Chapter 32:
However, if this continues, the collapse will happen sooner or later, so in order to alleviate the pressure of electricity consumption, Mu Nan and his city began to cut off the power in stages. Naturally, it is impossible to cut off the power during the day. It is too hot during the day, and the temperature is about to exceed 50 degrees. Yes, before the high temperature of 40 degrees was unbearable without power, but now it is nearly 50 degrees, and more people will die if the power is cut off. So the community started to make statistics on which time period they would like to cut off power at night. Of course, this statistics cannot be used as the final conclusion. It is just that the community comes forward and reports the wishes of residents. It depends on how the power-off areas are divided above.
In the previous life, Mu Nan and his community had power outages at 3:00 a.m. until 6:00 a.m. In this life, it is estimated that the power will be cut off at this time. In the previous life, the doors and windows of Mu Nan's house were closed, because he hadn't prepared anything in advance, and when he consciously prepared things for the summer, not to mention the high prices, things might not be available yet. Fortunately, they cut off the power in the middle of the night. Although it will be a little hot near dawn, as long as the doors and windows are closed, the temperature in the house will not be too hot. In the previous life, Mu Nan relied on a usb fan and a power bank to carry him back after the power was cut off.
This time they are fully prepared, the generator is not needed yet, they only need to fully charge the prepared batteries, one battery can at least maintain the consumption of an air-conditioning fan for about ten hours, plus the temperature insulation in the house, There is also the residual temperature of the air conditioner, this time the power outage has little effect on Mu Nan.
In addition to the problem of power outages, the problem of air conditioners is also very serious. Some families may buy new air conditioners this year, and the equipment is all the latest, so they can resist the high temperature for a while. A sunshade can be built on the air conditioner to avoid extreme heat. Direct sunlight is somewhat useful. However, many air conditioners that have been used for several years cannot withstand such high temperatures at all. It is good to shut down and strike. Some old air conditioners cannot withstand such high temperatures and explode directly.
Those explosions on flat ground or low floors were easy to deal with, and some explosions on high floors caught fire, and the fire was not extinguished in time, and most of the buildings were burned directly.
Ever since the high temperature, explosions spontaneously combust, and buildings catch fire, almost every day. Not to mention, there is a community in Mu Nan's area. At noon, a family living in the middle floor had an air conditioner explosion. Yes, the whole building was burned down.
Nowadays, many people will make a layer of shelter outside their windows. Originally, it is to prevent the sun from being exposed to the sun. A little spark can burn a large area.
As soon as the air conditioner exploded, the sparks splashed and directly ignited the sunshade cloth upstairs and downstairs.
With day and night turned upside down, most people are sleeping during the day, even if they are awakened by the explosion, they will not immediately think of a fire in their own building. Only the residents who were closer to the house where the air conditioner exploded, because the sound was too loud, got up vigilantly to check. When they saw a fire outside their windows, although they tried to put it out, the building was connected up and down. It is so easy to extinguish the fire, so I packed up the family's finances and fled out of the house in a hurry with my family.
Some people who have a strong sense of responsibility will ring the door on the same floor to inform the residents to run away quickly, but there is no way to remind each household on each floor. After all, their own lives are important, so in the end the whole building, Nearly half of the people failed to run out at the first time. When they realized that there was a fire, they could still struggle to run downstairs. Running to the top of the building, the middle has been cut off by the fire, and there is no way to go down.
The people who ran outside were nervous when they encountered the fire, the stimulation of burning their own homes, and the scorching heat and high temperature exposure, and they fell down several times at once.
Busy with fighting fires, saving people, giving first aid to those who fainted from heat, and looking for help, and the hottest sun at noon restricted many people's movements. No one came out to be in charge of coordinating. The most frightening thing is that some people rushed out of the house and naturally had no time to cut off the power. When the fire burned, several external units exploded. When the ambulance, fire engine, community leader and street leader heard the news, they rushed over. At that time, the situation had reached an uncontrollable level.
When the fire broke out, the fireworks could be seen in the distance from the balcony of Mu Nan's house. Because the distance felt so close, Mu Nan was a little nervous: "It won't burn over?"
Qin Huai patted him on the shoulder, telling him not to lift the curtains to look, the sun at noon will have a lot of sunburn even through the curtain glass: "No, there are several buildings in the middle, the burn must be burnt." But come on, a fire broke out during this time period, which will affect the rescue too much.”
It was only after the incident that Mu Nan remembered this incident. Naturally, such a big event happened in his previous life, but he didn’t remember the specific time. Many people died that time. For a long time, the community will protect We are very tight, even if the temperature is high and every family's life is difficult, but we still fully cooperate with the community in safety protection. After all, the lessons learned from the past are not far from them.
