Chapter 88

Chapter 88

From afar, Ice and Snow City looked like a colossal castle, but upon entering, one would find it otherwise. Black stone pathways spiraled upwards, with houses closely packed on both sides. The terrain rose towards the center, where towering buildings, majestic and seamlessly integrated with the surrounding architecture, stood, said to be the residences of past city lords.

As Lin An and the others walked through, they were met with curious stares, with Lin An sticking close behind Shen Xiuzhe, wishing he could merge into his shadow.

"The locals were dressed in thick clothing, not as exaggerated as Xu Fang, but still fully equipped."

Ouyang Dong noticed that the residents of the Ice and Snow City had paler skin tones, or rather, their hair and eye colors were lighter, making them stand out distinctly when standing together.

There was no malice in the eyes of these people, perhaps just curiosity. Though they looked lean, they seemed to be in good spirits.

Shen Xiuzhe led the group to a two-story loft that appeared long uninhabited, with thick ice layers on the windows and walls, and the door sealed by ice.

Ouyang Dong: "What is this place?"

"A house I bought before the apocalypse." There were no signs of others having used the house. Shen Xiuzhe broke the ice on the door and then pulled out a key from his backpack.

"Boss, you still have the key?" Xu Fang was surprised, expecting Shen Xiuzhe to kick the door open. After the apocalypse, many simply broke into unoccupied houses to live; keys were of little use, so who would have thought his boss still carried one?

Shen Xiuzhe ignored the man's rambling, as the key was useless with the lock filled with ice.

Lin An sneakily peeked out, and the ice in the lock instantly melted into water.

"Thanks," Shen Xiuzhe said. He could have used his fire ability to melt the ice himself, but he didn't refuse Lin An's proactive help. In this unfamiliar place, keeping the anxious Lin An busy would ease his nerves.

They entered the house, finding the furniture covered in ice, making it resemble an ice cellar. Lin An immediately began using his abilities to clean up.

The others joined in the cleaning, placing Granny Wu on a freshly wiped chair. Her gaze swept around in confusion, as if wondering where she was.

Shen Xiuzhe went to the corner of the room to turn on the heating system. After a long wait with no response, he wasn't sure if it was due to the apocalypse disrupting the heating supply or a pipe issue. Without heating, the house was practically an ice cellar, uninhabitable.

While they were cleaning, someone suddenly knocked on the door.

Shen Xiuzhe opened the door to find a woman in her thirties, wearing a patched cotton coat, her face red from the cold, and her light golden hair tousled by the wind. She smiled shyly at Shen Xiuzhe's expressionless face: "Hello, remember me? I'm your neighbor, Jenny. We met a couple of years ago."

Shen Xiuzhe had no recollection of her: "What do you need?"

Jenny rubbed her reddened nose: "You just got back and probably don't know the current rules in the city. As neighbors, we should help each other. I can tell you all about it, so you don't have to go asking around."

Shen Xiuzhe scrutinized her, his piercing phoenix eyes dark as ink, seemingly penetrating her thoughts. Jenny shifted uncomfortably under his gaze before he finally said, "Alright, speak here."

He had no intention of inviting her inside.

Jenny, seemingly unconcerned, eagerly shared the survival rules of Ice and Snow City in the post-apocalyptic world.

Regarding heating, the year-round supply had long been cut off. To warm up homes, one could trade supplies for the services of fire ability users who would heat the water in the pipes, but it would only last a day.

"Those without resources could go to the deputy lord's mansion in the city center. Since the deputy lord turned into a zombie and died, his residence was opened to the public. It offered constant heating, but access required sufficient work contribution, with time allowed inside based on workload and risk during the zombie onslaught."

Ability users, particularly fire and plant-based ones, were highly sought after in the city for jobs and were treated well. Other ability users also received decent treatment based on their offensive capabilities.

For food, ordinary people were provided two meals a day, but it was only dry bread, barely enough to fill one's stomach.

