45 Chapter 45

Tong Shu and her two companions had been to W City many times before and had indeed traded cotton with several garment factories. When they arrived here again, the scene was quite different. The factory buildings on higher ground were still there, but there were no managers or workers inside. All the factory buildings were deserted and quiet.

"Achoo!" Qin Xiaoxiao sneezed. The factory was drafty and not a good place to stay.

"It's so cold, maybe we should go back..." Qin Xiaoxiao started to back out.

"You were the one who begged us to come out, and now that we've finally arrived, you're begging to go back." Wang Jie scoffed at her. "Let's look in the houses; there are definitely still people there. They've probably all hidden in warm places."

Tong Shu shared the same idea, and the three of them returned to the ship, using their previous memories to navigate towards the residential area.

The three rowed the boat into the nearest residential area. W City is higher than Z City, and the buildings only reached the fifth floor. This residential area was nothing like Tong Shu's neighborhood, which was full of life. The whole area exuded a gloomy chill. The three dared not venture any further and stopped the boat at the foot of an apartment building near the street.

"This neighborhood is so creepy..." Qin Xiaoxiao touched her arm. "Do you think there are any living people left here?"

"There must be some. It's impossible for everyone in an entire neighborhood to freeze to death." Tong Shu was also a little uneasy. The neighborhood was huge, and there wasn't a soul in sight at midday.

"Let's wait another ten minutes. If we don't see anyone, we'll go somewhere else," Wang Jie said.

Tong Shu and Qin Xiaoxiao nodded, guarding the ship full of supplies and waiting expectantly.

...

Just as the three were about to give up and leave, they finally heard footsteps in the distance. The sound of wooden sticks hitting the ice was particularly clear in the empty neighborhood. Tong Shu and the other two looked in the direction of the sound and saw an old man with gray hair walking towards them with a hunched back. His faded old shirt was sticking up from the collar of his outer jacket, and he looked as thin and emaciated as a walking corpse.

The old man walked past their small boat without stopping, and continued walking towards the entrance of the community, leaning on his wooden cane.

"Grandpa!" Wang Jie called out with courage. The old man stopped and turned around slowly, his cloudy eyes looking at the three young men on the boat.

"What is it?" A hoarse voice, like the rubbing of rough old tree bark, came from the old man's throat.

Wang Jie braced himself and asked, "Are there any other people in this community? Where is your supply ship?"

"From out of town?" The old man looked Tong Shu and her two siblings up and down, his eyes gleaming with greed as he glanced at the supplies on the ship. "There are still a few households in the neighborhood, but what is a supplies ship? I've never heard of it before."

"You've never had a supply ship come here before?" Tong Shu asked incredulously. "Then how did you survive before?"

The old man twitched the corners of his mouth, revealing a strange smile: "If you want to live, there are naturally ways to survive."

Tong Shu wasn't going to stay there any longer. Both the empty neighborhood and the strange old man in front of her gave her a very uncomfortable feeling. She picked up her ski poles, gave Wang Jie and Qin Xiaoxiao a wink, and told them to quickly row away together.

"Wait!" the old man called out to them, pointing to the supplies covered by nylon sheeting and asking, "What's on your ship?"

Tong Shu didn't want to answer, and waved his hand, preparing to leave. But the old man's expression suddenly changed, and he grabbed the stern of the boat, shouting, "Come out quickly! They're trying to escape!"

Tong Shu and the other two's expressions changed, and they sped up to paddle away, but the old man held tightly to the stern handle, letting the wooden boat drag him for three or four meters before hooking his foot on a protruding stone pillar on the ice to stop the boat from moving forward.

At this moment, Tong Shu and the others noticed the sudden footsteps nearby. Almost at the same moment the old man spoke, people rushed out from all directions from the stairwells of the apartment building, as if they had planned it all along, and quickly approached the small boat using both hands and feet.

"...Fuck!" Wang Jie gritted his teeth and squeezed out a curse. Looking at the approaching crowd, he no longer hesitated. He raised his ski pole, pointed the sharp end at the old man's hand that was clinging to the stern of the boat, closed his eyes, and stabbed it hard.

"Ouch—" the old man roared, finally letting go in pain. With no strength to stop him, the small boat glided ten meters away like the wind. When anyone else approached, Tong Shu and Qin Xiaoxiao followed Wang Jie's example and raised their ski poles to stab them.

Another person screamed and fell onto the ice, their limbs curled up and convulsing violently, their blood instantly staining a patch of ice around them.

Qin Xiaoxiao's hands trembled as the image of pulling the snow pole from the man's chest flashed through her mind. She watched as the man in her line of sight gradually stopped convulsing until he was completely out of sight.

"...I, did I, kill, kill someone...?" Qin Xiaoxiao's lips trembled as she sat blankly in the cabin. All the strength in her body seemed to have been drained in an instant. Her stomach churned, and she felt nauseous. She leaned against the ship's railing and vomited violently, as if she wanted to vomit up bile.

“…Sister Xiao.” Tong Shu looked at her with complicated eyes, “It’s not your fault. If you hadn’t fought back just now, they would have dragged you away and killed you.”

