The sharp beep-beep of a car horn made the few people blocking the gate under the blazing sun break into awkward smiles.
Looking at them, each of them soaked as if they’d just been pulled out of water—Lin Su honestly admired how they could squat at her doorstep without worrying about heatstroke.
“Young lady, girl…”
The one calling out to her was none other than Old Cheng from Building No. 9.
The people behind Old Cheng looked familiar, though Lin Su didn’t recognize them individually. She guessed they were all members of the Cheng family.
They surrounded the car and refused to move. Wen Shiyun was about to get out and shove them aside, but Lin Su thought for a moment and simply rolled down the window. “What do you want?” she asked, already having a good idea of their purpose.
Sure enough, after hearing what came next, Lin Su rolled her eyes.
“We don’t have much in the way of supplies. If you want supplies, take money and buy them. Aren’t the supermarkets still running discounts?”
Old Cheng rubbed his hands together and said with a fawning smile, “Well… it’s just that what we want to buy is out of stock.”
In fact, Old Cheng’s family wasn’t poor. Anyone who could afford to live in Qingshui Villa wasn’t. But he was crafty. Seeing the Lin family supermarket’s big promotion, and then other merchants joining in, he decided to wait and wait, hoping for even deeper discounts. By the time he realized what was happening, he was stunned.
A lot of food items were already out of stock.
With the global drought this year, it could practically be said that there had been no harvest at all. Now that he couldn’t buy grain, he was finally getting anxious.
“There’s none left,” Lin Su said flatly. She didn’t want to get entangled with these people. Still, since the apocalypse hadn’t arrived yet, she couldn’t just drive them off by force. Besides, she was sitting in an air-conditioned car, while Old Cheng’s whole family was roasting in the sun outside. Who was suffering more was obvious.
“But isn’t your dad going around giving people things?”
After the promotion began, Lin Su’s father had indeed been giving small amounts of food to relatives and friends, not much, just a gesture of goodwill.
Both sides of their family didn’t have any particularly close blood relatives, and they had left their hometown early to make a life elsewhere. So there were no nightmare relatives dragging them down. Still, they did have some relatives and friends.
And so, as planned, Lin Su’s father had distributed some supplies to them.
Hearing Old Cheng say this, Lin Su lost even the desire to talk to him. She directly told Wen Shiyun to drive forward, while she seized the moment to open the courtyard gate and made sure the Cheng family had no chance to follow them inside.
Sure enough, her parents weren’t home, otherwise, the Cheng family wouldn’t have been squatting outside the gate.
From outside the courtyard came the Cheng family’s angry curses.
“Should we drive them away?”
Wen Shiyun couldn’t stand seeing these people running wild and wanted to give them a little lesson.
Lin Su shook her head at the blazing sun overhead. “Forget it, it’ll be more trouble if we get heatstroke.”
Outside, the Cheng family members were also afraid of the heat. Seeing they couldn’t get any supplies, they quickly scattered and disappeared.
Lin Su thought she’d already encountered enough difficult people for the day. But by evening, she saw a moving truck followed by a sports car enter the villa district.
The sports car had a convertible top, and Lin Su immediately recognized Zhou Mi in the driver’s seat. In the passenger seat was a young man she didn’t know.
It was then that Lin Su realized Zhou Mi had actually bought Building No. 8.
Thinking about the kind of world coming up, having to see this person often already annoyed Lin Su.
But soon, Lin Su didn’t have time to deal with this woman.
At seven o’clock, the nationwide evening news announced a series of measures to combat the extreme heat.
For example, starting August 30, people would rest during the day and work at night, a full day-night reversal schedule was about to begin.
Another measure was stricter control over the sale of all goods in the market. Purchase limits would be strictly enforced, and price gouging would be cracked down on.
Of course, there were many other measures. Implementation for each person would rely on community workers for management.
Sure enough, as soon as the news finished airing, community workers came to the door.
Lin Su’s family lived in the suburbs of An City, in an area with only three residential communities, all composed of villas mixed with taller buildings. All three communities belonged to the same neighborhood committee.
When the community workers arrived, many people were outside walking and chatting. The topic was still the measures just announced on the news.
At this moment, Lin Su was chatting with He Qingfei. Unlike ordinary people, the He family were medical staff, so they also had to work during the day.
“My dad said it’s more convenient for us to stay in the hospital dorms. That way, going to work during the day won’t be a problem.”
The He family had six members, all doctors. Besides the retired grandparents, Uncle and Aunt He, and the siblings were all doctors at a public hospital. In addition, they ran a large private clinic.
With the extreme heat expected to continue for a long time, doctors, nurses, police, and firefighters would certainly bear more responsibility than ordinary office workers.
“It’s still better to stay in the dorms when you’re on the day shift,” Lin Su sincerely suggested.
