Gu Qingcheng recounted the gains from her recent outing.
Hearing her daughter report the successful completion of the coal stockpiling task, Hu Lanfang breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Now that we have everything, we shouldn't go down the mountain so easily."
Gu Qingcheng did not reply. Of course, she would not mention the encounter with the wolves on the mountain; it would only worry her mother. Since she had safely navigated through it, there was no need to mention it. When a child is not fussing, it's a sign of trouble.
Hu Lanfang blinked, feeling that her daughter still had something on her mind.
After dinner, Gu Qingcheng took out two bright red pills and gave them to Hu Lanfang and Mi Guo, saying they were powerful strengthening pills. Upon hearing the name, Hu Lanfang, as expected, frowned: "Oh, did you buy these from some charlatan?"
Charlatans, the golden finger was speechless… How could being a good person be so difficult?
Gu Qingcheng burst into laughter and said, "The Great Power Pills are not cheap, costing over ten thousand yuan each. Do you want to eat them?"
Hu Lanfang, of course, ate them. Her daughter gave them to her; not eating them would be unfilial. She and Mi Guo put the pills in their mouths, and they truly melted upon contact.
Mi Guo and Hu Lanfang both reacted strongly, experiencing the "legendary" sensation of a warm current coursing through their bodies. Hu Lanfang described it in great detail, saying she felt every part of her body being nourished, and her previous discomforts disappeared. For example, her left arm, which had been fractured before, had always had a dull ache. After the warm current passed through, the soreness vanished, and it felt as though the old injury from the fracture had been repaired. Mi Guo also felt that his feeling of weakness had disappeared, and he was filled with energy, wanting to run on the treadmill for two hours. If Gu Qingcheng hadn't experienced it herself, she would have thought that these two were the "charlatans" based on their descriptions. The efficacy was indeed quite exaggerated.
Their five senses were also enhanced. Hu Lanfang could hear the rustling sound of snow falling outside. Mi Guo could immediately discern the specific seasonings used in the hot pot and precisely named them, such as perilla leaf. It was unexpected that Mi Guo was so accurate. Perilla leaf, when added to seasonings, is usually imperceptible to most people, who only notice a pleasant aroma. To think that Mi Guo could identify it by smell alone! For Mi Guo's talent as a divine chef, the Great Power Pills were like adding wings to a tiger.
That night, they still adopted a shift system for sleeping. After all, if the weather suddenly changed, someone had to be awake to respond. Gu Qingcheng pretended to be on duty, but in reality, she was watching an iPad with Mi Guo, watching a cooking show, "13 Flavors." Mi Guo watched the cooking seriously, while Gu Qingcheng watched the handsome host.
Mi Guo greatly admired the handsome chef's uniform and Feng Ge's stylish hairstyle. He said, "Sister, if I cut my hair to be like his, would it be okay?"
"It would certainly be very handsome, but I suggest you don't cut it. People might mistake you for an oddball."
"Okay." Mi Guo could only look enviously at Feng Ge's stylish side-parted hair, imagining if he cut his hair that way, would he be as handsome. Seeing her younger brother starting to preen, Gu Qingcheng also found it amusing. She truly doted on this little cute child; he was so adorable.
Soon, it was midnight, and Hu Lanfang came to take over the night watch. They had to go to bed. Fortunately, the temperature did not change overnight; it even slightly warmed up. The thermometer showed 48 degrees the next morning. This was a good sign, as it had not worsened further. Perhaps, it would eventually return to a temperature that everyone could tolerate.
However, the next day, they still hurried to carry out the plan from the previous night. After acquiring Prince Xia's mine and knowing his terrifying financial power, everyone knew that Prince Xia's efficiency should be quite fast. Money makes the world go round. The fact that he could go to rescue civilians the day after the natural disaster indicated that his situation was relatively better. Wealthy people always have ways to cope with various disasters. Even in science fiction movies like "The Day After Tomorrow," it was the wealthy who survived. Perhaps, the wealthy had already ingrained methods for dealing with disasters and had many contingency plans in place, which ordinary people were simply unaware of. Hadn't it always been the powerful and wealthy who survived natural disasters throughout history?
Gu Qingcheng bought four long rubber hoses from the mall. Each person took one, and using small pumps, they drew water from the well, pressurized it, and then poured it in four directions simultaneously. After watering, the ice surface would become even smoother. Such a slippery ice layer could easily lead to fractures of limbs if one accidentally fell. Even with Prince Xia's wealth, he wouldn't be able to procure rock-climbing equipment quickly. Thus, such a slippery ice slope would be enough to deter outsiders from exploring.
After a day of watering, the ice layer was finally built. Fortunately, there was a well in the courtyard, which made this achievement possible. Although Gu Qingcheng was not worried about water scarcity, the supermarket only sold bottled mineral water, and she couldn't possibly use bucket after bucket of mineral water to pour onto the ice surface. If she had, the effort would have been too great.
After a busy day, the Gu family voluntarily cut off their contact with the outside world and then relaxed with food and drinks. The good news was that by evening, the temperature had risen again, reaching minus 42 degrees. Of course, this was still a temperature at which water would freeze when sprayed.
Hu Lanfang tried it out, pouring a basin of hot water into the air. As soon as it was poured out, it turned into a pile of slush and fell to the ground with a rustle. She was stunned and then clutched her chest, saying, "My goodness, fortunately, we have all our cold-weather protective measures in place. Otherwise, we would surely lose our lives."
Hu Lanfang had been staying at home on the mountain recently and had not gone down after the extreme cold. If she had seen the scene of over 200 people lined up the previous night, she probably wouldn't have been able to eat her dinner.
Tonight's meal was seafood noodles; they were tired of eating hot pot every day. The seafood noodles were made by the same chef from the Yue Lai Inn. Each bowl contained three large shrimp and several delicious, bursting fish balls. There was only a little bit of noodles, sprinkled with green onions. The broth was made from fish bones, and it was delicious, nutritious, and very rich. Gu Qingcheng was still worried about everyone's insufficient nutrition, so she added two braised tiger-skin eggs to everyone's bowl.
After dinner, Gu Zhaobei went to the backyard to fill the furnace for the ground heating system, ensuring continuous warmth throughout the night, and then brought the charged solar power bank indoors for use. Thanks to the development of national photovoltaic technology, otherwise, they would have had to build a power plant to use electricity now, which would have been an impossible task.
Gu Qingcheng continued watching the drama she hadn't finished before following her here, "A Dream of Splendor," starring the divine sister Liu Yifei. Mi Guo followed along. He suddenly felt that Liu Yifei in the drama looked familiar and couldn't help but look at Gu Qingcheng, asking curiously, "Sister, can you act too?"
"Act? No, I'm a first-class national athlete," Gu Qingcheng said proudly, then asked curiously, "Why do you say I can act?"