“Dad! Mom! Come inside for a minute too,” Mo Fei called toward the yard.
As Song Yi and Mo Zhicheng came in, they asked what was wrong. Both of them were wearing full sun protection gear. After entering the house, they took off their hats and face coverings and wiped away their sweat. Mo Jiayue quickly poured each of them a glass of ice water.
“Jianian may have awakened an ability,” Mo Fei said solemnly.
Since she had already warned the family beforehand and given them a simple explanation, they all understood immediately. They nodded and gathered around Mo Jianian with serious expressions.
“Try smiling,” Mo Fei said gravely.
The previous night, after confirming that Mo Jianian’s fever had gone down, she had gone back to her room to sleep. She had completely forgotten that he might awaken an ability.
Mo Jianian nodded and gave everyone a warning first. “Then all of you stand farther back first. Don’t be scared…”
After that, Mo Jianian looked at his left hand and slowly smiled.
In just over ten seconds, a grayish white tentacle covered in black barbs replaced Mo Jianian’s left hand.
The tentacle was about half a meter long. Thick and sturdy, it waved through the air. It resembled the mutated limb of a marine creature like an octopus or squid, moving with remarkable flexibility. Everywhere it swung, it sliced through the air with a sharp whooshing sound, making it obvious that it possessed considerable destructive power.
However, although Mo Jianian tried his hardest to control the tentacle’s movements, he simply could not. Strangely enough, the bizarre tentacle growing from his body seemed especially fond of Mo Fei, constantly waving in her direction.
No wonder Mo Jianian had asked everyone to stand farther away.
Mo Fei carefully observed the tentacle and asked, “So whenever you smile, your left hand turns into this tentacle? Does your right hand feel anything?”
Mo Jianian shook his head and raised his right hand. “My right hand is fine.”
“About how long does it last?” Mo Fei asked.
Mo Jianian had obviously timed it himself and answered precisely, “About fifteen seconds after I smile, my left hand turns into this. It lasts for three minutes.”
So this was the ability Mom had talked about? Mo Jianian had thought there was something wrong with him and had spent the entire day worrying.
He had only dared to mention it after seeing that Mo Fei had woken up.
To him now, Mo Fei was the person he could rely on the most.
“It looks like Mo Jianian’s ability is related to his hand,” Mo Fei said to the family. “Don’t worry. He probably just obtained this ability, so his body and the tentacle aren’t coordinating very well yet. That’s why he can’t control it and might accidentally damage furniture or hurt someone. But at least there’s a fifteen second delay after he smiles. As long as everyone remembers that and moves away in time, it’ll be fine.”
The whole family had now witnessed Mo Jianian’s tentacle.
Mo Jiayue had been frightened until her face turned pale and kept hiding behind Mo Fei. Mo Zhicheng and Song Yi looked utterly shocked. Mo Jianian himself appeared nervous and at a loss.
Only Mo Fei remained calm and composed, telling everyone that this was perfectly normal.
Perhaps everyone would awaken their own abilities in the future.
“Mom, I tested it already. My tentacle ability has a cooldown. After the three minutes are over, I have to wait another hour before I can use it again,” Mo Jianian continued. So after triggering the ability, he still had at least one hour during which he could smile happily without worrying.
Hearing that, Mo Fei breathed a sigh of relief. Children were naturally playful and cheerful. If he could no longer smile freely because of this, Mo Jianian would truly have it rough.
After thinking for a moment, she said, “An hour from now, come with me to the third floor. We’ll test the strength of your tentacle.”
The gym on the third floor contained plenty of barbells, weight plates, and similar equipment.
They could use those to test the tentacle’s strength, speed, and other capabilities.
“Big Brother.” Mo Jiayue waited until the three minutes were over and Mo Jianian’s hand had returned to normal before finally daring to approach him.
Mo Zhicheng and the others repeatedly held Mo Jianian’s hand, examining it over and over. They all marveled that if they had not witnessed it with their own eyes, they never would have believed something that only happened in television dramas. A human hand turning into a tentacle? It was simply unbelievable.
Mo Fei walked into the kitchen to pour herself a glass of fruit juice.
Song Yi followed her over. “While you were still asleep this morning, we listened to the morning news.”
“What did it say?” Mo Fei had come downstairs immediately after waking up and had not yet had a chance to check her phone.
“They said that most of the city has already lost power. A lot of people are hiding in their cars with the air conditioning running. Those without cars can only endure the heat at home. Quite a few people have already died from the heat. Right now, the most expensive things on the market are generators and fuel,” Song Yi said.
Mo Fei picked up her phone and scrolled through it. “Mm. I saw it. I never left the Jinshi Garden homeowners’ group chat. The property management managed to get generators, but they’re only willing to provide electricity if the homeowners pay.”
Song Yi continued, “That’s not even the worst part. Besides the people dying from the heat, there are also people being bitten to death and clawed to death by those… things. That’s truly horrifying. Take pet stores, for example. Dogs and cats grew fangs that bit straight through their cages. After escaping, they started attacking people everywhere. And those zombies you mentioned, some people online are calling them cannibals. They say even after getting shot through the head, they can still keep moving. Even after being run over by a car, they can still get back up. Who knows how many people they’ve bitten to death. Right now, unless you’re missing an arm or a leg or practically at death’s door, you can’t even get an appointment at the hospital. Everything outside has already descended into chaos.”
