Chapter 19

Celestial Gardens was located at the top of the hill, so the place looked like an isolated island in the dark night. Driving into the basement, both Irene and Jenny had returned empty-handed. Jenny was no longer as spirited as she had been earlier. Her face was deathly pale, and she followed Irene like a puppet with its strings cut. When they reached the seventh floor, she suddenly tugged on Irene's sleeve. Irene looked back at her. "Do you think the extreme heat will end someday?" Jenny's voice cracked. The carnage in the supermarket had cast a permanent shadow over her heart. Irene shook her head. "I don't know." After a while, she asked, "Will our lessons officially begin tomorrow?" It took Jenny a moment to remember that she had promised to teach Irene medicine. Since she had something to do, Jenny did not have as much time and energy to spend wallowing in misery. She nodded. "We'll start at nine o'clock in the morning. I'll go and prepare some materials tonight." Irene agreed. Just like that, she had set a date with Jenny. When she returned to the tenth floor, she took out the remote control for the electric door from her space. After turning off the power, she went inside. Goldie dragged its broken leg behind it as it approached her anxiously. Even at night, the temperature was 42 or 43 degrees Celsius. Without the air conditioner, even small animals could not survive this heat. Irene went to the rooftop. The solar power generator she had bought earlier was finally coming in handy. Her house was fitted with blackout curtains, so that no one could peek in from the outside. Irene could turn on her lights and air-conditioning however she liked. After cleaning Goldie's poop and changing its wound dressing, Irene played with it in the living room for a while before going to the gym for her strength training. Her life would become more and more difficult from now on. If she did not want to fall victim to someone else, she had to make herself stronger. As far as she remembered, after the city-wide blackout in her previous life, the city plunged into chaos for a while. There had been burning, killing, and looting everywhere, with plenty of people stealing the things they wanted. In the end, the military was mobilized. They rapidly raided several hot spots and slowly restored order by taking down the burgeoning evildoers. Irene decided to lie low and spend the next few days holed up in Celestial Gardens. She would learn some simple medicine, and she would also be able to keep an eye out for anyone else who was targeting her. Early the next morning, Irene left for Jenny's after breakfast. As soon as she stepped outside, a wave of heat rolled over her, nearly roasting Irene to death. The temperature had gone from a decent 24 to a scorching 75 degrees Celsius. She had to admit it was a little grueling. Celestial Gardens was indeed a high-end neighborhood, but there was no independent power supply system installed in the area. Other than a few families who had planned ahead, most families had never bothered to install solar generators at home. After all, before the apocalypse, Celestial Gardens was a high-end residential area that had never seen a single power outage. Jenny's house did not have a solar generator. Once the power went out, she would be left out to dry. By now, she was too hot to even sit still. She fanned herself and asked Irene gloomily, "It's so hot. When do you think the electricity will come back?" "I don't know." As far as Irene remembered, the electricity never came back after the blackout in her previous life. This wave of extreme heat was too destructive. It had destroyed several power plants in a row, and two days after the blackout, the water supply system also fell apart. That was their final farewell to the civilized world. However, she did not tell Jenny any of this. It would only make her even more anxious, so Irene stopped at reminding her to stock up on water. While Jenny fetched a bucket to store water, Irene pulled out a notebook and fountain pen and wiped the sweat from her forehead. "The only way to stay cool is to maintain a cool disposition. Let's start the lesson." Seeing how serious Irene was, Jenny did not continue complaining. Her maternal grandfather's family was well-known in the country's medical scene. Jenny had learned to distinguish different medicines before she learned even how to do basic math. Although she was still in her fourth year of university, she had learned from her maternal grandfather constantly since she was a child. Her knowledge was the real deal, learned over many years of hard work. Since she considered Irene her friend now, she did not hide anything when she taught her. Over the course of a few days, Irene learned a lot, and she became even more motivated to keep learning. One night, while Irene was getting better at her medical studies, she received a call from Paulette. Paulette's tone was tense as she told Irene that someone was banging on their door, yelling viciously. Irene's expression changed instantly. She grabbed her car keys and hurried over to Paulette's place. Before leaving the house, Irene did not forget to turn up her electric door to the maximum voltage. The world was getting increasingly dangerous, so she had to be extra careful in everything she did. As she headed for Paulette's house that night, she did not know that several people tried to sneak into her house not long after she left. In the end, all but one of them was electrocuted to death. Paulette's house was in the business district a few streets from the center of the city. Before the extreme heat wave, this area had been very lively. However, that was also why there were many people from all walks of life renting rooms in the area. When things got chaotic, houses in this area became easy targets. When she arrived at Paulette's home, Irene's heart skipped a beat. She smelled the blood in the air. She pushed open the door. The moonlight shone down, clearly illuminating the tragedy in the living room. Paulette knelt on the ground, her head buried in the arms of her father's greying corpse. She whimpered like a wounded animal. Her mother sat at the side like a stone statue, her face filled with despair. Irene's heart ached at the sight. She walked over quickly and briefly greeted Paulette's mother. Then, she crouched down in front of Paulette and pulled her into her arms, wiping the blood off her face. "Paulette, what happened?" Paulette rubbed her face with trembling hands, her expression full of grief and despair. "Nene, those people stabbed my father seven times. He was just trying to protect me, and I… I watched him die." She slapped herself hard twice. "It's all my fault. I shouldn't have stopped my parents from going out to buy supplies these days. If I hadn't kept stopping them, they wouldn't have targeted us." When she realized that she had been the one who drew the target on their backs, Paulette was filled with intense self-loathing. Irene took Paulette's hand to stop her from hurting herself, her expression unusually grave. She had not expected that by reminding Paulette to buy more supplies, she would end up dooming their family to this tragic fate. A sinister look flashed across her eyes, and she asked in a low voice, "Polly, do you know who did this?" Paulette shook her head in despair. "Those men were wearing helmets, and my dad shielded us with his body the entire time. I didn't get a good look at them." The scene from just now was like a nightmare replaying in her mind. Her voice trembled as she said, "I want to kill them, but I don't even know who they are. How did this world suddenly become like this?" Irene was upset, too, but she was not good at comforting others. All she could do now was hold Paulette tightly in her arms and pat her back to soothe her. She was too focused on Paulette that she missed the change in Mrs. Chapman's expression. Mr. and Mrs. Chapmans had started dating since they were in university. The two of them had been together for nearly 30 years, but now, the love of her life had been stabbed to death right in front of her eyes. The pain in Mrs. Chapman's heart was just as intense as Paulette's. Mrs. Chapman wiped her tears silently and mechanically turned to look at Paulette. When she saw Paulette finding comfort in Irene's arms, her numb gaze gradually softened. She knew she was not strong enough to protect Paulette in these troubled times. Paulette and Irene had been close since they were children. Before Paulette went to work in Marina City, Irene would often come to her house to play. Mrs. Chapman knew Irene quite well. The girl had a rather unique personality, but she was very loyal to her friends. Moreover, Mrs. Chapman knew that Irene had practiced martial arts since she was young. She had even regularly gone on expeditions over the years. Irene was much more capable of surviving alone than her silly daughter. Mrs. Chapman believed that if anyone could protect Polly in the troubled times ahead, it had to be Irene. In just a few seconds, she had already considered all kinds of possibilities. In the end, she quietly got up from the ground and slowly walked to the window. "Nene." Mrs. Chapman called out to Irene, who was racking her brains trying to comfort Paulette. She slowly leaned back, sticking half of her body out of the window. "From now on, I'll leave Polly in your hands. I know you can take good care of her." As Paulette screamed, Mrs. Chapman jumped out of the 32-story window.