You couldn't tell the difference between the inside and outside of the house without going out. The inside was like spring.
Gu Qingcheng casually took a hand warmer from the storage cabinet and held it in her hand before daring to walk outside.
Wangcai poked its dog head out, then immediately retreated back into the house.
It was too cold outside, not fun.
It was better to stay inside to preserve its dog life.
Hu Lanfang and Gu Zhaobei also came out. Gu Qingcheng quickly gave them each a hand warmer.
The old house had been kissed by extreme cold, covered in a shell of ice, like a palace of glazed tiles. It was beautiful but truly eerie.
The sun had risen, but it was pale white, hanging weakly in the sky with little warmth.
In the center of the courtyard, there was a spot emitting steam: the old well.
The snow had stopped, but the ground was frozen. Every step on the ice was quite slippery.
Gu Qingcheng changed into thick-soled hiking boots sold in the mall with her family.
The soles of the hiking boots had spikes, which made things much better. As they walked, the spikes on the soles dug into the ice with a "crunch, crunch" sound. As long as they were careful, they wouldn't slip. Kuai Shu Ge.
They stood outside the courtyard and looked down from the mountain.
Below, Jinsha City and Jinsha Mountain opposite were a vast expanse of white.
Gu Qingcheng thought of something and said,
"Dad, Mom, let's go down the mountain to see if there's anything we can collect."
After this freeze, Jinsha City was probably ten households empty, nine with no one left.
Gu Zhaobei understood the cruelty of natural disasters and calmly nodded, saying,
"Okay, I'll go with you. Your mother will stay and guard the house. Afang, you don't go down the mountain. Stay at home and watch the underfloor heating, don't let it go out."
Gu Qingcheng had the storage cabinet on her, so she had to go. Otherwise, Gu Zhaobei wouldn't want her to go down.
Hu Lanfang originally wanted to go down with them, but then she thought that if no one guarded the underfloor heating, it wouldn't work. Mi Guo had just recovered from her illness, so she could only nod in agreement.
Gu Qingcheng took out two pairs of skis from the storage cabinet, choosing a low-key white. Two pairs of ski poles.
After putting on the skis, father and daughter slid down the slope along the side of the steps.
Gu Zhaobei had good fundamentals and slid smoothly. Gu Qingcheng had practiced yesterday and didn't lag behind in speed.
They reached the bottom of the slope and skied directly towards the city.
After skiing for a while, the streets of Jinsha City were in front of them. Now there was no slope, and skiing was no longer effective. Gu Qingcheng put away the skis and poles, and father and daughter walked into the city, their boots crunching on the snow.
Jinsha City, usually bustling, was now silent. There was no one on the street, as if they had entered a deserted city.
At least two-thirds of the people couldn't survive last night.
They circled the city. They didn't see a single living person on the street, nor did they hear any sound of life.
They walked into the Yue Lai Inn, which they were most familiar with.
As soon as Gu Qingcheng entered the inn, she saw a waiter slumped on the counter, as if asleep. She went forward and shook him.
Unexpectedly, as soon as she touched him, his body tilted to the side, revealing his face. He had been frozen to death.
But strangely, he had a weird smile on his face.
Gu Qingcheng was startled.
As a doctor, Gu Zhaobei quickly explained, saying,
"He was frozen to death unexpectedly. The reason for the smile on his face is that in the final stages of freezing to death, blood re-fills the skin's blood vessels, causing the body to feel a false sense of warmth. At this point, he was on the verge of death. To protect himself, the brain produces a large amount of neurochemicals, such as dopamine, serotonin, and beta-endorphins. These chemicals can cause hallucinations. He must have hallucinated something happy and blissful before he died, hence the smile."
Although her father's explanation was scientific and dispelled her superstitious thoughts, Gu Qingcheng shivered as she looked at the waiter's frozen smile.
Perhaps because it was cold, there weren't many guests staying at the inn. The whole inn had no signs of life. People and livestock in the backyard had all frozen to death.
Gu Qingcheng sighed. Although she had expected a natural disaster, she hadn't expected its power to be so immense.
"Dad, let's go check the kitchen," Gu Qingcheng said.
The kitchen was where food was prepared, so there would naturally be food reserves.
As soon as they entered the kitchen, Gu Qingcheng saw the chef and assistants standing stiffly, all frozen to death, turned into lifelike ice sculptures.
Along the way, they had seen too many such scenes, and Gu Qingcheng had built up a psychological defense. She didn't show any more panic.
At this moment, she saw dozens of pieces of cured meat hanging over the stove, also frozen stiff. Gu Qingcheng collected them.
She lifted the large pottery jar in the corner and found a jar of soy sauce, a jar of vinegar, a jar of salt, and a jar of peanut oil, all frozen into blocks of ice. Gu Qingcheng collected these as well.
In addition, there was half a pig, more than a dozen bags of flour, and more than twenty bags of rice. Gu Qingcheng collected them all.
When the weather warmed up, these would be life-saving foods.
"Qingcheng. Look what I found."
Gu Zhaobei pushed open a wooden door and said with surprise.
Gu Qingcheng walked over and saw that it was the Yue Lai Inn's grain storage.
The storage room contained rice, flour, and oil in baskets, bags, and jars, even more than outside. There were at least 50 bags of flour, three large jars each of vinegar and soy sauce, and two jars of preserved meat and pickles, totaling over two hundred catties.
Yue Lai Inn was a large inn with many guests, so it usually had more supplies. Gu Qingcheng collected them all.
"Let's check a few more inns and restaurants," Gu Zhaobei said.
"Okay."
If they didn't collect these supplies now, when the weather warmed up and floods came, they would either rot or be submerged by the floodwaters.
Since that was the case, why not collect them? They could distribute them to survivors later.
So far, Gu Qingcheng's previously stored supplies were sufficient. Their family could live here without worry for a lifetime.
The extra grain collected now was for future survivors, so Gu Qingcheng didn't have any psychological resistance.
Following her father, they continued to collect. The street was still silent.
They entered many inns. The frozen corpses retained their final state before death. Some had expressions of shock, others were in postures of escape, but they couldn't complete them before being frozen.
Gu Qingcheng and her father were the only living forces on this street.
They did not enter ordinary people's houses to collect anything, as they felt it was against their moral principles.
They left these places for the survivors who would come later.
For places like inns and restaurants, they were not polite and collected everything along the way.
Since the extreme cold occurred at night, it was when the restaurants and teahouses were bustling with activity and had many customers. Most people were caught off guard and were quickly frozen to death.
According to Gu Zhaobei, it was basically painless.