Chapter 28 Snowfall and Quick Freeze
November arrived before we knew it, and the weather was getting colder and colder.
Gu Yanxu added a few pieces of charcoal to the stove, making the room warm and cozy. Bai Tang nestled on the sofa with a can of food in her arms. After dinner, everyone was sleeping on the sofa to aid digestion.
Bai Tang took out her tablet and opened a comedy variety show that she had previously downloaded to her hard drive.
While everyone was watching variety shows and laughing heartily, large snowflakes quietly fell from the sky outside. As the cold wind lashed against the glass, it started to snow outside, and the thin layer of ice on the floodwaters began to freeze rapidly.
Someone outside was shouting, "Holy crap! It's snowing heavily!"
Bai Tang noticed the changes outside when she glanced out unintentionally.
She got up and walked to the window, and through the glass, she saw the scene of heavy snow falling outside.
Bai Tang called Gu Yanxu and the others to come and see the snowflakes outside.
Bai Jiyang, Lin Fan, and the other two exclaimed in surprise.
"My God, it's starting to snow at this time of year."
"Exactly, and it's raining so heavily."
"My God, I've never seen such heavy snow in my entire life."
"I hope this snow isn't as bad as the torrential rain."
Although Shengshi is a northern city and it snows in winter, they have never seen such large snowflakes before.
In her past life, Bai Tang was just as shocked to see such heavy snow, but after the shock came endless worry that she might freeze to death.
The snow kept falling, and after one night, the floodwaters were completely frozen by the snow, which had fallen up to the tenth floor.
The floodwaters had frozen into a thick layer of ice. Although it was snowing during the day, it wasn't nearly as heavy as it was at night, and everyone thought the snow would stop.
They waited until the third day, the fourth day, the fifth day…
A week has passed, and the snow is still falling, with the snow cover getting higher and higher. Everyone is starting to panic, especially the residents who have no food at home.
During floods, they could still try to row out and find supplies, but after snowfall, the floodwaters were frozen over, and no one could be sure whether the ice had solidified.
At this point, the people still living in the community began to get restless, eyeing those who lived alone or had elderly or infirm family members.
They all robbed within their own buildings, with the furthest they ventured to rob the buildings next door.
Because of the extreme cold, many people burned their furniture or burned coal to keep warm. To prevent carbon monoxide poisoning, some of them left their doors open, which made it easier for robbers to steal from them.
Two clueless men in the next building were planning to rob Bai Tang and her friends. When they saw Bai Tang alone at the door, they assumed she lived alone and their wicked thoughts took hold: "Little sister, would you like us two brothers to play with you?"
Before Bai Tang could fight back, Gu Yanxu followed behind and hacked the two men to pieces with a machete. After he finished, he told Lin Fan and the others to throw the bodies out of the stairwell window.
The bloodstains weren't cleaned up, just to serve as a warning to anyone who might try to rob them later, to see if they had the ability to do so.
Anyway, by this time the situation outside was so chaotic that the authorities couldn't manage it anymore, so Bai Tang and the others naturally stopped hiding. They sent away one person who came, and sent away two people who came.
Some people couldn't wait any longer and threw heavy objects from the building onto the ice to test how thick the ice was. To their surprise, the objects only created a crater in the ice and didn't actually hit the water.
As the temperature continued to drop and the ice continued to freeze, many people soon began to walk on the ice. They had run out of food at home and if they didn't go out to find supplies, they would just wait to die at home. However, they were all wrapped up like bears.
The snow outside wasn't very deep, because it melted in the icy water as soon as it fell, but the ice layer was getting thicker and thicker.
More and more people started walking on the ice, and Bai Tang and his friends also prepared to take the canned food down for a stroll.
When they left, Bai Jiyang turned the power grid to high power, and the small generator that Bai Tang had prepared almost couldn't power it.
The six people and one cat were all wearing thermal underwear underneath, and thick down jackets on top, but they weren't particularly bulky.
After going downstairs, the cold wind mixed with blizzard hit them, making everyone shiver.
Gu Yanxu wrapped the scarf around Bai Tang's neck again.
"The snow is falling so heavily that the water is completely frozen."
However, the snow only reached her calves, so Bai Tang put the can on the ground, intending to let it run around on its own.
As soon as I put it down, the canned food started running around and having a blast.
Canned food's white fur blended seamlessly with the snow. If it weren't for Bai Tang's "exquisite" thermostatic suit being black, Canned food would probably have disappeared long ago.
At first, Bai Jiyang and the others were worried that the canned food might step into the ice pit, but seeing how happily it was frolicking around, they were relieved.
Bai Tang and Gu Yanxu knew that when the extreme cold period arrived, the snow and ice layers would be frozen solid, and people could walk on them.
At least back then, people who weren't at the base could go out once a month to collect relief supplies, slowly gliding across the snow, each person wrapped in various out-of-season clothes.
Bai Tang and the others walked carefully on the ice, without any destination in mind, just going downstairs to acclimatize to the extreme cold.
They watched the canned food frolic for half an hour, then Bai Tang called it back: "Canned food, how can you, a little girl, run so fast?"
Gu Yanxu said, "It's probably because it's a stray cat; it's full of energy."
As they were talking, the snow started to fall harder. It was only a little past two in the afternoon, but it was almost dark outside. They could vaguely see layers of dark clouds in the sky when they looked up.
When they got back inside, they shook the snow off themselves, looked up at the thermometer, and saw that it was already below minus ten degrees Celsius, and it was getting colder and colder.
Bai Tang took the canned food to give it a bath and deworm it.
Gu Yanxu went to the kitchen to prepare lunch. The weather was so cold now that some ingredients wouldn't spoil quickly if left outside.
Gu Yanxu took the chopped beef bones out of the basin and prepared to cook some beef bone noodle soup. It was cold, so he should eat something hot.
First, blanch the beef bones, then add carrot chunks and corn, and simmer them slowly in a large earthenware pot. I also added some charcoal to the stove, making the room warm and cozy.
Gu Yanxu returned to the kitchen and took out the hand-pulled noodles he had stocked up on before. He added some small green vegetables to the casserole and cooked for another ten minutes or so, filling the house with a delicious aroma.
After Bai Tang dried the fur off the canned food, she came out carrying the canned food and saw Gu Yanxu making beef hot pot noodles.
She suggested, "There's still some braised beef in the room. Let's take it out, cut it up, and put it in the noodles. We'll have a deluxe version of beef hot pot noodles."
The lunch prepared for the canned cat was cat food with finely chopped beef.
By the end of the meal, everyone was so full they didn't want to move, but Bai Jiyang didn't rest because it was his turn to clean up the dishes.
He tidied up the dishes and put them in the cupboard, then collected all the trash in the house and threw it out the window. Everyone does this, and people still talk about environmental pollution. Now the outside world has become like this.
After finishing their meal, with no electricity or signal and no entertainment options, Bai Jiyang suggested playing mahjong, using the task of clearing the dishes as the wager.
Bai Tang and Gu Yanxu were reading books about planting, since the land in their space couldn't be left to waste.