The weather was getting hotter and hotter, and everything was becoming more and more chaotic. At first, water and electricity still came during the officially scheduled hours, but as time passed, they arrived later and were cut off earlier and earlier. Now electricity was only available from two to five in the afternoon, while water was even worse, only running for one hour in the afternoon. During that single hour everyone was using it, so the water pressure was pitifully weak.
With no one maintaining it, the internet had completely gone down. Phone calls could no longer get through either; there was only a constant buzzing static sound.
During this period, the government had also been distributing supplies to every residential complex. Jiang Li had gone down to collect them the first time. Inside were a pack of dried noodles, some compressed biscuits, water, and similar necessities. If eaten sparingly, the supplies could last about a week. Each person could only receive one portion each time, and distributions were made once every week.
But with so many people across the country, no matter how powerful the authorities were, it was impossible to keep it up forever.
Sure enough, not long afterward, one day the electricity that should have come on at two o’clock never arrived no matter how long they waited, and the water was cut off as well. Jiang Li knew that from this point onward, things would descend completely into chaos.
The government supply distributions also changed from once a week, to once every two weeks or even longer, and now it had already been three weeks without a delivery, just like in his previous life.
In his previous life, people later referred to the first day the temperature reached its peak as the first day of the apocalypse. The bases were also established within the following six months, around March of the next year. In this life, the extreme heat had already begun in August, a month earlier than before. Jiang Li wondered whether the construction of the bases would also happen earlier, along with the earthquake.
In his previous life, the earthquake had occurred in January, close to the Spring Festival. Judging by the current situation, it would probably happen earlier this time too.
It was already the end of October now. Deaths had already occurred in the residential complex before this. One night, someone had pried open a lock and broken into another person’s home to steal supplies, but by coincidence, the young man living there had not gone to sleep yet. He had always been a night owl, and since he had slept a lot during the day, he stayed awake that night. Hearing the noise, he discovered that someone had entered his home.
The young man lived alone and was unprepared, while the thieves were a group of three who had scouted the place in advance and come prepared. They beat the young man up and stole all his supplies.
Originally, it would not have resulted in a death, but when the young man saw that all his supplies were gone and realized he would not be able to survive afterward, he fought them and refused to let them leave. During the struggle, one of them stabbed him, causing him to bleed to death from excessive blood loss.
The person who had done the stabbing panicked as well since it was his first time killing someone. The three of them hurriedly fled, even leaving the door open behind them. Later, it was the people living across the hall who noticed a terrible smell outside and came out to check, only to discover the body. In weather this hot, a corpse would start rotting after just one day, and there was still a knife sticking out of his chest.
As for how the story spread, apparently someone had been unable to sleep and was watching the moon when they heard a disturbance and saw three people stumbling out of the building below before heading into another one. Combined with what was discovered the next day, people pieced together what had happened.
Cases of home invasion and robbery had already become common, and they were usually carried out by groups targeting people who lived alone.
That day, sometime after four o’clock, Jiang Li was exercising in the living room when he heard noise coming from outside.
“Zhang Rui, are you sure there’s only one woman inside?”
“Don’t worry, boss, I’m sure. I observed her before. She lives alone and hasn’t gone out for a long time. A couple of days ago I still heard movement inside, so she definitely has plenty of food.” The one answering was a thin and frail-looking middle-aged man. The one asking was a fairly muscular man estimated to be around 180 centimeters tall. There was a scar beside his eyebrow and tattoos on his arm. His name was Li Hu, a local thug from nearby. After the extreme heat began, he found an empty apartment in the residential complex, pried the door open, and moved in himself.
People like him usually did not have much money, so once their food ran out, they started turning to crime. The one replying was called Zhang Rui. Previously, when Li Hu was robbing someone, Zhang Rui had realized he could not fight back, so he voluntarily handed over his food and even offered to become Li Hu’s lackey. That was why Li Hu had taken him along.
Zhang Rui lived in the same residential complex and had seen Jiang Li before. Since he thought Jiang Li was attractive, he had paid extra attention to him.
“Er Gou, hurry it up already.” Li Hu kicked Er Gou in the leg as he spoke.
“Okay, okay, boss.” Er Gou skillfully took out his tools to pry open the lock. Since they had already scouted the place beforehand, he had brought plastic gloves in advance.
Er Gou had always been one of Li Hu’s followers, another street thug.