Rebirth in the end times: The whole family keeps a low profile

Since everyone was busy in the kitchen until very late last night, they all slept in the next morning in tacit agreement.

When he woke up, he found that the snow that had been falling for a month had stopped, and there was only an occasional breeze. Su Yun felt better.

At ten o'clock everyone got up and had breakfast.

The soy milk I made yesterday, the steamed mushroom dumplings I made earlier, and a plate of fluffy and soft multi-grain pancakes.

The hot soy milk is still boiling hot when it is taken out from the space. Pour some out and add some rock sugar and stir it.

A big pot of dumplings was steamed.

I stocked up on the multi-grain biscuits at a breakfast shop outside.

A family in their home clothes enjoys a delicious meal in a warm kitchen.

The temperature gradually rose near noon, 40 degrees outside during the day and around 55 degrees at night.

After more than a month of adaptation, some people clearly felt that their bodies were more tolerant to the cold.

But there are also some flowers in the greenhouse. Most people are reluctant to go out unless it is something very important.

Brother Tan was in a very low mood today. Although his chickens, ducks and geese were moved to the greenhouse last month, the temperature was too low and more than half of them froze to death one after another. He was so worried that he couldn't sleep at night.

He could only visit every household to ask which family had chickens and ducks that were about to freeze to death. Before his phone ran out of battery, he had seen a lot of doomsday comments, so he didn't plan to exchange money. He felt more at ease with bartering.

Wang Jie is practicing archery with the children in the yard. During this period, the children's arm strength and endurance have improved. Wang Jie records their physical data every day.

At this time, Brother Tan came over and knocked on the door: "Is Aunt Su home?"

When Wang Jie heard someone coming, he smoothly lowered the temperature in the living room and asked the children to go to the kitchen to find Su Yun and Zhang Lili.

I opened the door and saw Brother Tan standing at the door, breathing heavily from the cold. I greeted him and said, "Brother Tan is here. Come in and have a glass of water."

The last time Brother Tan entered the Su family's yard was when they ate the pig-killing dinner during the Chinese New Year last year. Today the weather was bad, and no one in the village was holding a pig-killing banquet. But it was obvious that the Su family's yard was well maintained, the snow had been cleared clean, and a thick windproof curtain was hung at the entrance door.

The Su family had discussed before that when guests from the village came to visit, the temperature in the living room on the first floor should be controlled at around 10 degrees to avoid causing unnecessary trouble.

The living room is usually cleaned by Su Ma, who keeps it clean and tidy without any things that shouldn't be there.

As soon as Brother Tan stepped into the entrance hall, he felt warm all over. The temperature in the room was around 10 degrees, which was 40 degrees lower than the minus 50 degrees outside.

I couldn't help but look around, and I found that there was a big fire burning in the Su's living room, with some roasted sweet potatoes warming on it.

I secretly sighed in my heart that he was worthy of being the rich man in the village. He could still enjoy the sweet potatoes as much as he wanted after eating them for a month.

The news that the Su family drove out yesterday and spent a lot of money to buy rice, flour and charcoal spread in the village. Everyone disagreed with their spending concept of spending money like a spendthrift boy. Some people secretly complained and laughed at them.

At this moment, Tan Chuang wished he could bring his two children over to share the warmth of the room. He instantly felt that the money was well spent, at least they wouldn't be cold or suffer.

Su Ma came in from the door leading to the backyard, carrying a pot of ginger tea. She poured a cup of steaming hot ginger tea for Brother Tan and pretended to complain, "This weather is too cold. I saw on the news that some places have temperatures dozens of degrees below zero, but they have heating. It's rare for us in the south to snow, and now it's heavy snowing. If we don't clear the snow every day, the house will collapse."

Although it was a complaint, it was also a disguised reminder to Brother Tan that he should not only clear snow on the village roads but also pay attention to the old houses in the village.

Brother Tan also understood the interests involved. Many big trees in the village were knocked down and then chopped down by nearby villagers and carried home to use as firewood.

I couldn't help but complain, "Who said it wasn't true? I received news from the town that they will start supplying charcoal soon. Maybe the situation will be better by then. This world is so difficult. Most of my chickens, ducks and geese have frozen to death. I came here today to ask Aunt if there is any solution or if you can give me some advice. After all, your son-in-law is a businessman and his brain is better than mine."

