Chapter 72: Extreme Heat 13
The power went out again!
The air conditioner stopped working, and the scorching sun outside was slowly raising the temperature inside the room.
Chu Yian was hot and sweating all over, and what’s more, she had a quilt in her arms. Drowsily, she tossed the quilt aside and rushed to the basement. She spread out the mattress and flopped onto it.
The cool temperature allowed her to sleep comfortably until noon.
Above the basement, the generator roared.
When Chu Yian went upstairs, she saw Lu Qingyuan sitting in the living room. He was on the phone again, she didn’t know what he was saying, but she only heard him mention where certain things were located and that he would pick them up tonight.
Chu Yian yawned and squinted as she entered the washroom.
She went in feeling sleepy, then was woken up by the heat.
The air conditioner in the kitchen was directed at both the kitchen and the living room, and only these two areas had a suitable temperature.
She opened the refrigerator door, preparing to cook. Lu Qingyuan suddenly looked up, “Water, electricity, and gas, all three are out today.”
Chu Yian didn’t know how others would react to losing these three, but for them, the impact was temporarily minimal.
For electricity, they had two generators.
If the gas was out, they could still use the electric rice cooker.
As for water, there was plenty in the well. Chu Yian grabbed a bucket, preparing to fetch some from the well, but as soon as she stepped outside, waves of heat assaulted her.
The temperature had risen again today!
After she came out, for a moment, she even felt like she couldn’t breathe, breaking into a sweat all over.
So hot!
She quickly ran towards the well with the bucket. This time, the rope for drawing water was lowered more than a meter further, yet the well water seemed to have decreased?
It was too hot outside for her to think much, so she grabbed the bucket and ran back inside. The cool breeze from the kitchen greeted her, and this alternating hot and cold weather made her quickly drink a bottle of Huoxiang Zhengqi water.
Fetching water, cooking.
It wasn’t too hot in the kitchen, which gave Chu Yian the interest to make more things. She took out the beef she had bought earlier from the refrigerator.
Braised beef brisket with potatoes, plus a pot of rice.
Chu Yian finished preparing the food and then took two bottles of iced drinks from the refrigerator’s fresh-keeping compartment. “Teacher Lu, dinner is ready.”
The soda was refreshing and cool.
The beef brisket was fragrant and tender.
Pouring the sauce over the rice, Chu Yian ate two bowls of rice. Full and satisfied, she sat on the sofa and started browsing her phone. Although the power was out, her phone still worked. She opened a social forum, where the topics revolved around high temperatures and power outages.
[How long until the high temperatures leave]: Outdoor temperature 50, oh my god, you could cook an egg outside.
[I want to eat ice jelly]: The power is out again, it’s out again! It only came on for five hours last night. Oh my god, this is going to kill people from the heat!
[Someone save me]: I’m going crazy! Before it was power outages, now it’s water and gas outages too, are they trying to kill us?
[Lonely Man]: High temperatures, plus gas, electricity, and water outages, I really think this is not letting people live. Our whole family is already preparing to flee to the countryside.
[Country Little Fish]: The countryside is also hot, with water and power outages. The only advantage is that there’s a well at home, so we won’t die of thirst… Chu Yian ate her meal while reading the wails online. They had two generators, and Chu Yian had bought a lot of diesel in the early stages, which allowed them to use air conditioning and drink cold beverages.
At the same time, many people were living in high-rise apartments in the Residential Area. The rooms were like steam ovens, with no water or electricity, lacking water and food, making it as difficult to endure as being in a sea of fire.
People in the city were fleeing.
Shopping Malls with air conditioning, riverbanks with flowing water, bridge underpasses, and underground streets… any place that could offer a bit of coolness was now packed with people.
Chu Yian looked at these messages, and her sense of crisis increased a little. “Teacher Lu.”
She looked at Lu Qingyuan.
Lu Qingyuan raised an eyebrow. “What’s wrong?”
“Teacher Lu, do you see that basement down there?”
“Mm.”
Chu Yian sat in front of him. “Although we have generators and diesel, we don’t know when this high-temperature weather will end. If we keep moving around upstairs, our diesel might become quite tight…”
“So you want us to move downstairs?”
“Yes, yes, yes!”
Chu Yian nodded, that’s what she meant. “The space downstairs is very large, even for the two of us to move around, it’s more than enough.”
“Okay.”
Chu Yian didn’t expect Lu Qingyuan to agree so quickly. The two hit it off immediately and directly moved the sofa from the first floor downstairs. Not only the sofa, but also the refrigerator, air conditioner, and generator were all moved downstairs.
With more things, the room became cluttered again.
Lu Qingyuan looked at the makeshift partitions she had made. “Can these building materials still be found?”
“I bought them from that construction site I passed, but they’ve stopped work now.”
So she wasn’t sure if she could get them.
“It’s okay, we’ll go out and look this afternoon.”
7:00 PM.
The weather was still scorching, like the sun at three or four in the afternoon.
Their planned departure time was postponed. After dinner, Chu Yian took out a pineapple and peeled it. She juiced it, then found two large 1L cups, and besides the pineapple juice, filled the rest with ice.
This was for them to drink when they went out.
Originally, she wanted to add some Huoxiang Zhengqi water, but considering that the taste might not be well-received, she gave up.
After all, it was something she would also drink, no need to make it difficult for herself.
Lu Qingyuan was currently modifying the vehicle in the yard.
He had removed all the rear seats of the car; the space in the back was clearly meant to hold something.
They departed promptly at eight o’clock.
Lu Qingyuan drove into the city. The road they took today was a place she had never been to. He arrived at a warehouse, found a key under a concrete block next to the warehouse, and opened it. Inside were many sky-blue boards, 70 centimeters wide and 120 centimeters long.
Flame-retardant boards?
Chu Yian remembered what Lu Qingyuan had said on the phone yesterday and curiously reached out to touch them.
“Move them into the car; we need to take all these flame-retardant boards back tonight.”
No wonder he had removed the car’s back seat.
Chu Yian helped him move the items. The back of the vehicle, the roof, every available space was filled with flame-retardant boards. Even so, they made three round trips to move all the boards.
No time to rest.
Lu Qingyuan then took her to another warehouse, which contained a large, unopened black cardboard box.
“What is this?”
“M78J Emergency Generator.”
Another generator?
With this one, they now had three.
Besides the generator, there were also many fire extinguishers inside the room. Chu Yian looked at the items they were taking back today; apart from the generator, the other two items were related to fire.
The weather was hot, and extreme heat could cause fires, so it was indeed wise to stock up on some firefighting supplies.
Just as Chu Yian was reflecting, Lu Qingyuan pulled the car over to the side of the road. “Is this the construction site where you got the building materials?”
