“Ding ding ding—”
Three-thirty in the morning.
Wen Xi was awakened by a continuous stream of notification sounds. Dazed, she tossed and turned on her mattress, struggling to open her eyes to check her phone interface.
[007 Group] 999+ unread messages
[Private Chat] 87 unread messages
[Friend Requests] 363 people waiting to be accepted
“Hiss…”
Wen Xi rubbed her temples and reached for the machete by her bedside, which helped her wake up a bit more.
It was absolute chaos.
Whether it was the 007 group, the property owners’ group, or the part-time job groups, everything was blowing up.
She raised an eyebrow, muted the constant stream of messages from other groups, and opened only the 007 group:
“My god, the temperature really dropped suddenly; it seems like it’s raining ice needles outside!”
“If you really fall asleep and your body functions lose balance, you’ll freeze to death!”
“Don’t even mention it. I turned on the air conditioner, but it’s useless; I just feel colder and colder! Could that ‘Black Rain Ice Age’ actually be real?”
“Hey, hey, hey, where is that person who was selling warm items earlier? I want to buy some from her now.”
“So you’re bowing down now? It doesn’t feel that cold to me. That woman is just exaggerating; claiming it will drop to below negative seventy degrees is clearly alarmist.”
“I’m going to send a friend request. My room doesn’t even have a quilt, she can’t possibly refuse to do business, right?”
“That’s too exaggerated. Temperature drops after rain are normal; don’t be such a frightened bird, okay?”
“Bullshit! Does your house drop over forty degrees after the rain?”
…
Hiss, the massive temperature drop has arrived.
No wonder it was blowing up.
Wen Xi understood. She hadn’t even realized the changes outside because she was curled up in her tent, sleeping on an energy mattress that repaired fatigue and maintained constant body temperature, all while hugging a fluffy teddy bear.
However, looking at the group chat now, most people still didn’t believe it.
The 007 group had nearly four thousand people, and fewer than one-tenth had come looking for her. There was no need to panic yet.
Taking a deep breath, Wen Xi climbed up. The moment she stepped off the mattress, she shuddered from the cold.
…So cold!
The tent was as frozen as a cellar!
Wen Xi unzipped the tent, and an even more intense chill rushed in. She turned around to put on a down jacket, only then finding the courage to step out of the tent.
She used a bamboo pole to lift a corner of the curtain to avoid touching the black rain, seeing black raindrops freezing into ice cones mid-air, clattering against the outdoor air conditioning unit.
…Ice needles.
Wen Xi suddenly felt a bit nervous, taking a deep breath to steady herself.
Although she now had a phone that acted as an energy item and didn’t have to worry about supplies, she had experienced the Black Rain Ice Age once before and had even died in this apocalypse. That fear transcended time and space.
It wasn’t just the fear of extreme cold, but also of human nature.
Wen Xi lowered the curtain, exhaling a puff of white mist as she looked down, confirming that the temperature had already dropped below zero.
She immediately turned on the air conditioner.
Afterward, she placed an order for a large amount of smokeless coal and purchased a heater.
The air conditioner could still block the cold for now, but once the extreme cold arrived, both the air conditioner and heating would fail—not to mention that in the South, there was no central heating.
The air conditioner began to blow warm air.
The smokeless charcoal stove ignited, and the indoor temperature gradually rose, becoming warm.
Wen Xi glanced at the indoor thermometer; it had reached thirty degrees Celsius.
It was actually a bit hot now.
Outside the window, frost covered everything, having already swallowed the entire city.
It looked freezing.
Wen Xi regretted that she had transmigrated back so close to the apocalypse; otherwise, she could have built a doomsday fortress like in the novels to at least resist the bitter cold and wear lighter clothing.
Even with cotton clothes and a stove, it wouldn’t be enough once the temperature drop finished in a few hours.
Thinking of this, Wen Xi hurriedly ran back to nest on her energy mattress.
The moment she stepped onto it, she felt saved.
The most successful purchase ever!
She snuggled into her quilt and, while she had the time, began to study the phone interface features.
Although other apps were locked and only basic software functions were available, they were still quite versatile.
Besides the mutated WeChat, which allowed for sending red packets with items or transferring items via bank transfers, the camera had also changed; after taking a photo, it could display notes about the items or people.
Curiously, Wen Xi aimed the camera at herself and took a photo.
Text floated on the side of the photo: [Poor people are not allowed to take selfies.]
She took a photo of the room: [Wow, it’s so run-down, you should stop living here! It’s beggar-style.]
“…”
You’re the beggar! Your whole family are beggars!
Wen Xi studied it for a while longer, and when she got tired, she opened the short video app to binge-watch free anime collections.
After finishing the zero-bad-review sun protagonist anime, she moved on to the rubber-man pirate one.
Wen Xi opened the tent again.
The indoor thermometer showed negative fifteen degrees. The outdoor air conditioning unit had long since stopped running; everything relied on the burning charcoal stove and the energy mattress to maintain warmth.
Thanks to the mattress, thanks to the stove.
Wen Xi opened the group chat, and messages tagging her poured out like an explosion.
“Please, Wen Xi! My daughter is only three years old and is already running a fever from the cold! You can’t just stand by and watch her die, right?”
“We’re all neighbors; aren’t you afraid of retribution for being so cold-blooded? Is it just because you think the price isn’t high enough? Tell us yourself how much you want!”
“Why are you begging here? We’re all at death’s door anyway. Who can send me her residential area and door number? I’ll carry out righteous enforcement myself; then everyone can get things for free!”
“Women are just not as loyal as us men, narrow-minded, with no spirit of dedication, collective consciousness, or great love!”
“It seems like many people’s avatars in the group have turned gray. Did, did they die?”
Wen Xi scrolled to the group member interface and, sure enough, saw a large number of gray avatars.
She scrolled up to check the chat history.
It turned out that starting from 5:00 AM, the temperature had plummeted to negative forty degrees.
Many people’s home air conditioners had completely broken down, water pipes had burst, and even their phones had automatically shut down due to the low temperature.
Those still alive in the group were the lucky ones who had quilts or were barely surviving on body heat.
However…
The general trend had shifted from requests to buy to moral kidnapping, and they were just a step away from forcing her to agree.
“Still in the mood for moral kidnapping? It seems it’s not cold enough or urgent enough yet. Then I’ll add more fuel to the fire.”
Wen Xi opened her food delivery app and ordered an expensive hot mulled wine set. She also placed the remaining barbecue from yesterday on the charcoal stove to heat up.
The red wine was delivered quickly.
She intentionally placed the wine glass and the sizzling, oily barbecue in a conspicuous spot, took a photo, and sent it to the group.
[Wen Xi (Sun Warm Patch)]: [Photo] Morning everyone, the weather is quite nice today.
In the photo, the charcoal fire made the tent look warm and cozy.
Wen Xi was wrapped in a down quilt, her red wine glass reflecting an amber light, and the grease from the barbecue dripped onto the stove, emitting an enticing white smoke.
The group chat exploded instantly!