After the disaster

After changing the anti-theft door and scraping the putty, Qiu Cheng started to repair the fish pond. He planned to repair the fish pond in 1505. This is also a small suite with one bedroom, one bathroom and no living room. According to the original design, the kitchen can be placed on the balcony , but it is not separated separately. If the residents feel that it is not needed, they do not need to make a kitchen.

The Jiayuan Community is next to the New South University. There are many students in the school with better family conditions who rent houses outside. These residents generally do not open fire. There is a student street nearby. There is also a cafeteria in the school. It is very convenient to eat. convenient.

There are some small-capital investors in the city who specifically targeted this market, bought houses next to the school for rent, waited for a few years when the house prices rose, and then sold them for a profit.This is also the main reason why Qiu Cheng only encountered four mortgages when he bought ten apartments upstairs. Otherwise, in Xinnan City, most citizens would choose mortgages when buying houses.

Room 1505, the entrance is a corridor, the bathroom is on the left, and the wall is on the right.Qiu Cheng picked some bricks from the outside and after soaking them in water, he built a low wall less than half a meter high at the end of this short walkway.

After entering the house, there is no partition between the balcony and the back room, but at the place where the sliding door is installed, there are beams on the top and wall piles on both sides. Iron railings are installed outside the balcony, and Qiu Chengcheng also built a low wall inside the iron railings.

Then Qiu Cheng put mirror stickers on the walls and ceiling of this room. They bought more than seven rolls of mirror stickers. Each roll was 50 meters long. After finishing the wall of 1505, there is not much left, probably not enough for another room.

He didn't start to apply waterproof mortar until the two low walls were almost dry. In order to prevent water leakage to the greatest extent, he applied thicker layers of waterproof mortar successively.The fish pond that was finally repaired was about [-] square meters, and the height was less than half a meter. Considering the load bearing of the floor, Qiu Cheng planned to only put water in the pool at a height of [-] centimeters.

"Is it dry?" This morning Qiu Cheng and Ah Chang went to 1505 to check whether the waterproof mortar was dry. Ah Chang tapped the ground that had been wiped with waterproof mortar, and it felt cool and hard, but he didn't know Did this count as doing it, so I had no choice but to turn around and ask Qiu Cheng.

"It's almost there." Qiu Cheng was also carefully checking the situation in the room at this time.

"Can I raise fish?" Ah Chang asked again.When Qiu Cheng was building this fish pond, he told him before that when it was finished, the fish at home could be kept here and fed to them every day, and the fish would grow fast.But the fish pond was not finished yet, but it started to rain and the weather was humid, so the completed fish pond dried very slowly.

"Yes." Qiu Cheng nodded and said to him, "Go and get the mirror first."

"Okay." Ah Chang went happily, and ran to 1501 to bring some dressing mirrors. These mirrors were bought from the night market two days ago, and they were of different colors and styles.

When he brought the mirrors over, Qiu Cheng had already brought a few wooden baskets from other places, and put them upside down on the inside of the pool near the balcony railing, arranged them neatly in a row, and then brought Ah Chang's baskets over. The fitting mirror is placed on it, and the angle is adjusted so that the mirror reflects the light from the outside into the house.

Even in cloudy and rainy weather, the light reflected from these mirrors still made the room much brighter. Ah Chang watched Qiu Cheng's every move. As the light in the room became brighter and brighter, the light on his face His expression seemed to brighten up.

"Will you put water?" Ah Chang asked immediately after Qiu Cheng adjusted the angle of the mirror.

Rainy days are not completely useless. Recently, they put a lot of pots and buckets on the roof to catch rainwater. They even built a simple sink with a very wide and large tarpaulin, and fixed the two sides of the tarpaulin to the roof. On the two railings in one corner, the other two sides are raised and fixed with some sundries such as tables, chairs and benches.

Their crops don't need to be watered on rainy days, and they don't consume much water every day. Ah Chang and Qiu Cheng put the rainwater in the middle of the tarpaulin into various containers every day, just waiting for the fish pond to be put into use.

"Plant grass first." Qiu Cheng said.

"!" Ah Chang opened his eyes wide, not quite understanding what Qiu Cheng meant by planting grass.

A lot of wooden baskets have been piled up in the vacant rooms next door these days. The wooden baskets are lined with cloth, and some have even been filled with soil. They are waiting for the weather to clear up to plant crops. In days without sun, No matter how strong the aura is, the crops cannot grow well.

Qiu Cheng moved several wooden baskets filled with soil to 1506, and then used a shovel, together with the soil and grass, to shovel a piece of turf and put it on top of the basket of soil. After loading several baskets of grass, he and Together, Ah Chang moved these wooden baskets to 1505, and placed a few baskets in each of the four corners of the fish pond.

"I'm going to fetch water!" Ah Chang looked left and right, and felt that it should be almost ready to fill it with water now.

