Jing Shu still had to be grateful that the temperature had not shot past fifty degrees all at once. Otherwise many more people would have died from the heat on the spot. Even so, the damage from extreme heat was enormous. The most obvious signs were parched earth and oases turning to desert. China was entering a period of severe water shortage. Water would become even more precious.
As Jing Shu was thinking about what would happen next, a group of five reached Zhang Bingbing's apartment. They climbed to the ninth floor, all of them panting, drenched in sweat. With how much they had sweated, they would collapse without at least one full bottle of water.
Jing Shu was not tired from carrying her spiked club that weighed over one hundred jin (50 kg). She was just unbearably hot. At least eating that much every day was good for something.
"Jing Shu, we are not prying the door this time," Wang Qiqi said between breaths. He was still spooked by how fierce Jing Shu had been the last time. "Put your weapons away first."
Wang Qiqi knocked for a while, but no one answered. "Zhang Bingbing, are you there? I am Wang Qiqi. I know you are inside. If you do not answer, I am going to pry the door."
"What are you yelling for? Do you know you are trespassing?" a middle-aged man's voice came from inside.
"Open the door. As residents of the community, we have an obligation to check on a neighbor's safety. If you do not open, we will force the door."
The door suddenly swung open. A bald, middle-aged man in shorts stood there with a kitchen knife in his hand. Behind him was a young man, also in shorts, holding a flashlight and sizing up the people outside.
"Where is Zhang Bingbing?" Wang Qiqi looked the pair over. One was a greasy middle-aged uncle, the other a young man who looked about twenty.
In the dim light, Jing Shu caught a glimpse of the older man's wrinkled skin and sagging flesh. It was an eyesore.
The bald man scratched his crotch and shouted impatiently, "Zhang Bingbing, get out here."
A woman emerged slowly from the dark apartment, naked. With her haggard face and sunken cheeks, no one could guess what she had gone through in the past few days. Her eyes were unfocused. She was like a walking corpse, showing no reaction at all to the arrival of Jing Shu and the others.
Jing Shu remembered the first time she met Zhang Bingbing, when the Earth's Dark Days had just begun and water was scarce. Zhang Bingbing had used the last of her water to wipe down her body. Zhang Bingbing had asked Wang Cuihua for water, and Zhang Bingbing had cursed out a few aunties who had ridden in her car because they did not help or sell her water.
Later, no matter how dire the shortage, Zhang Bingbing had insisted on staying clean and cared deeply about her image, not like now, appearing naked in front of everyone.
"Zhang Bingbing, do you recognize me?" Wang Qiqi frowned.
There was a flicker of confusion in Zhang Bingbing's eyes. "Wang Qiqi?"
Wang Qiqi nodded and pulled Zhang Bingbing to his side. "Who are the two behind you? Are they coercing you? Do not worry. We are here now. They will not dare to do anything to you."
Zhang Bingbing turned her flat gaze on the two men. Suddenly fear flashed in her eyes. "They are my elder husband and my younger husband."
The bald middle-aged man sneered. "Hear that, you busybodies? Zhang Bingbing, get back here and serve us."
Zhang Bingbing shoved Wang Qiqi away and retreated behind the older man.
Young Master with Baby stepped forward, unable to hold back. "Why are we wasting breath on them? Grab those two strays first, then we can ask what is going on."
"No, you cannot," Zhang Bingbing cried. "Do not hurt the father and son. I am pregnant with their child. The baby cannot be born without a father. Go, hurry and go. Do not touch them." Zhang Bingbing shoved Wang Qiqi out, pushing everyone toward the hall, then slammed the door with a bang.
The group stared at one another, speechless.
Three question marks floated through Jing Shu's mind. "What is going on? Has Zhang Bingbing lost her mind?"
Wang Qiqi sighed. "If I am not wrong, those two slipped in during the Earth's Dark Days last time and raped Zhang Bingbing. She could not handle the shock and broke down. She may have developed a mental illness and has been brainwashed by those two ever since. That is why she is acting like this."
"Did I hear that right? They are father and son?"
"It seems so."
"Animals."
In the apocalypse, there were plenty of things that shattered the bottom line. Jing Shu could only say that in a big forest, there were all kinds of birds.
