Chapter 25: Chapter 25 Hello Sister

“Dad, I have something rather disrespectful to say, but if you died now, could you even afford to die?!

Can’t you see the homeowner group chats? The hospitals, the police stations, even the crematorium phone lines are all busy!

The mother from 403, Old Liu’s place, she just had an acute myocardial infarction because of the extreme heat and is now lying stiff at home!

With the temperature so high, the body might start to stink tonight!

So if you died, where would I bury you?! Not to mention, the trash room in our community is already piled up like a mountain and swarming with green-headed flies!”

He Chunmei’s words were extremely unpleasant to hear and burst out like rapid gunfire–non-stop and utterly relentless.

“Chunmei, you’re being completely unreasonable and obstinate!!”

Zhou Shangyou was so angry that he banged his walking stick on the floor tiles before sighing to the sky, “Ah, what sins has our Zhou Family committed?!”

After saying this, it wasn’t clear whether it was the heat or He Chunmei’s words that got to him, but his vision darkened and he collapsed to the floor.

Jiang Lifeng shivered with fright and reached out to grab his sleeve: “Old man!”

“Grandpa!”

“Grandpa!”

The two children dropped their stools with a “clatter” and ran over.

“Dad!”

The tall Zhou Guangfu stepped forward and caught Zhou Shangyou.

He Chunmei was briefly flustered for a second, then quickly composed herself and began giving orders,

“Zhou Guangfu, take responsibility for helping our dad go home to rest! I’ll handle banging on the door here, I refuse to believe she won’t open it this morning!”

In her eyes, it was better if her mother-in-law Jiang Lifeng, who had a chronic disease and often disagreed with her, was gone.

But her father-in-law Zhou Shangyou had a high retirement salary, and he definitely couldn’t just die like that–he was the family’s cash cow!

“Wife, let’s just go home!” Zhou Guangfu’s brows were knitted tightly, he sighed deeply.

Their daughter had developed jaundice and pneumonia right after birth, was alone under a nurse’s care being treated with phototherapy every day, and had tubes all over her forehead…

Whenever they recalled that sight, the couple was so heartbroken they couldn’t stop crying.

And ever since then, whenever their daughter caught a relatively severe illness, He Chunmei would become a bundle of nerves.

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say she could go temporarily insane.

And after hearing that heatstroke had a fatality rate of 20%-70%, and their baby Beibei showed symptoms of nausea, vomiting, and fever, He Chunmei was noticeably panicking:

“Go back if you want to! If this goes on, baby Beibei will die sooner or later. I’d rather go to jail today than leave them without air conditioning! Baby Beibei, you stay here with mom, don’t you dare go back!”

He Chunmei, her eyes bulging with rage, finished speaking and lifted her hand to furiously knock on Jiang Yan’s door, “Little sister! Open the door!!”

Zhou Guangfu could only shake his head helplessly, called his mother Jiang Lifeng, and helped his father Zhou Shangyou back home.

The two children didn’t dare wander off and could only go stand by the door of 3202, looking on at their mother dumbly.

The scene unfolded before her eyes as if in high-definition.

Jiang Yan stared at the screen, took a deep breath in silence.

Was this a case of bearing guilt despite being innocent because one possesses a treasure?

If it were her previous life or any other time, she would have undoubtedly opened the door without hesitation to let them in.

But now, she knew this was just the beginning of the apocalypse, not its true descent.

Most people thought things would get better once these few days were over.

Only she knew that the days ahead would only become worse and harder.

Once she let someone in now with a soft heart, there’d be no hope of them leaving later.

Especially seeing their aggressive and unyielding attitude.

It was very possible even a hostile takeover of her house wasn’t out of the question.

In the scene, He Chunmei’s roar could be heard again:

“Little girl, stop pretending! Open the door now, or I’ll break it down!!”

He Chunmei didn’t know that Jiang Yan had left home early and had been ignoring the door, so she finally picked up a small hammer she had brought.

Seeing her aim the hammer at the keypad lock, it seemed she was ready to smash the lock and force her way in.

But only Jiang Yan knew that even if the keypad lock were hammered to pieces, the door would still remain closed.

Unless the lock core was blown up or the entire door was taken down.

In the scene, He Chunmei had lifted the small hammer again.

But she didn’t smash it right away, instead, she started gasping for air with her other hand on her waist.

The room temperature was too high, and after her loud yelling for so long, she was already short of breath with a flushed face.

Jiang Yan frowned slightly and with nimble fingers quickly activated the anti-intrusion system.

But she wasn’t too ruthless, opting only for a mild 110V electric shock as a little lesson.

The apocalypse hadn’t truly begun, and it wouldn’t be quite right to electrocute someone to death in one go.

And there were two children watching.

“Little girl, I’m knocking one last time. If you don’t open, don’t blame me for not being nice!” He Chunmei said, and again her palm knocked “bang bang bang!”

With her final slap, an excruciating sensation as if being devoured by millions of ants surged through her body from her palm.

He Chunmei screamed “Ahh!!” and instinctively stepped back, her hand losing strength and dropping the hammer with a “clang.”

“Mama, what happened?!”

“Mama!!”

The two children were startled and rushed to help He Chunmei.

“Don’t come over!” He Chunmei wasn’t ignorant; she knew she had been electrocuted.

Today, she hadn’t tied her hair into a bun; it was loose.

For a moment, she clearly saw her hair stand on end from the corner of her eye.

He Chunmei took a few deep breaths to steady herself and then stood still, observing the metal mesh, but she couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary.

“Mama?” the little boy called gently when he saw his mother standing in place, quickly stepping closer.

He Chunmei snapped back to reality, a fierce look flashed in her eyes, and she growled, “Little girl, you’re cruel! We’ll see about this!”

She carefully picked up the hammer from the ground and said to the children,

“Let’s go, baby, Beibei, we’ll go home first.”

If she couldn’t knock on the door alone.

Then what about a group of people?

The few hundred households in this community, like hers with elderly, young, sick and those with babies in need of air conditioning, were not few in number.

Strength in numbers, she didn’t believe it wouldn’t work!

Whether it was moral coercion or outright usurpation, everything becomes easier with more people!

With that decision made, He Chunmei handed the small hammer to her son to take his sister home first, then took out her phone and quickly sent a message to the home-owners’ group:

[A-3203: Dear neighbors, does anyone need air conditioning to cool down today? Please message me if needed!!! Special note: only for households with the elderly, infirm, or pregnant!]

The message had just been sent when an attractive woman with the user image “A-701” added her as a friend from the group.

[Hi sister, I’m the new neighbor Zhang Qiqi :)]