Chapter 10: Sudden Drop in Temperature
Chu Yang woke enveloped in a gentle, soothing warmth. A clean, subtle scent reminiscent of cedar drifted across his nose. He had slept with unusual soundness, not even interrupted by a single dream.
Groggily opening his eyes, his vision gradually cleared—only to reveal that he was practically plastered against Jiang Jue, his arms wrapped tightly around the taller man’s waist. His cheek rested against Jiang Jue’s chest, feeling the steady, comforting heat radiating beneath the fabric. It was so pleasant that he didn’t want to move.
Oh, damn!
The instant he realized whom he was clinging to, Chu Yang jolted in shock and quickly slid away, light and silent as a feather. He stole a guilty glance across the bed. Jiang Jue’s eyes remained shut, his breathing even and calm, apparently undisturbed.
Chu Yang exhaled a quiet breath of relief, rationalizing his guilt away: Boss, you can’t blame me for this. If anyone’s at fault, it’s you for being a human furnace… The cold last night was brutal, and I must’ve rolled over by pure instinct!
He crept out from beneath the duvet and pulled on his outer layers. The moment his feet touched the floorboards, a distinct chill seeped up through his pants—the room felt at least eight degrees colder than it had the night before, making him shiver.
He crossed the room to the window. The instant his fingertips brushed the glass, a biting frost stung his skin, forcing his hand back.
Peering outside, the entire cityscape had transformed into a vast expanse of white.
Heavy, feather-like snowflakes drifted down through the gray sky, coating roofs, bare branches, and abandoned streets in a thick white blanket. Distant high-rises were reduced to hazy silhouettes. The world outside lay eerily still, filled only with the soft rustle of falling snow. It looked almost picturesque—if one managed to forget it was an apocalypse.
“It’s only been one night, and the snow’s already this deep?” Chu Yang muttered, clicking his tongue in disbelief as he stared at the drifts below. “This temperature drop is insane. Yesterday it was sweltering, and today we’re in a deep freeze.”
Right on cue, Zhao Dayong’s angry cursing echoed from the living room, punctuated by the violent chattering of his teeth: “Freezing—I’m freezing to death! What kind of cursed weather is this?! It’s winter overnight! Are we supposed to just freeze out here?”
Chu Yang turned the handle and stepped out. In the living room, Wang Rui, Li Wen, and Zhao Dayong were huddled together in their thin summer T-shirts, trembling violently. They stomped their feet and rubbed their arms, their lips turned a faint, bruised purple.
Freezing drafts whistled through the loose window frames, making the indoor air feel almost as cold as the outdoors.
Back inside the bedroom, the door closed with a faint, muted click. Almost immediately, Jiang Jue’s eyes opened.
There was none of the usual haze of sleep in his dark eyes—only quiet, razor-sharp clarity.
He didn’t get up right away. Lying still, he stared up at the cracked plaster on the ceiling, his gaze seemingly looking past the concrete and into a distant past.
How long had it been since he had slept that deeply? He couldn’t remember. Ever since that incident—long before the world fell apart—his nights had been plagued by endless insomnia and shallow rest.
Yet last night had been different.
At first, he had merely closed his eyes to conserve energy, maintaining his usual guard. But as the hours passed, the slow, rhythmic breathing of the young man beside him had acted like calming background noise, quietly clearing the heavy thoughts from his mind.
Even more unusual was the pleasant, steady warmth beside him. It wasn’t overpowering, but it was just enough to banish the biting chill of the night air.
Under that strange, uncalculated contact, the tight tension he had carried for so long finally eased. His awareness had drifted, sinking into a deep, uninterrupted slumber until dawn.
For someone living in this ruined world, a peaceful night’s rest was an almost unimaginable luxury.
Jiang Jue’s gaze shifted toward the closed door. His expression remained unreadable, but his fingers brushed lightly against the sheet where the lingering warmth of another person still clung to the fabric.
Out in the living room, Li Wen rubbed his stiff arms furiously, his voice shaking. “Th-this can’t go on… We have to find thick clothes… or we’re really going to freeze to death in here…”
Zhao Dayong jogged on the spot, his face twisted in misery. “Dressed like this, we’ll turn into blocks of ice before we even reach the street! And the snow doesn’t look like it’s slowing down!”
Li Wen’s eyes suddenly caught the warm jacket Chu Yang was wearing, lighting up with desperate hope. “Chu Yang, do you have any spare winter clothes? Could you lend us a couple for now? We’ll give them right back once we find our own!”
