Wanjie Shop 29 Welcome the New Year

In the tenth year of the Great Cataclysm, temperatures as low as -30 to -50 degrees Celsius seemed to have become the new normal on this land.

The sky was covered with lead-gray clouds all day long, and snowflakes fell endlessly, dyeing everything into a monotonous white.

However, in human cities, there is a vibrant and prosperous color.

This year, the central government restarted the Spring Festival Gala, and various cities also held many activities to celebrate the New Year.

On New Year's Eve, everyone has a holiday, so some people who can't stand the loneliness start setting off firecrackers and fireworks.

“Swoosh—bang!”

Xie Yunsui woke up from his sleep and suddenly opened his eyes.

Fang Xiheng was half lying on top of him, and was awakened by the sound of his pounding heartbeat.

"What's wrong?" Fang Xiheng was sleeping in the space where Xie Yunsui was, so he subconsciously relaxed and asked in a daze.

Xie Yunsui raised his hand to his forehead and found that his forehead was covered with sweat.

"What time is it?" Xie Yunsui called out, "Tiantian."

Little Bee and Xiguang were playing Candy Crush in their private online space for three hundred rounds when they heard the shop owner's voice and replied, "It's 4:30 AM now. Shop owner, it's a day off today, so you can still sleep in."

Fang Xiheng sensed something was wrong in his voice, reached out and found that the sides of his neck were also covered in sweat.

He couldn't help but turn on the light and found that Xie Yunsui looked extremely pale.

She quickly wiped the sweat off his face with her hands, found a new set of pajamas for him in the closet, and poured him a glass of water.

"I'm fine." Facing his concerned gaze, Xie Yunsui smiled and said, "It was just a nightmare."

Fang Xiheng was a little surprised. Xie Yunsui almost never had dreams, let alone nightmares.

"What nightmare?"

Xie Yunsui hesitated for a moment: "I can't remember."

He frowned, carefully recalling the feeling in his dream: "It doesn't seem to be anything special, just a vague feeling... a kind of... bad feeling."

"Danger warning?"

"almost."

Fang Xiheng's expression froze. Xie Yunsui's mental strength was extremely strong. In some ways, his warning was like a premonition.

He couldn't take it lightly.

Since they were already awake, they decided not to continue sleeping.

"Let's go check out the lab downstairs first?"

"Um."

The two changed their clothes and went out. When they reached the cafeteria, they saw that everything was ready and the aroma of porridge filled the air.

"Thank you, Commander Fang, you're up so early?"

Master Wang came out to the food warehouse to get two bags of flour to make steamed buns when he bumped into the two men unexpectedly. It was rare to see them come out at this time, so he greeted them.

Fang Xiheng nodded: "Let's go down and take a look."

Master Wang knew it was related to the experimental project, so he didn't ask any more questions.

Xie Yunsui paused and nervously went into the cafeteria. After a while, he came out and said to Fang Xiheng, "The food is fine."

The laboratory below was brightly lit, and researchers on the night shift were still staring at the data.

Seeing Xie Yunsui coming over, he stood up in surprise: "Coach Xie, is there a problem with any project?"

Xie Yunsui: "I couldn't sleep, so I came to see what was going on."

The researchers watched him go through each laboratory one by one, even checking the project experiments of Academician Li and other doctoral experts, and they were quite confused.

Thank you, Coach, what happened?

After Xie Yunsui went around, he found no problems with the experimental projects.

If it's not a problem inside the base, then it must be outside?

"Xiguang, please contact the weather monitoring station for me. Is there anything unusual with the weather?"

Xiguang is an artificial intelligence he developed by combining the technology of Little Bee and Interstellar Era.

The processing of increasingly large amounts of digital information is really a headache. The emergence of Xiguang has simplified a series of complex information processing.

After a few years, Xiguang became more and more convenient to use, and it has grown into an indispensable and absolute helper in the scientific research system.

A slightly cold, mechanical voice emanated from the wall. "As of 5:00 AM, the outdoor temperature in the south has dropped to -38°C, and in the north to -56°C. Heavy snow is still falling in most areas, no different from yesterday. No abnormal data has been detected at the local weather monitoring stations. Do you need me to contact the weather monitors for another measurement?"

It was only 5:10, which meant it hadn't been long since the last measurement.

Xie Yunsui said calmly, "No need."

Fang Xiheng said: "The temperature hasn't changed, so it should still be in the low temperature cold wave period."

Early in the morning, Fang Xiheng followed Xie Yunsui around the base several times and listened to Xiguang report the temperature three times, but he couldn't find the source of Xie Yunsui's "uneasiness".

He even ran to the villa on the base to try to observe whether there was something wrong with the mountain surrounding the base, or if it was about to collapse?

In the end, it still came back empty-handed.

Today is New Year's Eve and the base is closed for the holiday. Only a few people who have drawn duty tickets are still at their posts.

The base became lazy.

The leisurely researchers took a long nap and went to the cafeteria in groups of three or four.

Li Wangruo was enjoying his brunch when he saw Xie Yunsui and Fang Xiheng carrying the plates one after the other, and he couldn't help but wonder.

Master Wang said that the two of them got up early in the morning, and they came to eat now?

Li Wangruo took a look and felt that Xie Yunsui's expression was not very optimistic. He thought there was something wrong with the laboratory project, so he moved over with the plate.

“Which project has problems?”

Xie Yunsui looked up: "No."

Li Wangruo: "What else can you hide from me? Master Wang saw it this morning. You guys got up at around four o'clock to go to work downstairs."

"I..." Xie Yunsui paused, then gave up: "I just couldn't sleep, so I got up to take a look."

The source of his uneasiness was inexplicable and had little evidence to support it.

