After beating someone up, Yu Xifeng felt much of the gloom inside her heart lift. She closed the door and started counting the gains from this outing.

In the villa area, Yu Xifeng also found a house that kept pets.

Someone had been there before; inside were all kinds of cat items, but those people hadn’t taken them.

That pet room was full of shelves stocked with pet canned food.

Yu Xifeng stuffed that huge cat climbing frame along with the canned food into her space.

She picked a portion of canned food with salmon and pigeon for Little Orange.

The cat food smelled delicious, and Little Orange devoured it noisily.

Yu Xifeng stroked its shiny golden fur, which felt great. While it happily ate, she pinched its paws.

The paws were pink, but Little Orange didn’t like being touched and raised its paws.

Standing on three legs didn’t stop it from burying its head to eat.

With this batch of supplies in her space, Yu Xifeng could expand her breeding.

She could also let the fish and shrimp grow freely—more is better.

Yang Rong and Xu Qingrou waited at the community center until closing time, then took a ride back with her.

“Raising a daughter and ending up with enemies—I’ve always thought she was a bad seed, born to be thrown in a toilet and drowned,” Yang Rong cursed.

After waiting all day, exhausted and starving, both physically and mentally drained, Xu Qingrou sat with a gloomy face, having no heart to comfort Yang Rong.

“When the water recedes, I’m moving back, so I don’t have to endure this bitch’s nonsense every day.”

This incident today was something Yu Xifeng had avoided.

That Liu Yuan was also useless, couldn’t even get into a single room.

If Liu Yuan had gotten in, their family would have had a reason to move into the house.

Once they moved in, their family of four still wouldn’t be able to deal with such a young girl.

Or maybe, if Yu Xifeng got caught up in these matters and couldn’t sort it out, she’d have to stay at the community center for a couple of days, and by the time she came out, the house would be settled.

When did this dead girl become so talkative?

Xu Qingrou felt more complicated than ever.

When they returned to the 15th floor, they saw their son beaten almost to death and their daughter biting her lip with tears in her eyes.

Yu Xifeng warned that if the siblings dared to quarrel with her, she would come out and continue beating people up.

So Yang Silong didn’t dare to even shout loudly, his face red with suppressed anger, and Yang Sizhu sobbed quietly with her voice barely audible.

“Our family is being driven to death by your daughter,” Xu Qingrou held her two children and cried.

No matter how aggrieved or angry, Yang Rong’s family still moved out of the 15th floor.

They feared that if Yu Xifeng heard any noise, she would really come out and beat them again.

They simply couldn’t take it anymore.

This family had nowhere else to go and ended up choosing the 6th floor.

The 6th floor had previously been flooded, but now the water had receded, and the floor was empty again.

The residents of the 6th floor had all moved back.

Yang Rong’s family cleaned the hallway and moved in.

The houses that had been flooded smelled terrible, like a hidden bag of rotten aged pickled vegetables—not strong but pervasive, invading every pore.

The temperature was getting colder and colder, and they hadn’t brought enough warm clothes when they came out.

The hallway leaked wind from all sides, making the nights harder and harder to endure.

Yang Rong went every day to inquire about the situation, often running downstairs to check water levels, almost impatient to the point of desperation.

They just hoped the water would recede so they could move back.

They had little food left, and seeing Yu Xifeng unable to get anything, they had no choice but to try buying from outside.

Although food prices had fallen somewhat, they were still shockingly expensive.

Xu Qingrou clutched their last bit of savings, afraid to buy much.

Everyone was having a hard time, especially Yang Sizhu.

She felt she shouldn’t be living like this—homeless, hungry, never having lived such a hard life before.

She hated her life so much she wished she could jump out the window and end this hopeless, endless life.

She could only hope like Yang Rong that the water would recede, and they could move back home.

At least that was a proper house.

Yu Xifeng resumed exercising at home.

She sweated heavily in the gym, with Little Orange meowing around her.

The radio still played every day.

One month later, finally, the news mentioned that the underground shelter’s main structure had been completed after two months of emergency construction, with three months of decoration and repairs expected before it would open to the public.

Yu Xifeng glanced at the thermometer at home.

The temperature was only five degrees Celsius.

When not exercising or working, she had to wear a cotton jacket to avoid feeling cold.

Yu Xifeng replaced her quilt with a larger, warmer goose down quilt but still felt it wasn’t enough, so she added another padded blanket on her bed.

That night, Yu Xifeng had a dream. In it, she was walking across a barren plain, with a biting cold wind.

She kept moving forward, then ran forward with all her strength.

But the fog ahead never cleared; she gritted her teeth and persevered.

Something fell—cool to the touch—Yu Xifeng reached out and saw crystal-clear snowflakes.

A warm, prickly, sticky feeling touched her face.

Yu Xifeng shook her head but couldn’t shake off the feeling and instead sneezed loudly.

She woke up.

The cold crept through the pores of her skin, making her shiver uncontrollably.

Her hand reached out drowsily and felt fur.

The only warmth on her face was Little Orange licking her.

Yu Xifeng suddenly sat up.

It was cold inside the quilt, colder outside it.

She quickly put on thermal underwear, a cold-proof jacket, scarf, earmuffs, and cotton shoes.

It had been so long, she forgot exactly when the cold wave would hit—only roughly remembered the month.

Fully dressed, Yu Xifeng then checked the thermometer.

Minus 31 degrees Celsius.

Lin City had never experienced such low temperatures before; in a normal year, the lowest was about minus three or four degrees.

In just one night, the temperature dropped nearly 40 degrees.

Frost covered the windows, with delicate and exquisite patterns, through which a faint, soft light shone—it was indescribably beautiful.

But no one was in the mood to appreciate such scenery.

Yu Xifeng poured herself a bowl of hot water heated in her space, feeling the steam gradually gather in her chest.

At last, she felt like she wasn’t a corpse.

Yu Xifeng didn’t dare delay any longer.

At this late hour, with temperatures plummeting, many people would go into shock from the cold without realizing it and say goodbye to this world.

Sister Yun lived alone, which was very dangerous.

When she opened the door and stepped outside, she only felt the door handle’s temperature piercingly cold.

Within moments, Yu Xifeng’s exposed hands turned bright red.

She kicked Sister Yun’s door to call out to her.

After shouting for five full minutes, just as Yu Xifeng was about to pick the lock, Sister Yun, wrapped in a quilt, opened the door.

Sister Yun’s face was almost white from the cold.