Chen Shouyi walked to the window and pulled it open. The streetlamps outside had been fitted with new bulbs, and the street was now brightly lit. A sight that had once been utterly ordinary seemed, at that moment, like the light of dawn breaking before sunrise, imbued with a different kind of color.
He realized that even in the villa district, few households had installed electric lights. Most still used dim kerosene lamps.
As for ordinary residential neighborhoods, they were even worse. Most were pitch-black, and even kerosene lamps were rare.
Electric lights were clearly still a luxury.
For quite some time to come, ordinary people probably wouldn't be able to enjoy the conveniences electricity brought.
This wasn't peacetime, when the government would ensure that homes still had power even if industrial electricity was cut off.
Electricity was in short supply. After communications and streetlights got what they needed, industry came next, especially military industry. Residential power had to come last,
After that, Chen Shouyi practiced the Thirty-Six Forms of Hardening for a while, took another shower, and got ready for bed.
He mixed a spoonful of honey and said to Shell Girl, who had her back to him and was sulking, "Come over. It's time for honey."
Shell Girl was silent for a moment, clutching a glass marble as she sulked. "I don't want honey!"
"Aren't you hungry?" Chen Shouyi asked.
"I am!" She quietly opened her mirror, glanced at her bald head, and looked utterly bereft.
"Then why aren't you eating?" Chen Shouyi asked with a laugh.
"I'm not eating!"
"Fine, then. I heard that the more you eat, the faster your hair grows!"
Shell Girl stirred and turned around, her face full of grievance. "Bad giant, are you trying to trick Little Dot again?"
"No, absolutely not,"