She patted the grass off her pants, then touched the swollen, red chilblains on her hands, which made her shudder with pain.

The frostbite and the heavy down jacket she was wearing were both reminders of what had happened to Jiang Xi earlier.

She confirmed once again that this was not a dream, but something real.

A global catastrophe struck, and then I fell into a deep sleep in my bed. Then, for some reason, I woke up here. Thinking about this, a sense of eeriness and confusion welled up in my heart.

She could clearly feel that the temperature here was very high. Sweat soaked her hair. Jiang Xi struggled to take off her outermost down jacket and the light brown knitwear underneath, leaving only a white inner layer. She then casually tidied her hair with her hands.

I searched my entire body but couldn't find my phone. I walked around the tree trunk and found that there were old trees about one or two meters thick all around. Not only that, but I could also hear loud animal noises from the vicinity, like the cries of monkeys.

To confirm her guess, she lowered her waist, carefully avoiding the dry branches and thorns on the ground, and walked in the direction of the sound.

The light was dim, and the air seemed to be veiled in black. She had to watch her step, making it quite difficult for her to walk.

After walking about ten meters, Jiang Xi thought she was seeing things, but there was a person lying under a tree not far away.

After looking around and confirming that there was no danger, she ran over with her back bent.

It was a man, wearing a black down jacket, lying motionless on the ground. Jiang Xi leaned over to check if he was breathing, but when she saw the man's face, she felt absurd. What was he doing here?

Lying on the ground was her ex-boyfriend, whom she had broken up with three years ago. Yan Zheng was in very bad condition at the moment; his face was pale and bloodless, his cheeks were thin, and he had several red and swollen chilblains on his face.

His lips were white and cracked from prolonged dehydration, his hair and forehead were soaked with sweat, and his black down jacket was worn full of holes, with much of the down filling coming out, so it probably hadn't been very warm before.

At this moment, he was in a deep coma with his brows furrowed, clutching his sword pouch tightly in his arms, with a black hiking backpack lying at his feet.

Why is he here?

Why are two people here at the same time?

What exactly is this place?

His numerous injuries suggest that he must have gone through something during the two days of the snowstorm.

Jiang Xi recalled the text message her mother had sent her before she fell into a coma, saying that they had been taken to an emergency shelter, and then adding that... Yan Zheng had come to find her.

It is highly likely that Yan Zheng found himself after he fell into a coma.

What happened next that led the two of them to this place?

The animal howls in the distance seemed to be getting louder. She took a few deep breaths to calm herself down. She decided to ignore everything else and wake him up first. She would find out what had happened when he woke up.

Although there was little sunlight in the forest, the temperature was high, and Yan Zheng's hair was completely soaked. If he continued to sweat like this, he would become dehydrated in an hour or two. Jiang Xi wanted to lift Yan Zheng up and take off his down jacket.

But he was really too heavy. He was over 1.8 meters tall, and although he didn't look particularly tall, he was quite large due to years of sports and fencing practice.

Jiang Xi struggled to put her arm around his neck, trying to lift him up with some leverage. After several attempts, she was covered in sweat, and only managed to barely manage to place his head on her lap to support it.

They lifted his arm and took off his outermost down jacket, leaving him in only a black single-layer sweater.

After finishing all this, Jiang Xi breathed a sigh of relief. She didn't know where she was, so naturally she didn't dare to wander around.

I got up and took a few steps to look around. The air was filled with the smell of dampness and decay, and the surrounding area was still a dense forest that seemed to stretch endlessly.

On the sunlit ground, besides the lush, messy weeds, there were also a few scattered shrubs bearing red fruits the size of soybeans.

Some of the wild grasses were dandelions and gray grass that were common in the fields when I was a child. However, the dandelions here were much larger than I had ever seen before, and the flower color was also different from what I had seen before. The dandelions I had seen before all had yellow flowers, but here there were even pink dandelion flowers.

Looking further into the distance, she saw that it was so dark that she couldn't even see the trees clearly. The winding paths were eerie and terrifying, and Jiang Xi dared not go any deeper.

Everything seemed to be telling her that this was a no-man's land that no one had ever set foot in, perhaps like the Amazon rainforest, where snakes, insects, or wild beasts might occasionally dart out.

Returning to Yan Zheng's side, I touched his forehead. Fortunately, his temperature was normal, which meant that his condition wasn't too bad.

In a moment of distraction, a wave of dizziness washed over her. She hadn't eaten or drunk anything for two days and was probably on the verge of dehydration. She needed to stay as alert as possible so that someone could handle any unexpected situation before he woke up.

After glancing at Yan Zheng's hiking backpack several times, I finally gritted my teeth and picked it up.

She turned the bag upside down and found two bottles of mineral water, a small instant noodle pot, several packs of compressed dry food and two packs of instant noodles, some common anti-inflammatory drugs such as iodine, amoxicillin and a box of painkillers and fever reducers. She also found two lighters from the side, and two...axes.

This equipment is far too complete.

She became increasingly eager to know the truth.

I was so thirsty that I didn't care about these things. I hurriedly unscrewed the bottle cap, took a sip of water, and then tore open the bag of compressed biscuits.

The compressed rations were not tasty; they were dry and hard, making them difficult to swallow. Fearing she wouldn't have the strength, she could only manage a few bites with some water.

Jiang Xi tried to feed Yan Zheng some water, but he didn't respond after she called his name a few times. She held his head and the water seemed to have just thawed, so it was a bit cold to drink. He choked and coughed as soon as she fed him a sip.

This won't do. It seems we need to make a fire first, boil some hot water to feed him, and it will be safer with a fire.

She walked a few steps around and used a stick to rummage through the grass to pick up three stones.

The ground was covered in dew, and many rotten woods were covered with moss. After looking around, there were no dry branches or weeds that could be used for firewood.

If these damp branches were lit, they would become a natural smoke bomb, and the thick smoke would choke them to death in no time. It might even attract those shouting monkeys... or wild men from the vicinity.

She eventually found a half-dead shrub. The shrub's branches were thin and not heat-resistant, but they were dry.

They used an axe to cut down the bushes and pile them into firewood, then arranged the stones into a stable triangle to hold the pot, and finally dug a shallow pit in the ground between the stones with a thick wooden stick before lighting the firewood.

At this moment, the campfire dispelled the smell of rotting wood and the stuffy feeling in the air. This small fire became the only comfort in the quiet jungle, and she relaxed and sat down on the ground to let out a long sigh.

The satisfaction brought by the fire made her feel lost and frustrated. The project had just started to make progress, and if her team could successfully decipher the symbols on the bronze vessel with war patterns, this gap in archaeology would be filled. But now she was trapped here.

Too many images flooded her mind: heavy snow, children crying, an elderly person knocking on doors in the stairwell begging for food. Her peaceful and happy life had been turned upside down by the snow disaster. Could she ever go back? Would the disaster ever end?

She turned to look at the man beside her, whose eyes were slightly closed and who was unconscious. All she could do now was pray that he was alright and that he would know what had happened and find a way back.