Chapter 180: My Profession is Zombie King 12
Author: 打字机
The power outage occurred at exactly four o’clock in the afternoon when people whose biological clocks had been forcibly altered were still sleeping. Due to the excessively hot weather, even with the air conditioning turned to the lowest setting, the indoor temperature during the day remained between 29-32 degrees Celsius, which was uncomfortable but still within the range of what ordinary people could tolerate.
When the air conditioning and electric fans stopped working, a continuous stream of hot air quickly replaced the cool air indoors, making everyone woke up sweating due to the heat.
The first thing they did upon waking up was to check their own air conditioning and electric fans, only to find that the appliances had stopped working, not due to any fault but because of the power outage. They dared not go out in the sun and only asked their neighbours through the windows.
“Why did the power go out? Did the circuit breaker trip, or was there a problem with the power company?”
“It should be a power outage. My air conditioner is also not working.”
In such hot weather, air conditioning is like a lifesaving medicine. If the power goes out, it is no different from taking their life away.
“Why did the power go out? What are those power company people doing? Are they trying to kill us?”
“I can’t live anymore like this. If the power goes out, everyone might as well cut their throats and die.”
The tightly wound nerves of the past few days collapsed with the power outage, and cries filled the air.
“Sister, the power’s out.”
Chi Ruoyu opened the curtains a little to peek outside cautiously.
The power outage impacted the Chi family, but it wasn’t significant. Previously, Village Chief Li Dong had reminded everyone to stock up on water. While Li Mei was filling up all the containers in her own home, she also filled up the ones in the house of her neighbour, Chi Ruojin, who was a mutant ice-ability user. After the power went out, Chi Ruojin condensed the water in a few buckets into ice and placed them in her bedroom to cool down. When the ice melted, she froze it again, so the temperature in the bedroom was still relatively cool.
Moreover, ice melting and freezing could be reused, and with Chi Ruojin’s control over her mutant ice ability, water evaporation and loss were not significant.
“You stay at home and take care of yourself. I’ll take a few buckets of ice to Uncle.”
Due to her ability, Chi Ruojin wasn’t afraid of the hot weather, but she still dressed up and covered her exposed skin before preparing to go out.
“Sister.”
Chi Ruoyu stopped her sister and hesitated.
She wanted to ask if she could go to the Jiangs’ house to send some buckets of ice to Jiang Liu, but she felt embarrassed to bring up her sister’s ability since that was her sister’s biggest secret.
Although she hasn’t experienced many dangerous things, Chi Ruoyu understands what she can do and say. It’s like she never planned to tell her sister that the space does not belong solely to her and that Jiang Liu also possesses half of the key to the space. Since this matter involves Jiang Liu, she cannot expose his secret.
Therefore, until now, her sister Chi Ruoxi only knows that her sister Ruoyu has the ability of space, but she does not know that this space is shared by her sister and Jiang Liu.
Likewise, Chi Ruoyu will not tell Jiang Liu about her sister’s ability to control ice.
“Now the sun is almost setting, and the temperature is not too high to bear. You can rest assured that Jiang Liu will not die from the heat. But we can help him this time. However, we may not be able to help him next time. He has to find a way to survive in this world.”
After eight years of the apocalypse, Chi Ruoyu’s heart has been tempered like a sharp, cold, and tough blade. Except for her sister and her uncle, who died to save her in her previous life, Chi Ruoyu does not feel she owes anyone anything and will not take risks for anyone.
Ability was her biggest secret, and she would not reveal it unless necessary.
After speaking, Chi Ruojin picked up the water bucket and left, naturally not missing the disappointment in her sister’s eyes, but still hardened her heart and ignored it.
“Ruojin, you’re here? Is this ice?” Chi Dayuan’s lips were a little dry and cracked. Li Mei was a shrewd woman who planned the daily consumption of all household items after the mutation occurred.
Although they had stocked up on a lot of water, the drinking water that the Chi family consumed daily was only the size of a water cup, and daily washing had long been prohibited by Li Mei. She racked her brain to add more water containers to the house these days. The empty space in their home was filled with containers of all sizes and shapes. Even though the tap water was decreasing daily, Li Mei still tirelessly searched for new containers and swore to store more drinking water.
