Chapter 21 Extreme Heat, Rat Infestation
Jiang Si took off the protective suit that could be wrung out of water. Shen Baoying handed him a face towel with a hint of surprise on her face. "The mint and white vinegar insecticide is really effective. There are so many mice, but no fleas have been found in the house yet."
Jiang Si wiped his face, looked up at their devastated house, and sighed deeply: "We have to speed up and repair the house today."
Jiang Linhai came over and said, "The rats might come again tonight. Why don't we just give up the repairs for now and come back later."
Jiang Si shook his head. "What if something scarier than rats, something that's not afraid of fire, gets in? And if the house isn't repaired, the ice will melt in no time. The temperature will be too high, and no one will be able to bear it."
Jiang Chengwu nodded. "I'll listen to Sisi. The daytime is long now. After breakfast, clean up the rat feces and urine at home, and then we'll get started."
"good."
Shen Baoying cooked a pot of steaming dumplings, a fried egg for each person, a sausage, and three plates of side dishes.
They ate and drank with relish, but other people in the village didn't even have a grain of food to fill their stomachs.
The rats almost ate them last night, so there was no food left for them.
When I went fishing, I found that the dried-up Longquan River was completely occupied by a kind of sticky insect eggs.
Even if you happen to find a few fish, their stomachs, mouths, and bodies are all filled with this sticky liquid, which is disgusting to look at, let alone eat.
The fact that there are so many poachers in Longquan Forest Nature Reserve is enough to show that there are a lot of wild animals.
Once you go in, if you get lost, can't find water, and can't find a hiding place before nightfall, it's a dead end.
Few have the courage to go in.
Don’t even think about robbing others.
Jiang Si's family has a gun, and if you go there you will only die.
Zhao Yun had her son's father-in-law and mother-in-law tied tightly with food for a month.
They were very happy to have survived the night, as their lives were temporarily saved.
Unexpectedly, he was robbed the next moment.
It nearly cost them their lives.
Zhao Yun fell into Zhang Jing's arms, crying loudly: "How are we going to live now?"
Zhang Dingtian wiped the tears from her face, his gaze fixed on the direction of Jiang Si's home, and he gritted his teeth and said, "I'll go ask Lin Hai to give us food for a month."
Zhao Yun shook her head. "Jiang Si is heartless. She definitely won't let Jiang Linhai give us food. I heard her family got a gun. If she kills you, we'll be hopeless."
Zhang Jing stamped his feet anxiously: "Mom, if we don't go find them, are we just going to stay here and die?"
He hadn't eaten all night and had just been stabbed and was bleeding a lot.
If he doesn't eat something to replenish his energy, he will starve to death in less than three days.
Zhao Yun's peripheral vision caught sight of the rats burned to death last night, and her heart sank. Amidst Zhang Jing's impatient muttering, she finally made up her mind and opened her mouth, "We won't die, we definitely won't die!"
Zhang Jing's face lit up with joy, "Mom, do you have a solution?"
Zhao Yun stood up, picked up a mouse, and said, "Walk thirty miles southeast of the forest and you'll find the salt well in the scenic area. Let's get some salt, skin the mice, and pickle them. That way, we won't have to worry about running out of food."
The mice they ate last night were enough to feed their family of five for a lifetime.
People in poor times would only eat rats when they had no other choice.
But what's the difference between them now?
Zhang Jing stared at the burnt rat in Zhao Yun's hand that smelled of meat, and swallowed his saliva in confusion.
Zhang Dingtian frowned and said, "These rats are too weird. They might be sick. It's better not to eat them. I'll go and ask Jiang Linhai for help!"
Zhao Yun looked at him, sneered disdainfully, and pointed in the direction of Jiang Si and the others. "They give us a little food, enough for us to eat for a day, a week, a month. What about after that? Do you think they will give us anything more?"
Zhang Jing got angry when he thought of Jiang Si, "Every day is fine!"
Zhang Dingtian looked at the dead mouse on the ground, hesitant.
"If you insist on not giving up, go and try now. I'll see how much food you can bring back."
If there is food, who really wants to eat dead mice?
Zhang Dingtian didn't want to ask Jiang Linhai for help, but he also really didn't want his family to eat a dead mouse. He sighed heavily and said, "Okay, I'll try it first. If it doesn't work, I'll do as you say."
Before Zhang Dingtian even reached Jiang Si's house, he heard Zhang Mayi and his entire family shouting from the hillside, "Zhang Qingfang! I'm your brother. We grew up together. You watched Jiafu and the others grow up too. They come to your house every holiday and call you grandma. Are you really going to watch them die without helping?"
"Zhang Qingfang, open the door!"
"I'm calling you to open the door!"
"Zhang Qingfang, you don't care about family at all. You're no different from an animal! Jiang Chengwu—!!! Are you forbidding me from opening the door? You're so heartless, you're going to wipe out my entire family line—!!! Open the door!!! We're about to get sunburned. Even if they're strangers, saving a life is better than building a seven-story pagoda. Don't be so selfish!"
Luo Fengjiao knelt on the ground, holding her son and crying: "Baoying, Baoying, open the door and give my son something to eat. You are his aunt, Baoying, I kowtow to you, please--!!!"
Zhang Mayi's voice was almost hoarse, Luo Fengjiao's head was almost broken, but the gate of Jiang Si's house remained as still as a mountain.
There are many others who are secretly waiting for the opportunity.
Under such circumstances, it was absolutely impossible for Jiang Si and the others to open the door.
Zhang Dingtian knew there was no hope, so he went back dejectedly. Zhao Yun couldn't help but sarcastically say, "I knew Jiang Linhai was just pretending to be a decent person on the surface, but when it comes to actually using him, he's nothing!"
Zhang Jing couldn't bear it any longer, so he picked up the charred mouse, chopped off its head, peeled off its skin, skewered it with a tree stick, roasted it over a fire, and sprinkled some salt on it.
After a while, the rat meat, which was crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, gave off an extremely tempting aroma.
Zhang Jing didn't need to overcome his psychological trauma at all. He couldn't wait to grab the rat meat and take a bite.
You know what, the chewy rat meat is quite delicious.
Zhang Jing ate with such relish that the Zhang family members had no more scruples and started cooking with the rat meat.
The fragrance wafted out of the yard, attracting everyone to climb the wall to find out what was going on.
When he saw them eating rat meat, he didn't feel disgusted. Instead, his mouth was watering and he looked everywhere for the rat that was killed last night.
Jiang Si picked up a telescope to observe the situation in the village. He saw that many people were starving and picking up rat meat to eat. He immediately had a bad premonition.
Eating rats is the easiest way to get the plague.
Once the plague spreads in the village, they will be in an epidemic area of respiratory infection even if they stay at home, which is very dangerous.
Jiang Si frowned and used his consciousness to search the space for medical protective equipment and plague preventive drugs. There were still plenty of them, so he felt relieved.
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