Chapter 560: The Flood Begins
Chapter 560: The Flood Begins
A few days passed, and it was almost June. Doll was already eight months old and had learned to crawl. She wore a crawling suit all day, crawling all over the villa bed.
Zhan Lian was helpless— even with railings around the bed, she couldn’t be contained. Before long, Doll learned to grab the iron bars with both hands and try to sit up, as if attempting to climb over the railings.
Little Mint was terrified she would fall, so she hardly left Doll’s side.
By June, the northern weather hadn’t improved—it had only worsened. Someone had even tried stepping outside to cry, only to come back with their tears frozen into beads of ice stuck to their face.
Luo Feifan kept probing for news from Hedong. Conditions there seemed to be deteriorating rapidly, resources dangerously scarce.
On their side of the river, however, things were far better. Everyone had received firewood. At first, the amount allotted was calculated precisely: enough for one villa per day. To conserve it, Fatty divided the six hundred-strong group into clusters of twenty or so, each living in a villa. These villas were all close to An Ran’s home, encircling her residence in the southeast corner of the complex.
Those who had been cured and successfully brainwashed lived with the soldiers, scattered across the outermost area. Yun Tao organized them into a team. It was originally for ease of management, but later, in his spare time, he began teaching the young men how to escape.
After all, no one knew when disaster—natural or man-made—would strike. Things seemed stable for now, but if a crisis erupted, these young men could evacuate with the soldiers, organizing and leading the rest to prevent chaos and needless death.
Initially, the firewood supply was just right. But as An Ran’s powers grew, the ordinary plants she produced multiplied in abundance. Fatty had to assign more people to chop wood, and soon firewood was being distributed in excess.
The next morning, An Ran headed to the planting plot. One of her wood plants was due to sprout today, so she arrived a bit earlier than usual.
Fatty had built a wall around the field, turning it into a sealed planting room.
In one corner, an old man tended a blazing fire. Since they were in the fields, they didn’t need to chop the roots—he simply piled them in and let them burn slowly. When he saw An Ran arrive so early, he quickly stood up, smiling warmly.
“Want some water?” he offered.
Yun Tao had crafted a wooden table for the planting room, sturdy and handmade. Fatty also provided three fruit snacks and water daily—an unusually generous treatment. If anyone wanted hot water, they only had to warm a small iron cup over the fire.
An Ran was about to nod and ask for hot water when the wooden door creaked open. Two men and a woman stepped inside, stamping their feet against the cold.
An Ran and the old man turned toward them. They weren’t the Wood-type ability users Fatty had assigned to her, nor even the strength-types usually sent to chop wood.
An Ran glanced at the old man beside her. She thought they might be Fatty’s survivors, but the old man looked utterly bewildered—he didn’t recognize them at all.