
"I had a nightmare." Shao Shengan said in a muffled voice. "I dreamed that you were walking in the dark, and that you had a scar on your face." As soon as he finished speaking, he felt the person in his arms tremble and his body stiffen.
"Was it a dream?" he asked.
Qiao Qingqing said: "How can it not be a dream? It is just a dream, don't be scared."
"I'm not scared, I'm just... sad."
"Then don't be sad, it's just a dream, feel it, I'm fine now." She pulled Shao Shengan's hand to her face. Shao Shengan gently touched it twice, then continued to hug her: "Go to sleep."
The couple didn't talk anymore, and they seemed to have fallen asleep, but Qiao Qingqing knew that Shao Shengan couldn't sleep. She didn't know how long it had been, but when she was half asleep, she felt a pair of warm hands gently caressing her face. Then she fell asleep and dreamed about things in her previous life.
She was not doing well at the time. Lack of food and clothing made her look haggard. However, no matter how haggard she looked, she still had a good foundation. On the run, she was still a "good-looking" woman. In order to protect herself, her methods became more and more ruthless. When she met someone who bullied her, she would not stop until she saw blood. She looked like she was going to die with the person, which made the men in the vagrant crowd retract their claws. Her face was scratched in a fight. Lack of medical care and medicine left scars on her face. She simply went all out and scratched her face.
But some scumbags don't care about faces. After entering the survivor base, eternal night comes, and the base is dark most of the time. The bad guys will not care about the scars on her face. As long as they guess that she is a woman, there will always be black hands reaching out in the darkness to drag her.
It is very difficult to survive and live with dignity. Qiao Qingqing has made herself half human and half ghost.
But at least I'm alive.
The tormenting dream never changed. Qiao Qingqing dreamed of her biological father, Lin Mingyong. She had always known that he was an egoist, but years of loneliness gave her a glimmer of hope - maybe Lin Mingyong really wanted to be a father?
But later she realized that selfish people would only lose their bottom line. In Lin Mingyong's eyes, her disfigured daughter still had some value. It didn't matter if she was disfigured. After all, she was a woman with a good figure. If she took good care of herself for a while and was no longer as skinny as a shrunken carrot, wouldn't she be useful? It was the same when the lights were turned off at night.
Such disgusting words actually came from the mouth of her biological father. When Qiao Qingqing heard those words, she decided not to forgive Lin Mingyong anymore.
In the dream, Qiao Qingqing once again went to the step of killing her father, but when the earthquake came, she fell down and saw no longer scarlet and darkness. The camera switched and she saw her home, where her mother and Sheng An were...
The annoying dream finally ended, and Qiao Qingqing fell into a deep sleep without any more dreams.
"Why are Sheng An's eyes swollen? Didn't you sleep last night?"
The next day, when Shao's mother saw Shao Sheng'an, she asked worriedly: "Let me boil an egg for you to apply on it."
"No, it will be fine in a moment."
When Qiao Qingqing came out, Shao's mother was surprised again: "Why are Qingqing's eyes swollen too?"
"Mom, I had insomnia last night, but then I fell asleep," said Qiao Qingqing.
"That won't do. I have to boil some eggs for your eyes. Look at your two panda eyes!"
Everyone was given two eggs. Qiao Qingqing applied the eggs to Shao Shengan's eyes, and Shao Shengan applied the eggs to hers. The couple looked at each other and found it funny.
The eggs after applying eye mask were also eaten by the two of them. In addition to eggs, there was porridge for breakfast. Qiao Songzhi was best at making salty porridge. This morning's salty porridge was made with shredded ginger, chopped vegetables, minced pork, shrimps and dried tofu. It was sweet, salty and fragrant. Qiao Qingqing drank two big bowls.
"I'll take out the trash today! They said on TV that when you grow up you have to help with housework at home." Shao Shengfei announced at the dinner table.
Shao's father strongly supported this and said that he would take Shao Shengfei there.
The garbage at home is mainly excrement and kitchen waste. The former is treated with cat litter and thrown away once a day, and the latter is temporarily stored on the terrace. Fortunately, the weather is very cold now, and the kitchen waste bin will freeze quickly with water, so there is no odor.
Shao's father took Shao Shengfei to throw away the cat litter, and when he came back he brought good news.
"I heard that they are going to build a greenhouse!" Shao's father announced happily.
Shao's mother asked where the news came from, and Shao's father said he heard it on the roadside: "The city library is already under construction. I heard that they will heat the kang at night, so it won't be cold in the future. Also, I heard that they will build a frost-proof farm to grow food and vegetables."
"Is this true? The temperature is so low now that people can't even survive. Can you really survive by growing vegetables?"
Father Shao waved his hand: "The experts must have a way. It's only minus fifty degrees. In the north, in the cities in the north, the temperature is several dozen degrees below zero every winter, but people still live well. I've never heard that there are no vegetables to eat there. There must be a way."
Shao's mother was convinced: "That's right. We are in the south and it has never been this cold. That's why we can't stand it. It's cold every year in the north, but people can still survive. Now the water has frozen and several floors below have been flooded. The ice will definitely melt in the future."
"There is another good news. They may recruit people! Recruiting workers!" Shao's father thought longingly, "I will sign up then. The government will arrange jobs for me, so I will definitely get paid, and maybe even three meals a day."
