Chapter 108

The ten of them appeared to have retired, but in reality, they had joined a special department and were assigned another mission.

Every member of the team was an elite handpicked for their skills. Each person had extensive combat experience and specialized areas of expertise.

“Strongman” Awen was three times stronger than an average person and excelled at various vehicle and machinery repairs.

Wen Rou specialized in psychology and had a strong physique with rich outdoor survival experience. Give her a knife and a flint, and she could survive for a year alone on a deserted island.

Han Lan was a sniper, known for setting a record by lying in wait on a mountain ridge for three days and nights, then shooting a target 2,500 meters away with a single shot. He was also skilled in close combat.

Liu Shuang was an expert in hand-to-hand combat and diving, with vast rescue experience and reconnaissance skills.

Cheng Yu had been top of his class at military school and was proficient in close combat, wrestling, and weapon disassembly. Most importantly, he had completed countless missions, many of them high-risk operations, which gave him a wealth of practical experience and on-the-spot decision-making ability.

So, despite their seemingly ordinary appearance, this team was filled with hidden talents. They even had an expert in computers, and even the small team member who had just been dismantling a pack of dried meat was a demolition expert.

They all knew what taking on this mission meant: it was an indefinite task. Even if they found the psychic, that wouldn’t mark the end of the mission. What the authorities needed was continuous, ongoing intelligence on psychics, keeping everything under control. Wherever a psychic appeared, they would go.

In other words, as long as the land wasn’t flooded, their mission wouldn’t end.

At the same time, however, all other rescue and relocation tasks were no longer part of their responsibilities. That was why Liu Shuang had referred to their trip as a private matter.

Their current destination was Jiangcheng to the north, because they had received reliable reports that a psychic had appeared there, and they planned to go straight there.

Had Wei not been on their route to Jiangcheng, they probably wouldn’t have taken the detour to rescue people. Instead, they would have sent messages and coordinates to other rescue teams.

They didn’t expect to encounter Shu Fu and Yao Ruoyun here, nor did they expect that the small Wei would conceal a psychic.

In fact, Brother Qi was the first psychic they had encountered since setting out on their mission.

They had originally thought they would at least get to see one in person, but they didn’t expect that the blizzard would last four days and nights, and her life would come to an end.

Only then did Yao Ruoyun understand why no one in the team reacted when that female psychic was dragged away.

Their mission was to find psychics. If possible, they wanted to save them more than anyone, but that didn’t mean they would abandon human nature and principles for the mission. Psychics with such a mindset would be of no use even if they were found.

“So, what happens after we find a psychic face to face?” Shu Fu asked, voicing the question Yao Ruoyun wanted to ask.

“Well, of course…” Han Lan deliberately paused for a moment before smiling at her. “Of course, we’ll talk with them. What do you expect, that we’ll capture them for study? If they’re willing to come with us and help the authorities, there will be plenty of generous rewards waiting for them. If they’re not willing, they can still provide us with genuine and detailed information, which we’ll use to collect data on psychics. Of course, that information can be exchanged for supplies.”

“What if they refuse entirely?”

“Then we let them go,” Han Lan shrugged and smiled. “But we can’t just leave empty-handed. Every psychic we come into contact with will be recorded.”

Of course, psychics who refused to reveal anything about their abilities wouldn’t want to be recorded, but that was not up to them.

The faces and all the details of those recorded would be sent to the most secure and powerful satellite. The authorities were currently developing a new software for locating people, and soon, they would be able to use the satellite to find them whenever needed.

The authorities had remained cautious about psychics up until now because they didn’t have enough information. There weren’t enough personnel to fully manage the situation, but even so, they needed to keep everything under control behind the scenes.

In simple terms, the authorities weren’t able to act fully yet, so they allowed psychics to roam freely in Huaguo. But like a kite, they always held the string tightly in their hands, ready to reel it in at any moment.

Shu Fu didn’t press further about what would happen to the records. She could already guess the rest from her reasoning.

She felt grateful that Han Lan had answered all her questions. She knew it might be because of the time she had pushed him out of the collapsing ice wall on the snow path. He had been closer to the center of the danger, and if she hadn’t pushed him, he could have been injured.

However, at this moment, even though she felt gratitude toward him, she didn’t show it. She was just an ordinary person curious about these matters and didn’t want to display any unnecessary reactions.

After a while, Wen Rou, who had been monitoring the situation at the hotel, reported through the walkie-talkie that after the psychic’s death, the raft that had been scattered was also gone. The only things left in the open space were the snow, the shattered container house, and scattered supplies. There was no trace of the raft left.

