Chapter 46
The heavy snow continued to fall, covering the world in a blanket of white. The temperature in Hongqi Village reached an alarming minus ten degrees Celsius, almost to the point where your breath would freeze instantly. The snow on the roads was already knee-deep. Apart from essential trips to and from get off work, villagers reduced their outings, and the entire village fell silent.
The Xia family lived close to the Hongqi Piao Company, and Xia's father was also diligent, clearing the way to work for the other three women in the family every day, so Xia Ke's commute to work was almost unobstructed.
With multiple renovation companies working simultaneously, the renovation of Hongqi Piao Company's industrial park was finally completed a month later.
Because the decoration materials used are all high-end, environmentally friendly, and pollution-free, and the air quality has passed the test, Xia Ke plans to move there with her company as soon as possible. As the number of projects and people in Hongqi Piao increases, the current office space can no longer meet the daily work needs.
The usable space in the entire office building is limited, and the company keeps hiring, so we have to make the most of the space. Any open space in the company is filled with desks or converted into offices.
Every time Xia Ke passed by, she felt crowded and stifled for the employees. Having once been a worker herself, she could empathize with the company's ordinary employees.
She owns a company and doesn't want her employees to work in cramped, open-plan workstations.
Most of the workstations in the park are U-shaped, emphasizing both spaciousness and privacy. As long as employees complete their work, she doesn't mind if they have time to relax.
In addition to U-shaped workstations, the new campus also has traditional partitioned workstations. Of course, the new campus also has open-plan workstations for easier communication, but Xia Ke does not require employees in every position to work in an open-plan workstation, nor is it necessary.
These workstations are provided for employees who need to communicate.
*
Xia Ke's suggestion to move now, which was deemed too good to be true, was met with unanimous opposition from the entire Xia family and the company's senior management.
“Coco, listen to Mom. These days are not auspicious. Wait until Mom finds a master to calculate a good day for you before you move.”
"Yes, boss, we need to choose a good date for the move so that the company can prosper and reach new heights."
Xia Ke never expected that such a small matter as moving would cause such a big fuss and a meeting, so grand that several project leaders and key personnel who had been staying in the lab all attended.
And apart from a few people who didn't care, everyone else supported his mother's suggestion to find a master to choose an auspicious day for moving.
Xia Ke was speechless. She tapped the table, the sound not loud but full of doubt, and asked the supporters of her mother in the office.
"Have you all forgotten that Hongqi Piao is a technology company, and each of you is responsible for different technology projects?"
Is it really okay to be as superstitious as his mother?
"Mr. Xia, it's better to believe it exists than not to believe it doesn't."
"Moving is a big deal and should be taken seriously."
"Moving on an unlucky date will affect our company's finances."
"My former company was an artificial intelligence company. The location of their finance office was specially calculated by a master. They even placed a golden toad and an incense burner in the finance office according to the correct orientation to bring wealth!"
"That's right. Aren't artificial intelligence technologies more advanced than ours? They believe in them, so we can't be careless either."
After being lectured by the employees about the superstitious practices of a certain research institute's laboratory technology company, Xia Ke agreed to her mother's suggestion to find a master to choose an auspicious day before moving.
You can't disagree. Her employees have brainwashed her so much that she's started to believe that if she doesn't agree to have a fortune teller choose an auspicious day to move, the bankrupt company will be wiped out the next day.
While Xia's mother was excitedly seeking out a master to choose an auspicious date.
The lives of residents in the disaster-stricken areas have gradually returned to stability.
Although the snow and wind are still blowing, people who went out have returned home safely. With the opening of the space array, supplies have been replenished, and the emergence of constant temperature suits has made people no longer afraid of the cold. The frequency of use of air conditioners and electric stoves has been greatly reduced, and the pressure on urban electricity consumption has been relieved. At the same time, various companies have begun to organize the resumption of work and production.
Everything is moving in a positive direction.
Unlike the tranquility of the Flower Kingdom, people in many other countries are suffering from the pain caused by snow disasters.
In these countries, countless human tragedies have occurred due to the failure of governments to provide timely relief.
The Bruce family lives in a small town in southern England, just an hour's drive from Tunya, the country's third-largest city.
The United Kingdom is a high-latitude country, and it snows almost every winter, so the residents did not pay much attention when it first started snowing.
Bruce braved the snowstorm and drove home from Tunya.
He returned home excitedly and personally delivered the princess dress he had just ordered from Tunisia to his youngest daughter.
"Happy fifth birthday, my darling! Look! This is your birthday present from Daddy, a dress just like the one worn by Sweet Princess. I hope my darling is as happy as Sweet Princess."
Amy, the little girl in Bruce's arms, clapped her hands happily as she looked at the beautiful princess dress. After giving her father a sweet kiss on the cheek, she eagerly took the yellow princess dress. "Thank you, Daddy! I love you the most!"
Outside the window, the wind and snow howled, but inside, it was warm and cozy. Amy happily celebrated her fifth birthday with her parents and friends.
