Chapter 599: The Biggest Monster
Chapter 599: The Biggest Monster
Those with ability dug their outside ice tunnels wide, adding multiple ventilation shafts. Those without dug them narrow—so narrow that not only could cars not pass, but even people had to squeeze sideways to get through.
So if you weren’t familiar with the paths, you could never find your way around.
New arrivals entering this snowy labyrinth had no choice but to wait for someone passing by to guide them to their new home.
An Ran, caught up in the novelty of it all, had Zhan Lian clear out their courtyard. He left a thick ceiling of snow and ice overhead, poked through a few vents, and An Ran took Doll out to skate on the ice.
Doll crawled across the frozen surface while An Ran strapped on skates—two pairs Zhan Lian had carved for her from ice.
Their tunnel was spacious, because their household had three strength-type ability users: Yun Tao, Liang Ziyu, and Wang Wei. Each one of them could, with one hand, lift a heavy truck. Together, the three could probably topple a whole building.
So when they had nothing else to do, they dug tunnels. Yun Tao especially loved studying terrain. He even drew a hand-sketched map of the villa tunnels and gave a copy to Fatty, so he wouldn’t get lost in the chaotic web of passages.
A few more days passed. Doll could now pull herself upright by holding onto things. An Ran’s skating skills grew more practiced, too.
For a few days, she finally had peace—until the neighborhood women, who often came to visit, figured out the tunnel routes again. One morning—or who knew if it was morning or night, since everyone just woke up whenever—they showed up at her courtyard.
An Ran stood on the ice, calling into the house: “Zhao Ru, someone’s here to chat with you. Come greet them!”
“Hehe, An Ran, you’re so funny!” One woman covered her mouth, laughing. “We can talk to you too, you know. We don’t always come here just for Zhao Ru.”
“That’s right, An Ran. These skates of yours are really fun…”
The women began chattering with her all at once, standing in the courtyard.
An Ran listened quietly, answering whatever they asked—just as she had once walked the neighborhood while pregnant with Doll, stopping to talk with people along the way.
She didn’t actually dislike chatting with them. But their conversations always seemed to drift into treating her like some kind of oracle—asking whether there were plants under the ground here, or if there were monsters over there. Half the time, An Ran didn’t know how to respond.
The truth was, plants were everywhere underground, though most had frozen roots. But frozen roots weren’t necessarily dead—they could recover. The problem was simply that this weather was too severe, not the right season to stimulate growth.
As for monsters—the fat spiky plant in An Ran’s care was the biggest monster in the entire region.
“Hey, did you hear? An Ran, that Tang Siluo has been ridiculous. Lately, anyone who goes to see her, she just drives them away.”
“Her attitude is terrible. If it weren’t for her father, none of us would even bother with her. What times are these? She still thinks she’s some kind of princess?”
“Yet she accepts all the supplies Fatty sends her. Who knows what she’s being so pretentious about, hiding in her room alone?”
As the women chatted, the topic shifted naturally to Tang Siluo.
An Ran, standing aside with her skates on, listened intently. She hadn’t heard any news about Tang Siluo in quite some time. Ever since handing her over to Fatty, she had washed her hands of her.
So now, hearing these bits of gossip about Tang Siluo again, she found herself intrigued.