Chapter 040: Water and Power Outages Begin

As for royal jelly, this wonderful substance, of course, every morning upon waking up, she’d scoop a small spoonful and mix it with warm water for the whole family to drink. It’s great for beauty, moisturizing the lungs, and has many other benefits. In a sunless apocalypse, it can also supplement various vitamins and nutrients.

After regular feeding, the black pigs, sheep, and calves in the Rubik’s Cube space grew significantly. Compared to the previous month’s rapid maturation, this saved a lot of feed and spiritual spring water, but they still grew faster than normal livestock. Jing Shu estimated they would mature in half a year.

Jing Shu raised more quails, planning to make lots and lots of roasted quail and quail eggs later, storing them in her space as midnight snacks. Her appetite had been increasing recently.

Jing Shu only kept a few chickens, ducks, and rabbits, but the diluted spiritual spring water was still very effective. Aside from the 20-plus eggs laid daily by Number 1, she could also collect over 20 chicken eggs, 7 or 8 duck eggs, and over 100 quail eggs. They were much more productive than the free-range chickens and ducks at the villa.

The eggs accumulated over these days allowed Jing Shu and her father to successfully make a large batch of preserved eggs, giving Jing Shu a reason to buy a lot of lime for other preparations.

On January 18th, the power suddenly went out in Jing Shu’s community. The entire Wucheng had been running over capacity for over ten days, not only needing to supply household electricity at night but also providing air conditioning, lighting, streetlights, and more for businesses during the day. It finally couldn’t bear it anymore.

The main issue was the 24-hour use of air conditioning. According to statistics, the national average electricity consumption was five times usual!

People who were usually reluctant to turn on the air conditioner, especially in places where exceeding household electricity limits would result in doubled charges, had been using electricity without concern for half a month. The consequence was that the electricity supply couldn’t keep up.

Wucheng implemented emergency measures, distributing diesel fuel so that communities and businesses could generate their own electricity.

Wang Qiqi, Building 13: “Everyone, currently our community’s supporting services are insufficient, and we don’t have a generator yet. If you can’t stand the heat, you can team up and sit in cars in the underground garage, turn on the air conditioning, and wait for the power to come back. I have room for two more people in my car.”

The temperature in Wucheng remained as high as 49°C. More than half of the residents in Jing Shu’s community were office workers or business owners who had closed up shop to rest at home. At this moment, less than half an hour into the power outage, homes felt like steam rooms.

People couldn’t stand the heat or drink muddy water yet, but later they survived anyway—so pretentious. Jing Shu lay in her villa, maintained at a constant 26°C, eating Häagen-Dazs ice cream, irresponsibly thinking.

Some people in the community went back to their parents’ homes or relatives’ places; others went to their cars, turned on the air conditioning, and waited for the power to return. During this time, Wang Qiqi managed to add over a dozen people to the group. In this community that could accommodate tens of thousands, only over a hundred people are currently living here—no wonder restaurants didn’t dare to open here.

However, in less than a year, this place would become one of the most sought-after new districts in Wucheng. Countless homeless people would flock here; every parking space in the basements and underground garages could be divided into living spaces for families.

In her previous life, Jing Shu’s family exchanged their prime-location villa for grain in the fifth year, lived in basements, cage homes, and later migrated many times due to various disasters… Those were nightmares Jing Shu didn’t even want to recall!

Today, Jing Shu’s father sent three bags of mushroom kits and two trays of garlic sprouts to Grandma Jing, along with some eggs, Chinese cabbage, and diluted spiritual spring herbal jelly for the elderly.

It’s said that it’s already very difficult to buy vegetables in the city. Even a wilted cabbage had its price hiked to 50 yuan. Other green vegetables and out-of-season produce were no longer available—only various mushrooms, leeks, bean sprouts, and other indoor-grown vegetables that didn’t require sunlight.

The prices of dried goods and seafood have also doubled. Since they were even more expensive than vegetables, not many people bought them, hoping to hold out until the Dark Days ended.

Grandma Jing would stay in the city for a few more days, lining up to buy medicine. The elderly couple were still in good spirits.

To prevent adverse consequences, all places have imposed purchase limits. And it was said that the medicines now wouldn’t be restocked for half a year, so the elderly couple hurried to buy medicine with Third Aunt Jing Lai every day.

Cooling pills, vitamins, Huoxiang Zhengqi liquid all sold out, including Grandma Jing’s. Even though Jing Shu told her that she had bought a lot, Grandma Jing still insisted on buying more before she was satisfied.

Grandma Jing was someone who lacked a sense of security. After experiencing famine, she hoarded everything. Despite favoring sons over daughters in the past, being stingy with herself, always haggling when buying vegetables, and so on, she was genuinely good to Jing Shu. She had always favored her since childhood, giving Jing Shu all the good things. So the filial piety Jing Shu didn’t get to fulfill in her previous life… she would do in this one. Whatever Grandma Jing wanted to do, she’d let her.

At 7 p.m., Jing Shu’s family sat in front of the TV, watching and eating dinner: they steamed three perch fish, made a large bowl of fish roe steamed eggs, cooked a big pot of curry potato and beef over rice, and had tomato egg soup.

No matter how much food was prepared, Jing Shu would clean it up completely, not leaving even a trace of oil. That’s how people who survived ten years of the apocalypse ate—so thoroughly.

“Of all the habits to learn, you pick up your father’s plate-cleaning,” Jing Shu’s mother pointed at her. “With your appetite and table manners, who would dare to marry you in the future?”

Jing Shu’s father innocently took the blame: “Yes, yes, all the bad habits are learned from me; the good ones are inherited from you.”

“Of course. Look at this whole set of solar power and water filtration systems our daughter set up—it’s great. Others are without power and can only eat instant noodles soaked in cold water for dinner, but we can enjoy air conditioning and a sumptuous meal.”

“And you used to call her a spendthrift,” Jing Shu’s father muttered softly.

The entire Wucheng was still experiencing power outages. Some were using backup power; others were using generators. In places with large populations and insufficient power supply in the south, they had long started using diesel generators.

Jing Shu knew that it wouldn’t be long before they’d face the awkward situation of having cars but no fuel. Since gasoline was an important resource with more critical uses, the authorities would temporarily stop supplying it to private cars.

This included natural gas and other energy sources. After finishing her current tasks, Jing Shu planned to start cooking the food to save on coal.

The sky was completely dark, and the temperature in Wucheng dropped to 4°C. People in the community returned home, only to be horrified to find that even muddy water was no longer available!

Zhang Bing Bing, Building 4: “Everyone, I have no water at all at home. Can someone spare a few bottles of mineral water? Thank you.”

No one responded. After a while, Zhang Bing Bing, Building 4, said again: “I’m willing to pay a high price for two bottles of mineral water!”

Still, no one paid attention. Zhang Bing Bing lost her temper:

“What kind of neighbors are you? This afternoon, several aunts who hitched a ride with me said if I had any difficulties, just shout at the group. I burned up all my fuel running the air conditioner in the car. Now I have no fuel to go out and buy water. I’m willing to pay a high price for two bottles of water, and no one is willing to help?”