A few days later, the temperature soared to 46°C.
Jiang Ting didn’t get to see Cong Yixing resign, but she did receive a visit from the community staff.
Around eight or nine in the morning, Jiang Ting, who was still asleep, was awakened by a knock at the door.
Since moving here, their home had never had visitors other than repairmen or water delivery workers.
Jiang Ting didn’t rush to open the door, as she was still in her pajamas.
As she hurriedly changed her clothes, she heard several voices speaking outside. It wasn’t just at her house; there were people talking on both the upper and lower floors as well.
Feeling slightly more at ease, Jiang Ting opened the door to see several community workers wearing red armbands, their clothes wrapped tightly around them.
the middle-aged woman who had knocked pulled down the black sun-protection veil on her face, revealing a face beaded with sweat. She smiled and said to Jiang Ting, “Population census, we’re just registering some information.”
Still groggy from lack of sleep, Jiang Ting blurted out, “A census in this weather? That’s so much hard work.”
Not expecting such a remark from a young girl, the staff member’s smile deepened. She spoke a few more words to her during the registration: “The weather is abnormal this year. After this census, the government might distribute some heat relief supplies. You’re a tenant, right? Have you joined the community group?”
Seeing Jiang Ting shake her head, the woman said, “Then add me, and I’ll pull you in. Subsequent distribution of supplies will be announced through group notices.”
Jiang Ting quickly took out her phone to scan the QR code and asked, “Can my partner join too?”
“Yes. Is he not home? Then you can register his information as well.”
Jiang Ting was quickly added to Community Group 8. Just as she was wondering how Cong Yixing would get in, the kind community worker said, “Alright, invite your partner later, and I’ll approve it when I see it.”
It turned out she was the administrator of Group 8. From this, Jiang Ting judged that the woman’s position probably wasn’t low. She glanced at the ID badge hanging on her chest: Liu Fengyang. Jiang Ting secretly noted the name.
Liu Fengyang asked her, “Is no one living next door?”
Each building in this neighborhood was divided into four units, with two households per floor in each unit. Jiang Ting replied, “Yeah, I haven’t seen anyone next door since I moved here. It should be an empty apartment.”
After registering the information and phone numbers for both of them, Jiang Ting politely thanked her. She then took a bottle of chilled tea from the refrigerator and handed it over before the woman could leave.
Afraid she wouldn’t accept it, Jiang Ting said with a face full of sincerity, “It’s so hot, yet you have to go door-to-door for registration. You really work so hard. Please make sure to stay cool.”
Liu Fengyang looked at the youthful but polite and sincere girl. In the end, she took the tea and nodded in thanks.
She tucked away her registration forms and twisted the cap open to take a sip right then and there. The icy tea was indeed a powerful tool against the heat, instantly soothing the dryness in her throat.
Liu Fengyang smiled and said to Jiang Ting, “Alright, hurry and close the door. It’s hot outside.”
Jiang Ting nodded and watched as Liu Fengyang went upstairs with the young girl who had just finished the first-floor registration. Only then did she slowly close the door and forward the QR code to Cong Yixing.
Little Jiang Eats Ginger: The community people came by for a census. They said they might distribute heat relief supplies or something. Join the group quickly.
After all the commotion, Jiang Ting no longer felt sleepy. She turned on the air conditioner in the living room, switched the food delivery app to her own account, and ordered breakfast from several different places at once, planning to eat some and stash the rest.
After all, in such extreme heat, there probably wouldn’t be many delivery drivers. Yesterday afternoon, it had taken a long time to match with a driver, and the delivery time was delayed by half an hour. Jiang Ting guessed that if it got any hotter, no one would be delivering food at all. Naturally, she wanted to stockpile as much as possible while people were still delivering.
While waiting for the food, Jiang Ting searched for news about the census online. Sure enough, she saw that many cities were currently conducting them.
There were many discussions under the news articles. Jiang Ting scrolled through carefully and found actual debates regarding the distribution of supplies.
— I heard from my uncle that this isn’t a simple census. It might be the government preparing to give us supplies!
— What? What supplies? Why would they just give out supplies out of nowhere? Are you daydreaming?
— Is the person above too slow? Global temperatures are rising, many places have droughts, and some water sources are nearly dry. If this keeps up, it’ll be no different from the end of the world. You call this “out of nowhere”?
— Lol at “end of the world.” There are no zombies and no meteors. Just because it’s a bit hot, you call it the apocalypse?
…
The next dozen or so posts were all discussions about the end of the world.
— The thread is veering off-topic; let me fix it. It’s possible they’re distributing sun-protection supplies. My friend’s factory used to make sun-protection clothing, and now I hear the government has taken it over to start making some new kind of material for sun-protection gear.
— What sun-protection gear? If it’s hot, just don’t go out. How much longer can it stay hot? It’ll be winter in a few months at most.
— Easy for you to say. It’s hot for months; do you mean to stay inside for months? Never mind work, do you not need to go out for groceries? Do kids not need to go to school?
— Speaking of groceries, I suggest those with big fridges buy more fresh produce. I heard vegetable production in the Eastern Province has dropped significantly. We might not be able to get a supply after a while.
— It should be fine, right? The Eastern Province isn’t the only vegetable producer. Our Gu Province’s output isn’t low either, and our temperatures aren’t as extreme as theirs. Surely we won’t run out.
