Surviving the end of the world

The sun is not so venomous now, and everyone has gradually returned to a more normal routine. After all, it is very harmful to the body to turn the day and night upside down.The sweet potatoes cut into strips were drying in the yard, and now they are half-dried, showing a grayish-white color. Chen Jin and Bai Jing sat in a cool place, chatting and laughing while picking corn kernels.

A few skinny sparrows are jumping in the yard. These birds have tenaciously survived the difficult days. Now at this time, they are trying to accumulate some energy to survive the next winter.

There was a rare calm in the village.Although there is no rice, the yield of corn, sweet potatoes and potatoes is very high. As long as they are stored well, they can be eaten for two or three years. Coarse grains in the city are much more expensive than refined grains.Sweet potatoes don't last long, but it's no problem to eat sweet potato powder for two years. Potatoes or something, sprouts, just bury them in the ground, and after a while, there will be new potatoes to eat.

There are no entertainment activities, the previous winter was too cold, many things that people could burn were burned clean, not even a deck of cards, but there are still a lot of mahjong, and those who are free simply get together to play mahjong, playing less , Just bet some peanuts or something, just have fun.As for the children, it is much better. After all, even in the countryside, they are very fond of children. I am reluctant to spend money on buying food and toys for the children, but I am never reluctant to buy them. Although many toys are worn out, it is better than Not strong, and the kids had fun together too.

Nowadays, the more embarrassing age groups are those half-grown children. If these things hadn’t happened, they would still be studying in school. These children have never suffered in their lives. Exactly.They are in the developmental stage of "half-year-old children, eating poor old men", and they are all only children. They are pampered at home, and they still don't know how to do much work. Now they don't study, there is no game room, no TV, no Internet. There is almost nothing to do to pass the time.

Fortunately, ever since someone ran into the village and stole the grain from the field, the people in the village became nervous. They stole from the field before, what if they stole it into someone's house!Therefore, seeing these half-grown children doing nothing, they simply gathered them together and asked them to patrol the village to prevent anyone from coming and stepping on them.

This was indeed useful. In less than half a month, several groups of people had been discovered, and the villagers drove away angrily with broom sticks.However, those people quickly changed their approach and strategy. Instead of running over to steal, they pretended to be pitiful. Did the adults pretend to be pitiful? It was mainly children, and some old people. They went door-to-door along the path to beg. When everyone looked at me pitifully, they would always scoop out a bowl of corn dregs and take a few sweet potatoes over there. However, they soon discovered that there are quite a lot of such people, and no one has the kindness and ability to help them every day. Those who came to beg, especially after someone found out that a child with an old man actually stole a few eggs that had just been laid in the chicken coop while no one was paying attention, when you met these people, they didn't even let them in. up.

Chen Jin and Bai Jing's sympathy is also very limited. It is impossible to be a good person these days, and no one can stop others from treating their own house as a charitable hall. Therefore, when Chen Jin and the others meet such a person, they just ignore it.

But there are also some special ones. The peddler reappeared after more than ten years of disappearance. The first one appeared was a middle-aged man. Chen Jin knew him. This man was from the town. When Chen Jin went to school in the town, he He opened a small shop in the town, selling everything. At the moment, he is riding a somewhat worn-out bicycle, selling things along the road. He sells toothpaste, soap, washing powder and so on. The quantity is not much, probably the same as before. Purchased when the store opened.

Toothpaste and soap are not considered necessities nowadays, but everyone still came here to ask about the price and some things about the town.People who do business are generally very articulate. This middle-aged man is desperately selling his products while sighing that his life is hard.

According to him, he was foolish and made some money in the town. When he turned from farming to non-agricultural, he spent a lot of money to change his household registration to non-agricultural one. As a result, he naturally lost his land. Well, my father and mother do have land, but the brothers have a share, and the land left in his hands is less than an acre.Rice was planted on that spot before, but when it got hot, it all disappeared.

But everyone knows that these words are a bit inaccurate, but they still won't say it out of their mouths, and they bargain while saying meaningless words of advice.

The middle-aged man smiled apologetically there: "Several brothers and sisters-in-law, these things are all ordered now, and there is nowhere to buy them if you want to buy them in the future! Maybe the adults can make do with them, but when the children are teething and growing their bodies, how can you buy them?" How often do you brush your teeth, and what’s more, the more you get to this kind of time, the more you need to pay attention to hygiene! Now I have fleas and lice, but I can’t even find insecticides! Several elder brothers and sisters-in-law think this is true! And , My price is not expensive! Look at this tube of toothpaste, even in the past, it cost seven or eight yuan. My wife and children are still waiting for the food to be cooked! Three catties of corn dregs, dried sweet potatoes are fine, if it is sweet potatoes Or potatoes, it costs five catties, how about it, it's cheap enough!"

Seeing that the people around were a little moved, he quickly said: "These few catties of food are just one or two meals. Buy a tube of toothpaste or a piece of soap and go back. Save it, and the whole family can use it for a month or two." !"

What he said was quite reasonable. After thinking about it, a group of people still said: "Okay, you wait here for a while, let's go back and get the food!"

The middle-aged man couldn't help but smile, and agreed repeatedly.Soon, everyone came over with their own food, and the middle-aged man quickly took out a steelyard and weighed it.

Chen Jin and Bai Jing spent five catties of sweet potatoes to buy a tube of toothpaste for a moment. The middle-aged man didn’t bring much, but he returned with a full load when he left. Chen Jin looked at the box on the back seat of the bicycle that was almost full He shook his head in his heart, there was no one on this road for a long stretch, and this person was so ostentatious, if he met someone with malicious intentions who wanted to get away, he would be in big trouble.

Chen Jin never knew that she had the talent of a crow's mouth. A few days later, seven or eight people came to sell salt with baskets on their backs. People snatched it away, but fortunately those people didn't hurt anyone, so they went home wholeheartedly.

These salt sellers also learned a lesson, they no longer came out alone, but a group of people went out together to avoid problems on the road.

The salt they brought was coarse salt, which was yellowish in color and tasted a bit bitter. The people who bought the salt frowned. This kind of coarse salt was not acceptable for pickling vegetables in the past.

The young man who was holding the scale beam and scooping it out bit by bit with a small spoon said with a smile: "Nowadays, the price of refined salt is not affordable by ordinary people, that's all, we only got it back after riding for two days! Don’t think it’s expensive, we’re just making errand money, and most of our heads are pinched by people who dry the salt!”

Another young man also sighed, with an envious look on his face: "No, even though our place is less than two hundred miles away from the sea, the nearby soldiers have already occupied it. They are drying salt over there, and whoever wants salt has to exchange it for grain! Why didn’t I join the army back then!”

"What are you kidding, if you go to serve as a soldier, it won't be your turn to be there. The people who go to serve as soldiers here are all in the northwest and southwest!" Another person snorted softly, "Those who serve as soldiers Can't you tell the accent, it's probably from the north!"

Knowing the whole story, after listening to a few people describe how expensive refined salt is, the villagers dare not be picky anymore. A pack of coarse salt can cost ten catties of grain. It can’t be sweet potatoes, at least it must be dried sweet potatoes , Everyone carefully scraped the salt grains from the weighing pan into the salt shaker, for fear that one grain would fall off, and it would be too bad.

When someone was hesitating whether to buy more, a young man said, "Don't worry, we will come over after a while. If we don't sell salt, we won't have anything to eat!"

When the nearby people heard the news, they all bought a catty or two of salt and went back with some distress, secretly hoping that the price of the salt would come down. After picking up the baskets containing grain and salt, they turned a corner and continued selling.