November.
Three more elderly people in the building had died. Their families wept in anguish, and one of the deceased's spouses cried so hard that they fainted on the spot.
They probably wouldn't live much longer either.
The property management posted another update in the neighborhood group chat.
Water and power outages had already spread across much of the country. The residential complex's backup power would only last until around the tenth, and Jiaxing Residential Complex would soon lose both power and internet access.
The neighborhood group chat erupted into panic again.
[Oh, heavens, you're leaving us no way to survive!]
[What's the point of living anymore?]
[Humanity is going extinct. What a calamity.]
[We've run out of food. Does anyone have any left? We'll pay double!]
[Is the person on the fifteenth floor still here? Come out.]
[Wasn't the person on the fifteenth floor asking everyone to team up to look for food? Where is he now?]
[He's deliberately ignoring us. Let's go up to the fifteenth floor and find him. Come on.]
[Let's go together.]
Before long, Jiang Ci heard a flurry of footsteps in the hallway outside.
Li Weiwei in 1103 also cracked her door open to eavesdrop.
She had heard a little from Zhang Shuai and knew they had all been following Tian Jiakai from the fifteenth floor to find supplies. With too many people, there wouldn't be enough supplies to go around. She hoped Tian Jiakai wouldn't agree to take these people.
Only if Zhang Shuai received a larger share could he give her more.
"When my husband offered to take you along, none of you said a word. Now you've come here to make trouble for him, have you? Let's see who dares. Anyone who makes trouble gets chopped!"
Yuan Jiaojiao stood in front of Tian Jiakai with a kitchen knife. Her readiness to hack at anyone who made trouble really did frighten everyone.
As the saying went, a wise man knew when to back down. This crazy woman clearly wasn't afraid of dying.
They huddled together for a brief discussion, then stopped making trouble and waved each other off.
They had already thought of a better way.
After everyone dispersed, Li Weiwei immediately ran downstairs to tip off Zhang Shuai.
Before long, Li Weiwei returned, and Zhang Qiang and Zhang Shuai went to Tian Jiakai's apartment right afterward.
Tian Jiakai asked, "How long will your current supplies last?"
Zhang Qiang and Zhang Shuai exchanged a look. "Enough for another month."
In reality, they had enough for more than a month. Neither of them was stupid, and they certainly wouldn't tell Tian Jiakai the truth.
Tian Jiakai wasn't stupid either. He knew they weren't being honest. They were all wary of one another, and he didn't mind these little details.
"We won't go out gathering supplies for a while. I reckon those people won't give up that easily. Nobody's a fool. They're just waiting to follow us the next time we head out. Let's all stay home for now so they can't tail us."
"All right."
Sure enough, neither Tian Jiakai nor the Zhang brothers went out again after that.
After watching Tian Jiakai for a full week without seeing any movement, the seven or eight people keeping tabs on him finally began to lose patience.
There really wasn't any food left at home. At this rate, even if the heat didn't kill them, starvation would.
That night, the seven or eight of them gathered at the entrance to the complex for a brief meeting.
"Our households have all run out of food, but there must still be plenty of households in the complex that have some."
"The ones who keep their doors shut every day must have food. Why else would they hide away all day without showing their faces, if not because they're afraid people will set their sights on them?"
"We all live in the same building, yet none of them help those of us who are about to starve. Since they have no compassion, they can't blame us for showing no loyalty."
"Let's knock on doors one by one to sound them out first. Once we know each household's situation, we can figure something out."
"That bastard Tian Jiakai wouldn't take us along, and now he's guarding against us and doesn't dare go outside. We absolutely can't let him off."
"We'll start with him!"
They immediately hit it off and decided to act the next day.
On the tenth, the power and internet did indeed go out completely.
Before the internet went down, the government's final announcement stated that the water supply would be cut off on the fifteenth.
Those seven or eight people in the complex also began knocking on doors at night, asking for food.
When they reached the eleventh floor, the first apartment they targeted was Jiang Ci's, 1101.
The main reason was that 1101's door looked exceptionally sturdy and expensive. Anyone who installed such a secure door must have good things inside.
1102 looked ordinary, while 1103 reeked of unpleasant Chinese medicine. It seemed someone in that household was chronically ill.
They knocked on 1101's door first, and Si Beichen answered.
Si Beichen was tall and imposing. Standing there at 187 centimeters, he gave off an intense sense of pressure.
Besides, he had kept up his training and had only recently left the military. When he wasn't smiling, he looked cold and very difficult to mess with.
In the sweltering weather, everyone wore little. Si Beichen wore a simple black tank top that showed his muscles, and he held a machete. The sight alone intimidated the seven or eight people outside.
They pleaded with friendly expressions, "Young man, we've really run out of options. That's the only reason we've come to bother you. If you have any food to spare, please help us out. Once we get through this crisis, we'll definitely repay you."
"Yes, exactly. We're all able-bodied people. If we didn't have elderly parents and young children at home who were on the verge of starving, we wouldn't come out begging."
Si Beichen remained expressionless, not moved in the slightest by their words. "I don't have any," he said coldly.
Seeing that Si Beichen wouldn't budge and clearly wasn't someone to mess with, they said nothing more.
They politely said, "Sorry to bother you," then went to knock on 1102's door.
Only after Si Beichen slammed the door shut did they dare spit several times toward 1101's doorway, their faces turning vicious.
Someone whispered, "Does that guy live in our building? How come I've never seen him before?"
"I don't remember him either. He looks completely unfamiliar."
"Why do I remember a young woman living here? When did she turn into a grown man?"
"That guy doesn't look like a decent person. He might be a gangster. Let's leave him alone for now."
"Right. Let's watch him a little longer first."
The person who answered the door of 1102 was a skeletal middle-aged man with an unshaven face and shoulder-length hair.
His eyes were lifeless. After staring fixedly at each of them, he pulled the door open without a word and motioned them inside.
The seven or eight exchanged glances. They all felt that the way the man looked at them was very strange.
But remembering that there were so many of them and only one scrawny middle-aged man, they figured there was no need to scare themselves.
So they huddled together to bolster one another's courage and went inside.
The apartment was sparsely furnished, with everything visible at a glance.
They searched every room. The place was picked clean, and they found nothing.
Only in the kitchen did they find a pile of strange bottles and jars, along with liquids in all sorts of colors.
There was no food. The place was even more bare than their own homes, and they had no idea how this man had survived.
Judging by his skeletal, frail appearance, he probably wasn't far from starving to death.
They immediately crossed 1102 off their list. There was really nothing worth coveting in the home of this penniless, unsettling man.