The news that the government would no longer deliver water spread without anyone meaning it to.
Some residents banded together and went to city hall to protest, but it achieved nothing except wasting their time and energy.
The officials themselves did not have enough to eat or drink, so how could they have so much spare time to worry about whether anyone else lived or died?
The water trucks could not even reach their destinations.
In just over four short months, the world had changed beyond recognition.
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Protecting one's home and country also depended on having enough to eat...
Throughout the ages, in every war in history.
Whoever could give people a good life was king, and that was whom they would obey.
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Of course, their only choice was to kill and rob.
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Natural disasters would drive people all over the world toward the same goal: "survival."
Once it was confirmed that the government would no longer deliver water, everyone had to find their own way to solve their water problem.
A family of three brothers in Building 7 of the Jiaxing Residential Complex knew how to dig wells.
The three brothers rallied everyone in the building to dig a well together in the garden in front of Building 7.
After three straight days of digging, they finally struck water.
Everyone in Building 7 was overjoyed. When people in the other buildings saw this, they all wanted the three brothers to help them dig wells too.
But they could not agree on a price, so not only did the deal fall through, the buildings nearly came to blows.
In the end, each building sent an articulate representative to a meeting. For everyone's mutual benefit, they decided to dig four wells throughout the complex.
There were eight buildings in total, with each pair sharing a well. Just as with the government water deliveries, every resident in the complex could collect 20 liters of water per week.
Any household that failed to follow the water collection rules would lose its right to collect water.
For the first time since the extreme heat began, the entire complex reached an agreement on water use.
Jiang Ci and Si Beichen also went downstairs to help dig the wells, so after they struck water, the two carried buckets downstairs and collected four buckets of well water.
Each well had someone specifically responsible for guarding it and recording water collection. The perk was that each person in the caretaker's household could collect 40 liters of water per week.
Being a caretaker was no easy job. If someone came to steal water, they risked being beaten to death.
Despite the considerable risk, plenty of people still signed up and competed for the caretaker positions.
For the sake of fairness, they ultimately agreed that everyone who signed up would take turns guarding the wells.
There were no disagreements or fights over water within the complex.
If anything, the water issue brought them a little closer together than before.
Sure enough, someone from the complex actually discovered a dried-up river in a park on the outskirts while searching for supplies.
The river was full of sun-dried fish.
Not only did he bring back a large sack of dried fish for himself, he was also generous enough to share the news with everyone in the Jiaxing Residential Complex.
The Jiaxing Residential Complex was not fully occupied. Some owners with more than one property did not live there.
There had been a little over eight hundred residents in total. Since the extreme heat began, deaths had brought that down to around seven hundred.
Everyone who could run and jump went to the river in the park to gather dried fish.
As it happened, Lunar New Year's Eve was only a few days away, so the residents of the Jiaxing Residential Complex could all enjoy a good New Year.
Jiang Ci and Si Beichen went along to join in too. Si Beichen drove Jiang Ci to the park.
The river had indeed dried up, and there were plenty of fish. The entire riverbed was full of sun-dried fish.
By the time the two arrived, the riverbed was already packed with people bagging dried fish, not just from the Jiaxing Residential Complex, but from other places too.
No wonder that man from their complex had been so generous. If their residents did not hurry over to grab some, people from elsewhere would take it all.
He might as well earn some goodwill from his own complex, and then he could openly bring out his dried fish to eat over the New Year.
With every household able to eat some, no one would envy anyone else.
As for how much each person grabbed, that was entirely down to their own ability.
Not wanting to make the trip for nothing, Jiang Ci took out two sacks, handed one to Si Beichen, and kept the other herself.
They joined the crowd scrambling for dried fish.
Even if they did not eat it themselves, they could trade it for supplies.
Besides, she thought these little dried fish looked quite good. Once they cleaned them up at home and had Ms. Wen stew them with soybeans, they would definitely make a fine dish.
The two worked quickly and only stopped after filling two sacks to the brim.
While loading them into the car, they also ran into Wu Ya and Jiang Chengrong.
Those two had also come to grab dried fish. They had arrived earlier than Jiang Ci and had gathered even more than she and Si Beichen had.
There were still plenty left in the riverbed. Jiang Ci greeted Wu Ya and left.
She was not greedy. Two sacks were enough, so she would leave the rest for people who needed it more.
Once they got home, Dad Si, Mom Wen, and Si Beichen gutted the dried fish together.
Jiang Ci took out some soybeans and soaked them in a basin of boiling water.
After the little dried fish were cleaned, they set aside a small basinful for later.
Once the soybeans had soaked, they could be stewed with the little dried fish.
The scramble for dried fish also gave more people an idea: they could search for supplies in places with more rivers.
But despairingly, more and more rivers were drying up, making water even scarcer.
The Jiaxing Residential Complex was lucky. They had actually struck water by digging wells within the complex.
Not every complex could find water by digging wells.
For instance, several nearby complexes followed their example after hearing that the Jiaxing Residential Complex had dug wells for water.
But even after several days of digging, they still had not found water, and people were starting to run short of oxygen when they dug any deeper.
Jealous that the Jiaxing Residential Complex had found water, these people began setting their sights on its wells.
A small group began making inflammatory remarks, stirring up public resentment toward the Jiaxing Residential Complex.
More and more people were incited to action and began gathering at the complex's entrance to shout abuse. Together, they pressured the residents of the Jiaxing Residential Complex to make their wells available for everyone to use.