"We'll see when the time comes. I'll ask next time I go to the elementary school to collect supplies." Shao Shengan said.
In the afternoon, Qiao Qingqing was exercising in the room, and Shao Shengan was doing push-ups beside her. During the break, he sat on the floor and asked Qiao Qingqing, "How do you use a knife?"
Shao Shengan's expression and tone were very serious. Qiao Qingqing recalled the scene when Shao Shengan went to the podium during break to ask the teacher for answers to questions when they were in school.
Seeing Qiao Qingqing stunned, Shao Shengan explained: "It's just using a knife... There's no need for any moves. If you encounter danger, you have to use the most effective method - just like you did that day."
Qiao Qingqing came back to her senses: "You want me to teach you?"
"right."
Although she had deliberately revealed some of the killer moves she had learned from the fight for survival in her previous life, Qiao Qingqing did not expect that Shao Shengan would decide to learn from her so quickly after accepting them.
This made her a little timid. She stroked her hair in embarrassment and said, "But, all the moves I know are bloody ones. Do you really want to learn them?"
"I want to learn."
Qiao Qingqing took a deep breath and said, "Let me confirm it again. Do you really want to learn from me how to cut throats and from what angle you can cut your tendons the fastest?"
Shao Shengan smiled instead: "You don't have to make it sound so bloody. I won't be scared, Qingqing. I really want to learn. I don't want to face similar difficulties in terms of survival methods. I don't expect to see blood or use a knife, but I have to know how to do it. I can't regret not being prepared when the critical moment comes."
"Okay, I'll teach you."
"Then thank you for your help, Mr. Qiao."
Qiao Qingqing couldn't help but laugh: "Listen to the class carefully from today on, classmate Shao." Shao Shengan was a dedicated and serious student. All the tricks that Qiao Qingqing knew were learned through hard work. The moves were not good-looking, but they were definitely practical.
"...You can first elbow the enemy in the stomach, then--"
Suddenly, footsteps were heard on the stairs, and Shao Shengfei shouted, "It's sprouting! Dad said it's sprouting!"
Qiao Qingqing stopped.
"The cabbages he planted have sprouted? Is that true?" In the living room, Shao's mother put down the dough in her hands, clapped her hands and went upstairs to take a look.
"Let's go and have a look together." Qiao Songzhi called Qiao Qingqing and Shao Shengan, "Do you two want to take a look?"
"look!"
In the attic room, Shao's father squatted on the ground, looking at the green sprouts in the basin as if they were little treasures.
He turned around and introduced happily: "The cabbage I planted has sprouted! Look!"
Last time, the temperature suddenly dropped, and all the vegetables planted at home froze to death overnight. At that time, Qiao Qingqing and her husband were only concerned about taking care of their parents at home, so how could they take care of these vegetables? When they got up the next day, all the vegetables were frozen into ice sculptures, and Shao's father's hard work was gone. But he obviously couldn't give up this business, even if his son said that there was stock in the space, he was very uneasy about eating up all the food, and he always thought about continuing to plant, and planting some green onions and peppers would be fine, to add flavor.
The floor heating at home was only turned on for eight hours at night. He did experiments in the room. During the day, he used plastic film to cover the basin for the experiment. When he was burning a fire, he moved the coal stove in and used the heat from the fire to keep the temperature inside the film. He failed, tried, failed, and tried again. Finally, today he saw the cabbage seeds sprout!
The green in the basin illuminates everyone's eyes like hope.
"Dad is so awesome! It's sprouted!" Shao Shengfei clapped happily. The enthusiastic feedback made Shao's father even happier.
"Dad, this is a good idea. We can grow some vegetables in the other two rooms in the future." Qiao Qingqing smiled and asked Shao's father how he did it. Shao's father told her everything he knew, and he just needed to teach her step by step.
"A coal stove is simple, and if you have more than one at home, it doesn't waste coal. You can use it to boil water, dry clothes, and keep warm."
During the day, they used coal stoves to keep warm. Qiao Qingqing could afford to generate electricity 24 hours a day with her gasoline reserves, but she never planned to do so. This was not caring for the family, but harming them. If they got used to the 24-hour 18-degree Celsius temperature at home, it would be difficult for everyone to leave the house and enter the cold outside environment.
Mental laziness is a small matter, but she is afraid of physical problems. She previously asked her family to eat fish and lotus roots caught from the flood in order to strengthen everyone's physical fitness. Now it is impossible to let her family become delicate flowers in a greenhouse.
Qiao Songzhi smiled and said, "The coal stove can also heat food. This thing is really useful. The things our ancestors made are practical and never go out of style."
So before the accurate information about the greenhouse came, Qiao Qingqing's family first planted three rooms of cabbage, radish, lettuce and spring onions. They didn't plant a lot, so they put two washbasins in each room for easy care.
"I also sent seeds to my uncle and his family. I don't know if they took them with them when they evacuated."
Qiao Songzhi sighed: "It depends on their luck."
There was a sudden knock on the door. The mother and daughter stopped talking. Qiao Qingqing heard Shao Shengan go to open the door. After a while, there were sounds of quarreling outside.
"I'll go take a look." Qiao Qingqing picked up the knife.
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