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

After the car entered the village, the coal was distributed directly at the end of the village where there were few people. Xiaojing's share was led by the Su family, and the rest were pulled back by themselves.

The Su family had just finished dinner when there was a knock on the door. Dad Su quickly lowered the temperature in the living room before opening the door.

As usual, Zhang Lili and Su Yun took the children upstairs to review their lessons. Recently, the children have liked practicing calligraphy and they are quiet, which makes Zhang Lili and Su Yun feel a lot more relaxed.

Passing by the living room on the first floor, Mengzhe and Brother Tan came in, sat on the cushioned solid wood sofa in the living room, and greeted each other.

Su Yun hasn't seen Meng Zhe for many years. Both of them have changed a lot. Su Zhe is no longer the baby-faced man he was in school, and Su Yun has also lost his childishness. Both of them have become mature and stable.

Su Yun suddenly felt that the sudden impulse he had many years ago was extremely funny, just like two kids who were quarreling for a long time over a piece of candy. The original awkwardness in his heart no longer existed.

Mengzhe had never been to Su Yun's family's new villa. The biggest feeling he had when he first came was that it was clean and warm. Even though Su's father adjusted the indoor temperature to around 5 degrees, there was still a huge difference between the room and the outside.

Su's father, Su Zhangming and Wang Jie were all chatting in the living room. Su's aunt came in with a newly lit charcoal stove and took out a dozen sweet potatoes that Su Yun had bought at another market. Sweet potatoes are very high in sugar and are sweet and soft when baked. They also have very little fiber. They are known as the ice cream of sweet potatoes and are considered the best variety of baked sweet potatoes.

A group of people were drinking tea, roasting sweet potatoes, chatting and chatting. Soon the aroma of sweet potatoes filled the entire living room and the atmosphere was very good.

Mengzhe and Wang Jie gradually became familiar with each other during the chat. One was a top student in college, and the other had achieved some success in the business world for several years. Their visions and concepts were quite similar, and in just a short while they talked about many topics.

Before the sweet potatoes were cooked, Su Ma brought in some peanuts and chestnuts from the kitchen. These small items, common in rural areas, were being roasted over a fire behind a wire mesh. Smelling the aroma of the food and listening to the crackling of the charcoal fire, there was an atmosphere of a night chat around the fire. Even the steaming teapot seemed very appropriate.

After chatting about family matters for a while, they began to talk about climate, extreme cold, coal, and discussed the government's future rescue measures.

During this period, I called Qin Guo to confirm the time and quantity.

Qin Guo replied that he could only transport one truckload of 10 tons every day, and that had to go through the back door, otherwise he would not be able to transport more than that.

Su Zhangming glanced at the calendar on the wall. There was only one week left, which meant he could make seven trips, totaling 7 tons of coal. Bringing back all this coal could greatly alleviate the heating problem in the village.

The group, who originally thought they could make more trips by going out early and coming back late every day, discussed again and decided to bring the coal back first and then make a statistics, and calculate the upper limit of coal purchase based on the population of the village. For a family like Su Yun's with 11 people, if each person's share is 20 kilograms per day, then the Su family can only buy a maximum of 220 kilograms of coal per day, which is 7 kilograms of coal in 1540 days.

For the few companies that contributed manpower and vehicles, coal was used as compensation to pay their labor costs and vehicle fares.

This method is very fair. The Su family has already stockpiled a lot of coal in advance and picked up a lot of firewood in the back mountain. They are not short of coal and firewood, but at this time they must follow the crowd and work hard to burn firewood for heating in the future.

In the end, it was decided that Su Zhangming and Wang Jie would follow their uncle's truck to haul coal every day. Brother Tan and Mengzhe would be responsible for registering and counting the number of people and materials in the village who needed to be exchanged. The vacant position would be taken by their eldest cousin from their grandmother's family. When they heard that the village would pay for the gas and wages, everyone was happy to do this work for a few days.

The four of them went to the coal factory for seven consecutive days. Su Xiaogu also made some adjustments to Su Zhangming and Wang Jie's meals so that they would not appear out of the ordinary and could still eat well.

Fortunately, the weather has been good these days and it hasn't snowed.

The transaction with Qin Guo went smoothly. On the last day, Qin Guo received a notice from home asking him to go home quickly to help stock up things.

Uncle Qin, who is more sensitive and decisive than others, is collecting quilts, down jackets, rice, flour, cooking oil, vegetables, meat and daily necessities.

The psychological implications and economic collapse brought about by global natural disasters are sweeping in like an avalanche. Anyone who pays more attention to social news will tend to value materials over cash.

During this period, Su Yun asked Su Zhangming to bring a few pounds of frozen beef and a few bottles of good wine to Qin Guo, who treasured them very much.

