Chapter 41: The Water Resources are Polluted

Just then, Wang Qiqi posted: "@everyone, I’ve inquired about the news—if the water doesn’t come tomorrow, the community water truck will arrive at 14:00 to deliver water. Everyone must remember to fill up when the water comes! If anyone has extra water, please help Zhang Bingbing." Wang Cuihua No.4 sent a voice message: "That girl is always so harsh. She did say in your car earlier today that we should ask for help in the group if we had problems, but who still has bottled water now? My family only has muddy water. We let the sediment settle and keep changing it. If you don’t mind, I can bring you a basin of muddy water that hasn’t been changed yet." Li Wei No.21: "Auntie, could you also bring me a basin?" Wang Cuihua responded with a voice message, "I only fetch water for my grandson." Li Wei didn’t speak again, and Zhang Bingbing personally went to get the water. Sometimes, an old lady’s fighting power can be quite formidable. Anyway, Zhang Bingbing’s issue was resolved. Jing Shu’s family found it amusing. Wherever there are people, there are social dynamics and conflicts. It was clear that even though people in the Initial Stage of Apocalypse still had some conscience, their true human nature was being exposed. Just like Jing Shu, who wouldn’t give away a single drop from her full pond—why should she? She’d stored it through her own efforts. These days, Jing Shu always kept her water tanks full. After several rounds of filtration, the muddy water became as clear as purified water and could be used normally. The challenge was the impending year-long water outage. "I don’t like this guy, Wang Qiqi. Too slick," Mrs. Jing chimed in from the side. "If you liked him, then we’d really have a problem," Mr. Jing said with a stern face. Then the topic veered off course, and somehow, they ended up returning to their own bedroom. Jing Shu: ??? Weren’t we talking about the water issue? ...Never mind, as long as you’re happy. After inspecting the Magic Cube Space that night, Jing Shu ate two plates of spicy rabbit dices, three steaks, and a bowl of shaved ice yogurt for a late-night snack, then began practicing with the Six-stage Rubik’s Cube. It was many notches more difficult than the Five-stage Rubik’s Cube. Despite practicing for over half a month, Jing Shu could only just complete it; she was still miles away from finishing it quickly. Jing Shu planned to upgrade it before moving to the villa. She needed the Magic Cube Space to be at least that of a six-stage Magic Cube (216 cubic meters) or a seven-stage Magic Cube (343 cubic meters) to take all the villa’s supplies. Beds and similar items had to be taken along. It didn’t matter if there was no chance to use them; she really didn’t want to wake up the next day bitten all over by various insects or crawling, putrid corpses. ... Early morning news reported that despite policies to fish out freshwater fish in advance to prevent mass deaths in the lakes, twenty continuous days of high temperatures and falling soil had raised riverbeds, still resulting in many freshwater fish dying en masse. The high temperatures caused the dead fish to float and decay, polluting vast water sources. Local governments had been working round the clock to salvage fish corpses and remediate the polluted water sources. Seventy percent of Earth’s water is undrinkable, and freshwater resources are extremely scarce. Now, river water sources have also been polluted! In Huaxia, only water from deep lakes and reservoirs remained potable. However, these freshwater resources were bound to diminish gradually with the ongoing high temperatures and continuous falling soil. Water would only become scarcer! It was foreseeable that the water supply would be cut off for the entire coming year. Electricity returned to Jing Shu’s residential district, but there was still no water. The previously fussy people stopped clamoring for bottled water and silently began to settle their muddy water themselves. Wang Qiqi shared the news in the group chat, warning everyone to store water. The nation’s water resources were contaminated, so water would definitely become scarce; the situation was rather serious. At 14:00, the water truck arrived. Each family was allotted only three buckets of turbid water. Considering it had been filtered several times, this was actually quite good. It was a world of difference compared to a few months later when each person would only receive 500 ml of water per day—truly Heaven versus Hell. Jing Shu hadn’t expected that even collecting water could cause trouble. Wang Qiqi No.13: "@everyone, those who haven’t collected water, hurry up. Once the people currently in line have collected theirs, the water truck will leave. Now the water truck comes every two days until the water supply returns!" Hearing that no one knew when the water supply would resume, and that the water truck would only come every two days, everyone panicked. Security guard Xiao Wang: "@The household in the Jing’an Villa District, you haven’t registered yet." Mr. Jing happened to go out today to buy more cigarettes and alcohol. Mrs. Jing said her colleagues had already begun secretly hoarding various grains. Official documents stated that due to immeasurable losses from the high temperatures, no crops could be grown even after the Dark Day passed. The nation planned to stop producing non-essential goods for the next two years, including cigarettes, alcohol, and snacks. Moreover, new directives had been issued, reducing the grain purchase limit from 500 yuan to 200 yuan per person. Each person’s total daily spending at major supermarkets was not to exceed 500 yuan. This prevented those who knew in advance about the government’s plan to restrict grain sales from buying too much. Of course, this didn’t apply to scalpers and private supermarkets. As someone who enjoyed his smokes and drinks, Mr. Jing had gone out to buy cigarettes and alcohol today. Fortunately, these items weren’t limited yet. Jing Shu, being alone at home, hadn’t wanted to go get water. However, since she was called out by name, and not wanting to give everyone the impression that her family wasn’t short of water, she responded in the group chat and went to get water with three buckets. Wu City was already imposing water use restrictions, and it was reported that Wu City’s largest freshwater lake had also been contaminated. The water truck was at the neighborhood gate. Jing Shu put on a mask, windbreaker, and rain boots. It took her a three-minute run to get there. The neighborhood streetlights were all out, with only the lights at the entrance left on. Underneath these lights, countless black flying insects, each the size of a date, buzzed incessantly and dived at people, causing the women collecting water to scream. Jing Shu knew it wouldn’t be long before various flying insects would proliferate, spreading diseases and killing another wave of people. People came to collect water family by family. After Jing Shu registered, she observed the people in line. They were all dirty and haggard, their chapped lips indicating they didn’t have much water left at home. Just then, a woman in floral clothes said, "Girl, you’ll struggle to carry even one bucket. Why not give the rest to me? My family is large, and we don’t have enough water." A man beside her immediately chimed in, "Young lady, give the extra buckets to me. I’ll give you fifty yuan." Someone else added, "Yeah, just share some with all of us. You can’t carry them all by yourself anyway." "You people are terrible, wanting water without any effort! Miss," another man pushing a handcart said with a chuckle, "I’ll help you take them back with my cart if you give me two buckets. You can’t carry them all home by yourself anyway." Since the water truck only came every two days, everyone felt it was too little water. Bottled water couldn’t be bought in supermarkets, so even muddy water had suddenly become precious. Jing Shu rolled her eyes. "If I supposedly can’t carry it, why don’t any of you offer to help me take it back? You’re all very enthusiastic when it comes to asking for water, though." "Exactly!" the portly man chimed in, agreeing with her. "Why can’t you just deliver them all to my house?" Jing Shu asked the portly man. "Who would want to go out of their way to deliver it for someone else on such a hot day? Give me one hundred yuan, and I’ll deliver it for you," he replied. Jing Shu stubbornly refused to share any water. The people ahead of her who had already collected their water waited, curious to see how this young girl would manage. Then, they were stunned. Jing Shu casually carried two buckets in one hand and one in the other, walking off with ease. Those who had hoped to scrounge some water were left dumbfounded, wondering if they had all received water from the same truck. Indifference and the apathy of bystanders—that was Jing Shu’s assessment of humanity in the apocalypse. It was slowly starting to reveal itself.