After the disaster

Not two days after this incident, Xinnan City organized another group of people to go to the countryside. Qiu Cheng heard from someone in the night market that this time people were all transferred from administrative agencies and public institutions. The government does not need to increase food expenditures.

When the food crisis came, everything other than food in the night market became worthless. Ah Chang followed Qiu Cheng to the night market every night, and found that his treasures were far less popular than voles, and he couldn't help but feel a little disappointed.

The old cat is right, voles are indeed a good thing, he was so stupid before, if only he could catch more voles at that time, he could find a special room to raise voles, raise a room full of voles, Qiu Cheng must be very happy to see it, right?

Ah Chang squatted outside the terrace and sighed. Qiu Cheng didn't know what he was struggling with. He just said he was going to pick tomatoes, but he squatted there for a long time and didn't come in.

Qiu Chenghe is very busy these days, busy collecting wood and nailing wooden baskets.The pile of clothes he sorted out a while ago was worthless, so he found some worn-out clothes with stronger fabrics, disassembled them and pieced them together to make a layer of lining for these wooden baskets that had just been nailed. , With this layer of lining, when the soil is poured into the wooden basket, it will not leak out through the gaps. Most of the fabrics of the clothes are very breathable, and good air permeability is conducive to the growth of plants.

"Ah Chang, thread the needle." Qiu Cheng sat on the sofa and sewed. Seeing that there were no needles threaded on the coffee table, he called out to the balcony.

"Oh." Ah Chang scratched his hair in frustration, stood up from the terrace, walked through several tomato plants half a person's height, returned to the living room, squatted next to Qiu Cheng, took the scissors, and He swept the thin needles that Qiu Cheng had just used from the coffee table, and threaded them one by one.

He stretched his neck, held the embroidery needle at the level of his eyes, frowned, fixed his eyes on the needle hole, held the end of the thread in one hand, and the end of the thread slowly passed through the needle hole. The amplitude is slowly bent up.

After threading a needle, he looked at Qiu Cheng happily. Seeing that Qiu Cheng was struggling with a pair of jeans, he didn't notice him at all, so he drooped the corners of his mouth in frustration, and continued to wear the second pair...

"Ding dong... ding dong, ding, dong..."

"Who is it?" The doorbell rang, and Qiu Cheng thought it should be Shen Xing, and she seemed to be the only one who would come here.

Last night, Shen Xing came again and told Qiu Cheng that if he could ask for a hundred catties of the broken jade, she would only accept 75 corn cakes. After thinking about it, Qiu Cheng bargained for [-] corn cakes. It's settled.

"Hello, we are upstairs." A woman's voice came from outside the door, but it was not Shen Xing.

"What's the matter?" Qiu Cheng saw a middle-aged couple standing outside the door through the cat's eyes.

"We hear someone is buying the upstairs house, is that you?" asked the woman.

"Where did you hear that?" Qiu Cheng opened the door and went out, closed the door behind him, and stood in the corridor talking to them.

It's a bit strange that this couple came to the door like this. Although he asked Shen Xing to contact him about buying a house, Shen Xing is also a shrewd person. It is impossible to let the other party know who the buyer is before the business is negotiated. What can happen to her?

Qiu Chengcheng was not good at bargaining, and he didn't have that much time and energy. If he really had the time, he might as well study the "Moo Xiu Notebook".

"Hey, the room above your house belongs to my sister-in-law." The woman said.

"She told you?" Qiu Cheng heard from Shen Xing that the couple upstairs are very shrewd people. Now is the critical period of bargaining. , and they probably don't know who the buyer is.

"No, I heard what my sister-in-law said about it yesterday. The child's father and I were thinking about it. Anyway, we have nothing to do today, so we came to inquire. They said that you live in the fourteenth and fifteenth floors. , we’ll come over and ask.”

The downstairs resident told them a lot. The man first hesitantly revealed something to them, and then they took out a tortilla, and the other party said everything.

"...You said that someone wants to buy a house on the fifteenth floor. I don't see anyone else but him. Every night when he goes out, he doesn't come back until midnight. A few days ago, I saw that he got a lot of money from nowhere. The clothes are transported to the riverside for washing one by one, and the clothes are still on the surface, who knows what else he has at home?"

"In the past few days, I brought back a man with long hair, tall and strong, and looked very fierce. Last time I looked at them twice, ouch, you don't know, he looked back at me That look is really scary..."

"Which upstairs room do you live in?" Qiu Cheng didn't know that the residents downstairs had said many "good things" about him.

"1501, 1502, 1503, 1504, all belong to our family." The woman said happily, it seems that they really found the right person.

"What price do you plan to sell?" The locations of 1501-1504 are all good, they are all south-facing houses, and they can be planted in a gathering array to grow crops.

The woman glanced at her husband, and the man immediately asked for a price: "One square meter and one catty of cornmeal."

"I can't afford it." Qiu Cheng shook his head, took out the key from his pocket, and planned to open the door and enter the house.He can talk to Shen Xing about this matter later today, and ask her to talk to these two people.

"Hey, how much do you say?" The woman hurriedly said.

