Back home, Xu An walked into the bathroom expressionlessly.
Only after ensuring there was no smell of blood on her did she emerge from the bathroom.
"Nannan, why did you take so long?"
Xu Yan noticed her daughter's mood was a little off and looked at Xu An, putting down her work.
Xu An composed herself and smiled.
"It's nothing, it was too hot outside, and there were too many people queuing. I went to a supermarket further away."
Seeing that she didn't want to talk about it, Xu Yan didn't press further.
After all, her daughter had grown up, and she didn't want to interfere too much with her actions.
"Are you still eating?" Xu Yan asked cautiously.
Xu An shook her head after hearing this, she had lost her appetite.
"Mom, how are you doing with the reaction training ball I bought for you?"
When this was brought up, Xu Yan immediately became dejected.
"Do I really have to practice this thing?"
Who knew, she was almost dizzy from the little ball.
Hearing her mother pestering her, the stern expression on her face gradually faded, replaced by a teasing smile, but her words were not to be refused.
"You must practice, this is to train your reaction ability. If I can't pay attention to you, and you can't fight back, you can at least dodge."
She had seen this kind of training ball while browsing videos, it was used for boxing training.
There was a fixed point above the head, a spring rope below, and a small ball attached to the end.
The trainee could hit the small ball with their hands or practice dodging.
For someone like her mother, who had no foundation at all, it was most suitable.
No one would complain about having too many survival skills; having an extra skill would provide more security in the apocalypse.
After watching a bit of variety shows, the two went to sleep.
Before falling asleep, Xu An always had a sense of unease and slept restlessly. Even Goudan came to her room.
It stayed by her bedside, looking like it was facing a great enemy.
Xu An remembered that in her previous life, when the temperature suddenly soared, it was Goudan that woke her up in the middle of the night.
Otherwise, she would have been cooked alive by the heatwave.
Thinking of this, she couldn't sleep and decided not to, patting the bed and calling Goudan up. She rested her head on Goudan's soft belly and opened her phone to see what was being said online recently.
Time ticked by.
At three in the morning, a message suddenly appeared on the trending search, staying high.
Not only in China, but the whole world was in an uproar, and social media platforms in various countries were instantly flooded.
"Volcanic eruption on Sakura Island Nation, the entire island was submerged by lava, the volcanic ash hazard will continue..."
The space outside the window was slightly distorting, and the heat was like a fierce beast staring menacingly at the people inside the house. The entire ground seemed to be burning, the gas was steaming, and even the air was trembling.
"It's here after all."
Xu An did not delay, immediately turning down the air conditioning in her home to the lowest temperature, and then took out air conditioning fans, cooling mats, and cooling patches.
Then she went to Xu Yan's bedroom and knocked on the door.
"Mom, Mom, open the door quickly, don't sleep!"
Xu Yan rubbed her eyes and woke up from her sleep. As soon as she got up, she realized she was covered in sweat, soaking her pajamas.
She got up and opened the door, only to see her daughter's anxious expression.
"If you didn't open the door, I was already preparing to break it down."
Xu Yan asked confusedly, "What's wrong? What happened?"
Xu An said with a serious expression, "There was a volcanic eruption."
Hearing this, the drowsiness in Xu Yan's mind immediately cleared.
"Nannan, is the extreme heat you mentioned coming?"
Xu An nodded, without answering. The two tacitly understood and did not discuss it further.
This topic was too heavy.
When Xu An had revealed her situation to her mother before, she had said that the extreme heat originated from a volcanic eruption.
This time, the volcanic eruption was a full month earlier.
Looking at her mother's sweat-soaked clothes.
"Mom, hurry up and change your clothes, then come to the living room. I've already prepared everything."
As she spoke, she, with Goudan, spread out the pre-cooled cooling mats on the floor.
The frozen ice cubes were also poured out into small buckets, and would be replaced in the air conditioning fan as they melted.
Goudan lay by the ice bucket, constantly sticking out its tongue.
It looked wronged.
Even so, the indoor temperature was still rising.
Xu An looked at the thermometer beside her; the room temperature had already reached 40 degrees.
One could imagine how terrifying the temperature outside was.
Xu Yan only managed to change her clothes and was already covered in sweat again.
By the time she walked into the living room, she was already drenched in sweat.
Xu An checked the doors and windows again, confirmed they were closed, and then sat with her mother and Goudan in the center of the living room, surrounded by air conditioning, air conditioning fans, and ice.
Who knew how many people would die of heat tonight.
Extreme high temperatures were deadly, let alone in such a confined space.
In her previous life, it was Goudan's frantic barking that jolted her awake from her sleep.
As soon as she woke up, she felt waves of heat washing over her, and a suffocating dizziness that almost made her faint.
It could be said that tonight, most unprepared people would die in their sleep from the heat.
"Hot enough to explode" was no longer a joke.
It had become a reality.
Under the sustained high temperatures, the gas accumulated in the human body would explode at a certain point.
In her previous life, when everyone ran out of supplies and was collecting resources, the body of a husband from a household exploded right in front of everyone.
Those who were close at the time were splattered with rotten flesh and debris. It was that explosion that attracted many zombies.
Not only did they fail to find supplies, but they also lost two companions.
Zombies were very weak in the early stages of the zombie horde. As long as their heads were cut off, they would lose their mobility.
But after a year, zombies, like humans, would mutate and would not be so easy to deal with.
Xu An shook her head, pushing aside her worries for now. They had to deal with this terrible weather first.
Worrying about what might happen was useless.
"Nannan, how much longer can this air conditioning last?"
Xu Yan was a little worried. She remembered her daughter telling her that extreme high temperatures would cause the power plant's circuits to burn out.
"Mom, don't worry, our solar panels have started working. We won't be afraid even if the power goes out."
Only then did Xu Yan feel a little relieved.
She felt like she was in a sauna, inside a giant steam room.
"If we get through tonight, it will be a little better afterwards."
After the volcanic eruption, the temperature would climb to 78 degrees Celsius, lasting for about a week before gradually receding.
It was during this receding week that zombies would gradually begin to appear.
Just like this natural disaster that came without warning.
It caught humanity completely off guard.
She went to the kitchen and brought out the pre-chilled watermelons, fruits, and large buckets of mineral water.
"Replenish fluids promptly, continuous sweating will lead to dehydration."
After saying this, she poured a bowl of iced water for Goudan as well.
Xu Yan felt a little dizzy and could only mechanically take the items.
She picked up the water cup and almost drank it all in one gulp.
After drinking the water, the clawing, burning sensation finally felt relieved.
Xu An took out a few more air conditioning fans from her spatial storage, plugged them in, and blew them at her mother continuously.
She had many air conditioning fans in her storage, but she was afraid that if too many were operated, the circuits would be burned out, so she had to give up.
She then applied cooling patches all over her body.
"The apocalypse is really coming..."
She suddenly remembered something, her eyes dimming.
It was good that it was here, at least she wouldn't have to worry about people investigating her for murder.