Li Mei’s method caused hardship for Chi Dayuan and his son, Chi Shengli. When the weather was hot, water was consumed quickly, and one cup of water a day simply could not satisfy the needs of the father and son.
Unfortunately, Li Mei’s method was not wrong, so Chi Dayuan and his son had to endure it.
“You take these ice cubes back.”
Chi Dayuan originally wanted to let his niece stay at home, but his wife was not happy about it, and their two nieces also wanted to live in the old house left by their parents. No matter how much Chi Dayuan begged, it was useless.
Fortunately, when the Chi brothers renovated the house, they made it based on the old foundation. The two families were only separated by a wall, and Chi Dayuan could hear any movement from next door. At the repeated request of his nieces, Chi Dayuan could only agree.
For this reason, Chi Dayuan has always felt sorry for his two nieces. In his opinion, Chi Ruojin and Chi Ruoyu must have chosen to live next door to avoid conflicts between him and his wife. He had no idea that Chi Ruojin and Chi Ruoyu chose to live separately from him because the two sisters had too many secrets, and it was inconvenient to live together.
“Uncle, please take these ice blocks. Since there’s a power outage, our freezer can’t be used. They will eventually melt and become water if you don’t take them. It’s better to use them to cool down,” Chi Ruojin said as she brought the ice blocks.
Chi Ruojin had already prepared a reason for bringing the ice blocks. “By the way, I don’t know when the power will be restored or if it will be restored. You should hurry and make the perishable food in the fridge into easy-to-store-cooked food. If you can’t make them into cooked food, eat them before they spoil.”
After Chi Ruojin’s reminder, Chi Dayuan no longer refused.
“By the way, do you and Ruoyu have enough food?”
“Enough. Ruoyu and I don’t have big appetites. Those things can last us for a long time. We also have salted fish that we marinated earlier and dried vegetables we collected from the field, which can sustain us for a while.”
Chi Ruojin was afraid that if she stayed any longer, Uncle Chi would invite her to have dinner with them. So she just left the bucket and left under the scorching sun.
“Ruojin left?”
After Chi Ruojin left, Li Mei quietly came out of another room.
Her condition was not much better than Chi Dayuan’s. Li Mei was even more strict with herself, drinking less than a cup daily because of the long-term water shortage. Her skin was very bad, but Li Mei couldn’t care less.
“Put these ice blocks in Shengli’s room. His room is small, and the cooling will be faster with these ice blocks.”
Li Mei looked at the two buckets of ice brought by Chi Ruojin with delight. She couldn’t stand it without air conditioning, and even though it was almost five o’clock, the temperature inside was still around 47 to 48 degrees. Her hot head was buzzing, and her consciousness was becoming unclear.
When she held the two buckets of ice, Li Mei let out a sigh of comfort, and her mind became clearer.
“Ruojin is still thinking about us all the time. Why can’t you accommodate her and her sister?”
Uncle Chi couldn’t help but ask in a deep voice as he looked at his delighted wife.
“Why can’t I accommodate them? I can’t tolerate them!”
Just a moment ago, the joyful Li Mei exploded like a cat with its tail stepped on. “Chen Dayuan, you should speak with some conscience. It’s such a difficult time, and I only want my son to be safe and sound. Yet, you considered me a bad person who can’t tolerate others.”
Is it so easy to be a good person? How much food did her husband’s two nieces bring back? After finishing that food, they would have to rely on their supplies. Li Mei only knew that if the two sisters took a little more, her son would have to eat less. For her son to live a little longer, she would rather be seen as a bad person.
Although that’s what she thought, Li Mei still couldn’t bear it when her husband blamed her.
“Ruojin and Ruoyu are both good children. We only have one child, and he will have two sisters to protect him in the future.”
Chen Dayuan sighed as he carried the two buckets of ice and walked towards their son’s room.
Li Mei bit her lips and followed silently.
**********
After eight o’clock, the temperature finally dropped a bit. The villagers, who were almost dehydrated from the heat, gathered at the village chief Li Dong’s house and suggested he go to the power supply company to ask about the power outage.
Li Dong did not refuse. He couldn’t bear the heat either. If the power supply wasn’t restored, how could they survive tomorrow at the hottest time of noon? This matter had to be clarified.
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