Chapter 035: The First Surprise of the Apocalypse—Dust fall

Online activities were unusually lively. The themes of the New Year’s Eve galas mostly included the hot topic of the “Dark Days.” At three o’clock in the morning, both Weibo and CCTV were still live-streaming the expected images of the stellar collision.

Night owls were enthusiastically showing off their hoarded grains at home, watching scientists boast about how fortunate it was that the Earth was far enough away; otherwise, it would have been destroyed, and so on.

At that moment, the people of China were filled with a sense of security. With ample food supplies, there was no panic; every household had hoarded quite a bit.

“Boom…”

The live broadcast finally changed, and just as calculated, the stars collided. In fact, Jing Shu didn’t understand anything; she just saw the commentators excitedly jumping around. The screen was filled with exclamations like “Whoa!” from the audience, leaving Jing Shu a bit confused. This was completely different from what she had imagined.

Jing Shu couldn’t sleep initially, but the images of the stellar collision had a hypnotic effect. Watching and watching, she fell asleep. When she woke up at ten the next morning, there was indeed no sunlight outside. In her previous life at this time, she had been diligently live-streaming and had gained many followers.

“According to reports, various regions are experiencing varying degrees of dustfall. In just one night, 3–5 centimeters have accumulated, and it continues to fall. Citizens going out are advised to wear masks to avoid inhaling dust into the lungs and to take appropriate measures.”

“Starting from January 1st, consumption limits will be placed on medical insurance cards. Citizens are advised to purchase vitamins and other health supplements rationally.”

“In some areas, industrial dust mixed with the falling dust has caused various types of pollution. Many residents have reported murky or black water and are questioning whether it is safe to drink. This matter is under further investigation.”

On this rare Sunday, Jing Shu’s mother didn’t go to work. The family watched the news while eating breakfast. Jing Shu’s mother went to feed the pigs, cows, and sheep and to clean up. The chicken coop was stuffy and hot; she quickly turned on the air conditioning and set the entire villa to a constant temperature of 26°C.

Jing Shu’s father wanted to climb a ladder to clean the tempered glass cover. A thick layer of dust covered it, making the already dim villa pitch black.

“Fortunately, we have the tempered glass covering the entire villa; otherwise, the whole place would be filled with dust,” Jing Shu’s mother couldn’t imagine how dirty that would be. Thinking about it, the expensive tempered glass they installed for appearance’s sake turned out to be useful.

Indeed, no one expected it to rain dust. The particles and dust generated by the stellar collision not only covered the atmosphere but also leaked down, causing the phenomenon of dustfall, which would continue for a long time.

The news said that with the sun blocked, the Earth would cool down. It did cool down—nighttime temperatures dropped to a few degrees—but during the day, temperatures soared again: 35°C in Wucheng, nearly 50°C in Hainan, and 40°C in Guangdong, Fujian, and Sichuan.

It was entirely like summer.

Jing Shu wore sports shorts and a T-shirt, layered with windproof pants and jacket tucked into rain boots, and donned double-layered masks and a hat to go out to dispose of waste. She also let out Number 1 for a walk.

Each step sank into thick dust. Although it was daytime, it was so dim that one couldn’t see people or objects clearly. In the vast neighborhood, only a few houses had lights on.

The streetlights in the community and on distant roads were on. Approaching the lights, beneath them were dense swarms of mosquitoes and continuously falling dust particles. Only in the first month of the apocalypse could people afford to lavishly keep the streetlights on.

The battle chicken was as excited as a husky, sprinting around, flapping its wings to assist in running and flying, pecking at mosquitoes to eat. Now, when Jing Shu called its name, it could understand and quickly run back.

Insects near the mountain appeared in large numbers from who knows where, and their noises were eerie. The battle chicken felt like it was in heaven, crazily pecking at insects to eat. After disposing of waste and running for a while, Jing Shu felt unbearably hot. It seemed that no matter how much spiritual spring water she drank, it didn’t prevent heat or cold. She hurried home to take a shower.

“The water is all yellow with dust now; how can we drink it? The small supermarket at the entrance has run out of mineral water again. Are you sure you don’t want to go buy more water together?” A middle-aged woman in her fifties stood at the villa gate, covering her nose and mouth with a damp towel to prevent dust inhalation, her head wrapped in a towel.

“Not for now,” Jing Shu’s father said, also wearing a mask and sweating profusely as he shoveled thick dust to the side, panting heavily. His spendthrift daughter had spent 200,000 yuan to install an American-style water filtration system; why would he need to buy water?

“Look at the videos my brother sent. People are scrambling for water in major supermarkets in the city; many stores are out of water. Who knows how long this dust will keep falling? You should at least buy enough water for a week. Just go to the Aijia Supermarket,” the woman urged anxiously.

“Really, we’re not going for now. If you can’t find a ride, I can call one for you,” Jing Shu’s father offered.

The woman hurriedly declined, “Never mind, I’ll see if anyone else is going and catch a ride with them. Hiring a car back and forth costs money.”

She ran off in a flash.

Watching her back, Jing Shu said, “Was she trying to hitch a ride?”

Her father, covered in dust, nodded, “She saw our lights on and wanted us to go buy water together. Let’s go; we’ve finished our work. I’m going to take a shower.”

“Dad, make sure to clean the dirt out of the filter head every day, or it’ll get clogged,” Jing Shu reminded.

“Got it,” he replied.

So Jing Shu’s father spent half an hour clearing mud from the villa’s external pipes. “When will this end?” he complained.

See how finicky people are in the early apocalypse.

Water mixed with dirt is just a bit harder to drink. Jing Shu thought it was at least much better than the red threadworm-infested water of next year—really. When you take a sip, many worm heads get stuck between your teeth, and their tails get lodged in your throat. Do you bite them off and swallow, or pull them out entirely, chew them, and then swallow?

In her previous life, Jing Shu would pull the worms from between her teeth, chew them 28 times, and then swallow to increase satiety. She didn’t want to experience that again in this life.

…

Although the tempered glass cover over the villa blocked the dust, it had the downside of absorbing heat and lacking ventilation.

The villa felt like a steamer. Jing Shu used commercial ice makers to produce ice, placing buckets of ice around the villa to lower the temperature, changing them every two hours, which made it much better. She also made extra ice, crushed it, and used the milk they had stored for half a month to make yogurt, which she put into her space. She added sugar and crushed ice to make yogurt smoothies—sweet, sour, and refreshing.

Oh, today Jing Shu also checked the UBC solar panels, which still generated some electricity under these conditions. Jing Shu was quite pleased. With the current usage of at least 8 hours of lighting, various appliances, solar lighting, central air conditioning, and other electrical consumption, they use at least 40 kilowatt-hours per day. Monthly electricity costs would be over 800 yuan, more than triple that of an average household.

Under such dim conditions, the ten UBC solar panels could generate about 30 kilowatt-hours per day, barely enough. If that wasn’t enough, they could use a gasoline generator, consuming an extra liter of fuel per day, which would definitely suffice.

On the evening news, experts came out to explain:

“Water mixed with dust is safe to drink; there’s absolutely no problem. We suggest that after collecting the water, let it settle for a few minutes, transfer it to another container, let it settle a few more times, and then boil it before drinking.”

But the issue of people scrambling for water hasn’t been properly resolved. Next came high-temperature orange alerts, and many regions reported severe cases of heatstroke leading to death.

Someone in Jing Shu’s neighborhood had died—someone Jing Shu knew.