Tan Chuang did not dare to say directly that he wanted to sell these frozen poultry. After all, although every household is complaining now, most of them still have bacon left to eat. In the local rural areas, people are very taboo about these dead chickens, ducks and geese. Many years ago, there was a serious avian influenza here, especially chickens, ducks and geese were infected with the disease. Eating sick chickens, ducks and geese will cause rashes and red spots on the body. Many people also had serious adverse reactions. In one village, nearly a hundred people died. Later, everyone was very taboo about the dead chickens, ducks and geese, so they did not dare to sell them directly, and were also worried about offending others.

Wang Jie turned the sweet potatoes over and put a layer of shelled peanuts on top. After baking them slightly, the fragrant and crispy peanuts can be used as snacks.

Invite Brother Tan to eat something, think about Brother Tan's difficulties, the Su family wants to accept him, but can't do it too obviously.

So he said, "Brother Tan, our chickens, ducks and geese died of freezing, not of disease, so they are definitely edible, but it may not be a good idea to sell them directly. Prices are not transparent now. We went to the supermarket in town to buy food yesterday, and the prices were much more expensive than usual. The market prices are all messed up and no one cares. It's hard to estimate the value of your chickens, ducks and geese now. Maybe you can process them a little bit and keep them for yourself, and sell them if you can't finish them.

Brother Tan immediately became interested, took a sip of ginger tea, put down the cup and acted like a primary school student listening to a lecture.

Wang Jie grabbed a handful of roasted peanuts and stuffed them into his hand and continued, "Deal with the frozen chickens, ducks and geese, then pickle them and make them waxy or smoked. It's easy to preserve them now that the weather is so cold. Wouldn't it be more cost-effective to exchange them for what you need when the time comes? Look at the world, it's hard to say what will happen in the future. No one likes these frozen chickens, ducks and geese now. If the weather doesn't warm up in two months, no one will have meat to eat. Who cares about these details? Maybe we can digest them in our own village."

Wang Jie took out yesterday's shopping receipt and did some market analysis with him.

Wang Jie is good at market research and market analysis, and is very sensitive to changes in prices and market conditions.

Brother Tan nodded and said helplessly: "Your analysis is correct, but the number is too large. 1,300 of them froze to death. I'm afraid I can't handle them all."

Su Yun came out of the kitchen and heard their conversation: "Brother, don't keep too many live chickens and ducks. Just keep some that can lay eggs. Otherwise, the chickens, ducks and geese won't be able to survive for long in this weather. If we don't have enough manpower, I'll call a few people to help. It will only take a few days."

Brother Tan felt that this trip was worthwhile. He asked more than a dozen families with whom he had good relations in the morning. Even if they were willing to accept the frozen poultry, they would only reluctantly exchange a few for them: "Sister Su, do you want to keep them alive? I still have more than 50 live chickens, more than 80 live ducks, and more than 30 live geese. There are even more frozen dead ones, more than 500 chickens, more than 800 ducks, and more than 50 geese. If you can take some, I'll sell them half and give them away."

Su Yun thought about it and decided that one family couldn't just take care of this alone, as it would easily make people jealous.

In the next few months, everyone's stored food will be eaten up, and they will easily become prey in the eyes of others: "Brother, we can't eat all this, and too many have frozen to death. It's not easy for you to deal with it. I'll ask someone to go to your house to help deal with it. I'll ask them to buy more, but you have to prepare firewood and a place in advance."

Su Yun also wanted to leave a way out for Brother Tan. It was hard to say whether he would regret his behavior today and hate himself when the chickens, ducks and geese that Brother Tan was eager to sell became popular in a few months.

Those frozen chickens, ducks and geese are his gold and silver mountains. In the early stage, he can just bring his family members to benefit from it. There is no need to cut off other people's source of income.

Brother Tan was very happy, but his own firewood was running out, and he also needed to buy ingredients for pickling, and the salt sold in the town’s supermarket was too expensive.

Forget it. You can't catch a wolf without sacrificing a lamb. A bag of salt can at least pickle many chickens. I'll go to the supermarket to buy more salt tomorrow.

