Following the airport’s signs, Ye Yi found the restroom, and only then did she have a chance to hide inside and go through the backpack that was now hers.
Digging through it, she found an ID document, three bags of compressed biscuits, three bottles of water, a down jacket, and a small medicine box. She opened the medicine box for a look, inside were the usual everyday medicines.
It seemed her guess had been right: these backpacks really were starter packs. She wondered whether the people who had left without taking their packs would regret leaving so quickly once they found out.
Ye Yi searched the backpack again, more carefully, and to her surprise she turned up three hundred yuan tucked into an inner compartment. Only when she was sure there was nothing else did she go through the items in the other backpacks too, and sure enough, they all held the same things.
She put everything back the way it had been, took out all the cash from the three backpacks, counted a total of 900 yuan, gathered it together, and stuffed it into her pocket. After freshening up, she slung all three backpacks over herself again and left the restroom.
She hadn’t gone far. Just as she was about to turn a corner to look for the main exit, she heard the word “map,” and Ye Yi immediately slammed to a halt and ducked back around the corner.
“Brother Li, have you really been to other maps?” A stunningly pretty woman was clinging coquettishly to the arm of a man whose arm was covered in tattoos.
“Of course. Otherwise how do you think I got a gun?” Ye Yi poked her head out at the corner and watched as a gun appeared out of thin air in the tattooed man’s hand. Her body instinctively shrank back, yet she couldn’t resist pressing against the wall to keep peeking.
It was her first time meeting people who had been inside a map, and she was curious about what had happened to them in there.
“It really is a gun! Brother Li, you’re amazing! For this map, then, you’ll have to take good care of me, okay~? Otherwise a weak little woman like me has no way to survive here.” The gorgeous woman’s eyes lit up at the sight of the gun, and she instantly went boneless, plastering herself against the man and speaking even more cloyingly.
“That’ll depend on how well you perform, baby.” The tattooed man wrapped an arm around her and laughed loudly.
The gorgeous woman lifted her head with a coy smile, and it landed right on Ye Yi crouched in the corner.
Ye Yi went stiff with fright, pressing herself flat against the wall, her heart pounding wildly. She’d been spotted, they wouldn’t silence her, would they?!
At that thought, she quickly rose onto the balls of her feet and hurried off toward where the crowd was thickest.
She wove left and right through the crowd for a while before finally calming down enough to think it over slowly. She didn’t know whether what she’d just seen was a real gun, but if it was, then someone like her, with no weapon to defend herself, had better give people like them a wide berth. Caution first. Most importantly, she had seen with her own eyes that his gun had appeared out of his empty palm. Did people who entered maps get abilities?
Come to think of it, she still didn’t even know what kind of map this was. Maybe the wristband would have some clues?
She stopped and observed her surroundings for a bit, found a spot with few people, casually opened a room, and cautiously poked her head in for a look. No one inside. She walked in, shut the door, and plopped straight down onto the floor.
She’d fled too fast just now and was having some trouble breathing, so she leaned back against the wall. After steadying her breath for a while, she raised a finger and pressed it to the wristband. The next second, a transparent little frame appeared in the air.
It displayed:
Time: Day 1, 10:00 a.m. Location: Yudu Town, Airport Weather: Cloudy, turning to light rain Temperature: 25°C Humidity: 60%
Name: Ye Yi
Sex: Female
Age: 26
Survival Points: 150 (100 points frozen)
Current Map: Extreme Cold Blizzard
Random Teammate: Hidden (When your teammate is in danger, their location is automatically sent to you. Rescuing your teammate earns double points.)
Ability unlocking, please be patient!!! Countdown 8:35:31s
Ye Yi didn’t expect to actually get information from the wristband, and even less that she would have an ability. She just didn’t know whether everyone had one, or only those of them who had entered maps.
And what on earth was this Random Teammate? Rescuing a teammate could actually earn double points.
Most important of all was the ability unlocking, and the countdown. What was her ability?
Finding no more information, she had no choice but to close the wristband. Eyes shut, leaning against the wall, she thought over what she’d just learned: this was a world of extreme cold and blizzards.
