Chapter 23 p1
Feng Yexing coughed lightly, holding back a laugh as she chimed in, “Mm, that makes sense. Thanks, sis.” She directly took out two small bread rolls from her bag and handed them over. Considering the tense relationships between people nowadays, she politely placed the items on a table three meters away. “Here are two packs of small bread rolls. We haven’t found many supplies yet, and we don’t know when we’ll be able to go out, so we have to save some to avoid starving. This is just a small token of our appreciation.”
After speaking, she nudged Yan Cheng.
Yan Cheng understood and also took out a pack of compressed biscuits from his bag and placed it there, saying concisely, “Thanks.”
Fang Lan: …
The remaining four people looked awkward for a moment, but their minds were strong. Fang Lan’s heart ached, but she still braced herself and put down a biscuit. The other three men followed suit.
Only then did she say, “This biscuit is delicious, but your self-heating pot is still more fragrant. May I ask where you got this self-heating pot?”
Ji Yang: “I brought it with me.”
Fang Lan’s smile became even more enthusiastic. “Hey, ever since this heavy snow and extreme cold arrived, I haven’t touched a self-heating pot either. We can be considered to have a fateful encounter, hiding in the same place. I wanted to ask if you have any more self-heating pots? Can I trade for a box?”
The middle-aged man beside her immediately added, “That’s right, little girl. You look so young, it’s not easy for you to be alone. Why don’t you join our team? We’ll trade the self-heating pot with you, we won’t cheat you.”
Feng Yexing and Yan Cheng frowned. They felt that something was not right with these words, but they didn’t say anything immediately.
The other two men, on the other hand, were staring straight at the person and the dog, secretly swallowing their saliva. The person is eating with such relish, and that dog looks very delicious too…
Xixi sensed their gazes and bared its teeth unhappily, revealing a hint of ferocity.
It scared the two of them, and their hearts trembled.
Ji Yang said directly, “No need. I like to be alone. If you want to trade for a self-heating pot, you can. What will you trade with?”
Fang Lan was just about to be disappointed when she heard the latter part and was overjoyed again. “What do you want?”
Ji Yang tilted her head and smiled. “I want a lot of things. Supplies, didn’t you just say you didn’t have any? How come you have them now?”
“We haven’t found any yet, but after this freezing rain, we will definitely find some,” a flash of embarrassment crossed Fang Lan’s face, but the next second, she was exceptionally confident.
Ji Yang couldn’t help but laugh. “So you’re planning on getting something for nothing?”
“How can you be like this!” Fang Lan said, ashamed and angry. “If you don’t want to trade, then don’t. Do you have to say it like that?! We were even kind enough to see that you were alone and wanted to take you with us, afraid that you would freeze to death.”
Ji Yang: “Don’t. I’m afraid if I really team up with you, I’ll lose all my stock.”
Fang Lan’s eyes widened, as if she couldn’t believe she was speaking so harshly. Tears immediately fell, and she looked pitifully at the few men beside her.
Yan Cheng quickly averted his gaze.
The middle-aged man had been acting as Fang Lan’s protector all along. Seeing this, he immediately put on a fierce expression and was about to step forward. “How can a little girl like you speak so unpleasantly? Today, I must teach you a lesson on behalf of your—”
“Brother Liu!” Feng Yexing was startled, quickly went over to pull him, and shouted, “She can be considered to have saved you. Is this how you repay her?”
The man called Brother Liu was stunned, then his face turned red. He pointed at Fang Lan, wanting to stand up for her, but he was also a little afraid of Feng Yexing’s accusation and wanted to explain, “She said it like that. We just wanted to trade for a self-heating pot…”
Feng Yexing laughed in anger. “If she doesn’t want to trade, then she doesn’t. Are you going to force her? All of you, get out! Don’t disturb her. Aren’t you cold? Go and start a fire!”
At this, the few of them came to their senses.
They were already almost frozen stiff by the freezing rain. If it weren’t for the sake of food, they wouldn’t have wasted their time here. In the end, they didn’t get to eat anything and even gave away some supplies. Their faces turned green. Under the pressure of Feng Yexing and Yan Cheng, they still obediently left.
Before leaving, Fang Lan glanced at Ji Yang, a hint of unwillingness in her eyes.
Raising such a fat dog and having such a large hiking backpack, she must have a lot of good things!
Unfortunately, Feng Yexing is too old-fashioned. She only allows others to rob them, not them to rob others, missing out on a lot of good things.
If it weren’t for the fact that the only nail gun was in their hands, which could guarantee their safety, she wouldn’t have wanted to listen to them.
—
Ji Yang put down the crossbow she had already touched and continued to eat.
Fang Lan’s gaze was so obvious that she naturally felt it. If they had taken a few more steps forward, her crossbow bolt would have already been shot. Unfortunately, they were stopped.
Since that was the case, it could be considered letting them live.
Ji Yang quickly finished eating and also let Xixi quickly finish its dog food.
Occasionally eating some dog food, Xixi adapted well and didn’t complain, eating every last bit. She then gave the dog some warm water, which had been boiled and stored in her space. The environment here was too cold. If she took out cold water, it would freeze in a short while. Warm water could still last for a few minutes.
Seeing Xixi drinking water, Ji Yang herself drank some brown sugar ginger tea. Feeling her body warm up, she finally had the mood to check the situation outside.
At this sight, her breath hitched.
In her previous life, when she had encountered the freezing rain, she had no mood to think so much, nor did she have the equipment to observe the surrounding situation. Now, it was different. She had her space. She could take out her binoculars and see… as far as the eye could see, dozens of human-shaped ice sculptures, either running, falling to the ground, or hugging their companions, supporting each other, were so unexpectedly frozen in place by the ice rain.