Although the current temperature was still barely tolerable for humans, since this was being called a natural disaster and an apocalypse, it was clear the heat wouldn’t stay stuck in the forty-degree range. It was much more likely to break the fifty-degree mark.
As the two of them were discussing this, the community workers arrived.
A small team came, led by the community director, with people behind him carrying tablets and notebooks.
Lin Su thought it was just a simple census registration to make later management easier. But as soon as the registration was finished, Community Director Wu picked up a loudspeaker and announced: “Residents, the high temperatures are expected to continue for a long time. Temperatures may exceed fifty degrees…”
The moment this was said, the residents registering let out a collective “Whoa!”
Lin Su exchanged a glance with Wen Shiyun.
The news hadn’t stated it so directly; now it was coming straight from the community director. It seemed that the authorities were indeed placing a lot of responsibility on the community.
Director Wu continued reading through the community’s planned work.
“…Finally, due to critically low reservoir levels, starting tomorrow, water usage will be adjusted. During this period, the water plant will temporarily suspend supply.”
This announcement caused far more uproar than before. Most people loudly demanded to know why.
Wu was clearly prepared for this reaction. Calmly, he explained: “Over two months of continuous high temperatures have lowered An City’s reservoir levels to the minimum warning line. The water plant is now implementing emergency measures at the reservoir. Until these are completed, our drinking water will be delivered by water trucks from the plant.”
“The specific water delivery schedule will be announced in the community group chat…”
Hearing “community group chat,” Lin Su immediately understood why the workers had insisted they each scan a code to join the group earlier. It looked like this group chat would be their main channel for external information from now on.
Even after the community workers left, many residents in the villa district stayed together, unwilling to disperse. Everyone was talking over each other, worried that the water trucks wouldn’t bring enough and discussing where to get more water.
At that moment, someone spotted Lin Su’s father heading home and immediately ran over to stop him. “Old Lin! Old Lin!”
Lin Su, holding her mother’s hand, stopped in place. Wen Shiyun and Uncle Wen quickly followed.
The person pulling on Lin Su’s father was none other than Old Cheng from Building No. 9. Old Cheng had no particular strengths, just a thick skin. Even after being snubbed by the Lin family several times, he still acted like this.
“Uncle Lin, we really need your help with something!”
As soon as Lai Huaming from Building No. 5 saw Lin Su’s father, he shouted loudly.
The moment he finished speaking, many people around nodded in agreement.
Father Lin, keeping his daughter’s advice in mind, shook his head before anyone could even state their request: “I don’t have any supplies left here…”
The residents of the community were only asking him for goods, nothing else. But the supermarket’s stock was already low, and with official supervision now in place, there was no way the owner could release any more supplies.
Seeing their requests rejected without a word, several people’s expressions immediately darkened.
At this moment, Wen Shiyun spoke up: “If you’re short on water, isn’t there still water in Qingshui Lake next door?”
Qingshui Lake was a natural lake within the Qingshui Villa community. Originally a small natural pond, the developer had expanded it significantly to promote the neighborhood as an eco-friendly area, turning it into a semi-artificial lake.
The water in Qingshui Lake was clear, and it contained many ornamental fish.
When Wen Shiyun mentioned this, the crowd immediately huddled together to discuss quietly.
Lin Su stepped forward and quickly added, “Although the water in Qingshui Lake looks clear, if you want to use it, it’s best to disinfect it first. The outdoor stores sell water purification tablets, they’ll do the job.”
Hearing this, the crowd’s attention shifted away from Father Lin. They all pulled out their phones and started calling. When people began stockpiling, they had mostly focused on food and drinks, no one had stored anything like this at home.
While the villa district residents set their sights on Qingshui Lake, the nearby high-rise district residents were thinking the same way.
Qingshui Lake was located in a small green park separating the villa district from the high-rise area. Each district had a large iron gate to enter the park, accessible only to residents with a key card. A villa resident’s card couldn’t open the high-rise gate, and vice versa.
The small park effectively split the two areas, making them operate like two independent neighborhoods.
At this point, the high-rise residents didn’t yet know what the villa residents were planning. But after hearing the water suspension notice, many of them turned their attention to Qingshui Lake as well.
However, nobody had time to go fetch water from the lake that night. Since the water would be cut off tomorrow, every household was trying to fill all available containers.
With the entire city drawing water simultaneously, the pressure in the pipes dropped drastically.
Lin Su had stored a considerable amount of drinking water herself. Still, she followed the crowd in drawing water. If her house remained quiet while everyone else’s faucets ran, it would make her family’s situation seem even more conspicuous and unsafe.
That night, residents across the entire country received similar notices. These alerts were ultimately meant to maintain the survival of society, but many people’s hearts were anxious, and their visible response was an obsessive scramble to collect supplies.