We Live In Nanjing

  Chapter 7 How to Get Fire

  "Squeak—"

  "Squeak-squeak-squeak-squeak-squeak—"

  Banxia closed her eyes and listened to music. Early in the morning, these mice barked better than sang, one after another, circumflex, like a symphony orchestra.

  She opened her eyes and put her hand into the messy hair for the first time. Fortunately, no mice got in last night.

She got up from the bed, the bed creaked, and the rat under the bed stopped immediately. Banxia can imagine the group of rodents who are playing a concert looking up and staring at the top of their heads in fear, worrying about it. The black board would suddenly collapse, and the girl cleared her throat: "Dear guests, I will count three times, and I won't leave after three times..."

  Before she finished her words, the mice jumped out under the girl's eyelids and disappeared from the field of vision within a few seconds.

   "...I will draw a few lucky guests to stay for breakfast."

   Pinellia rubbed her hair.

   "It's really fast."

In the past, Banxia also tried to block mice. She carefully searched the room from top to bottom, and gambled everything that might pass through the gaps of mice to make sure that the needles could not be inserted. When I opened my eyes in the morning, a pair of small black eyes were staring at her, and the pointed wet little nose was peeking out.

  Banxia sighed secretly at that time, this was not all bad, at least it was resolved by breakfast.

  Now Banxia no longer tries to block mice, these little things can appear from all sorts of unthinkable places, and then disappear in all sorts of unthinkable places.

  She jumped out of the bed one by one, pulled her clothes cover from the back of the chair, and then drew a circle on the wall on September 7th.

  When she is not going out, she is just such a fat white shirt. There is only a pair of shorts in the shirt, and she walks around the room with her two long legs naked.

  In winter, there is actually no need to wear clothes.

Pinellia is actually willing to run naked, but the teacher stopped her. The teacher said that clothes not only have functional functions such as warmth and decoration, but also distinguish you from beasts. If you don't wear clothes, one day you will blend into this wildness. World, forget your own human identity.

  Banxia said that is not good? People come from nature and return to nature. We are all hairless naked apes!

  The teacher smiled and said that you are not a naked ape, you are a girl.

   Banxia asked the girl what's wrong?

  The girl is going to be beautiful. You are the most beautiful girl in the world. If you don't wear clothes, you will let the world take advantage.

  The teacher said so, while rubbing her face round and flat.

   "Is it pretty?" Banxia grinned at the dirty mirror in the bathroom, "I don't know if I am beautiful, my face is blind."

  The Colgate toothpaste on the washbasin has been rolled into a layer of skin. Pinellia squeezed it unwillingly, and put the last bit of green toothpaste on the toothbrush.

  It seems that this toothpaste will be useless tomorrow, so let’s cut it open with a knife, and there will always be some scrapes inside.

  First, insist on taking care of your teeth!

  This is the rule set by the teacher, even if the world is destroyed, she must brush her teeth every day!

Teacher    once took Banxia to clean up half of the supermarket and convenience store in Qinhuai District, and obtained a mountain of toothpaste and toothbrushes, all piled in the room downstairs.

  Banxia feels that these toothpastes can be used for at least 20 years.

  After brushing her teeth and washing her face, the girl took a scoop of water from the big bucket in the corner of the bathroom and poured it into the plastic basin, and then squatted down to wash her face.

  The ceramic washbasin that comes with the bathroom is useless. It was broken a few years ago. There is a big crack at the bottom that can be inserted into the finger, so I can only use another washbasin.

The big red buckets used to store fresh water were found by the teacher. There are two in total, and they are placed side by side in the bathroom, occupying half of the space in the bathroom—they were originally the location of the shower room. These two plastic buckets are one meter high and have a lid. It is just right to store fresh water. Whether it is drinking or using, Pinellia ternata draws water from this bucket. On average, a bucket of water can last three to five days.

  After washing her face, the girl casually poured water on the floor outside the bathroom, washing the dirt and dust on the ground.

  She does not need to save water, because Nanjing has no shortage of fresh water.

The main source of fresh water for Pinellia is rainfall. Nanjing is a rainy city. There will be regular precipitation for eight months of the year. Humid and temperate cyclones will come from the sea and bring plenty of rain at the same time. Starting in March , Until October, such a long period of time is the typhoon season in Nanjing.

  After washing the pinellia, tie up her hair into a ponytail, and then it’s time to make breakfast.

"Dad! Mom! What did you eat this morning?" Pinellia was holding a rubber band in his mouth, humming a vague tone, "Will you cook porridge? Cook dandelion porridge? The one I picked yesterday should be fresh. I agree!"

  Sure enough, no one spoke.

  That means unanimous approval. Today, I will have dandelion porridge for breakfast.

  Banxia always grasps the parents' psychology very accurately.

  The kitchen is just across the wall from the bathroom. This is a three-bedroom and two-living house, with one master bedroom and two bedrooms, one living room and one dining room, and the last kitchen and one bathroom.

  When cooking, you must close the door of the kitchen and open all the windows of the kitchen to ensure that there is no problem with the ventilation. Only in Banxia did you take out the stove under the stove.

   "This thing is really heavy."

Old-fashioned briquette stove, **** knows where the teacher found this thing. The stove is half a meter high and is a cylinder. There is a vent at the bottom of the stove and covered with a lid. This thing was originally used to burn briquettes—the briquettes are short cylinders. The body can be stacked one by one into the vertical furnace, but it is necessary to ensure that all the holes of the honeycomb briquettes from top to bottom are aligned. The holes are to ensure air circulation. The air enters from the vent at the bottom of the furnace, and then the honeycomb briquettes are aligned up and down. The through holes finally come out of the furnace, and the coal can only be burned when there is air circulation.

   Obviously, Banxia does not have briquettes in his hands.

  But she has a wall of firewood.

  Each piece of firewood is as long as a palm and as thin as two or three fingers. It is piled on top of each other against the wall of the kitchen, which is as high as one person.

The firewood was chopped in Pinellia ternata. The most indispensable thing in Nanjing is wood. The camphor trees and oak branches all over the street are luxuriant. She cuts down the trees and saw them off, and then chopped them into small firewood bit by bit. Dry on the balcony. Fresh and wet wood can’t be burned. Smoke billows. So the firewood must be dried after it’s split. Place it on the balcony to dry, and then put it in the kitchen to dry. Burn, no matter which stick it is, when the pinellia is about to burn it, it should also be dried.

  In this world without natural gas or coal, the only fuel for Pinellia is gasoline and wood.

  She is reluctant to use gasoline.

  So she burns wood most of the time.

  The pinellia rolls a slightly thinner firewood and dry grass leaves into a ball. This is an excellent firelighter, which can be used at one point.

  But it’s not enough to have a firelighter, you have to light it.

  How to point?

Starting from the day when humans mastered the flame, the method of ignition has been updated iteratively. Drilling wood to make fire is too time-consuming and laborious. People have learned to use minerals to make flint and scythe. Every time it is too troublesome to make fire, people have learned to save with charcoal. Tinder, as long as half of the charcoal is covered with fine ash, it can greatly delay the flame extinguishing time. A dark fire will always last longer than an open fire. Such a fire can even be carried in a box and used whenever you need it. .

   Pinellia carefully took out a metal box from under the stove.

  This is Tinder.

  Eternal fire.

  She opened the box, took out the lighter, and lit the fire with a "pop".

  (End of this chapter)