Grandma Jing shook her head. "You don't know that the field needs watering twice a day. That cow alone drinks dozens of kilograms of water. I really don't know if it's it is a water buffalo or a dairy cow. I don't know if our water will last a month. Saving will not be enough."
Su Lanzhi said, "What if we all drink less water and switch to milk. We cannot cut the water used for cooking."
Jing An suddenly clapped. "We at the Livestock Breeding Center can trade milk for water, two to one. Why not swap milk for water."
Jing Shu stopped him at once. "Dad, please no. Milk is scarce commodity. There are less than 20 cows on the farm and how much milk can they produce every day? Our milk is worth ten to one and I still would not trade. It is precious. I forgot to tell you. I bought a batch of mineral water last year, planning to autograph the bottles and give them to fans when I blew up. I never used them."
Su Lanzhi tapped Jing Shu's forehead with a finger. "You little miser. You guard the second floor like a treasure room and don't let us in. How many good things have you hidden? And you keep the key to the basement tightly guarded by you. You money-grubber. A few hundred bottles will not go far."
Grandpa Jing, who rarely spoke, spoke up now. "We have over four hundred bottles left. Those must be saved. Don't touch them. That is life-saving water. We don't know when water will return. Our household supply will be used up sooner or later. Only when we truly have no water should we drink the mineral water."
If Jing Shu had not been reborn, she would be worrying too.
The unknown is the most frightening. Not knowing when water returns makes people afraid to touch the last stash.
But Jing Shu knew. Survive these two deadly months and things would turn. To be safe, Jing Shu had stuffed 15 cubic meters (15 metric tons) of water into the Cube Space. Even after all this time there were still 9 cubic meters left. She genuinely had not expected how much farming, watering livestock, and watering the Cube Space animals would guzzle.
"Not that many. Only a few thousand bottles," Jing Shu said, rubbing her nose. Back then she bought 400 cases of 500 ml Nongfu Spring, 12 bottles per case, for a total of 4,800 bottles, plus 100 cases of the 1.5 L size. If only she had bought more. Who knew the family operation would get this big.
"What did you say? You prodigal child," Su Lanzhi blurted. She had not imagined this kid dared buy that much water.
"I figured I had hundreds of thousands of fans. You need a few thousand bottles at least. Cough. Anyway, the problem we face now is solved, right. We still need to save. From now on, all raw water goes to the fields. If necessary, even household greywater goes to the fields. Filtered water goes to the animals. We drink mineral water. As for trading milk for water, it's better not to do it. Isn't it good to drink more milk every day?
And I need milk for ice cream. I am paying back someone in diesel with it. Ice cream devours milk."
Jing Shu paused, then continued. "Grandpa is right about one thing. The experts got one point correct. No matter how hot it gets, when the sea level rises, downpour will come. When that happens, water will not be scarce. There will be so much water people drown."
"Fine. our housekeeper has spoken. We follow orders," Jing An said, leading the way in backing his daughter. After discussing ways to conserve and save water, the family meeting ended.
Jing Shu brought down a dozen cases of mineral water with her keys and placed a few cases in each room. "From now on, drink mineral water straight from the bottle. Don't waste coal boiling water."
That night Jing Shu reflected. She had prepared a lot for year one's water crisis, yet it was only barely enough. That meant she had not prepared enough.
"Then preparations for year two must be complete. No repeats of this. Red nematode, leeches, bloodsucking bugs, none of you are getting in."
On August 18, a major incident hit the Planting Industry R&D Management Department. Staffer Yu Caini failed to clean the latrine pits. Carrion scavengers and maggots infested the irrigation water and completely polluted the department's supply.
Once the report reached the listmakers, the New City District government immediately stripped Yu Caini of her official status. Director Su Lanzhi said she dared not keep such an employee and directly dismissed Yu Caini from the department.
On August 25, over five thousand people in Wu City had died from heat and thirst. Because so many people had been catching maggots, their numbers were down. The government made a new decision.
Instead of cremating bodies as before, bodies would be placed at cremation grounds to raise maggots and carrion scavengers. At the supermarkets, the price of maggots in the communal meal was lowered to 0.2 virtual coins per portion to ensure the public could eat fully and eat well.
People who could not stand plain rice after three months had somehow eaten maggots for months now. With abundant government supply, they even felt satisfied.
Meanwhile reservoirs and uncontaminated freshwater lakes were near dry. The government increased groundwater extraction. Reports said they were far over the safe limit, risking subsidence.
On September 1, deaths kept soaring. The Wu City government announced a task to trade dry branches and trunks for small amounts of work points. That afternoon, once temperatures dipped, the entire city went out to gather wood. Streetsides, inside the community, roadsides, mountains, parks. If there were trees, there were people. Fights over branches broke out. In such cases the government confiscated everything on the spot.
These days the government was not only busy collecting the dead and reclaiming the possessions of the deceased, but also cutting forest trees. In this heat and drought, fires were a real risk. If a mountain fire caught, an entire city would flee.
On September 5, Jing Shu sold milk ice cream again. This time she traded for 3 tons of diesel. As before, the ice cream went to testing, then was shipped out. Jing Shu still had not seen Qian Duoduo's simpleton son.
Word was the whole family loved the ice cream. The silly son refused anything with eggs or milk, but adored all kinds of ice cream. He wanted a new batch with the flavor of Weilong spicy sticks and would pay double.
They even sent over ten bags of his favorite Weilong spicy sticks.
Jing Shu: "What."
On September 9, the temperature hit 55°C, an all-time high. News said 1,500 died in Wu City that day. Jing Shu drank over twenty coconuts and more than ten liters of watermelon juice. At the same time, she was added to a new chat group.
The group name was: Class of 2015 High School Classmates.
[Zhang Lingling]: "@Everyone, I just want to know how many people are left now out of the 56 people in the class back then? Yesterday I learned our Chinese teacher passed away. I made this group in remembrance."