Many small shops and supermarkets have closed down and stopped operating. Only a few large supermarkets have been supported by the government or requisitioned to continue selling goods. Prices are rising steadily and are out of control.
Furthermore, all residents must present their ID card or household registration booklet when purchasing goods at designated supermarkets, and register to purchase a fixed quantity. It is not permissible to engage in large-scale hoarding in government-designated supermarkets.
There is a severe shortage of staff in the city, and recruitment information is being broadcast repeatedly. All jobs are on a four-hour shift system, with each person only needing to work four hours a day, and no one is allowed to work while injured or sick.
You can get five kilograms of rice or flour in four hours, and the staff can also ask to exchange it for other equivalent items.
The temperature did not drop at all. Whether it is a human corpse or an animal corpse, it must be cleaned up in time. Otherwise, these corpses will decompose very quickly within a day or two, and the gas produced will only make the environment worse.
The damage to the city's power grid is becoming increasingly severe. Although the staff has made some maintenance efforts, it is no longer enough to support the city's continuous power supply day and night.
The government has implemented phased power supply measures, stopped supplying gas through natural gas pipelines, and broadcasted messages advising residents to purchase wood-burning stoves or liquefied petroleum gas stoves to cope with the power outages.
This warning had actually been broadcast long ago, and many families prepared in advance knowing that a power outage would occur. However, some people were not so thoughtful or thought they could get through it and were not well prepared.
The number of staff is still decreasing rapidly, and even with further reductions in working hours and increases in pay, very few people are signing up.
Most of those who survived this disaster suffered some degree of physical injury. Many workers wearing heavy protective suits were cut or bruised while carrying out cleanup work, and some even lost their lives due to failed treatment.
Furthermore, people have heard that some mutated fish that have survived and can attack humans have appeared in the river. If bitten by these fish, the wound will become infected faster, which is basically a death sentence.
Unless they are at their wits' end, many people would rather continue to live a life of hardship than go out and face these high-risk jobs.
Li Ke's body adapted quickly; she only felt uncomfortable for a few days before her throat returned to normal. She continued to take great care of herself by drinking some herbal soups to quench her thirst and maintain her health, and she even distributed the herbal soups in the community.
In order not to stand out from others, I also took a period of sick leave.
Recently, many new people have moved into her building. What impressed her most was that a group of college students, three men and five women, moved into the seventeenth floor and shared the largest three-bedroom, two-living-room apartment.
Among this group of college students were two girls and one boy. They had a positive attitude towards life. These three were in better physical condition. Although they coughed constantly every day, they still applied to be community volunteers.
Li Ke had bumped into them a few times when going downstairs or at work, and they were just nodding acquaintances.
A large family moved into a small two-bedroom apartment on the fifteenth floor. The elderly, children, and grandchildren—nearly twenty people from three families—were crammed into the tiny two-bedroom apartment. Every day, they would run to the property management office to ask if there were any vacant rooms available or if anyone could switch rooms with them.
Recently, two more family members died in that household, an old man and a child. They were grieving for a day or two, and then went to the property management office to inquire about the house.
This family wanted to live in a more spacious place, but also wanted to stay together so they wouldn't be bullied, so they only wanted to find a place to live in this building.
The property management staff has changed twice, and even the property manager is only present once or twice a week due to illness.
During this period, Li Ke contacted the manager and, for safety reasons, secretly cancelled her resident information. Apart from the property manager, no one knew that only Li Ke lived in the three large apartments on the roof.
Furthermore, since the disaster began, Li Ke is the only property management staff member who has persisted until now. She is down-to-earth and always does her job very well. Moreover, now that the situation is bad, Li Ke has stopped asking for her salary. The property manager thinks she is upright and kind-hearted, so he values Li Ke even more.
In addition, the manager was sick and unable to handle the work, so Li Ke took charge of many of the subsequent recruitment and assignment tasks. In order to retain Li Ke, this selfless talent, the property manager even gave her the title of deputy manager.
Therefore, the staff who came in later in the property management all regarded Li Ke as the second-in-command. Whenever there were any new messages or instructions in the work group, Li Ke was always the first to know.
Li Ke can see any complaints or conflicts that arise in the owners' group chat.
As long as these matters do not affect her interests or the operation of the property management, Li Ke never interferes with them.
With power outages and network signals also cut off, information flow now relies mainly on broadcasts and gradual notifications from property management.
The property management office does have a generator, but it's not enough to power the entire building; it can only power the elevators for a short time.
However, fuel is limited, so the elevator is only used when transporting patients and corpses; otherwise, everyone uses the emergency staircase.
Even though daily life had become very isolated, news of the riots in the outside world still slowly spread among the people.
Earthquakes and tsunamis of all sizes continue to ravage parts of the world. Coupled with air pollution and acid rain corrosion, the world is severely affected, and riots are rampant in many places.
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