Qin Xiaoxiao was no longer listening to anything. After vomiting, she sat there, curled up tightly, and after a short while, she leaned over the side of the boat and vomited again.

Tong Shu wanted to go over and comfort her, but Qin Xiaoxiao shrank back in fear: "You, you don't come any closer! My, my hands are covered in blood, don't come any closer..."

"Shushu, let Xiaoxiao be by herself for a while." Wang Jie stood at the bow of the boat and rowed hard. "She'll recover slowly after we get home."

Tong Shu could only nod, carefully took out a bottle of water and placed it next to Qin Xiaoxiao's feet, then picked up her ski poles and started skiing with Wang Jie.

They had never been to the urban area of ​​W City before. After fleeing for several kilometers in a panic, the three of them were completely lost in this silent steel city. The sun was about to set, and Wang Jie and Tong Shu were getting anxious. Qin Xiaoxiao's mental state was really bad, and they had to get home as soon as possible.

Just as the two were at their wits' end, a man's voice called out from the side: "Hey—hey girl over there!"

Tong Shu felt a pang of anxiety and prepared to turn the boat around and leave through the side road.

"Are you a girl from Z City? My surname is Wen!"

The sound drifted closer and closer, and it overlapped with the sound in Tong Shu's memory. She called for Wang Jie to stop and told him to row in the direction the sound was coming from.

"It should be Mr. Wen, the one who traded cotton with us before, the one who bought a lot of vegetables." Tong Shu said this, and Wang Jie also remembered that Mr. Wen was a fairly upright person. He had been very straightforward in all the transactions and had even given them some of his stock of fabric.

Boss Wen stood by a building, hunching his shoulders as he watched Tong Shu and the others slowly row their boat closer. He quickly stepped forward and said with a smile, "It really is you guys. I saw three people on the boat, but I wasn't really sure. I just wanted to try my luck and called out. I didn't expect to actually find the right one."

"Boss Wen, long time no see. What are you doing here?" Qin Xiaoxiao wasn't in good spirits, so Tong Shu didn't want to exchange pleasantries and immediately asked for news.

“My home is right here. The factory wasn’t flooded during the flood, so I’ve been living in the factory building thinking that if you come a few more times, I can clear out all the raw materials and goods. Luckily, I was just getting vegetables home when the temperature dropped drastically. If I had been still in the factory, I would have frozen to death.” Boss Wen said with a look of relief.

"What do you know about that Ankang residential area to the north?" Thinking of that strange neighborhood and its vicious residents, Tong Shu still felt a cold sweat break out on her back.

"Huh? You're from the north?" Boss Wen exclaimed in surprise, "The north is in chaos! You don't know, do you? Those neighborhoods used to be inhabited by migrant workers, all sorts of people."

Boss Wen lowered his voice and leaned closer, saying, "Our city is located on high ground, so the supply ships didn't arrive until very late. There aren't as many people living in those neighborhoods as in the city center. The government sent a small boat over, but who knew that as soon as the boat entered those neighborhoods, the people there ganged up and robbed it!"

"The government was too busy to deal with it at the time. After the sharp drop in temperature, people were dying everywhere. However, the municipal government still arranged a small team to go and deliver supplies. In the end, only one person came back... That person came back and said that the people in the north had started eating people!"

Tong Shu's hair stood on end instantly, followed by a sense of lingering fear. If they hadn't escaped quickly and been caught by that group, they probably would have had a piece of flesh bitten off on the spot.

"Thank you so much, Mr. Wen. We're so lucky to have met you, otherwise we would have been stuck and had to turn back."

"It's nothing, it's nothing." Boss Wen waved his hand. "What are you here for this time? Do you have anything to sell?" He peeked into the cabin.

"Yes, but there are no vegetables left, only some instant noodles and blankets. It's late today, we should go back first, and come back another time." Having found out the news, Tong Shu didn't want to stay any longer and turned to leave.

"Hey, no, no, sister!" Boss Wen stopped her, "Sell it to me, sell some to me. My family is completely out of food and supplies right now, otherwise we wouldn't be coming down here in this freezing weather just to try our luck."

Having just learned the situation from him, Tong Shu couldn't refuse now, so she said, "Okay, do you have any money? Just give me the money, and I'll unload the whole ship's cargo for you. We won't have to carry the load back."

"Yes, yes, yes!" Boss Wen beamed and pulled out a wad of cash from his pocket, handing it to Tong Shu: "I knew you accepted cash, so I brought this with me when I came downstairs."

Tong Shu didn't bother with the bill; she simply took the money, stuffed it into her pocket, and helped Boss Wen move the goods onto the ice. "You can take your things home yourself later. We'll leave as soon as we're done. By the way, Boss Wen, which route do we take to avoid going north back to Z City?"

"Oh! Go out through that fork in the road, all the way to the sea, and then head towards Z City, and you'll be fine."

Tong Shu and Wang Jie wrote it down, thanked Boss Wen, and immediately set off in the direction he indicated, leaning on their ski poles.