“Luckily, our whole family got out,” Song Yi said gratefully. “Your father and I sent messages in our group chats earlier, telling our friends to buy more food and daily necessities and not to go outside. I wonder if they listened.”
“You didn’t tell them where we’re living, did you?” Mo Fei asked worriedly.
“No. Your eldest aunt is in Hong City, and your youngest uncle is in Qing City. Neither of them knows we’ve moved. They both sent me messages just now asking if we’re safe. They even told us that if we had nowhere to go, we could stay with them.” As she spoke, Song Yi sent text messages to both her older sister and younger brother, telling them that everyone here was safe and reminding them to stay safe as well.
The three Song siblings had all had different personalities and ambitions since childhood. After growing up, each had settled down in a different place.
In the past, they would still gather during the Lunar New Year. But after their parents passed away, the three siblings rarely saw one another because of the distance.
Even so, they still kept in touch and checked in on each other from time to time.
Because they trusted Song Yi, her older sister and younger brother had genuinely followed her advice. They stockpiled large amounts of food and water, installed insulation, bought generators, and stayed inside their homes without stepping outside.
Unexpectedly, those preparations had truly helped them avoid disaster.
“That’s good.” Mo Fei let out a sigh of relief. As long as it did not put her own family at risk, it was good if she could help some other people as well.
“I’ll make dinner tonight. Everyone, tell me what you’d like to eat. Anything is fine.” Mo Fei stood up and stretched lazily.
“Dry tossed vermicelli casserole,” Song Yi answered, knowing that Jianian loved that dish.
Mo Zhicheng did not order anything. He had always eaten whatever was available and was never picky.
The first time Mo Fei had met Mo Zhicheng, he had looked old and frail, with graying hair. But now, whether because he was in a better mood or because he had been drinking space water regularly, his body had become lean and fit. He actually looked healthier than many people his own age.
Mo Jianian requested Coca-Cola chicken wings, while Mo Jiayue wanted something sweet and asked Mo Fei to make double skin milk pudding.
Mo Fei agreed to every request. Besides those dishes, she also planned to make herself corn and pork rib soup using the corn that had grown inside her space.
The corn that had been watered with space water and grown in the black soil inside her space had large, plump, sweet kernels. It had never been sprayed with pesticides. Even in the kitchens of five star hotels, Mo Fei had rarely seen corn of such quality.
To make it easier to take ingredients out of her space, Mo Fei first entered the cold storage room. After making a show of it, she carried a pile of ingredients into the kitchen.
One of the advantages of this villa was its excellent natural lighting.
But now, with the blazing sun overhead and the temperature reaching astonishing levels, that advantage had become a disadvantage. Frowning at the kitchen window, Mo Fei put down the kitchen knife in her hand and quickly installed a blackout curtain.
However, while she was installing it, she noticed countless things falling from the sky outside the window.
They were birds.
Bird after bird, densely packed together.
Not far from the villa Mo Fei had bought was a small park.
Ever since the park had been built, it had attracted very few visitors and had not been maintained. The birds usually lived around the park’s artificial lake.
She had never expected to witness such a shocking sight today.
One bird after another struggled to soar higher into the sky, only to have their wings fail in the fifty-degree heat before plummeting to the ground.
She truly did not know what was in the sky that attracted them so strongly.
But under such extreme heat, all living creatures were equal. The closer they got to the sun, the faster they died.
Mo Fei noticed that the birds all seemed to be falling toward the same location. There might be something unusual there.
After that thought, Mo Fei focused on cooking. Every ingredient was first soaked in space water, as though doing so could disinfect it. Then, unless the ingredient was meant to be eaten raw, she cooked everything in the large iron wok.
Now that they had moved into the villa, she simply told her family that this was a newly purchased magical iron wok that could cook without fire. Mo Zhicheng and Song Yi repeatedly praised how amazing it was and immediately asked if it cost tens of thousands for a single wok.
Before long, the fragrant dry tossed vermicelli casserole glistening with oil, neatly arranged Coca-Cola chicken wings coated in sauce, bright yellow stir fried corn with pine nuts featuring large, plump kernels, a plate of crisp stir fried romaine lettuce, and five bowls of double skin milk pudding topped with crushed peanuts and raisins were all ready.
With the combined enhancement of the space water and the iron wok, the whole family finished eating especially quickly. They kept saying that Mo Fei’s cooking was incredibly delicious and that even large restaurants could not produce food with this kind of flavor.
“Dad, Mom, I’m going out for a bit,” Mo Fei called after dinner, patting her round, full stomach.
It was now seven thirty in the evening. The sun had just set, and the temperature immediately dropped by fifteen degrees. A temperature of thirty-five degrees Celsius was now completely tolerable for the family. Mo Jianian especially, perhaps because he had awakened an ability, had recovered extremely well. Not only did he no longer feel hot, but he even found the weather a little cool.
“We’re going too.” The two little ones immediately ran after her.
“Where are you going? How long will you be? It’s so dangerous outside right now,” Song Yi said. She always treated Mo Fei like a child.
“Just going for a walk,” Mo Fei replied.