Chapter Fifty-One: Temperatures Drop Again, Twelve Hours of Darkness

A lingering sense of dread swept over Chunmei, and she shook her head so vigorously it seemed she would snap her neck. "I really didn't mean to provoke her. It was all because of that newcomer. He kept saying he wanted to meet Jiang Huan, but Jiang Huan seemed so reserved and unwelcoming. He begged me to act as a go-between to smooth things over, so that's why I approached her that day... Who could have known he would suddenly blame everything on me? Those people—none of them are good, all troublemakers. Drive them out, please, drive them away, will you?"

Newcomer?

Liu Xiuguo's group deliberately approached Jiang Huan?

Chunmei thought her words were working and tried to evade responsibility, but Wu Gang was already looking at her with understanding. "But, since he's a newcomer, how did he know about Jiang Huan's reputation for fighting and the unfounded rumors? And what just happened? Anyone who's not foolish can see through it. Enough, keep your mouth in check. You've learned your lesson this time; I hope you really remember not to provoke others again. From now on, don't try to cozy up to me."

"But I'm still hurt, Wu Gang! Wu Gang! I was the one who introduced you—"

Wu Gang glanced back at her coldly and strode away.

Clearly, whatever little leverage she thought she had was now utterly useless.

Meanwhile, Jiang Huan tossed a few fish to Liu Ling and headed upstairs with her brother to enjoy grilled fish.

Spicy food was the best comfort.

The next day, Jiang Huan didn’t take the school bus; instead, she rode with the property management team. The fishing operation lasted three days, and on average, every household harvested about a dozen fish.

But with so many people and only so many fish, after one round of catching, hardly any big fish remained. The fishing was temporarily halted under the base’s authority.

For a while, the entire neighborhood was filled with the smell of fish, yet some people were lazy and dumped inedible innards nearby. If it weren’t winter, the area would surely have reeked. This became another task, and Wu Gang once again busily organized everyone for cleaning.

Jiang Huan didn’t join; she always threw her garbage far away.

A double beep sounded, alerting Jiang Huan to her long-silent communicator.

Ah, it really works, though it's so old-fashioned.

Hey everyone, I’m from Building Two.

I’m from Building Five, hello everyone.

Jiang Huan raised an eyebrow—everyone was using the communicators now.

As she pondered this, a small icon flashed, shifting with the left and right arrows. Jiang Huan clicked it.

It was a notice from property management. The communicator was finished, but most people’s version only allowed chatting in a group. Theirs could send private messages and create groups, though the group had to be set up by Teacher Li and the network range was limited.

Jiang Huan replied with a simple acknowledgment, and immediately someone contacted her.

Hello, hello, I’m Fei’er, Gao Qiang’s girlfriend. I wanted to ask if I could trade some things with you.

This wasn’t sent internally, but broadcast to the main group.

Jiang Huan tapped the screen and responded, What do you want?

If it was just a little, she wouldn’t mind giving some away.

After all, Gao Qiang’s teaching was excellent.

Tissues, cola, a thousand pounds of rice, fried chicken powder, chicken nuggets, dumplings, blankets, oil—

The main group erupted in surprise; So Jiang Huan has supplies, but this much?

Wow, sister, you’re amazing. Someone tried to send a selfie to get attention but found the communicator had no selfie function.

Jiang Huan hadn’t expected Fei’er to joke so brazenly. Sure, bring enough items to trade to the fifteenth floor.

Her reply made her stance clear.

Fei’er seemed to realize her request was too much and quickly corrected herself. What? I was just joking. Actually, I only want some tissues. Don’t be so serious. My boyfriend is your brother’s teacher.

You’ve mentioned that twice already, Jiang Huan replied bluntly. As I said, anyone can trade for whatever I have with matching goods.

Fei’er seemed embarrassed or something, and didn’t reply again.

The main group didn’t stop chatting because of this little episode. Their phones had been unusable for so long, and now everyone was talking excitedly.

The next day, Gao Qiang came to teach and kept an eye on Jiang Huan.

"Is something wrong, Teacher Gao?" Jiang Huan asked directly.

Gao Qiang glanced awkwardly at Jiang Xi, then assigned him a diagram to solve slowly and gestured to Jiang Huan to step outside.

Jiang Huan agreed.

Once outside, Gao Qiang apologized to Jiang Huan and said his girlfriend just loved to joke, that yesterday wasn’t intentional.

"I didn’t take it to heart. Who would take such things seriously?"

Gao Qiang paused. "Yes, you’re right. If there’s no misunderstanding, I’ll continue teaching then."

The detector Jiang Huan set up on the twentieth floor hadn’t sounded, so she didn’t want to suspect others with ill intent. Teaching continued as usual.

That night, Jiang Huan dreamed.

The cold invaded her, again and again. Frostbite broke out across her body, one spot after another. In the bitter cold, it was so hard to find anything, and each time, someone would take it away.

Hadn’t she already been reborn?

Hadn’t she set him in such a dire situation right from the start?

"No, if I could kill you once, I can kill you again. If fate can’t be changed, what’s the point in coming back?" Jiang Huan abruptly opened her eyes, sweat beading densely across her forehead.

Awake, she sensed something was wrong.

Outside, it was too noisy.

She glanced at the clock—it was only four in the morning.

She rushed outside and found it pitch black, but candlelight flickered throughout the neighborhood. Approaching the window, she sneezed hard.

Something was off. Their home had been renovated and they had plenty of fuel—why was it so cold?

Unwanted memories surged up to stab her in that moment.

Over a month.

Over a month.

After more than a month of being frozen, another anomaly appeared: the nights grew longer, and the temperature dropped another level.

She pulled out her thermometer—inside, it was thirteen degrees, and falling. Opening the door to measure outside, it was already minus forty-two degrees.

As expected, the temperature had dropped again.

She checked on her brother, who was sleeping soundly. Hearing movement, he tried to get up, but Jiang Huan pressed him back to sleep, though she herself couldn’t rest.

She opened the communicator to check everyone’s reactions. The group was full of complaints and requests for help. Wu Gang appeared in the main group, urging everyone to check the health of their family members and, if able, look in on neighbors too.

Dressed warmly, Jiang Huan went downstairs to check on Liu Ling and Wang Ping.

Jiang Huan provided fuel, but with such a steep drop in temperature, the two were at their wits’ end. Jiang Huan assured them that as long as they could stay warm, there was no limit on fuel usage during this period.

At property management, many braved the cold to seek fuel, all coming to borrow supplies.

In an emergency, Wu Gang allocated rations based on headcount.

The cold was so intense that Jiang Huan only practiced shooting upstairs, never venturing out.

Out of humanitarian concern, Jiang Huan messaged Wu Gang: if the property management couldn’t hold out, they could temporarily borrow from her stockpile.

Wu Gang was grateful, but said they could manage for now, and with the recent fish catch, there was no immediate worry about food.

Everyone assumed this anomaly would last only a day or two, but soon three days had passed; each night lasted no less than twelve hours.

Whenever there was no sunlight, the temperature held steady at around minus forty-five degrees.

Those who hadn’t stocked up began to panic, and the communicator beeped ceaselessly.

Jiang Huan was unaffected, but most people watched their fuel supplies run low and crowded at property management.

The property office was overwhelmed.

Jiang Huan kept an eye on the neighborhood and was ready to lend out food if needed.

But strangely, after several days of anxiety, the main group suddenly fell quiet in a tacit silence.