Chapter 1

“It’s so hot, it’s unbearable! Why is it so hot this year?”

“Yeah, it’s been over 40 degrees for three days in a row. It’s enough to drive people crazy!”

On the way home from work, pedestrians hurried along, almost no one lingered on the main road. Everyone rushed into buildings as fast as possible to escape the heat.

I stopped my car at the intersection, waiting for the traffic light, and glanced at my phone.

5:45 PM, temperature: 38°C.

It was already close to evening, but the sun hadn’t set yet. The sunlight and persistent high temperature made it feel like midday, and today’s weather was more abnormal than usual.

When the light turned green, I hesitated for a moment. Instead of heading straight home, I turned left toward the city’s largest supermarket, planning to stock up on supplies.

Today was Friday, and tomorrow was the weekend. If the weather continued to stay above 40 degrees, I would ask the company for a few days off to stay home and avoid the heat. After all, I’d just worked around the clock to close a big project, so the company probably wouldn’t deny my request.

I rushed into the supermarket, headed straight for the fresh food section, and bought a large amount of daily groceries. Then I went to the frozen section for steak, frozen fish, and shrimp. Passing by the daily necessities aisle, I noticed that my usual sanitary pads and tampons were on sale. On a whim, I bought two big bags, and my shopping cart was suddenly full.

“Do you need any help?” A young male attendant came over and asked, a shy smile on his face.

I nodded, handed him my cart, and grabbed another one. I walked into the canned goods aisle, picked up two cans of each kind, then moved on to the snack section, grabbed sunflower seeds and chips.

“Would you like to buy some drinks? Our large bottle Coke and Sprite combo is on sale, only 9.9 yuan,” the attendant suggested.

It made sense. Although I usually eat healthy and rarely drink soda, chips just aren’t the same without Coke. So I went to the drinks section and grabbed five combo packs, totaling ten bottles. I also asked the attendant to help carry two cases of bottled water, filling up the third shopping cart.

I thought I was done, but as I passed the rice aisle on my way out, I suddenly remembered that my rice bin at home was almost empty. I needed to buy some. So I asked the attendant for help again, and he carried two bags of rice for me. I grabbed five packs of instant noodles to fill the gaps in the second cart.

At last, all three carts were packed full.

At checkout, the total was 1,321.8 yuan.

“Would you like home delivery?” the attendant asked again.

I shook my head. “No, just help me load it into my car.”

“Are you sure? These things are really heavy.”

He seemed very eager to help, but I still declined, only letting him put everything into my spacious trunk.

When I closed the trunk, the attendant seemed to sigh, but I didn’t pay much attention and drove straight home.

After divorcing my ex-husband five years ago, I spent half a year traveling randomly before settling in this slow-paced third-tier city, leaving everything I was familiar with behind.

Now I live alone in a high-end apartment complex in the suburbs, on the 16th floor-not too high, not too low-with two units sharing an elevator and a private security door.

Maybe because our schedules are different, and the soundproofing is excellent, I’ve never even seen my neighbor in the other unit. The only sign that someone else lives on this floor is the occasional umbrella left by the elevator.
I parked my car in the lot and had to make three trips to carry all the groceries to the elevator. When I got to my apartment door, I spent another ten minutes sorting everything and putting it away in my large freezer and refrigerator.

Because our neighborhood had been locked down once during the pandemic, I specifically bought a big freezer. Now it was about eighty percent full: one third of the space was stocked with ice cream, and the rest was packed with frozen chicken, duck, animal organs, and half a side of pork.

All of these were sent to me by my mom from my hometown. My parents have leased a mountain back home, and the old folks raise pigs, chickens, and ducks there for fun. They’re always sending me frozen goods, and the stash just keeps growing.

I put the steaks, frozen fish, and shrimp inside, finally filling it up to ninety percent. I thought to myself, even if there’s another sudden lockdown, this meat would last me two months.

Ding…

Just as I was stuffing some drinks into the fridge, my phone buzzed with a new message.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw it was a Red High Temperature Warning from the city meteorological bureau, with a big, bold 41°C displayed.

[Tomorrow, the city will reach a new temperature high, exceeding 41 degrees. Citizens are advised not to go outside between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. If you have elderly or children at home…]

41 degrees? I couldn’t help but curse, grabbed my phone, and immediately started the OA process to request leave and notify HR all in one go.

In this kind of heat, there’s no way I’m going out to get roasted. Of course, I’ll take as much time off as I can. I calculated the compensatory time I’d accumulated over the past six months from working on big projects, and with the weekends, I could probably take about 20 days off in one go. Surely it won’t still be this hot after 20 days?

My leave request was approved quickly. After my shower, I saw on OA that it had already gone through. I also had two missed calls from my mom, so I called her back.

“Hello, Mom.”

“Qingqing, it’s so hot over there! If you don’t have anything urgent, don’t go out. You’re there all alone-what if you get heatstroke? You should take leave from work right away. You silly girl, you used to love running around in 39 degrees when you were little…”

As soon as she picked up, Mom launched into a barrage of concern.

“I know, Mom. You and Dad should also take care to stay cool-don’t be stingy with the air conditioning, okay?”

I reminded her.

“What air conditioning? Your dad and I are up in the mountains. The highest it got today was 35 degrees, and we still use blankets at night. You should worry about yourself. Why did you have to move so far away? If you’d stayed here, you could just live up in the mountains where it’s nice and cool.”

Mom started nagging, half annoyed.

I let her go on for over ten minutes before finally finding an excuse to hang up.

This summer really has been abnormally hot.

I opened a box of ice cream, settled comfortably onto the sofa, and turned on the TV as I ate.

“The recent persistent heat has caused over a thousand deaths across Europe. In some parts of India, temperatures have exceeded 55 degrees. Experts say such temperatures are no longer suitable for human habitation…”

The first thing on was global heatwave news. I felt lucky to be living in China, where air conditioning is more than universally available.

At that moment, I had no idea that in just a few days, the relentless heat would soon show me what “not suitable for human habitation” really meant.