Early the next morning after returning home, Qiao Xi went to an indoor shooting club that he often went to. Given the age of my parents, it is far more practical and effective for them to practice boxing and kicking than to practice marksmanship. It is not convenient for them to practice at home during the beginner stage. Once they get started, they can practice in the basement of their home.
I hope that the pace of the apocalypse will be slower and slower, so that parents can have enough time to practice their marksmanship.
The shooting club is on the first floor of the film and television city. The building is full of entertainment venues. At this time, all doors are closed. She went to the community to find someone. She had known the boss for several years and had some friendship. She knew where he lived. She didn't know which building or floor she was in, but she could ask the security guard.
The security guard who took the money happily agreed to help her go in and ask around. Half an hour later, the boss, holding a sun umbrella and waving a fan, followed the security guard out.
The boss quickly climbed into the car and sighed comfortably. The first sentence he said was: "I can't live without air conditioning these days." Fortunately, he got a gasoline generator, otherwise the whole family would have to go to a summer resort to stay with others. Crowded and live a collective life without privacy.
The second sentence teased Qiao Xi: "On this hot day, you still have time to play shooting."
Qiao Xi shrugged: "Then why are you staying at home all day? It's not convenient to go anywhere now. Your store is empty anyway. Rent it to me. I'll pay the deposit. If anything is damaged, you can deduct it from the deposit. , make up for it if it's not enough."
If it weren't for money, the boss wouldn't be willing to go out on a hot day. The next thing to talk about is the deposit and rent. The boss knows that Qiao Xi owns a restaurant and wants food as rent. The queues in the supermarket are torture to death. Buying at high prices outside is a trap. He is hard to guard against: "I can accept a pound of pork worth 100 yuan, but I can't accept that this meat is smelly! I haven't given birth to a son." That bastard actually froze the smelly meat and sold it. An old man in our community was already in poor health. He had a bad nose due to his age and couldn't smell it. After eating this meat, he would be dead that night. I'm angry that the bastard ran away after hearing the news. How can I catch him in this situation?"
In the past, there was no shortage of such unscrupulous businesses selling substandard goods, let alone now. As the apocalypse continues to intensify, society will only become more and more collapsed.
Qiao Xi could only sigh and said: "I want to use your place, and I will definitely not give you bad things."
The boss knew this and had some understanding of her character. The two agreed that the monthly rent would be 50,000 yuan, to be paid monthly, and another 300,000 yuan would be paid as a deposit. The equipment there is not cheap, that is, the current situation is poor, otherwise the boss would not be willing to rent it out. In total, Qiao Xi received 300,000 yuan in cash and 50,000 yuan worth of rice, flour, oil, fish, meat, vegetables and fruit packaged food.
The boss is not short of cash. He pawned a famous watch for some money and has not used it up yet. He is short of food. What Qiao Xi lacked the most was food, and acquaintance gave him such great convenience. When calculating the price of supplies, she made a huge profit.
Everyone gets what they need and everyone is happy.
The two agreed to meet at the door of the club an hour later. Qiao Xi wanted to go back to 'load' the supplies. When the time came, he would hand over the keys in one hand and the supplies in the other.
"Take these two watermelons away in the car. I remember you have a son. It's a gift for the children." Qiao Xi pointed to the watermelons in the back. Watermelons can still be bought outside. Many vendors bring them here from other places to sell them. , there is nothing wrong with it except that it is expensive. Communication was blocked, and most of the logistics were paralyzed. At the same time, the high temperature and scorching sun killed a large number of crops, resulting in supply exceeding demand and a complete seller's market.
The boss said cheerfully: "I won't be polite to you anymore."
Soon after, the boss arrived at the shooting club with another partner who held a small stake in two cars, and Qiao Xi also arrived in a van.
After the materials were handed over, the partners left first with the food that needed to be put in the refrigerator as soon as possible. The boss and Qiao Xi held up flashlights and took videos while walking around the club, looking back to confirm whether there was any loss. Friendship is friendship, and trading is trading.
"I've put away the real ones. I'm worried that something might happen. I've already come to say hello to you. We can only provide imitation | real | guns. In fact, the bullets are different from the real ones, so they shoot just fine. You can use these guns and rubber bullets as you like. The price is Don't forget about it, I know what you gave me is more than 50,000 yuan."
Qiao Xi smiled, and the two parties signed the handwritten contract. After a while, the sweaty boss put down the key and left quickly. This day was going to make people roasted.
Qiao Xi returned home with the key, and Qiao Yuanshan and Xi Jingyun were cooking in the basement. Taking advantage of the fact that the current situation is good, every household in the community has a surplus of food, so they don't have to worry about eating and drinking, so they quickly make some strong-tasting dishes.
