Chapter 31

On Wen Shaocheng's side, the soldiers were urgently evacuated from the ship's cabin and were settled in the community and nearby vacant houses.

Those who were physically strong had already joined the disaster relief efforts. Because the Kowloon community had made preparations in advance, the situation in the nearby neighborhoods was relatively good. Wen Shaocheng sent a team to help Zhu Cheng handle the funeral arrangements for the people who died after the disaster broke out, while he himself led a team to the west of the city to check the situation.

The frozen ice surface was very difficult to walk on. Fortunately, Liu Wanqi had previously sent people to the No. 1 High School in the north of the city to salvage supplies and they had retrieved several hundred pairs of spiked shoes. These were probably used by the school's track and field team. The shoe size of high school students is similar to that of adults, and the soldiers could collect a pair for each of them by picking and choosing.

"Major, this is..." Liu Wanqi, who had been running around all night, could finally catch his breath. He looked his superior up and down and pointed to his ear with his index finger: "Pretty cute, huh?"

Wen Shaocheng changed into his spiked shoes, stomped his feet, and felt a tightness in his not-so-large shoes, his feet wrapped in thick socks and plastic bags. Hearing Liu Wanqi speak, Wen Shaocheng reached out and touched his ear, the fuzzy texture brushing against his fingertips. He suddenly remembered Tong Shu's flushed face before he went out that night.

Wen Shaocheng's lips curled up almost imperceptibly, then he reached out and took off the pink plush earmuffs that were completely out of character with him, and tossed them precisely into Liu Wanqi's hand: "Put them on."

"Huh? Huh! What are you doing? I don't want it." Liu Wanqi originally wanted to tease Wen Shaocheng, but he didn't expect him to throw the thing at him directly. He was a man in his thirties who had never used a little girl's things before, and he was quite at a loss holding the earmuffs.

Wen Shaocheng pulled the drawstring of the hood tighter to minimize the area of ​​his face exposed. He looked at Liu Wanqi's ears, which were blue from the cold, and ignored his stubborn refusal: "Put it on, or you'll lose those ears. Have the soldiers find some thick hooded clothes to change into before we set off."

Seeing Wen Shaocheng's serious expression, Liu Wanqi dared not joke anymore. He awkwardly put on the pink plush earmuffs and went to the team to convey the leader's instructions. There weren't many winter clothes with hoods, but fortunately, the workers in the factory who helped make winter clothes had thoughtfully made quite a few hoods from the scraps. Everyone shared them, and it was barely enough.

"Hiss—Major, hiss, we're all ready to go." Liu Wanqi's ears warmed up slightly, but a continuous and sharp pain kept coming from both sides of his head, making him grimace and speak in broken sentences.

"Set off."

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"Damn it, what kind of weather is this? I almost died on the ship!" Higashino Ming squatted by the fire, his face ashen, his expression full of rage.

"Luckily we weren't far from the houses. It's all thanks to the boss's quick reaction, otherwise we would have all frozen to death on the boat." Haruo Honma, the Japanese university student who was acting as the translator, boiled a pot of water and carefully poured a cup for Higashino Mei.

Higashino Ming's expression softened slightly, then hardened again. He threw the stainless steel cup at the person crying in the corner: "Idiot! Shut up! Or I'll drag your dead mother in here and burn her as fuel!"

Upon hearing this, Haruo Honma quickly shouted a few angry words in that direction.

In the corner, Hao Jia's sobs were suddenly muffled in her throat. She covered her mouth in terror and shrank further into the corner, but dared not make a sound again.

Higashino cursed a few more times in Japanese. Honma Haruo had already picked up the stainless steel cup that Higashino had thrown far away, scalded it, and then poured hot water back into it.

The failed raid a few months ago marginalized Hao Dadong within the R country organization, and his family's cabin was moved from the upper deck to the lower deck. Hao Dadong understood that if even this organization couldn't accept him, his family would be forced to live a life of constant wandering and fleeing.

After firing a shot in Kowloon, Dongye Ming did not find Wen Shaocheng's body. Being cunning and cautious by nature, he returned to the port and moored his ship in a secluded bay. Every now and then, the group would take small boats to rob small villages along the coast. To show his loyalty, Hao Dadong always volunteered to follow along. Over the months, he also had many lives on his hands.

This group committed numerous atrocities along the coast of Z City, but they have not been caught because of their elusive nature.

Unable to return to shore, Hao Dadong could no longer endure the agonizing existence on the boat. Finally, one night, he hatched a plan—to send his wife, Shi Pingxiang, to Tamura Ichiro's bed.

Actually, he initially wanted Shi Pingxiang to seduce Dongye Ming, but Dongye Ming seemed more interested in Hao Jia. Although Hao Dadong had no bottom line, Hao Jia was still his biological daughter after all. He didn't want to use Hao Jia to make a living unless absolutely necessary. So he settled for second best and set his sights on Tamura Ichiro.

