CHAPTER 136: SPICY STRIPS FLAVORED ICE CREAM?

Grandma Jing shook her head. "You all don’t understand. The fields need to be watered twice a day, and that cow drinks dozens of kilograms of water. It’s hard to tell if it’s a water buffalo or a dairy cow! I don’t know if our water stockpile can even last a month. Being frugal seems useless at this point."

"How about we drink less water at home and just drink milk instead? We can’t skimp on water for cooking, though," Mrs. Jing suggested.

Mr. Jing suddenly clapped his hands. "Our livestock farm can exchange milk for water at a 2:1 ratio! Why don’t we trade our milk for water?"

Jing Shu quickly cut him off. "Dad, stop right there! Milk is a scarce commodity. The livestock farm has fewer than twenty cows; how much milk can they possibly produce each day? Our family’s milk wouldn’t be traded even at 10:1; it’s far too precious. Besides, I forgot to tell you all, I bought a batch of mineral water last year, planning to sign the bottles and give them to fans if I ever made it big, but I never ended up using them."

Mrs. Jing poked Jing Shu with her finger. "You naughty girl, treating the second floor like your personal treasure chest and not letting us in! Just how much good stuff have you hoarded up there? And you guard the key to the basement so tightly too, you little miser. Those few hundred bottles of water you bought will hardly be enough."

"We still have over four hundred bottles of mineral water left, and we must save them. We can’t touch those; they’re for emergencies. With the situation as it is, who knows when we’ll have water again. Our current supply will run out sooner or later. We’ll only turn to the mineral water when there’s absolutely no other option," Grandpa Jing said, though he usually kept quiet.

If Jing Shu weren’t a reincarnator, she would definitely be worrying needlessly as well.

Because the unknown is always the most terrifying; not knowing when water would be available again indeed made them afraid to use even the last drop they had saved.

It was a pity Jing Shu knew that if they could just make it through these deadly two months, everything would pass. To play it safe, she had even stuffed 15 cubic meters (tons) of water into her space the previous year. Now, only 9 cubic meters remained. She had not anticipated that farming and feeding livestock, including those in her space, would consume so much water.

"Not much, just a few thousand bottles," Jing Shu said, subconsciously touching her nose. She had bought 400 boxes of 500ml Nongfu Spring, 12 bottles per box, totaling 4,800 bottles. She also bought 100 boxes of the 1.5L bottles. If only I had known, I would have bought more,

she thought. I didn’t expect our family to grow so large.

"What did you say? You spendthrift..." Mrs. Jing couldn’t believe her reckless child had bought thousands of bottles of water.

"Well, wasn’t I thinking about my hundreds of thousands of fans? I figured I had to buy at least a few thousand bottles. AHEM. But look, hasn’t the problem our family is facing been solved now?

"Water should still be conserved where we can. In the future, we’ll use untreated water to irrigate the fields; if it really comes down to it, domestic water can be used the same way. Filtered water for the livestock, and mineral water for us to drink. As for exchanging milk for water, let’s not even consider that. Isn’t it better for us to drink more milk every day?

"Plus, I’m planning to make ice cream with the milk and exchange it for diesel. Making ice cream really consumes a lot of milk."

Jing Shu paused, then continued, "Grandpa does have a point. However, one thing the experts got right is that no matter how hot the weather gets, once the sea level rises, there will inevitably be torrential downpours. By then, it won’t be a shortage of water we’re worried about; there will be so much water it could drown people."

"Alright, our family’s ’big housekeeper’ has spoken, so we’ll just have to do as she says!" Mr. Jing was the first to stand up and support his daughter. After the family discussed how to conserve and save water, the meeting concluded.

Jing Shu took the key and brought down a dozen boxes of mineral water, placing a few in each house. "From now on, drink the mineral water directly. It’ll save us from wasting coal by boiling water."

That night, Jing Shu seriously reflected. She had prepared so much water for the first year after her rebirth, yet it was barely enough now. This showed her preparations were still insufficient.

The preparations for the second year must be thorough! I can’t let things be like this again. Not a single red earthworm, leech, or blood-sucking worm will get in!

「On August 18」

A major incident occurred in the Development Zone Management Department. An employee, Yu Caini, failed to properly clean a manure pit, which resulted in the irrigation water resources being overrun by rotten corpse insects and maggots, completely contaminating the water used for irrigation by the Management Department.

After the list was reported, the government of the new district immediately removed Yu Caini from the system. The department’s Director, Su Lanzi, also stated that she wouldn’t dare keep such an employee and directly fired Yu Caini from the Management Department.

「On August 25」

In Wu City, due to the hot weather and water shortages, the death toll had already reached over five thousand people. As the number of maggots had recently decreased due to excessive harvesting, the government made a new decision:

Bodies that used to be cremated were now placed in the crematorium to breed maggots and Corpse Worms. Furthermore, the price of maggots per serving in the communal pot meals at the supermarket was lowered to 0.2 Virtual Coins, to ensure that the majority of citizens could eat their fill and eat well.

People who couldn’t stand eating plain white rice for three months were now, in the blink of an eye, eating maggots and had been for several months. Now, with the government providing an ample supply, they even felt a sense of satisfaction...

The water from reservoirs and unpolluted freshwater lakes was nearing depletion, and the government intensified its extraction of groundwater. It was reported that the extent of this extraction had severely exceeded the standard, likely causing subsidence and other reactions.

「On September 1」

The number of deaths continued to soar. The Wu City Government issued a task: exchange dried-up branches and logs for a small amount of work points. Starting from that afternoon, when the temperature dropped, all citizens began frantically collecting branches and logs.

On both sides of the streets, inside residential compounds, along roadsides, on the mountains, in parks—wherever there were trees, there were people. Of course, fights also broke out over the branches; for such behavior, the government would simply confiscate the goods.

These days, the government was not only busy collecting the bodies of the deceased and recovering items from their homes but also felling trees in forests. There was no choice; the temperature was too high and it was too dry, which could cause forest fires. If a wildfire were to break out, an entire city’s population would have to flee.

「On September 5」

Jing Shu once again sold milk ice cream, this time in exchange for 3 tons of diesel. The ice cream was inspected and then sent off. Jing Shu still didn’t get to meet the landlord’s foolish son.

However, it was said his family enjoyed this ice cream very much. The foolish son, apparently, wouldn’t eat anything related to eggs or milk, his only exception being a fondness for various ice creams. He even hoped to try a spicy strip-flavored ice cream next time and was willing to pay double the price.

Not only that, but they also sent over ten packs of his favorite Wei Long spicy strips.

Jing Shu was dumbfounded. Are they kidding me?

「On September 9」

The temperature reached a record-breaking 55℃. According to news reports, 1,500 people died in Wu City that day. Jing Shu herself drank more than twenty coconuts and over ten liters of watermelon juice. At the same time, she was added to a new group.

The group was named: "Class of 2015 High School Alumni Group."

Zhang Lingling: "@everyone, I just want to know, of the 56 people in our class back then, how many are still alive? I learned yesterday that our Chinese teacher also passed away. Feeling sentimental, I created this group to reminisce about the past!"