Chapter 9

After closing the door, the hostility in Irene’s eyes did not completely disappear. Judging from her interactions with Dan in her previous life, he was a revengeful person. They had exchanged unpleasantries in three of their encounters so far, so Irene knew that Dan must hate her. However, it did not matter because all she had to do for now was to wait patiently. Irene placed her hand on the switchblade in her pocket. Back in the living room, she set her hostility aside. Then, she went to the refrigerator to take out a popsicle and licked it slowly. After some thought, she walked to the window and lifted a corner of the heavy curtain to look outside the thick glass window. It was already past six o’clock, but the sun showed no signs of setting. It shone until the walls turned white. There was not a single person outside the residence. If it were not for the occasional sound of crying children from the window, one might feel like they were living in a deserted city. The sun finally hid its glaring light after eight o’clock, leaving only the warmth to bake human skin. Irene took out a thermometer from the space and opened up the window to measure. It was 43 degrees Celcius outside at the moment. The temperature was frightening, but it was nothing compared to 58 degrees. Others apparently thought the same as groups of two to three people seemed to be leaving the residence to go grocery shopping at the supermarket. Irene did not want to be left out, so she wore her UV protection shirt, picked up the car keys, and went downstairs. She had supplies that could last her a lifetime, but if she did not go out when everyone else was going out, she might as well announce to the whole world that she had food at home. Besides, Dan was watching her. That petty middle-aged man would definitely be watching her every move. Irene followed the crowd and drove to a nearby shopping mall. Unsurprisingly, the mall was full of people. It seemed even livelier than during New Year's. Irene had no intention of competing with them for the basic necessities, so she headed to the snack aisle to pick up a bunch of chips, bread, and soda. Then, she pushed the cart to the counter. She was a young girl, so it was not a surprise for someone like her to be buying a bunch of snacks. At most, people would just think that she was prodigal. After paying the bill, Irene got into the car with several bags of items. As soon as she got in, she took off her UV protection shirt, turned on the air conditioning, and wiped the sweat off her neck with tissue paper. She looked in the car mirror to see that her not-so-pale skin was entirely red. It was so damn hot. Irene cursed inwardly. Suddenly, alarm bells started ringing. How did she become so fragile after just two months in these peaceful times? If this went on, would she still be able to cope with the unpredictable extreme weather? Irene reflected on her mistake. She should not have indulged herself in comfort this early on. It was only the first day of the apocalypse, but she could not no longer stand it. How was she going to survive in the long run? Irene decided that from now on, she was going to turn off the air conditioner and exercise in the gym for two hours every night for the sole purpose of adapting to the apocalypse. She rubbed her face hard twice and turned off the air conditioner in the car. The residual coolness from the air conditioner dissipated instantly because of the hot weather. Irene put on an anti-dust mask and opened the car window for ventilation. She was not driving fast, but hot wind was blowing in from all directions. At first, she thought that the heat was unbearable, but she eventually got used to it. Originally, she planned to go straight home, but after some contemplation, she decided to drive around the city. She wanted to see if the sudden disaster had caused any new changes in the city. Although it was blazing hot at night, there were still many people who came outside to eat. Staying at home must have been suffocating for them. The city still went about as usual, perhaps even busier. Since she was there, she might as well buy something. She went to the gold shop to exchange more than ten gold bars and withdrew 100,000 dollars in cash from the bank, so there was not much money left on her card. When she got home, her clothes were drenched. Irene could not bear the sticky feeling all over her body, so she took a quick shower, which made her feel much better. Lying on the bed, Irene picked up her phone to check the news out of habit. Unsurprisingly, the Danver Islands had been uncontactable until today. As for the sudden heat wave in the country, some experts predicted that it would last for a week and suggested that all work come to a halt. The next piece of news was about deaths from heat stroke caused by the heat wave. In a single day, 500 people had died of heat stroke. It was only day one! The disasters in this life seemed more menacing than before. Irene closed Google and opened up her messages again. The Celestial Garden’s group chat was active with many people bragging about the groceries they bought today. Among them, the most active one was Jenny, who lived on the seventh floor. At that moment, they did not know that the more they bragged about their supplies, the more misfortunes they were bringing their families in the near future. Irene did not get any useful information from the group, so she simply stopped scrolling. She listened to some soothing music and soon entered dreamland. The next day, Irene was woken up by the heat. She turned over and subconsciously picked up the remote control to adjust the temperature of the air conditioner. She pointed it at the air conditioner and pressed the button several times, but she did not hear the usual beeping sounds. Irene then opened her eyes confoundedly. She did not believe that the air conditioner was broken, so she reached out to turn on the bedside lamp. However, there was no response at all. Was there… a power outage? Irene opened her messages, and Celestial Garden’s group chat was making noise again. Tall Jenny: [Why is there a power outage in such hot weather? Why can’t they let us live?] Blooming Wealth: [Isn’t this supposed to be a high-end residence? What’s going on? My grandson was woken up twice by the heat. The property management doesn’t care if we live or die.] Seine Lover: [I asked them about it, and it seems like an electric short-circuit. I’m guessing it’ll come back on soon.] Property Management: [Apologies to all residents. The electricity was temporarily short-circuited, and we’ve already sent the maintenance workers to repair it. The electricity will be back on shortly. We hope that everyone stays safe. Sorry for the inconvenience caused.] With the management’s reassurance, everyone calmed their emotions down. Seeing that they were chatting about other things, Irene did not read any further. She went to the window and lifted the curtain to look outside. The greenery was still covered in thick dust, and the sun was still blazing hot. She took out the thermometer to measure the temperature. It was 63 degrees Celcius! Irene was internally shocked. She remembered that the highest temperature yesterday was only 58 degrees. Only one day has passed, but it had risen by five degrees! Irene was afraid that the temperature would rise too quickly. Now that she could no longer use her previous life as a reference, she had no idea how extreme the weather could be in this life. However, since this was not the worst yet, she could still train herself to adapt. For the next few days, the temperature broke its preceding record every day. Irene did not go out. She stayed at home to box, read books, and even reward herself with good food. As she did not leave the house, she did not even know that someone had been watching her.