Chapter 68

While Su Jing was debugging the patrol robot in the courtyard of a prefabricated villa deep in the mountains, her fingertips suddenly vibrated on the system panel—not the usual message notification, but a red pop-up window with a forced push notification.

Immediately afterwards, the television in the living room turned on automatically, the screen switching from the original surveillance footage to a blue background of the Ministry of Emergency Management of China. Even her phone in the kitchen popped up with an unclosable notification. A deep male voice simultaneously rang out from three channels, instantly shattering the silence of the deep mountains:

"Urgent Notice! Confirmed by the global meteorological monitoring system, an extreme cold wave will officially arrive in 7 days, with the lowest temperature expected to drop to -60°C. The duration is currently uncertain. All residents are urged to immediately cease all non-essential outings and bring warm clothing (down jackets, thermal underwear, hand warmers, etc.) to the nearest official shelter. The shelter will provide basic heating, food, and medical care."

Please complete the evacuation within 3 days. Those who fail to evacuate by the deadline will no longer receive official rescue support. (Repeated, urgent notice…)

At the bottom of the television screen, pale red scrolling text continuously updated the list of shelters: "East City Shelter (accommodation capacity 5,000 people), West City Gymnasium Shelter (accommodation capacity 8,000 people), Suburban Logistics Park Shelter (accommodation capacity 12,000 people)..." Each shelter was marked with a detailed address, contact number, and remaining vacancies, and even included a real-time navigation link, clearly indicating that thorough preparations had been made in advance.

Su Jing raised her hand to close the pop-up window on her phone, walked to the living room and stared at the TV—on the screen, staff from the Ministry of Emergency Management were quickly distributing warm clothing supplies. The camera panned across mountains of down jackets and electric blankets, and the host's voice was filled with urgency: "Currently, 1,200 official shelters have been built nationwide, and the reserves of warm clothing supplies can meet the needs of 200 million people. However, please try to bring some supplies with you to reduce the pressure on the shelters."

She subconsciously opened the global channel on the system panel, and was instantly overwhelmed by a flood of messages—the previous atmosphere of discussing elixirs had vanished, replaced by a screen full of anxiety and panic, with the pale blue logo of the People's Republic of China taking up most of the space:

Chen Yang, the "Sharp Blade (China)" in dark gray: "Brothers! I'm at the supermarket in the city center! Down jackets are all sold out! The shelves are all overturned, and people are even fighting over the last windbreaker! Online platforms are also out of stock, and the price of hand warmers has increased tenfold!"

Zhao Yue, a resident of China (nicknamed "Flying Swallow"), posted a message with a crying emoji: "Our community announced that we will be relocated to the Chengxi Shelter tomorrow. My mom went to queue up to buy coal at 5 a.m., but the coal yard was already sold out! Now we can only dig out our old cotton quilts, I don't know if they will be enough to withstand -60℃!"

"User 239 from China": "I didn't believe the doomsday warning before, so I didn't stock up on anything! Now the supermarkets are even out of thermos cups, what should I do? Is anyone selling any warm clothing? I'll exchange my points for it!"

The chaos on the channel isn't limited to China—red US logos and gold EU logos are also flooding the screen:

- Jack the Red "Hunter (USA)": "The shelters in the US are not ready at all! The heating system is still under construction, and the only warm supplies are thin sleeping bags. I should have bought more 'I am the God of Wealth' pills back then, at least they could have improved my cold resistance!"

- Emily, the Golden Nightingale (EU): "The cold wave in the EU is two days later than in China, but there is a huge shortage of warm clothing! We wanted to import down jackets from China, but the logistics have stopped, so we can only rely on the small amount of emergency supplies we had stockpiled before!"

Su Jing quickly scrolled through the messages, her fingertips pausing slightly on the panel—there were no residents within 5 kilometers of her villa deep in the mountains, and the nearest shelter mentioned on TV was in a town 30 kilometers away, but with her current supplies and the villa's defenses, there was absolutely no need for her to go to the shelter to squeeze out resources.

However, the existing prefabricated house is only 40 square meters, divided into living and storage areas. With the increase in the planting of spiritual herbs, the storage of pills, and the addition of new supplies, the space has become somewhat cramped. In particular, cultivation requires a quiet and independent environment, so expanding the villa has become the most urgent matter at present.

She opened the "Merchant Contact List" on the system panel and found the contact information of the manufacturer from whom she had previously purchased the prefabricated house. This company specializes in producing low-temperature resistant prefabricated houses. When they built her villa before, they used insulation boards that could withstand -30℃. Now, they need a thicker insulation layer (withstanding -60℃) and also need to add two functional areas.

Su Jing sent a private message directly: "I need to expedite the customization of two sets of prefabricated houses, requiring an insulation layer thickness of 15cm (withstanding -60℃), each set being 20 square meters, to be used for 'storage expansion' and 'meditation room' respectively. They need to be delivered to the warehouse at the foot of the mountain within 2 days (address: No. XX, XX Road, XX Town). The cost will be based on the previous cooperation price and settled in gold."

The manufacturer responded faster than expected, in just 5 minutes: "Request received! We have urgently allocated production lines to prioritize the production of your prefabricated house. It will be delivered to the designated warehouse before 10 a.m. in 2 days. The insulation layer will be reinforced to ensure it can withstand -60℃. Payment will be made after the goods are inspected and confirmed to be in good condition."

After confirming the order, Su Jing walked into the yard and gave instructions to the two patrol robots: "Immediately go to the warehouse down the mountain to clean the site, level the ground, reserve 40 square meters of space for receiving the prefabricated houses, and at the same time check the warehouse's power supply and lighting system to ensure that the unloading of the prefabricated house components will not be affected."

"Instructions received. Expected to arrive at the warehouse within 1 hour and begin site cleanup."

As the robot's electronic voice faded, the two silver-gray machines turned and drove along the mountain road, their red scanning eyes gleaming in the sunlight, quickly disappearing into the distance at the edge of the woods.

Su Jing looked up at her prefabricated villa—the off-white panels stood out against the green trees of the deep mountains. The double-glazed windows she had previously installed reflected sunlight, and the 20 solar panels in the yard were adjusted to their optimal angle. Spare insulation cotton was piled up in the nearby trench. She entered the villa and opened the storage area—

The 50 million yuan worth of self-stocked supplies, 2,500 tons of rice and flour, and 2,500 tons of meat and seafood have already taken up most of the space. With the arrival of the two new prefabricated houses, not only will the storage area be expanded, but a quiet meditation room can also be set aside, so that we no longer have to make do with the study.

At this moment, the emergency announcements on the TV were still playing on a loop, and the phone occasionally received push notifications from people asking for help, but the deep mountains where Su Jing was located remained quiet, with only the rustling of leaves in the wind and the faint sound of a robot's motor driving away in the distance.

She went to the kitchen, took out a piece of frozen lamb from the freezer, and prepared to make a pot of lamb soup.

Before the arrival of extreme cold, it is necessary to maintain physical strength and body temperature. Her preparations go far beyond supplies and villa expansion, including her mid-stage Qi Refining Level 2 cultivation and sufficient confidence to cope with extreme environments.

As night fell, Su Jing stood in the courtyard, watching the scattered lights below the mountain in the distance (probably the townspeople stockpiling goods overnight), the indigo spiritual energy swirling around her fingertips gently pulsating—

Two days later, the new prefabricated house will be delivered, and the villa will be expanded to 60 square meters, with separate areas for living, storage, and cultivation.

Three days later, the official deadline for evacuation arrived; seven days later, extreme cold of -60°C descended.