In a season when it shouldn't be snowing, Wen Qian saw snowflakes, and nobody knew how long this situation would last.
Scientists predicted it would be around ten to fifteen years, and just the thought of such a long time was enough to make one feel hopeless.
Fang Ya held her child, her heart aching immensely, feeling more and more that it wasn't the right time to have a child.
But then she thought that who knows what the situation would be like in over ten years, and her feelings were complex.
Wen Qian had previously learned about the relevant information - an eruption of this magnitude would inevitably bring a volcanic winter lasting ten years or even longer.
Wen Qian had previously stored tons of grains, as well as various agricultural products purchased from her hometown.
Her food supplies could last that long, but in this situation, Wen Qian was worried about what she should do next.
She had enough to eat, but her plans for animal husbandry or planting were obviously not permitted in her current surroundings.
Even if the seeds sprouted, it would be difficult for them to grow and cultivate the next generation of seeds.
So Wen Qian experimented with the wild vegetable seeds she had previously collected, letting them grow near the warm stove, and she could also try some low-light plants.
For example, things like chives and garlic shoots that people used to eat could become delicious ingredients even with a lack of sunlight.
However, the downside was that under these circumstances, the seeds that sprouted and grew could not continue to flower and bear fruit, so there would be no seeds for the next generation. Once the previous seeds were used up, there would be none left, which was quite troublesome.
Therefore, Wen Qian used the seeds very sparingly.
At this time, not only humans were struggling, but all kinds of plants and wildlife were also in great difficulty.
Many plants withered due to the severe cold, acid rain, or lack of light, and herbivorous animals without food would find it hard to survive, let alone carnivorous animals.
The entire ecosystem was facing a huge challenge.
In areas close to the volcano, toxic gases caused the death of local plants and animals.
In more distant areas, animals faced a bizarre summer.
Summer was supposed to be a season of abundant food, but it had suddenly turned into winter, and many wild animals failed to react in time, losing their lives in the process.
Due to the chaos in M Country, the global economy and information exchange were also affected, making communication with other continents difficult for many places.
Wen Qian had a premonition that it might be difficult for her to obtain information in the future, and she wasn't even sure if her ranch could continue operating.
The nearest cell phone signal reception point was gone, and in the future, due to the harsh environment, maintenance of many signal towers might also become a problem.
Wen Qian tried to find a place near her home where she could listen to the radio with her radio, but just like before, whether indoors or outdoors, she couldn't hear any broadcasts.
Finally, she thought about it and went to the back of the house. There was a forest behind this small hill, so Wen Qian climbed to the highest point of the hill, turned on the radio, and heard a muffled news broadcast.
It was probably a local news broadcast from Xia Province. Wen Qian walked around the hilltop, trying to make the sound clearer, but it was still very muffled.
So Wen Qian found a tree, set up a ladder, and climbed up to sit on a branch, finally able to receive a relatively clear sound.
This way, even without a cell phone, it was okay - being able to hear the latest news was a reassuring thing for Wen Qian, at the very least she could know some of the domestic developments.
High-latitude countries were originally accustomed to severe cold, with their houses and other facilities having insulation effects, and they could adapt to relatively long winters.
However, it was precisely because the winters were so long that many places lacked sunlight, and the suicide rate among people also increased.
Wen Qian had thought that after the volcanic winter, due to the lack of sunny and warm days, perhaps many people would leave this world for the same reason.
In areas with distinct seasons, the people here were not well-adapted to the coming cold.
As for tropical countries, although temperatures dropped, they were still higher than in other places and had more sunlight.
The equatorial region, due to its favorable geographic location, became the focus of everyone's attention, with people pinning their hopes for food cultivation on the tropics.
But those small countries originally did not have large-scale cultivation, and they had never been responsible for the attention of the entire world before, which was different now.
The tropical countries could not achieve large-scale scientific production on their own, so many countries would intervene.
In fact, that's what happened - many countries sent personnel under the guise of "agricultural development", but in reality, they were dividing up agricultural regions for themselves.
All the tropical countries could do was accept the suggestions and allocations from other countries. Otherwise, they would face outright occupation after being rejected.
So it was better to sit down and talk from the beginning.
Any arable land had to be utilized, so the tropical regions underwent unprecedented agricultural development and acceleration.
Many countries invested their human resources, finances, and materials into the cultivation areas they had allocated in the tropics.
At this time, people had to solve the problem of staple foods first, while some cash crops, fruits, and the like had to make way for staple crops, only to be planted after staple food supply was secured.
There was also the issue of alcohol, which required consuming grains during production - the price had skyrocketed.
With the impending food shortage that most people would face, anyone who used grains to brew alcohol was practically asking for death.
So any remaining alcohol became extremely precious, and at least until grain production returned to normal levels, it was unlikely that there would be any new brewing.
The coastal areas in the south of the country were also expanding the cultivation of sea rice.
Now, no one cared about pretty flowers or beautiful scenery and cuisine - just avoiding starvation was already a blessing.
The predicted duration of the volcanic winter was roughly the same everywhere, around ten years or more.
The volcanic ash and aerosols in the stratosphere were not something that current technology could remove, so people could only try their best to survive in the existing environment.
Every day, Wen Qian still recorded the morning and evening temperatures, and listened to the radio every once in a while, usually starting around noon.
She didn't have much to do now, so she started hydroponic vegetable cultivation at home, like sweet potato vines and bok choy. She placed a rack on the windowsill with three tiers for more exposure to light.
Afterwards, she also started milling grains at home using a bicycle mill. Recently, Wen Qian had been focused on preparing food.
If the previous flour was considered refined, then what she would be milling later was a coarse variety without fine filtering, leaving a noticeable rough texture in the mouth.
This could reduce waste, allowing the food to last longer.
Although the taste wouldn't be as good, Wen Qian thought that she shouldn't expect the same living standards for the food she made herself.
She should be prepared for different levels of food quality during different periods.
Milling, kneading, resting the dough.
She placed her previously purchased large stainless steel steamer on the warm stove, covered with a lid, and filled a pot with water for steaming.
For half a month straight, she steamed mixed grain steamed buns at home, making different shapes and colors of mixed grain buns with varying proportions of grains.
Now that she was alone, Wen Qian couldn't afford to be careless.
As the saying goes, "Others eat bran while you eat meat, and you deliberately smack your lips in front of them - isn't that asking for trouble?"
Wen Qian was indeed alone where she currently was, but she couldn't be sure that no one would observe her elsewhere in the future.
The possibility was small, but not zero, so she couldn't let her environment appear too enviable or tempting.
This was just a small thought of hers.