"Okay, tomorrow I'll ask Tan He and Tan Jiang to bring back more firewood, and I'll go to town to get salt."

Wang Jie pondered, "Didn't they say that they would distribute coal? We don't know how much there is to distribute. Zhang Ming in our family is friends with the son of the owner of the coal factory in our town. You are the village chief, so we would like to ask for your opinion. Should we go get some?"

Brother Tan took out his cell phone, which surprisingly still had power. He clicked on the internal group message and learned that the official supply of coal would take place in a week. However, he had also inquired some time ago and found out that the coal plant was not selling to the outside world at the moment, and all buyers had to take away a whole truckload. In addition, the price had increased several times, which many people could not accept.

Su Yun glanced at her husband and knew in her heart that now was the time to stockpile charcoal openly. She always burned the charcoal in her space secretly and never dared to take it out in public.

Su Zhangming first remembered about the coal factory when he passed by Qin Guo's house on his last trip to town and that was when he suddenly remembered that Qin Guo's family was in the business.

Su Yun pretended to frown and said, "Such a large cart of charcoal is too much for one family to consume. How about we organize the villagers to buy it collectively?"

Brother Tan immediately perked up: "This is a good idea, but how can we get a big truck there? Many cars in the village can't move and can't even start the engine."

Su Yun already had a plan in mind: "My grandfather has a big truck, right? I'll ask him later. If he agrees, we'll set off tomorrow. We'll negotiate the price on the first day. If it's reasonable, we'll buy one truck tomorrow. Then we'll come back and ask other people in the village for their opinions. We'll then count how many households are willing to buy coal. Although the coal factory's price has doubled, in such a cold day, can that little money be more important than life?"

After the discussion, Brother Tan went back and asked a few people he was on good terms with to buy charcoal. Su Zhangming and Wang Jie went to the grandfather's house to discuss the use of the car, and told them about the coal and pickled chickens, ducks and geese, trying to trick them into stocking up more meat and charcoal.

Su Zhangming was a smooth talker who was good at fooling people with his clever words. With the help of Wang Jie's negotiation skills, the two of them negotiated for the big truck for the young grandfather's family in one afternoon. The young grandfather also agreed to let Uncle Zhibang go to the village chief's house to help deal with the frozen chickens, ducks and geese, and said that he would stockpile some at home.

Wang Jie and Su Zhangming knew that this mobilization was related to everyone's food and clothing in the next few months. After taking care of the grandfather's family, they went to the grandmother's family to mobilize. There were many people in the grandmother's family, so two people were sent to take care of the chickens and ducks, and a quota for sharing the charcoal was also reserved for them.

Finally, we went to Alan's house. When Alan's father first heard Wang Jie talking about coal, chickens, ducks and geese, he hesitated. He was not interested in communicating with others and was afraid that he would feel uncomfortable if he went there, but he also wanted to hear Wang Jie bring back more things.

Wang Jie was a man who was very good at observing people's words and expressions. Before Lan's father could refuse, he said that for the coal business, one just had to sign up. There would be no room on the bus if there were too many people, but as long as one was willing to pay, it would be fine.

When you go to the village chief's house to do some work, everyone has their own division of labor. Just follow Su Yun and do the work.

Dad Lan was afraid that no one would ask him to do anything when he went there, and he couldn't say anything himself. When he heard that Su Yun was going too, he felt relieved.

The three families that Su Yun cares about the most in the village are these three families. In their previous lives, they have helped the Su family a lot. Now is the time to repay the favor. Only when everyone is doing well can he be better off. The other families in the village do not have a very deep relationship with the Su family. They just come back occasionally to say hello.

They agreed to set off the next morning. Wang Jie and Su Zhangming got up early, drank some porridge, took protective measures, and then each carried their own hiking bags and went out.

In the freezing cold, the truck needed to be preheated before it could start. It took several people half an hour to get the truck started.

The people who went together this time included Wang Jie, Su Zhangming, my uncle, Brother Tan, and Meng Zhe, all of whom were strong young people in the village.

There are 8 families that have to share the burden, including the Su family, Grandpa's family, Grandma's family, Alan's family, Mengzhe's family, Brother Tan's family, another village official, and Xiaojing's family.

