A Tough Looting Run

Song Weishi recalled from the map that the entrance to the Garden of a Hundred Herbs opened onto a vast expanse of fields, with the hotel standing prominently nearby.

Not far off was a food street, along with all sorts of grocery stores and supermarkets.

The heavy snow made it nearly impossible for anyone to move around. Apart from someone like her with a down jacket for protection, most people probably couldn't easily venture out, could they?

Maybe she should do a bit of zero-cost shopping before heading to the hotel? It wouldn't hurt to stock up first.

With that thought, Song Weishi oriented herself and set off in that direction.

A blinding expanse of white greeted her eyes—the snow had buried every stretch of level ground. But before long, she spotted the entrance to the food street. The tall archway was sheathed in snow, and most of the shops here showed only a sliver of their roofs, or were completely swallowed up by the drifts.

Searching for supplies would be too difficult here, so Song Weishi skirted around, hugging the edge of the buildings, until she finally spotted a row of low-rise structures.

This street below was mostly lined with grocery and food supply stores.

Usually, in places like this, the shopkeepers' living quarters were tucked behind or above the storefronts.

To avoid running into any conflicts, she deliberately picked a chain store and a supermarket.

Because the snow was so deep, the store signs were practically within arm's reach.

The snow below had buried the entire ground floor.

She tried several doors—all locked.

It seemed she'd been too naive. When the snow hit, the people inside hadn't left in a panic; at least they'd taken the time to close up shop.

It looked like all those zero-cost shopping sprees in the apocalypse novels were a bit unrealistic. Unless you started out inside a supermarket, there was no such windfall.

Still, Song Weishi wasn't discouraged. Though she had no tools, she went from door to door, no longer fixated on chain stores—and sure enough, she discovered a few that had slipped through the cracks.

One farm products store had bird's nest gift sets, goji berries, wild ginseng, and even instant lotus root powder. She shoveled away the snow at the entrance, slipped inside, and in the dim light stripped away the fancy packaging, stashing the rest into her space.

Refrigerated goods wouldn't spoil in her space, which made them easy to store.

She didn't toss out the things that might not be useful either, she'd sort them out later when she found other supplies.

There was also a small convenience store with its doors wide open. Song Weishi went in and swept through the shelves, grabbing just about everything she could carry. Nearly everything was frozen solid, so there was no worry about spoilage.

The storeroom door was locked, so she didn't push her luck.

Her space was just about packed full by then, and Song Weishi wasn't greedy. She climbed out of the shop, left no marker behind, and turned toward the hotel.

Huiru Hotel was a tall building, visible from far away against the white snowfield.

As she drew closer, more structures appeared. There weren't many high-rises here—this wasn't near the city center, but on the far outskirts.

The area around the hotel was essentially the heart of this small commercial zone.

Song Weishi ducked behind a building, reluctantly stroking the down jacket she wore. She definitely couldn't wear this inside—not only would the others notice, but Wang Jie and Xiao Li would find it strange too.

She tucked the down jacket away, and the cold immediately bit into her, so she hurried toward the hotel.

The snow at the foot of the mountain was, oddly enough, much deeper than on the slopes. It had drifted up to the second floor of the hotel. As Song Weishi drew near, she noticed a cluster of footprints in the snow in front of the second-floor entrance, packed down by many comings and goings.

She was in luck—she'd come straight to the main entrance. Song Weishi quickened her pace, the snow crunching underfoot.

As she got closer, she heard Wang Jie's excited voice from inside: "We still have one more companion out there! She should be here any minute!"

Sure enough, the two of them had arrived ahead of her. Song Weishi immediately used her ski pole to knock on the sealed window. A cheerful voice from inside replied, "Xiao Song! It's Xiao Song! Manager Zhao, could you open the window?"

The window rattled and slid open inward. Wang Jie poked her head out, her brows and lashes dusted with frost—she hadn't been here long.

Another bundled-up woman appeared, looking down at Song Weishi. After confirming no one else was around, she reached out a hand.

Song Weishi tucked her ski poles behind her backpack, took both their hands, and used the wall for leverage as she climbed up.

Once she was inside the hotel, it felt much better—even if it wasn't much warmer than outside.

At least there was no wind cutting straight through her, chilling her to the bone.

The hotel floors were carpeted, and Song Weishi's feet were stiff with cold, sinking into the soft pile as she walked.

Wang Jie patted her shoulder, beaming. Beside her, Manager Zhao—wearing the hotel's winter uniform—kept stomping her feet, clearly just as chilled.

"Let's head downstairs quickly," Wang Jie said. "The power's been out for ages, so we've all gathered below to keep warm."

"Xiao Song, are you alright? How was the trip?"

