Survive the Heat Apocalypse! (7)

If you looked closely, you could tell it was rain, but it was just a few drops. If you didn’t pay attention, you wouldn’t even notice it was raining because most of the water evaporated before it even hit the ground.

Half an hour later, when I looked down from the balcony, the ground was still golden.

The sun had come out, and the temperature was rising as usual.

"It was artificial rainfall in the neighboring city; we just caught a little bit of it."

Lu Zhou stood behind me, holding his phone.

Though this small amount of rain was hardly helpful, the fact that there was artificial rainfall meant that the authorities were still functioning. As long as we kept going, we could eventually see a day when the temperature dropped.

We couldn’t lose faith in survival.

"I brought over two more boxes of water. The high temperatures shouldn’t last much longer; they should pass soon."

Lu Zhou said, carrying the water to the bedroom door. Seeing that I didn’t object, he brought the water inside.

His cautious look was obvious.

Poor guy... I might have scared him last night.

Across the way, a few spots were still reigniting, with thick smoke billowing, obscuring part of the sky.

Sunlight pierced through the black fog, casting a bright red needle-like beam surrounded by an orange glow, full of a murderous aura.

Faced with such a scene, we both felt a bit distracted. We tried playing cards but kept forgetting what had just happened, so we eventually gave up and each picked up a book.

At one point, I went to the bathroom and noticed that the water in the bathtub, which we’d been using to flush the toilet, was nearly gone. The basins and buckets were all empty.

To save water these days, we had tacitly agreed only to flush the toilet for number two, and we’d just been wiping ourselves down with damp towels instead of showering. But even with that, the water was running out because of the heat and evaporation.

"We’re running low on toilet water. From now on, let’s flush just once a day."

I suggested to Lu Zhou as I walked out of the bathroom.

He gave a wry smile but didn’t refuse.

We both knew this was the only option.

Fortunately, three days later, in the middle of the night, we finally got a real rainstorm.

It was also artificial rainfall, but this time it fell directly over our city, and the rain in the suburbs wasn’t light either.

The sound of raindrops hitting the windows woke me up, and Lu Zhou came knocking, excitement written all over his face.

We quickly put everything that could catch rainwater out on the balcony, trying to save as much water as possible, and grabbed towels to wash ourselves.

Lu Zhou took off his shirt, revealing a young body with still-even muscles, though he had lost some weight. He cheered in the rain.

I didn’t bother with modesty. I turned my back to him, using the rainwater to wash away the stickiness, feeling the cool droplets hit my face—utter bliss.

I could hear happy laughter from the apartments above and below us; clearly, many people in this building were still holding on.

Half an hour later, the rain stopped.

It came quickly and went just as fast, leaving only about a third of a bucket of water, but it brought enough coolness and hope.

To celebrate, Lu Zhou and I opened two cans of peaches as a reward for ourselves.

We still had plenty of food left. The heat had dulled our appetites, and we hadn’t touched the half-dried pig—we’d only eaten a few ducks and chickens.

We never ran out of drinking water or beverages either; I hadn’t even finished the drinks I’d stocked up on before the disaster.

Just a little longer, and we can make it through this!

Ding, ding, ding...

Just as I was changing into clean clothes, another piece of good news came in: our phones had signal again! A flood of text messages poured in immediately.

Even when we had no signal, we both made sure to fully charge our phones every day so we wouldn’t miss any news from the outside world.

I grabbed my phone and skimmed through the messages. Most were safety alerts and high-temperature warnings, with a few from the authorities providing information about shelters.

"Mom...?"

Lu Zhou had already connected to his family's call.

Ah, I’m such an unfilial daughter, lagging behind.

I quickly dialed my mom’s number, but it went straight to voicemail.

No battery?

I tried calling the landline at home.

Beep, beep, beep...

A busy signal.

How could this be?

I dug out my dad’s cell number and tried calling, but again, no answer. I then tried my uncles' and aunts' numbers, dialing every relative's phone...

"I’m fine over here; I’ve got enough water and food. You all need to take care of yourselves. Don’t..."

Lu Zhou was talking to his family, but when he turned to me, his voice faltered.

"Mom, just stay put until the temperature drops. Listen to the authorities. I’ll come to see you when things get better. My friend needs to use the phone to call her family, so I’ll hang up now."

He said a few more words, then hung up and handed me the phone.

"Try mine."

I didn’t refuse. I took the phone and first entered my mom’s number by heart... voicemail.

Voicemail.

Still voicemail.

"They might be in a power outage zone."

Seeing me frantically dialing number after number with no success, Lu Zhou tried to comfort me.

"They’re... over sixty years old now."

I gripped both phones, continuing to make calls. Finally, just when I was about to lose hope, an old cousin I hadn’t contacted in years picked up the phone.

"Hello?"

"Hello, it’s Qingqing."

"What? Who's Qing?"

"Cousin, it’s Su Qingqing, your third aunt’s daughter. Do you know how my mom’s doing? I’m alone in another city, and I can’t reach them."

I tried to keep my voice calm.

"Oh, it’s you. I’m not sure, but maybe you should call the shelter to check."

This cousin was somewhat helpful and immediately sent me a list of shelter contact numbers.

I called them right away, but after checking three, I still couldn’t find my parents’ names. I wanted to keep looking, but then the phone suddenly cut out, and I heard a standard message in a robotic female voice:

"The number you are trying to reach is not in service. Please try again later..."

I had a sinking feeling and tried dialing another number, but got the same message. Then I checked the signal and saw it had dropped to zero bars.

No signal again.

"Hey... hey, don’t cry!"

Lu Zhou, at a loss, handed me a tissue, and that’s when I realized I was already in tears.

"I can’t reach them. They’re old, and in this heat, what if something happens to them..."

Even though the mountains where they live would be cooler than the city, this extreme heat would still affect them. With the power out and no signal, I was terrified something had gone wrong.

"They’ll be okay. They’re definitely okay. My parents are fine; they’re at a shelter with air conditioning, food, and water—way more comfortable than us."

Lu Zhou kept talking, handing me several tissues.

I took them and buried my face, sobbing uncontrollably.

All these days of hardship hadn’t made me cry. I wasn’t scared by the fire in the building across the way, but when I couldn’t reach my parents far away, I couldn’t hold back the tears.

I regretted being so stubborn, choosing to live so far away, only visiting them once a year.

If I could do it over, I would never leave their side.

A pair of slightly stiff but warm arms gently embraced me from the side.

I flinched, my body trembling slightly.

"Don’t be scared; it’s me. I won’t hurt you."

"Your parents must be in a place where the signal hasn’t come back yet. I’m sure they’re just as anxious to reach you."

"If the signal came back once, it’ll come back again. We just need to be patient and wait, okay?"

Even though the hug was awkward and his words weren’t particularly original, I gradually calmed down in the sound of his voice.

"Okay, we’ll wait."

But in the following days, there was no more good news.

Because soon after, the temperature started to rise again, even higher than before the artificial rainfall.