After a few days, the electricity supply was almost gone. Even the generators in the residential complex had run out of diesel, leaving them without power. Water and gas were even out, having been gone for more than two weeks.
The entire community was eerily quiet, especially at night. Without the embellishment of lights, darkness and coldness became the main tone of people's lives.
Some people went out one after another to seek help. Some came back with news of even greater chaos outside, while others never came back and disappeared in the cold snowy night.
In short, an atmosphere of oppression spread around people.
......
Lu Qin, on the contrary, felt that this period of time was the most comfortable time she had experienced since her rebirth.
No need to flee in misery like in the previous life, no need to do hard labor in exchange for just enough food for one day, no need to endure the cold alone at night.
She and her mother are doing well.
Lu Qin goes outside to shovel a bucket of snow every day, melts it, and boils it indoors for household use.
I hardly take a bath. If I feel dirty, I just wipe it with a towel dipped in hot water.
Fortunately, my hair was cut short a long time ago, so it’s not too dirty since I don’t go out, just a little greasy.
Liang Shuyu combed her hair smooth with a comb, and then neatly pinned it up with a clip, so that it didn't look greasy at all.
The house was frozen like an ice cellar. Her most important task every day was to clear the snow outside her door to prevent it from blocking it. It wasn't that she wanted to go out, but she felt that if something happened and the door was blocked, she would be trapped at home.
Without water, electricity or gas, the kitchen was useless, so Liang Shuyu used the coal stove that Lu Qin bought for heating as a cooking tool.
They found a small iron pot and the coal burning in the stove was enough to cook the food for the mother and daughter.
So the meals became boiled noodles, instant noodles, and noodle soup...
Indeed, cooking noodles is the most convenient meal. Heat a little oil, fry an egg until both sides are golden brown, add water and bring it to boiling, add a sausage or two slices of luncheon meat, tear two pieces of cabbage stalks, add noodles, add a spoonful of chili sauce, and you have a bowl of fragrant noodles.
Holding a bowl of hot noodle soup on a snowy night is a day that even gods would not trade.
Occasionally, Lu Qin would bring some alcohol fuel from the basement, cook some hot pot base in an instant pot, and then dig out the few remaining meatballs in the refrigerator to make hot pot. Although Liang Shuyu despised hot pot ingredients as being unnutritious, the ingredients and utensils were no match for her, a master chef. She had no choice but to compromise and eat the hot pot cooked on the alcohol stove.
Of course, to save calories, nowadays all activities except going to the toilet are done in the upstairs bedroom.
A coal stove could barely heat the bedroom at home, and it couldn't really heat a large area. Burning another one would be a waste, so reducing the area of activity was the best option.
The upstairs bedroom was essentially where she did all her activities: eating, sleeping, and entertaining. In the corner, there were hydroponic vegetables, the first crop almost ripening. Yesterday, Lu Qin plucked two heads of lettuce to make noodles. They looked delicious, and tasted fresh. Lu Qin was very satisfied. Her first attempt at growing vegetables had yielded a success; she certainly had a natural talent for growing vegetables.
Although this is the only warm place in the house now, the bedroom door still needs to be left a little gap to allow air to flow in, otherwise carbon monoxide poisoning will be serious.
This resulted in Lu Qin being wrapped in a thick down jacket all the time, but still feeling drafty at the door.
As for cooking and eating in the house, the quilt will be stained with the smell of food, but that’s no longer a big deal. When you’re freezing to death, who cares whether the quilt you sleep on smells like hot pot or instant noodles?
That evening, Lu Qin happily ate roast potatoes. Cabbage and potatoes were the most abundant crops at home, so she didn't feel bad eating them now.
The potatoes that have been buried in the smoldering coal stove ashes for half a day have been roasted to a crispy outside and soft inside. Peel off the skin to reveal the golden and fragrant flesh. Sprinkle some pepper and salt on it, and you will taste it in one bite.
Bring the water to a boil in a pot. You don’t need to add anything else, just a little fine salt, a few drops of sesame oil, sprinkle with a handful of frozen chopped green onions, and sip the soup and eat the potatoes. You’ll be so hungry just thinking about it that your tongue will fall off.
After eating and drinking, Lu Qin curled up by the fire, feeling drowsy. Liang Shuyu, on the other hand, was still sewing something with scraps of cloth by the dim flame.
This is to take some measures to keep the hydroponic vegetable box warm by stuffing it with a quilt.
Since there was no quilt of suitable size at home, Liang Shuyu took down an old one and modified it.
On a quiet snowy night, with the faint light of the fire, it seemed that only the sound of falling snow could be faintly heard at this time.
......
Suddenly, there was a rustling noise, as if coming from outside, which woke Lu Qin up immediately.
Lu Qin got up, pulled back the curtains, and looked outside. Unfortunately, the window grilles were all frozen, making it blurry and difficult to see the scenery outside.
The noise came closer and closer, getting louder and louder. If you listen carefully, you can also hear crying and shouting.
“Bang, bang, bang!”
"Is anyone there?"
Suddenly there was an urgent knock on the door downstairs.
Lu Qin suddenly became alert. It was already late at night. According to the clock at home, which was still running, it was already ten o'clock at night, the coldest time of the night. Why would someone knock on the door at this time?
Is it related to the riots outside?
