Chapter 142:
This sense of breath full of ordinary life gave Mu Nan a sense of security.
Following the number plate, he found Uncle Cai's house, Qin Huai asked Mu Nan to stay in the car, and he got out of the car to knock on the door.
Originally, when a strange man came to knock on the door, the middle-aged aunt who opened the door was a little wary. She only opened the small door and didn't dare to open the door. Until Qin Huai said that Uncle Cai asked them to come here and was willing to rent them a room. The house temporarily settled down, and then opened the door, Qin Huai also saw the situation in the yard.
In the yard, there was an old man with silver hair, wearing a patterned shirt, holding a bowl of rice in his hand, and a little boy about three or four years old was running around in the yard, coming back to eat from time to time.
There is also a well in the yard. Two girls in their twenties who don't look very old are fetching water from the well to wash clothes. After seeing the yard door open, a car parked outside and a person standing A strange man, a little curious and a little wary.
With just one glance, Qin Huai was sure that this was an ordinary family. He once had a lesson in the foreign Fesley training camp. The weak and harmless of the old, the weak, women and children is the most deceptive weapon, but the real weakness is still a disguise. Weakness can be analyzed in detail through eyes and expressions. Thinking that he had observed this family so carefully, Qin Huai felt as if he was influenced by Mu Nan, as if everyone was a bad person with malicious intentions.
After confirming that there is no problem with the environment of the house and that they can stay temporarily, Qin Huai asked Mu Nan to drive the car in. There is a place in the yard with a sunshade, just right there to park the car.
Uncle Cai’s daughter-in-law is surnamed Yin, she is chubby, her eyes are slit when she smiles, and when she sees Mu Nan getting off the car, she praises them for a while, a handsome, tall and tall young man, he can The first time people have a lot of good feelings.
Because the two provinces are close to each other, there is no obstacle for Mu Nan and Qin Huai in terms of language, even the local dialect.
Seeing Aunt Yin speaking some awkward Mandarin, Qin Huai said: "You can just speak the local dialect, we can understand it."
Only then did Aunt Yin straighten her tongue and said, "It's good if you can understand. People who speak Mandarin have sore cheeks. How long did it take you to drive from Kangyun?"
Qin Huai said, "More than five hours."
Aunt Yin: "Oh, it's been so long, more than five hours. How is the situation there? I heard that there was a flood and many people died?"
Qin Huai: "The flood just passed, and many things were washed away, so I came out to look for other ways of life. May I ask which room is our room?"
Seeing their tired faces, Aunt Yin quickly said: "Look at me, you have been driving for so long and are dragging you to talk, do you want to live on the first floor or the second floor? There are air conditioners, the first floor is the The one near the carport with windows, the second floor is a little smaller and has no windows, but it's cooler."
Qin Huai: "Let's live on the first floor."
The room should have been vacant all the time, so the air conditioner was not turned on, and the stuffy people almost suffocated when they entered the room. Qin Huai knew that Mu Nan couldn't bear this stuffy environment the most, so it was better to sit in the yard and blow the dry heat, so let him After going to the car to sort things out, he turned on the air conditioner in the room to cool down.
When Qin Huai came out, he saw Mu Nan moved a small bench and sat obediently in front of the car. Everyone else in the yard was busy with their own things, the laundry, the cleaning, and the only three-year-old who didn't have to do anything was holding a Qiu invited Mu Nan to play together.
The children's energy is good, and they don't seem to be afraid of the heat. Mu Nan sits there and throws the ball, and the child happily runs to pick it up, without feeling tired at all.
Aunt Yin was very chatty, and while Qin Huai was waiting for the temperature in the room to drop, he talked to Aunt Yin in the courtyard, asked about the prices of goods here, and asked about their general living environment by the way.
Those who rely on mountains and rivers here have better natural resources and environment than theirs, so there are more game.
Planting is not very good, because there are not enough indoor planting fields, and Qinghe is not a provincial capital city, so there are almost not many material reserves, so they took refuge here at first. Their main purpose is to prevent and control the plague, and they can even receive relief.
But this place has really experienced food shortage and hunger. If it weren't for the fact that it is surrounded by mountains and rivers, surrounded by various collapsed buildings, and blocked by the raging plague virus, I am afraid that the number of people who starved to death would be worse than those who died of illness. many.
Now Qinghe has survived the initial food shortage period, so he pays more attention to food. This has led to the fact that although there is no shortage of meat here, as long as he goes to the mountains with a little effort, he can always catch some hares Or pheasants and wild birds, but other living materials are quite scarce.
Hearing this, Qin Huai said, "The wild rabbits bred at home, what can we exchange here?"
They came with a cage of little rabbits, which can't be blocked, so it's better to ask directly. As for what's in the other snakeskin bags, they can adapt to local conditions at any time.
Aunt Yin asked them to take out the rabbits to have a look. When they saw that they were little rabbits or a litter of little rabbits, the number of five was not too small. There were males and females, so she immediately asked with interest: "Do you want to change the rabbits?" What?"
Qin Huai: "For chickens, it's best if one male and one female can lay eggs."
Aunt Yin cheered: "Then it's not easy. Hens can lay eggs, and it's expensive. Nowadays, domestic chickens are much more difficult to deal with than pheasants in the mountains."
Qin Huai: "Do you know where I can buy it? We are new here, so we don't know anything. At least we need to know where we can buy it. Let's talk slowly about what this family needs."
Aunt Yin said: "That's it, wait a minute, let me find out for you, there is nothing in the vicinity that I don't know about."
As soon as Aunt Yin finished saying this, Uncle Cai came back from the outside. When he saw Qin Huai, he smiled and said, "Have you seen the room? How is it? Are you satisfied?"
Qin Huai said: "Very good, thank you very much, otherwise my brother and I wouldn't know where to go to avoid the sun after dawn."
Uncle Cai turned his head and saw the young man who was sitting obediently on the small bench just now coming over, and greeted him politely. That young man was white and tender, with warm eyebrows and eyes, and even a slight dimple when he smiled. He was shy, and he looked like a good boy.
Thinking of his own monkey, the smile in his eyes became even bigger: "What's the matter, you pay for it, and I'll pay for it. If you need anything, you can just ask my guy at any time. She used to work in the community, nothing else. , the information resources are definitely first-hand.”
Qin Huai smiled and said: "Just say that Aunt Yin looks so kind and hearty, and she is so clear about the surrounding situation, so she is a professional, so we are very lucky this trip, and we can avoid many detours. "
Their place is nocturnal, so they just woke up not long ago, Qin Huai and Mu Nan still maintained their sleep schedule at night, and after driving for several hours, they were really tired. After the temperature dropped, the two went back to the room to rest, but after moving the snakeskin bags into the room, Mu Nan gave the child some grapefruit candies.
When life began to be difficult, the child was still at the age of holding it in his hands without knowing what to do. It can be said that he has grown up to this age. He has never eaten any good food or played with any toys. It is just a small leather ball covered with For those who have been patched, there is no such condition for eating candy. When I first received the grapefruit candy from my little brother, the child didn't even know what it was.
The child's mother, a young woman who was washing clothes, saw her son pick up other people's things indiscriminately, and hurried over to reprimand her, Mu Nan quickly said: "This is to thank him for playing with me just now. , Xiaozhu is already very well-behaved, and just said thank you to me, right?"
Xiaozhu returned the candy to Mu Nan in a very sensible and obedient manner, and he would not do anything his mother did not allow.
But Mu Nan directly tore off the sugar coating, and stuffed the grapefruit candy into the child's mouth: "It's just one candy, it's nothing to worry about, the child is very good, let's go back to the room to rest, Xiao Zhu, see you tomorrow. "
With the sweet taste in his mouth, Xiao Zhu waved his small hand to Mu Nan, then carefully looked at his mother, and took out the candy from his mouth: "Mom, eat."
Xiaozhu's mother sighed, and touched her son's head: "You eat it yourself, mother doesn't eat it." A child who was supposed to be pampered and raised, but because he was born in the wrong era, he grows up so big that he doesn't even have sugar After eating, how could she feel better as a mother.
After returning to the room, Mu Nan said to Qin Huai: "It seems that food is in short supply here, but meat is more than others. Aunt Yin just said that living supplies are scarce. What can we trade for? Clothes, etc. ?”
Qin Huai changed the sheets again. Mu Nan took it out from the space, and put the pillows he used to sleep on, and sprayed the whole room to sterilize the poison, and then set up the mosquito net to make sure that there were no mosquitoes mixed in. , That's why Mu Nan went to bed. With the mountains here, there will be more mosquitoes and the like, so those who are away from home should be more careful.
Qin Huai said: "I don't really need clothes, I can get some soap."
Mu Nan was taken aback: "Soap?"
Qin Huai hummed: "Just now, when they washed their clothes, they were just beating them with wooden sticks. They didn't have any cleaning products. Moreover, their bodies must have not been cleaned properly for a long time, and they were very dark."
Mu Nan said, "I thought they were tanned."
And along the way, Qin Huai noticed that both men and women have short hair, but Qinghe has no shortage of water. Although I don't know if every household has a well, at least the Cai family has no shortage of water. They just entered the house A few days ago, I saw Aunt Yin draw water directly from the well and pour it on the ground in the yard to cool down. If there is a shortage of water, it is absolutely impossible to be so extravagant.
