Chapter 14 The Arrival of Extreme Cold

On the second day of their search for supplies, the residents of Building 10 did not leave their building. The supplies they had found the previous day were enough to sustain them for a while, and given how conspicuous their actions had been the previous day, they needed to keep a low profile for a period of time.

Gu Yanzhi woke up refreshed after a dreamless night. As he stretched by the window, he noticed a group of people gathered downstairs, talking amongst themselves.

After standing there for a while, Gu Yanzhi noticed that the crowd downstairs had not only not dispersed but had actually grown larger. Just as Gu Yanzhi was about to go downstairs to join in the fun, Gu Yanlin and Song Zhao opened the door and walked in from outside.

"Sis, you're awake! Have you had breakfast? Your husband steamed some buns."

"You haven't even gotten up yet. Have you come downstairs?"

"What's going on outside?" Gu Yanzhi yawned and asked as he sat down on the sofa.

"Oh, there's a family in the building next door whose house is about to be flooded, and they want to move in with us. Uncle Zhang just came down to ask us to vote, but no one agreed. The old lady from that family is making a scene downstairs."

After last night's heavy rain, the floodwaters outside are even higher, almost reaching the height of a six-story building. The family making a fuss downstairs, surnamed Wang, lives on the 7th floor of building number 13 in the same complex, right next to building number 10.

I woke up this morning to find that the water outside was about to flood my house, and I urgently needed to move.

Their building currently has the fewest residents in the community and is also the closest to Building 13, so they wanted to move to Building 10 and started shouting downstairs early in the morning.

The first to be woken up were Uncle Zhuang's family, who lived on the lowest floor. Then Uncle Zhang gathered everyone to discuss whether they should agree to let this family move in.

Although not explicitly stated, Uncle Zhang is now the unofficial, universally acknowledged building manager of Building 10. He is warm-hearted, full of positive energy, but not the kind of person who is blindly kind; he has his own principles and bottom line. Everyone in the building respects Uncle Zhang, and they usually go to him first to discuss things.

Having just gone through what happened yesterday, everyone is still in a tense state. Before leaving after distributing the supplies yesterday, we specifically asked Gu Yanzhi's family to lend us the security bars and iron gate, which were installed in the stairwell on the 10th floor, so that everyone could finally get a good night's sleep.

In this situation, no one wanted unfamiliar strangers to intrude into their lives, and the family's request to move in was unanimously rejected.

Seeing the family's reaction after being rejected, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

Old Mrs. Wang seemed like the kind of person who was not to be trifled with. Now she was throwing a tantrum downstairs, while her son and daughter-in-law stood by watching, occasionally offering a few words of "dissuasion."

Things like, "You brought back so much stuff yesterday, we certainly won't fight you for it."

"Your supplies are so plentiful, you certainly don't need our family's little bit."

"My family is about to become homeless. You won't just stand by and watch us die, will you?"

As they spoke, their eyes darted around, gleaming with a malicious intent, filled with selfishness and calculation. If this were allowed into their lives, one could foresee how "colorful" their future would be.

Gu Yanlin was in high spirits, gesturing wildly as he described what was happening below to Gu Yanzhi.

By this time, everyone had gone upstairs, and no one paid any attention to the family of three downstairs. Those who had come to watch the excitement and try to snag a bargain realized that the people in this building were not as easy to talk to as they had imagined, and they gradually dispersed.

The family of three downstairs, seeing that no one paid them any attention, wailed for a while longer before leaving. They needed to find new accommodation quickly, otherwise they might lose everything they owned tomorrow.

A month passed in the blink of an eye.

The heavy rain continued to fall, and the water level outside was already about nine stories high.

There was still no news of government aid, and more and more families were running out of food. Some people, seeing no hope, committed suicide by jumping into the water, while many more died of hunger.

The number of corpses floating on the water outside was increasing. At first, people were terrified when they saw a single corpse on the water, but now they were numb and indifferent to seeing several corpses floating on the surface.

During this month, everyone in Building 10 was cautious and tried to keep a low profile, only secretly taking turns to go out and collect supplies when they were not in the public eye.

Even so, the last wave still brought a lot of jealousy, envy, and the last-ditch efforts of some desperate people. In one month, Building 10 suffered three robberies and five thefts. Fortunately, everyone was vigilant and worked together to repel the enemies, so there were no major losses.

Building 10 also welcomed three homeless families, selected through a vote by the residents. These families were known for their good reputation and character. Among them was the Lin family, who had gone out with the residents to search for supplies last time. This infuriated the Wang family, who initially shouted and cursed downstairs every morning for the first few days. However, when they were too weak from hunger to continue, they finally gave the residents of Building 10 some peace and quiet.

In the dead of night, Gu Yanzhi felt a bone-chilling cold in her sleep, as if a thousand ice needles were piercing her body, instantly waking her from her deep sleep.

Gu Yanzhi woke up Song Zhao, who was still asleep but frowning due to the sudden cold. The two got out of bed and found the thick coats they had prepared beforehand. Then they checked the thermometer hanging in the room and found that the temperature was minus 10 degrees Celsius.

It's already late November, and with the continuous heavy rain and no sun, the temperature in City C, which is usually around zero degrees Celsius at night, has suddenly dropped by 10 degrees. Gu Yanzhi knows in his heart that extreme cold has probably arrived.

Because it was unknown when the extreme cold would arrive, Gu Yanzhi had already placed thermometers throughout the room and prepared warm clothes in advance when the apocalypse first began, and they have all come in handy now.

The living room was pitch black when the door was opened. There was also no movement from Gu Yanlin's room, which was separated from the living room.

Gu Yanzhi fiddled with the heating devices in the room. Song Zhao knocked on Gu Yanlin's door, but there was no response, so she simply turned the doorknob and went inside.

"Holy crap, what's wrong? Ouch~, why is it so cold?" The flashlight beam shone on Gu Yanlin's face, startling him awake. He sat up straight in bed.

As the blanket fell off his body and his skin came into contact with the cold air, Gu Yanlin couldn't help but shiver, goosebumps rising all over his body, and he instantly woke up.

Looking up at the person standing in the doorway by the light of his flashlight, Gu Yanlin asked, "Brother-in-law, has the extreme cold arrived?"

"There's a high chance. Get up first, tidy yourself up, and go notify the others in the building. Don't let anyone freeze to death." Song Zhao nodded and tossed Gu Yanlin his thick coat.