"How much did you pay for those houses?" Qiu Cheng asked.

"More than 130 million, why are you asking this?" the man said.

"Then I will give you more than 130 catties of cornmeal. The exact amount depends on your original house purchase contract." Qiu Cheng offered a very generous price. More than 130 catties of cornmeal, if you save some food, should be enough for them to get through the most difficult situation right now. It's been two or three months.

"1 yuan for a catty of cornmeal?" The woman's face was a little bit indignant, but also a little heartbroken and helpless.

"It can't be calculated like this." Qiu Cheng frowned: "Even if the banknotes are still useful, the house can't be the same price as before. So many people have died, and there are many empty houses all over the country that no one wants, and they are worthless at all. Besides, right now You also know the situation, the houses in the city center can’t be sold, let alone this area, the price I offered is already very kind, if you think about it, if you want to increase the price, it’s impossible.”

These are all obvious things, but this woman ignores it and only calculates gains and losses from her own point of view. If everyone calculates like her, can this day survive?

"I heard that the college entrance examination will resume in June this year, and the area will be lively by then." The man tried to get more cornmeal.

Just like what Qiu Cheng said, people in Xinnan City have been in panic recently, and they hold on to some food in their hands and refuse to take it out. Several houses in the city center of their family can’t be sold. Someone asked for a price, and the price was ridiculously low. Relatively speaking, the price Qiu Cheng offered was indeed kind.

"Even if the college entrance examination is resumed, how many candidates can there be in all parts of the country?" What's more, the Xinnan University here is not even second-rate among many domestic institutions of higher learning.

"Do you want all four houses? When will you trade them?" The man gritted his teeth and made a decision.

"Now I don't have that much cornmeal on hand. I hand over one house first, and then sign a contract, agreeing to complete the transaction of the remaining three houses within one month."

"Room 1501 first." The woman spoke again, her heart ached, her livelihood was in front of her eyes, no matter how unwilling she was, she had no choice but to admit it. Room 1501 has the largest area and the best location, and it was bought with the most money at the beginning. With this food, it can be guaranteed that no one in their family will starve to death in the next month.

"Okay, how about I exchange 1 catties of corn tortillas for 5.5 catties of cornmeal?" The exchange ratio of corn tortillas and cornmeal is generally [-]:[-] at the night market. Qiu Cheng hopes to save as much as possible.

"It's not as much as twenty catties. If you can't finish it, it will be spoiled. Just ten catties." The woman waved her hand.Now there are many people in the market who exchange cornmeal and tortillas to earn the difference. They hold six catties of cornmeal, but they can’t get back ten catties of corn cakes, at least six and a half catties.

"So, when will the deal be made?" Qiu Cheng had no objection.

"Tomorrow morning at ten o'clock, you bring your things to the housing management office." The man said.

"By the way, you don't have a mortgage on that house, right?" Qiu Cheng suddenly thought of a question.

"Don't worry, you can check it when the time comes."

Back in the house, Qiu Cheng couldn't help but went to the terrace to look at the corn again. The corn cobs had grown up, but they were still a little tender. Qiu Cheng chose one of the corn plants, broke off the two corn cobs on it, and then peeled off the corn cobs. Pulled it out, loosened the soil with a shovel on the side, added some retting goat manure and mixed it, took a small potato from the house and buried it, and poured water on it.

Qiu Cheng found an enamel basin, peeled off the corn husks, put them on with long chopsticks, and planned to roast the corn in the living room. The enamel basin was not placed directly on the floor, but an upside-down wooden basket was placed underneath.

Ever since Ah Chang confiscated his treasures, there have been a lot of miscellaneous things in their house, like the pile of needles and threads they used just now, and this enamel plate, and there are a lot more in the empty room opposite. When things are needed, they go to get them.

Ah Chang used to steal the corn outside the temporary base, but he had never eaten roasted corn. He watched curiously from the sidelines, and when the two corns gave off bursts of sweetness, he couldn't sit still. He kept circling around Qiu Cheng like a cat, until Qiu Cheng roasted the two corns and handed him one.

"Is it delicious?" Qiu Cheng couldn't help laughing when he saw that Ah Chang finished eating the corn kernels and was still holding the corn cobs and refused to let go. He himself hadn't eaten such tender and delicious roasted corn for a long time.

"Delicious." Ah Chang licked his lips, and couldn't help but look at the half roasted corn left in Qiu Cheng's hand.

"You can eat." Seeing him like this, Qiu Cheng couldn't help but treat him like a child again.

"No." Ah Chang lowered his head shyly, and pulled the unrecognizable corn cob that he gnawed.

"Eat, I'm full." Qiu Cheng handed the roasted corn to him again.

"?" Are you full?Ah Chang looked at him suspiciously.

"I'm full." Qiu Cheng smiled at him, his eyes were clear and clear, and he didn't seem to be lying at all.

Ah Chang took a bite of the half roasted corn, and was immediately fascinated by the ultimate delicacy. His eyes, which were always full of vigilance, couldn't help but narrowed. He was secretly delighted that Qiu Cheng only needed to eat so little It's good to be full...