There were also some well-informed people in the group, and they directly started live broadcasting. Videos that lasted several minutes were sent to the group, which made many people frightened. Those who were trapped upstairs exceeded the upper limit of the fire ladder Yes, we can only wait for the firefighters to rush into the fire to save people, but every day, various incidents that require firefighters to rescue happen one after another. Even if we urgently dispatch all the rescues that can be dispatched in the surrounding area, there are still not enough people.
The fire burned for a whole day and night. One firefighter died, fifty-seven residents died, and forty or fifty people were seriously injured and hospitalized. Among those who died, most died of heat and choked to death by smoke. Few were actually burnt to death. There were also a few elderly people who were unable to move, and could not even escape from their own gates.
If it was the past, such a heavy fire casualty would definitely be broadcast nationwide, and it might even be on the international news. But now, such a serious fire is only on the local news, and the focus of the news is not on the lives lost, but on the safety hazards caused by the hot and high temperature, the external unit of the air conditioner, and the outdoor shelters.
Because natural and man-made disasters like this happen several times almost every day, at first they will cause people to regret and sorrow, but later, people have become numb. In addition to carefully checking the shelter and protection outside the house every day, praying that the air conditioner at home will be better, and worrying about the wallet that cannot make ends meet and the rising prices all the way, most people no longer have the strength to sympathize with other people's tragedies. After all, no one knows. One will not be yourself.
Regarding the end of the world, no one is discussing it anymore. If their current life is not the end, what kind of life is it? The epidemic a few months ago, they still have hope for the future, and they feel that they are united. With strength, they will surely defeat the virus.
But in the face of such a natural disaster, they really have a feeling that they can't see the future. Many people prayed that such a terrible high temperature might soon disappear like the previous smog. Unfortunately, no matter how many people prayed, the high temperature still existed.
It is very rare to see foreign news in China now, and all of them have been cleaned up. Only some niche forums will send some news from relatives and friends abroad, but it didn’t take long before it was deleted soon. .
Mu Nan has seen pictures posted by others in the group. It is a small country. It used to be a tourist capital along the coast. Now the whole area is empty. The sea line keeps receding, revealing a lot of garbage on the sand. It looks extremely desolate. . In some foreign cities, the water pools on the roadside where you can drink at will can no longer squeeze out a drop of water. There were also several huge riots, caused by just a few boxes of water.
Similarly, whenever life is difficult abroad, those who go to school far away, or the temperature in the country rises inexplicably at the beginning, when the transportation is normal, travel to some polar glaciers to escape the summer heat, and even those who have left They have acquired their nationality, but haven’t enjoyed life abroad for a few years. Now those who are forced by various turmoil and difficulties and want to return to China have started to speak out on the Internet, hoping that the motherland can take them home.
This time, no one sympathized with those who were suffering from the high temperature. No matter what the reason is, people who are far away abroad at the moment refused to go abroad for rescue. During the epidemic, a lot of resources were used to evacuate overseas Chinese once. At that time, no one thought that such a poisonous smog natural disaster would happen, so no matter whether you are studying or traveling, if you are trapped abroad, we do not blame you, and this is understandable.
But this time, it has only been a while since the epidemic has passed. Just because the country is a little hotter, you have rushed to various parts of the world to escape the summer heat. If you have the money to go abroad, then come back by yourself now, if you don’t come back, you deserve it.
Of course, although many people have made comments on the Internet, they still instinctively feel that the country should take action to pick up people. Just look at every time in the past, the country has never done anything about it, and the speed of evacuation is always the first. However, unexpectedly, this time there was no action at all. No matter how noisy the statement of the Overseas Chinese Union on the Internet was, the domestic network was completely clean, and there was no action to be seen or heard.
Reasonable people began to analyze, not because they didn't want to rescue and evacuate Chinese, but because they really didn't have the conditions. Since the continuous high temperature, not to mention the whole world, even in their country, three planes have been blown up and completely suspended. The sea line of the ship is also impassable. A sea ship also suffered an accident due to high temperature. Now the sea area is still polluted by heavy oil, and even the bodies of those involved in the shipwreck have not been salvaged yet. Today's natural disasters cannot be resisted by the country's efforts. Knowing that there is a crisis, it is an unwise decision to take the risk.
However, Mu Nan feels that the country really doesn't have the time to spare for rescue, hoarding supplies, building future refuge bases, and consolidating financial resources while the order is still there. Maybe there are many petty citizens like him behind the scenes Some unexpected actions and measures, as for those who went abroad after the epidemic for whatever reason, I really can't take care of them at the moment.
