Chapter 75
On a morning with two days left until the apocalypse, a thin layer of white frost covered the courtyard of a villa deep in the mountains, and the frost particles on the withered grass shimmered with tiny silver light in the rising sun.
Su Jing walked across the frosty cement floor to the door of the new prefabricated house, clutching a black electronic thermometer in her hand.
The 60㎡ insulated prefabricated house, which was just assembled yesterday, will undergo its first formal heating test today. This is the last crucial check before the extreme cold arrives, and no carelessness is allowed.
She pushed open the door of the prefab house, and a warm, cozy atmosphere instantly enveloped her—
The black cast iron stove in the corner of the living room had been cleaned in advance, with dried pine needles laid at the bottom and half a bag of smokeless coal next to it.
Su Jing bent down and pulled out three shiny black coals from the coal bag. When her fingertips touched the coals, she could feel their dry hardness, with no signs of dampness or clumping.
She gently placed the coal into the furnace, lit the pine needles with a lighter, and the pale blue flames quickly shot up. The pine needles crackled and popped, carrying the aroma of burnt grass and wood. The surface of the coal gradually turned red, and the heat slowly spread out along the grille of the furnace opening, like a thin veil enveloping the surrounding air.
"Kitchen 1" pushed a small cart out of the kitchen, on which was placed a wall-mounted electronic thermometer and a roll of tape.
The robot skillfully affixed the thermometer to the living room wall, 3 meters away from the stove.
This distance most accurately reflects the average indoor temperature. After the tape is secured, the screen immediately displays the green number "Initial Indoor Temperature: 18℃".
Su Jing sat on the sofa, her gaze fixed on the thermometer, her fingertips unconsciously rubbing her cuffs—
The spiritual energy she had been nourishing during her previous cultivation had made her more sensitive to temperature changes. At this moment, she could clearly feel the heat spreading from the furnace to the surroundings. Her ankles warmed up first, followed by her knees, and in less than ten minutes, her whole body was enveloped in warmth.
The thermometer reading steadily climbed: 19℃, 20℃, 22℃, 24℃. After half an hour, the reading settled steadily at "25℃" and remained unchanged.
Su Jing got up and walked to the window, reaching out to touch the radiator—the cast iron radiator was scorching hot, and she could feel a distinct heat flow spreading along the radiator's grooves when she put her hand on it.
She then walked to the training area furthest from the furnace. The spare thermometer on the wall showed "24.5℃", only 0.5℃ lower than the living room, with no temperature dead spots. "The insulation cotton in the wall panels was worth it."
She raised her hand and tapped the off-white wall panel. The inside was warm, and the outside was insulated by a 15cm thick layer, so she could hardly feel the cold from the outside. There was no condensation on the double-layered vacuum glass, which meant that the temperature difference between the inside and outside was completely isolated.
"Outdoor temperature monitoring complete. Current temperature: -10℃, wind force: level 2. Expected to drop to -12℃ in one hour." The patrol robot's electronic voice came from the doorway. It held up a portable thermometer, the red number "-10℃" on the screen particularly glaring.
This is close to the pre-cooling temperature before the extreme cold arrives, which is perfect for testing the cold resistance of the heating furnace.
Su Jing walked to the door, pushed it open a crack 5 centimeters wide, and a cold wind rushed in instantly, the chill carrying frost flowers hitting her face. She quickly closed the window and looked at the thermometer on the wall again—it was still 25°C, the number not changing at all.
"Even the cold air can't affect the temperature, so there's no problem." She breathed a sigh of relief and gave the robot a new instruction: "Move the 1,000 kilograms of spare anthracite coal out of the space and pile it on the cement platform at the entrance of the prefabricated house. Be careful to prevent moisture."
The robot turned and walked to the corner of the yard, while Su Jing focused her mind on the system space—in the coal storage area of the "People's Livelihood Zone," 50 black sealed bags were neatly stacked, each weighing 20 kilograms, for a total of 1,000 kilograms. The bags were tightly sealed, and the outer layer was wrapped with a transparent waterproof membrane, labeled "Anthracite, 95% purity, high combustion efficiency, no pungent smoke."
She clicked "Retrieve," and 50 bags of coal instantly appeared in the open space of the yard. The patrol robot and "Chef 2" immediately stepped forward, their robotic arms smoothly clamping the coal bags and moving them to the cement platform at the entrance of the prefabricated house.
The platform is only 3 meters away from the gate, making it convenient to add coal at any time.
The robots neatly stacked the coal bags in two rows, 25 bags per row, forming a 1.2-meter-high and 1-meter-wide block. After stacking, they brought out a dark blue waterproof tarpaulin and covered it from the top, pressing the edges with stones to prevent the cold wind from blowing the tarpaulin away and to prevent subsequent snowfall from seeping into the coal bags.
Su Jing squatted down and opened a bag of coal to check it—the coal pieces were uniform in size, without any fragments, and when she brought it close, there was only a faint coal aroma, with no strange smell.
"It might rain freezing rain during extremely cold weather, so we need to reinforce it further."
She instructed the robot to surround the coal pile with a metal baffle, and to attach a layer of insulation cotton to the inside of the baffle, which would prevent the coal from getting damp and freezing, and also reduce heat loss.
After finishing all that, she leaned against the coal pile to rest, her fingertips unconsciously tapping the global channel on the system panel—with only two days left until the apocalypse, the panic in the channel had lessened, replaced by more messages about the progress of various countries reporting their shelters.
Ivan, the "Black Bear (Russian Bear Country)" in deep blue, posted a message that was trending. He sounded a bit tired: "The main shelter of the Russian Bear Country has finally been built. The heating can be maintained at 18°C, but there is a huge shortage of medicine. I only bought 200 health pills from 'I am the God of Wealth' before. Now we can only give priority to the army. Ordinary people can only get some anti-freezing ointment. They can't withstand the extreme cold of -60°C at all. I should have ordered more in the first place."
Below the message, Emily, the golden "Nightingale (EU)," replied with regret and a crying emoji: "The EU is in a worse situation! The shelters are only 70% complete, and the heating can barely reach 15°C. Two boilers broke down yesterday! We're completely out of medicine. We questioned the recall order from China before, but now we can't even buy medicine from China. Ordinary people are crammed into shelters, relying on each other for warmth. I should have kept up my goodwill and cooperated with China!"
Occasionally, users from China would post a few comments on the channel, mostly reassuring replies like "Thank goodness I'm back home" and "The shelter is 22°C and I still have medicine," a stark contrast to the anxiety expressed by users from Russia and Europe.
Su Jing quickly scrolled through the messages, her gaze landing on the prefab house—"Chef 2" had already prepared lunch, the aroma of mutton soup wafted out through the crack in the door, the thermometer on the wall still showed 25℃, and the flames on the stove flickered at the stove opening, making a steady "whooshing" sound.
She got up and went into the prefab house, served herself a bowl of mutton soup, and the warm soup slid into her stomach, dispelling the last trace of coldness.
The frost outside the window hadn't melted yet, and the wind howled through the branches, but the warmth and comfort inside made her fearless of the impending extreme cold—with stable heating, ample coal, complete supplies, and her Qi Refining Level 2 cultivation as a foundation, her doomsday fortress was already ready.
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