Taken literally, extreme cold: the weather would be bitterly cold, blizzard: there would be snowstorms. Extreme cold + blizzard = blizzards under bitterly cold conditions. Just how cold would the extreme cold get? When would the blizzards fall? All of it was unpredictable.
It seemed that first she had to find lodging that could keep out the cold for the next twenty-nine days. Her only option was to head into town and look for a place to rent.
Second, she needed to prepare enough warm supplies. No one knew how cold the extreme cold could get. Making a bold guess, extreme cold had to be at least a few dozen degrees below zero to count as “extreme,” right?
Third, she had to secure enough food and water. Food replenished the energy the body burned each day, and water was even more indispensable. A person could hold out a day or two without water now and then, but with no water for a long stretch, they’d die of thirst.
When the extreme cold and blizzards arrived, the water would freeze, and outside would surely be nothing but snowstorms, she wouldn’t be able to go out to gather supplies. So she’d secure the three most important resources first, the other, non-essential items could be gathered as circumstances allowed.
Ye Yi quickly mapped out a plan in her head. With some direction for her next moves, she got ready to leave the airport at once and find shelter from the cold.
Time was the edge that decided everything. The information she knew, others might know too, only by staying one step ahead of everyone else could she live a little longer.
Out the airport doors, Ye Yi flagged down a taxi and headed straight for the town center. Fortunately the airport wasn’t far from town, and it only cost 30 yuan.
By the time she reached the town it was almost noon. She took a bag of compressed biscuits from her starter pack and dealt with her hunger. Then she started looking for a real-estate agent. She visited several, but none of them had anything suitable, the main reason being that she didn’t have enough money.
The houses in this town all required at least a 500-yuan deposit, plus one month’s rent of 400, for a total of 900 yuan.
She had only 870 yuan left, nowhere near enough for the rent. And even if it had been enough, she wouldn’t have dared to hand over all her money at once to rent a place. It seemed that finding housing through an agent was a dead end.
Better to wait until dark, find an inn to stay in first, and then ask the locals here where there might be a cheap place to rent.
After walking all afternoon, Ye Yi’s feet ached and throbbed. It had been a long time since she’d walked for so many hours. She patted her stomach, hungry again. Smelling the aroma from a roadside stall, she gritted her teeth and spent 10 yuan on a bowl of plain noodles.
She ate the noodles quickly, sat on the stool rubbing her sore calves, and rested a while. Looking at the distant sky, she saw clumps of gray storm clouds slowly gathering overhead, and immediately thought of the “cloudy, turning to light rain” the wristband had warned about. It seemed she needed to hurry, once it started raining, moving around would be a hassle.
Forcing herself to perk up, she got to her feet and, following the shops along the street, began looking for somewhere she could earn money. Along the way she came across a few people wearing wristbands who clearly didn’t fit in with the town. Ye Yi didn’t go up to them, she carefully avoided them, tucked her own wristband well up her sleeve, and, feigning ignorance, kept searching for a shop that might be hiring.
She had only 860 yuan on her, and she needed it to rent a place, buy food and water, and buy things to keep warm. With no income coming in, it simply wouldn’t be enough to cover all of that.
Up ahead a bubble-tea shop was hiring. Ye Yi went in and asked, but when she heard wages were paid monthly, she had to regretfully give it up. She tried a few more places, almost all paid monthly. Finally, at a hot-pot restaurant in the mall, she landed a flyer-handing job. Pay was daily: eight hours a day, 100 yuan.
Having confirmed her start time for the next day, Ye Yi headed for the cheaper inn that others had told her about earlier.
By now the storm clouds had completely blotted out the sky. Only the lights ahead were faintly visible, and a fine drizzle began drifting down.
Ye Yi lifted the backpack she’d been carrying and held it over her head to block the rain, then jogged onward.
As she walked, a middle-aged woman coming from the opposite direction suddenly clutched her stomach and doubled over, on the verge of collapsing to the ground.
Ye Yi quickly threw down her backpack and rushed forward, catching the woman’s sliding body in her arms. “Auntie, what’s wrong?”
“Sugar, sugar, sugar…” The woman clutched at her pocket, forcing out the words with difficulty.
