The sound of doors opening and closing echoed continuously through the corridor.

On the floor lay a woman, her curly hair strewn messily across the ground. With a wild, nearly crazed gaze, she stared at them and said each word with eerie precision:

“You… none… of… you… will… escape!”

“Hahahaha—ugh!”

Inside apartment 201, Lin Chuoyi twisted the neck of the curly-haired woman, silencing her manic laughter.

Ignoring Old Yang’s expression of grief and rage, she quickly walked to the main bedroom’s balcony and looked down.

She saw a large number of parasites dragging bound humans out of the building into the open courtyard. Like soldiers lining up for drills, they were arranging the captives in neat rows on the ground outside.

Yang Qianqian walked up beside her and quietly looked down as well.

“Once the god descends… will none of the humans in this old neighborhood survive?”

Earlier, when Lin Chuoyi interrogated the parasite, she hadn’t avoided letting Yang Qianqian hear. She had heard everything about this so-called “descent of the god.”

That parasite, wearing her mother’s face, had almost frenziedly told them that the descent referred to the arrival of their superior leader.

Their superior leader possessed greater intelligence, a stronger body, and could mentally command snow worms within a ten-mile radius.

Even more terrifying—unlike the others, the superior leader didn’t need over 24 hours to parasitize a host. Just half an hour of being exposed to snow was enough for the process to complete.

Next, under the superior leader’s command, they would break open all locked doors, sweep through every hiding human, and parasitize all humans within ten miles.

She remembered the look of vicious hatred on her mother’s face, and a cold chill crawled up from the soles of her feet. She tightened her down jacket around herself and looked at Lin Chuoyi beside her.

“Can we… do something? Otherwise, once they complete the god’s descent, we’ll be trapped like fish in a barrel.”

Though Yang Qianqian still had doubts about this “cousin” of hers, one thing was clear—Lin Chuoyi didn’t like these parasites either and seemed to be working to destroy them.

The enemy of my enemy is my friend. In her heart, Yang Qianqian had already aligned herself with Lin Chuoyi and considered her one of their own.

Seeing that Lin Chuoyi remained silent, Yang Qianqian anxiously voiced her suggestion:

“Let’s start boiling water—lots of it. Once it starts snowing, we pour it down on them from above?”

Lin Chuoyi didn’t answer immediately. Instead, she asked, “How many people are tied up downstairs right now?”

Yang Qianqian quickly counted with her fingers, “At least… at least one to two hundred.”

She fell silent after saying that.

She now understood Lin Chuoyi’s hesitation. One to two hundred people—how much water could she boil in time? And how many of those people could it possibly reach?

She looked at the long lines of captured residents stretching over a hundred meters away and grew more anxious.

She knew pouring water was barely a drop in the bucket, but she couldn’t think of a better plan. Was she supposed to just sit back and do nothing?

“Let’s boil water first.”

Lin Chuoyi’s calm voice sounded beside her. Yang Qianqian instantly felt like she had a pillar of support. She immediately responded and dashed into the kitchen.

Lin Chuoyi watched her cousin’s hurried figure. Her index finger tapped rhythmically against the window frame.

Inside the kitchen, Yang Qianqian was working busily.

Their family had been conserving electricity lately—no lights at night, only using power for cooking and boiling water.

Now, she had everything going full blast. Both the kettle and the induction cooker were running, and she had even brought out a cassette stove she used to secretly boil water in her bedroom.

As she paced the kitchen anxiously, she suddenly heard movement behind her. She turned to see her cousin walking in, holding a strange box-like object with a hose and spray nozzle attached.

“When it’s time to pour the water, wait for my signal,” Lin Chuoyi said.

Yang Qianqian scratched her head in confusion. “Aren’t we pouring it as soon as the snow starts?”

Lin Chuoyi shook her head. “If you pour it immediately, you’ll just give yourself away. It might cause some chaos, but it won’t really help.”

Yang Qianqian nodded in half-understanding.

Two seconds later, something clicked in her mind. She asked urgently, “I get it now! You’re waiting until the superior leader completes the parasitism after thirty minutes!”

When Lin Chuoyi nodded, Yang Qianqian raised another concern:

“But what if pouring the water can disrupt the superior leader’s parasitism?”

“You said it yourself—if.“

Lin Chuoyi had considered that possibility. But the parasite had made it clear—the superior leader had a much more powerful body than regular parasites.

There was no guarantee that the hot water would still be effective.

And even if it was, dumping water from just one spot wouldn’t cover much. If it missed the leader, they’d just be exposing their position for nothing.

At that point, Lin Chuoyi couldn’t protect both herself and Yang Qianqian, and her cousin would likely end up surrounded and captured.

“This is a gardening tool I found on the balcony. Figure out how to use it. Later, fill the tank with hot water and pour it down.”

She handed the makeshift water cannon to Yang Qianqian and turned to leave.

Startled, Yang Qianqian called after her, “Cousin, where are you going?”

Lin Chuoyi didn’t answer until she had finished putting on her shoes. Then she turned back and said, “I’m heading out. Don’t worry about me. Watch your dad, and lock the door.”

She paused, then added, “When it’s time to pour the water—if someone comes to attack you, stop immediately.”

Yang Qianqian frowned and was about to speak when Lin Chuoyi’s cold voice offered one final warning:

“Remember—staying alive comes first.”

With that, Lin Chuoyi opened the door and stepped out.

This building was nearly empty now.

The parasites upstairs had already dragged their captured family members down to the courtyard.

Lin Chuoyi climbed higher, encountering no one. She easily reached the door to the 7th-floor rooftop.

It was locked.

But no old-school lock could stop her.

In just 30 seconds, she had the rooftop door open.

Once it was open, she didn’t step out right away. Instead, she stayed behind the door and pulled out a pair of earplugs from her storage space.

They were from a mystery box she’d opened at a courier station. Never expected to use them here.

After putting them in, she tied her short hair into a small bun and pulled on a white knit hat, tucking in her ears and loose strands. Then she donned a white mask.

Next, she pulled out a pure white short down jacket and replaced her denim outerwear.

She even changed into white pants.

Finally, she took out a modified toilet plunger that had been turned into a compressed-air cannon, opened the rooftop door, and stepped outside.