The heavy snow fell like white cotton wool, covering the valley with a soft blanket.

The already remote valley seemed to have completely lost all trace of animal activity, and was utterly silent.

At night, Zhao Xiaoxiu lay on her warm bed, holding a water bag filled with hot water in her arms. With her eyes closed, she could hear the snowflakes fluttering down on the treetops, giant leaves, and the ground.

Outside, it was a world of ice and snow, but inside, it was warm and cozy. In this secluded valley, Zhao Xiaoxiu and her father enjoyed a comfortable winter together.

With ample supplies at home, we eat as soon as we wake up, and then sleep after we've eaten.

You can sleep as long as you want, because no one will bother you.

When she was bored, Zhao Xiaoxiu would take Monkey Sister and Green Fairy to build a snowman and have a snowball fight at the door.

Peter Pan enters hibernation before it snows.

The lake was covered with a thick layer of ice. Fearing that it would be lonely, Zhao Xiaoxiu and Sister Monkey spent the days when the ice was at its thickest, skating on the lake from morning till night.

The baby and the monkey leave home clean every day, but return home dirty.

Before the snow came, we couldn't buy solar photovoltaic equipment. Without electricity, we couldn't install a water heater for showering or a washing machine for washing clothes.

Zhao Gang's tentacles were forced to take on the 'heavy responsibility' of bathing and washing the cubs' clothes.

Kids are so energetic; the clothes at home can't keep up with how quickly they get dirty.

In the small room on the first floor, a stove and a brazier were burning all day long, and next to them was a wooden rack full of children's clothes that had just been washed but had not yet been dried.

What makes the tentacles most unhappy is not washing clothes, but fetching water.

You have to walk out of the green wall and go to the stream 800 meters away to get clean water.

Fearing that the tentacles might strike, Zhao Gang thought, "Why not just dig a water channel over here?"

Without further ado, he called to the toddler who wanted to run out to play in the snow again, handed her a small shovel, and said, "Come on, let's get to work."

Zhao Xiaoxiu, who had dressed herself up like a ball, exclaimed "Huh?" and could only helplessly wave to Sister Monkey waiting outside the green wall. She then picked up her little shovel and went with her father to dig an irrigation ditch.

First, dig away the thick snow, then shovel up and down on the hard ground. With a strong push of both hands, you can shovel away a piece of land.

The creek was slightly higher than the treehouse, which saved the father and daughter a lot of effort. As long as they dug the ditch, the water would naturally flow down the ditch.

After three days of work, Zhao Xiaoxiu and her father successfully dug a water diversion canal more than 1,000 meters long.

The water channel flows directly into the green wall, where a reservoir is dug and filled with round stones collected from the ground. The turbid water naturally settles and becomes clear to the bottom.

With this reservoir, getting water is much more convenient.

While he had some free time, Zhao Gang moved over a large boulder and carved out a washbasin.

The stone basin is very large; it can be used for washing hands, dishes, and clothes.

Zhao Xiaoxiu secretly climbed into the stone basin and found that it was the perfect size; it could even be used as a bathtub in the summer.

With nothing to do on a snowy day, the mutated plants and animals are all frozen in the cold and don't come out at all.

With hunting no longer an option and all the household chores done, Zhao Xiaoxiu and her father began to truly spend the winter in comfort.

I don't know how long I lay there, but one day when the sun was shining brightly, the icicles hanging from the eaves suddenly fell with a "crack," the snow melted, and spring came again.

After lying at home for almost a month, Zhao Xiaoxiu's whole body started to itch. Unable to wait for the snow to completely melt, she grabbed a hoe and rushed into the yard.

She wants to cultivate the entire large open space in the yard and plant so many vegetables that she can't possibly eat them all.

The tomatoes in the greenhouse have ripened. Zhao Gang picked a small basket full of them and turned to the young children actively cultivating the yard, saying:

I'll cook you some tomato and quail egg instant noodles in a bit.

Zhao Xiaoxiu was overjoyed and swung her hoe even more vigorously.

After a lazy winter, my body can finally stretch out completely after a morning of work.

Zhao Xiaoxiu stretched her arms and legs, looking at the two acres of land she had cultivated all by herself, and felt an overwhelming sense of accomplishment.

As the weather gets better day by day and everything comes back to life, neat vegetable plots appear in front of the small wooden houses in the valley.

Zhao Xiaoxiu and her father spent a week planting all the seeds.

After a spring rain, the mutant crops sprouted tender green shoots from the soil, chasing the sunlight, which was quite adorable.

The father and daughter seemed to continue living their lives peacefully.

In this secluded valley, where outsiders cannot find them, they occupy the entire fertile land and cultivate it diligently with their own hands.

They work at sunrise and rest at sunset, in a continuous cycle.

The lush, mutated plants, which instilled fear in humans, became a protective wall for the father and daughter.

The ferocious and bloodthirsty mutant animals treated humans as food, but instead used them as a food reserve by the father and daughter.

Zhao Xiaoxiu found many mutated small animals in the mountains, forcefully captured them and brought them to her own territory to tame them.

She grew another year older, and her appetite grew too; she could eat ten pounds of meat in one meal.

Zhao Xiaoxiu knew that she was becoming less and less like a human being.

But it's okay, her father is just as inhuman as she is, they have each other and that's enough.

One summer day.

The father and daughter, who were lying side by side on the balcony taking a nap, both felt a sudden jolt of fear and abruptly opened their eyes and sat up.

The father and daughter exchanged a glance.

"Dad, can you hear someone talking?"

Zhao Gang nodded solemnly, "The sound came from the White Pagoda."

......

Arknights base.

Since the White Pagoda was closed last autumn, the fishing town has been in a state of unrest.

Before winter arrived, the base's supreme leader announced a mass migration, ordering all residents to leave the base and relocate to other cities.

The stone stirred up a thousand waves, and the small town was immediately in an uproar.

Since the establishment of Tomorrow Base, the fishing town on the edge of the base has never moved.

This is the only way to the White Pagoda. To put it bluntly, the researchers inside the White Pagoda rely entirely on the fishing town for their basic needs, including food, drink, and shelter.

If the town is relocated, will the people in the White Tower not need to eat?

Or are they going to move the White Pagoda along with it?

The answer is the latter.

After the winter snow, before spring could even arrive, the leader immediately issued a relocation notice, and the entire town, along with the White Pagoda, was moved 500 kilometers inland.

The news came suddenly; when asked, they said that an S-class mutant species had been discovered in the deep sea, which could attack human towns at any time.

The biotech company issued a special announcement to prove that the town's residents had no choice but to believe it.

Everyone was reluctant to part with the new homes they had worked so hard to build, but as long as the green hills remain, there will always be firewood to burn.

So after the winter snow, the entire fishing town began to relocate inland in batches.

By early summer, the once bustling fishing town had become a ghost town, with only the mercenary team of the biological company stationed there.

The atmosphere on the White Pagoda grew increasingly solemn, with sirens blaring from morning till night, a sound that had been constant since the appearance of the massive vortex last year.

The staff inside the tower suffered immense mental anguish, yet they had no choice but to remain at their posts.

Until that day, an even larger whirlpool appeared in the deep sea near the White Tower, like a powerful hurricane, sweeping through the entire fishing town.