Chapter 49 Good News

The property management had placed several air conditioners scattered in various corners.

The areas around the air conditioners were mainly allocated to families with infants and elderly members.

However, looking at the people inside, almost everyone was dressed lightly, their faces flushed red from the heat, with beads of sweat still on their foreheads.

It seemed the air conditioners weren't very effective.

After all, the cooling capacity of typical household air conditioners is at most around two or three horsepower, covering an area of only about thirty to forty square meters.

This underground parking lot spanned several thousand square meters.

Additionally, it might also be due to the large number of people.

But in any case, it was significantly better than the scorching 60-70 degrees Celsius upstairs.

Someone even took photos of fresh bloodstains remaining on the walls and posted them in the group.

These were likely left when the Blood Mosquitoes entered through the pedestrian passage in the afternoon.

Naturally, this sparked another round of curses targeting ancestors up to nineteen generations.

There was also a photo showing thick smoke and towering flames.

It looked somewhat eerie because within the wildly burning flames, there were clearly densely stacked human figures.

Jiang Yan scrutinized it carefully before recognizing it as the dried-up pond in the center of the community garden.

It must have been turned into a temporary cremation site by the property management.

With temperatures rising higher and the number of Blood Mosquitoes increasing, many people had died that afternoon, and they probably didn't have the energy to transport the bodies outside the community.

Further down, she came across a video.

The person filming it was acting like a live streamer, providing commentary while recording.

On makeshift bedding, people were either sitting or lying down.

Some were already hunched over, covering their ears as they slept.

But there were also groups playing cards or chatting.

A few were nursing their children alone.

Several families seemed to be wailing loudly.

They must have lost family members in the Blood Mosquito attack that afternoon.

In such an environment, peace and quiet were clearly a luxury.

Fortunately, at least no one was smoking.

Of course, it was also possible that their cigarette supplies had long run out.

After getting a general understanding of the situation, Jiang Yan was about to exit the Homeowners group when her gaze paused on the member count at the top.

Repulse Bay Homeowners Group (306).

Jiang Yan: "..."

She remembered the group had been at full capacity with 500 members before.

Good grief!

Nearly 200 households had disappeared in a single day.

That meant the population had decreased by at least 600 people...

Wasn't that a bit too extreme?

The surveillance footage uncontrollably resurfaced in Jiang Yan's mind.

Additionally, she seemed to have vaguely spotted the owner of those shoes again in the videos taken by homeowners on-site.

At the time, the security supervisor had likely been distributing compressed biscuits or something similar to the residents.

Now, looking at the drastically reduced number in the group, a strange suspicion suddenly arose in her heart.

-

In the following days, the phone signal was intermittent.

The temperature also steadily rose from the previous 67-68 degrees to over 70 degrees.

Every day, there were encouraging text messages from telecommunication providers.

The authorities also gradually added more temporary shelters and broadcasted their locations to the public.

At the same time, they opened some temporary supply depots to the public for free.

However, due to limited resources, people had to go and collect the supplies themselves.

Additionally, government personnel began joining homeowners groups across the city.

However, there weren't many—just one or two people per group.

Jiang Yan suddenly understood why WeChat remained functional when most apps had crashed on a large scale.

Most likely, the authorities were supporting it behind the scenes to ensure information could reach the public promptly.

The homeowners' group saw fewer meaningless chats, but heated arguments of all kinds began to emerge.

It was probably because the food delivered by the authorities was running out.

Once resources became scarce, conflict was inevitable.

Some suspected that the property management and the Homeowners' Committee were colluding to hoard supplies.

But they had no evidence.

Although officials were in the group, their role was more about reassuring the public—they couldn't magically produce supplies.

Or rather, supplies existed, but under the current conditions, they couldn't be transported.

Additionally, according to the shared updates in the group, when temperatures rose above 70 degrees, the freakishly mutated Blood Mosquitoes were still swarming in massive numbers.

Only when the temperature hit 75 degrees did they begin to show signs of decline.

Slowly, the mosquitoes dwindled until they disappeared entirely.

On the tenth day of the extreme heat, the authorities commissioned telecom operators to send out a mass message, which was truly uplifting:

The Blood Mosquitoes had completely vanished worldwide!

Moreover, if people could hold on for another ten days, there was an 80% chance the heatwave would come to an end.

This was the only piece of good news since the extreme heat had engulfed the world.

Although the following ten days would only bring even higher temperatures, it at least gave the survivors a glimmer of hope.

After that, the intermittent phone signals disappeared entirely.

The power in Repulse Bay's underground garage seemed to have run out even before the signals were gone.

The homeowners' group fell eerily silent.

During this time, Jiang Yan spent most of her days studying inside the dimension.

Her daily schedule was packed—from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., with only meal breaks and a half-hour nap in between. She rotated through lessons on planes, yachts, excavators, shooting, and farming—like force-feeding a duck.

However, due to the lack of water-based training grounds, her practice with yachts and boats remained at the "landlubber" stage for now.

The Lego sets she had bought to pass the time and the downloaded movies, TV shows, variety programs, and anime now seemed somewhat redundant.

She only browsed through them occasionally during meals or before bed.

But deep down, she knew this was "no pain, no gain."

The extreme heat had isolated everything, creating ideal learning conditions for her.

Once the heatwave ended and those hiding underground to escape the heat returned to normal life,

the world around her would no longer be as quiet and safe as it was now.

Jiang Yan occasionally left the dimension to return to her house.

On one hand, she wanted to acclimate herself to the extreme heat for survival purposes. On the other, with all communication cut off, she also wanted to see if there were any changes in the outside world.

Or rather, she hoped that one day, she might spot official rescuers on the streets.

On the eighteenth day of the heatwave, the temperature suddenly dropped to 60 degrees.

It was still scorching, but it gave Jiang Yan some hope.

There was a good chance the heat would end in two days.

On the nineteenth day, the temperature continued to fall, settling in the 50s.

As dusk approached that day, Jiang Yan stood by the floor-to-ceiling window and finally saw vehicles moving on the streets.

She quickly took out her binoculars.

Sure enough, there were several unusually colored cargo trailers transporting supplies.

Judging by their color, these vehicles were likely coated with heat-resistant materials, and their tires were specially designed to withstand high temperatures.

The convoy also came to a stop at the entrance of Repulse Bay residential area.

To prevent looting, armed soldiers jumped out first.

Soon, a group of people who appeared barely alive staggered up from the underground parking garage.

The authorities hadn't abandoned any civilians.

Even though the weather forecast predicted temperatures would likely return to normal the next day.

Delivering supplies now was clearly a race against time.

After all, many might not survive another day.

Moreover, the heatwave had struck unexpectedly, leaving them with limited options initially.

Later, when Jiang Yan emerged from her dimension, she heard the distinctive "thump-thump-thump" of helicopters in the air.

She hurried to the floor-to-ceiling window.

Several military helicopters flew slowly at extremely low altitude across the night sky.

Beneath them hung large double-sided luminous banners.

The message read: Authorities would conduct city-wide disinfection in one day.

Residents still in buildings were warned to keep windows and doors tightly shut.

Truthfully, even without the warning, few would have left them open.

Though whether anyone still survived in those buildings under such extreme heat remained unknown.

One day later.

Like a capricious madman, the temperature plummeted to 37-38°C within a single day.

People who had been sheltering underground for so long rushed back to the surface.

But for safety, no one dared return home.

Upper-floor residents feared getting trapped upstairs.

Ground-floor dwellers remained haunted by memories of the Blood Mosquitoes.

There was still no signal or electricity.

But soon, wind began to blow.

And for the first time in what felt like forever, raindrops dotted the sky.