19: Intensify efforts to improve physical function

After finishing breakfast, Ai Yue finally dared to pick up her phone to browse.

As soon as she turned on the phone, a headline news notification popped up: the National Meteorological Center warned that the extreme heat would continue for the next few days.

They urged citizens not to go out unless absolutely necessary to avoid sunburn. Hospitals were already overcrowded, and citizens with mild sunburns were advised to treat themselves at home.

The local government was instructed to prepare for power and water outages.

Just then, a notification from the community also popped up, requesting everyone to store some water, as water and power outages could occur at any time tonight.

However, residents were told not to panic, as the outages would only be temporary.

Ai Yue opened the homeowners' group chat, and as expected, it was boiling with public resentment.

Life wasn't too hard with air conditioning, but if the power went out and the AC was gone, the consequences were easy to imagine.

Some shrewd people had already begun to find ways out.

Ignoring the scorching sun outside, they drove to the electrical market to buy generators and stock up on supplies while they were at it.

However, more people chose to vent their emotions. Subconsciously, they felt that the heat would pass if they just endured it. It couldn't possibly stay this hot forever, and someone would surely repair the power and water lines soon; they didn't want to go through the trouble.

Ai Yue knew that once the water and power were cut this time, they would never return.

Fortunately, she had her space and countless supplies, allowing her to live quite comfortably.

Ai Yue understood even better that after the total blackout, supplies would become scarce, and the lives of the common people would fall into hardship. Most critically, surface water would evaporate rapidly; before long, water resources would become extremely tight.

For the sake of water and food, all sorts of extreme situations would break out in society one after another.

In the high-temperature environment, people deprived of water and food would become irritable, easily breaking moral boundaries. Robbery, vandalism, and crimes would occur, and society would gradually descend into rioting.

If this situation wasn't alleviated, the evil in people's hearts would be magnified to the extreme. At that moment, society would completely lose order, becoming a living hell on earth.

And this heatwave would last for six long months, with less than seventy percent of the population surviving.

Ai Yue continued to browse. The internet was flooded with various news reports and short videos.

Ai Yue opened a video showing one ambulance and hearse after another whistling past.

Ai Yue fell silent. In just a short time, she didn't know how many people had already died from the heat. In this kind of weather, the elderly and children suffered the most.

Half an hour later.

"Mom, Dad, let's run up and down the stairs for half an hour first to stimulate our body's vitality, then follow me in doing three sets of fist forms, and after that, I'll teach you some simple grappling techniques."

Once everything was done, Ai Yue and the two others were so exhausted their bodies felt limp. When they lifted their arms, their limbs shook involuntarily.

Ai Yue knew that her physical strength and endurance were too weak. To regain her strength from her previous life, she was still far off.

But it didn't matter. The killing skills she had figured out during the Apocalypse were all quick-to-learn, as long as one dared to put their life on the line.

She would do extra training in her spare time to strive to reach her previous life's level as soon as possible. As for her parents, their physical constitutions wouldn't allow it, so they had to take it slow.

After taking a shower and being under the air conditioning, she felt much more comfortable.

It was also time to eat. The three of them didn't want to get up from the sofa to eat at the dining table, so they simply sat cross-legged around the coffee table.

Exercise consumed a lot of physical strength, so nutrition and calories had to keep up. Ai Yue first took out three cans of ice-cold beer, handing one to each of her parents. she opened hers and took a massive gulp. Refreshing!

Li Shilan loved lemon chicken pieces, so she served a large plate.

Six crispy chicken legs.

Small potatoes stewed with beef brisket, fragrant beef strips, cold shredded kelp, and three large bowls of assorted fried rice.

The food looked like a lot, but they still finished it all.

Not only that, after finishing the whole table of food, the three of them actually felt they weren't full. So, they each ate two more large meat buns before stopping.

Since yesterday, the three of them noticed they got hungry more easily than usual, and their appetite had increased significantly.

This situation hadn't occurred in the previous life. Ai Yue and the two others couldn't figure out what was going on, but they felt it should be due to the heavy exercise.

