“Crash!”
The windows of Rong Hui’s home also suffered damage. As expected, the balcony with floor to ceiling windows on three sides was the first to give way.
Rong Hui did not dare go close to check. Fortunately, the glass door at the junction between the balcony and the interior room had also been covered with thermal insulation cotton and felt by her. For the time being, the hail should not be able to break through into the house.
The hail pounded against the buildings and the ground. Freezing rain also rushed to make its presence known. Icicles formed on tree branches and roof eaves like rows of barbs.
The rows of interconnected utility poles inevitably ended up streaked with lines of water left by the freezing rain, which quickly froze into ice. The artillery shell like hailstones then continued smashing against the now brittle frozen poles, producing bursts of sparks and flashes of electricity along the line. Before long, nearly half of the poles were broken, and half of the city lost power.
The air conditioner in Rong Hui’s home stopped operating immediately. The electricity in her home was also cut off. Originally, the indoor temperature could still be maintained at around zero degrees, but once the air conditioner stopped, the temperature dropped in a straight line. In less than fifteen minutes it had already fallen to minus 15°C.
Rong Hui’s hands and feet began to grow cold. She now truly understood how difficult the system’s mission was. On the surface, it only required her to stay well fed and warmly clothed for five days to complete the task, but in reality, under such extreme weather conditions, even maintaining herself without falling into a frostbite status was already very difficult. Even so, she still had to try her best. She felt that the system’s rewards would not disappoint.
She dragged the two beanbag chairs from the living room into the bedroom. The already small single bedroom became completely packed. When the temperature was extremely low, moving around in a narrow and crowded room would reduce heat loss as much as possible.
Next, Rong Hui took out the envelope style down sleeping bag as well. Judging from the current situation, a drastic drop in temperature during the night was inevitable. She needed to make thorough preparations for resting at night. If she did not sleep well, she would have to worry about insufficient recovery of her stamina value. If she slept too deeply, she would have to worry about suffering frostbite in her sleep. Unfortunately, the power was out now. Otherwise, the air conditioner and electric blanket would have been excellent heating tools.
After everything was arranged, Rong Hui curled up in the beanbag chair, holding a heating pad in her hands to keep warm.
It was only five in the afternoon, yet outside it was already so dark that one could not see a hand in front of their face. This round of hail disaster lasted for two hours. It was as if the heavens had endless anger to vent upon the earth. Buildings were battered and scarred, production halted, work and school stopped, transportation was forced to pause, and everyone had to hide inside sturdy buildings to avoid the disaster.
The government also failed to find any opportunity to carry out rescue operations. They could only use diesel generators to keep the alarm sirens blaring continuously in order to warn the public.
By the time everything outside finally quieted down, Rong Hui had not yet fully recovered her senses. Her ears had been shaken by the continuous pounding of hail for so long that a buzzing tinnitus still seemed to linger.
She stood up from the sofa and sharply inhaled a breath of cold air. Her upper body was still tolerable, but her lower body felt as if it had been soaked in cold water, itchy with freezing numbness.
She glanced at the thermometer. The indoor temperature had already dropped to minus 20°C, even colder than the freezing compartment of an ordinary refrigerator. Outside it had probably dropped to minus 25°C. In this disaster, who knew how many lives would be taken.
The wind and snow outside gradually subsided. Rong Hui sighed and first went to check the damage to the balcony. She saw two large holes in the upper left and middle sections. The floor was covered with shattered glass and hailstones that had smashed in through the openings.
Rong Hui carefully avoided the glass shards and picked up a hailstone the size of a fist. She weighed it in her hand. The icy and solid texture made her afraid to imagine how painful it would be to be struck by it.
Rong Hui used a broom to clean up the hailstones and broken glass. For the moment, she used thermal insulation cotton to cover the openings. The windows could not be repaired for now.
Suddenly, loud crying erupted from an unknown floor downstairs, mixed with the wailing of a child.
Rong Hui frowned and checked the property management group chat. She discovered that something had happened to a family on the fifth floor.
When the hail arrived, the windows in their home had been smashed open. Their seven year old child had not managed to dodge in time and was struck on the head by hail and shattered glass. Blood was now flowing continuously.
They could not get through to 120. The survivors on the fourth floor who had cars were afraid that hail might fall again on the road and refused to drive no matter what. The young couple on the fifth floor were now searching everywhere for bandages and medicine, hoping to bandage the child first and then think of another solution. With the freezing weather outside, if they rashly tried to walk to the hospital without a car, they might run into serious trouble from the cold on the way.
The group chat was full of noisy discussion, but no one said they had medicine at home. In the current situation, the shops outside could not open. Everyone was trapped inside their homes, and supplies were gradually used up bit by bit. No one wanted to be generous and share their own things with others.
The young couple on the fifth floor were using cotton cloth at home to stop the bleeding, but the wound on the child’s head was too large. It could not go without disinfection. When they thought about the possible complications that might follow, such as infection or fever, the parents felt their hearts bleed.
“Bang bang bang.”
A burst of knocking interrupted the couple’s sobbing.
“Who is it?”
The man got up to look through the peephole, but discovered that the corridor was empty. He cautiously opened the door. The corridor had already frozen over, and the cold air rushed straight into his face.
There was no one outside the door. Only a plastic bag was hanging from the door handle. When the man opened it, he was delighted to discover that inside were a small bottle of iodine solution, a roll of medical bandage, and a sheet of anti inflammatory medicine. The child could be saved!
The man rushed back to his wife’s side and carefully disinfected and bandaged the child using the medicine that someone unknown had delivered. They also had anti inflammatory medicine now. The child would definitely be able to hold on until reaching the hospital. The young couple cried tears of joy, continuously thanking the unknown kind person in their hearts.
The door on the sixth floor closed quietly.
Rong Hui blew warm air onto her stiff frozen hands. She had quietly placed the medicine down and left. She did not want to receive anyone’s gratitude, nor did she want to attract attention. Right now she was living alone at home. If people knew she had extra medicine, that would also be a kind of danger. Yet she could not bring herself to stand by and watch someone die without helping. She could only compromise like this.
Perhaps because she had saved someone, she felt that her mood was no longer so heavy. Before long it was dinner time again, and she decided to eat something good to reward herself.
After choosing again and again from the photo box, she finally selected hot pickled cabbage beef rice noodles. When she had traveled in Changsha, she had loved the local rice noodles the most. During that week long trip she had eaten more than ten different varieties of noodles, and none of them had disappointed.
Before long, a large steaming bowl of rice noodles appeared in front of her. Rong Hui returned to the bedroom and slowly enjoyed her dinner.
A rich milky broth formed the base, and the bowl was piled high with toppings. Crisp pickled cabbage, fragrant and chewy slices of beef, paired with smooth rice noodles. She lifted a chopstickful and slurped the noodles with a loud slurping sound. The rising steam blew against her face and turned it red. Eating a bowl of hot noodle soup in such freezing weather not only filled her satiety value to the maximum, it also filled her heart with happiness.
She finished the entire large bowl of noodles, leaving not even a drop of broth behind. Rong Hui leaned comfortably against the sofa. Her body, whose blood circulation had been somewhat poor from the cold, felt waves of warmth spreading through it. Sometimes, living in this world was about moments like these.
…