Chapter Five: The First Unboxing, Arrival of the Frozen Storm!

The two suitcases full of gold were exchanged, yet they yielded only a little over seventeen thousand points. Since the highest-grade chests could potentially contain antidotes and other valuable items, Jiang Huan, though curious, chose to redeem only one small and one medium chest.

The chests were identical in size; only their names differed. Jiang Huan opened the small one first. Inside was a dagger, complete with a leather sheath and straps. It was slightly longer than a typical dagger, its handle adorned with an iron rose tinged with rust, giving it a distinctly post-apocalyptic style.

She flicked the blade with her fingertip—a crisp metallic ring echoed. She swung it casually, not exerting much force, yet the blade sliced cleanly through the nearby sofa, exposing its stuffing. Jiang Huan’s expression grew serious. She went to the kitchen and struck the chef’s knife with the dagger. The chef’s knife was notched, but the dagger remained unscathed.

“A fine weapon,” she mused, and immediately claimed it as her own.

And what would the medium chest yield?

Jiang Huan reached into the box and pulled out a package. Unwrapping it revealed a wetsuit, and attached to the back was a canister the size of a soda bottle. According to the manual, this canister could supply a person with six hours of air underwater.

Both chests contained exceptional survival tools, and Jiang Huan’s delight was unmistakable.

Outside, temperatures plummeted. What was once a stuffy, overheated room now felt comfortably warm. Replacing the ruined sofa, Jiang Huan suddenly remembered that just fifteen kilometers north of Xingcheng Community was the port—a treasure trove of imported and exported goods. After some deliberation, she resolved to take the risk.

This life would be lived with flair; who could ever have too many supplies?

Jiang Huan waited two hours, descending only after dusk had fallen. From a distance, she saw the security guards and janitors standing on bricks, grumbling about having to work overtime when everyone else was off work or school. Taking advantage of their distraction, she slipped into the management office and collected all the keys to the entire rental building.

The rain showed no sign of stopping, and the drainage system was overwhelmed—water on the roadside reached up to her knees. She drove her high-chassis, heavy-duty RV toward the port. Here, the advanced drainage system channeled all surface water into the sea, which suited her perfectly.

Jiang Huan got out and began loading containers: luxury imported cars, RVs, SUVs, trailers, premium seafood scheduled for unloading that day, foreign matsutake mushrooms, black truffles—anything that seemed to have arrived by sea, she took, even empty ships. Unexpectedly, she also found several large containers of traditional medicine, all appearing high-quality and their destination unknown—not that she cared. She took those too.

“Hey, you there! Stop! Stop right there!” Workers shouted, running toward her, the beams of their flashlights darting across her face.

There were still patrols at this hour?!

Jiang Huan immediately dashed in the opposite direction, slipped into the shadows, released her vehicle from the corner, and sped away.

She didn’t waste a moment on her way back. Hair tied up, cap pulled low, she raided hardware stores, shelving factories, water tower suppliers, jewelry shops, fabric warehouses, home décor stores, luxury boutiques, clothing outlets—any shop along the way lacking proper security was fair game.

Since cat litter would be needed for waste, the pet shops weren’t spared either. Bakeries, mobile phone stores, wholesale pharmacies, solar power stations—all were raided. Even the local waterworks wasn’t left untouched. She cleaned out the tissue production line at a nearby factory, grabbed sewing machines and radios from a retro goods shop—every unattended special-purpose store she passed was looted, and she even took the equipment from a few security posts. Nothing was refused.

The factories had already ceased operations, and the personnel on duty were slacking off. Jiang Huan moved undetected—the machines stood idle and no one noticed her.

With the world set to freeze over the next day, she held nothing back.

At dawn, Jiang Huan returned to the community, her stomach growling. She’d just finished a meal of chicken and rice with cola in the car and was fighting back a belch as she walked.

Still unwilling to risk the elevator, she climbed twenty flights of stairs on foot, panting heavily. Only after a long rest did she dare drink some water.

