Mo Fei’s car drove from the suburbs into the city. Every time she reached an area with a large shopping mall, supermarket, or wholesale market, traffic became hopelessly congested.
Countless people stood in long lines, waiting for the supermarkets to start selling goods.
Starting last week, the prices of everything had risen across the board.
Besides food, sales of air conditioners, refrigerators, electric fans, ice makers, and similar appliances had reached annual sales levels. Even palm-leaf fans, folding fans, and round silk fans were selling at an astonishing pace.
Places where Mo Fei would normally pass with a single press of the accelerator had forced her to remain completely stationary for half an hour today.
Mo Fei noticed that the driver beside her, whose car was stopped parallel to hers, irritably slammed his fist against the steering wheel while cursing under his breath. She thought to herself that hot weather really did make people more irritable. In the past, everyone would have long since lost their patience and started shouting insults. But the weather was simply too hot now. Almost every driver had their windows tightly shut and stayed huddled inside their cars, too lazy to stick their heads out and engage in a war of words.
She felt a little thirsty and took several large drinks from the insulated bottle containing the stream water she had filled earlier. As the cool stream water went down, her entire body immediately felt refreshed and comfortable.
Over the past few days, she had been mixing this stream water into the bottled drinking water at home. Not only had her family failed to notice, but they had all praised how delicious it tasted, saying it was just like genuine spring water. Even more amazing, after drinking it, they sweated less and felt much more comfortable physically.
The traffic jam did not begin to ease until traffic police officers and the law enforcement team arrived together to direct traffic.
What made Mo Fei’s heart tighten was watching several traffic police officers collapse while directing vehicles under the blazing sun.
Judging from what she saw, even though they were wearing full uniforms, any part of their bodies that came into contact with the scorching pavement blistered instantly with burns. Ambulances rushed over and carried them away.
And this was no longer the first time such a thing had happened.
In response to such extreme high temperatures, the government had urgently revised working hours, recommending that outdoor workers change their schedules to 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m., and 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. However, it would still take time for such a policy to be fully implemented. No one knew how many outdoor workers had already collapsed on the streets before they could hold on any longer. Among them, delivery drivers, food delivery couriers, traffic police officers, sanitation workers, and construction workers accounted for the largest numbers.
More and more people were being admitted to hospitals.
Patients with persistent high fevers that would not subside, those suffering from uncontrollable vomiting and diarrhea, as well as massive numbers of people with heatstroke and pica, were appearing by the thousands.
Rumor had it that some previously undiscovered virus had emerged…
It had already been well past the time when Mo Fei had originally requested leave for her two children, but now schools across the country, from universities to kindergartens, had begun suspending classes one after another. Whether they studied or not could wait. Staying alive was what mattered most. No school or teacher could guarantee that students would make it safely to and from school anymore.
Mo Fei silently looked through the news notifications on her phone. On one side were official statements meant to reassure the public, while on the other were cries of despair and accusations from ordinary people predicting a bleak future.
Lost in thought, she was pulled back to reality by the blaring horns from the cars behind her.
The traffic soon began moving again.
Fortunately, Jinshi Garden Residential Complex was not located in the busy downtown district, so there were no more traffic jams along the rest of the route.
Mo Fei’s car came to a steady stop in front of Block D.
“Feifei, your dad and I can’t carry all of this. Should we ask someone to come help?”
Song Yi pointed at the bags of rice and flour stacked inside the kitchen cabinets.
“No need. Just take the kids downstairs and get into the car first. I’ll take care of these things.” Mo Fei motioned for her parents to head downstairs first. The children both knew about Mo Fei’s “superpower,” so they quickly coaxed their grandparents downstairs.
To be on the safe side, before her family went downstairs, Mo Fei took out a complete set of sun protection gear for them to wear. She even sprayed several extra layers of sunscreen over their sun-protective jackets before she finally felt somewhat reassured.
Once everyone had gone downstairs, all the supplies that had previously been neatly stacked in the kitchen obediently returned to Mo Fei’s space. Like a drop of water merging into the vast ocean, they blended into the countless stored supplies and automatically sorted themselves into neat categories.