Song Weishi nodded, omitting the zero-cost shopping detour: "Not bad. I just wiped out a few times on the way down, so I'm a bit slow."

Wang Jie nodded in understanding: "Xiao Li's downstairs. Poor kid—he took a tumble into a pit on the way down, got here freezing cold, and we rushed him below right away."

Song Weishi chatted with her as they went. When the two of them had come down, Xiao Li couldn't brake in time and fell into a deep pit. Wang Jie had to haul him out with considerable effort. He wasn't seriously hurt, but he was suffering badly from hypothermia. As soon as they found the hotel, he went to warm up, leaving Wang Jie to wait upstairs for Song Weishi.

The hotel's situation was marginally better than outside, but since the power had been out for so long and the backup generators were depleted, they were now relying on burning wood for heat, just like she'd done earlier.

At least food was still plentiful.

They took the fire escape down. In the lobby, the wooden chairs and tables had been fed into the fire for warmth. It was hotel property, true, but when lives were at stake, none of that mattered.

Besides a few guests, the people in the hotel were mostly duty staff like Manager Zhao, all trapped by the severe snowstorm.

According to her, once the snow piled up, no new guests had come in.

The ones who'd made it inside were still lucky. Those caught out in the open—who knew how they'd died.

Song Weishi followed the two women down. The firelight below was dim and flickering. Only the front desk manager acknowledged them; everyone else huddled by the fire, unmoving.

Xiao Li lay shivering nearby, burrowed almost completely under a pile of blankets, though he was at least somewhat conscious now.

The warming area was set up in the kitchen, most of its equipment cleared out. It was a large space with good ventilation and decent insulation—far better off than the cabin Song Weishi had hunkered down in up the mountain.

Everyone had made bedrolls on the floor here. Their eyes all turned to observe the newcomers, then slid away in disappointment.

Wang Jie explained that when the two of them had first arrived, everyone was thrilled, thinking a government rescue team had spotted the SOS on the hotel rooftop and come for them. But once they realized it was just stranded tourists, the mood had soured.

Song Weishi rubbed her hands together and settled by a fire, stretching her legs comfortably. Manager Zhao, a woman in her thirties who was exceptionally caring, brought over two goose-down quilts for them. Wrapped in one, warmth slowly enveloped Song Weishi.

She let out a satisfied sigh. Before coming, she'd briefly considered staying out on her own, but everything out there was unknown. Being alone made her feel unsafe and kept her from having a direction to push toward.

While it was true that most of the current hardships came from people, traveling under the cover of a group was still better than going it alone.

At the first sign of trouble, she could just bolt.

Song Weishi gave Manager Zhao a warm, gentle smile. She had expressive eyes, and when she smiled, she looked like a crescent moon reflecting in an autumn pond—cool and serene, somehow softening people without their realizing it.

"Thank you, Manager Zhao. You've worked hard."

Manager Zhao's tense face relaxed a little.

In the days she'd been here, she'd long wanted to walk off the job.

At first, calming the guests had been part of her duty. But as the disaster worsened, the guests grew more and more hostile, taking out their frustrations on her. She was just a service worker—she had no obligation to bear that kind of anger.

She'd seen her fellow staff members quit, and she'd thought about walking out on the spot, letting these sit-and-wait entitled guests fend for themselves.

There were also tensions among the colleagues over work assignments. When everyone was squeezing her, she could handle the pressure.

But the moment someone offered a kind word, it hit differently.

Manager Zhao looked into Song Weishi's sincere eyes and nearly burst into tears from the sheer relief.

She turned away hastily, trying to compose herself.

Wang Jie moved closer to Manager Zhao. The two were about the same age, both veterans of navigating office politics, and they understood each other's struggles all too well.

"You okay? Here, this is for you."

She pulled out a chocolate bar frozen as hard as a brick. Since the hotel had plenty of food, Wang Jie didn't worry about provisions.

The two exchanged information, chattering quietly together.

The more Manager Zhao talked, the more indignant she became—clearly, these people had been giving her grief for days.

From their conversation, Song Weishi gathered that there was no cell signal in the hotel either. The extreme cold had damaged the power lines, cutting off both electricity and communication.

The situation was far worse than they could imagine.

Song Weishi pulled her quilt tighter and silently thought to herself: Worse? The whole world had flipped upside down.

She was already planning her next move—staying in the hotel wasn't a good option.

She remembered from the novel that temperatures varied by region. Their area wasn't the hardest hit, but it was close. She needed to get somewhere warmer as soon as possible to stand a chance at survival.

Just as she was lost in thought, a cry shattered the relative quiet of the room: "Baby! Baby! What's wrong? Don't scare Mommy!"

Author's note: