dognovel Chapter 407
Chapter 407
The cold wind carried snowflakes, which hit the glass windows of the grocery store, making a crackling sound.
There is no heating in the storefronts, and the few shops that are open have to find ways to heat themselves.
The Zhou family's grocery store moved in a gasoline generator to generate electricity. Two large coal stoves were placed in the house. Hundreds of large coal balls were placed at the back door of the store, and a smoke exhaust pipe made of tin sheets was installed to discharge the smoke out of the window.
The grocery store is very small, less than 30 square meters. It has two coal stoves that burn day and night to ensure that the house is as warm as spring.
If you stay in the house for a while wearing a thick goose down jacket, you will start to sweat.
Therefore, extreme cold is actually easier to endure than high temperatures, as long as the survivors have enough heating tools, such as air-conditioned clothing, coal, dry firewood, and clothes to regulate the temperature.
But after several natural disasters, most of the survivors were so poor that they had difficulty even getting food and water, let alone storing some warm supplies.
Coal is an energy source that is not easy for ordinary people to obtain.
But the dry trees around are all usable resources.
Although countless mountains and trees were destroyed by fire during the high temperature period, the land once owned by humans is vast, and as long as you look carefully, you can still find many dead trees that can be burned.
So, when the flu was over and life at the base had basically returned to normal, Zhou Shuwan heard that several teams were going out to look for dry firewood.
She frowned slightly. If they encountered a snowstorm in such a cold day, they would be wiped out.
Although the amount of coal she took out was not too large, most of the people in the base now live in the factory rooms. With the base heating, they don’t have to worry about extreme cold. A small number of people live alone.
When Xiao Xiao said she wanted to solve the heating problem for the homeowners in the community, she actually did it.
During extreme cold periods, the layer of ice and snow is as high as a floor, making construction impossible.
So the senior management of the base held a meeting and decided to designate a specific community for collective heating. This community was very close to the heating plant.
Therefore, the senior management of the base held a meeting and designated a community called "Garden Community" as a specific community for collective heating. Their community is very close to the heating plant, and there are not many owners living in the community.
The base negotiated with these owners that those who had purchased houses would continue to live there, while the remaining houses would be vacated for residents from other neighborhoods who didn't qualify to live in the factory area. Naturally, the living conditions weren't particularly comfortable; much like the resettlement housing during the flood season, several families were crammed together to save space and accommodate more people.
However, it is undeniable that this method can allow more people to survive during extreme cold periods.
However, the villa areas are too scattered and the living areas are too large, so it would be very difficult for the base to provide heating to the villa areas.
At the beginning, Xiao Xiao also suggested that Zhou Shuwan and his family move to the Garden Community, so he and Meng Mingyue took the initiative to move here with their families.
But after careful consideration, Zhou Shuwan refused.
The gasoline stored in her space was enough for her family to enjoy the luxury of electric heating in the extreme cold, and she also had so much coal resources.
Now the electric heating equipment and coal stove in the house are turned on at the same time to ensure that the temperature on the entire second floor is warm.
After the initial adjustment period, the family is now sleeping in separate bedrooms again.
Not only is sleeping comfortable and having one's own independent space, but it also ensures that everyone does not have excessive contact during the flu season, reducing the infectiousness of the flu.
Therefore, the batch of coal that Zhou Shuwan took out was enough for the people in the garden community to use.
The base is heated, and the temperature in the factory is higher, but the temperature in the garden community is only around seven or eight degrees. If you want to make your home warmer, you still need to use fire to keep warm.
Most families were reluctant to exchange these supplies for coal, but since most of them lived together in groups of several, they pooled some of the supplies to exchange for coal at the base, which was enough for them to use.
Therefore, the coal briquette stoves at Zhou’s Grocery Store have always been a hot seller.
The batch of coal stoves she had stockpiled finally found a better place to go.
Now when Zhou Shuwan heard that the private supply team was going out to look for firewood, he knew that these people wanted to take advantage of the extreme cold period to earn more supplies.
It's just too dangerous.
In the raging snowstorm, people's vision range is not even one meter. It is too dangerous to be outside without any shelter.
Several members of the convoy heading south who died were all frozen to death.
Zhang Jia was also quite eager to make a move, so she put on the air-conditioned clothes she had exchanged for a lot of money and went to find Zhou Shuwan, asking her if she would like to go outside the base with her to look for dead trees and firewood.
Zhou Shuwan: “…”
"You're not short of supplies, so why would you do something so dangerous?" The two of them were already familiar with each other, so she spoke bluntly. "Even if you were short of supplies, you have a stable job with a steady income. You can easily support yourself. Why would you need to go out and earn such a pitiful amount of supplies?"
Zhang Jia sighed quietly, "Maybe it's because I was trapped in the resettlement site for too long. Now I can't stay in one place for long. I always want to go out for a walk."
Zhou Shuwan: ...
She actually understood Zhang Jia's thoughts a little bit.
She was trapped in the greenhouse for so long that she wanted to walk on the ground every day.
"Besides, I'm not looking for dead wood. Wanwan, to tell you the truth, someone told me he knew of a private coal mine nearby, and I want to go and see it for myself. Coal is so valuable nowadays, I can't bear to miss it."
Zhou Shuwan raised an eyebrow.
Is it near the base? Is this such a coincidence?
"Who told you that?" Her tone was a little serious.
Zhang Jia straightened his face and said, "I'm a neighbor who lives in the factory. We're a family, old and young."
Zhang Jia was allocated a house in the base, but in order to take public sentiment into consideration, the base avoided the community for public officials when choosing a community with central heating.
People like Zhang Jia need to live like Xiao Xiao, either in a factory or in a garden community.
But Zhang Jia was actually quite stingy. She was reluctant to spend extra money to rent a house in the garden community, so she simply packed up her things and moved into the factory alone, very close to Chen Fen's team.
She looked at Zhou Shuwan's expression and asked carefully, "Why, is there something wrong with this person?"
Zhou Shuwan shook his head: "Maybe I'm overthinking it."
When she and Qi Mingyu were working hard to catch the leader of the cannibal gang, someone else jumped out.
She pondered for a moment, then said, "Jia Jia, you promise him, and then I'll go out with you."
Zhang Jia is a very intelligent man with a broad perspective. He's not confused. He had previously been jealous of the private coal mine and hadn't thought too much about it. But now that he realized something was wrong, he instinctively objected: "This is too dangerous, Wanwan, why don't I push him? Nothing is worth risking our lives for."
Zhou Shuwan whispered something in her ear.
The latter frowned, but finally nodded.