Today I'm going to make roast suckling pig, which is the restaurant's signature dish and can sell thousands of them a month. These small fragrant pigs weighing four to five kilograms were obtained by Qiao Xi from the slaughterhouse. It took no more than six hours from the time they were processed to the time they were put into the space. They were very fresh.
The small fragrant pigs have been preliminarily cleaned in the slaughterhouse. Xi Yun is responsible for rinsing them again. Qiao Yuanshan uses a knife to spread the sauce, and then sets them aside to marinate for five or six hours to absorb the flavor. Then put it into the rotary oven. After 40 minutes, prick it evenly with steel needles, apply a layer of sauce and oil, and bake it for an hour before taking it out of the oven.
In just a short while, the two long stainless steel tables were already filled with little fragrant pigs waiting to be marinated.
Qiao Xi then grabbed a small fragrant pig and talked about the club while washing it: "I'll go over there after lunch and have a look. I practice for an afternoon every day, and when I'm tired, I'll take a rest. I'll take whatever step I can practice."
Qiao Yuanshan and Xi Yun naturally agreed that they did not want to be a burden to their daughter. Even if they could not help, they still hoped to protect themselves so that their daughter would have no worries.
The underground floor of the film and television city has become a business place. There is no underground parking lot, and cars can only park under the building next to it.
Qiao Xi opened the trunk and moved the battery to the trolley. Of course, he could only solve the problem of electricity by himself. I pushed it all the way to the shooting club, opened the door and went in, found the distribution box and started to connect the power supply.
She slowed down her movements and explained step by step so that parents could see clearly how to operate. There are many skills that are not overwhelming, and you never know when to use them. She is the best example. Those things that she learned on a whim back then gradually began to work.
The power is turned on, the lights are on, and only the air conditioning of one shooting room is turned on, which can accommodate four people shooting at the same time. They are all people who have played it several times. They don't need Qiao Xi to teach them step by step, they only need occasional guidance.
After practicing for a long time, I went home. After dinner, the family continued to cook in the basement. While they were busy, the doorbell rang. To be cautious, Qiao Xi put everything away for only a minute before the family went up to the first floor.
Qiao Xi didn't recognize the person standing outside the wall and ringing the doorbell. Qiao Yuanshan and Xi Jingyun felt familiar, but they couldn't remember him.
The other person introduced himself as the nanny of a certain owner's house. Some nannies from the owner's house were reluctant to go home due to the high salary, and some were recruited again after the original nannies left. Nowadays, the majority of nannies are unemployed, and they are not afraid of not being able to hire anyone.
She came to convey that the owners' meeting would be held at the community clubhouse at seven o'clock tomorrow night to discuss improving the security of the community wall.
"Okay, we'll be there on time tomorrow."
After closing the courtyard door, Qiao Xi hurried back to his cool home. Even at night, the temperature was still over 30 degrees, and the heat wave was overwhelming. What's even more worrying is that the red column on the thermometer is breaking the old record every day. It was as high as 46.7℃ at noon today. According to this trend, it will break through the 50 mark sooner or later.
As far as she knows, there is a place in Africa where the maximum temperature can reach 60 degrees Celsius, and there are still people living normally.
I hope that the temperature will not rise too much and that at least there will be some way for humans to survive.
When he learned that the owners' meeting was going to be held, Qiao Yuanshan sighed: "It seems that Mrs. Xu is really interested in this. After all, she is a self-made strong woman with little execution ability."
Mrs. Xu has a lot of experience accompanying her husband in building such a large company.
After the solar storm, many security guards resigned one after another and went home. The property management company wanted to recruit people but could not pay them wages. The property fees collected before were all in the bank. The owner of the property management company was not willing to advance the payment himself. It was not a small sum of money. No end in sight.
Therefore, Mrs. Xu, who is the director of the owners committee, convened a meeting of owners and persuaded most of the owners to agree to pay property fees on a monthly basis during this special period. She also asked security guards to patrol day and night to ensure that outsiders could not Break into the community.
Once the money is in place, the property company certainly has no objections and immediately recruits security guards to fill the gap. Veterans who live locally are preferred. If they have concerns about living locally, veterans' military strength and character are relatively more reliable.
Even with the security guard alone, Mrs. Xu was still a little worried. She knows some inside information. Experts currently hold two opinions on when power network communications can be fully restored. Optimists think it will be restored in two to three years, while pessimists think it will take at least ten years. In order to appease the people, the government promotes optimistic views.
Even if it fully recovers in two or three years, the two or three years will definitely be difficult. The shutdown of all walks of life has resulted in a large number of unemployed people, which is the biggest unstable factor in society. Once the law and order reaches a certain level, wealthy communities like theirs will sooner or later be targeted by criminals.
Therefore, after seeing the construction of Qiao's house started, Mrs. Xu immediately installed electronic grid security windows for her own house. At the same time, she took Qiao Yuanshan's suggestion into consideration, discussed it with other owners' representatives, and decided to hold this owners' meeting.
