The thermometer’s left side showed a minimum of -30 degrees.
People tried taking the thermometer outside. The needle drooped limply in the blank area below -30, and then the thermometer itself cracked from the cold.
So no one actually knew how cold it was outside.
To use Sister Pan’s words: even the shit couldn’t be transported.
In the end, with the help of fire-type superpower users baking the ground, they still managed to transport it.
If they didn’t transport it at regular intervals, within just a few hours, everyone would face the gruesome scene of a mountain of shit stabbing their chrysanthemums.
The sheep and chickens had fortunately been moved from the sheep pen into the building ahead of time. Though it stank,
the sheep had their own fur, and the chickens burrowed under the sheep’s bellies.
With the stoves as well, they all survived.
There was still meat, still eggs, still sheep’s milk.
The frozen dead weren’t wasted either.
Because cultivation rooms had been built in the buildings ahead of time, with soil and crops moved in early.
The dead were buried directly into the soil, making their contribution to everyone.
The Tech District began massive infrastructure construction.
In just a few days, many “aerial corridors” appeared crisscrossing between buildings.
Mainly because people couldn’t stay cooped up indoors all day. But when everyone came out to move around, they all took the ground-floor warm corridors through the courtyard, public latrines, warming houses, and cafeteria—traffic was too crowded.
So they built several aerial corridors.
They even built one connecting to Jixiang Jiayuan.
Because the two communities were neighbors, and the Jixiang West Street between them wasn’t actually that wide.
They built an aerial corridor between the two closest buildings of the two communities. The two buildings each connected to the various buildings of their own communities.
Yujing Xiangyuan did the same, connecting to Jixiang Jiayuan.
The three neighboring communities now looked very cyber-futuristic.
Because they couldn’t go out, more people scrambled for power-generation positions.
No longer to earn performance points—purely to find something to do.
Many people couldn’t sleep, their days and nights reversed, so there were people generating power day and night. Electricity actually became more abundant than before.
Besides Gao Yuxuan’s gaming room being popular, there were also many private theaters of various sizes, with plenty of pirated discs.
Electric-type and fire-type superpower users were busy day and night.
There were also some men who mysteriously opened membership-based small theaters, only admitting male guests, contributing their personal collections from their computers.
Besides power-generation positions, there was another position that needed especially many hands—harvesting and reaping.
Mainly wheat and peanuts.
When they’d seriously treated the mysterious man’s words as a prophecy and made contingency plans, the provisional government had decided at the meeting to provide higher-calorie food under extreme conditions.
Compared to potatoes, steamed buns were higher-calorie food.
Giving everyone only potatoes wouldn’t work—the body’s energy needs couldn’t keep up.
Fortunately, the youth apartments had many empty units. They’d cleared out many floors specifically for cultivation.
The provisional government gave up using potatoes to create price tiers.
That was a peacetime approach. When the temperature dropped below what a thermometer could measure, prices no longer mattered. Keeping as many people alive as possible was the goal.
Steamed buns were unlimited, but waste was absolutely not allowed. Once discovered, flogging was carried out immediately.
Peanuts were open for eating.
Under the current conditions, the provisional government chose peanuts to save lives. In the cafeteria, in the dormitories, in the aerial corridors—everywhere there were baskets of roasted peanuts, baked peanuts, free for the taking.
Not for craving, but to continuously supply the body with high sugar, high oil, high fat, so the body itself could generate enough heat to resist the cold.
Among limited choices, peanuts were the best life-saving, life-preserving thing.
The snow was taller than people.
Getting water on the spot became the easiest thing—they didn’t even need Li Jiangbing’s water-type superpower.
They could directly take snow and boil it for water.
But every ten days, they needed to transport food to the more distant communities.
The quantity was considerable.
And vehicles were very hard to start. Even if they started, a fire-type had to accompany the vehicle.
Facing these difficulties, the best transport method was Moli and Jiang Cheng.
Jiang Cheng stored the food that needed to be transported into her spatial storage, and bundled up every part of her body for warmth.
The fire-types specially made carbon.
The metal-types made heating stoves.
They couldn’t use hot water—the heat from hot water couldn’t withstand the cold at all. It had to be carbon that could burn and generate heat on its own.
Stuffed into clothing.
Moli grew giant, crouching on the ground. Jiang Cheng climbed up.
Several people climbed onto Moli’s back together, tying knots in his long fur to secure Jiang Cheng.
Jiang Cheng lay on top, settled and secured. Everyone busily smoothed the fur back into place, burying Jiang Cheng in the long hair.
Then the earth-types quickly opened a wall to let the giant Moli out.
After Moli and Jiang Cheng disappeared into the wind and snow, they quickly restored the wall to block the cold.
The giant Moli walking through the snow could reveal half his body.
The accumulated snow, because of his running, turned into flying snow mist. Looking down from tall buildings, it was like a long snow dragon transforming across the earth.
That long fur was truly a cold-resisting divine artifact. Jiang Cheng, hidden within it, didn’t feel cold at all.
Following the designed optimal route, they delivered food to every community.