Twenty thousand cubic meters was equivalent to the volume of ten high-rise buildings. The supplies she had stored so far amounted to nothing more than the tip of the iceberg. As for filling the entire space and upgrading it to Level 5, who knew how long that would take?
For now, she would first make sure her family could live stable lives. After that, she would take things one step at a time.
Mo Fei closed the door to the top-floor apartment and sent the landlord a message with a photo attached.
[Moved out.]
The landlord was overwhelmed with gratitude and replied with a heartfelt thank you, saying that she was already on a plane flying back to the country.
Keeping her true thoughts to herself, Mo Fei replied, “After you get back, buy plenty of food, water, and medicine, then don’t go outside anymore. I left a few things for you in the apartment.” After sending the message, she blocked the landlord on WeChat.
When Mo Fei went downstairs, she happened to see Xiao Chen from the property management office running toward the management building with several security guards.
Mo Fei did not say anything.
Instead, Xiao Chen stopped and greeted her. “Sister Mo, are you all heading out?”
“Yeah. I’m taking my family on a trip.” Mo Fei lied as naturally as breathing. “What happened?”
“We just got the notice. Power restrictions have been imposed! From now on, our residential complex will only have five hours of electricity each day. The homeowners heard about it and have all gathered to protest! Honestly, this was decided by the higher-ups. What can we possibly do? We’re roasting in this heat too,” Xiao Chen complained.
Mo Fei nodded. “Then you’d better hurry over.”
Mo Fei watched Xiao Chen and the others run off before quickly getting into the car and driving out of Jinshi Garden Residential Complex.
Looking through the rearview mirror, Mo Fei realized that Jianian did not seem right.
Mo Jianian was leaning against Mo Zhicheng’s chest with his eyes tightly shut. His cheeks were flushed bright red, but his lips had turned pale.
“Dad, what’s wrong with Jianian?” she asked anxiously. Even the hand gripping the steering wheel began trembling as she hurriedly turned the car’s air conditioning to its lowest setting.
“I don’t know either. Before you arrived, he said he felt dizzy and wanted to sleep. I was going to tell you, but he wouldn’t let me.” Usually calm and composed, Mo Zhicheng began speaking incoherently. “I think the child is delirious from the fever. We need to get him to a hospital right away!”
Song Yi and Jiayue immediately echoed his suggestion.
Mo Fei forced herself to calm down. She first switched the car to autopilot, then took an ice pack out of the in-car refrigerator and handed it to the back seat. “Put this on him first. Mom, Dad, have either of you gone outside these past few days?”
“No. We’ve done exactly what you told us.”
“Did anyone come to the apartment?”
“Someone did. The property management staff came to check how many people were living in the complex. We only spoke through the door. We never even met face-to-face,” Song Yi replied, recalling the events clearly.
Hearing that, Mo Fei let out a sigh of relief and instructed them, “Then it should be fine. No matter what happens, we absolutely cannot go to the hospital right now. I have fever medicine that’s safe for children. Give him one tablet first. If there isn’t any traffic, it’ll take about an hour for me to get there. If there is traffic, it’ll take at least an hour and a half. If the fever hasn’t come down after an hour, give him another tablet.”
From a medical standpoint, a fever was actually one of the body’s natural defense mechanisms. It turned the body into a battlefield where the immune system fought against invading threats. According to the warning, when the natural disasters entered the evolutionary phase, a high fever was one of the signs that an ordinary person was evolving into an ability user.
As long as someone survived a 40-degree fever, the moment their body recovered would be the moment their ability awakened.
What Mo Fei had never expected was that the first person in their family of five to develop a fever would be her son, Mo Jianian.
If he failed to survive the fever…
The child could either suffer permanent brain damage or lose his life.
Worried sick about her son, Mo Fei pressed the accelerator to the floor. Fortunately, the traffic lights seemed to be on her side. Almost every light she encountered along the way was green.
It was already noon, and the temperature had reached 50 degrees. As Mo Fei drove through the streets, there was not a single pedestrian in sight. Every now and then, she saw only a few scattered vehicles, all heading toward the suburbs.
Seeing that she was about to leave the city, the anxiety in Mo Fei’s heart eased slightly.
Who would have thought there would be a multi-car collision ahead?
The road was completely blocked. There was no way through.