They can only look at this kind of matter that is related to national decision-making. Although it is not far from their lives, it is not close. The life in front of them is the most important thing.
The last time Qin Huai planned to kill a rooster, he was interrupted by Mu Nan's accidental food poisoning. Although this chicken soup is for nourishing the body, it is not suitable for Mu Nan's illness due to gastrointestinal problems. The chicken soup is too oily. If you make up for him, I'm afraid it will backfire. But this rooster cannot continue to be raised. The more meat it raises, the older it will be. Because it is not castrated, it will not gain much meat if it eats a lot. When the weather is hot, the fat and water on its body will become thinner visible to the naked eye, so Qin Huai still intends to Kill the chicken early.
Raw once and cooked twice, this time Qin Huai didn't need Mu Nan to help chop off the chicken's head, he just twisted the chicken's head, pulled the chicken's neck hair, scratched it with a knife, let the blood out first, and then scalded the chicken's feathers with boiling water. Mu Nan wasn't idle either. Most of the chicken feathers would fall off after being scalded with boiling water, but there were a small part, like the chicken feathers on the wings, which had to be picked up one by one with tweezers. Anyway, he's fine if he's idle, and when Qin Huai finished handling the chicken, he'll move a small bench and sit there to finish it up.
"Otherwise, this chicken can be made into beer-roasted chicken. Can you give me two more peppers? We can make it and put it in the space and eat it in winter."
Qin Huai handled the chicken internal organs without raising his head and said, "Don't even think about it, winter is not a reason for you to be greedy for chili peppers."
Mu Nan clicked his tongue in disgust, Qin's mother really didn't cry in vain.
Qin Huai finished handling the chicken innards in his hand, and found that there was no sound from behind. He turned his head and saw Mu Nan sitting at the door of the kitchen, holding the chicken in his arms, earnestly plucking the unmanageable feathers from the chicken skin bit by bit. Gen, that earnest little appearance, gradually overlapped with the appearance of sticking the bird's nest bit by bit when he was doing handicrafts when he was a child, so he couldn't help but raise the corners of his mouth.
After a chicken was finally stripped clean, Mu Nan took a tired breath and stretched his legs by the way: "My long legs that have nowhere to rest."
Qin Dangdang deserves to be Qin Dangdang: "People who are 1.75 meters have long legs?"
You can't be careless about your height, Mu Nan immediately retorted: "It's obviously 1.78 meters! Did you eat those three centimeters!" You can still break 1.8 meters with a pair of shoes, so you're not short. Well, this is also a top-notch existence among southerners.
Qin Huai didn't care about a little guy who could see the top of his head when he lowered his head. He turned around and took out the nearly thawed chicken gizzards from the refrigerator, and prepared to fry a plate with the fresh offal that had just been processed.
Mu Nan liked to eat some internal organs since he was a child, but the outside always felt unclean. After all, cleaning internal organs is a delicate job. People in business don’t have time to clean up with you, so Qin Huai rarely let him eat. Thinking of Mu Nan, it’s rare After eating it once, I simply gave him a little more chili, saying that he was not allowed to eat it, and he had to nourish his stomach, but seeing him always want to eat it, I still couldn't bear it. People are so contradictory, always wanting to be good for him, but Can't help but indulge him.
At six or seven in the afternoon, it used to be considered dinner time, but now it can only be counted as the time for the first meal after waking up. While cooking, Mu Nan heard the noise coming from the corridor, so he ran out to have a look. He didn't open the iron door directly, but looked out through the cat's eye of the anti-theft door.
I saw that the corridor was already full of some daily necessities. A boy who looked young was sitting on a chair with a fan and playing with his mobile phone. When the elevator door opened, a couple with large and small bags piled up on the elevator. A pair of old people who should be their parents are also helping. The boy is about to come to help, but his grandma pushes him aside: "Go over and fan yourself. If you are hungry, take some in the bag." Eat what you eat."
This is probably the way of life they are used to, and the boy didn't insist on helping. After being pushed aside by his grandma, he continued to sit down and play with his mobile phone.
Mu Nan glanced at it and turned back to the room. Even though the door was open and the air-conditioning was blowing towards him, it was still a bit hot just standing at the door.
Mu Nan ran to the door of the kitchen and saw that Qin Huai had just finished frying a piece of green spinach and was putting it on a plate. He chooses what he likes to eat, so most of the vegetables he accumulates are eaten by himself, and some of the vegetables he doesn’t like are also prepared for Qin Huai, but this spinach is obviously not on his menu. I bought a lot of spinach in the vegetable group purchase, and forced him to eat half of the plate every time.