Lu Qin didn't have time to think about it and hurried downstairs. He looked out through the peephole that was not frozen. There were two people, one tall and one short. Because they were wrapped tightly, he couldn't see the gender and appearance of the people clearly.
Lu Qin thought about it and said, "What's the matter?"
The two people outside the door looked at each other, and when they saw someone respond, there was some joy in their voices: "Little girl, don't be afraid! I'm also a resident of the community. Someone's house just burned down outside. I came to remind everyone not to light a fire at night."
Lu Qin breathed a sigh of relief.
It turned out that the noise outside was caused by a fire.
It's really strange that a fire can be started in such a cold weather. Judging from the tone of his voice, he probably started it accidentally while warming himself at home.
"Oh, I see."
"Little girl, do you live alone at home?"
Lu Qin became alert after hearing this, but did not answer. Instead, she asked, "Is there anything else?"
The people outside were probably a man and a woman; they could be distinguished by their voices. When she didn't respond, the woman said anxiously, "Little girl, we're not bad people. I'm a member of our neighborhood's self-help group. Seeing that there's no snow outside your house, I guessed someone lives there, so I came to check on you and see if there's any danger."
Self-help group?
What is this?
Lu Qin was stunned. She had no idea such a thing existed.
After the power went out, Lu Qin almost stopped checking her phone to conserve electricity, only occasionally checking in with close friends. The community group chats were flooded with messages, so she had already set them to "Do Not Disturb." Life at home was so comfortable, and she had originally planned to stay home until the base was officially established in March of next year, so she paid even less attention to what was happening outside. Now, she had no idea what was going on.
When would there be a self-help group in their neighborhood? She had never heard of such a thing in her life.
But Lu Qin intuitively felt that this matter was not simple.
It was understandable to tell everyone to pay attention to the fire in the middle of the night, but she felt that asking if anyone was home was not a caring tone.
Seeing Lu Qin's lack of reaction, the woman outside seemed to want to make amends, so she continued, "You might not know this, but many families in our community are short of food and clothing, so we banded together to form this self-help group. Every day, someone takes turns going out to find food and other resources."
"Looking for something to eat?" Lu Qin asked hesitantly.
"That's right, little girl, you don't know, right? It's terrifying out there, with people burning, killing, and looting. Only our neighborhood is relatively orderly. Our self-help group patrols every day to protect everyone." The woman praised the group, her voice full of admiration, "Our president even found food at the property management office. If you're short of food at home, join our group and you can get food every day."
Is there such a good thing? Lu Qin was still a little skeptical. Just as she was about to ask for details, another man interrupted her, saying, "We have other things to do. You can go to the gym in the community center tomorrow morning to see if there's anything else we can do. Our self-help group is right there."
Lu Qin agreed and watched the two of them walk away, one step deep and one step shallow, but in her heart she was thinking about the situation of this self-help group.
After thinking about it, I took out my phone and sent a message to Xu Mingyan. Maybe Sister Yan would know something.
I opened WeChat, and the signal was weak, but still usable. It seemed the signal tower outside was still operating on its own. The 99+ resident group had disappeared, seemingly disbanded. Lu Qin had only sent a message to Xu Mingyan.
"Sister Yan, are you asleep? Do you know what the self-help meeting in our community is like? How come I don't know?"
Not long after, Lu Qin, who was holding his phone, received the message.
"Don't you know? There's a big fight going on outside. But it's a long story, and my phone's almost dead. To make a long story short, just stay out of this, those people aren't good people. Did they invite you to join the self-help group? Just don't join, but don't worry for now, they're still trying to win over the people, and I don't think they'll make any moves in the near future."
Seeing that Xu Mingyan's words and actions showed that she disliked this organization called the Self-Help Association, Lu Qin had a clue in her mind.
I'm afraid there are people with bad intentions who are taking advantage of the disaster to seek personal gain.
She had seen this kind of thing many times in her previous life, during the early days of the apocalypse. Because no one was watching over things, the worst in human nature came to the fore, and many people would carve out their own territory, acting tyrannically and abusively. Being a "local tyrant" was something everyone wanted.
I felt more confident and not as panicked anymore.
"They didn't invite me directly, they just asked me to go to the self-help group tomorrow."
Xu Mingyan immediately replied: "So they're doing a trick. They've invited our family too. Xiaoqin, don't go alone tomorrow. It's not appropriate for a girl like you to go. My parents-in-law are planning to go and see what's going on tomorrow. If that doesn't work out, they'll just stay home. How about this, I'll let my parents-in-law go with your mother tomorrow. They won't dare do anything to us for the time being."
Lu Qin thought about it and agreed after getting Liang Shuyu's consent.
Liang Shuyu didn't think much of it. He thought that since Xu Mingyan's parents-in-law were there, she could keep company with people of the same age.
But Lu Qin felt sorry for her mother. Traveling on snowy days wasn't easy, especially with the thick snow outside. She didn't know what the self-rescue group would be like, and she felt bad for letting her mother take such an unknown risk.
Liang Shuyu disagreed: "I, your mother, am not even fifty yet, I am not confused!"
Well, seeing her mother eager to go out, Lu Qin had to calm down.
Then he found a few pairs of knee pads and asked Liang Shuyu to wear them tomorrow, and told her to be careful not to get her legs frostbitten.
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