If they killed the two men, how would Zhang Bingbing survive with her mind in pieces? Even normal people could barely live now.
But if they did not kill those two scumbags and let them continue to harm the already broken Zhang Bingbing, would that not just make her suffering worse?
Jing Shu's thought was simple. Scum did not deserve to live and waste food.
"Forget it. Let me think more about how to handle Zhang Bingbing's situation."
So the matter was left unsettled for the time being.
That night, over dinner, the family could not help sighing as they talked about it. Everyone was also grateful for Jing Shu's earlier methods. Otherwise the ones harmed now might have been their own people.
Was Zhang Bingbing innocent? Maybe. So what? A young white-collar woman was violated, and now she was penned up and broken. In this world, weakness was the root of disaster.
Whenever they had time, everyone practiced with their crossbows to improve accuracy. Grandpa Jing checked the traps again and again and kept expanding them at home.
"According to the latest report, new mutant corrosive carrion scavengers have been discovered at Lake Kana in Wu City. They have begun reproducing on a large scale within the city. The citizen tip line is now open. If you discover a corpse, you may call the 130 body removal hotline. After verification, you will be rewarded two points.
In view of frequent home invasion robberies in Wu City and insufficient police manpower, neighbors and nearby residents may call 110 or submit photos and a description of the suspect and any casualties via the official WeChat account. After verification, you will be rewarded one to one hundred points."
From the Wu City news, it was clear they were casting the net step by step. The power of the people was great. With food as a reward, the masses could outdo Sherlock Holmes.
"According to CCTV, temperatures in parts of Africa have reached 60 degrees Celsius, breaking historical records. Governments are filing emergency plans to dig underground houses several meters deep. During the day, people will shelter underground from the heat, and at night, when it is cooler, they will return above ground.
At the same time, temperatures in Hainan have also surpassed 60 degrees Celsius. With a red alert from the meteorological bureau, the extreme heat will last at least ten days. The state has issued an emergency plan and has urgently mobilized cargo ships and trains nationwide to begin the first evacuation of Hainan. The first evacuees are expected to relocate to the Northeast.
All trains nationwide will be suspended until the first wave of evacuees reaches their destination. Citizens are asked to cancel unnecessary travel."
When Jing Shu saw the news, she narrowed her eyes. These were the famous first-wave migrants from her previous life. Sadly, the casualties had been countless. It had failed, which made later nationwide migrations several times harder.
===
Hey guys, just a quick heads-up about my recent activity. I've actually been caught up in a totally different project—fonts. Yeah, fonts.
So, on my Android phone I've been using Droid Sans since like ever. I used to be on Roboto back in my college days (around 2017/2018 when I got my first phone), but somewhere around then I switched over and just never looked back. Even when I change phones, I always reinstall Droid Sans because I've gotten way too comfortable with it.
Recently, I suddenly thought: "What if I make this my default system font on my laptop too?" Sounds simple, right? Well… nope. The font is smaller than the default, which meant I had to spend two whole days adjusting things—editing CSS through Stylus so websites like YouTube, ChatGPT, Claude, and Deepseek, etc, don't look microscopic, plus tweaking buttons, menus, and other elements. Windows Explorer was easy (thanks to Advanced System Font Changer), but websites were another story.
On top of that, Droid Sans doesn't support certain characters out of the box—no Hanzi, no Katakana, no Hangul. And don't get me started on Pinyin diacritics, which looked totally messed up since some glyphs were pulled straight from Calibri and slapped on without adjustments. The result? Absolute chaos.
I've been patching it together by pairing Droid Sans with Microsoft JhengHei for Hanzi, which looks way better now. But the real headache is editing and building the Pinyin glyphs manually so they actually match the font style. As I'm writing this (Sept 18 at night), I'm still knee-deep in glyph editing. My brain is fried, and all I can think about is fonts instead of translations.
Hopefully, I'll finish all this by tomorrow and get back to translating. If not… it'll mean I've gone four days without translate anything, which feels super long to me. Normally that's enough time to crank out a bunch of chapters, so yeah, I'm kinda anxious about it.
Anyway, I think I'll share some screenshots of the "disaster phase" (my cursed ChatGPT/Claude/Deepseek screens) and the CSS edits I made on the comment section. Wish me luck—I really love this font, but wow, it's been a ride.