Liu Shuang concluded, “So, this raft is unique and exclusive, and it cannot be obtained by killing a psychic and trying to seize it.”

The irony, however, was that knowing this required someone to kill a psychic and witness the raft completely disappear after the psychic’s death while it was being retrieved.

But if they could make this public, at least it could prevent some of the fighting and bloodshed over it.

In the end, Cheng Yu, Liu Shuang, and Han Lan agreed unanimously to report this result back to the authorities, who would then publicly release the information. The release, of course, wouldn’t be an official acknowledgment of the existence of psychics, but rather a statement from a third party, presented as grassroots news, spread across the internet.

However, once the message was made public, they wouldn’t be able to control how many people saw it, nor how many would believe it.

The atmosphere inside the room grew a little subdued, but soon the smell of rice and the rich fragrance of steamed cured meat wafted in from the hallway, filling everyone’s nostrils.

Shu Fu and Yao Ruoyun had woken up late and had breakfast late, so when Cheng Yu called them earlier, they hadn’t yet had lunch.

As for Cheng Yu’s team, all the members had woken up early and had been digging the snow path for hours, so they were already hungry. The combined aroma of rice and cured meat lifted everyone’s spirits. It wasn’t just Shu Fu and the others in the basement who smelled it; even the people in the venue, who were drying blankets and keeping watch, caught the scent.

Especially the two people who had been bound and blindfolded. They had been sleeping in the basement corridor at night and eating compressed biscuits during the day. Although they hadn’t frozen or starved to death, after four days of biscuits, they felt like they were dying.

Now, smelling this aroma, they were practically salivating. Even though they were bound and gagged, they were desperately trying to signal with “mmm” sounds, but they were swiftly silenced by Awen, who gave them a large slap.

“Behave yourselves! You should be thankful you haven’t starved or frozen to death! You’re thinking about killing people and seizing cars, and you think we’re saints here to give you rice and cured meat? The least we can do is let you smell the food!”

As Awen was speaking, the two people who were in charge of cooking called out that it was time to eat. The psychic from the hotel had died, and the raft had disappeared, so there was no longer a need for monitoring. The personnel could be withdrawn from the upper floor.

The two people who had been guarding and keeping the blankets in the venue only needed one person to stay.

But they didn’t neglect their teammates. They filled a large portion of rice with cured meat, sausages, salted chicken, and duck from the thermos and also packed a thermos cup of freshly made vegetable and egg soup for the person who couldn’t go down.

The vegetable and egg soup was made from dehydrated vegetables. This batch of dehydrated vegetables was even more diverse than the one Shu Fu had stocked, containing not only black fungus and shiitake mushrooms but also eggs and diced meat. In the wilderness, when eating compressed biscuits, one could just add hot water and make a nutritious vegetable soup to pair with the dry biscuits. It was convenient and quick.

Today, they could enjoy the soup with rice and cured meat, sausages, salted chicken, and duck. Just looking at it made them feel happy.

As usual, Han Lan, who loved to talk, didn’t speak after grabbing his stainless-steel lunch box. He buried his head in his food, not caring about his image. The others weren’t doing much better. In comparison, Cheng Yu was eating in the most refined manner, at a speed similar to Shu Fu and Yao Ruoyun.

Shu Fu and Yao Ruoyun hadn’t felt hungry over the past few days since they’d been stuck in the building, eating hearty meals, three meals a day, with an extra snack and late-night meal. They hadn’t been hungry at all.

As for Cheng Yu, it was unclear whether he was trying to save food for Shu Fu or if he simply had strong self-control. Although he was eating well, his pace was half the speed of the others, who were eating like a storm.

Shu Fu finished her small bowl of rice topped with cured meat, sausages, salted chicken, and duck, and contentedly began sipping the soup. The vegetable soup wasn’t particularly flavorful, but because it had been kept hot in the pot, drinking it now felt comforting. The light vegetable taste helped balance out the greasy saltiness of the cured meats.

She finished half of the bowl and stood up to get more. As she passed by Han Lan, it was as if she were jolted by an electric shock. She suddenly stopped, not even able to place the bowl down before rushing in front of him. She almost tripped on the mat and nearly spilled the soup all over him.

Han Lan reacted quickly, setting his chopsticks in the lunch box and free-handedly catching her. He grinned and asked, “What’s wrong, Fu Fu? After all these days, you suddenly miss your brother?”