In a place where there is no shortage of water, the body is not clean, and even a lot of oil stains have accumulated on the clothes, which shows that this kind of cleaning supplies is quite lacking here.
Mu Nan downloaded some handmade things before, and said: "Soap and the like are not difficult. If you often hunt in the mountains here, you can collect some animal fat and make soap. Is it possible that it is too expensive?" Now, most people can’t afford it, so if we take it out, will it be tricked by others?”
Qin Huai squeezed the back of his neck: "Even if it is expensive, it is not so high as to kill someone for money. Let's see it tomorrow. If we can exchange some chickens for this trip, it will be enough."
Mu Nan also lay down: "If you have chickens, you can lay eggs. Chickens lay eggs much faster than rabbits to give birth to rabbits. When the time comes, sell some of the ones that have been accumulated for a week, and the income will be much faster, and the eggs can also supplement nutrition. Everyone needs it now, if it is possible to change it, then it is best for us to change a few more, just a pair of male and female is not safe."
Qin Huai stretched out his hand and pulled him into his arms: "Go to sleep, you are tired from the journey."
Just as Mu Nan closed his eyes, he couldn't help getting up again, and then strung two bells with a thread, one hung on the door and the other on the window, so that the bell would make a sound if there was any slight movement, so don't worry Asleep, someone sneaked into the room.
Qin Huai lay on the bed and watched Mu Nan tossing and didn't stop him. He had a strong sense of prevention, which was pretty good.
The two of them didn't go to bed until around three o'clock, and woke up once in the middle of the day. Mu Nan saw that the bells on the windows and the door were in good order, and opened the curtains to look at the car outside. They were still there. Feel free to wash up.
There seems to be no running water in Cai’s house, it’s all well water. A shed was built on the well all the way to the house, presumably for the convenience of people going to fetch water during the day, but the heat is still very hot. He was sweating all over and didn't get any water, it was because Qin Huai came over and took care of it easily.
The two of them poured a bucket of water, brushed their teeth first, and took a shower in the bathroom. They just wiped it with a wet towel before going to bed yesterday. They didn't take a shower. In less than a minute, Mu Nan's cheeks flushed red.
After washing off the smell of sweat, Mu Nan returned to the room and waited for Qin Huai while fanning. Qin Huai entered the room covered in moisture, and looked up his face. Mu Nan reached out and touched it himself: "It's okay, After it cools down, it won’t be red anymore, and the sun is too scary, it’s still blocked, and it’s not directly exposed to the sun.”
Qin Huai said: "The sun here is obviously stronger than ours." Although the heat may be dissipated by the mountain air, the intensity of ultraviolet rays is much higher than theirs. Within three to five minutes, my body turned red.
While applying after-sun repair cream on his body, Mu Nan said, "So many high-end skin care products that you scavenged from the ruins are still in my place, can they be traded?"
Qin Huai said: "Then don't use it, keep it for yourself. I didn't buy much face cream before, and it just filled the gap. Put a bag of pumpkins outside, and there is a market for what you don't have. Take out those cheap whole boxes of soap. have a look."
As soon as Mu Nan stretched out his hand, there was a box of soap next to the bed. Qin Huai opened it and looked at it. The brands were all pirated counterfeit brands, such as Comfortable, Swordsman, and Diaopai transparent soap. I can’t see the lack of arms and legs on the brand. It is definitely not comparable to genuine soaps in terms of efficacy, but the basic cleaning ability is still there, so there should be no lack of market.
After the two confirmed the items to be traded, they ate a little something. This person was outside, trying to eat as much as possible under the premise of keeping everything simple. Just go out.
Around five o'clock in the afternoon, it was Uncle Cai who got up to cook. Seeing him coming out, he enthusiastically said, "Have you rested? Are you sleeping well in the room?"
As for the invitation to eat, Uncle Cai did not mention it. Although he is not a mean person and was very hospitable in the past, anyone who has experienced such a famine that starved people to death will pay more attention to food. It was agreed before. The accommodation does not include meals, his family has a large population, and there are only two strong laborers who make money, so the conditions are really limited.
Qin Huai didn't care too much and said, "It's pretty good, but the chirping of insects and birds is a bit noisy, so you can use new coins here, too?"
Uncle Cai said while cleaning the big iron pot: "Yes, why not, if the money can't be used, then why do I still earn your money, I just don't know if your mobile phone can connect to the signal here, if not, you have to go to the neighborhood committee Over there, I went to the official credit card machine to swipe money."