Fortunately, they had stocked up enough food; otherwise, eating like this would bankrupt any family!

They rested for two hours at noon and continued training in the afternoon. However, Ai Yue called a halt after her parents had only practiced for an hour.

Ai Yue was afraid that if the activity was too much, they wouldn't be able to bear it. She felt for her parents, but she wasn't so kind to herself, training herself to death. Even when her arms were so sore she couldn't lift them, she gritted her teeth and persisted, breaking through her limits!

It wasn't until the sun went down that Ai Yue let herself off. By this time, she had no strength left at all, slumped on the sofa like a boneless octopus.

After a hurried dinner, Ai Yue crawled back to her room and threw herself onto the bed, not even bothering to wash up. She was simply too sore; every movement felt like her flesh was being sliced. Her willpower had been mostly worn away after the day, and now she wanted to do nothing but slump on the bed and fall into a deep sleep.

The next day, Ai Yue woke up on time at seven. Relying on her powerful mental strength, she got out of bed and moved her limbs while grimacing in pain.

Then, like a robot, she walked downstairs one jerky step at a time.

Yesterday's training had knocked the whole family down.

When Ai Yue reached downstairs, her parents unusually hadn't gotten up early. Usually by this time, they would have been up drinking tea or cooking.

Ai Yue checked the faucet; as expected, there was no water. Fortunately, there was still electricity. From now on, clean water would be a luxury, and she believed that soon electricity would also become a luxury item.

She glanced at her parents' door and didn't disturb them. She turned around stiffly and hobbled toward the third floor.

Once on the third floor, she endured the slicing pain, moved aside Comrade Li Shilan's beloved plants, cleared an area, and slowly stretched her muscles and bones. After performing Tai Chi twice, the soreness gradually subsided.

Only through persistent practice until the muscles got used to it would the soreness stop.

An hour later, the parents arrived on the third floor, supporting their waists and each other. The three of them really didn't want to go down, so they simply sat on the floor and finished a simple meal of soy milk, fried dough sticks, and millet porridge.

After eating, Ai Yue pulled her parents along for a slow stroll. Ten minutes later, formal training began.

Three days passed like this. It was worth mentioning that their villa area only lost power yesterday; other places weren't so lucky, having lost water and power three nights ago.

Fortunately, the mobile signal was still there. As long as the phone was charged, one could still go online.

After the power outage, the heat drove people crazy. Some took advantage of the chaos to commit home robberies, and the bolder ones directly robbed supermarkets.

However, everything was suppressed by the police with force, so no major chaos broke out.

But what was more painful was the problem of using the toilet in apartment buildings. After finishing one's business, there was no water to flush. Under the fermentation of the high temperature, that smell hit people's souls directly; even the outdoor corridors were wafting with a nauseating stench.

But no one used drinking water to flush the toilet. After all, the stench wouldn't kill you, but not drinking water would.

Fortunately, Ai Yue's family didn't have to endure that unpleasant smell. Although they didn't lack water, they still felt they should save as much as possible, so they had been using cat litter mixed with sand from the building. It worked quite well and didn't have much of a smell.

Because the villa was too large, to save electricity, Ai Yue and the two others only stayed on the second and third floors. With one generator on the second floor and another on the third, the electricity generated was just enough.

When they had nothing to do, they would hold chilled watermelons, eat snacks, drink iced beverages, and watch pre-downloaded TV series. It formed a sharp contrast with the world outside. Some small lakes and rivers had already dried up after several days of baking, the exposed riverbeds cracked into pieces.

At this time, a message popped up on her phone, notifying her to go to the local community center at 8:00 PM to receive one catty of free water per person per day to overcome the difficulties together.

The authorities had drilled wells to extract groundwater, which temporarily relieved the people's urgent need for water.

However, with only one catty of water per person per day, it was a bit stretched thin in weather that felt like an oven.

Where there is market demand, there will be supply.

A group of people, having obtained water from somewhere, arrived at the community square to sell it just after the official water truck left.

Hearing that water was for sale, the residents who hadn't left yet swarmed forward, clamoring in a confused noise to buy water!