Storing water continued until the middle of the night. That night, Jiang Ting’s dreams were accompanied by the constant “rush” of running water.
Since they lacked containers, she separated the stored water into domestic water and drinking water, suspending them as two distinct masses in the corners at the top of her space.
Cong Yixing had her lead him into the space to inspect it. He estimated that there were about 10 tons of domestic water and only three or four tons of drinking water.
The next day, Jiang Ting didn’t wake up until noon. Cong Yixing, who had been working all morning, said to her, “It’s still not enough. Keep storing water today.”
Jiang Ting asked, “What about you?”
“I’ll be processing a batch of cooked food this afternoon. When are the food containers arriving?”
Jiang Ting checked her phone. “I bought them from a local seller; they should be delivered tonight.”
“Good. I’ll start cooking now. You can put the food into the space as I finish, and we’ll portion it out once the containers arrive tonight.”
After a quick lunch, the two of them spent the afternoon busy with their respective tasks.
Halfway through her water storage, Jiang Ting received a call from her landlady. The older woman asked over the phone, “Xiao Jiang, the property management called me. A neighbor complained to them, suspecting that we forgot to turn off a faucet. Are you not home?”
Jiang Ting hadn’t expected this kind of trouble. Likely, the sound of water flowing through the pipes had been so constant that the neighbor heard it.
She paused for a moment before explaining, “I’m home. I’ve just been bored these past few days, so I decided to do a deep clean. I’m washing and drying all the idle clothes and blankets, so I might be using a bit more water than usual.”
“Oh, I see! As long as the faucet wasn’t left on by accident. I’ll let property management know. That’s all then.”
After hanging up, Jiang Ting went to the kitchen to inform Cong Yixing. She saw him typing away on his phone while cooking and leaned in to ask, “What are you doing? Who are you chatting with?”
Cong Yixing held his phone up for her to see. “Just checking in with some friends.”
Jiang Ting wasn’t particularly interested and looked away after a quick glance. Eyeing the second pot of meat currently braising, she asked, “What are you braising this time?”
“Pig’s head meat and pig ears. I just finished some fatty intestines—do you want some?”
After smelling braised meat for two days straight, Jiang Ting was becoming a bit immune to it. She shook her head. “No. The landlady just called; a neighbor reported us to property management for leaving the water running.”
Cong Yixing was also surprised. “They can hear that?”
Jiang Ting guessed, “They probably heard it while they were in their own bathroom.”
“Let’s stop for a while then,” Cong Yixing said. “We’ll fill more later.” He then thought of another issue. “Braised meat has a very strong smell, too. Once this pot is done, I’ll make something less fragrant.”
Jiang Ting didn’t see the big deal. “Everyone cooks, don’t they? What’s there to be afraid of?”
“There are only two of us. Cooking from morning till night is a bit unusual. There are many elderly people in this complex, and gossip spreads fast. To avoid drawing attention, we should be a little careful.”
“Alright.” Jiang Ting went to the bathroom, collected the full basin of water into her space, and turned off the faucet for the time being. Then, she went back to the kitchen to help Cong Yixing prep ingredients.
“I’ve got a pot of rice steaming. I’m going to make some rice balls. Grab a few cucumbers and wash them, and get the meat floss out too.”
Jiang Ting was listlessly peeling cucumber skins when she heard Cong Yixing’s phone chime a few more times. He picked it up, looked at it, and said to her happily, “Baby, I just scored you a whole pig.”
The knife in Jiang Ting’s hand slipped. Her eyes went wide. “A pig?”
Cong Yixing had originally just intended to check on his friends and give them a subtle warning to stockpile some food.
Wang Zhu was his college roommate who used to sleep in the bottom bunk; his family lived in a village near Yu City.
During their chat, Cong Yixing remembered him mentioning that his family raised pigs. He asked a few questions out of curiosity regarding how the extreme heat was affecting livestock.
There was definitely an impact. In this hellish weather, even humans could barely stand the heat, let alone animals.
One of the four pigs at Wang Zhu’s house had already died from the heat, and the remaining ones clearly weren’t going to make it. His parents decided to slaughter them.
