Su Bai’s body was burning hot, her cheeks unnaturally flushed with an almost feverish crimson. Her gaze was glassy, mind adrift—she was clearly ill.
A respected fire-type ability user, yet felled by a simple fever! It was beyond Ye Shu’s anticipation.
Ye Shu shook Su Bai awake, fed her some fever-reducing medicine, and tucked a freshly charged warmth patch against her chest.
Yet… somehow this didn’t feel quite like an ordinary fever.
The thermometer’s reading had long since exceeded the scale. Thinking of Su Bai’s abilities, Ye Shu understood.
Even a gifted esper like Su Bai could fall ill.
Ye Shu assumed Pang Pangzi would be much the same.
But to her surprise, Pang Pangzi was not only perfectly healthy, he seemed in high spirits.
“Hey there, hero! Awake already? Power’s out, you two were still asleep, and I didn’t dare knock. Lucky I’m well insulated by all this fat!” Pang Tong grinned ear to ear, proudly slapping his layers of flesh.
“Alright, got it.”
“Just stay here and keep watch. Oh, and take this.”
Even in the darkness, Ye Shu could see Pang Pangzi’s stiffness. Without a thought, she tossed him two warmth patches.
In the South, there was no central heating; all warmth depended on electrical power. Now, with the outage, anyone without equipment risked freezing to death. Since Pang Pangzi was tolerable, she didn’t mind offering a hand.
“Warmth patches?”
Pang Pangzi eyed the packet in his hands with curiosity.
He’d stocked up on boxes of these, but one patch never seemed to help much. Still, given it was from Ye Shu, he dared not toss it aside. He tore it open and stuck it to his belly.
A few seconds later—delight dawned.
Heat seared from his lower gut, nearly scalding him.
“Is this… an artifact?!”
He’d never managed to get warm with the ordinary ones, but Ye Shu’s patches—those were something else. He knew she was well off, but didn’t expect her to have tricks like this up her sleeve.
Two warmth patches were enough to get him through the day.
................
Outside, the blizzard raged on.
Snow shoveling continued in shifts, just like before.
Still, the snow came down so fast, it reached above an adult’s knees; car tires vanished under it.
Ye Shu stayed inside to care for Su Bai, leaving snow duty to Pang Pangzi.
“Hiss… Damn it’s cold.”
“Luckily, these warmth patches last a whole day.”
Barely outside the compound gates, Pang Pangzi clutched a cloth mask to his face, coughing as the icy air bit deep into his lungs.
The snow was thick; every step crunched loudly.
Workers went through the motions, clearing a few buckets of snow before calling it a day. Most tower residents saw the blizzards as nothing to fret over—how could snow possibly bury them up here?
Besides, it was bitterly cold.
Everyone knew Dongguang never got real winters, so no one had prepared thick winter coats. Clothes were piled on in layers, or hastily bought online at the last second.
Not five minutes outside, and people were already half-frozen, limbs stiff as boards.
Pang Pangzi waddled along in a thick black puffer, hood drawn tight, scarf wrapped high until only his eyes peeked out. From afar, he looked like a plump black sesame dumpling.
And for this very reason, he caught his neighbors’ attention.
Within minutes, several people sidled up, asking if he had any spare coats.
One woman in a gaudy floral jacket shivered her way over. Pang Pangzi ignored her, shoveling slowly.
“Young man… please, I have a sick… child at home…”
The middle-aged woman’s eyes hungrily traced his coat. Her tone was tentative, gaze nervously dancing with poorly disguised supplication.
“No.”
“If I recall, you’re from Unit 8-0, Block B, right? Just a few days ago, didn’t you claim you lived alone in the chat? Now suddenly there’s a sick child? If you’re going to lie, at least try. I’m not your fool.”
He cut her off, not waiting for an answer. He’d met her type in dungeons far too often.
Panting under the bulk of his clothes, he slammed the shovel to the ground with a metallic clang, glaring at her.
“You…” How could he know? They’d never even met.
The woman opened her mouth, but thought better of it, falling silent.
After the shoveling, Pang Pangzi planned to hit the convenience store for more supplies. Too bad—every shop in the complex was shuttered. His pants soaked through by snow, legs trembling, he had no choice but to retreat home.
Inside, stripping off his gloves, he finally noticed his fingers, skinned blue and purple from the cold.
He’d barely noticed outdoors, but now the itching and pain rushed in.
With a groan, he reluctantly rubbed frost cream onto his hands. Within minutes, the wounds were completely healed.
................
The temperature plummeted to -20°C.
Even her phone was frozen, turned to a block of ice, unable to switch on.
Su Bai burned like a furnace. Again and again, Ye Shu cooled her body.
After several hours, her fever finally subsided.
“Shu Shu…”
“Did I have a fever?”
Su Bai blinked open her eyes to see Ye Shu’s worried face.
The lingering soreness and hoarseness left no doubt—she’d been sick.
“Not exactly.”
“You’re at least a Level 2 ability user. Try circulating your power.”
Ye Shu rapped Su Bai’s head, unable to hide her exasperation.
“I—I leveled up!!”
Su Bai focused inward, guiding her fire ability—she gasped in delight, a healthy flush returning to her pale cheeks.
In her last life, it took a lucky crystal core from an instance just to barely hit Fire Stage Three. Now, without outside help, she’d advanced on her own—she could hardly believe it.
“Congratulations!”
Ye Shu’s face remained calm, though the raised arch of her brow betrayed her pleasure.
At noon, the three of them tore through lunch. Su Bai devoured her noodles noisily—leveling up had drained her strength.
At -20°C, even food left out in the air a few minutes froze solid.
Afterward, Ye Shu pulled an old-fashioned radio from her spatial stash.
“Gzzzt…”
“……---…--…”
“What’s that? Radio broken?”
Su Bai and Pang Tong blurted out in unison.
Ye Shu rolled her eyes.
It’s not clever enemies one fears, but foolish teammates.
“Listen closely.”
Ye Shu replayed the recorded sound.
Su Bai and Pang Pangzi now realized—the tapping within was not random.
“Morse code!!”
Recognition flashed across Ye Shu’s face, and she nodded, continuing matter-of-factly: “I picked up this frequency last night. Bored, I started translating….”
“Noah’s Ark, Usi Tsang, Erniya, selection of humanity’s spark, departure, temperature minus 274.”
“Usi Tsang is now what we call Tibet. Combine Noah’s Ark, and the clues I found online—I think it means…”
The last hope of mankind—the seed of humanity—was being ferried away from this dying world.
She left the rest unsaid.
The other two paled.
If Noah’s Ark existed… then those above had always known. The common people had already been abandoned.
“Pack your things. Tomorrow, we leave.”
The city’s transport network was entirely crippled. Everywhere, vehicles stood snowbound and helpless.