The snow continued to fall, and the wind seemed to be blowing harder and harder.
"What terrible weather!"
Bruce sat by the window, munching on bread in frustration. He had met an important client in Tunia that day, a client he had been working with for a month, and was on the verge of signing the contract and receiving a large bonus. But overnight, half a person's height of snow had ruined everything!
With snow this thick, cars simply can't drive on the road.
His contract and his bonuses have all vanished like snowflakes!
"Daddy, are you unhappy?" The little girl, Amy, ran over. She was wearing a round down jacket and a hat with bunny ears, looking as cute as a newborn, fluffy, soft little bunny.
Bruce's irritation vanished instantly. He touched the bunny ears hanging from his daughter's hat and gently answered her question, "How could my darling be unhappy at home with me? Do you want Daddy to play with your dolls for a while? Or build a big castle with blocks?"
Amy tilted her head and thought for a moment, then answered, "Daddy, let me build a castle! A castle as big as Sweetheart Princess's."
Time slipped away in the joyful family time, but as evening fell, Bruce felt uneasy looking out the window at the increasingly fierce wind and snow.
If this snow keeps falling, it's bound to flood the houses.
"Honey, how much food do we have left at home? Have we bought enough winter clothes for the children?"
Bruce asked his wife.
"We still have five buckets of milk, three bags of bread, one bag of chocolate candy, two bags of oatmeal, one bag of bacon, one bag of corn, and a big bag of potatoes. Oh, and I also bought the kids' favorite apple pie and lots of fresh fruit yesterday."
"We haven't had time to buy winter clothes for the children yet, and they're wearing their old clothes from last winter. They've all grown taller this year, and last year's clothes are a bit too short."
"Honey, why are you asking this?"
"It's nothing, I'll have to figure out how to buy some food tomorrow."
Even if the clothes are a bit short, we can still wear them, but if there's no food, the whole family will go hungry.
The Bruce family doesn't have the habit of storing food in advance; they usually buy their food at the supermarket on the same day. The reason they still have so much food left is because they prepared so much for Amy's birthday celebration yesterday.
Bruce's wife supported her husband's decision; in fact, she had been somewhat uneasy since waking up this morning to see the snow still falling.
Although it snows every winter in the United Kingdom, it hasn't snowed as heavily as this in more than ten years.
This snow reminded her of the massive snow disasters she had seen on the news.
On the morning of the third day, the snow still hadn't stopped.
The snow in the Eagle Country is much heavier than in the Flower Country. In just two days, the snow had already reached the height of an adult.
Bruce's hometown is in northern England, where snowstorms occur almost every winter. So he is very experienced in how to dig snow tunnels, how to navigate in the snow, and how to make tools to travel quickly on the snow.
With his family's expectations and worries in tow, Bruce glided out of his house on his homemade snowboard, his goal for the day being to buy some food at the town's only supermarket.
Unfortunately, Lady Luck didn't smile on Bruce today.
When he arrived at the supermarket, he found that the supermarket door was completely blocked by snow. He tried to move the snow blocking the door.
This snowfall is very unusual; the family's food reserves are insufficient, and he must bring back more food for the children.
With this belief in mind, Bruce tried to clear the snow.
He succeeded; two hours later, Bruce cleared the snow. The locked gate didn't stop Bruce either; with brute force, he broke the lock.
After much effort, Bruce opened the door to find rows of empty shelves.
There wasn't a single food item in the supermarket; it was so clean that not even a single breadcrumb was left.
Bruce remembered that he had run into the supermarket owner, Charles, three days ago on his way to work. He had greeted him and asked him where he was going in his truck.
“Hey buddy, I’m planning to go back to Tunia. The town is too close to Tunia. Everyone would rather drive an extra twenty minutes to Tunia to shop than spend three minutes to come to my store to buy a single candy. I’m convinced that the person who runs the supermarket in town must be cursed by a demon, otherwise how could they only sell three hundred Eagle Dollars worth of goods in a quarter?”
“God above, three hundred eagles is not enough for my monthly rent to the landlady. If I stay here any longer, I will lose everything I own, including my underwear and socks.”
Yes, the supermarket owner left three days ago.
They left the town completely, taking all the remaining stock from the supermarket with them.
"Bruce, did you get any food?"
The wife waited anxiously at the window, but the door was blocked, so she could only wait for her husband to return through the window that wasn't covered by snow.
“Char left town three days ago, so we have to go to Tunya to buy food.”
"Tunya is a 20-minute drive from the town, and with the snow so heavy now, it's impossible to drive."
The couple fell silent.
Bruce suddenly noticed something was wrong and asked his wife, "Why is it so cold? Where are the children?"
"The power went out at noon today. Without electricity, the electric heaters couldn't work. I was worried that the children would get sick, so I made them lie down in bed."
Bruce's house has electric heating, which requires electricity to operate. There is a backup power supply, but it has broken down because it has not been used for a long time. Now, if they want to use electricity, they can only ask the power company to repair the fault and restore the power.