Cheng Yu: …

Shu Fu: …

She should’ve just let the bowl land on his head.

Though silent, she kept her eyes fixed on his head.

As expected, there was a white light bar flickering above him, with a slower flickering frequency, more seconds of disappearance and fewer seconds of appearance, like it had just appeared recently. The progress bar still had half of it left.

So, the light bar I saw on the snow path was Han Lan’s?

Han Lan was also an awakened one?

At that moment, Shu Fu instinctively felt the urge to mock.

He was out on secret missions, trying to find and bring back psychics. Well, it turns out there were two right in his own team!

And maybe they were even highly powerful psychics!

What’s the point of looking around for more? He could just bring himself back!

**

This was the seventh day since the blizzard began. After two and a half days of clear weather, it started snowing again in the evening.

Inside the clinic building, which had been converted from a teaching building, and in the hotel building on the same street, both survivors and rescue team members were bundled up in thick clothes, hiding behind reinforced windows, watching the swirling snow outside with unease.

They had thought the blizzard was over. The past two days had been spent working non-stop, clearing the snow that had buried the first-floor windows and doors, and creating a snow path leading to the boiler room.

The temperature had dropped too low. The electrical system had been damaged by the freezing rain and the violent snowstorm, and the water pipes had frozen. The buildings around the clinic, which once had water, electricity, and heating, had now turned into cold, dark ice houses like the rest of Wei.

On the first night of the power outage, the clinic had managed to get by with backup power from a generator. But with the drop in temperature, even the variable-frequency air conditioners could no longer heat, and relying on burning furniture to keep warm wasn’t a long-term solution.

On the second day of the blizzard, the survivors living in nearby buildings, wearing homemade snowshoes made from plastic or rattan boards, braved the severe cold and low temperatures to come to the hotel building where the rescue team members and some soldiers were staying.

They had come through the snow because a new rescue station had been set up here, and the supply warehouse was also located here.

While the lack of electricity, water, and heating was bad enough, they couldn’t afford to run out of food. Some of them had experience with survival and, even though they couldn’t check the weather forecast due to the internet being down, they could sense something was wrong from the intensity of the blizzard.

So, they gave up the small, isolated spaces they had been living in and chose to sleep in the hotel’s lobby and hallways to be closer to the rescue team and military personnel. This way, if there were any news about external rescue efforts, they could learn about it immediately.

Moreover, given the special circumstances, they felt it was time to revise the rule that each person could only receive one supply package. They had come to request more food supplies, uncertain about how long they would have to stay here due to the snow blocking the roads.

However, the supply packages had already been stretched thin due to the large number of arrivals and transfers. Later, they had been partially destroyed in an explosion. They had hoped to bring back more supplies with the vehicles returning from transporting survivors to Xizhou Province, but the transportation had been blocked by freezing rain and snow, and the follow-up supplies hadn’t arrived. The rescue team had also been worrying about food supplies over the past few days.

There were about 200 survivors and team members in the area. If all the supply packages were distributed, even with careful rationing, they would only be able to provide enough food for five days.

But the blizzard had already accumulated nearly a meter of snow overnight. Would the storm stop in five days? Would there be any rescue efforts?

The uncertainty made them hesitant to distribute all the supplies. They knew that each survivor who had arrived had already received a package containing food that would normally last seven days.

Additionally, not everyone had arrived empty-handed. Some had brought food and water with them, so it wasn’t yet a dire situation for all of them.

Furthermore, about 30 of the survivors were originally residents of Wei. One of the reasons they had delayed leaving was that they had hidden a considerable amount of food.

In such cold temperatures, food didn’t spoil easily, and as long as it was hidden well, it could last for quite some time. But transporting this food safely was a big issue. So, the local residents still had some supplies on hand.

As rescue workers, their priority was to ensure that everyone survived. Food should be reserved for those who truly needed it, not divided prematurely, causing some to accumulate enough food for half a month or even a month, while others might only last a few days.

So, when the survivors came to the hotel building on the second day of the blizzard asking for more supply packages, their request was not approved.

The survivors were angry, protesting and accusing the rescue team of planning to hoard the food for themselves!

Given the situation, this suspicion seemed somewhat reasonable. However, even so, the rescue team did not relent. If anyone could disrupt their plans by making a scene, they had no right to be part of the rescue team.

Despite having weapons, the disgruntled survivors were subdued. They were unwilling to take the risk of returning and chose to stay in the hotel, hoping to hear any rescue news as soon as possible.