Zombie tides were unpredictable. Sometimes days passed peacefully, while other times there were multiple invasions a day. Ocean creatures of all sizes emerged from the sea, but thanks to the labyrinth outside Ice and Snow City, they could be held off for a while. The city developed a solution that, when poured on labyrinth paths, would corrode any fish zombies that touched it. Smaller fish disintegrated into blood upon contact, while larger ones would be half-dead by the time they reached the gates, making them easy kills for ability users.

The solution didn't corrode the ice and actually deepened the layer of ice once cooled. Thus, during the next fish zombie attack, their movement would slow upon contacting the ice formed from the solution.

To obtain supplies, most ordinary people chose to clean up zombie corpses and bloodstains from the ice after a zombie tide.

With the detailed information provided, Shen Xiuzhe, after listening to her finish, suddenly asked, "Do you know where we can buy a boat now?"

Jenny was taken aback: "A boat? Why buy a boat? The seas are dangerous now, all boats are destroyed by giant monsters in the ocean."

"Just tell me where I can find one, or who in the city can build one."

"I don't know about that," Jenny admitted. "Many experienced shipbuilders have turned into zombies, and the others have stopped building ships."

Shen Xiuzhe nodded, noticing Jenny's anxious stand, seemingly hesitant to leave.

"What do you want?" Shen Xiuzhe understood her intent, recalling her earlier mention of her struggles: her husband turned into a zombie and died, she was an ordinary person with a young child, unable to leave the child to clean up zombies outside the city, making their life difficult.

Jenny rubbed her hands, a nervous smile on her face: "Just some food would be great. My child and I haven't had a full meal in a long time."

Her request was reasonable. Shen Xiuzhe instructed Wuduo to bring some food. Xu Fang, though busy cleaning, had been eavesdropping closely. He quickly fetched a bag of food from inside.

Jenny looked at the full bag of food in surprise, not expecting so much, and thanked them repeatedly.

"No problem," Xu Fang said casually, waving his hand.

After Jenny left happily with the food, Shen Xiuzhe scoffed: "Very generous, giving away so much."

Xu Fang, a bit confused, sensed his leader wasn't pleased: "We have trucks full of food, and Dongzi generates so many vegetables and fruits every day, storing them in the space. Giving away a bag shouldn’t be an issue, right?"

"He found the information useful, and considering the other party's difficulties at home, with a child to support, he thought helping them a bit wouldn't be a problem."

Since it was already given, Shen Xiuzhe didn't say anything more.

With the heating valves closed, the ice in the pipes was melted and refilled with water, heated by Lin An or Shen Xiuzhe, raising the temperature in the house. Frost patterns slowly formed on the wiped windows.

As long as they were in the house, it would remain warm.

Later, Shen Xiuzhe and Ouyang Dong went out to look for a shipbuilder, leaving the others to care for Granny Wu.

The kitchen in the two-story house was well-equipped, with Wuduo and Xu Fang preparing dinner, while Lin An and Xiao Fu kept Granny Wu company.

The house was warm, and they had shed their heavy clothes. Granny Wu sat on the bed, tracing the patterns on the quilt, silent.

Xiao Fu lay on the floor, entertaining himself with a green ball held between his front paws.

Lin An was reading, his bookshelf from Chuxi City and all its books stored in Wuduo's space. Usually busy traveling, now they had a few days to stay while looking for a ship, so he took the opportunity to read.

The room was quiet and peaceful, and dinner was ready just as Shen Xiuzhe returned.

They had found a boat builder, who had a half-finished boat at his home; all they needed was to gather the remaining materials, which would take about a week to complete.

"The remaining materials were also found by Shen Xiuzhe and Ouyang Dong in the city market and had been delivered to the shipwright. Now, they just needed to wait another week before they could set sail."

"Did you not spend any money or resources?" Xu Fang came out holding a dish.

Ouyang Dong proudly replied, "We didn't need to use our space's resources. Those people only wanted food. I simply took out seeds and grew a bunch of vegetables and fruits right in front of them. They were stunned. Do you know what we traded for that boat at the boat builder's?"

Lin An was curious, "What?"

Ouyang Dong held up two fingers, "One kilogram of strawberries."

