Brother Sun’s words resonated with everyone present.
That’s right.
It’s so hard to be alive.
Brother Sun looked at Tan Guohua again and sighed. He gave instructions to a few other people, then started packing and tidying up. They needed to set off as soon as possible and head to the wholesale market across the river.
Soon, their belongings were packed. In truth, they didn’t have much to pack; after this difficult period, they possessed very few things.
After everything was packed, Brother Sun walked towards Tan Guohua: “Hua Ge, should we go?” He was cautious, as Tan Guohua’s state seemed off at the moment.
Tan Guohua’s bloodshot eyes widened, his gaze seeming somewhat bewildered, but after the bewilderment, he reacted and asked, “Where to?”
Brother Sun sighed and said, “Hua Ge, we’re ready to leave this place and go to the wholesale market across the river to see if there are any supplies.”
“Hua Ge, we’ll go to the other side and look again later, maybe we can find some usable medicine. You need to pull yourself together.”
Upon hearing this, Tan Guohua seemed to grasp at a life-saving straw. He quickly got up, his movements swift yet careful not to jostle the daughter in his arms, gentle and cautious.
Sweat beads dripped from the tip of his nose.
He carried his daughter on his back, supporting her with one hand, while the other held a parasol to block the sun, and walked towards the other side of the river.
Under the scorching sun, there were many people similar to Tan Guohua.
In the city, Director Zhang’s situation was also exceptionally difficult. After the heavy rain last month, the subsequent high temperatures—two extreme weather conditions—caused them immense losses.
In terms of personnel alone, they had a reduction of over 30 people. During the heavy rain, the East gate was breached. Although they ultimately managed to seal it, they suffered heavy casualties.
The current scorching weather caused them even more trouble. In the hot, high-temperature conditions, there was no air conditioning indoors, and simply fanning themselves was useless.
Initially, they could go to the river to cool down, but as the temperature steadily rose and the duration of the heat prolonged, the river gradually became like a small stream, and even the river water began to turn murky.
The mud and sand at the riverbed were exposed; the water level had never been so low in many years.
The mud and sand at the riverbed had been dug up by dredging companies over the years, and now the water quality was terribly poor.
In a gray house in Liberation City, located in the back row on the right side.
“Captain Lü, this weather is too hot, isn’t it? Look, I just changed my clothes, and they’re already soaked again.” Director Zhang was wearing a white shirt, his beer belly stretching the white shirt taut.
Captain Lü glanced at the shirt clinging to his body, clearly revealing the undershirt beneath. He said to the sweating Director Zhang, “Another brother on duty suffered heatstroke today; this is the third one. I also checked the river, and the water level is getting lower and lower. Alas, a great drought!”
Recently, he hadn’t been sleeping well either. Although the temperature was slightly lower at night, it was still above 35 degrees Celsius, leading to poor sleep quality. Daytime temperatures were even higher, and these people hadn’t rested well for a long time.
“It’s just that the overall supplies have been decreasing recently. Logically, with such high temperatures now, zombies rarely come out, so shouldn’t it be more convenient for you to go out and collect supplies?” After exchanging pleasantries, Director Zhang directly got to the point.
Captain Lü looked troubled and said, “The outdoor temperature is currently 48 degrees Celsius, and indoors it’s around 43 degrees Celsius. Many foods are directly infested with worms. With the temperature getting higher and higher, it’s really difficult.”
Captain Lü continued, “For the same item, say a can, it doesn’t matter if it’s past its shelf life; we’ll still eat it. But some of the food we find now is infested with worms. I think what Old Ma said before is right; we still need to grow some food ourselves.”
Director Zhang sighed; he could actually guess some of it. But he hadn’t expected it to be so severe.
“What Old Ma said, our Internal Affairs department is also working on it. We’ve also mobilized some people to plant some corn, vegetables, and the like. This heavy rain, everything was gone. And now you see how dry the weather is, Old Ma also said, no water, then it’s over!” Director Zhang sighed.
Both men frowned deeply. The water on the table was somewhat turbid, but it was already filtered. This water came from the river, and now the river water was getting shallower and shallower, already turning into a very narrow stream.
They didn’t know when it would dry up. To solve the water source problem, they were recently preparing to dig wells.
Xin City, across the river.
Tan Guohua and others arrived on the other side of the river from the bridge.
On this side of the river, it was a scene of desolation.
At the wholesale market, everyone searched for a while, then gathered dejectedly in an open space in the middle.
Although the wholesale market had many things, everyone knew there were many things here, so many survivors had scoured it, round after round, and things had been searched very cleanly.
Even digging three feet deep, they only found a pack of expired bread, half-eaten by worms, and two pieces of old smoked bacon hung from the rafters, blackened. Besides that, no other food was found.
There were some other supplies, such as a pile of blankets and quilts, but they didn’t need them now!
“Where’s Hua Ge, Brother Sun?” a young man asked.
Brother Sun wiped the sweat from his forehead with his hand, looked at the slowly setting sun, and also asked with some confusion, “Didn’t you see him?”
“We all searched for supplies separately. We just arrived at the wholesale market and then dispersed,” a woman said.
“Could he have gone to the pharmacy? There seems to be a common people’s pharmacy here at the wholesale market. Didn’t he say he was coming here to look for medicine when we arrived at the wholesale market?” another man said.
At this moment, a middle-aged woman walked out from a nearby airy, seemingly cooler spot. She was pulling a long Xiao Zhu chair, on which Tan Guohua’s daughter, Xiao Yu’er, was lying.
A wet towel was placed on her forehead.
However, Xiao Yu’er looked to be in very poor condition. The middle-aged woman looking after her also looked very anxious.
“Brother Sun, Hua Ge asked me to look after Xiao Yu’er. He went to the pharmacy. He wants to look for Shidi Shui, Renzan, and Huoxiang Zhengqi Shui for treatment, to see if there are any of these things,” the middle-aged woman said.
After speaking, she said with great concern, “Xiao Yu’er’s temperature is terrifyingly high! What should we do now!? Such a young age to suffer such hardship!”
As she spoke, she took off the towel from Xiao Yu’er’s forehead, washed it in water, and then gently placed it back on Xiao Yu’er’s forehead.
Her movements were skilled; it seemed she had performed this set of actions many times. After doing all this, she picked up a fan and fanned the air, trying to make Xiao Yu’er more comfortable.