Ye Yi’s ears pricked up at “sugar.” Bracing the woman with one hand, she used the other to quickly flip open the woman’s pocket, pulled out the candy inside, tore the wrapper with her teeth, and put the candy into her mouth. Seeing there was chocolate in the pocket too, she tore that open and fed it to her as well.
The candy and chocolate in the woman’s pocket looked like things she kept on hand at all times, she probably had a problem with low blood sugar.
The fine rain kept falling. Holding up the woman’s plump body with two backpacks still slung front and back, Ye Yi could barely last a minute before it became too much. Straining to support the woman, she brought her feet together and eased the woman down to sit on her shoes, and only then let out a breath of relief.
She shook out her overworked arms. Now it was her feet that ached a little, but it was far easier than before. Bending down, she picked up the backpack she’d tossed on the ground and shook the dust off it. Fortunately the rain had only just started and the ground wasn’t soaked through yet, or her backpack would have gotten wet.
She held the backpack up over the woman’s head to shield her from the drifting drizzle.
Sitting on Ye Yi’s shoes, the woman hugged her knees, lowered her head, and rested for about five minutes before finally coming back to herself.
Bracing her hands on the ground, she slowly straightened up, then grabbed Ye Yi’s hands and began thanking her over and over. “Little miss, thank you! Thank you! If you hadn’t caught me, that fall would’ve hurt me badly.”
Sure enough, age had caught up with her and her body wasn’t what it used to be. Thank goodness this young lady had caught her, otherwise? The more Sister Ma thought about it, the more frightened she felt in hindsight.
Ye Yi smiled awkwardly, not sure how to handle a stranger’s warmth. All she could do was mumble, “It’s nothing, Auntie. Do be careful next time you go out!”
For a moment she had no idea how to extract her hand from the woman’s enthusiastic grip.
“Ah, I know. I was in a bit of a rush going out this time and forgot to take my medicine.” Sister Ma answered frankly. “Little miss, you’re not a local, are you?”
“That’s right.”
“One look and I could tell you’re not from around here. Let me tell you, there’s not a single person in this town that I, Sister Ma, don’t know. Are you here to travel? A lot of people like you came to our town today.” Hearing the girl’s affirmative answer, Sister Ma only grew more animated. Such a sweet, kindhearted girl was rare these days.
Without even waiting for Ye Yi to answer, the impatient Sister Ma asked, “Where are you headed?”
“I was going to find an inn to stay at. Auntie, if you’re all right now, I’ll be on my way.” Faced with the woman’s stream of questions, Ye Yi grew flustered and hurried to find an excuse to leave.
“No need to look! My family runs an inn. Come, come, come, stay at my place.” At this, Sister Ma beamed with delight. What a coincidence, the girl could just stay at her place, problem solved.
With that, she made to pull Ye Yi off toward the road ahead.
Ye Yi had never met anyone this warm. Carrying her starter pack, she declined, “No need, Auntie. I can find a place on my own.”
“What? Are you looking down on my inn?” Sister Ma put on a stern face, feigning fierceness. “Let me tell you, in this whole town there’s no inn prettier than mine. Besides, you just saved my life, I’ve got to repay you somehow. If nothing else, just think of it as walking me home.”
Sister Ma paid no mind to the girl’s feeble little protests, taking her hand and marching straight ahead. She knew it, girls these days were too thin-skinned to refuse.
Once she’d pulled her home, was she really going to let her run off?
Dragged along with no way out and unable to shake off the woman’s grip, Ye Yi could only stumble after her in disarray. Hearing the woman talk about a pretty inn, she instantly felt her headache worsen.
The plump woman said her inn was very pretty, but one, Ye Yi wasn’t here to travel, and two, she was short on money and couldn’t afford somewhere that pretty. She only wanted to find a simple, cheap place to make do.
Forget it. Seeing there was no dodging it, Ye Yi decided she’d just have to seize a chance to slip away once they got there.
They hadn’t walked long before they reached the plump woman’s inn. Before they’d even gone in, they heard a man’s arrogant voice: “It’s your good fortune that I’ve taken a fancy to your inn. If you know what’s good for you, hand the place over right now.”