Reborn in the end of the world, I scavenged in the empty city and bought for free

The acid rain came suddenly and stopped suddenly as well. Only after the sound of the rain gradually stopped did people dare to open the windows slightly to observe the situation outside.

At Zhang Youfan's house, Zhang Youfan was sitting on the sofa drinking tea, while Liu Jinhua and Yangmei were sitting on the bed watching the sleeping child. Zhang Mingguo was originally standing slightly closer to the window. He stood up after hearing the "tick-tick" sound of water drops outside. His fingers were already touching the window sill. Yangmei behind him shouted in fear, "Youming, what are you doing?"

"I'll just open the window and take a look." Zhang Mingguo still had his fingers on the edge of the window, and took out the towel that had been stuffed in the window gap.

Yang Mei was so frightened that her face turned pale, but she was worried that her voice would be too loud and wake up her son who had just fallen asleep, so she whispered with trembling lips: "Don't open it, what if you get hurt? That's strong acid rain, are you really going to kill yourself?"

Seeing his wife's frightened look, Zhang Mingguo had to comfort her: "Listen, the rain outside has subsided. Nothing will happen."

But Yang Mei still felt unsafe, and pouted her lips in dissatisfaction, "That won't work either, unless there's really no sound of rain outside, otherwise I'll still feel creepy here, it's weird, you'd better not turn it on, listen to the radio, and if the radio tells us to go out, then we'll go out."

Zhang Youfan put the teacup on the tea table and said seriously, "Okay, we can't keep waiting for the broadcast. We are not deaf and can feel whether it is raining or not. But just in case, Youming, put on the long-sleeved cotton coat in the corner."

Zhang Mingguo nodded and walked to the corner. Even though the room was very hot and stuffy, he was afraid that his wife would worry about being splashed by acid rain, so he had to put on his clothes obediently.

After making all the preparations, Zhang Mingguo took a deep breath and carefully pulled the entire rag out from the window gap with his fingers.

The originally light yellow rag had now turned into a burnt yellow color, and most of the places that had been soaked by rain had shown signs of corrosion and damage.

This scene still made everyone gasp in shock. No one expected that in just a few hours, the rag had been corroded to this extent. How would a person be corroded if exposed to such strong acid rain?

The thought of this makes one shudder all over, even Yangmei couldn't help but tremble slightly.

Fortunately, Zhang Mingguo had experienced several natural disasters, and this was not the first time he had experienced acid rain. His family had also experienced the acid rain in the old house, but that time the acid rain did not seem to be as severe as this time. That time, the nearby forests and vegetation suffered the most.

Although this acid rain did not last long, its intensity and corrosiveness were unprecedented.

Zhang Mingguo finally opened the window that had been closed for several hours. The smell of sulfur dioxide that still remained in the air outside immediately rushed into the house, causing Yangmei to pick up the cattail leaf fan next to her and start fanning herself.

"This smell is too strong. Will the children be poisoned if they smell it too much?" Yangmei asked worriedly.

"It's definitely bad for your health. Have you forgotten the son of Old Chen in our village? He seemed to have been exposed to this thing while working in the factory. Less than five years after entering the factory, his whole body collapsed and he became extremely thin." Liu Jinhua shook her head and said with a look of fear on her face.

"Mom, that's because the factory his son worked in was simply an illegal one. All operating qualifications have not been approved, and the raw materials used are also inferior. How can it not be torturous to work there?" Zhang Mingguo couldn't help but retort.

"Hey, don't refute me. What I mean is that this gas is harmful to the human body. We adults can tolerate it, but children can't. Let Dabao go to my room. The room your father and I share has no windows, so it's a little safer."

"Okay, I'll listen to you, Mom." Zhang Mingguo stopped arguing with Liu Jinhua at this time.

Zhang Youfan frowned, walked to the electric fan and turned it on, and the smell immediately dissipated a lot.

At this time, the large patches of dark clouds in the sky have gradually dispersed, and the oppressive feeling of "dark clouds pressing down on the city and threatening to destroy it" has disappeared. Instead, the setting sun and the warm orange glow of the evening cover the entire base block. If it were not for the blackened buildings and walls that had been corroded, the scene would be quite warm and peaceful.

