The honeysuckle at The Arcadian Farm had bloomed over the past few days, attracting swarms of bees and butterflies. Albus leaped about, pouncing on the butterflies, while Melody was busy nearby, picking the flower buds.

The weather had been scorching lately, and honeysuckle has cooling and detoxifying properties. She planned to pick some of the buds, dry them in the sun, and make tea for her family to drink.

After picking the honeysuckle, Melody cleared another patch of ground nearby to plant isatis root. It also had cooling and detoxifying properties, and she planned to make herbal tea at home with it in the future.

Once she was done, Melody and Albus left the pocket dimension. Covered in dirt, Melody was about to take a shower, but when she turned on the showerhead, she discovered there was no water.

Melody suddenly remembered. ’In my past life, water rationing started shortly after the power was restored, too.’

Water rationing was different from the power rationing. The power rationing had only lasted a little over a month before service was fully restored, but the water rationing would continue for a very long time. After all, the drought was severe, and the water shortage was real.

Reservoir water levels were constantly dropping, and many rivers had dried up completely. The government subsidized numerous seawater desalination companies, but their freshwater output was far from enough to let over a billion people use water as they normally did.

Because of the water shortage and the high cost of desalinating seawater, the price of water skyrocketed by several dozen times.

Melody immediately opened her residential community’s group chat to check for messages:

"6-702 The Lover: @Property Management, why did the water suddenly shut off?"

"4-2009 Nina: Yeah, the power just came back on a few days ago, how is the water off again? This is just torture."

"Property Management: Dear residents, we have received a notice from the authorities. The water level in the reservoirs has dropped to an all-time low, rivers are dry, and drought conditions are appearing everywhere. Starting today, we will be implementing a water rationing policy. Water will be supplied to residential areas for one hour at 12:00 PM and one hour at 7:00 PM. Please make sure to store water during these times."

"2-1408 Bella Grant: Electricity is so expensive now, I don’t even dare to leave the AC on all night. I often wake up drenched in sweat. With this new water schedule, how are we supposed to shower in the morning? Are we supposed to go to work all sweaty?"

"2-1908 Coco: I’m going to buy a few large water storage tanks. Does anyone want to do a group buy?"

"6-702 The Lover: Count me in, count me in! I can’t stand not being able to shower."

"4-1209 Goofing_Off: You have to consider the building’s load-bearing capacity when you store water. Be careful, everyone. I once saw a story about someone who tried to set up an indoor swimming pool and ended up crashing through every floor below."

"..."

Melody went downstairs, where her grandmother and Miss Lowell were preparing dinner. They hadn’t expected the water to be shut off, and the two of them looked worried.

"Grandma, Miss Lowell, don’t worry," Melody said. "We have a backup water tank, and the pool in the basement was converted into a reservoir. We won’t run out of water."

After saying that, Melody went to switch the house’s water supply over to the backup tank. Then, the three of them prepared dinner together.

*

Winnie Summers and Grace Sutton got home very late that night. Grace had been idle at home with nothing to do for the past few days, so she had also gone to help out at Crystal Mart.

"Mom, Auntie, why are you back so late?" Melody got up to greet them. "Hurry and wash your hands, dinner’s ready. Grandma made braised duck, lychee pork, pocket tofu, and lamb with pickled cabbage today."

Colin Summers chimed in, "Hurry over. The weather’s so hot and electricity is so expensive that farming costs have skyrocketed. Meat is up to several hundred yuan a pound now; not many families can have several meat dishes in one meal like we can. Quincy from property management was telling me today that his family has been eating nothing but rice with pickled mustard stems for their last few meals."

Colin had been swamped with work at property management, leaving early and returning late every day. He wished he could just sleep at the office. With so many air conditioners overloading, he was so busy he barely had time to breathe, but he was also earning a lot of money.

After washing their hands, Winnie Summers and Grace Sutton collapsed onto their chairs in exhaustion.