"A kilogram of strawberries for a boat?" Xu Fang hadn't expected it to be so easy.

Shen Xiuzhe took the rice out of the steamer, "Even before the apocalypse, few in Ice Snow City could enjoy strawberries. After all, this fruit doesn't store well and is mainly cultivated in abundance in Chuxi City. Other places, due to geographical conditions, either can't grow them or only grow fruits that store well."

Especially now, with the city in such a state, getting fruits was as hard as reaching the sky.

"Xu Fang, looking at the smug Ouyang Dong, couldn't help but tease, 'Alright, alright, I'll give you credit for this. In the future, I'll treat you to my special mud rice.'"

"Who would eat that?"

Finally, they heard some good news. Finding a boat meant they could quickly return to Baize City and treat Grandma Wu sooner, easing everyone's tension that had been building over the past few days.

They were enjoying their meal noisily when someone knocked on the door again.

Xu Fang ran to open the door, but when he opened it, there was no one outside.

"Hmm? Where's the person?"

Xu Fang, filled with question marks, was wondering if it was someone's prank when he heard a timid voice.

"Uncle."

The voice came from below, and as he looked down, he saw a child.

A little boy, about four or five years old, was holding a walking stick taller than himself and said softly, "My mom asked me to deliver something."

Xu Fang softened his voice, "What are you delivering?"

The little boy sniffled, "Mom said we took a lot of food, so she asked me to bring this over."

A walking stick?

Unsure why a walking stick was being delivered, but seeing the child's ears and cheeks reddened from the cold, he let the little friend inside.

As Xu Fang led a child in, everyone else put down their bowls and looked at the little boy in confusion.

Only Lin An bowed his head, using his hair to cover his eyes, trying to make himself as inconspicuous as possible. Lin An always felt uncomfortable around strangers.

Wu Duo asked, "Whose child is this?"

Shen Xiuzhe, noticing the other's light golden curls, guessed, "Is your mom Jenny?"

The little boy nodded and pushed the walking stick forward, "Mom said since we took a lot of food and have nothing else useful at home, we should give the stick to Grandma."

Although young, the boy spoke logically and clearly.

Grandma Wu, sitting at the dining table, refused to eat, claiming she had already eaten. This had been happening often in the last two days. She would insist she had eaten at meal times, only to later claim she was hungry. Wu Duo simply kept a portion aside, coaxing her to eat after everyone else had finished.

Hearing about the walking stick meant for her, Grandma Wu looked up and snorted, "I knew you were up to no good. My legs aren't lame."

Recently, she had been irritable and suspicious of everyone, but the others had gotten used to it.

But the little boy, holding the stick and tearful, looked lost.

Wu Duo quickly stood up and took the stick, "I'm sorry, Grandma is ill and didn't mean to be harsh. We'll keep the stick, thank you."

The boy obediently nodded and handed the stick to the sister in front of him.

It was then Wu Duo noticed how thin the child was, with almost no flesh on his cheeks and his ears and hands covered in frostbite, a pitiful sight.

Entering the warm house, the boy's hands began to itch and bleed from scratching, looking even more miserable. Noticing the sister observing his hands, he quickly hid them behind his back.

Wu Duo, after a moment of silence, set the stick aside and led the child away to apply medicine to his hands and ears.

Upon learning that the child hadn't eaten, she served him a bowl of rice. The boy hesitated, but his eyes, unusually large due to his thin cheeks, lingered on the food.

"Go on, eat up. You need to eat well to grow," Xu Fang patted his head.

Ouyang Dong also took out a few of the strawberries he had catalyzed today for him, "What's your name?"

"Uncle, my name is Nick," the little boy said, carefully accepting the strawberries. Though unfamiliar with them, he sensed their sweet scent and knew they must be delicious. He suddenly looked up at Ouyang Dong, "Uncle, can I take these home for my mom to try?"

This request touched Ouyang Dong's soft spot, and he blinked away moistened eyes, "You eat them, don't worry. There will be more after you're done. I can't show filial piety to my mom anymore, so you must be good to yours. She's had it tough."