Chu Yang looked at the two of them shivering in their thin shirts. Remembering how they had acted the night before, a faint, mocking smile tugged at the corner of his lips. He drew out his words playfully: “Well, look at that. Isn’t this Brother Li and Brother Zhao? How did you two end up looking so miserable?”
Their expressions soured immediately, but Zhao Dayong forced an awkward, apologetic smile. “Brother Chu, it was my fault before—I shouldn’t have run my mouth! You’re a generous guy, don’t hold a grudge over something small. If you have extra coats, could you spare us a few? It’s freezing. If we catch pneumonia out here, we’re as good as dead!”
Li Wen chimed in quickly, trying to appeal to his sympathy: “Exactly, Brother Chu. When you first arrived starving, didn’t we share our food with you? Now that we’re in a tight spot, you should help us out. We’re all in this together!”
Chu Yang raised an eyebrow, mercilessly cutting him off: “Hold on a second. That food was given to me by Brother Jiang—it had nothing to do with you two. If you had cared back then, you wouldn’t have stood around sneering while I starved. What, now that you’re freezing, we’re suddenly ‘all in this together’?”
The pair stood tongue-tied, their faces flushing between red and white.
Chu Yang took in their pale, shivering frames. While he disliked their pettiness, they hadn’t actually caused him real harm. Letting out a quiet sigh, his tone softened: “Lucky for you, I noticed the weather turning yesterday and grabbed some extra coats on a whim. Hang on, I’ll go grab them.”
He stepped back into the bedroom to find Jiang Jue already standing by the window, watching the falling snow with a faint frown.
“Morning, Brother Jiang,” Chu Yang said, reaching into his storage dimension. “The snow outside is brutal. Those three are still in short sleeves and about to freeze, so I’m bringing them some spares.”
Jiang Jue kept his eyes on the street below, giving a quiet “Mm” of acknowledgment.
Chu Yang pulled out three heavy, insulated jackets. They weren’t high-tech temperature-regulating gear, but they were more than thick enough to fend off the frost. He carried them into the living room and handed them over.
Li Wen and Zhao Dayong took them with profuse thanks, hurriedly pulling them on.
Wang Rui was shivering too, but because of his Fire Ability, he was handling the cold slightly better. Staring at the jacket extended toward him, he let out a sharp, disdainful huff through his nose.
Chu Yang raised an eyebrow and made a deliberate show of pulling the coat back. “Don’t want it? Perfect, saves me the effort. Better than giving someone a favor only for them to act like I owe them money.”
Seeing the jacket slip away, Wang Rui panicked. He snatched it out of Chu Yang’s hands and pulled it on roughly, though he stubbornly refused to yield: “Wh-who said I didn’t want it! I’m just saying… the quality is pretty average, barely good enough to wear!”
Watching them zip up their coats as some color returned to their cheeks, Chu Yang couldn’t resist asking, “Not to pry, but even without winter gear, why didn’t you just wrap yourselves in blankets? Roughing it in T-shirts seems unnecessary.”
Li Wen, still working on his buttons, offered a bitter grimace. He pointed toward their open bedroom, where only a bare mattress and a thin summer sheet were visible. “Brother Chu, you don’t understand. This apartment was abandoned when Brother Jiang brought us here. The previous tenants must have packed up early—aside from the heavy furniture, every decent blanket and warm coat was stripped clean.”
He paused, recalling the sweltering heat of the previous days, and sighed. “The weather a couple of days ago was like a furnace. We could barely handle a thin sheet at night. Who could’ve guessed the whole city would freeze overnight?”
Zhao Dayong nodded vehemently, his voice rising in frustration. “Exactly! This weather is an absolute joke. Yesterday I was ready to walk around shirtless, and today you’d freeze into an ice sculpture. We wanted blankets, but where were we supposed to find them? Last night the three of us squeezed together under two thin sheets, shivering like quails. We barely slept a wink, and now every muscle in my body is aching!”
Wang Rui kept quiet, but his rigid posture made it clear he felt the exact same frustration, even if his pride wouldn’t let him complain aloud.
Chu Yang nodded thoughtfully and dropped the subject. Looking out the window again, he noticed the streets were unusually deserted—even the roaming zombies had vanished. Do the infected freeze too? Did they all crawl away to hibernate?
“So… what are we doing for breakfast?” Chu Yang asked, feeling his stomach begin to rumble.
Li Wen pointed toward the stove. “We boiled some plain rice porridge using what Brother Jiang brought back yesterday.”
