The temperature kept rising.
Wen Ruchu took the thermometer back in from outside the window.
65 degrees Celsius!!!
Even the asphalt roads outside had cracked open. If that was the air temperature, then the road surface must have reached more than 80 degrees.
Wen Ruchu had stopped going out to line up for water. For her, that small amount of water was practically useless. Besides, it was far too hot outside, and she had no intention of going out.
The situation was becoming more severe day by day. No matter how carefully people rationed their food, families had already consumed most of their supplies after more than a month. In this kind of heat, food spoiled easily. Not to mention that many people hadn’t eaten meat for a long time.
She didn’t feel safe leaving Egg Tart alone at home, nor did she feel comfortable bringing him outside.
As for her neighbor, she could faintly hear him leaving the apartment every day. He was probably going out to queue for water.
Judging from the way he and his companions looked—their mental state and their muscular physiques—they were no different from when she had first seen them. They must have had the capability and sufficient food supplies, and they must have been exercising a lot every day to maintain themselves so well.
After some time, it would start raining.
Then there would be three months of continuous torrential rain. People would be trapped inside their homes, sinking further into despair.
After the rain finally stopped, the Official Base should be completed.
And soon after that—
The extreme cold would arrive.
Thinking about the coming rain, Wen Ruchu quickly went to check all the drains and pipes in her apartment again.
During the heavy rainstorms, the creatures outside would have nowhere to hide and would crawl up through the sewers.
There would even be snakes.
During the past month, Wen Ruchu had discovered something pleasantly surprising.
The flow of time inside the yard of her Dimensional Space was much faster than outside—several times faster, in fact. Moreover, the black soil in the yard was unaffected by the changing seasons of the outside world. No matter what she planted, it would grow and bear fruit.
In simple terms, once something was planted, she barely needed to manage it.
The batch of vegetables she had planted earlier had already been harvested several times, and the fruit trees were full of fruit.
Using her mind, Wen Ruchu picked a basket of cherries from the Dimensional Space.
She noticed that the cherries grown there seemed different.
Their appearance was simply too perfect.
Wen Ruchu went into her Dimensional Space and found some cherries she had bought before the apocalypse. Sure enough, the cherries produced in the Dimensional Space had a much brighter color, and each fruit was significantly larger than the normal ones.
Without even washing them, Wen Ruchu popped one into her mouth.
After all, they had grown on the tree and were perfectly clean.
Normal cherries usually had a slight sour taste.
But the cherries from the Dimensional Space were purely sweet—refreshingly sweet.
Wen Ruchu then picked a basket of lychees from the Dimensional Space and compared them as well.
It had to be said—
Products from the Dimensional Space were always top quality.
Round and plump, bright red, with thick flesh and small seeds.
They were practically “gratitude lychees.”
Unable to resist, Wen Ruchu started devouring them enthusiastically.
Egg Tart stood beside her, drooling constantly, his tongue licking Wen Ruchu’s leg.
Owner, what are you eating? This dog is dying from greed! Give me some!
Wen Ruchu wasn’t sure whether dogs could eat this kind of fruit. Probably not.
She didn’t have much experience and didn’t dare feed it randomly. However, she knew dogs could eat dragon fruit, so she took two dragon fruits out of the Dimensional Space, peeled them, and fed them to Egg Tart.
Then Wen Ruchu picked a large number of lychees from the Dimensional Space.
She planned to make frozen lychees.
First she would peel them and remove the pits, then fill the center with yogurt, place them in the refrigerator, and freeze them.
One bite at a time.
Absolutely refreshing.
Thus Wen Ruchu spent her days at home researching her little Dimensional Space, making foods with little odor, and training together with Egg Tart.
She taught Egg Tart many things—how to dodge attacks, how to react flexibly when encountering danger, and most importantly:
Except for her, he must not trust anyone.
Egg Tart was very intelligent and learned quickly.
Soon enough, after a long drought, the long-awaited rain finally came.
When the first rain fell, everyone ran outside in celebration, dancing wildly in the rain.
They believed the disaster was finally coming to an end.
Surely life would return to normal soon.
Wen Ruchu watched the people celebrating in the rain outside.
She remained silent.
Celebrate all you want.
The apocalypse had only just begun.
The rain continued for several days.
The water problem was temporarily solved, but the food shortage still remained unresolved.
Moreover, the official supermarkets had not reopened.
Even stranger, not a single supermarket had opened.
The government issued a notice asking everyone to stay at home, warning that heavy rainstorms were expected and advising everyone to remain safe.
After the extreme heat had already killed so many people, everyone was living in fear, constantly worrying about the lack of food and water.
The government’s notice felt as useless as a puff of air.
Wen Ruchu watched the torrential rain outside.
It showed no sign of stopping.
The sky looked as if a hole had been torn open.
The rain was so heavy that after only a few days, the water level had risen to the second floor.
This caused great distress for the residents living on the first floor.
Their homes had been flooded.
With no choice, the first-floor residents moved upstairs, knocking on other people’s doors and hoping someone would take them in.
However, after enduring the extreme heat for so long, how could people easily allow strangers into their homes?
Most residents only allowed them to stay if they paid rent in food or supplies.
Those who had no food simply slept in the corridors.
But the rain did not stop.
It continued to pour.
After one week, the water level had almost reached the third floor.
Residents on the fourth and fifth floors began to panic.
From the look of it, the rain might continue indefinitely.
In the past few days, Egg Tart had become extremely restless.
He ran back and forth inside the apartment constantly. Sometimes Wen Ruchu couldn’t even call him back.
She didn’t know what was wrong.
Until today.
Egg Tart suddenly came running toward her with something in his mouth.
It was a huge rat.
The rat’s body was greasy and shiny, and it was nearly half the length of an arm.
Wen Ruchu felt her scalp go numb when she saw it.
Where had this thing come from?
Hadn’t she sealed every drain in the house with cement?
Egg Tart hadn’t even killed the rat yet.
Instead, he pinned it down with his paw, then released it—then pinned it again.
He was actually playing with it.
Thinking about what these rats must have been eating lately made Wen Ruchu feel uneasy.
Humans were no longer producing leftover scraps for them.
And when she had gone outside before, she had seen so many corpses lying unburned on the streets…
“Egg Tart!!!”
Egg Tart jumped in fright.
In his surprise, he loosened his grip.
The rat—
Ran away.
“Oh my god!”
Just imagining that a rat raised on rotten flesh was now hiding somewhere inside her home made Wen Ruchu shudder.
With a wave of her hand, she stored everything in the living room into her Dimensional Space.
The rat was instantly ejected from the space.
Egg Tart reacted instantly.
With lightning speed, he grabbed the rat and stuffed it into his mouth.
Wen Ruchu didn’t even have time to stop him.
“Egg Tart!”
She hurried over and tried to pry open Egg Tart’s mouth.
“Spit it out! Spit it out right now!”
Who knew how many germs were on that rat?
What if Egg Tart got sick after eating it?
Fortunately, Egg Tart had only put the rat into his mouth and hadn’t swallowed it yet.
After forcing Egg Tart to spit out the half-dead rat, Wen Ruchu grabbed him by the ear.