Besides, he had already explored everything he could around him, and he used his mental power to explore. The entire Shanxia City was touched by his mental power.

The mountains, rivers, flowers, plants and trees were all carefully inspected, and no problems were found.

Xie Yunsui even wondered if he was being too suspicious.

He couldn't find out anything, and telling Academician Li about it would only add to his troubles. I'm afraid he won't be able to have a peaceful rest during this rare holiday.

Li Wangruo looked suspiciously at him, then at Fang Xiheng. Seeing that they both had the same expression of not wanting to talk about it, a sudden thought occurred to him: "Did you two have a fight?"

Xie Yunsui and Fang Xiheng: "..."

Li Wangruo sighed, as if he had found out the reason why the two of them did not sleep but got up for a stroll during their rare vacation.

He said, no matter how good a couple is, if they are together all year round, they are bound to quarrel.

In recent years, the relationship between Xie Yunsui and Fang Xiheng has remained as stable as ever, without even a single quarrel. They support each other emotionally and in their careers, making them the envy of many young couples in the base.

It turns out, haha, there is friction too.

Li Wangruo, on the other hand, felt that the two of them were much more humane. He laughed and said, "It's nothing. Everyone has to go through this. Just communicate well."

Xie Yunsui said helplessly: "Teacher, we didn't quarrel."

Li Wangruo just thought that he was being stubborn, otherwise why would these two people suddenly become so abnormal?

"Today is a holiday. I heard that the square park in the city center is holding a grand New Year's Eve event, with a fireworks show tonight. It's quite fun. You two have nothing to do, why don't you go and have some fun?" Li Wangruo suggested: "Although we are not allowed to leave the base, you two have special statuses, so you can apply to go out."

"Teacher, you are encouraging us to break the discipline." Xie Yunsui laughed.

Li Wangruo deliberately kept a straight face when he heard this. "What do you mean by breaking discipline? I just asked you to go to the research institute in the city when you have time to check out the situation."

After saying that, he left with his empty plate.

He also got up early in the morning and just stayed in the room to organize the year's harvest. He planned to spend the whole day organizing the materials at hand.

However, although Xie Yunsui said it was okay, he was still a little worried, so he turned around and went downstairs.

Xie Yunsui felt a little relieved by the teacher's interruption.

"What's coming can't be avoided. Forget it, let Xiguang help us keep an eye on it. It will notify us if there are any unusual things happening across the country." Fang Xiheng comforted.

"Okay." Xie Yunsui raised his eyebrows slightly and lowered his voice: "How about we go to the research institute in the city?"

Fang Xiheng was silent for two seconds: "Yeah."

-

Square Park in the city center.

At the entrance to the event, the person in charge of registration looked at the two handsome men in front of them and asked again, "Are you really going to participate as a couple?"

These two handsome boys are so handsome, tall and with straight figures. Even wearing long cotton coats, their charm cannot be concealed.

I don’t know how many little girls’ attention it will attract.

How come... as a couple?

"Well, doesn't it say that if couples enter the park, the second item is half price?"

Xie Yunsui pointed at the words on the roll-up banner next to him and said in confusion.

The person in charge just sighed with a slight regret. They were just trying to provoke those who were attracted to each other and break the window paper.

He could see that neither of them was short of the money for a second portion at half price. They were either a real couple or just came here to have fun and didn't want to make new friends.

After the catastrophe, many people's views on marriage changed.

They believe in enjoying life in the moment. Even if the cold disaster has lasted for seven or eight years, there are always people who feel that a new disaster will suddenly come.

You never know when you will lose your life.

It is very difficult to pursue a stable relationship under such circumstances.

Therefore, many people get together as soon as they fall in love, and the gender boundaries between couples become blurred.

Of course, the country is still actively promoting marriage between men and women, and their New Year celebration can be regarded as a large-scale blind date event in another sense.

Xie Yunsui and Fang Xiheng received red bracelets representing "couple" and tied them on their wrists, one on the left and one on the right.

The square park has been rebuilt and the open-air park has been covered to prevent it from being flooded by heavy snow.

The walls are paved with new insulation bricks, and you can feel the warmth as soon as you enter the garden.

Xie Yunsui had no choice but to open his cotton coat: "We haven't been out for a long time. Look at others, they go out wearing only sweaters and cotton vests."

It's easy and convenient, and won't delay your visit to the park.

Fang Xiheng took a few steps, and couldn't help but unzip his clothes, whispering, "Then secretly remove some of the cotton from our clothes."

He actually wanted to cheat through Xiao Wan!

While Xie Yunsui was saying that he had learned bad things, he quietly changed their black cotton jackets into black windbreakers.

This park is so big and there are so many people coming here to play. Could it be that all the citizens of Shanxia City have come here to join in the fun?

There are red banners posted everywhere, and new year greetings are hung on the newly planted landscape trees, with red blessing characters strung together in a long strip.

The routes in the park are interconnected, and the two were quite dizzy in the crowd, not knowing which way to go.

Suddenly, a smell of cumin mixed with spicy flavor entered the nose, making people unconsciously take two more steps in that direction.

Then the aroma of various street snacks hit the visitors in the face. When they smelled the aroma, they seemed to have found their destination and they all walked towards the "snack street" in the park.

The flow of people on other routes eased a lot in an instant. Xie Yunsui and Fang Xiheng had just finished their brunch, so they were not tempted away by the aroma of delicious food.

The two looked at each other and decided to visit the garden at a different time from the rest of the group.

"Clang, clang, clang, dong dong long dong clang..."

The sound of gongs and drums came from not far away, and a red dancing lion leaped up, immediately attracting the attention of the two people.