Reborn with Nothing but My Farm and Vengeance in the Apocalypse novel Chapter 42

Chapter 42: Chapter 42: Water Rationing

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."

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