Chapter 65: Extremely Heat 6
From 10 AM to 2 PM, the temperature had been soaring.
The outdoor temperature had reached 46 degrees Celsius by now.
Even by the river, waves of heat washed over them.
The trees by the roadside were already scorched yellow, and people sat under the bridge, hot and thirsty.
The water Chu Yian had originally bought to cool down proved to be a great help at this time.
She uncapped a bottle of mineral water and gulped down half of it.
Hearing her drink, the people around her couldn’t help but move their throats up and down with her, as if that would allow the cool mineral water to slide down their parched throats and replenish their dry bodies.
It was simply too hot.
Finally, a middle-aged man, dressed like a gentleman, approached her, looked at the stack of water bottles in her car, and took out a hundred-yuan bill.
“Little girl, are you selling that water? Give me two bottles.”
Chu Yian was startled by the large bill he handed her, then replied, “I don’t have change for you.”
The man was already unbearably hot and didn’t seem to be short on money. “One hundred yuan for two bottles of mineral water, keep the change.”
That works?
Without waiting for Chu Yian to hesitate, the man directly threw the money into her open window.
Chu Yian, seeing this, handed him two bottles of mineral water.
One hundred yuan for just two bottles of mineral water felt too little, so Chu Yian lowered her head, preparing to give him two more, but he had already walked away, and other desperately thirsty people swarmed around her.
“Is there any water left? Give me a bottle too.”
“I want two bottles as well.”
“Fifty yuan for a bottle of mineral water, that’s so heartless! Are you crazy for buying it?”
…
Chu Yian’s small car was surrounded.
Some were protesting that her water was too expensive, while others held up money, willing to buy it for fifty yuan!
Several bottles of mineral water were quickly snatched up. “No more mineral water, only six drinks left. Four sodas, two milk teas, do you still want them?”
“Yes, yes, yes!”
Finally, the six drinks were also snapped up.
Chu Yian herself hadn’t expected to earn several hundred yuan by selling water while sheltering from the heat under the bridge.
She only had three bottles of mineral water left, and people continued to come asking for more, but Chu Yian shook her head, saying there was none left.
Indeed, there was none left.
4 PM
The outdoor temperature was 44 degrees Celsius; although it had dropped by two degrees, it didn’t feel any different from midday.
Most of the people under the bridge had been there since 11 AM to escape the heat, and many hadn’t had a drop to drink or any food until now.
Many people couldn’t stand it anymore by this time and began to leave.
People had wanted to leave for a long time.
If one person leaves, there will surely be a second, a third…
A woman answered a phone call, “I haven’t come back yet.”
“Oh, it’s really too hot, I’m stuck under the bridge, you know.”
“I haven’t eaten, and it’s especially hot here. You just stay home and enjoy the air conditioning, no need to go out. I’m coming back now.”
…
She pushed her electric bicycle out while talking.
The seat, which had absorbed heat, was extremely hot; as soon as she sat down, she flinched from the burn.
However, this couldn’t deter her resolve to return; the woman, enduring the scorching sun, wobbled her way onto the road.
Chu Yian squatted in the shade, watching the woman leave.
She had only eaten a little for breakfast and only drank water for lunch; her stomach was growling.
She stood up, also preparing to leave, to go to the city to buy some things and have a meal.
However, just then, the electric bicycle, which hadn’t gone far, suddenly lit up.
It wasn’t the sun reflecting off the glass, but the electric bicycle had spontaneously combusted.
“Get off, quick!”
“The vehicle is on fire!”
“Run fast!”
People under the bridge and on the road all shouted.
To save the woman, many rushed out from the cool shade of the bridge.
The woman was also frightened but couldn’t shake off the burning vehicle for a long time.
The person who ran to the front rushed up, dragged her off the vehicle, and as soon as they moved away, the vehicle was instantly engulfed in flames.
Burning, exploding.
It was only a matter of seconds.
This sudden explosion stunned everyone; after a few seconds, the woman let out a painful scream.
“Ah—!”
She was burned.
The woman wasn’t too scared to get off just now; her skin had been stuck to the electric bicycle’s metal casing due to the high temperature.
And the rescuer dragging her off the vehicle was also tearing her from the scorching metal.
Her thighs were blistered from the burn, and a large piece of skin was torn off from her inner thigh.
The ambulance and fire department arrived quite a while later; the woman was taken to the Hospital, and her electric bicycle was now reduced to a skeleton.
The vehicle catching fire was truly terrifying.
Chu Yian’s original intention to leave immediately vanished; for safety, it was better to stay a little longer.
She had endured the previous six hours; another hour or two wouldn’t make a difference.
She wasn’t the only one with this thought.
5:32 PM
Chu Yian drank the last sip of water she had, finally got into her tricycle, and once again hurried towards the city.
Her first order of business was to find a place to eat.
Sitting in an air-conditioned room.
The pork belly in front of her sizzled as it cooked.
Chu Yian specifically hired a waiter to help grill the meat, while she herself, like a starving ghost, stuffed large mouthfuls into her mouth.
To be honest, she was indeed too hungry.
Chu Yian ate two plates of pork belly, two plates of beef, one serving of oysters, one serving of prawns, one serving of scallops, and uncontrollably devoured the free fruit and ice jelly from the restaurant.
She ate until she was full, then leaned against the wall as she came out.
7:00 PM.
Even though the sun had set, the weather remained muggy and hot.
Chu Yian drove around and saw a Shopping Mall specializing in wholesale, so she bought several more cases of mineral water.
Besides mineral water, she also bought several cases of popsicles.
She bought some various seasonings, and also some vegetables she liked but couldn’t be stored for long.
By the time she finished shopping, it was already 8:00 PM.
The weather gradually became cooler, and Chu Yian was ready to head back.
Before leaving, she visited a gas station again, buying another 1000L of diesel, and then rushed back with all these items.
Driving on her usual route, Chu Yian was fast yet cautious.
Passing by the spot where someone had hailed a taxi last night, she specifically glanced at it.
It was empty tonight, and Chu Yian didn’t pay much attention, driving further and taking a turn towards her home.
A few hundred meters more, and she would reach the construction site from earlier in the day.
She was getting closer to her home.
However, just as she was making the turn, there was a sudden *thump*.
The front of the tricycle suddenly dipped, and the front of the vehicle drifted, almost hitting the railing beside it.
Chu Yian quickly braked and stopped, just barely avoiding crashing through the railing and into the mountain slope next to it.
However, before she could get out to check what she had run over, hurried footsteps came from the dark corner, approaching her vehicle.
