Sure enough, only a few days later, a message appeared in the group chat saying that because the temperature was too high, the entire city had begun rationing water and electricity.
“Big Sister, where are you going?” Ever since they had stopped gathering supplies, Xiao Jue had been staying here.
His villa was clearly right next door, yet he simply refused to go back. Uncle Li had hinted at it several times, both directly and indirectly, but Xiao Jue acted as though he had never heard him.
In the end, Uncle Li could not be bothered to interfere anymore. At least with Xiao Jue here, he could spar with him every day.
“I’m going out to buy some things. Although we live in a villa district, there are plenty of people keeping an eye on this place. With the weather this hot, if we never go out to gather food, aren’t we practically telling everyone that we have plenty of supplies at home? It’s fine for now, but once the torrential rains and extreme cold arrive, we’ll become targets in other people’s eyes.” After saying this, Ling Yan headed to the garage.
“Big Sister, I’ll go with you. It isn’t safe for a woman to be outside alone right now.” Xiao Jue casually climbed into the passenger seat.
Ling Yan glanced at him but said nothing, simply stepping on the gas and driving out of the garage.
“Big Sister, I told you, didn’t I? Look, there are already people bold enough to block cars in the middle of the road.” Xiao Jue smiled as he looked at the several people standing in their way.
Ling Yan stopped the car, and an elderly woman immediately walked over to her window.
“Young lady, are you going to the city to buy food? Could you take us with you? Our family lives in the upscale residential community next to the villa district.” As she spoke, she pointed toward the residential development beside them.
“You can drive there yourselves. If you live in such an upscale community, don’t tell me you don’t even have a car?” Xiao Jue spoke up from beside her.
“Our car ran out of gas. We’re only going to the city this time to get some more gasoline,” a middle-aged woman explained as she approached.
“You can wait for the next car. We have elderly people at home too, so we need to buy a lot of things this time. Big Sister, let’s go.”
Ling Yan had not said a single word throughout the entire exchange.
Seeing that Ling Yan was actually about to leave them behind, the elderly woman immediately changed her attitude.
“What’s wrong with young people these days? They have no compassion at all. We’re only asking for a ride so we can go buy some things. Oh, these young people have really lost all sense of morality!”
Apparently feeling that simply cursing at her was not enough, she even reached out, intending to hit Ling Yan.
“Ah! My hand! It hurts so much. Let go of me!”
Xiao Jue not only refused to let go, but tightened his grip.
“If you don’t want your hand anymore, I don’t mind breaking it.”
“You brat, let go of my mother’s hand!”
A middle-aged man strode toward him aggressively.
Before he could even get close, however, Ling Yan stepped out of the car and kicked him.
Seeing her knock the man to the ground with a single kick, the remaining people tacitly moved aside.
“I was wrong. I won’t dare to do it again. Please don’t break my hand.” Tears and mucus streamed down the elderly woman’s face from the pain as she repeatedly begged for mercy.
“A Jue, get in the car.”
The world’s order had not yet completely collapsed, and Ling Yan did not want to cause unnecessary trouble, so she simply got back into the car.
Hearing her, Xiao Jue released the woman’s hand and climbed into the passenger seat.
As soon as he was inside, Ling Yan stepped on the gas, and the car sped away.
“Big Sister, from now on, just call me A Jue.” Xiao Jue looked at her with a pair of puppy-like eyes.
Ling Yan glanced at him, and just when Xiao Jue thought he would not get an answer, she heard her say, “Depends on my mood.”
After hearing her answer, Xiao Jue wore a smile for the rest of the journey.
Ling Yan drove into the city and then headed toward the largest shopping mall in the entire city.
“Big Sister, we can’t drive the car any farther. The mall is still some distance away, and it’s too hot outside. Don’t get out. Just wait in the car,” Xiao Jue said as he looked at the long line of cars outside.
“Two people will be faster. Don’t stay outside for too long.” Ling Yan took two parasols from the car, handed one to him, and walked straight toward the shopping mall.
When they reached the underground supermarket, they split up to shop.
At the moment, people still assumed that this year’s weather had simply warmed up unusually quickly, so the supermarket was still relatively well stocked. However, there were also some clever people who sensed that something was wrong with the weather and had come to stock up on supplies.
“What the hell is going on with the weather this year? It’s only early May, yet the temperature outside has already reached thirty-seven or thirty-eight degrees. Could this be the end of the world?” A passerby complained to his friend.
“You’ve just been reading too many apocalypse novels. Didn’t the experts say several years ago that Blue Star is gradually getting warmer? Stop scaring yourself and hurry up and finish shopping so we can go home.” His friend spoke as he pulled him toward the shelves.
Ling Yan arrived at the snack section and swept up all the snacks she liked.
In the end, she pushed two shopping carts to the checkout counter.
One cart was filled entirely with snacks, while the other contained only some rice, flour, and other basic staples.
“Big Sister, have you finished choosing your things?”
Ling Yan raised her head when she heard the voice.
“Are you stocking a store?” Ling Yan asked when she saw supermarket employees helping him push his carts. At a glance, there were nearly ten of them.
“The weather is too hot now, and I’m too lazy to keep running outside, so I figured I’d buy more in one go. By the time the weather returns to normal, I’ll probably have eaten most of it anyway. Big Sister, come over and check out together with me.” As Xiao Jue spoke, he pushed away the two carts Ling Yan had filled.
“These young people really are lazy these days. All they know how to do is stay at home playing on their phones and video games. They’re going to ruin their health by staying up all night.”
Several elderly men and women in the queue looked at them and commented among themselves.
“Where is your car? Our staff will help you carry everything out,” the supermarket manager asked with a smile after they had finished paying.
“Just follow behind us.” Xiao Jue did not refuse their assistance.
There was so much stuff that he and Big Sister really could not have carried it all to the car themselves.
“Welcome to our supermarket. We hope to see you both again.”
After loading everything into the car, the supermarket employees spoke in unison.
“Take everything to your villa later. I already have plenty of supplies at home, so I don’t need these,” Ling Yan said as she looked at the supplies in the car.
“Okay, Big Sister.”
Xiao Jue did not argue with her over it.
She was the one who had told him about the apocalypse, so Ling Yan must have already prepared plenty of supplies at home.
“The weather is getting hotter and hotter. It’s already over forty degrees outside.” Li Quan looked at the thermometer in his hand.
Ling Yan had not gone outside again since that day.
However, they listened to the radio and checked the news on their phones every day to keep up with the situation outside.
Because of the extreme heat, the students had already stopped attending school, while most people were now working from home.
As the temperature continued to rise, people also became increasingly irritable, so the police had been receiving calls about disputes almost every day.
However, there were only so many police officers at the station, so unless a situation was particularly serious, they generally told the people involved to resolve it among themselves.
Cases involving more serious incidents, such as beating someone badly enough to send them to the hospital or causing trouble with controlled weapons, were taken to the police station.
Ling Yan stood by the window and looked at the sky outside. Judging from the time, the torrential rains should begin in about half a month.
“Uncle Li, the weather will only get worse from here on out. People still have relatively sufficient supplies, so they won’t do anything too outrageous for now. But once the torrential rains begin, things will be different. By then, the world will descend into chaos. We should use this time to step up our physical training,” Ling Yan said.
Hearing her words, Li Quan let out a deep sigh. In truth, when Ling Yan had first told him that the apocalypse was coming, he had still secretly held on to a glimmer of hope that perhaps she was wrong.