Nick nodded, sitting on the stool Xu Fang had raised for him, obediently eating his meal. He devoured a strawberry, instantly falling in love with its sweet and sour taste, determined to take the rest home for his mom.

Finally, along with the remaining rice and dishes, as well as some fruits catalyzed by Ouyang Dong and medicine for frostbite, everything was packed into a small backpack for Nick to take home.

While Nick was staying for the meal, Lin An had already quietly taken Xiao Fu to the second floor, followed shortly by Shen Xiuzhe.

The two stood on the small balcony on the second floor, watching Nick wave goodbye to everyone before heading into the neighboring house, dark and silent.

It was freezing outside, enough to freeze water, but Lin An and Shen Xiuzhe were unfazed by the cold, standing on the balcony in the wind.

Downstairs, the others were still talking about Nick, finding the child's well-behaved nature heart-wrenching.

At four years old, a time when children are often troublesome, Nick had already experienced the harshness of society, enduring hunger daily, thinking of his mom even when seeing food, and not uttering a word about his painful frostbite.

He truly was a good child.

His mom had it tough too, surviving the post-apocalyptic world without any special abilities, raising such a young child all on her own.

Lin An listened intently, agreeing that Nick was a good kid, but unsure how to interact with children, he had felt quite awkward downstairs.

"Shen Xiuzhe hummed softly."

"What's wrong?" Lin An asked, turning to him.

"Let's see if they still say the same in a few days."

Lin An blinked, "You mean Nick will come here more than once?"

"It's hard to be a good person, which is why I prefer being the bad guy," he replied indirectly, yet as if he had answered the question.

Lin An leaned in: "I think you're a good person."

Shen Xiuzhe laughed, "Are you giving me a 'good person' card now?"

"No, I just think you're really nice."

Shen Xiuzhe touched Lin An's cheek, feeling its icy coolness devoid of any warmth, a characteristic of zombies who lack body temperature, yet he still held his hand and led him back to the warmer room.

The incident with Nick was just a minor interlude, and Shen Xiuzhe didn't pay much attention to it. After all, they were only staying there for a week, and it was unlikely to cause any significant trouble.

The next day, Nick visited twice, each time bringing something to give them, and everyone warmly welcomed him.

Nick's second visit raised suspicions, even for the normally oblivious Xu Fang, let alone the more astute Wu Duo and Ouyang Dong.

Xu Fang looked at the assortment of items Nick brought: a walking stick, an electric blanket, drawings by Nick, a cape, and a hat sewn by Jenny. Truthfully, none were of practical use.

"And why does he always come at meal times?" Xu Fang asked pointedly.

Wu Duo and Ouyang Dong remained silent. Nick's house was right next door, and they knew exactly when they cooked. Bringing gifts at meal times, sending the child to both eat and take, once or twice was fine. But three days in a row? Were they being taken for a dining hall?

Grandma Wu, sitting on a stool, scoffed, "Fools!"

Although Grandma Wu had been hurling insults at them as "kidnappers" for the past few days, nobody took it to heart.

But today, her words hit the mark.

Wu Duo lowered her head, Ouyang Dong stared at the ceiling, and Xu Fang squatted in silence.

Knowing they were at fault, they had nothing to say. After surviving so long in the post-apocalyptic world, they had still let their guard down.

"Forget it, we're leaving in a couple of days anyway. Don't worry about these little things," Shen Xiuzhe casually reassured them.

Just then, a knock sounded at the door. Xu Fang looked up, puzzled, "It's not mealtime yet, is it?"

Lin An, who had been standing not far from the group, was now on the stairs leading to the second floor, "It's not Nick. There are several people outside."

After saying this, he ran upstairs.

"'So, who's that at the door? Is it someone you know, boss?' Xu Fang asked curiously as he went to open the door."

"It wasn't Nick outside, but five men. The leader, appearing to be in his fifties, had a gentle yet authoritative look. Accompanied by four guards, he resembled an important figure."

Indeed, the man smiled slightly and said, "Hello, I am the mayor of Ice Snow City."