Apocalyptic Hoarding Diary

Chapter 153 Diesel Generator

"You can't just look at the price; you have to consider the actual effect and the follow-up treatment," Xu Xiaoyan thought to herself, gently swiping her finger across the phone screen as she carefully compared the advantages and disadvantages of different cat litters.

Bentonite cat litter has excellent water absorption and quickly clumps together when wet, making it easy to clean. However, its disadvantages are also obvious. It is quite heavy, and if a large amount is stockpiled, transportation will be the first challenge. After use, the weight of the litter clumps, which are full of water and dirt, is considerable. In extremely cold weather, when the waste disposal system may be paralyzed, how to dispose of these heavy wastes will become a new problem. Moreover, bentonite dust is relatively high, and its use in enclosed indoor spaces may not be very friendly to the respiratory tract.

Pine cat litter is relatively environmentally friendly, made from natural raw materials, and can even be partially degraded or used as compost after use. It is also much lighter. However, user reviews on forums generally indicate that the deodorizing effect of this type of cat litter is average. It is acceptable in a warm environment, but if used for a long time in a closed room where ventilation is not frequent, the smell may be quite "appealing". Especially in extreme cases, where hygiene conditions are limited, any odor may affect morale and health.

As for those so-called "black technology" water-soluble cat litters, their deodorizing and water absorption performance is indeed top-notch, and some can even be almost odorless. However, the price is shockingly expensive. A small 5-liter bag of imported water-soluble cat litter is priced at 1.5 points. In Xu Xiaoyan's opinion, it is really not worthwhile to invest such a high cost in the "toilet problem".

As she weighed the pros and cons in her mind, she unconsciously walked forward, her gaze gradually drawn to the scene on the street. There were more pedestrians on the street than when she left home, and everyone was walking hurriedly, their faces clearly showing anxiety and urgency.

A long line had formed in front of the small grocery store on the street corner. People in the line were talking in hushed tones, and Xu Xiaoyan's ears heard them: "...They say it's the last batch...", "...Limited to two packs per person, and you can only choose one: batteries or candles...", "...Old Wang waited in line for two hours and only managed to buy a pack of candles..."

The shop owner stood at the door, shouting to maintain order, sweat beading on his forehead, his voice hoarse.

The shop across the street, which had been vacant for a long time, had been completely transformed. The dusty glass windows had been wiped clean, and a striking red paper was pasted on the door with the words "Official Emergency Supplies Exchange Point" printed on it.

Two staff members wearing uniforms with base insignia were carefully posting a new notice on the glass window. Some sharp-eyed people had already gathered around, craning their necks to read the notice. Their expressions varied: some were solemn, some were bewildered, and some had an expression of knowing certainty.

Xu Xiaoyan was too far away to see the specific terms clearly, but the bright red seal and the vaguely discernible words such as "limited quantity," "quota," and "priority guarantee" were enough to explain the situation—the official resource allocation system had obviously entered a state of response to "extraordinary times."

Xu Xiaoyan frowned, her anxiety growing even stronger. The appearance of official exchange points and the rumors of purchase restrictions confirmed that what the coal delivery boy had said was not unfounded.

Supplies are becoming scarce at a visible rate, and she must complete her stockpiling plan more quickly, especially these easily overlooked but crucial "marginal supplies."

Cat litter…cat litter…her thoughts raced. Suddenly, an idea flashed through her mind: cat litter essentially serves to absorb and cover, so what about sand? Does ordinary construction sand or river sand also have a similar effect?

With a sudden change of heart, she immediately came up with a new plan. Cat litter was expensive and not necessarily practical, so she went to get a few sacks of dry fine sand to store. This stuff was cheap, almost free, and could be found at construction sites or by the river. If there were no other options, this might be the most economical alternative. She even remembered that a basket of wood ash or dry soil was often kept in dry toilets for covering purposes, and the principle was the same.

