Chapter 579: Master of Both Civil and Martial Arts
Chapter 579: Master of Both Civil and Martial Arts
Doll didn’t listen to her. The moment Little Mint stopped feeding, she opened her mouth and hummed, “Hmmmmm,” its gaze fixed on the sweet potato in Little Mint’s hand.
Little Mint glanced nervously at An Ran. Seeing that An Ran was talking to Yun Tao and not paying attention, she quickly fed Doll another bite, afraid An Ran would scold her.
Just then, the door flew open with a bang, and clumps of ice clattered to the ground outside. Luo Feifan stumbled in, rubbing at a fresh bump on his forehead.
An Ran, sitting on the sofa, handed Doll over to Little Mint, then stood and walked toward him. “Where are Zhan Lian and Zhang Boxun? Weren’t you going to bring him back?”
“In the back.” Luo Feifan pointed behind him while still massaging his sore forehead, then hurried over to the fire to warm himself.
Moments later, Zhan Lian and Zhang Boxun stepped inside. As soon as Zhan Lian entered, he reached out and pulled An Ran into his arms.
The two of them returned to the living room together, shedding their outer layers as Zhan Lian said gravely: “Don’t go out these next few days. A family was found frozen to death in Hedong. They dug several frozen corpses out of the snow along the road. If the weather keeps up like this, I’m afraid more terrible things will happen.”
The words cast a shadow over everyone’s faces. They had thought the clear skies earlier meant the weather was improving, but it was nothing more than a false lull before the storm.
People freezing to death in Hedong was proof enough of how harsh things had become. And not only that—the ice storms had caused a complete blackout there. Even the windmills for electricity had frozen solid and wouldn’t turn.
The heavy silence in the room dragged on. The crackle of burning firewood was the only sound.
Finally, An Ran cleared her throat, glancing at Wang Wei as he tossed another log onto the flames. “Do we have enough supplies?”
“It shouldn’t be a problem for now,” Yun Tao, who managed the stores, replied. “But we’ll probably be going out less often. Who knows how long this weather will last? If it drags on for years…”
“While people can still move around, we should stockpile as much as possible.” Zhan Lian made the call, his tone decisive.
This world was too strange; there was no predicting what would happen next. Against extreme cold, even the strongest abilities were useless. Step outside at the wrong time, and you’d end up frozen into an ice sculpture. How could anyone survive that?
“There’s also the matter of electricity.” Zhan Lian extended his hands toward the fire, lost in thought. “We can’t let these hardships defeat us. I’ll start researching and build a wood-fired boiler.”
“You can do that?” An Ran looked at him in surprise.
Zhan Lian only smiled at her, but before he could reply, Luo Feifan cut in with a grin. “There’s nothing your husband can’t do.”
It wasn’t just an exaggeration. Zhan Lian was truly a man of many talents—someone who could craft bombs, bullets, and artillery shells, even modify a bulletproof vehicle. Building a wood-fired boiler was child’s play in comparison.
With Zhan Lian around, even the apocalypse felt far less daunting.
An Ran suddenly felt like she’d uncovered a treasure.