Apocalyptic Reincarnation: Start with a 30-million Bonus

After the storm, Li Yu resolved the matter with the Salvation Army on the third day.

He rested for a week and didn’t go out again, but people like Third Uncle and Second Uncle occasionally took some workers out to collect building materials.

Moreover, Uncle often led people out to bring back anything from the surroundings that could still be used.

Time passed little by little, and the height of the surrounding wall got higher and higher. The original intention was just to increase the height of the guardrail a bit, but after Li Hongyuan saw it, he suggested raising the height of the wall even more.

This would make it safer against Zombies. The height went from almost 8 meters to nearly 10 meters.

A lot of cement and steel reinforcement were used. Fortunately, these materials were plentiful in the surrounding factories.

This was a long-term project, and when the wall just reached 9 meters, 10 days had passed since the storm.

In these 10 days, the wall had increased by a meter. But on that day, Li Yu called a stop to it.

After the storm, there had been 10 days of hot weather, from 25 degrees to 35 degrees, and now frequently 40 degrees, even reaching 44 degrees at midday.

Under such temperatures, the water in the Mountain Pond had diminished a bit, with the water level dropping by nearly half a meter.

This Mountain Pond now was at its highest-ever recorded water level in history.

The Mountain Pond is U-shaped, and at the top, for the water level to drop by half a meter, the consumption has been quite astonishing.

During this time, the base continued to use groundwater for daily needs. Although a pipe had been installed from the Mountain Pond to bring water into the base, it was barely used.

In July, the crops were robustly growing, precisely when they needed water the most. A few days earlier, water from the Mountain Pond had been released twice to irrigate the fields.

The previously planted sweet potato and corn used less water. Watering through a pipe thoroughly twice didn’t consume too much moisture.

On this day, Li Yu specifically gathered everyone for a meeting.

Li Yu stood in the center, except for those like Li Haoran who were on duty, almost everyone from the base was present.

”Everyone can see that the weather has been extremely hot recently and there hasn’t been any rain. No rain is a good thing; it means there’s no Zombie Tide. But it’s also a bad thing. You can see that the water level at the Mountain Pond has gone down,” Li Yu said.

”So, what I want to tell everyone is to save water in the near future. Don’t waste water. We don’t know how long this hot weather will last.”

”Understood.”

”Alright, we all need to be aware of this.”

”Got it, boss.”

...

Everyone was thoughtful, especially Uncle who had noticed during his recent scouting that some of the small low-lying ponds formed by the previous storm had mostly dried up.

”Then everyone save water and don’t waste it. We don’t know how long this scorching weather will last,” Second Uncle added beside him.

”Okay, Second Uncle.”

”Alright, Li brother.”

”Okay.”

In this dry and hot weather, it was easy for everyone to get heatstroke.

So, in the past couple of days, most outdoor activities had come to a halt.

Although there were fewer Zombies outside, the high temperatures still made it very uncomfortable to be out.

However, there was a silver lining—these sunny days brought an abundance of solar energy. There was more electricity than could be used daily, and even the batteries were fully charged.

Everyone could even run the air conditioning all day without worrying about electricity. This allowed everyone to rest fairly well; despite the heat, the coolness of the air-conditioned rooms provided good rest.

Additionally, since there was plenty of electricity, people were more liberal with the electricity used for electronic devices.

On the cooler evenings, sometimes they would play movies outdoors at the center. This evoked memories of old times for the parents and grandparents generation.

The hot weather was extremely annoying, making everyone feel lethargic.

Two air conditioners were installed in the duty room because in this weather, if exposed to direct sunlight, it wouldn’t take long before someone got heatstroke.

Today, it was Li Yu’s turn for duty, and in the air-conditioned room, he didn’t want to step outside for even a minute—it was simply too hot. It felt like after a while, you could get cooked.

He poured a glass of lemonade and added two ice cubes, gulped down a couple of sips, and looked out towards the base to monitor the situation.

Beside him was Li Hang, who felt bored and glanced at the electronic device next to him, then at his elder brother.

Eventually, he sighed and said, ”Big brother, I’m going to use the restroom.”

Li Yu said speechlessly, ”Go ahead. No need to tell me...”

...

Li Hang wasn’t gone long before he returned, then said, ”Big brother, after our shift, can we go fishing again?”

Li Yu shook his head and replied, ”If you want to go, you can. I’m not going today.”

Li Yu had been disappointed by fishing too many times before and was not so eager to fish anymore.

Outside the base, the sun blazed overhead.

The cicadas had stopped. The trees outside appeared wilted.

The leaves hung listlessly on the branches, deprived of vigor.

The drought following the storm, under the scorching sun, dried out much of the soil outside the base, making it hard and clumpy underfoot.

There were also some fields outside the base which had some crops growing, remnants from harvested rice fields.

But under these days of intense sunlight, the water in the paddies had completely evaporated.

The crops had been dried out, withering, and eventually turned into wisps of dry yellow straw.

The ground showed large cracks, the result of this natural disaster.

The storm was a natural disaster, and now the drought was another.

These sunny days had drained the energy from everyone.

But whether it was Second Uncle or Grandpa, they all cared deeply for the crops in the fields—these were their future food supplies, even though they still had plenty of food for now.

In this hot weather, some green flotation devices popped up in the paddies, and with temperatures soaring over 40 degrees, bubbles started forming on the surface of the water.

With each step, it felt like the foot might catch fire—it was that hot.

To avoid wasting water, Li Yu also planted some other crops around the paddies.

In this hot weather, there was no breeze, no chirping of insects or birds, and the whole earth was eerily silent.

This was the other extreme from the storm.