"If the backyard weren't filled with coal, the ideal solution would be to dig a deep pit in the yard, build a simple dry toilet, and then cover it with soil afterward," she said regretfully, glancing in her direction. "But now the backyard is full of coal, so that plan won't work." Ten tons of coal are the core of her energy reserves, and she can't move them just for the sake of a toilet location.

"So, if the water pipes freeze and the squat toilet becomes unusable, we'll have to rebuild one in the bathroom," she continued to think. "That's when the sand comes in handy."

Find a large enough, deep enough plastic bucket or wooden box with a lid, and line the bottom with a thick layer of dry sand. When using the product, defecate on the sand, and immediately cover and bury it with the prepared clean sand afterwards.

As long as the sand is dry enough and the covering is thick enough, odor and pollution can be largely controlled, and it is also convenient for centralized treatment in the future. This is much more hygienic than using buckets directly without any adsorption medium.

After making up her mind, she decided to change her plans. The original plan was to go to the pet store, but now it seemed that there might be a better option.

She recalled hearing people mention in casual conversation that a fairly large free market had spontaneously formed in the Taiping Street area of ​​the outer city's western district.

The place is a melting pot of all sorts of people, and the variety of goods is far richer than the scattered stalls near the neighborhood. It has everything from "good stuff" that is hard to find through legitimate channels to all kinds of strange secondhand goods and handicrafts. Perhaps some small vendors have some cheaper cat litter in stock, or she can directly look for suitable containers there and ask where she can get clean sand.

Previously, Xu Xiaoyan mainly exchanged supplies at scattered stalls near her residence. Although convenient, the selection was limited, and the items she exchanged were mostly ordinary food and daily necessities.

This time, she also had some "hard currency" in her space - several boxes of high-end cigarettes and several boxes of unopened brand-name liquor. Nowadays, cigarettes and alcohol, especially high-quality cigarettes and alcohol, are considered luxury goods among certain groups of people and are excellent mediums of exchange.

Since they're just sitting idle, if you come across something you like, you can take advantage of the fact that supplies aren't so scarce yet and the market is relatively active to exchange them for some truly practical and even high-quality items that can improve your quality of life. This will also help you build up some valuable reserves for the long winter that may be coming.

With this expectation in mind, she turned around and walked quickly towards Taiping Street. The distance was not short, and it would take nearly forty minutes to walk there. The scenery on both sides of the street gradually changed. The buildings became more and more old, and the pedestrians' clothes became more and more simple, but the busyness and eagerness on people's faces were the same.

However, before she even reached the entrance of Taiping Street, just one block away, she was so shocked by the scene before her that she stopped in her tracks.

Ahead, a sea of ​​people thronged, shoulder to shoulder, a dark mass stretching as far as the eye could see. The sounds of noise, shouts, bargaining, arguments, and children crying filled the air.

The narrow Taiping Street was packed with all kinds of stalls, which lined both sides of the street and even extended into the adjacent alleys.

Some vendors simply spread a plastic sheet on the ground, while others pushed modified tricycles or set up simple folding tables. Their goods were dazzling, ranging from piles of potatoes and cabbage, fresh apples, and dried tofu packaged in plastic bags, to old clothes, tools, books, bottles and jars, and even some metal parts and electronic waste whose purpose was unclear.

People crowded in front of the stalls, stretching out their arms and widening their eyes to select goods, afraid of missing anything. The transaction methods were varied, some directly using points to transfer money, some bartering, and occasionally someone could be seen taking out crumpled old banknotes, but few people responded. The scene was so lively that it was several times more noisy and chaotic than the relatively well-managed official trading hall of the base that Xu Xiaoyan had visited before.

"My God... so many people?" Xu Xiaoyan exclaimed in a low voice, her heart pounding faster than usual. She really hadn't expected that a market that formed spontaneously and lacked official management could gather such a huge crowd in such a short time. This not only showed the strong demand for the exchange of goods among the people, but also revealed a general sense of unease about the future. People were eager to exchange what they had for more practical and valuable items.

Shocked, her long-cultivated vigilance immediately took over. Crowded places often mean chaos, groping, petty theft, and even worse activities. She didn't want her "hard currency" to fall into the hands of pickpockets hiding in the crowd before she could even exchange it.