— Hard to say. Even if the daily needs can be met, prices will rise more or less because of the high heat.
— Don’t even get me started. We just finished harvesting the early rice a few days ago. I don’t know if it was too dry, but half the rice ears were empty. I don’t know if vegetables will go up, but grain is definitely going up this year, right?
Jiang Ting was originally pondering the matter of the new sun-protection clothing, thinking about searching for it online later to buy one for Cong Yixing if it really existed. Suddenly seeing the discussion turn to reduced vegetable production and poor rice harvests, her attention was immediately shifted. She began wondering if she should stockpile some grain; what if prices really did soar?
The deliveries took a long time to arrive, showing up well past breakfast time.
Jiang Ting signed for each one, and as she received them, she placed them into her Space to keep them warm.
As she collected them, she thought that, fortunately, the weather was hot, the community workers had already finished and left, and no one was walking around the neighborhood. Because of the varying distances, the delivery drivers arrived at different times, so it didn’t attract any unwanted attention.
She waited until all seven or eight orders were there before taking them out of the Space to organize them all at once.
She already knew how inconvenient it was to store things with their packaging. Because of her bad memory, every time she wanted something, she had to look closely at the delivery receipt stapled to the bag to find what she wanted.
So, she decided that from now on, everything would be unpacked before being put into the Space. That way, she could tell what everything was at a glance when she wanted to take something out.
The things Jiang Ting had ordered were all her favorite breakfast items. Ordering two or three portions from each place resulted in a wide variety: soup dumplings, mini steamed buns, pan-fried buns, spicy pepper soup, original soy milk, red date soy milk, savory tofu pudding, egg pancakes, leek turnovers, hot dry noodles, mixed noodles with meat sauce, fresh meat noodle soup, small wontons…
In the heat, she didn’t want to eat anything with hot broth, so Jiang Ting chose a portion of fresh meat steamed buns and a cup of iced soy milk, putting the rest of the food into her Space.
While eating, she didn’t forget to use the shopping apps to search for the new material sun-protection clothing. All she found were conventional sun-protection clothes. She sighed; it didn’t seem to be for sale online yet. Could it be fake news?
Jiang Ting didn’t expect to see the words “end of the world” again so soon.
It was from an outdoor video blogger she used to like very much. He had stopped updating for a long time, and Jiang Ting had almost forgotten she followed him, yet right before bed, she suddenly saw a video he had just posted.
Jiang Ting always stayed up late. It was already after one in the morning. The lights in the room were off. Cong Yixing was sleeping on the inner side of the bed while she lay on the outer edge, wearing headphones and scrolling through videos.
Suddenly seeing a favorite blogger, Jiang Ting instinctively checked the upload time and, curious about the late-night update, began to watch.
The blogger was named Ming Junjun. In the video, he appeared in person, but it was unlike any of his previous works. This time, he wasn’t outdoors. Ming Junjun sat on the edge of a bed in front of the camera. The surrounding light was very dim, and he was wearing pajamas with his hair in a mess.
He was describing a dream.
He said he had a very vivid dream. The weather in the dream was unnaturally hot, just like it was now. The difference was that 40-something degrees wasn’t the end of the high temperatures in the dream; the temperature kept rising, eventually reaching a terrifying 60-plus degrees…
That was scary enough, but there was more. The heat melted the glaciers, and the roaring seawater swallowed the coastal city where he lived. Survivors fled to the interior and high-altitude areas, but before they could settle down, new disasters arrived…
The video was very long and the footage was quite dark. Jiang Ting found it a struggle to watch, so after seeing the beginning, she dragged the progress bar directly to the end.
At the very end of the video, the blogger said that such a scene was like the end of the world.
Although the content was a bit nonsensical, the blogger told it very seriously. Even his expressions and body language were extremely realistic. That sense of fear—it was as if he had truly experienced it firsthand.
Jiang Ting was a bit stunned. What was she supposed to do when her favorite blogger suddenly started acting “abstract”?
With a sense of bewildered loss, she opened the comments. Less than ten minutes after the video was posted, there were already hundreds of comments.
Jiang Ting saw strings of question marks in the comment section, interspersed with a few texts calling him crazy for posting in the middle of the night, along with many eccentric emojis.
— You hadn’t updated since the skydiving video. I thought you had died, but it turns out you just developed a mental illness. Good, good.
— I also dreamed of a zombie outbreak last time. I was chased by zombies all night. In the end, I had no choice but to agree to go out with one.
— Could it be a prophetic dream? The temperature really is abnormal… Blogger, do you have any recommended items if I want to stockpile? (Advertising space available from a supportive fan, come find us, big sponsors!)
— Am I the only one who believes it? If it’s the apocalypse, I’ll set up a survival base immediately. Private message me to sign up if you want to join (registration fee 50).
the lively energy in the comments drove away the goosebumps that had surfaced on Jiang Ting’s skin from being infected by the blogger’s serious tone. She put down her phone, thinking she should go to bed early; staying up late for too long could make one go crazy.
Jiang Ting took off her headphones and rolled over to lie down. Cong Yixing, sensing her approach in his sleep, immediately pressed against her and pulled her into his arms.
The two of them adjusted themselves under the thin blanket with a tacit understanding, quickly finding the most comfortable sleeping position with the most body contact.
Amidst the hum of the air conditioner, Jiang Ting slowly fell asleep.