Chapter 37: Karma Will Come!

"Yue~"

Even through the screen, Jiang Yan could almost smell the pungent stench of rotting corpses under the scorching heat, making her gag involuntarily.

The Blood Mosquitoes in the images felt as if they were crawling on her skin, sending chills down her spine!

From a scientific perspective, it takes about 24 hours after death for all the blood in a human body to coagulate completely.

Of course, factors like temperature and pre-existing medical conditions can shorten or prolong this process.

But around the heads of those desiccated corpses, there were clearly visible pools of dried blood.

This indicated that when these bodies were thrown from their homes, they had been dead for less than 24 hours!

And that corpse swarming with Blood Mosquitoes, its blood not yet fully drained, was clearly a recent addition to the pile.

The photo was posted by Unit E-1104, whose profile picture showed a vast landscape under an open sky.

Most likely a mature and composed man.

[E-1104: Everyone, take a look! Is this the distortion of humanity or the collapse of morality?! Damn it, how can they do this?! Absolutely heartless!!!]

[E-1605: The police station's line is constantly busy, but I'll keep calling!!! You soulless monsters will get your karma sooner or later!! Damn it!]

[C-2303: cough cough Bro upstairs is being naive...]

[D-703: Holy shit! I've seen people throwing trash from high places, but throwing corpses?! Can we even live in this neighborhood anymore?! Rage.jpg]

[A-702: This can't be real, right?! It's only been a few days of extreme heat—we're not even in the Apocalypse yet! How did things escalate so quickly?!]

[C-602: My god! If it's this bad already, how are we supposed to survive later?!!]

[B-101: Fuck! Who the hell did this?! How are we ground-floor residents supposed to live now?! I curse your children to be born without assholes!!!]

[C-104: Once Pandora's Box is opened... tilts head in thought.jpg]

[...]

The rest of the messages were filled with curses and outrage.

According to the group chat, shortly after dawn—once the Blood Mosquitoes had retreated—the property management team, braving the scorching heat and blinding sunlight, cleared away all the corpses.

They were then piled up in the square dancing area at the entrance of the complex, doused with gasoline, and burned en masse.

Jiang Yan's heart sank as she finished reading.

This was truly beyond belief.

Sure, handling corpses in 60-degree heat was no easy task.

But no matter what, preserving the basic dignity of the deceased should have been the last line of decency for their families.

And this was just the beginning!

The 70-degree days hadn't even arrived yet!

The torrential rains that would flood up to the 20th floor hadn't come yet!!

If people could already toss their dead family members out like trash now, then when things truly reached a desperate, survival-of-the-fittest stage, the scenes that would unfold were unimaginable.

Still, this also revealed one thing: despite the authorities' relentless media campaigns of reassurance and propaganda, many civilians had already accepted that the Apocalypse had arrived.

Jiang Yan took a deep breath, shook off her thoughts, downed the rest of her coffee, and turned to the message Zhang Qiming had sent her.

Zhang Qiming: [General Jiang, are you awake? Hi.jpg]

Zhang Qiming: [I accidentally went to the property management's monitoring room yesterday and found this. But don't worry, I've already deleted the data from their end, so it won't affect you. Plus, the power's out in the complex now—no one else can check even if they wanted to! Smile.jpg]

Zhang Qiming: [32F-No.7-Surveillance footage clip.avi]

Jiang Yan: "."

She clicked on it. It was the clip of her stepping out of the elevator with a chainsaw, right up to the moment He Chunmei turned tail and ran home.

Zhang Qiming: [General Jiang, you looked so badass! I almost wanted to add an entrance BGM for you—totally like Wonder Woman!

Also, just between us, you're way more stunning in person than on social media! Even with those sunglasses, I recognized you at a glance!

I'm your biggest fan!! P.S. When I added you on WeChat before, you were all covered up, so I didn't recognize you then. My apologies!]

Zhang Qiming: [General Jiang, getting back to business—the homeowners group chat is flooded with messages, and I figured you wouldn't have time to read them all, so I'll summarize for you:

The authorities and property management have set up a temporary shelter in the underground parking lot. They'll start moving residents in tonight. They'll provide limited drinking water, compressed biscuits, canned food, etc., but we'll need to collect these supplies ourselves when the official delivery trucks arrive later.

I noticed you hadn't signed up, so I registered for you privately. I'll also pick up your supplies for you. After all, you're on the top floor, and the temperature's supposed to hit 70 degrees in a couple of days! You wouldn't last up there!]

Zhang Qiming: [General Jiang, when you see this, remember to reply or call me. The underground parking lot is all communal bunks, but I'll try to get the property management to assign you a corner spot—ideally just for you, so you'll have more privacy! Hehe.jpg]

Zhang Qiming: [General Jiang, are you awake yet? Stare.jpg]

The guy kept addressing her as "General Jiang" and using overly polite language.

Jiang Yan's eyelids twitched, and the goosebumps on her arms threatened to fall off.

What was this guy up to?

But whether he was buttering her up or had ulterior motives, she couldn't be bothered to care right now.

As she'd expected, the underground parking lot was indeed being converted into a temporary shelter.

Over 500 parking spaces for 500-plus households—roughly 10 square meters per unit.

For someone like her, living alone, it was enough.

But for families with elderly and children, it would clearly be cramped.

Some would inevitably spill over into others' spaces.

Calculating three people per household, that'd be around 1,500 individuals.

Even accounting for vacant units and property staff, the numbers wouldn't differ much.

That many people crammed into one area—eating, sleeping, living—was a hard scene to imagine.

With water and power already cut, bathroom access would be the biggest headache.

But staying upstairs meant certain death.

Up here was a steamer.

Down there was a cage.

At least the temperature would be lower, with electricity, water, and food available.

Between two evils, the underground option was clearly better.

Also, while the heatwave had struck without warning, the authorities' emergency response had been relatively swift.

As for what came next—

But none of that was Jiang Yan's concern.

All I've been doing is watching the surveillance footage and checking my phone—my training plan hasn't progressed at all.

Jiang Yan turned off her phone and stood up, heading toward the second-floor gym.

-

Meanwhile.

Going downstairs was much easier than climbing up. Zhang Qiming quickly returned to the 28th floor.

As he stepped from the walking staircase into the hallway—after being turned away at the 32nd floor—he spotted a familiar figure in the distance:

The beautiful supporting actress from the surveillance footage he had sent to Jiang Yan—Zhang Qiqi.

But now, she had swapped her hairstyle for a short bob, and she wore an even mo

re summery floral mini-dress than the day before.

Though her face was glistening with sweat, her charm remained undiminished.

When she had first moved in, she had approached him a few times to coordinate some matters.