The arrogant Hao Dadong was convinced that once Shi Pingxiang had climbed the social ladder by befriending the second-in-command, Tamura Ichiro, she would soar to the top of the organization, and that his and Hao Jia's status would rise accordingly. But he never imagined that these Japanese people had never treated his family like human beings from the very beginning. The next day, when Shi Pingxiang went to Tamura Ichiro's cabin, she was met by seven or eight sleazy-looking Japanese men.

...

When the temperature suddenly dropped, Hao Dadong sneezed three or four times in a row on the upper bunk, and all the hairs on his body stood on end. He jumped down from the upper bunk, shaking his fat body, and grabbed the thick quilt that Shi Pingxiang was wrapped in. At this time, Shi Pingxiang was no longer mentally stable because she had been tortured by the Japanese for several months. After Hao Dadong pulled the quilt away, she started to tremble violently, but then she curled up on the bed in a daze, making muttering words that were both crying and laughing.

Hao Dadong kicked the shelf next to him, which was Hao Jia's simple bed. He took out all the family's clothes and threw them to Hao Jia, telling her to put them on quickly.

Outside the cabin door, the R country people were already in a state of chaos, preparing to set sail and evacuate. Hao Dadong pulled Hao Jia, who was dressed in layers of clothing, and ran outside. Hao Jia turned her head and looked at Shi Pingxiang, whose face was already blue from the cold, on the bed, wanting to take her with her.

"What time is it! Ignore her, if you want to live, come with me!" Hao Dadong was shivering from the cold, and his words sounded like they were being squeezed out one by one from his back teeth.

Shi Pingxiang seemed unaware of what was happening. She only felt incredibly cold, her eyelids heavy and unable to open. Her hands trembled as she reached out towards the void ahead. Perhaps by chance, her hand pointed directly in Hao Jia's direction. Shi Pingxiang's dry throat could no longer utter a sound, only a faint whisper: "Jiajia... Jiajia..."

Hao Jia's mind was numb from the cold. Before she could react, Hao Dadong forcefully grabbed her arm and dragged her out of the cabin. In his eyes, Shi Pingxiang was no longer of any value. Before, she was considered well-maintained among her peers and had taken care of him and his father during their escape. Now, however, she was dirty, ugly, and mentally ill—a huge problem. Hao Dadong wished she would freeze to death quickly so she wouldn't become a burden to him anymore.

By the time the group reached the deck, the ship was completely frozen. Higashino immediately ordered his men to abandon ship and escape. Dozens of men ran for several kilometers on the sea and finally reached a small mountain village before dawn.

After killing the residents of the house, the group vandalized the place and set it on fire before finally settling down.

Hao Jia's mind gradually returned to normal. Remembering the last time she saw Shi Pingxiang, she belatedly burst into tears. But she dared not cry out loud again. She shrank back, trying to hide herself behind Hao Dadong, fearfully eyeing the vicious thugs, her face covered with frozen tears.

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Noon. Kowloon Community.

The sunlight brought no warmth, but shone coldly on the ice, reflecting the cool air.

Zhu Cheng, along with several community workers and soldiers, knocked on doors one by one based on the registered information, and then carried out one frozen corpse after another.

The ice was difficult to walk on, and there weren't enough spikes, so this small team could only wrap ropes around their feet to increase friction and transport the deceased residents from their apartment buildings to the north gate of the community.

Given the current situation, there was no way to take the bodies to the cemetery for burial. After discussion, the community decided to temporarily bury the victims' bodies in an open area outside the north gate of the residential area. Before the disaster, the area was under construction and was a construction site without any facilities. The soldiers took out entrenching tools and painstakingly broke through the ice to bury the bodies one by one.

The family members who came to see him off formed a sparse circle, weeping uncontrollably as they watched their loved ones' faces gradually covered by yellowish-brown ice shards. A profound sense of grief permeated the air.

Tong Shu's family lived on a high floor, and from their terrace, they could see the view outside the North Gate. The family, bundled up tightly, stood on the terrace, watching the mounds of earth gradually rise on the ice—one, two, five, ten, thirty… Everyone seemed frozen in the cold wind; not a single person spoke. The temperature on the terrace was much lower than inside the house, but no one left.

Only when the crying gradually subsided, and the cold wind melted into the ice, and no one mourned the deceased in the open space, did Tong Shu hear a few sighs.

“Let’s go,” she said.

I went downstairs and back to my room.

All the heating equipment emitted humming sounds at different frequencies. A pot of hot tea was heating on a small tea stove. On the wire mesh placed over the fire, oranges were roasted until their skins were slightly wrinkled, while persimmons and a few chestnuts had already cracked open, and sweet juice dripped out from the cracks, passing through the mesh and falling onto the red-hot charcoal, sizzling.

This is the human world.

Outside the window, the cold wind howled, and the sound of the wind struggling to squeeze through the cracks in the window carried with it countless tragic stories from outside.

That is also the human world.