Chapter 13: Mosquitoes and Green Flies

Day 20 of the apocalypse. Temperature: 60°C!

More and more residents in the group chat were asking to buy food. Although everyone had stockpiled quite a bit, the scorching temperatures had caused many power outages, and a lot of food had spoiled.

Some people wanted to barter — and the items they offered were all over the place: lipsticks, handbags, baseball bats, and even a hamster. Young people really have wild imaginations.

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At 9 AM, a drone delivered an announcement:

“To ensure normal living conditions for citizens, each district will have one large supermarket open. Citizens are advised to go shopping in groups at night and to take personal precautions.”

“Supplies are available now. Should we go?” Dad asked.

“We should. Not going would be suspicious, and being targeted would be more dangerous.
I’ll go with Dad tonight. Mom, you stay home with Xiaonuan.”

“Okay…”

It wasn’t just her — lots of people in the chat were eager to go as well. Many started making plans to go shopping together. After all, in such extreme heat, those without cars could at least enjoy some air conditioning.

Recently, Jiang Yuan had noticed a strange phenomenon: there were more green flies and long-legged mosquitoes outside.

Logically, with such high temperatures, these bugs should’ve been cooked alive. So why were they suddenly appearing?

After thinking it over, she concluded: they must’ve mutated. After all, animals adapt faster than humans.

But whether these mutated bugs were harmful to people was still unknown.

Either way, it clearly wasn’t a good sign.

Pest control was now a must. With the elderly and children at home, there couldn’t be any slip-ups.

They had hotpot for lunch — with a trip out planned for the evening, it made sense to eat a bit more. They’d soon have new vegetables anyway.

“Mommy, veggies~”

“Yes, Xiaonuan needs to eat lots of veggies to grow tall~”

“Eat veggies, grow tall…”

She didn’t know how long these happy, warm days would last. Suddenly, she felt so sorry for Xiaonuan. At least she had known a happy childhood herself.

But her daughter? So young, and already going through something like this…

Would this even end eventually? Who knew…

That afternoon, her parents trained their physical fitness. Though older, they had to keep moving — having strength meant everything.

Jiang Yuan didn’t have any grand wishes anymore. She just hoped that everyone she cared about could at least protect themselves in this post-apocalyptic world.

She kept scrolling through videos, knowing full well that the internet would soon be gone.

Lately, the signal had been unstable, though repair efforts were still underway in fits and starts.

She focused on a popular apocalypse-thread that had exploded in popularity — now with over 500,000 comments. That’s saying something.

Tons of copycat posts had sprung up too, creating widespread online panic.

But the thread she was really watching was a different one — someone had said they didn’t throw out their trash, and suddenly got swarmed by green flies. Buzzing everywhere, it was disgusting.

These flies were also noticeably larger. No one knew if they could bite yet.

The comments went wild — others brought up sightings of the long-legged mosquitoes.

Where there’s one, there’s always more. Someone even said they got bitten and had to be taken to the hospital.

Jiang Yuan tapped into that user’s profile — it was private, so she couldn’t dig deeper.

But searching around, she did find several more lesser-known posts.

They all mentioned green flies, long-legged mosquitoes, and the now infamous blistering skin disease.

Great, now there were three plagues to worry about.

She disinfected the entire house again, top to bottom, then suited up — long sleeves, pants, mask, and hat — before heading out.

She didn’t skip the stairwell either. One careless moment, and the bugs could fly inside.

Sure enough, mosquito traces were already visible. Jiang Yuan didn’t take any chances. She sprayed insecticide like it was free, and when one dropped, she stomped on it twice — hard.

Only when she heard laughter did she look up:

“Song Yi, what are you doing?”

“Oh, nothing — just came out to toss some trash.”

He seemed a bit awkward, probably because she’d caught him. Her own trash had disappeared from the hallway. Don’t tell me…

“Our trash too?”

“Just did it on the way. No need to thank me. You helped disinfect, after all.”

Pfft. Who’s thanking him? She was just wondering how he could be outside in this heat — didn’t he care about getting scorched?

“There’ve been more mosquitoes and green flies lately. They seem dangerous. Be careful going out. We also need to disinfect our stairwell daily.”

“Got it…”

Jiang Yuan thought for a moment, then offered another helpful suggestion:

“Also, if you can, give your dog a bath.”

“Okay…”

Was that all he ever said — “okay”? Still, better than saying nothing.

“I think I saw a funeral van in the complex today,” Song Yi said suddenly.

His voice was surprisingly calm — almost soothing in this suffocating heat.

“Really? I didn’t notice.”

Was this guy starved for conversation? We’re not that close. Who wants small talk?

“Too many people are getting sick. The hospitals can’t keep up. Quite a few people died just waiting. You guys be careful too.”

Damn. That’s… ominous.

“You too.”

After all, if he collapsed, no one would even call for help — unless his dog got smart enough to do it.

Jiang Yuan didn’t want to keep chatting. Once she finished spraying, she quickly went back inside.

By nightfall, the temperature had dropped to about 40°C. She and her dad geared up, brought a bucket of water, and headed out.

They hadn’t used her beloved car in a few days. If it broke down in the heat, they’d be screwed. Better to have water — just in case.

They headed to the nearest open supermarket — and were shocked by the scene at the entrance.

Two rows of armed soldiers stood guard at the doors — guns and all.

No clue if the weapons were real, but they sure looked serious. Just like a cop movie.

Only 50 people were allowed in at a time. They only accepted cash. If you didn’t have any, there was a nearby station to exchange it — but with a strict cap of 200 RMB per person.

No one complained about the limit. Everything inside was emergency supplies, and everyone could only buy 200 yuan’s worth anyway.

Honestly? Sounded… kind of reasonable.

They’d arrived early and had cash, so they were the third group to enter.

There was no time limit once inside — in this heat, no one wanted to linger outside anyway. Plus, with all the flies and mosquitoes, who wanted to risk getting that horrible blister disease?

But damn — a 5kg bag of rice now cost 200 yuan. Clearly priced just right for the limit.

Jiang Yuan didn’t touch it. Instead, she picked out some canned dace with black beans and some dried noodles.

Dad got two heads of cabbage and ten eggs.

Tsk tsk. These prices… unbelievable.