“So cold.” A chill seeped into her bones. Jiang Huan rubbed her hands, quickly changed into warm clothes, then went to check on Jiang Xi. Seeing him bundled up like a little rice dumpling, she lit the fireplace, drew the curtains cautiously, and peered outside.

The world had frozen almost in an instant—the standing water on exposed surfaces had turned to ice, and the torrential rain became swirling, heavy snow. The temperature plunged further and further, soon reaching minus thirty degrees Celsius.

She dropped the curtain to block the biting wind and settled by the fireplace to warm herself.

Now, food delivery was impossible; nearly all shops had closed, as if by tacit agreement.

In the luxury apartment complex, many residents, unaccustomed to stockpiling supplies, began to grow anxious as the sudden freeze followed the downpour. At that moment, someone in the residents’ group chat recalled that Jiang Huan had been receiving banquet deliveries and countless takeout orders every day for some time, and called out to her.

“Jiang Huan from the fifteenth floor, are you there? You’ve been getting delivery after delivery these past few days, right? I saw the supermarket sending you groceries and oil too. In this weather, could you sell us some?”

“I’ll pay double—just send it down to the first floor!”

After much clamoring, a timid student asked, “Is Jiang Huan even in the group?”

Only then did everyone realize that the resident slot for Jiang Huan’s unit had been transferred to another man. Fang Jun had introduced himself as the new owner in the group chat and quickly distanced himself: “When I bought this place, there was nothing in it.”

But no one believed him.

“I never saw her carry anything downstairs! Hey, newcomer, isn’t this too much? You don’t care if we live or die, is that it?”

Fang Jun was at a loss for words. To scrape together the seven million yuan for this place, he’d mortgaged his old apartment, borrowed money from all around, and was left with only a few thousand. The day after the rain started, he’d spent what he had left on a bed, a little food, some drinks, tissues, and scheduled a plumber and electrician.

Then the freeze hit unexpectedly, and he was trapped inside the unfinished unit with Bai Rou’er, with no supplies whatsoever.

“And you’re Jiang Huan’s boyfriend! I saw you at her place! Shameless, I even saw you bring another woman inside. Did you kill her? Look, everyone—this man’s rotten to the core, no morals, no conscience. And anyway, you can’t possibly finish all that food—it’s just going to spoil in the cold, isn’t it?”

“She won’t even share when it goes bad—what a terrible person.”

The residents quickly echoed each other, and Fang Jun, exasperated, cursed them all, eventually deciding it was pointless to explain further. He lashed out bitterly, determined to annoy these idiots.

“I’d rather feed it to the dogs than give any to you fools!”

After his outburst, Fang Jun realized things could get dangerous. He hurriedly messaged his friends and relatives, begging for money or food, but the only replies he got were reminders to repay his debts.

Desperate, he called for an ambulance and the police, but all he got was a busy signal.

Half an hour later, as the freezing wind blew incessantly through the broken windows, he shivered and sent a voice message: “Neighbors, I—I have no windows, and my door’s broken. Could someone please take me in? I’ll give you supplies in return.”

No one replied. His previous arrogance had already infuriated the residents, and now they all thought it best to wait for him to offer more before reaching out.

Bai Rou’er, heart pounding, took the opportunity to slip out while he was curled up on the floor messaging. She knew of a business owner nearby who would let her stay, so long as she didn’t bring another man along.

Later, when a resident finally decided to accept an exchange and went to the luxury unit to retrieve Fang Jun, all they found was the wide-open apartment and Fang Jun collapsed on the floor, frozen half to death.

“Help me, help… please, help me…” he whimpered.

A few scattered food packets lay on the ground. The resident gritted their teeth, grabbed the supplies, and fled. Fang Jun crawled a few steps, cursing all women as wretches, wishing everyone dead. Before long, his body stiffened, his skin turned a ghastly blue-black, and he died a miserable, lonely death.