Old Yang’s words caused Aunt Curly Hair to jump out of bed suddenly.

“You… your head doesn’t hurt anymore?”

“I just woke up and found that my head doesn’t hurt, but I’m still as sensitive to the cold as before.”

Old Yang’s voice trembled, sounding somewhat dejected.

“Wife, am I… is this what they mean by not being able to adapt to cold environments? Like what the young ones say… evolutionary failure?”

Aunt Curly Hair didn’t respond. She quickly walked over to Old Yang, reached out to feel his temperature, and muttered:

“It really has gone down… but it shouldn’t be… there’s no way…”

“No way for what?”

Faced with Old Yang’s question, Aunt Curly Hair didn’t answer immediately. “Since it didn’t work, what are you planning to do out there so late?”

“I want to go out and get drenched in the snow again while it’s still falling.”

Old Yang was shivering as he put on his shoes.

After burning with fever for most of the day, his body felt weaker than ever. He struggled to put on his shoes for what seemed like forever.

“Ah, let me help you.”

Aunt Curly Hair didn’t stop him but instead stepped forward to help him put on his shoes while muttering, “It’s all that damn Yang Qianqian’s fault.”

Upon hearing the name “Yang Qianqian,” Old Yang stopped what he was doing, confused, and asked:

“Yang Qianqian? Who is that?”

After he asked the question, Lin Chu heard Aunt Curly Hair mutter something under her breath, which sounded like “damn.”

But it was so quiet that only Lin Chu, whose senses were heightened, could hear it. Even Old Yang, who was right in front of her, didn’t catch it.

Aunt Curly Hair paused for a moment before explaining, “Yang Qianqian is your biological daughter. You don’t remember her?”

Old Yang hesitated for a long time. Lin Chu couldn’t see his expression but could hear his breathing growing heavier.

“…I… I have a daughter?”

His halting question had barely escaped his lips when Yang Qianqian, who had been locked in the bedroom, could no longer sit still.

She suddenly opened the door, took a step toward Old Yang, and shouted, “Dad, you don’t recognize me anymore?”

Old Yang froze for a long while. Lin Chu didn’t hear any noise, and guessed that he had probably been staring at Yang Qianqian for a while before slapping his head.

“I can’t remember… I only remember… I have a son…”

“Why can’t I remember…”

While Old Yang was scratching his head, trying to remember when he had a daughter, Lin Chu suddenly heard a “whoosh” sound.

“Yang Qianqian, you take your dad downstairs to get drenched in the snow!”

Lin Chu immediately realized the sound she had heard was Aunt Curly Hair standing up abruptly after helping Old Yang put on his shoes.

“No way!”

Yang Qianqian quickly shut the bedroom door, evading Aunt Curly Hair’s hand trying to grab her. With a “click,” she locked the door.

Even after the door was closed, her voice could still be heard through it.

“Dad, you may not remember me, but you cannot go out into the snow anymore. Think about your son… if he comes back and can’t see you, how upset will he be?”

“You said yourself, your son has a high education, he’s well-cultured, and you listen to him. He’s the one who doesn’t want you to go out in the snow. Before the communication was cut off, he specifically told me not to let you go out…”

Before she could finish, Aunt Curly Hair could no longer hold herself back and let out a sharp scream: “Yang Qianqian, shut up! You unfilial thing!”

With that, Yang Qianqian stopped speaking.

Meanwhile, Old Yang, who had been sitting on the ground near the door for a long time, was surrounded by shoes. He muttered to himself, “Yang Qianqian, Yang Qianqian, is she my daughter?”

“Son… my son said I can’t go out in the snow… I won’t go, I won’t go… Wife, you shouldn’t go either.”

After saying those final words, his voice faltered.

It took him a while to regain his voice, but when he did, he started crying softly like a kitten, “No, no, my wife has already gone out in the snow… What should I do… I have to listen to my son, I have to listen to my son…”

Lin Chu squinted her eyes slightly as she listened to the sounds outside.

From Old Yang’s state, it seemed his mental state was a bit off. First, he forgot he had a daughter, and now he couldn’t handle a little bit of stress. It looked like there might be something wrong with his brain.

But earlier in the day, when Lin Chu glanced at him downstairs, she clearly saw a gentle, well-dressed man with glasses who still seemed alert and healthy.

He probably hadn’t been like this before… What could have caused him to change like this…

A thought suddenly appeared in Lin Chu’s mind about the snow worm she had taken from near his ear earlier that afternoon.

Could it be the snow worm that burrowed into his brain?

But she was fine…

A faint dark glimmer flashed in Lin Chu’s eyes.

Outside, Old Yang’s sobs suddenly stopped.

At the same time, Lin Chu heard a dull thud.

She could tell it was the sound of a hand striking flesh.

Did Aunt Curly Hair knock him out?

Then she heard Aunt Curly Hair walking back in slippers. When she passed by Lin Chu’s bedroom door, she paused for a few seconds before continuing to walk back into the room, kicking off her slippers, and lying down on the bed.

Old Yang, on the other hand, was left carelessly dumped by the door, surrounded by shoes, breathing heavily.

…

That night, Lin Chu spent it outside the shelter.

The temperature inside the shelter was much higher than outside due to the stove, and because the garden needed the heat, Lin Chu didn’t want to stop using the stove.

But she also needed to let her body adapt to the outside temperature so she wouldn’t be hindered by the cold while doing tasks later on.

Another reason was that after what had happened with Old Yang, she was worried that Aunt Curly Hair might come check on her during the night.

So, she chose to sleep outside.

After taking two body-enhancing pills and one body-modifying pill, her physical condition was much better than average, and she could handle the cold better. With the heated clothes she had on, the outside temperature was within her tolerable range. It was cold, but she wouldn’t freeze.

Besides, she had locked the door and placed bells on it. If anyone tried to enter, she would be alerted.

Thankfully, the night was calm.

There was only one small incident—around midnight, Yang Qianqian snuck out and covered her dad with a blanket.

Lin Chu, always alert when sleeping outside, immediately woke up at the slightest movement. Yang Qianqian’s attempt to sneak around was completely visible to her enhanced senses.

However, Aunt Curly Hair next door slept soundly and wasn’t disturbed by the noise at all.

Only when she woke up at 10 a.m. did she look at the man lying on the floor and the blanket on him, giving a cold, mocking snort.

The weather was cold, and no one wanted to get up. Even though the snow was still falling outside, far fewer people were going out into it than the day before.

But Lin Chu had trained herself to wake up early, no matter what.

After her training, she took out a bowl of eight-treasure porridge she had prepared earlier from her space, followed by a plate of dumplings. She made a bowl of dipping sauce with chili vinegar and garlic, and began eating happily.

Around noon, while watching the shopkeeper rummaging through a box of eggs, Lin Chu’s peripheral vision suddenly caught sight of the window.

The snowflakes, which had been fluttering everywhere, had disappeared without her noticing.

The snow outside had stopped.