"Do you know about siphons?" Qiu Cheng turned to look at him and asked with a smile in his eyes.

"I don't know." The cat man lowered his head in shame. He didn't know what a siphon was. He even learned to speak recently.

"It's okay, I'll teach you." Qiu Cheng smiled, put his arm around his shoulders, and went to 1501 to find leather tubes. He remembered seeing a bundle of them when he brought the sundries from Ah Chang's strongholds. The leather tube, the two rummaged for a while in the pile of debris piled up like a hill, before finally finding it out.

Qiu Cheng took the roll of water pipe upstairs, rolled up his trouser legs and climbed into the water tank they built with tarpaulin. Right above 1505, he hung one end of the pipe from the roof to check that the length was about the same, and then used a rope to Fix the leather pipe on the railing, then look at the remaining half of the leather pipe in your hand, take out the knife in your pocket and cut it, put the excess water pipe aside, and connect it to the one downstairs into the sink at his feet.

After finishing all this, Qiu Cheng took Ah Chang downstairs again, entered 1505, and pulled the leather tube hanging outside the railing into the room, and then Ah Chang saw him put the leather tube in his mouth and suck continuously. Sucking and sucking, the water came out and flowed non-stop. Qiu Cheng threw the leather tube on the floor, and it was still flowing. Ah Chang watched helplessly as more and more water filled the pool, soaking the ground, Slowly getting higher and higher, submerging the two of their feet...

"Go up and have a look." Qiu Cheng said again at this time.Ah Chang had no objection at all, and followed him up to the roof.

They stood by the sink and waited until the rainwater in the sink was pumped out. Qiu Cheng climbed in again, blocked the opening of the leather tube with his thumb, and took it out of the shallow puddle. Put in a large pitcher by the sink.

Ah Chang watched as he pinched the pipe and changed the place again and again, and then the rainwater in those containers was sucked away bit by bit. They didn't even make a little effort, and all the water flowed into the repaired fish pond.

While pumping water, Qiu Cheng asked Ah Chang to run down to look at it. When the water in the fish pond overflowed a red line he had drawn on the wall, he pulled the pipe out of the water. This time, he did not hold down the leather pipe with his thumb. As soon as this end of the leather tube leaves the water, the air will follow in, and this time the siphon is over.

Qiu Cheng untied the rope on the railing, and retracted the leather tubes one by one. Ah Chang stood aside and watched with admiration, as if even Qiu Cheng's movement of collecting the water tube was full of magical power.

"Is it fun?" Qiu Cheng couldn't help laughing.

"En!" Ah Chang nodded vigorously.

"Want to learn?" Qiu Cheng asked him again.

"Hmm!" Ah Chang nodded desperately.

"Okay, let's start class today." Qiu Cheng made a decision.

It was raining patter outside, Qiu Cheng and Ah Chang stayed on the roof for a while, and both of them were drenched by a lot of rainwater. After going downstairs, they poured the fish into the newly built fish pond on the fifteenth floor, and then Another large pot of hot water was boiled, the two of them took a bath each, and then began class.

Qiu Cheng didn't have primary school textbooks, but he had a Xinhua dictionary on his bookshelf. First, he taught Ah Chang the 26 Chinese pinyin letters, and then let him read the characters with the dictionary.

Ah Chang just learned Qiu Cheng's pronunciation before speaking. In fact, he didn't learn some sounds like them. After he learned Pinyin, he understood how these pronunciations came from. It's a bit stiff, and the tone of voice is a bit weird. For this, Qiu Cheng can only ask him to practice more.

"Goose, goose, goose, singing to the sky..." It was another rainy day. Qiu Cheng and Ah Chang didn't go out. Cheng Cheng picked up the "Selected Nursery Rhymes" from the night market to practice speaking.

Qiu Cheng was sitting on the other side of the sofa at this time, and he set up a chopping board on the tea table to chop peppers. He asked Lao Feng about how to make tomato chili sauce two days ago.It’s been raining a lot lately, and they don’t go to the night market very much. Everything else in the house is fine, but the tomato can’t be put in. It’s a pity that it’s rotten. It’s too much for the people of Xinnan City who don’t like spicy food. Unattractive.

Qiu Cheng asked Lao Feng how to make tomato and chili sauce. Lao Feng's mother used to make this often, and she asked when she went back. It is said that his grandma taught them the following daughters-in-law back then. In a developed country, many life experiences must be passed on by word of mouth.

This method is also very simple to make. You don’t even need to boil it. Just chop the tomatoes, peppers, ginger, and garlic, and add some salt to marinate for a few days.

Qiu Cheng has marinated a lot of tomato and chili sauce these days, and he plans to sell them when the weather is better.He also planted a lot of Chinese cabbage on the terrace in 1506 and 1507, and Chinese cabbage can grow well under the condition of insufficient sunlight.