The coal that was brought back was piled in the small square of the village, covered with oilcloth, and several village cadres were sent to take turns to watch over it.

On the 7th day, the last train came back and everyone came to weigh the coal according to the materials registered previously. Each person could be exchanged for a maximum of 100 kilograms, and the remaining amount was locked in the ancestral hall warehouse for use.

After working for a few days, the village gave Su Zhangming and Wang Jie each 100 kilograms of coal as labor wages.

Since we got a lot of coal in the past few days to solve the urgent problem, the atmosphere in the village has improved a lot.

The next day, more than a dozen people from the village came to help deal with the chickens, ducks and geese of the village chief's family. The Tan family set up a windproof tarpaulin and three large iron pots on the playground in front of their house.

Zhang Lili was in charge of watching the fire and boiling water, Su Yun helped to heat the water, Lan's father, Su Zhangming, the three brothers Tan, the younger uncle, the older cousin, and Mengzhe were responsible for removing the hair, and Aunt Tan and several daughters-in-law were responsible for removing the internal organs. Three aunts from the village also came to clean the internal organs of chickens, ducks and geese. Aunt Taozi also came to help hang the cleaned chickens, ducks and geese with dry straw on the rack to dry. They were still steaming when they were hung up, but they froze solid in less than half an hour.

It took so many people three days to finish the job. In addition to buying some to take home, Brother Tan gave each of those who came to help 10 extra as a reward for their hard work.

Su Yun later exchanged for 20 more chickens and 10 ducks. In the end, Brother Tan only kept a few dozen living chickens and ducks for laying eggs, and disposed of the rest.

Wang Jie took advantage of the good weather to bring the coal from Xiaojing over. He didn't dare to put it in the cowshed outside, but quietly placed it in the room.

Although we have more freedom to burn charcoal these days, we dare not be as lavish as in previous years. The whole family plans to burn fire every day.

Dad Lan exchanged unhusked rice for a lot of coal, which can be used for at least 4 months if used sparingly.

Alan made some pickled cabbage at home some time ago, and the two of them took half to give to Su Yun.

My grandmother's family are farmers, so they have no shortage of food. They have a lot of dried vegetables at home. This time they got some coal and exchanged it for chickens. My eldest cousin is in a good mood and plans to bring some bamboo rats and rabbits he had caught earlier to visit.

My uncle's family is similar to my grandmother's. They originally made some dried vegetables, dried radishes, and stewed soybeans and planned to share some with the Su family.

After the coal matter was settled, my grandfather and Uncle Zhibang also came to visit with some things in their hands.

Su Ma and Su Xiaogu took the chickens and ducks they brought back to the roof and hung them up. After a while, when the cured chickens and ducks were done, they could be put away in the space.

The Su family had just finished processing the cured chicken and duck when the young uncle and Lan's father met them at the door of the Su family. The young uncle was carrying dried vegetables, dried radishes and half a bag of rice. Lan's father was pushing a cart. Alan was sitting next to the cart. The cart was bulging and covered with oilcloth, so people couldn't see what was inside. The two greeted each other at the door and lined up for the courtyard gate: "Cousin, it's me, open the door."

Dad Su is teaching his children how to speak in the living room. In this world, we must understand that the mouth can cause trouble.

I heard my cousin calling out at the door: "Here I come."

After sending a few children to play by themselves and saying hello in the kitchen, Dad Su put on his down jacket and went to open the yard door.

"Why are you here? Come in and sit down."

Uncle Su Zhibang used to visit the Su family often and was quite familiar with Wang Jie. Sometimes when they met, he would even talk to Wang Jie about all sorts of things.

As soon as he entered the yard, Lan's father pulled the cart to the place where motorcycles were parked next to the yard.

He scratched his head and said to Su's father, "Food outside is too expensive, so I brought you some pickled vegetables and food."

Su's father seldom interacted with Lan's father. Su Yun was the one who often visited. He was embarrassed and said, "Oh, it's enough for you to come. You are too polite. I bought some food last time and stored it. You can take these back and keep them for yourself."

Lan's father waved his hand and said, "How much food do you have? If you don't have enough, come to our house to get more. If it weren't for Su Yun helping us, we would all be freezing now."

Seeing that he couldn't refuse, Su's father didn't insist anymore. After all, there was a long time to come, so he just considered it as helping him save it.

The young grandfather and Su Zhibang looked at the half bag of rice in their hands and suddenly felt that they were not as generous as an outsider, and they felt embarrassed.

Wang Jie took the food and dried vegetables from Su Zhibang's hand and called Su Yun to take them to the kitchen to cook. The grandfather's face looked a little better.

