Apocalyptic Disaster: Stockpile Supplies for Free and Make a Comeback

Chapter 66 Temperature Rise
Several dilapidated cars were parked on this deserted highway, their paint peeling and rust appearing, and the white lines on the road surface were fading.

Looking ahead, waist-high weeds swayed in the wind, and an unfinished building stood forlornly in a low-lying area. The floodwaters inside reached the second floor, and piles of garbage floated among the duckweed. A sign read, "Give me back my hard-earned money."
There were also severed limbs.

Half of its empty eye sockets were submerged in water, while the other half floated on the murky, dirty surface, gazing at the shadows of distant high-rises, becoming one with this vanished city.

Song Jinhe sighed. Wucheng was known for its complex road terrain, cold winters and hot summers, and frequent rain and dampness. In the past, the overpass on Mondays with heavy fog was a place that made people despair.

However, its strategic location also has obvious advantages, which is why there are experimental zones that are not publicly disclosed.

Jiang Shi'an said that the Wucheng Experimental Zone is the longest-existing of the five laboratory zones. The previous one was located in a desolate, uninhabited area and was destroyed by a natural disaster before the end of the world, completely burying the underground laboratory.

Song Jinhe looked at the car in front of her that had driven off the road, with its two front wheels stuck in the water.

The body in the driver's seat looked badly decomposed, with maggots falling off its face.

Song Jinhe never gambles on such luck. She uses the old method of poking the animal twice first to confirm that it is truly dead before starting to loot it.

The car key is still in the ignition and there's gasoline. The engine wasn't flooded, but there are so many maggots that it's really annoying. I don't see any point in trying to drive it out.

There were some clothes, instant noodles, gold bars, and other things she could take from the trunk, along with gasoline.

After looting the supplies, they drove around for a bit before heading home.

Upon arriving at the villa area, before the car had even come to a complete stop, Song Jinhe felt uneasy, as if realizing something. She hurriedly grabbed her keys, got out of the car, and walked inside.

As I entered the courtyard, a familiar figure came into view. Unlike usual, he was wearing a black shirt, and the sunlight on his clothes shimmered as the breeze blew by. His slender figure seemed less aloof and more gentle.

Their eyes met, and two or three meters apart, Song Jinhe stopped in her tracks. "If you don't come back, I'm going to take over this house."

Throw all the reagents out of the space.

“Okay.” Jiang Shi’an smiled slightly and explained, “There was a slight accident on the way, which delayed us a bit.”

Song Jinhe glanced at the patch of white gauze peeking out from his collar. "Is it serious?"

Jiang Shi'an shook his head. "It's nothing."

Song Jinhe responded, "That's good."

Jiang Shi'an also brought back a batch of ammunition this time, so at this stage, their supplies are already quite sufficient.

Jiang Shi'an's sudden departure and return inevitably led people to ask what he was doing. The official explanation was that he was looking for someone, but no specific details were given.

The matter passed quickly, but everyone's biggest concern was whether they could continue growing food, as a large number of shrubs in the green belt had died.

Jiang Shi'an collected samples and analyzed and compared them in the newly tidied workshop. Although the plants and land were affected by acid rain, it had not reached the point of changing the entire regional environment. Lime could be used to neutralize the acid, and plants with high acid resistance should be selected.

The original sunrooms in the villas are also under renovation. They will all be used to grow vegetables and fruits. People from the entire villa area have been working on it for half a month.

Summer arrived in the blink of an eye.

Six months into the apocalypse, when the temperature was in the thirties, it was already quite hot outside.

This year has been cold for a long time, and as soon as it gets warm, the temperature starts to soar, reaching 40 degrees Celsius in just a few days.

The solar panels couldn't generate enough electricity to power the air conditioner, and Song Jinhe and his group weren't so extravagant as to use a generator to run the air conditioner every day. Using a fan was already considered a good situation. Zhuang Ting and his group managed to get their hands on a hand-cranked generator, but you can imagine how difficult it was to generate electricity manually in this kind of weather. Moreover, the hand-cranked generator had low power, so they could only use a small fan they had found.

Those without electricity could only use palm-leaf fans, so Song Jinhe also made one.

The villa area near the mountains is slightly better; at least the well water is cool, and a cool bath at night helps you fall asleep.

It's uncomfortable to go out in this kind of weather.

The air was stifling and the stench of decay was so strong that it felt like I was suffocating after just a few breaths.

Around 7 a.m. it was alright, but once the sun came up it was like an oven, and even with the windows open, the car was hot and stuffy.

Song Jinhe took a small handheld fan, poured a bottle of Huoxiang Zhengqi Water down her throat, and instantly felt refreshed.

She hasn't cut her hair for the past two months, so she can tie it up now, and it's not as frizzy as before.

Going out now is so that I won't have to go out later. There are hardly any shops or restaurants left within 20 or 30 kilometers. There's a village further south, but there are hordes of zombies roaming the roads there, so I can't go there.

They had been to the city twice, but supplies were becoming increasingly difficult to find. Several places rich in supplies that hadn't been looted were teeming with tens of thousands of zombies; trying to find them meant certain death.

The destination this time was a mountain forest an hour and a half drive away. The fields we passed along the way had been severely damaged in the past, and we didn't see any crops, but the wild grass was very resilient.

When Song Jinhe got off the bus, she wrapped herself up in a long sun-protective garment from head to toe. Getting a tan was a minor issue; the main problem was that her skin and eyes hurt from the sun.

Carrying their equipment, they got off the vehicle and walked along a muddy path for dozens of meters, passing through the woods, until they saw a fishpond at the foot of the mountain.

Beside the fishpond was a simple hut built of wooden planks and plastic, containing a single wooden bed covered with straw, simple cooking utensils, and two bundles of firewood leaning against the wall.

They didn't touch anything inside; they just took tools made of bamboo poles and nets to the fishpond to see if they could catch any fish.

Song Jinhe caught a glimpse of green in the distance out of the corner of her eye, immediately handed the tools to Cheng Yan, picked up the extra-large gardening shears, and started snipping away.

"Why are you cutting it? Can you even eat this stuff?" Qi Sixing stared at the tree in front of him, which didn't look very appetizing, his eyes filled with naive stupidity.

Seeing Song Jinhe turn her head with scissors that could cut off a person's head, she quickly took a step back.

"Platycladus orientalis leaves are a traditional Chinese medicine that can be used to wash hair. It is said to promote hair growth." Song Jinhe looked at his hairstyle and held back her laughter.

Two days ago, Qi Sixing cut his own hair into a watermelon rind shape. The more he tried to fix it, the more uneven it became. In the end, he simply shaved it all off, but you could still see the signs of a botched job.

She pointed to a plant not far away, "Kudzu root is also a Chinese medicine. It has a high starch content and can be used to make soup. Bring me a hoe."

Qi Sixing nodded and picked up a small hoe to dig.

Kudzu is easy to grow and has large tubers; you can dig up quite a lot from just one patch.

"This place is quite rich in resources. There are soapberry trees behind that house. Once the soapberries mature, we can use them to wash clothes," Song Jinhe remarked.

"Sister Jinhe, you don't look like someone who's done manual labor before, how can you recognize so many things?" Qi Sixing came over panting, carrying a basket of kudzu roots.

(End of this chapter)