Other crops did not grow very well, especially the corn in 1501. Qiu Cheng thought that as the weather got warmer, the intensity of sunshine in May should be much better than that in early April. This batch of corn should grow better That's right, I didn't expect to catch up with the rainy day again, and I didn't know if there would be a harvest in the end. If it didn't work, I had to pull out the corn stalks to feed the goats and voles, as well as the grass carp upstairs.

Ah Chang read two more nursery rhymes, then lost his patience and yawned out of boredom, and leaned over to watch Qiu Cheng chop peppers.

"Watching TV?" Qiu Cheng asked him.

"Don't look." Ah Chang spit out two words clearly.

"Then help me pick off the pepper stalks."

"Oh." Ah Chang responded, and obediently picked the pepper stalks.

There was the sound of chopping vegetables in the room, and the sound of rain "rustling" outside the window. Ah Chang raised his head to look at Qiu Cheng from time to time. As long as he looked at it with his eyes, he couldn't help laughing happily.

"Yaoshou! Why are there so many bugs!" At this time, someone downstairs suddenly shouted.

Qiu Cheng and Ah Chang looked at each other, and hurriedly ran to the bedroom window to have a look. At a glance, they saw a few people standing on the ground not far in front of their community. It was raining heavily, and some of them even had umbrellas. They didn't call, and Qiu Cheng still knew one of them, that is, the aunt who sold electricity to them.

Behind their community is a student street next to Xinnan University, in front of it is a field, and across the field is the main road.Many of those fields were deserted. A few days ago, nearby residents inquired clearly that several fields were temporarily unowned, and the city did not make specific arrangements, so they planted things on them.

The city actually encouraged the citizens to do this, and even arranged staff to come down to care about their planting situation. When these staff came, everyone felt at ease. Halfway through, the land should be taken back.

"What kind of insects are these? There are so many!" Qiu Cheng heard someone below ask.The fourteenth floor is a bit high, but their voices are not low. Since Qiu Cheng started practicing, his hearing has been very good. Now that he concentrates on listening, he can hear clearly.

"Armyworms." An old man said: "Our place is afraid of armyworms. It used to be plagued by many pests. Over the past few decades, pesticides have been used a lot, and there are fewer such insects. Young people today don't even know that there is such a thing." It's over."

"Then what should we do?" the aunt in 201 asked quickly.

"What are you panicking about? Catch as many as you can. This land has been deserted for years, and it's normal to have some bugs." The old man comforted her.

"Oh, there are so many bugs, I don't know how many crop seedlings will be eaten." A young woman holding an umbrella said.

As soon as she said this, the atmosphere suddenly became serious. If the crops were eaten by bugs, what would they eat in the future?In the past five years, everyone was really hungry and scared. They thought that the situation would get better after leaving the temporary base and returning home. They didn't expect this year to be so full of disasters.

"What are you talking about? There are bugs that don't know how to use pesticides? Oh, even if the crops are bitten, they won't make up for it?" the old man said in a deep voice.

"Why are you so fierce? I'm just saying that. Besides, you said that you can make up a crop? You have to have seeds first. Didn't I hear that many seed companies were blown up?" This woman is quite quick-witted, and what she said is reasonable, that is, which pot should not be opened and which pot should be lifted.

"Don't say these things are useless, you go back first, I will help Aunt Chen catch insects." The young man who spoke was probably the husband of the woman just now.

"Thank you, hello, both of you husband and wife are enthusiastic people." said the aunt in 201.Qiu Cheng basically didn't deal with people in the community, and he didn't know her original surname was Chen, so they called her Aunt Chen.

"Ni, take your brother back quickly, grandma is here to catch bugs." Aunt Chen said to her granddaughter who was holding an umbrella.

"I'll help grandma catch bugs." The childish voice of the little girl came from under the umbrella.

"Ancestor, go back quickly, don't catch a cold again." Aunt Chen seemed not in the mood to coax her grandson at this moment.

"..." The little girl hesitated for a moment, and finally obediently took her brother home.

"Uncle Long, you go back too, don't get caught in the rain here." Aunt Chen waved for the old man to go back too.

"What is this little drizzle? I think back in 98 when we fought against the flood..."

"You think you are still the same age as you were back then, so go back quickly." Seeing that he didn't listen to advice, Aunt Chen stretched out her hand to push him. The aunt in her 50s is just at the time when she has great strength. Pushed and went to the building in front.

The two had just walked a few steps when they saw Qiu Cheng coming out of the building with Ah Chang, who was still carrying a red bucket in his hand.

"It's raining heavily, where are you two going?" Aunt Chen knew Qiu Cheng, so she wouldn't pretend she didn't see him at this time, and she definitely wanted to say hello.

"Go to the field to catch some bugs and feed them to the voles." Qiu Cheng smiled.