Hearing the sigh, Qin Huai could know Mu Nan's expression without turning his head, and said with a smile: "One plate is only a little bit, half of it is only three or five sticks, and I swallowed it all at once with my eyes closed."
Mu Nan: "It's harder for me to swallow your medicine all at once." In a person's life, there will always be one or two dishes that are difficult to swallow with closed eyes and nose, although he can still work hard now. After all, he is also a person who has experienced the apocalypse, but even if he has suffered the devastation of the apocalypse, it still does not prevent him from liking it.
Qin Huai doesn't get entangled with his food, anyway, Mu Nan will definitely eat it in the end, it may be because he is aware of the food crisis in the future, and now he cherishes food very much, but the struggle before eating is inevitable, so he simply transfers him "What's the matter outside? How can I hear the sound of someone moving things?"
Mu Nan said: "The family seems to have come back before. I haven't seen them for many years. I thought they sold the house. It's that family that always quarrels and even fights every New Year's Eve."
A building in their community is divided into two sides, with a courtyard in the middle, five households on the first floor, and ten households on both sides, but the two sides cannot communicate with each other, and because there is a courtyard between his house and Qinhuai's house, it happens to be the door There are two households on the opposite side, and three households on the other side. Two of the three households are tenants, namely Yu Zibai and Dr. Xu, and the other one is in the innermost. They can be regarded as old neighbors from their parents' generation. He seemed to have moved away when he was in elementary school, and he didn't notice if anyone moved in there after that.
As soon as Mu Nan mentioned Qin Huai, he knew which family he was talking about. At that time, they were still young, and Mu Nan's father wanted to call the male owner of that family uncle. He still remembered that the family seemed to be named Zhang, but he didn't like that family. family.
He is two years older than Mu Nan, and he remembers things earlier. When Mu Nan was three years old, the son of Grandpa Zhang’s family had just got married. They had a custom of asking cute and clever boys to press the bed on the marriage bed. The couple will be able to have children in one fell swoop in the next year. The Zhang family seems to have girls, and the age of boys is not suitable, they are too big, but Mu Nan has grown up well since she was a child, and has a sweet mouth, which is very attractive. He probably thought that he was a neighbor and lived nearby, so he found Mu's house, and wanted Mu Nan to press the bed, that is, to sleep on his new bed for the night.
Mu Nan was young and ignorant at the time, so he could be coaxed to play, but when it was time to go to bed, he would look for him instead of his father or mother, and he was used to sleeping with him since he was a child. He was only five years old at that time, and his age was appropriate, but the people in the Zhang family thought that he had no father and mother, and his fate was bad, so they didn't want him to accompany him, so they were crying when Mu Nan was crying. At that time, he asked him to go home and closed the door to prevent Mu Nan from seeing him.
In fact, at that time, Uncle Mu was already a little reluctant. With such a precious son, he had always been dependent on him. It was always uncomfortable to be forced to press the bed like this, but after all, he agreed to him, and he did it again. Happy event, it's definitely not good for him to change his mind at the last minute. His son cried all night, and he had a festive wedding with Ruiren. Of course, the latter is more important, so he endured it.
As a result, the next day Mu Nan cried with swollen eyes and hugged him as soon as he saw him, and the wedding was held lively to welcome the newcomers, and Mu Nan in his family had a fever because of crying too hard at night.
Mu Nan said that there is a reason for their family to quarrel and even fight every New Year. The Zhang family probably wanted to have a grandson and have a son, but the Zhang family's daughter-in-law didn't make any noise in the first year, and it was the same in the second year. At the beginning, the elders probably started to urge her, anyway, she didn't conceive for a few years, because it became more and more troublesome every year.
At that time, Grandma Zhang used to coax Mu Nan to go to her house with snacks. It was probably a kind of superstition. She used snacks to lure Mu Nan to stay at his house. When she was a child, Mu Nan's snacks were very strict. , Sweets and the like are rarely given, so candies and chocolates are rarely eaten, so naturally they are rare. When I was a child, I often suffered from toothaches because I ate too much sweets in the Zhang family.
Once or twice, Uncle Mu was a bit of an obstacle to the face of the neighbors at first, so he said it a few times euphemistically. After all, everyone looked up and looked down, but it didn't work. Stop it, Mu Nan sticks to him and listens to him, if he can't say to go, Mu Nan is obedient and refuses to go, sometimes he sees Mu Nan playing in the community and wants to coax Mu Nan to go to her house, so he goes Immediately rushed over, grabbed Mu Nan's hand and took him home, not giving the Zhang family a chance.
So he hates the Zhang family, and it is estimated that the Zhang family also hates him.