All the owners who had been notified were here. Most of them had nothing to do and were willing to join in the fun, not to mention their own safety.
There are still a lot of people. Originally, the occupancy rate of Jinlan Villa was only 50%. After the solar storm, owners of high-rise buildings in the city center moved in one after another. The villa will eventually become more comfortable to live in, and it will be more convenient to install solar panels or use a fuel generator. Today, the occupancy rate is over 80%. From one person to each family, five or six people came, and then there were hundreds of people, and it was a bustling crowd, noisy and noisy, just like going to a market.
Mrs. Xu had to say: "Let's leave two people in each family, otherwise they won't be able to stand."
After more than ten minutes, some people left, and the hall was finally no longer crowded. It was hot and it was uncomfortable to stay outside. Someone urged me at that moment: "Mrs. Xu, let's stop playing around with the nonsense. Let's get straight to the point and talk about serious matters. Now that we're done, go home early and turn on the air conditioner. After a while, my clothes are all wet."
The people next to him laughed at the scene.
Mrs. Xu also laughed and adjusted the little bee microphone next to her mouth: "Then please be quiet and listen to me."
The crowd soon fell silent.
Mrs. Xu went straight to the topic: "I came to see you today to discuss whether we should install some protective measures on the outer walls of our community to prevent people from outside from sneaking in. Everyone can see what is going on outside now. More than 99% of the companies and factories are shut down, and a large number of people are unemployed at home, but they still can't withdraw money from the bank. If this continues, some people will definitely go astray, do you think they will target us? "
Absolutely, there is no doubt about this. Otherwise, why would anyone be willing to pay property management fees to maintain security guards? Otherwise, it would be to prevent outsiders from coming in and doing bad things.
Mrs. Xu continued: "It will happen sooner or later, so I thought about installing anti-climbing spikes on the wall. Even if I try to climb over, I can't climb in. It doesn't cost much. Each family will pay 50,000 yuan, and the more will be refunded and the less will be subsidized. "
At first, I thought of electronic fences, but the community issued notices to prevent thunderstorms. At the same time, the government began to renovate important areas such as office buildings, hospitals, and summer resorts. After the above move, cautious people immediately followed suit. The stainless steel materials on the market were suddenly in short supply, and electricity was also a problem, so after discussion with several owners' representatives, they felt that anti-climbing spikes would also work.
Someone raised objections: "It's too ugly. When things get back to normal, our community will have to become a joke, and even housing prices will probably drop. In fact, there are so many security guards, and there are police and soldiers patrolling outside, so it's safe enough."
Some people echoed the sentiment.
In the past few days, many people in the community have installed electronic fences and anti-theft windows, and have renovated their nice villas into grotesque shapes. They are almost paranoid about persecution.
Mrs. Xu looked around at the people who jumped out to object, and thought to herself, no wonder, they all rely on luck to get rich. If you stand in the wind, a pig can fly into the sky. If they didn't live in the same community, she wouldn't bother to care about their life or death. Throughout the history of human development, every disaster is an attempt to eliminate the weak and retain the strong.
"The government has said that it will take at least two or three years to fully recover. Today is August 3rd, less than a month ago. What is happening outside? There are demonstrations here and petitions there. There are millions of people in Gwangjing City who are struggling to eat. It's a problem. The detention centers are full and there are so many petty thefts that they can't fit in. When more and more people are desperate, do you expect them to continue to be law-abiding and good citizens?
Every household in our community has electricity and food, how can they not be jealous? Our ancestors all said that we don't worry about scarcity, we only worry about inequality.
I recently watched an old domestic movie "194X" at home. It tells the story of an unprecedented drought in a place. Millions of people had no food to eat, but the landlords had warehouses full of surplus grain. You know what happened next? What? "
Mrs. Xu paused deliberately, leaving room for unlimited reverie, and then said in a cold voice: "Later, the victims rushed into the landlord's house, robbed the landlord's food, and killed the landlord's son. In the end, the landlord's family became The victims had to flee the famine. Along the way, the landlord's wife, daughter-in-law, and grandson all starved to death, and his daughter worked as a prostitute for five liters of rice. In the end, the landlord was left alone. The film is adapted by the author based on real historical events. The portrayal of human nature is very real. If you want to read it, you can make a copy at my house and take a good look at it when you go back."
Everyone was so shocked by what Mrs. Xu said that they were speechless for a long time.
Qiao Xi was madly calling for Mrs. Xu in his heart, and she would talk more. It is obvious that the world is deteriorating, and public security will only get worse in the future. While your money is still useful now, use it quickly.
If the external defense is well done and the internal owners are united, the community can survive for a long time unless it encounters a particularly big disaster. She doesn't want to move, let alone be homeless, so she hopes that there are more understanding people like Mrs. Xu in the community, the better.