Eventually, the team designated two floors for the survivors to stay on, and additional personnel were stationed to guard the stairs.

Later on, some of the survivors in other nearby buildings, who had been watching from a distance, decided to move to the hotel building before the snow completely blocked the roads. By the end of the day, about half of the people from the nearby buildings had relocated to the hotel, while the remaining half stayed behind, with two-thirds in the first clinic building and one-third continuing to guard their shelter.

When too many people lived in the same space, problems and conflicts were bound to arise. The six people who had stayed overnight on the mountain road were being held by the military in one of the rooms in the hotel building, as their involvement in three deaths made them suspects.

Later, with the snowstorm and the drastic temperature drop, everyone was trapped, and the team didn’t have time to investigate further. But the six survivors had been vague in their statements, and there were plenty of suspicious details, so they couldn’t simply be released.

Not releasing the six individuals meant that the rescue team had to deliver food, water, and supplies to them every day. As a result, these six people, though deprived of their freedom, were actually living better than the others.

This angered the survivors who had come later and were trying to claim more supplies. The food and water they had were meant to be shared among everyone, not hoarded by those six individuals! The survivors couldn’t understand why people who had committed murder were still allowed to consume valuable resources. Why not just document their information and leave them to their fate, instead of keeping them guarded?

The fact that the six were being watched seemed unnecessary, as if the rescue team had too much time on their hands!

The protests were impossible to suppress. However, everyone was just discussing and protesting, without anyone taking extreme actions. The rescue team, apart from issuing warnings, could not take further measures against the protesters.

But just two days later, while the guards were distracted, a group of survivors broke into the room where the six were kept, and beat them up. When the six realized what was happening, they fought back. By the time the rescue team arrived and intervened, one of the six was already lying motionless in the corner of the room.

One person died in the chaos, and no one knew if he had been killed by one of the attackers or if he had accidentally hit something or fallen, fatally injuring himself. No one claimed responsibility for the death, and everyone was shifting blame, accusing others.

Without a doubt, the troublemakers were logged into the records. However, now that the county was snowed in, they couldn’t leave, and the network was down. The recorded events couldn’t be uploaded to the national database, so for them, it had no immediate consequences.

The five surviving members of the six had varying degrees of injury, and after the rescue team released them from their confinement, they no longer provided food or water. The survivors could stay in their room or move around, but the problem was that everyone now saw them as outsiders, and even when they left their room, they were constantly watched by others.

They didn’t understand. The real thugs had been the ones who broke into their room, so why weren’t they being condemned? To them, the entire world seemed filled with malice.

For a few days, the hotel was somewhat calm due to the incident.

The real change came the day after the snowstorm stopped.

On the first day after the blizzard, the rescue and military personnel organized many people to go outside and clear the snow. Aside from clearing the snow that had buried the doors and windows, the most important task was to clear a path to the boiler room and, if possible, get heating back up and running before the snowstorm resumed.

However, clearing the snow was a huge task that the rescue team could not complete alone. Everyone had to pitch in. In the end, the rescue team decided to offer paid labor for daily meals: anyone who participated in the snow clearing would be given lunch and dinner.

Motivated by food, nearly everyone joined in the clearing work.

The first day of snow removal went smoothly, but on the second day, a small group of survivors from other buildings, taking advantage of the thinning of the guards’ presence while the snow was being cleared, broke into the warehouse and stole almost half of the supply packages.

Some members of this group had hidden guns—more than one—and when they arrived in Wei, one of them had avoided being searched by not registering at the rescue station. Instead, he found a nearby empty house to hide, and later his companions successfully picked up the supply packages, retrieved the weapons, and shared the supplies with him.

They hadn’t originally planned anything, but by chance, they had gotten a few guns and two grenades, which they were overjoyed to keep.

After all, in such chaotic times, having guns and grenades meant having a few more lives in their hands.

They had been hiding quietly in nearby buildings until the blizzard trapped them in Wei for a week, and they finally couldn’t resist taking action.

By the time other rescue team members and soldiers arrived, the supply warehouse had been broken into, and their teammate was lying in a pool of blood. In the now-open warehouse, other survivors had taken advantage of the confusion to steal more supply packages.

The survivors who took advantage of the chaos claimed they weren’t the ones who started the theft. They said they had been drawn to the noise and saw some packages lying on the ground, so they couldn’t resist taking them.

They were hungry, and if they hadn’t taken the supplies, someone else would have. They were just trying to protect themselves.

