Chapter 041: Water Resources Are Polluted

At that moment, Wang Qiqi spoke up: “Everyone, I’ve got some news. If the water doesn’t come tomorrow, the community water truck will arrive at 2 PM to deliver water. Please make sure to fill it in when it comes! If anyone has extra water, please help out Zhang Bing Bing.”

Wang Cuihua from Building 4 sent a voice message: “That girl speaks so rudely. Today, when we rode in our car, we did say to call out to the group if there’s any difficulty. But who still has mineral water at home now? My family is collecting muddy water, letting it settle, and constantly changing the water. If you don’t mind, I can bring you a basin of muddy water that hasn’t been changed yet.”

Li Wei from Building 21 chimed in: “Ma’am, could you bring me a basin too?”

Wang Cuihua replied via voice message: “I only fetch water for my grandson.” Li Wei didn’t say anything more. Zhang Bing Bing went to get the water herself. Sometimes, the fighting spirit of elderly ladies is quite formidable.

In any case, Zhang Bing Bing’s issue was resolved, and Jing Shu’s family watched with amusement. Wherever there are people, there is strife and drama. Although people in the early days of the apocalypse still had some conscience, they were beginning to reveal their true nature. Just like Jing Shu—even if she had a pool of water, she wouldn’t give it away. She stored water through her own efforts; why should she give it to others?

These days, Jing Shu keeps her storage tank full every day. After multiple filtrations, the muddy water became as clean as purified water and could be used as usual. The challenge was the upcoming year-long water outage.

“I don’t like that young man, Wang Qiqi; he’s too slick,” Jing Shu’s mother interjected.

“It’d be trouble if you did like him,” Jing Shu’s father said seriously. Then the conversation veered off-topic, and somehow the two went back to their bedroom.

Jing Shu: “???”

“Weren’t we talking about the water problem?… Forget it, as long as you’re happy.”

After inspecting her Rubik’s Cube space that night and eating two plates of spicy diced rabbit, three steaks, and a bowl of shaved ice yogurt as a midnight snack, Jing Shu began practicing the 6th-order Rubik’s Cube. It’s much harder than the 5th-order Rubik’s Cube, and after practicing for over half a month, she could only complete it—not yet quickly.

Jing Shu wanted to upgrade before moving from the villa. She needed at least a 6th-order Rubik’s Cube space of 216 cubic meters or a 7th-order space of 343 cubic meters to carry all the villa’s supplies. She had to bring items like beds, even if there was no chance to use them. She didn’t want to wake up the next day covered in bites from various bugs and crawling corpses.

—

The morning news reported that despite policies to preemptively catch fish to prevent large-scale freshwater fish deaths in lakes, continuous high temperatures for twenty days and dustfall caused riverbeds to rise. In the end, many freshwater fish died en masse. The high temperatures led to floating, rotting fish, polluting large areas of water sources. Governments in various regions have been working around the clock to salvage dead fish and remedy the polluted water sources.

With 70% of the Earth’s water being undrinkable and freshwater resources extremely scarce, the river water has now been polluted! In China, only deep lakes and reservoir water remain drinkable, but with high temperatures and continuous dustfall, freshwater resources will gradually diminish.

Water will only become scarcer!

It is foreseeable that in the coming year, there will be water outages.

Electricity was restored in Jing Shu’s community, but there was still no water. People no longer clamored for mineral water and quietly settled in muddy water themselves.

Wang Qiqi forwarded the news to the group, reminding everyone to store water. Now that the country’s water resources are polluted, water usage will certainly be tight; the situation is quite serious.

At 2 PM, the water truck arrived. Each household was given only three buckets of turbid water, which had been filtered several times and was relatively good. Compared to a few months later when each person would only get 500ml of water per day, this was heaven compared to hell.

Jing Shu didn’t expect that even fetching water could cause some trouble.

Wang Qiqi, Building 13: “Everyone, those who haven’t collected water yet, please hurry. Once the people in line have received their share, the water truck will leave. Now, the water truck comes once every two days until the water supply returns!”

Upon hearing that they didn’t know when the water outage would end and that the water truck only came once every two days, everyone panicked.

Security Guard Xiao Wang: “Jing An from the Villa Area, the family in the villa area hasn’t registered yet.”

Jing Shu’s father happened to go out today to buy more cigarettes and alcohol. Jing Shu’s mother said that her colleagues had started secretly hoarding various grains. The documents from above stated that due to high temperatures causing countless losses, even after the Dark Days, no grain could be grown. The country planned not to produce by-products like tobacco, alcohol, and snacks for the next two years.

Moreover, new directives reduced the grain purchase limit from 500 yuan to 200 yuan. Each person’s total daily spending at major supermarkets couldn’t exceed 500 yuan. Those who knew in advance that the country planned to reduce grain sales couldn’t buy much either.

Of course, private supermarkets operated by scalpers didn’t count. As a fan of cigarettes and alcohol, Jing Shu’s father went out today to buy them. Fortunately, cigarettes and alcohol hadn’t been rationed yet.

Jing Shu originally didn’t want to fetch water alone, but since she was called out by name, she didn’t want to give others the impression that her family wasn’t lacking water. So she responded in the group, took three buckets, and went to fetch water.

Now, Wucheng has begun restricting water usage. It’s reported that the largest freshwater lake in Wucheng has also been polluted.

The water truck was at the community entrance. Jing Shu put on a mask, windproof clothes, and rain boots, and ran for three minutes to get there. The streetlights in the community were already off, leaving only the lights at the entrance. Under the lights were countless black flying insects the size of dates, constantly making noises and diving at people, causing the women fetching water to scream.

Jing Shu knew that it wouldn’t be long before various flying insects would proliferate and spread diseases, leading to another wave of deaths.

Those coming to fetch water were from different households. After registering, Jing Shu observed the people in line. Each was dusty and haggard, with chapped lips indicating that they didn’t have much water at home.

At that moment, a flamboyantly dressed aunt said, “Young lady, it’s tough for you to carry even one bucket alone. Why don’t you share the rest with me? My family has many people, and the water isn’t enough.”

A middle-aged man next to her immediately said, “Miss, if you have extra, give it to me. I’ll pay you 50 yuan.”

Someone else suggested, “Why not just share it with all of us? You can’t carry it all by yourself anyway.”

“You people are so selfish, wanting water without making any effort. Miss, I’ll help you push a cart to take it back; how about you give me two buckets? Anyway, you can’t carry it all alone,” another man pushing a cart chuckled.

The water truck came only once every two days, and everyone felt the water was too little. They couldn’t buy mineral water in supermarkets outside, and muddy water had suddenly become precious.

Jing Shu rolled her eyes. “If I can’t carry it, why don’t you help me take it back? You’re so eager when it comes to asking for water.”

“Exactly, exactly,” the man with the cart echoed.

“Why don’t you just deliver it all to me directly?” Jing Shu asked him.

“Who’d be willing to deliver it just for you in this hot weather? If you give me 100 yuan, I’ll deliver it,” he replied.

Jing Shu refused to share her water. Those who had already collected theirs waited to see how this young girl would take hers back, and then they were stunned.

Jing Shu casually lifted two buckets in one hand and one in the other, walking away effortlessly. Those who hoped to get some of her water were puzzled as they struggled with their own buckets. Were they not fetching water from the same truck?

Indifference and cold observation—that’s Jing Shu’s evaluation of human nature after the apocalypse. Now, it’s slowly beginning to reveal itself.

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Author’s Note:

We’ve dropped to seventh place again… Please vote for recommendations!