She deftly spun the backpack from her back to her chest and hugged it tightly. Inside the backpack, she had already placed a well-packaged bottle of high-end liquor and two packs of premium cigarettes. If these items were stolen or robbed, the loss would be enormous.

After making these preparations, she carefully protected the backpack on her chest and cautiously blended into the surging crowd on Taiping Street.

The market had a complex and indescribable mix of smells: sweat, dust, food, and some other unidentifiable odors from old items. Her gaze swept across the stalls selling all sorts of groceries, searching for stalls that might sell cat litter, containers, or information about sand sources.

However, the market was too big and the goods too varied, and she had no clue what to do for the time being. She moved slowly with the flow of people, listening to the conversations around her, trying to get useful information.

An elderly woman selling potatoes complained about the unfair exchange rate; two men argued heatedly over the price of a secondhand axe; a woman held a brand-new children's cotton-padded jacket, eagerly wanting to exchange it for some milk powder...

She hadn't gone far when her attention was drawn to a stall half-surrounded by a crowd. What caught her eye wasn't the wide variety of goods on the stall—in fact, there weren't many items—but rather the stall owner's highly engaging live demonstration and rapid-fire sales pitch.

The stall owner was a young man of about twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old, wearing a very eye-catching bright yellow old-fashioned work uniform. His hair was shaved short, and his eyes were bright and clever.

He was fiddling with a silver-gray machine on the ground that looked about 70-80% new, deftly connecting wires while his words chattered like a machine gun through the crowd of onlookers:

"Come on, everyone! Don't miss this opportunity! It's a rare chance, only one available! Take a look! Genuine brand, quiet household diesel generator! Powerful and durable! Extreme cold weather is coming soon, everyone! What's most important? Staying warm? Food? All important! But let me tell you, reliable electricity is the real key! It's the trump card for improving your quality of life!"

His voice was loud and clear, and he spoke very quickly, instantly attracting the attention of more people. With a "snap," he deftly turned on the start switch of the silver-gray generator.

Surprisingly, the machine was very quiet when it was running. It wasn't the loud "putt-putt" noise one might expect. Instead, it produced a low, steady, and continuous hum, similar to the noise of a large computer server. In the noisy background of the market, the sound was easily overlooked if one didn't listen carefully. This excellent quietness was clearly a huge selling point, and several exclamations of surprise immediately came from the crowd.

Seeing this, the young man in the yellow shirt's eyes flashed with a sharp light. He immediately raised his voice, pressing his advantage, "Did everyone hear that? Quiet! Absolutely quiet! Running it at night won't disturb your rest, and it's less likely to attract unnecessary attention or trouble! High safety factor!"

He patted the machine's casing. "It generates a stable 220 volts! You can directly connect it to your home's existing wiring through this adapter! Lighting, boiling water, charging your phone, powering low-power electric heaters—no problem! It ensures you have light and warmth even during power outages!"

He abruptly changed the subject, bending down to pull out a device that looked like a large metal toolbox, with multiple power interfaces of different sizes and indicator lights on its surface. "But! That's not convenient enough! Running a generator all the time consumes fuel and causes wear and tear, so we've thoughtfully included this dedicated battery box! See it?"

He connected the battery box's input line to the generator. "The generator first charges the high-performance battery pack in this box. Once it's fully charged, you can turn off the generator—it's fuel-efficient and quiet! Then, you can use it to charge your phone, laptop, lamp, electric heater, electric blanket… as long as the power doesn't exceed its output limit! Just plug it into the battery box's interface! Use it anytime, anywhere! Extremely convenient! It's practically a mobile power fortress!"

He patted the sturdy casing of the battery box forcefully, his tone filled with fervent pride, "Let me tell you, this convenient 'power generation + energy storage' solution is unique in the entire outer city market of Linchuan base! It's a new and practical solution meticulously designed and optimized by us... uh, our team. It's technologically advanced and thoughtfully designed! You won't regret buying it! This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!"