The group ate in silence. The hot porridge washed down their throats, finally driving the remaining chill from their limbs.
After finishing, Jiang Jue was already adjusting his gear, sword in hand, ready to move out.
“Brother Jiang, heading out already?” Chu Yang put down his empty bowl and hurried over.
“The snow isn’t too deep yet. We need to collect supplies while we still can,” Jiang Jue said, concise and direct.
Li Wen looked at the swirling snow outside with deep concern. “Going out in this cold is dangerous. If any of us catch a fever, there’s no medicine.”
“Sitting here burning through our rations isn’t going to save us either,” Chu Yang pointed out. “Once the food runs out, we either freeze or starve.”
Zhao Dayong and Li Wen turned to Wang Rui, waiting for his lead.
Though Wang Rui possessed a Fire Ability, the idea of stepping into the freezing gale didn’t appeal to him in the slightest. His flames were meant for attacking; they didn’t do much against the ambient cold.
Hesitation crossed his face, and he lowered his voice: “Maybe… we should hold off? We could wait until the storm clears and it warms up a bit. The roads are slick, and zombies might be lying in wait to ambush us in the snow…”
Chu Yang saw right through their excuses. Before turning to leave, he tossed a blunt warning over his shoulder: “You’re making a mistake. Going out while the snow is still manageable is our best window. Once the drifts bury your knees, you won’t even be able to walk, let alone scavenge. If something jumps you, you won’t be able to run and you’ll end up as easy prey. If you want to sit by the heater, go right ahead, but don’t come crying when the pantry is empty!”
Without waiting for a reply, he turned and followed Jiang Jue out the door.
As the two reached the second-floor landing, the door to a neighboring unit cracked open. An elderly woman with gray hair and sharp, calculating eyes poked her head out.
Her gaze locked straight onto Jiang Jue. “Little Jiang! Going out again? Wonderful! Our food is completely gone, and my poor grandson is crying from hunger. Bring us back some rations, will you? We need rice, flour, and oil—and try to get some canned meat if you can!”
Her tone was utterly demanding, as if she were collecting an overdue debt.
Chu Yang narrowed his eyes, studying the woman with clear distaste. Her hair might be gray, but her skin is thicker than a fortress wall. Through the narrow doorframe, he caught sight of a healthy, middle-aged couple lounging under thick blankets on the sofa, entirely ignoring the commotion at the door without even lifting their heads.
Jiang Jue didn’t spare her a glance. His pace didn’t falter in the slightest as he continued down the stairs, treating her words as nothing more than empty air.
The old woman’s face twisted in anger. She lunged forward, trying to grab his sleeve. “Hey! I’m speaking to you! Where are your manners, you rude brat?!”
Anticipating the move, Jiang Jue sidestepped cleanly, avoiding her grasp while casting a freezing look in her direction.
That single, razor-sharp glare was so intense that the woman snatched her hand back as if scorched by an open flame. Her aggressive momentum instantly deflated; her lips trembled, but she didn’t dare reach out again.
Chu Yang stopped on the steps, a cold, sarcastic smile spreading across his face. “Old lady, aren’t your son and daughter-in-law sitting right inside? They’re young, healthy, and have all their limbs. Why aren’t you sending them out to look for food? Why badger Brother Jiang? He doesn’t owe your family anything. Why should he risk his neck for you?”
“What would a little brat like you know?!” Caught off guard, the woman planted her hands on her hips, her shrill voice echoing down the stairwell as she leaned into her self-righteous anger. “There are man-eating monsters out there, and it’s freezing! It’s far too dangerous for my son! If anything happens to him, how are the rest of us supposed to survive? Little Jiang is strong, isn’t he? He used to help the neighbors all the time. What’s wrong with lending a hand now? Isn’t it just the decent thing to do?!”
“The decent thing to do?” Chu Yang let out a sharp laugh at her twisted logic. “So your son’s life is precious, but ours are cheap enough to throw away? You’re afraid he’ll get hurt, but we’re supposed to line up to get torn apart by monsters?”
His expression hardened, each word falling crisp and deliberate: “Everyone out here is fighting tooth and nail just to stay alive. Nobody has it easy. We haven’t taken your food or touched your things—we’ve already been more than fair. What gives you the right to demand that we bleed for you?”
“You heartless little punk!” The woman grew increasingly hysterical, her face flushing bright red as she pointed a trembling finger right between Chu Yang’s eyes. “You’re young and able-bodied! What’s wrong with helping out the elderly and the vulnerable? Have you thrown all basic respect for your elders to the dogs?!”
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