He called the power company, requesting them to urgently investigate the situation and restore power, but only received a perfunctory reply.
After hanging up the phone, Bruce couldn't help but smash his phone and start cursing.
He could break into shops to find food, but he couldn't fix the broken cables. In this awful weather, who knew when those lazy bums at the power company would get the electricity back on?
The next day, Bruce tried to brave the snow to go to Tunya to buy food and warm clothes.
But the snow was heavier than the day before, and he could only walk two kilometers before he could no longer continue.
Returning home in a disheveled state, a frustrated Bruce received even more worrying news.
His beloved youngest daughter, Amy, has a fever.
“I have given Amy fever-reducing medicine, but the weather is too cold. In this environment, it will be difficult for Amy to recover.”
"Perhaps we could cut down the chair first and then start the fireplace."
The orange flames danced in the air, but the fire couldn't warm the whole house. Even with the whole family gathered around the fireplace, they still felt an inescapable chill.
The snow fell heavier and heavier until it covered the entire first floor of the house, until it was so thick that people could not walk outside.
During this time, Bruce carefully kept his phone on, but he received no calls or texts from the government, let alone any help. All his calls to the power company and the municipality went unanswered.
All the flammable furniture in the house had been burned, including Bruce's white suit and his wife's wedding dress, all of which were destroyed in the fire used for warmth.
But even so, it's still not enough.
Bruce burned everything in his house that could be burned, just to give his wife and children a little warmth.
Until finally, there was nothing left to burn.
The only thing left in the house that was intact was the clothes on his body; everything else in the house that could burn was reduced to flames.
Oh, and there's the fifth birthday present he gave Amy—that princess dress as warm as the sun—Bruce didn't have the heart to burn it.
Food at home is running out, and each person can only eat a small potato per meal to fill their stomach.
The potatoes are still cooked in a fire today.
Bruce picked up little Amy from the crib by the fireplace. The poor child had been running a fever for several days and hadn't received proper medical care or nutrition. Her round face was visibly thinning, and her once fair skin had turned bluish-purple from the cold. Fortunately, her high fever had finally subsided today, and she no longer felt like a little furnace like she had a few days ago.
"Baby, wake up, it's time for dinner. Today, Mommy made mashed potatoes especially for Amy, and added some delicious butter. I'm sure my baby will love it."
Amy in Bruce's arms did not react.
His wife also came over, saying, "It must be because she was sick that she fell into a deep sleep without realizing it."
She gently called to the sleeping child.
"Amy, baby, wake up. Have dinner and then go back to sleep. Tonight, Mommy will put your little bed in the fireplace and burn it. But don't worry, baby, Mommy will hold you all night and promises to buy you a little bed exactly the same as yours after this damn snow melts."
Amy in Bruce's arms remained unresponsive.
The wife became anxious.
She snatched little Amy from Bruce's hands, but no matter how much she shook her, Amy didn't give her the slightest reaction.
"No, no, my Amy just turned five. After this snow, her life will be as sweet and happy as that of a sweet princess. Impossible. Her life has just begun."
Bruce restrained his wife's increasingly frantic movements and carefully placed his hand on his daughter's carotid artery.
It was as calm as the frozen river outside the town.
His wife had been watching Bruce's movements closely. When she saw his hands trembling with frustration, she hugged Amy tightly and burst into tears.
Her youngest daughter was the most adorable. She had just turned five when her life was tragically cut short by the devastating snowstorm.
Bruce's tears rolled down his cheeks one by one.
It seems like the beginning of something evil.
Since their youngest daughter Amy passed away in the cold, Bruce's wife had been in low spirits. Every day, she would hold the princess dress that Bruce had given Amy and sing softly to her. Until one morning, Bruce found his wife behind the wide-open door.
He didn't know when his wife had run away. Because of his illness and lack of food, he had become extremely weak and didn't notice that his wife had left him until it was too late.
His wife collapsed against the snow wall by the door, her body frozen stiff.
When he finally managed to separate his wife from the snowdrift, he discovered that she was holding a princess dress in her arms.
A wave of sadness overwhelmed Bruce in an instant.
His beloved youngest daughter, Amy, and his cherished wife both perished because of the heavy snow, and he could do nothing about it. He couldn't even leave his house to bury them; he could only leave their bodies in the attic.
Over the next month, Bruce's two remaining sons also left him one after another. Even though he gave the children the largest portions of food and the warmest clothes, he still couldn't stop them from leaving.
Bruce lay in the attic, looking out at the gray sky through the small window.
That's it. Everyone he loved in this world has left, so let Mr. Death reap his life along with them.
Otherwise, how would he cope with the loss of all his loved ones?
"Calling, there are five people here."
"Forget it, there's no need to come over. It seems they've all been taken away by God. They look like a family; they should all have gone to heaven where there's no cold."
"Wait! You need to come over. The man of the house seems to still be alive."
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