The expressions on their faces all retained the terror and panic of their last moments.
The freezing rain was still falling, bit by bit, on the ground, on the ice sculptures, and on various buildings, forming a terrible weight. The snow layer collapsed, and some old buildings were also directly crushed, burying the survivors inside.
A slight “thump” sound was heard.
A frozen survivor very close to the building had borne too much weight and was finally crushed.
But it wasn’t that she had fallen as she had thought.
It was that she had directly shattered.
All the water in the human body had long since been frozen into ice at this temperature. At this moment, when it shattered, it was just like a shattered ice block. Not a single trace of blood could be seen. Only a little bit of blood foam could be seen scattered on the ground like crushed ice, and then it merged with the entire ice layer again.
With such a heavy rain, she didn’t know when it would stop.
Ji Yang put down her binoculars, went to the fire, and took out a silk duvet from her backpack to cover herself. Xixi probably couldn’t adapt to staying in a temperature of minus twenty or thirty degrees for a long time and ran to her side.
She simply held Xixi in her arms. The human and the dog were covered with a blanket together, and she took out two heated hand warmers.
In the afternoon, the sound of the rain finally stopped.
Ji Yang had originally wanted to take advantage of the break in the freezing rain to quickly run away on her snowmobile, but she found that the actual weight of the snowmobile… was a bit heavy. Anyway, it was a weight she couldn’t carry.
If she relied on Xixi, she was a little worried about accidents. She had run into Feng Yexing’s group, and there should be other survivors around. The place she had found was a bit remote, but the city center might have been completely searched, so many people had come to the farther places to try their luck. She didn’t want to expose her space.
In the end, she still gave up.
Sure enough, this break was short. About twenty minutes later, the heavy rain fell again, dashing the hopes of many people, and they were all in a state of panic and could not be at ease.
Ji Yang sighed and continued to sleep.
When she woke up, she took her dog and found an office. She quickly took out a cat litter box, and the human and the dog solved their physiological needs. It was time to eat again. This time, Ji Yang still chose a self-heating pot, a stir-fried pork one!
However, she had replaced the rice and stir-fried pork in the self-heating pot with her own packed ones.
Fragrant and hot.
But perhaps that group of people had been held back by Feng Yexing, and no one had come up to disturb her.
Although they had searched this building up and down twice, from their conversation, Ji Yang could roughly guess that they had still found a lot of stock, and their voices were filled with joy.
For the next two days, the rain was still intermittent, but on the second afternoon, it became much lighter. Although it still froze on the ground, its lethality was far from as strong as at the beginning.
If you gritted your teeth, you could still rush out.
But at this time, the ground had already become an ice surface, which was even more difficult to walk on. Therefore, no one dared to rush out, and Ji Yang was no exception. She cherished her life and was unwilling to take risks.
It wasn’t until noon on the third day, when Ji Yang was about to eat lunch, that a burst of exclamation suddenly came from downstairs, “The rain has stopped!!!”
—
“The rain has finally stopped! It scared me to death. I thought I was going to starve to death here!”
“The sky has actually cleared up! Holy crap, I see the sun!”
“Look over there, is that a rainbow?”
“Oh my god, it’s so beautiful…”
It was really beautiful. A strange freezing rain had directly turned the entire world into an ice and snow world. Under the crystal-clear ice layer was white snow. The sun shone down through the clouds, revealing colorful light.
Without looking at the terrible consequences of this disaster, just this scene alone was intoxicating.
“This makes me think the disaster is about to pass,” someone said with hope.
Someone else shouted at the top of their lungs, “God, are you going to let us go?!”
“Yes! It must be!”
A firm response came from the opposite side.
The person who had asked grinned brightly.
The person who had heard it was also very happy.
Everyone was filled with hope. Of course, when they came to their senses, they still had to face reality. They had been trapped for three days, and their food reserves were exhausted. They had to go out. They had to go out and look for supplies.
However, this did not include Feng Yexing’s team.
They had indeed found a lot of things in this building.
Many people had come to loot this place before, but they had been trapped here for three days. They couldn’t really just eat and sleep and waste their time, right? So, Feng Yexing and Yan Cheng took the lead, searching layer by layer in detail.
When they encountered a cabinet that had not been opened, they tried every means to open it without fear of wasting time.
Just by knocking and hitting, they had found dozens of packs of instant noodles, even two boxes of self-heating pots, a pile of various small snacks, drinks, instant coffee, and so on. Everyone’s bag was filled to the brim.
In addition to these survival supplies, they had also found some things that could be taken to the exchange point to exchange for points.
Unlike Ji Yang, even though they had encountered the freezing rain and hadn’t gone back for three days, they still planned to go to the exchange point to exchange for points before going back. But before they set off, Feng Yexing had still said that they would go their separate ways.
She couldn’t avenge Xiao Ya and Uncle Zhang. It was her weakness, but she couldn’t travel with these few people anymore.
She even suspected that the few people who had been at odds with Fang Lan before had died accidentally, and she might have had a hand in it. Although she couldn’t figure out Fang Lan’s motive for doing so, the fewer people there were, the more disadvantageous it was for their safety.
It was just that some people’s way of thinking was something Feng Yexing would never understand, so she chose to stay away.
As soon as the words of going their separate ways were spoken, Fang Lan and the other three were all stunned. “Separate? Why?”
The man called Brother Liu’s eyes flickered. “Are you unhappy because of what happened to Uncle Zhang and the others?”
Fang Lan’s eyes were even redder, and she looked at Yan Cheng. “Brother Yan, are you really going to separate from us? We got along so well before.”
Yan Cheng pursed his lips. “Sorry.”