Some of them had been hiding in rooms and had seen the movements outside. They claimed that the group of survivors who had come from outside didn’t know the warehouse’s location, and it was the original survivors from the hotel who had told them where it was. This group of outsiders were the five who had been trapped on the mountain road earlier.

The original survivors had guided them to the warehouse and even led the charge to draw the attention of the guards, which allowed the outsiders to successfully launch their surprise attack.

Because the five had joined the outsiders’ group, their numbers increased, enabling them to steal nearly half of the supply packages in one go.

They questioned the rescue team, asking why the guards who had been watching the five people from the mountain road had suddenly stopped. This had essentially allowed a ticking time bomb to wander around them—could there have been no trouble?

They blamed the young, inexperienced rescue team members, saying they had been too naïve to be distracted by people with criminal records!

They also blamed the rescue team for not distributing all the supply packages earlier. If they had, they wouldn’t have pushed people to desperate measures, drawing the attention of dangerous individuals.

Now that the group had stolen numerous supply packages and fled, the snow paths they had just cleared led to various buildings, and no one knew where the thieves had gone. It was clear that they had been secretly observing everyone while they were clearing the snow and had made plans well in advance.

They must have hidden themselves, after all, with so much food, they could stay hidden for a long time.

At first, the rescue team and soldiers were furious, even intending to control the situation and send the survivors back to their rooms. But as they listened, their anger faded, and their expressions became numb.

They stopped speaking and went straight to push the survivors away from their fallen teammates, checking the situation of their own. One was dead, and the other two were still alive. One had been shot in the chest, and the other had both hands shot through at close range, with torn skin and shattered bones. However, since the injuries weren’t to vital organs, he hadn’t lost consciousness, though he was crying out in pain.

These two were only in their twenties, and their families had already evacuated to Xizhou Province. Because they had been helped by the rescue team, they had voluntarily stayed behind to join the group. They were both students, had trained in shooting during military drills, and had some experience with firearms, so they were given weapons.

But even with all that, they couldn’t withstand the cruelty of human nature.

They planned to take the injured to the clinic across the street for treatment. Before they carried the wounded away on stretchers, the highest-ranking person in the group spoke, giving orders to the other team members who were arriving.

“Inform everyone to guard their belongings and weapons. From now on, just take care of yourself and your team members. If you sense danger, use your weapons immediately. Don’t hesitate. That’s an order.”

These people, when something went wrong, would hide in their rooms and not come out, only to show up at the scene as soon as the others left, caring only about taking the supply packages from the open warehouse, with no regard for the lives of the rescue team members still lying nearby.

Didn’t they want to keep the supplies for themselves?

Since they cared only about those supplies, let’s distribute them all now.

They didn’t understand that, in the current situation, having extra supplies on them would only lead to greater trouble.

But from today on, whether the others lived or died no longer concerned them.

Outside the hotel, the snow began to fall again.

As the team members carried their injured comrades along the snow path, they couldn’t help but look up at the gray sky, where the snowflakes continued to fall.

The thick snow wall that had just shown signs of melting was once again covered by the falling snow. It was clear that, before long, the snow path they had just cleared would be filled up with snow again.

Everything they did seemed like a pointless effort, as if even the heavens were mocking their helplessness.

Sometimes, a person keeps going just by holding onto a single breath. But when that breath is gone, it’s also when their faith collapses completely.

---

Nightfall came again.

After staying two nights in the gym, Shu Fu and Yao Ruoyun decided to return to the small teahouse in the neighboring building.

The first reason was that the snowstorm, which had stopped for two and a half days, had started again in the evening.

Shu Fu reasonably suspected that the snow wouldn’t stop anytime soon. The gym was nice and lively with everyone together, but the thought of staying there for the entire winter made her feel a bit overwhelmed.

Yao Ruoyun could still use the satellite phone to communicate with her parents and reassure them of her safety, and Shu Fu could also use the satellite phone to send and receive messages with Chen Fa.

But aside from that, there was nothing else they could do.

Moreover, after eating rice with cured meat and instant noodles for two or three days, they really didn’t want to eat any more of it.

If Yao Ruoyun hadn’t awakened yet, it would be understandable, but now that she had, the two of them in the small teahouse could enjoy all the freedom and comfort they wanted.

The second reason was that the individual with the light band, who was suspected to be a companion, had been confirmed to be Han Lan. As for whether there was a third person, nothing new had come up in the past few days, and no new tasks had arrived. Shu Fu thought it was better to stay in the small teahouse and lie low for now.