Four people entered the living room, Su's mother set up a charcoal stove, and several people gathered around the fire to warm themselves and chat. Su Zhibang felt reluctant to go home after staying for a while. The Su family's house was too warm. He had been running around outside for some time and had frostbite on his hands and feet. At this moment, he felt itchy and could not help rubbing them with his hands.

It's rare for us to get together. We didn't have the pig-slaughtering dinner this New Year, so Dad Su invited everyone to have dinner together.

After chatting for a while, there was a knock on the door: "Is Aunt Su home? I'm Xiao Tan, coming to deliver something."

When Su's father went to open the door, he saw Tan Chuang coming to visit with a bag of sweet potato noodles and two chickens.

Just as Tan Chuang sat down to warm himself by the fire, someone else came to the door. When Su's father opened the door, he saw that it was his two cousins, also carrying cured fish and dried bamboo rats in their hands.

Su Ma added a large charcoal stove in the living room, burning firewood from the back mountain.

A group of people gathered around two stoves, bragging, chatting and eating melon seeds. The Su family had not been so lively for a long time. Zhang Lili took the children to play chess in the living room on the first floor.

Su Yun really wanted to take a photo of everyone as a souvenir, so he quietly took a panoramic photo in the corner.

Su Zhangming, Su's mother and Su's aunt were in the kitchen preparing dinner for tonight. Wang Jie and Su Yun drove a tricycle to the village to pick up the grandparents for dinner.

It gets dark very quickly in the extreme cold, so dinner was ready at 4 p.m., and everyone helped to set up the table and chairs. We took a big head of the sauerkraut that Alan's dad brought today and made two pots of sauerkraut and bacon stewed with vermicelli. We also steamed and fried the cured fish brought by my grandmother.

Fresh vegetables were hard to come by after the extreme cold, so Su Ma cooked ingredients that were still available in the village. She also took some of the things that several people had sent and made dinner.

By the time Su Yun brought the grandparents over, the rice was just cooked. Two large tables were placed in the living room, one table for women and children, and the other for men. Su Zhangming also took two pots of Zhang Lili's homemade wine to add color.

Although the dishes were not as sumptuous as before the extreme cold, the atmosphere was extremely harmonious. Even though the cold wind was howling outside the window, the house was warm with two stoves, two kerosene lamps and seven or eight candles. Everyone ate, chatted and drank.

At the dinner table were all relatives and friends who had good character after the natural disaster in the previous life. Su Zhangming and Wang Jie tried their best to hint that the climate was in chaos and everyone should make more plans and not take it lightly.

"It's too cold today. We must be mentally prepared for a protracted war. Now the snow is almost 2 meters thick in some places. It's hard to say what the future will be like. I think we must at least ensure that the village roads are accessible, and everyone can buy more if they can from outside." Su Zhangming wanted to ask everyone present to empty their savings to stock up on goods.

It’s a pity that there are so many things I can’t say, and I feel so sad.

Tan Chuang nodded while chewing on the cured fish. "Yes, the town will organize a coal collection tomorrow. They said that it will be collected by person with ID card. In order to prevent people from eating empty salaries, people between 12 and 60 must go in person to collect it. People who are not in the age range can collect it with their household registration booklet and village certificate. There are more than 300 households and more than people in our village. I have registered them all."

Su Zhangming took a sip of wine and said, "My brother-in-law and nephew are registered in Wangjia Village. Can they receive the supplies?"

After the coal mine was taken control, everyone was waiting for state assistance.

"It's stated in the document that if you don't have a registered permanent residence, you can leave. Otherwise, outsiders will freeze to death. You can collect it with your ID card."

Wang Jie picked up a piece of bacon and listened to their conversation quietly, occasionally joining in the conversation with Su Zhangming.

At the table next to them, Su Yun picked up some food for his grandmother. Alan was obviously not used to being in situations with many people, and he kept his head down while eating. Maybe it was because the temperature in the room was very comfortable, everyone couldn't help but eat an extra bowl of rice, and in the end all the cooked rice and dishes were eaten up.

Su Ma was worried that everyone was not full, so she went to the kitchen to get a few bags of rhubarb rice and peanut dumplings to make some dessert.

Everyone sat together and chatted for a while and ate some glutinous rice balls before going back. The cold wind outside was getting stronger and stronger, and it was completely dark. The biting cold wind blew over and made people's teeth chatter. Grandpa and uncle were not far away and could walk home in a few minutes. Grandpa, grandma and Alan were wrapped in oilcloth to block the wind and sat on the cart. The two cousins ​​were responsible for pushing Alan's cart. Tan Chuang and Alan's father walked side by side, and the few of them went back together in the cold wind.