Chapter 173: Waiting, the Temperature Keeps Rising
"Meng Ci, have you noticed that the nights are getting longer?" Meng Ci asked in a low voice.
Shen Que nodded.
Because of the extreme heat, in the past, it would start getting dark around 8 p.m., and by 4 a.m. the next day, it would gradually start getting light.
These days, it starts getting dark around 6 p.m., and by 7 a.m. the next day, there are signs of dawn.
In a little while, the nights will only get longer.
And then, the polar night will begin.
Under the cover of night, danger lurks everywhere.
By then, many people will take advantage of the darkness to do things they can't do during the day.
A little after 10 p.m., Meng Ci heard the sounds of people talking getting louder, presumably as they started going out to work.
"Ow, ow!"
Qiezi, who had been lying leisurely on the ground, suddenly stood up and howled loudly, as if having heard something.
Meng Ci and Shen Que grabbed their long swords from the ground and rolled to their feet in a swift move.
But they only saw the back of a man running away quickly.
Ptooey, coward.
A few people living nearby, having seen the long sword in Meng Ci's hand, left with their flashlights.
Meng Ci looked around to make sure there were no other dangerous individuals, then sat back down with Shen Que and took out a sausage from his spatial storage to feed Qiezi.
"Qiezi, we'll be counting on you for the next few days!" Meng Ci whispered. "Keep a good watch around us, and I'll feed you something delicious when it's over."
Hearing this, Qiezi nodded quickly.
Those who were going out to work weren't worried about their homes being robbed.
Nowadays, the most important thing for everyone was their points card, which they could use to exchange for whatever they needed.
For things like food, they would only exchange enough for two or three days at a time.
And even when they went out to work, they carried one or half a catty of grain with them.
As for what was left behind, they were things of little importance.
In less than an hour, the park fell silent.
Having slept a lot during the day, Meng Ci and Shen Que weren't sleepy. They took out their phones to play games.
This time, they turned on Bluetooth and played Minecraft together in adventure mode.
Each had a shovel, a sword, and a backpack filled with many torches, then started mining.
Shen Que found the game quite captivating. Though he didn't usually like playing games, he could play with Meng Ci for four or five hours straight.
And sometimes, the sudden appearance of zombies would make your heart skip a beat if you weren't careful.
By 5 a.m., just before the other residents were about to return, Meng Ci took out several bowls of eggplant rice from his spatial storage, quickly finished them, threw the trash back into the storage, and then lay down in the tent.
The tent was a deluxe family version, with enough space for two people and a dog, with plenty of room to spare.
However, the only downside was that the tent was too well-sealed, making them uncomfortably hot in no time.
Meng Ci took out a fan from his spatial storage. This fan was pre-charged, and when he bought it, he was told it could last for ten days on a single charge.
Meng Ci didn't care much about that; the main thing was that it could blow cold air.
He took out two fans, planning to have them blow from both sides.
But since the temperature wasn't high yet, Meng Ci only turned on one fan for now.
As the residents gradually returned, the temperature also began to rise, so Meng Ci turned on the second fan.
By noon, around 12 p.m., the two fans blowing cold air were no longer very effective.
Meng Ci got up, took a thermometer, and placed it outside the tent to measure the temperature.
As he watched the temperature reading rise, Meng Ci's eyes widened!
Good heavens, it was already 58.6 degrees Celsius, and it showed no sign of stopping!
Meng Ci quickly grabbed two basins and took two basins of snow from his spatial storage, placing them in front of the fans. This made things much cooler.
However, the snow melted too fast, so Meng Ci added two ice blocks to the basins.
"Damn it, why is it getting hotter and hotter! Is this even livable?"
"Bang."
The man who had spoken was probably irritated by the heat and threw whatever he was holding onto the ground.
"If you want to lose your temper, go ahead, but why throw things!" a woman's voice reached several people's ears.
"It's so hot now that the water in the M River is almost gone."
"This is the water I brought back and let sit for several days before it could be drunk."
"With water being so scarce now, how could you just throw it away?"
The woman became more and more aggrieved, her voice even carrying a sob.
"If you weren't going to drink it, you should have given it to me!"
"Waaaah!"
The earlier man also realized he had made a mistake, and two slap sounds could be heard.
"Xiao Qing, don't cry anymore."
"It's my fault, my fault!"
"I'll go and fetch a bucket of water in a little while."
Then there were voices of several people comforting her.
"Xiao Qing, don't be angry anymore. If you keep crying like this, you'll become even more dehydrated."
"That's right, that's right."
"If it comes to it, just hit him a couple of times."
...
Meng Ci stopped paying attention to what was happening outside and instead took out three ice pops from his spatial storage.
One for each person, and they all took a big bite.
Ah, refreshing!
"Tsk, this ice pop is melting really fast," Meng Ci said softly while licking his ice pop.
Shen Que looked at Meng Ci's action of licking the ice pop, his eyes darkened, feeling parched and dry.
Feeling a drop of water on his finger, Shen Que quickly finished the ice pop in two bites.
Meanwhile, after finishing the ice pop, the one called Qie Zi looked at the ice in the basin nearby.
Seeing that their master wasn't paying attention to him, Qie Zi stuck out his tongue and licked the ice block in the basin.
Hmm, although this ice block had no flavor, it could still cool him down.
So, Qie Zi eagerly licked several more mouthfuls.
Meng Ci and the others were in a sealed tent, and they could feel the temperature rising higher and higher.
Shen Que took a thermometer and once again stretched it outside the tent to measure the temperature.
Less than half an hour had passed since Meng Ci last measured the temperature, and it had already risen to 59.8 degrees Celsius.
Sitting back down, Shen Que suddenly grabbed Meng Ci's hand.
"The temperature is about to reach 60 degrees; an earthquake will happen soon."
Meng Ci nodded. Shen Que had mentioned before that in his previous life, an earthquake occurred when the temperature rose to 60 degrees.
Meng Ci was puzzled as to why Shen Que was bringing it up again since he already knew this.
Looking at his wrist being held by Shen Que, he noticed it was already sweating.
But Meng Ci felt Shen Que's hand shaking. Although he didn't understand it, Meng Ci thought that if Shen Que was scared, it was fine to let him hold on.
However, at that moment, Shen Que wasn't afraid of the earthquake itself, but rather that if an earthquake happened, something might happen to Meng Ci.
Floods had boats, high temperatures had shelters, but earthquakes—there was no escape.
Thinking of the earthquakes in his memories, the ground splitting, mountains collapsing, buildings toppling, what if the place they were in wasn't safe?
What if the ground cracked open and the two of them fell down?
What if something happened to Meng Ci?!
The thought of possibly losing Meng Ci made Shen Que terrified.