"It has indeed stopped raining." Zhang Mingguo breathed a sigh of relief, but then he couldn't help frowning when he saw that the originally painted white walls on the opposite floor had turned into burning charcoal black.

However, the rain had just stopped not long ago, so no one dared to go out immediately. They just opened the windows and occasionally observed what was happening in other houses, as if they were all waiting.

Zhang Mingguo was already wearing the pair of Liberation shoes that he usually wore when working. Worried that his shoes would be corroded by rain, he tied a slightly thinner plastic around the soles. Although this increased the friction when walking, it at least prevented the rubber soles from corroding too quickly.

Seeing her husband was about to go out, Yang Mei was about to dissuade him, but she found that her father-in-law was also changing into a pair of waders.

"Let's go down and take a look. Everyone is staying in the community and won't go out. You and my mom can make something to eat first. We'll be back soon."

Since her husband had spoken, Yang Mei had no choice but to swallow the words that were about to come out of her mouth. She watched Zhang Youfan and Zhang Mingguo put on their hats and long-sleeved jackets and turned to leave.

There are dozens of residential buildings in Xingfu Community, and Zhang Youfan's family lives in the innermost one. When they went down to the stairs, they even saw a few people they knew from the village. They greeted each other and talked about the fierce acid rain.

"What if it continues to rain in the next few days? I was hoping to go out to work when the weather gets better, but now I don't dare to go out."

"That's right. If it rains on the way out, there's nowhere to hide. I don't know if it will rain tonight. If it doesn't rain tomorrow, I plan to go to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy some more rice, and then stay at home and observe for a while."

"Ceramics seem to be quite acid-resistant. I put ceramic flower pots and foam boxes on the balcony. The foam boxes have turned black, but my ceramic pots are still intact."

"You can't go out with a ceramic basin in your arms, right? You have to put it on your head," another villager couldn't help but sneered.

"Just get a plastic basin, the big kind that children use to bathe. I'm planning to carry it with me when I go out anyway, so an umbrella and raincoat are of no use." Another one clicked his tongue.

"If it keeps raining, you can't keep using plastic basins. Who knows what will happen if the acid rain burns through the plastic basins? After all, plastic is just plastic, not ceramic or cement."

Several people were standing at the stairs, talking to each other. One of the younger men had already walked out, being careful not to step on the puddles of water.

As he was walking, something in the man's trouser pocket happened to fall into a puddle. It was a wooden keychain. Some tiny bubbles suddenly appeared in the puddle, and then the color of the keychain became slightly darker than before.

Not far away, a man exclaimed, and he was seen covering his head, looking at his car parked near the flower bed with regret on his face.

The body of the silver-white sedan had already shown signs of corrosion. The originally smooth iron body had developed bumps of varying sizes in just a few hours, which looked creepy.

"My car, my God, I just bought this car with a loan!" the man was howling beside him, looking like he was obviously having trouble breathing.

In fact, it was not just him. There were also several cars parked in the open air that had not been driven to the underground parking lot in time. They also looked damaged. Unless these cars were sent to the factory for repairs, they probably could not be driven anymore.

"Oh, that's it, my car is down there too."

A man who was originally standing next to Zhang Youfan suddenly slapped his head and growled, then he reacted and ran in a certain direction without caring about the puddles on the ground.

The others looked at each other in bewilderment when they saw this, but seeing that the sky was now cloudless, they thought it would not rain for the time being, so they followed the direction of the man.

The man’s bike is a second-hand bicycle, which he bought some time ago for nearly 3,000 points, just to make it more convenient for him to go to work.

After the weather cooled down two days ago, the man rode his bicycle out to find work. In the morning, he found the weather was still good, so he was too lazy to push the bicycle home. Plus, he had to go to work at noon, so he put several big locks on the bicycle and placed it near the small garden. There were usually many people who parked their bicycles there temporarily, so he was not worried about it being stolen.

But who would have thought that I would encounter acid rain when I took a nap at home at noon. At that time, my family and I were immersed in the fear brought by the acid rain, and completely forgot that my bicycle was still parked underneath.