Su Yun called Xiao Jing last night to confirm the last share of the quota.

Brother Tan and Mengzhe are distant cousins, so it makes sense for him to go along. Mengzhe himself is not short of money and has never suffered hardship since he was a child. Of course he will not refuse if he can spend money to buy comfort.

Wang Jie didn't know that Su Yun's love letter situation back then was no different, but Su Zhang was obviously a little embarrassed, and he tried to liven up the atmosphere whenever he could along the way.

The car drove very slowly. It normally took two hours to get to the coal factory, but today it took almost three hours. There were more than a dozen large trucks parked in front of the coal factory. Tan Chuang originally thought that the 2 tons of coal loaded on their trucks was already a lot, but when he saw that other people's trucks were carrying 10 tons of coal, he suddenly developed a strong sense of crisis. Wang Jie also understood that the coal factory would not be able to keep shipping goods for long and would definitely close down.

It was noon when the few people arrived, and there were many cars and people. Su Zhangming called Qin Guo directly. Qin Guo happened to be helping his father deal with coal. After receiving Su Zhangming's call, he ran out and invited the few people into the office.

Su Zhangming is a man who knows how to behave. He immediately took out a pack of Zhonghua cigarettes from the supermarket and placed them on Qin Guo's desk: "Guozi, long time no see. Your business is getting bigger and bigger. Now you are even doing business with the government."

Qin Guo casually put away the Zhonghua cigarette on the table. The two of them exchanged glances and whispered, "Brother Ming will tell you a big secret. Since the extreme cold, our coal mine was almost confiscated. Later, my dad found someone from above to save it. 7% of the coal mined here is taken away by the government, and the remaining 3% can only be sold to licensed institutions. My dad asked me to keep an eye on this place. I have to go back to the village after everything is done. My dad said that the weather will not be good if the authorities do this. Many coal bosses outside have had their mines confiscated. Not many people know about this. I treat you as a buddy, and you should think about it carefully. The big cards queuing outside are all buying coal. I dare not let those without licenses in."

Su Zhangming and Qin Guo have been brothers for many years. Although they usually eat, drink and have fun together in a carefree manner, they are still very loyal when it comes to critical moments.

Su Zhangming nodded to express his gratitude, introduced the people he brought with him to Qin Guo, and expressed his intention to buy coal. Qin Guo still had an impression of Wang Jie. Sometimes during the holidays, when he went to the Su family for dinner, he would meet Su's eldest brother-in-law.

Over the years, the eldest sister of the Su family has been very caring towards this group of bad boys. Sometimes when she sees them drinking together, she even prepares some side dishes for them.

Qin Guo immediately said that he would be responsible for buying coal from Xinxu Village and would pay the current market price.

Su Zhang clearly understood that even if he had money, he would not be able to buy coal in the near future, and this kind of secret operation could not be solved with just a few words. Not to mention that they did not have a license and were not a government agency, Qin Guo had to cover up the interests involved, and Qin Guo might even be taught a lesson by his father behind his back.

Qin Guo told them that they only had one week to buy coal, and after that week the place would be handed over to the government for mining.

Su Zhangming's truck could only carry 10 tons at most. Because of Qin Guo, the truck entered from the back door. Two cranes were dispatched to load the truck, and the truck was quickly loaded and drove out of the coal plant.

Only when the car was on the provincial road did everyone come to their senses. They were extremely glad that they had come out early to buy coal this time. They also realized that if it weren't for Su Zhangming's connections, they might not be able to buy coal even if they waited in line until dark.

When the car reached the leeward intersection, several people had lunch in the car before going back.

On the way, we discussed dividing the coal in the truck into 8 parts first, and starting from tomorrow, dividing it according to the number of registered households. In the next week, we will have to go out twice a day to stock up on coal, and unload the truck directly in the small square of the village. After a week, we will come with cash or food to queue up to exchange for coal. Now everyone can’t use mobile payment, so we can only use cash or barter.

The market price fluctuates greatly every day. At Qinguo Coal Yard, 1 kilogram of grain is exchanged for 6 kilograms of coal.

The village also follows this standard.