Soon, property managent posted an official notice in the group chat.
Starlight Towers had its own independent water supply system. Because the explosion had happened so suddenly, they had not been able to adjust in ti.
At present, staff had been dispatched to activate the backup system. It was estimated that the complex would have water again within half an hour.
When Brian Dahn saw the notice, he imdiately felt vindicated. He forwarded the ssage straight to Pala.
"See that? I told you the property managent would restore the water soon! You just refused to believe . You had to make such a scene over a little bit of water—aren’t you embarrassed?"
Pala had locked the bedroom door from the inside, so Brian shouted through the door.
In his mind, Pala was being completely unreasonable.
It was just water. Was there really any need to panic like that? Look—hadn’t the water supply already been restored after such a short ti?
When Pala saw the ssage, she let out a cold laugh.
She was sitting on the edge of the bed with her luggage already packed, waiting for her brother to arrive.
Their daughter, Annie, sat quietly beside her without saying a word.
Her phone rang.
It was her brother.
"Pala, co down. The car’s waiting at the gate."
She hung up, took Annie’s hand, and opened the bedroom door.
Brian was still standing outside. When he saw the door open, he was about to say sothing—but then his eyes fell on the luggage in Pala’s hand.
His expression changed instantly.
"Pala! What do you think you’re doing?!"
Pala gave him a calm glance and walked past him without another word.
Watching the backs of the mother and daughter disappear down the hallway, Brian cursed loudly.
"Damn it! I’ve been too nice to you! If you walk out that door, don’t even think about coming back!"
He truly couldn’t understand her reaction.
It was just a brief water outage. Did she really need to make such a fuss?
Sooner or later, the supply would be restored anyway. When that happened, they could simply fill the bathtub again.
Going back to her parents’ house—what unnecessary drama.
After Pala left, Brian lit a cigarette and pulled out his phone.
When he saw the constant stream of gratitude pouring in from neighbors in the group chat, the little annoyance he had felt earlier vanished completely. In his mind, Pala had simply been overreacting.
Half an hour later, water service was restored to Starlight Towers.
The group chat imdiately beca lively again.
This ti, everyone had learned their lesson. Households began dragging out every container they could find to store water.
Suzy had already warned Thomas in advance, and Leonard even ran over to Thomas’s apartnt to help him fill containers.
Across the entire complex, everyone silently prepared to store water—yet oddly, not a single person ntioned it in the group chat.
Brian, seeing that the water was back, casually used the water in the bathtub to take a long shower.
After he finished, the water Pala had stored was almost completely gone.
Seeing the group chat had grown quiet again, Brian wandered off to his room to play gas, making no effort to store any water.
The next morning.
Brian woke up, turned on the faucet to wash up... But there was nothing.
"Damn it! What the hell is this?!"
He had already lost more than ten gas the night before and was in a terrible mood. Now, waking up to another water outage pushed him over the edge.
He called property managent and imdiately began yelling.
Unfortunately, there was nothing they could do.
They hadn’t expected the complex’s water usage to spike so dramatically overnight.
The residential compound had a reservoir ant only for ergencies—it wasn’t designed to provide long-term supply.
Originally, the property office had assud the stored water would last about a week, and by then the damaged treatnt plant would likely be repaired.
But because residents had frantically hoarded water, the entire complex’s water consumption had surged to five tis the usual level, draining the reservoir completely.
Now the supply was gone.
All they could do was wait for instructions from the governnt.
Brian hung up the phone after a long string of curses.
He searched the apartnt from top to bottom but couldn’t find a single drop of water.
After hesitating for a mont, he picked up his phone and contacted the neighbors who had co to collect water the day before.
After all, he had generously shared his water with them yesterday. Now that his own household had run out, asking for a little in return seed perfectly reasonable.
But after sending the ssages, there was no response.
Half an hour passed.
Still nothing.
Brian’s expression slowly darkened.
He assud the recipients might be busy—or asleep—and hadn’t seen the ssages yet. Clinging to a last shred of hope, he waited another hour.
An hour passed.
Still complete silence.
Unable to hold back any longer, Brian made a voice call.
This ti, he called a young man who had only recently graduated and had chatted with him for quite a while the day before.
That young man had been especially good with words, flattering Brian endlessly while collecting water.
Even afterward, they had stayed in touch. The young man had kept praising him and had even promised that if Brian ever needed help, he could call anyti.
And now?
Brian had run into a small problem—his house had run out of water—and yet his ssages had disappeared into the void.
Unwilling to accept it, he called several more numbers—every household that had taken water from him the day before.
None of them answered.
"Damn it!" Brian cursed.
What were these people doing? Had none of them seen his ssages? Or were they ignoring him on purpose?
He sent another round of ssages.
This ti, soone finally replied.
It was a woman.
She said their household didn’t have much water left either. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to help.
Before the water supply was cut, they had also forgotten to store any. Now they were worried and hoping that Brian might help them out.
Reading the ssage, Brian’s face turned green.
He imdiately pretended to go silent and didn’t ntion borrowing water again.
After all, he was the one desperate for water now. How could he possibly give any away?
At last, Brian was forced to face reality.
He searched the apartnt again but still found nothing.
First ca the irritation of being unable to wash up. Then ca the thirst.
He paced restlessly around the apartnt, his throat dry and scratchy.
Suddenly, he rushed to the refrigerator.
Empty.
"Pala really doesn’t know how to run a household," Brian grumbled. "She couldn’t even bother keeping so bottled water in the house."
Thinking about how Pala had taken Annie back to her parents’ ho only made him more irritated.
What he didn’t realize was that water had beco one of the most precious commodities recently.
The water he usually drank at ho had all been boiled from the tap, not bottled mineral water.
Unable to quench his thirst, Brian grew increasingly restless.
After so thought, he decided to head to a nearby supermarket and buy so drinks.
Soft drinks would quench his thirst too, right?
By now, the sun had just set.
The streets were empty.
Brian hurried along as fast as he could, practically wishing he could fly. He was unbearably thirsty, and the lingering heat made sweat pour from his body.
Finally, he reached the supermarket near the complex.
Then his vision darkened.
The store... was closed.
Brian nearly lost his mind.
He wandered around the entrance for a long ti but still didn’t see any employees arrive to open the shop.
In frustration, he called the store’s contact number.
A sleepy clerk answered, and Brian imdiately launched into a furious tirade.
The call was hung up on him mid-rant.
"Damn it!"
Realizing the clerk had hung up, Brian exploded with curses.
Just a store clerk—and he dared to treat custors like that?
He dialed again.
Only to discover he had already been blocked.
Brian clenched his teeth in fury. He almost smashed his phone, but in the end, he only continued swearing under his breath.
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