With three pigs being slaughtered at once, their own family certainly couldn’t finish or store it all. Hearing Wang Zhu say he planned to sell part of it in the village, Cong Yixing—thinking of the carnivore living in his house—asked if he could buy some.
Wang Zhu was already worried that the villagers wouldn’t buy much and that his family would be left with too much to preserve. Hearing that Cong Yixing wanted to buy, he asked how much.
With the space available, Cong Yixing naturally felt the more, the better. He tentatively said he wanted a whole pig.
Wang Zhu asked in shock, “A whole one? What are you going to do with that much pork?”
Cong Yixing spun a lie: “I’m buying it for the company. Since so many people can’t commute back and forth anymore, the boss said he wants to reward the colleagues who are essentially working overtime by living at the office.”
Hearing that the company was paying, Wang Zhu agreed immediately. He even said, “Then I’ll pick the biggest one for you!”
Cong Yixing added, “No one here knows how to process it. It would be best if it’s already slaughtered and butchered, and if the organs could be cleaned up for us too.”
“No problem. The butcher we hired is a real pro. Do you want the pig blood? If you do, I’ll boil it and bring it over for you.”
Pig blood is highly nutritious and rich in trace elements like iron, copper, and zinc. Cong Yixing definitely wanted it.
The two agreed on a delivery method and time. Cong Yixing trusted his friend implicitly and transferred the money directly.
After hearing the whole story, Jiang Ting marveled, “Wow, a whole pig!”
She asked curiously, “How much does a whole pig cost?”
Cong Yixing explained, “His family raises local pigs fed on grain. They taste much better than the grain-fed pigs you buy elsewhere, though they’re a bit more expensive. But since we’re buying a whole one, the unit price is cheaper than buying choice cuts at the supermarket. Right now, pork at the supermarket has risen to 28 yuan per catty. This pig we bought is over 260 catties, and Wang Zhu only took 5,000 yuan. I think it’s a great deal, don’t you?”
Jiang Ting did the math in her head. “That does seem pretty cheap. Do we get the organs too? But I don’t like pig lungs or pig hearts.”
Cong Yixing said, “I don’t like them either, but the money is already spent. Might as well take them.”
Jiang Ting agreed. “True. The space is so big anyway. We’ll just store what we don’t eat; there will be a use for it eventually!”
That afternoon, they worked together to roll two large basins of rice balls. Jiang Ting got creative and added many ingredients, making different flavors—some with fruit, some with braised meat, and some with cucumber and seaweed.
She even dug out some large portions of salmon, eel, and sea urchin she had bought from a warehouse club years ago when she lived alone, and made several platters of seafood sushi.
That evening, the two went out together to pick up their deliveries. Jiang Ting was eager to try on the new material heat-insulating suit issued by the government.
The insulating suit was worn underneath, with ice-silk trousers and a T-shirt over it.
After one trip out, she marveled, “It actually works! It’s nice and cool. It must be over 40 degrees outside right now, right? In this, it feels like it’s only 30. It’s a pity I can’t cover my face; it’s still hot from the neck up.”
Cong Yixing unpacked the deliveries and immediately began washing a large box of food containers. After drying the clean containers, they left them to air out for a while. Once the moisture was completely gone, the two of them turned on a single small lamp and sat by the coffee table in the living room, portioning the food under the air conditioning.
Cong Yixing said, “The ceiling light uses too much electricity. Unless we’re doing fine work, let’s try to keep it off. The power grid is under a lot of pressure right now. If everyone saves a little, the electricity might last longer.”
Jiang Ting nodded solemnly. She had seen news online about power shortages in some regions and the start of intermittent blackouts. She said worriedly, “The air conditioning is the most important thing. Some families have many people, and running several units at once definitely uses more power than in previous years.”
“But you can’t not use it. Without AC in this heat, you’d be drenched in sweat within minutes; it’s impossible to sleep.” She asked Cong Yixing, “We won’t have a blackout here, will we?”
Cong Yixing shook his head. “Hard to say, but we should be mentally prepared.” He added, “I want to head out tomorrow night to look around. I’ll check the Huian Trade Market and the electronics mall. Ideally, I want to buy a home generator.”