As a result, when the man saw his bicycle, he was stunned. The original sky blue outer layer of paint had completely peeled off, leaving only the bare iron rod with some signs of burning. The front and rear tires were also corroded to some extent, and the tires were obviously flat and in a shriveled state.

Probably because they saw people already standing downstairs, the residents who were originally watching upstairs also came downstairs at this time. However, most of them were "fully armed", wearing raincoats and a plastic basin on their heads. The funniest thing was that someone found plastic sheets from somewhere and made himself a corrosion-resistant "real plastic clothes".

There were a few bicycles and some vans parked near the small garden, which were more or less corroded after being washed by acid rain for several hours.

The car owners standing nearby were miserable. Those who were lucky enough had no major problems with their tires and engines. Several cars tried to start the ignition and all of them started successfully. Finally, they quickly drove the cars to the parking lot on the first floor below ground.

Zhang Youfan's family doesn't have a car, so he went out this time purely to see the situation after the acid rain and to join in the fun. He happened to see his brother-in-law Liu Jinde in the crowd. In fact, Liu Jinde is more than a generation younger than Zhang Youfan and only five years older than Zhang Mingguo. Therefore, he is usually closer to Zhang Mingguo.

"Uncle!" Zhang Mingguo walked over and greeted him with a smile.

Liu Jinde nodded, then turned around and greeted Zhang Youfan on the other side, "Brother-in-law, is everything okay at home?"

"It's okay. Dabao is asleep. Your sister and Yangmei are taking care of him at home. How's your family? Is my mother-in-law okay?"

"Don't worry, my parents are still strong and wanted to come out with us, but I stopped them. Our house is too high up. If there's a power outage or other accidents, it would be a lot of trouble for the two old people."

Zhang Youfan nodded, then took a cigarette from his pocket and said, "What do you think of this acid rain?"

Liu Jinde frowned at first, glanced at the other people around him, and then whispered: "I feel there may be more behind. The base has been silent for a long time, and it is probably because they are not sure about the weather conditions. Brother-in-law, don't you think the current situation is very similar to what the government did when the natural disaster came?"

"Do you think so too?" Zhang Youfan didn't expect that his brother-in-law was such a thoughtful person.

Liu Jinde smiled bitterly. "It's mainly because Afen's workplace is in the same building as the Meteorological Bureau. They say the Meteorological Bureau is working overtime to monitor the weather. The atmosphere in the entire building is very tense. If there weren't a big problem, why would the entire building be under martial law? Afen even received a notice that starting next Monday, except for staff from special departments, all other personnel will be on standby and await further notice."

"So, the acid rain hasn't ended yet? No, it will have too much impact. First of all, there are water and transportation issues. Jin De, if you have any more news, please call me. I'm going to the supply and marketing cooperative first. There are less than 20 kilograms of rice left at home. If the natural disaster continues, the whole family will have to sit and wait for death."

Seeing Zhang Youfan was about to turn around and leave, Liu Jinde quickly stopped him and said, "Brother-in-law, why are you still going to the supply and marketing cooperatives? All the supply and marketing cooperatives are crowded with people. Do you think that others can't think of what you can think of? Listen to me, don't go to the supply and marketing cooperatives, go to the food trade area over on the commercial street to buy it."

"Uncle, the things over there in the commercial street are very expensive. They are at least three or four levels more expensive than the supply and marketing cooperative." Zhang Mingguo couldn't help but interrupt.

Seeing that there was no one else around, Liu Jinde lowered his voice and said, "It's a little expensive, but money is not that important in this situation. First of all, we still have to stock up on some supplies. The most important thing is that the supplies there are still complete. If we wait a little longer and the supplies at the supply and marketing cooperative are sold out, the commercial district will be out of stock sooner or later."

When the father and son heard this, they immediately thought it made sense, so they looked up at the sky. It was cloudless and the sun was setting. Zhang Mingguo rode a bicycle to the commercial area first, while Zhang Youfan got on a second-hand electric scooter that Liu Jinde had just bought some time ago, and the two set off towards the commercial area.