At first light, four or five people cautiously approached the bodies lying outside the residential complex and quickly dragged them all away.
Only after the residents calmed down did they realize that none of the people in their complex had been hurt in last night's shooting.
Clearly, someone powerful within Jiaxing Residential Complex was protecting it.
Auntie Wei, who believed she had seen through some inside information others knew nothing about, curled her lip in disdain. It had to be the people on the eleventh floor. Those murderous monsters could actually do something decent for once.
Last night's display had been quite a deterrent. No one outside the complex dared to loiter around and covet the well anymore.
They began looking for other ways, trading supplies with residents of the complex for clean water.
Some were even wondering whether they could find their children a partner in Jiaxing Residential Complex.
There were also some lecherous old men who took advantage of the opportunity, using their water resources to prey on respectable women outside.
Whatever the case, both sides were willing, so naturally no one meddled.
Lunar New Year's Eve soon arrived.
Jiang Ci's family sat around the dining table making dumplings with two kinds of filling: pork and cabbage, and chive and egg.
Wen Qianyue rolled out the wrappers, while Jiang Ci, Dad Si, and Si Beichen filled and folded the dumplings.
Si Beichen had put up the Spring Festival couplets Jiang Ci had bartered for at the trading market first thing that morning.
For lunch, the family had boiled dumplings and dried fish stewed with soybeans.
Dinner was grilled meat skewers, spicy crayfish, peanuts boiled in salted water, chicken feet with lemon and pickled chilies, grilled oysters, cold liangpi noodles with sesame paste, chilled watermelon juice, and pan-fried dumplings.
The weather was simply too hot, so they could only eat relatively cool foods that were not so piping hot.
It certainly could not compare to their past Lunar New Year's Eves, but having the whole family together, healthy and happy, mattered more than anything.
The three of them even polished off three bottles of fruit wine, getting a little tipsy.
Jiang Ci played a Spring Festival Gala from a previous year on her tablet. The familiar comedy sketches and gala hosts instantly carried their thoughts back to that year.
The nostalgia brought tears to their eyes.
Some family outside had apparently picked up fireworks while gathering supplies.
No one was enforcing restrictions on setting off fireworks in the city anymore, so they carried them out to an open space and lit them.
Colorful fireworks burst across the scorching night sky, blooming in fleeting splendor against the darkness. They spent their entire lives for that single moment of brilliance. Fireworks faded so easily, their fleeting glory never to be found again.
Everyone near the complex benefited, enjoying a free fireworks show.
That night was actually even livelier than Lunar New Year's Eve before the extreme heat.
Fortunately, the fireworks seemed to sense humanity's painful struggle to survive and did not cause these poor people any more trouble on such a festive day.
Looking at the fireworks she had just captured on her camera, Jiang Ci fell silent for a while.
In her previous life, she had only survived three years before dying. She knew nothing about what had happened afterward, whether the natural disasters had ended, or what had ultimately become of humanity.
The fireworks had been so beautiful that she had childishly made a wish upon them.
She only hoped that the natural disasters would end soon and humanity could rebuild its beautiful home.
On New Year's Day, Wu Ya and Jiang Chengrong came to pay Jiang Ci's family a New Year visit. They brought two packs of calcium milk biscuits, and when they left, Jiang Ci gave them a large handful of White Rabbit milk candies.
On the second day of the new year, the family watched a movie together in the morning.
After sunset, Si Beichen drove the family out for a ride around the sparsely populated outskirts. It was Dad Si and Mom Wen's first outing in all this time, and they were both incredibly excited.
Perhaps everyone still valued the New Year deep down, so they stayed home enjoying the festivities. There were barely any people outside, and the outskirts were even more desolate.
All the trees were yellow and withered, with dead branches and broken wood everywhere. Jiang Ci considered finding a chance to come out and collect more wood to burn for warmth when the extreme cold arrived.
Although she had stockpiled plenty of charcoal, it was too precious. She had to use it in secret so no one would covet it.
On the third day of the new year, the family was happily playing Fight the Landlord when someone suddenly knocked softly twice on their door.
They waited a while, but there was no further sound.
Was someone playing a prank? Or had they knocked on the wrong door?
Si Beichen opened the door and looked around. No one was there, but a small red card lay on the floor outside.
After making sure there was no danger, Si Beichen picked up the little card.
The words "Church of the God of Nature" were written in large characters on the front.
On the back were several lines of small print:
The myriad worlds, dreams and bubbles; the God of Nature, the true path of stillness. May we be purified, and all things return to their source.
Seeing Si Beichen staring endlessly at a red card, Jiang Ci could not help asking, "What does it say? Let me have a look?"
Si Beichen closed the door, returned to his seat, and handed the card to Jiang Ci.
"A cult. There are cards outside the other two apartments too. They probably handed them out door to door."
At the word "cult," Jiang Ci's hand paused slightly as she took the card.
When she saw the words "Church of the God of Nature" on it, her fingertips turned white from gripping the card too tightly.
Si Beichen glanced at her pale fingertips and asked in confusion, "What's wrong?"
Jiang Ci came back to herself and crumpled the card into a ball with one hand. "I hate these cults the most," she said in disgust.
Then she tossed the paper ball squarely into the wastebasket.
After playing cards for a while, Jiang Ci brought a chilled watermelon out of the kitchen and cut it into three sections. She ate one section with a spoon.
She cut the other two sections into small pieces and put them on a plate for Dad Si, Mom Wen, and Si Beichen to eat with toothpicks.
After two bites of cold watermelon, Jiang Ci felt the inexplicable anger inside her subside, and she became much calmer.
She had not expected the Church of the God of Nature cult to have appeared so early.
And its reach was so extensive that its promotional cards had actually been delivered to her doorstep!
The thought of how she had died in her previous life, sacrificed by this organization to the God of Nature, filled her with fury.
She viciously scooped up a large spoonful of watermelon and stuffed it into her mouth. She would never let this organization off!
They had better not cross her path. She would kill every one she encountered!
The New Year festivities soon ended completely, and life had to go on.
The temperature outside remained unchanging at nearly sixty degrees Celsius. Every day, people died from the heat, starvation, or thirst.
Jiang Ci made notes and calculations in her latest custom-made calendar, counting the days. They only had to hold on for about two more months before the extreme heat would pass.
After dinner that evening, Jiang Ci got the keys to Si Beichen's Land Rover from him and went out.
Now, when she went out, Si Beichen no longer worried about her the way he used to. Knowing she had plenty of ways to protect herself, he no longer volunteered to act as her free bodyguard.
Unless Jiang Ci asked him herself.
She stopped the car in a heavily wooded area on the outskirts and first made a circuit nearby to confirm that no one was around.
Taking out a chainsaw, Jiang Ci began gathering wood.
Whenever she sawed down a tree, she casually put it into her space.
Sawing wood was genuinely quite stress-relieving, and Jiang Ci found it somewhat addictive.
She did not go back the entire night, staying on the outskirts stockpiling wood.
Only when dawn began to break did she drive home.