Jiang Ting didn’t know much about such things and asked innocently, “Aren’t generators huge? Is there room in our place? And I think they need diesel—where would we get diesel?”
Cong Yixing had clearly researched it. He explained, “There are diesel and gasoline versions. Generally, small home generators use gasoline. Although the fuel consumption and cost are a bit higher, they aren’t as noisy…”
Jiang Ting nodded repeatedly, only half-understanding, but she knew that a large-scale societal shutdown would bring chaos. She said worriedly, “I’ll go with you.”
“No need. You’re so sensitive to the heat. If you come running around with me, what if you get heatstroke?”
Jiang Ting pouted. “But you’ll be hot too.”
“I’ll wear the insulating suit,” Cong Yixing said. Since he was portioning food and wearing disposable gloves, he couldn’t pat her head. Instead, he leaned in and pressed his forehead against hers, rubbing it gently to soothe her. “Don’t worry. Your husband is tall and strong—what blind fool would dare mess with me?”
“You’re a bit tall, but where’s the ‘strong’ part? You’re clearly thin. You’ve eaten so many of my leftovers, I don’t know where all that meat went!”
“I’m lean. I might look thin, but I have muscle. You touch them every night when you sleep—don’t you know?”
“Who’s touching you…” Jiang Ting muttered. “Shameless!”
They went to bed quite late that night, but Jiang Ting still woke up with a start when Cong Yixing got up in the morning.
She was a little uneasy and pulled on him with sleep-heavy eyes. “So early? It’s not even light out yet.”
“It’ll be too late once it’s light. they slaughtered the pig overnight and are delivering it now to prevent the meat from spoiling in the daytime heat.” Cong Yixing kissed her. “It’s fine. Wang Zhu is driving it to the city. I’ll just go meet him and come right back.”
“Alright. I’ll wait for you.” Jiang Ting watched him leave and didn’t go back to sleep. She got up, used the bathroom, and poured a cup of warm water from the dispenser. Holding the cup, she stood by the window and stared at the sky.
At 4:00 AM, the sky already looked the way it usually did at 5:00 or 6:00 AM.
Jiang Ting knew the sun would rise soon, swallowing the darkness of the night in just a few minutes. The temperature that had taken all night to drop would rise again with the sunlight. The ground would be hot enough to fry an egg; some people online were even challenging themselves to sear steaks on the black hoods of cars for views.
Cong Yixing returned just as the sky began to brighten.
Jiang Ting heard the sound of the car parking downstairs. A moment later, she received a message—Cong Yixing telling her to come down and collect the pig.
Jiang Ting put on her pajamas, swapped her slippers for a pair of Crocs, and quietly opened the door to go downstairs, trying her best not to disturb the neighbors.
Cong Yixing was still sitting in the car. Jiang Ting went to open the trunk, but he called out, “Get in first.”
Jiang Ting sat in the passenger seat. Cong Yixing rolled up the windows, which were fitted with privacy film, and gestured for her to climb into the back.
The rear seats of this car could be folded flat, and with the trunk partition removed, the cabin connected directly to the trunk.
Jiang Ting crawled over the folded seats. Under the cover of the car’s frame, she collected the pork—which had been portioned into many bags—and a large basin of boiled pig blood into her space.
Once she finished and climbed back down, Cong Yixing didn’t go upstairs with her. “I’m going to park the car. You go back up and keep sleeping.”
Jiang Ting looked at the sky and urged him, “Be quick about it. It’s going to get hot soon.”
“Mm.” Cong Yixing started the car, pulled a U-turn, and drove away.
Since he started working from home, the frequency of car use had dropped significantly. Combined with the fact that it was unsafe to leave it exposed to the sun on the roadside, Cong Yixing parked the car in a nearby paid parking lot. The lot was underground and very expensive—600 yuan a month even with a monthly pass—a cost that caused Cong Yixing quite a bit of heartache.
But there was no choice. No matter how expensive, they couldn’t skimp on this. He couldn’t just leave a perfectly good car abandoned on the side of the road.