Qinhuai tried it a long time ago. It should be that the base station is different, so there is no way to connect to the Internet, but the solution is better than the difficulty, as long as there is a place where you can scan it.
The two were talking, when a young boy came back, he was taken aback when he saw two strangers in the room, Uncle Cai said: "This is our tenant, from Kangyun, rented the house for two days , This is my son, Cai Wentao."
Qin Huai said: "Hello, my name is Qin Huai, and I have a younger brother named Mu Nan, but he is in the room."
Cai Wentao hurriedly said: "Hello, hello." While saying that, he winked at his father.
Uncle Cai glared at him, and said, "Go wash your face and brush your teeth, and we'll eat later."
Cai Wentao walked in while yawning: "Wash after eating, and sleep after washing."
While chatting, Qin Huai got to know a lot of information about his family. Uncle Cai used to be an urban management officer, his wife was the director of the neighborhood committee, his daughter had just graduated from college, and his son had been working for two years. Because I was doing logistics, I had the conditions to stock up a lot of things one step ahead of others.
The mother of the three-year-old Xiaozhu is Uncle Cai’s niece. He also had a younger brother who died during the earthquake. His younger sister-in-law and younger brother’s son-in-law were hit by the accident to protect the child. If there is no such condition to rescue, it seems that the person is gone.
Few of these days are complete, and it is impossible for the niece to suffer alone with a three-year-old child, so the whole family lives together, helping each other, and the suffering will always pass. Now his son Cai Wentao is also working in the market, but his job is warehouse management. He has to be on duty during the day and night. He has just returned from a day shift.
Although the government's control here is quite strong, there are still too few things women can do outside. The main reason is that they are not safe, but they can't all rely on the two strong laborers in the family to support the family, so I have been thinking about other things. money way.
Uncle Cai said: "As for our family in Xiawu Village, his boy can do everything. Although he looks like he is doing nothing all day long, he always has a way to make money. He stocked up a lot of food for the family. Later, the road After it was flattened and opened to traffic, they often brought other places with them, whether they were looking for someone or buying or selling things to rent his house, they could support a family without having to do hard work every month."
If there were no precedents, he would never have thought of renting a room. He wanted to rent and rent, but it turned out that within two days of saying this, someone really came to inquire about accommodation. He saw that the child was well-grown and very polite, so he tried it, and it worked out unexpectedly.
If they can develop the rental business in the future, their family will be able to live a lot in the future.
The stalls in the night market didn’t come out until nine o’clock. Uncle Cai was the market manager, and he asked Qin Huai and the others to go to the sentry booth yesterday to find him if they encountered any difficulties. At the end, he asked Cai Wentao to take them to the market, mainly for them There is no way to connect to the Internet. If you like something and you can’t spend money to buy it, just let Cai Wentao take it. How much money did you spend?
The night market here is very in line with the setting of relying on the mountains to eat the mountains. There are many leather sellers. Cai Wentao said: "It's freezing here in winter, and it's impossible to survive without wearing leather."
Mu Nan said, "How much is the leather here?"
Cai Wentao was very familiar with this market, and he was sure that they were really interested in buying, so he took them to his old classmate's house: "My old classmate has inherited his father's business, and his family used to work in a slaughterhouse. , Later, I formed a team with others to go hunting in the mountains, and now I can be regarded as a small hunting expert. You are the first guest of my family, so you must make him cheaper. I dare not say anything else, and I will definitely give you the lowest price in the market. .”
The leather is not expensive. It can be seen that Qin Huai and the others are also straightforward people. Cai Wentao's classmates also gave a refreshing price. The rabbit skin is five yuan a piece, and the fox skin is more expensive, seven yuan a piece. If you make money and wait until winter, or let Yang Jing make a finished product, then you can sell it several times. Qin Huai thought about it for a while, and he almost wrapped up all the goods. More than forty pieces of leather.
In the end, I gave them a small change, but the money has not been paid for the time being, and Cai Wentao's account does not have so much money. He just asked his classmates to send the leather to Uncle Cai's home first, and they will transfer the money by swiping their cards. Just pay online.
Cai Wentao saw that they immediately made rounds as soon as they made a move, and asked curiously: "Do you have a lot of ways to make money over there?"
Qin Huai said: "Is there any way to make money, we are here to test the water first, the money is pooled together by a dozen people, just to earn hard money for a trip, you rely on mountains here, there are a lot of game, we don't I rely on mountains and not water, so I buy things that are not available in the market over there."
Cai Wentao was a little ready to move, wanted to hoard some leather, and asked his father to build a car to go to Kangyun to earn some money. Anyway, the four or five hour drive is not too far. If they can really earn tens or hundreds of dollars, then their family Enough to eat and drink for several months.