Chapter 40: It Doesn’t Matter—She Can Fly

Jiang Yan had just finished scrolling through the important messages in the residents’ group chat when the property manager dropped an electronic spreadsheet into the group.

[Shallow Bay Underground Temporary Shelter Arrangement.xls]

[Property Manager No. 1: As per official notice, all Shallow Bay residents are requested to move their essential supplies to the underground parking lot by midnight tonight (space is limited, so we recommend no more than three items per person). Please check the spreadsheet for your assigned parking spot. Anyone not present by midnight will be considered to have forfeited their spot and must bear the consequences.]

[Property Manager No. 1: Some temporary parking spaces will be reserved for official supply storage; this shelter is only for temporary refuge from the extreme heat and conditions are basic. We ask for everyone’s understanding. In these extraordinary times, let’s unite and overcome this hardship together! Fighting.jpg]

Jiang Yan opened the spreadsheet and quickly found her information:

[Unit: A-3201

Owner: Jiang XX (Female)

Parking spot purchased: No

Parking spot rented: No

Reported to be going to official shelter: No

Assigned shelter area: Dormitory—Open Area, F Zone-414 (Roommates: D1103, Liu XX (Female); D1103, Zhang XX (Female); D1103, Gong XX (Female))]

Wow, less than ten square meters per parking spot, and they were squeezing four people in.

The others were clearly a group of girls sharing a rental.

Looking at the rest, it seemed that those without a parking spot, whether bought or rented, were in a similar situation.

Only now did Jiang Yan realize just how many renters lived in Shallow Bay.

There were also four or five households who had reported that they’d be going to the official shelter.

And there were seven or eight elderly people, living alone in high-rise units while their younger family members were away, who had simply given up on going downstairs—quietly preparing to face death.

Honestly, in this kind of heat, even young people could barely stand it, let alone elderly folks with chronic illnesses.

Some might not even make it halfway down the stairs before succumbing.

Neighbors who usually helped each other out were now all silent.

The heat and the blood mosquitoes had come so suddenly, but people’s numbness and indifference had come even faster.

Many property staff had already abandoned their posts and gone back to their hometowns in the past couple of days. Those who remained, busy coordinating with the authorities to set up the shelter, simply ignored the elderly who chose to stay behind.

Jiang Yan had her own space, so of course she wasn’t about to cram into the underground shelter with over a thousand people.

Never mind the mix of men, women, old, and young all packed together—there’d be snoring, farting, teeth grinding, sleep talking, and a bunch of noisy kids running around.

She knew she couldn’t handle that kind of environment.

But if she just stayed home, she’d stand out too much.

After all, she lived on the top floor.

Of all the floors, the top was the least able to withstand the heat.

Most developers, in order to cut costs, skimped on insulation and waterproofing for the roof. Even this government-built complex was no exception.

Jiang Yan quickly made up her mind: she’d claim to be heading to the official shelter alone, thus avoiding the underground group living situation and any gossip.

Then, under cover of darkness, she’d put on her jet suit and quietly fly back home.

There was no better solution.

With that decided, Jiang Yan got up and left her space.

The moment she stepped into her apartment, a wave of heat hit her, wrapping around her like a thick blanket.

It was like walking into the dry sauna room at a bathhouse.

She glanced at the thermometer: outside, it was already sixty-two degrees Celsius.

Inside was a bit better, thanks to various insulation measures. Even without the AC on, it was still fifty-eight or fifty-nine degrees.

But that was still no joke.

A sauna’s dry room is about eighty degrees, but in there, you have a cold towel over your face to cool down and help you breathe.

You’re sitting still, and you can leave whenever you want if it gets too hot.

But this was different—the stifling heat was constant, clinging to her body. The discomfort was hard to describe.

The living room’s floor-to-ceiling windows faced the garden, while the master bedroom’s windows looked out over the city.

She went over and looked outside for a while.

The streets were dead silent.

The only living things were the occasional mutant blood mosquitoes drifting through the air.

They weren’t the least bit afraid of the heat or the bright light, searching the skies for fresh blood.

Jiang Yan pulled out her phone and checked the map, quickly picking a temporary destination for her “outing.”

Her flight suit could only fly for eight to ten minutes, so her rest stop couldn’t be too far away.

And with the temperature so high, and the risk of blood mosquito attacks, she couldn’t go far anyway.

Just thinking about those ever-larger mutant mosquitoes made her shiver.

She did have plenty of mosquito repellent in her space, but she remembered what the experts had said earlier: homemade herbal mosquito sachets worked much better against these bloodsuckers than regular repellents. So she went back into her space.

She dug up an old news article listing twelve herbs:

Mugwort, mint, angelica, lemongrass, perilla leaves, lavender, honeysuckle, clove, rosemary, nardostachys, agastache, camphor leaves.

Lavender, honeysuckle, and lemongrass were in the floral teas she’d bought.

Rosemary, clove, and agastache were in her spice stash.

As for mint, she only had the fresh kind, bought with her groceries.

She took some out and set it by the floor-to-ceiling window to dry in the heat.

She couldn’t find any nardostachys.

The rest—mugwort, angelica, etc.—she’d bought plenty of from the herbal medicine shop.

With a thought, Jiang Yan took all these supplies out of her [storage area], grabbed two rolls of large gauze and a sewing kit, and started making little sachets.

She wasn’t very good at sewing, so the dozen or so sachets she made were all crooked, like a bunch of black worms crawling across them.

But as long as they worked, it didn’t matter.

Once the sachets were done, she had a quick bowl of cold noodles and a bottle of iced cola. By then, the mint was dry enough.

The herbal mosquito repellents were quickly finished.

She took out her “cover” backpack—the one stuffed with instant noodles and tissues—and hung the sachets all around it.

After putting on her heat-insulated suit, she tied a few sachets around her neck, arms, and legs. Fully armed, she finally left the apartment.

The herbal scent was so strong that even through the hood of the suit, Jiang Yan could smell it.

She locked the door, set the anti-intrusion system to high voltage (500V), and headed for the stairwell.

The doors to 3203 and 3204 were half open. He Chunmei and her family seemed to be busy packing for the underground shelter.

Inside, she could hear He Chunmei bossing Zhou Guangfu around.

In fact, most of the doors on other floors were half open too.

The hallway was a bit cooler than the apartments, and to keep the blood mosquitoes out, everyone had their windows tightly shut.

The only airflow was between the living room and the hallway.

All the building entrances and the underground garage entrances had been tightly sealed by the property staff.

It was so hot, no one dared to go outside."