Grace Sutton said, "Don’t even get me started. The entire stock of bottled water at Crystal Mart was wiped out today—not a single bottle left! A huge crowd of residents rushed in to grab water. One guy tried to buy fifty cases at once, and everyone else got angry. We ended up having to limit it to five cases per person, and even then, many people didn’t get any." 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

"Not only did the bottled water sell out, but all the other drinks were completely cleared out, too. There was this one brand of tea that never sold well—people said it tasted awful, so no one ever bought it—but even that was completely gone today."

The panic caused by the water rationing was even greater than the panic from the power rationing. After all, water is the source of life. Coupled with the recent, unrelenting heat wave, many people began to sense that something was seriously wrong.

"It wasn’t just people hoarding water; some were hoarding rice and flour, too. They bought so much that the Lynch father and son had to keep helping carry things to the elevator entrance. The two of them got so hot and tired, they nearly suffered from heatstroke," Grace Sutton added.

The older generation had lived through famines and were truly afraid of going hungry. They had a sharp sense that something was wrong and began to hoard food.

Winnie Summers had never witnessed such a frantic scene of panic buying. It was as if the items were free. More than half of Crystal Mart’s inventory had been wiped out in a single day.

Winnie Summers and the three members of the Lynch family were busy restocking shelves and placing new orders with suppliers, working very late.

Winnie then picked up a plastic bag she’d brought home. Inside was a glistening, golden pineapple. She said to Melody:

"It’s from Holly, the resident in Building 6. Her husband came back today; the repairs on their apartment in the city are all done. He found out that Melody took Holly and Buddy to the hospital and is very grateful to us. His work gave him this pineapple, and he insisted I accept it. I couldn’t refuse, so I brought it back."

’It seems the homes damaged by the tornado have been repaired,’ Melody thought, breathing a sigh of relief.

"Oh, my! Fruit is so expensive now. I saw a video where a single apple was selling for several hundred yuan," Grandma said with surprise. "Our fruit saplings in the yard are about to bear fruit, so we won’t be short on it. What Melody did was just a small favor. We shouldn’t have accepted such an expensive gift."

"In difficult times, it’s important to exchange courtesies. They’ll feel more at ease now that we’ve accepted it," Miss Lowell said.

"Miss Lowell is right, Grandma. They’ll feel better now that we’ve accepted it," Melody chimed in.

Her grandmother nodded at this and said no more.

The family enjoyed a sumptuous dinner together.

*

「The Hale Residence」

"I told you not to just turn on the air conditioner! This month’s electricity bill was over 9,000 yuan! If this keeps up, how will we ever be able to afford it!" Seeing that Joanne White had turned on the AC again, Mrs. Hale unhappily snatched the remote control and turned it off.

Austin Hale’s leg injury had finally healed, and he was just about to go back to work when he learned that his company was laying people off.

Many companies had declared bankruptcy recently, and many others had begun successive rounds of layoffs just to survive.

Austin Hale had been on leave for over a month due to his leg injury, so in such a competitive time, it was only natural that he ended up on the list of layoffs.

Buying an apartment in a good school district had previously drained the Hale family’s savings. Now, the family was relying entirely on Mrs. Hale’s pension to get by.

Now, the price of everything was on the rise. The cost of water was up, electricity was up, and even bottled water had gotten significantly more expensive.

So, seeing Joanne White turn on the air conditioner yet again, Mrs. Hale was furious.

Joanne White felt incredibly wronged by Mrs. Hale’s scolding. Her own family’s residential complex had been repaired, so Mr. and Mrs. White no longer felt it was right to keep staying at the Hale residence. After all, Joanne still had to build a life with Austin Hale, and it wouldn’t do for her parents to have a complete falling-out with his mother.

Mr. and Mrs. White had intended to take Joanne back home with them, but Joanne felt she would just be an additional financial burden on her parents, so she remained at the Hale’s.

She was carrying Austin Hale’s child, and she felt the Hale family was obligated to provide for her.

But ever since her parents had left, Mrs. Hale had gone back to making life difficult for Joanne in various ways. Austin Hale, meanwhile, was consumed by the anxiety of being unemployed and had no mental energy to deal with the conflict between his mother and his wife.

Joanne White couldn’t take this life anymore!