Each community had undergone massive infrastructure construction, with various aerial corridors spanning across, looking especially magical in the vast white snow.
In some windows, firelight could be seen—letting you know there were fire-type superpower users inside.
You could imagine the scene of many people gathered around fireballs for warmth.
Humans had to huddle together to struggle to survive.
Contacting the other districts—everyone’s situations weren’t great.
From time to time, people froze to death.
Because of the snow, there was no shortage of water.
They’d all taken the Tech District’s advice and planted large amounts of wheat and peanuts.
Peanuts saved lives.
But hardship wore away people’s will.
From November to March, the settlements had gritted their teeth and held on for over four months, and the extreme cold still hadn’t passed.
In between, everyone experienced blizzards, freezing rain, and hail.
Each time, the mysterious man would predict it in advance on the radio.
Each time, his predictions came true.
Gradually, people no longer dared call him a charlatan.
Many people began to worship him superstitiously.
Instead, many of the charlatans who’d been babbling on the radio had gone silent.
Since the extreme cold arrived, the chaotic world of shortwave radio seemed to have been suddenly cleaned up—the world suddenly seemed quiet.
People didn’t want to think too deeply about it—it made their chests feel heavy.
Uncle Jiang and Sister Mao were both still alive and well.
The two of them were very tight-lipped. You couldn’t tell from their chats and debates what their living environment was like.
Whether they lived alone or in some settlement.
But you could tell they were definitely in a safe environment.
But safety didn’t mean people weren’t crazy.
Sometimes Sister Mao spoke like she was sleep-talking.
Uncle Jiang was more like a charlatan than the mysterious man.
But what made the two of them engaging was that amid piles of arguments, debates, and nonsense, there were often very correct viewpoints—even some information ordinary people couldn’t access.
For example, the massive zombie outbreak in T City.
This news was confirmed by the radio expert from Changxing District from radio information out of M City.
Because T City’s zombies had completely spiraled out of control, and large numbers of mutant zombies had been born with super-strong combat power. The survivors had been utterly routed and fled, many escaping to M City.
Several radio stations in M City confirmed this.
Thus confirming that Uncle Jiang and Sister Mao really did have some information channels that others couldn’t access.
All of this was before the extreme cold arrived.
At the time, everyone had many guesses: “Is it satellite surveillance?”
“Maybe he has some high-ranking cadre background. There has to be someone at the top who survived—they can’t all be dead. And where did the military go?”
“There must be some remnant forces. Sister Mao also sounds like she has some special channel.”
But Uncle Jiang and Sister Mao never responded to any of it. No one knew the answer.
They only knew that these two occasionally released some information.
Plus a mysterious man who made prophecies.
After the extreme cold, many people believed in them. There was a faint trend of it developing into a religion.
You had to know—religion, especially religion born in such harsh environments, was never a good thing.
Basically all cults. And cults did sinister things.
So it had been since ancient times.
But Jiang Cheng was extremely iron-fisted.
She took down two cult nests in succession.
In front of all the residents, she exiled the cult leaders and believers—into the courtyard.
Every floor’s windows were filled with people.
Everyone watched with their own eyes as those people were swept out of the building by Moli’s tail, falling into the snow.
They struggled to rise. In just a few minutes, they froze to death.
Among them were minors.
Middle school students.
Many people couldn’t bear it and pleaded, hoping Jiang Cheng could leave that child a way to live.
But that boy had been deeply brainwashed, shouting loudly: “This is divine punishment—divine punishment! Our human sins are too deep, so heaven wants to cleanse the earth and restore purity to the human world! We must confess! Why won’t you confess! You—”
Beyond saving.
Jiang Cheng was utterly unmoved: “Moli.”
The black panther shot out, bit the child, and threw him out.
When his body crashed through the heavy cotton curtain, the freezing air rushed in, stinging everyone’s faces.
Floor after floor of people watched helplessly as the child died too.
Everyone had always known Jiang Cheng was hard-hearted.
And Jiang Cheng had proven to everyone again and again just how hard her heart could be, how ruthless her hand could be.
Some people hid in the crowd, cowering in fear.
The two Jiang Cheng took down were the most extreme cults.
Of course she knew there were still various sects of all sizes hiding in the residential areas.
She turned to face the people in the cafeteria who had watched the execution: “Everyone, spread my words.”
Her gaze crushed over everyone: “I will do my utmost to keep as many people alive as possible.”
“Believe whatever you want.”
“But don’t cause trouble for me.”
—
Su Yu returned to the dormitory from the cafeteria and told Zhang Lesi everything she’d seen.
Zhang Lesi hadn’t gone downstairs, but she’d actually known the general situation in sync. The girls in the dormitory had all been lying at the window glass watching earlier.
When those people froze stiff, they’d all gasped.
Many said: “They deserved it!”
Those people believed in divine punishment and wanted to secretly kill virgins as sacrifices to heaven.
They’d set their sights on the middle school students, even the little kids.
That boy had almost tricked his own female classmate into going to her death.
He’d also planned to sacrifice himself.
Feeling he was infinitely compassionate and very great.
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