Chapter 56

Moving everyone was easier said than done. Simply notifying the residents of the two mega-cities was a problem in itself. Some whose homes still stood refused to leave, arguing why they should abandon their existing supplies for some unfamiliar place. Others were immobile, and still others demanded explanations until they got them. Rallying the people was no easy task.

Moreover, the arrival of the cold wave meant gale-force winds and blizzards. If people couldn't be gathered quickly enough, once the cold wave hit, even those who did come would be impossible to relocate.

So the evacuation was more like a grueling race—a race against the speed of the cold wave, a race against time.

Lin Tu knew this all too well. She'd left Xihai City quickly enough, thinking she'd outrun the cold wave, but as her houseboat sailed toward Nacuo City, it only grew colder. On the morning she arrived at Nacuo City, she looked up and saw light snow drifting from the sky.

The wind whipped the snowflakes into a blinding veil that swallowed the world. The snow fell harder and harder, and the houseboat struggled through the sea, finally docking with great effort at the temporary rebuilt port mentioned on the radio.

The offshore fuel supply station at Nacuo City had already been flooded. After registering and paying the berthing fee, Lin Tu asked where she could get fuel.

"Boat fuel is a scarce resource right now..." The staff member looked troubled, but his eyes darted around slyly.

Lin Tu pulled two packs of dried beef from her backpack and pressed them into his hand.

The man immediately beamed. He handed the temporary port over to an acquaintance and personally led Lin Tu to a small side street a block away. The street ran along a slope, with stairs at every turn; the upper and lower platforms were sometimes only a meter apart, sometimes several. The surrounding area was packed with residential buildings and self-built homes, and people had set up stalls right at their doorsteps. The entire street was crammed with makeshift vendors, a chaotic mess.

The falling snow didn't seem to dampen the bustle—many people held umbrellas while continuing to hawk their wares.

"Paper money's useless now, so don't try paying anyone with it," the staff member said, expertly leading Lin Tu to the door of a shabby residence. There, a gaunt old man in his fifties was paring his toenails with a large curved knife.

"Old Li! I've brought you a big customer!" the staff member called out, walking straight through the door.

Old Li spat at him. "I told you, I don't want your damn points!"

"Points?" The unfamiliar term piqued Lin Tu's curiosity.

"These are special times, see. The government says Nacuo City is the refuge point for several cities around! To keep things unified, paper money, gold, supplies, and contributions to the community can all be exchanged for points. But even so, paper money's devalued so badly nobody wants it," the staff member explained briefly, then asked, "Old Li, you haven't spent the points from renting out your house yet? I'm telling you, these days you can't do anything without points!"

Old Li scraped his knife irritably against the ground and refused flatly, "Not swapping."

"I can trade supplies," Lin Tu said.

That made Old Li look up. "What do you want?"

"Boat fuel."

Old Li immediately said, "Not swapping."

"Hey, hey, hey!" The staff member shoved forward, pointing at Old Li's nose. "Why are you so stubborn? The disaster's coming, and your daughter runs out every day trying to stock up food and winter clothes for you two. But here you are, turning away things delivered right to your door!"

Old Li: "What the hell do you know?"

"I can trade winter supplies," Lin Tu pressed on.

Old Li looked her up and down, unable to believe she had any winter gear with just that small backpack.

Lin Tu saw his confusion. "It's on my boat."

"Five hundred liters only," Old Li said. "I want five cotton quilts, and five coats—cotton, down, or military leather, whatever. If not, charcoal or thermal underwear will do. Whatever it is, it's got to be worth my fuel."

Lin Tu gave a light laugh and turned to leave.

She wasn't about to be taken for a fool. Five hundred liters of boat fuel might be worth three thousand yuan, but with the temperature drop now set in stone, winter supplies had skyrocketed in price. Trying to swap at old rates for her cotton coats and quilts was just an attempt to profit off her.

"Really not swapping? It's actually a fair trade..." The staff member glanced cautiously at Lin Tu, and seeing her unmoved, shot Old Li a venomous glare. "See what nonsense you're talking?"

"Anything else? If not, give me back one pack of beef jerky." Lin Tu held out her hand.

"Oh, don't rush, don't rush! I only brought you here because I felt sorry for his daughter. Let me take you to the next place—I guarantee we'll make a deal!" The staff member was about to lead Lin Tu out when a woman around twenty-six or twenty-seven walked in and happened to overhear him.

"What do you want to trade?" She stepped forward at once.

It turned out she was Old Li's daughter. The staff member immediately gave her an embellished account of what had just happened, along with Lin Tu's needs.

"Deal!" The woman said without hesitation.

"No deal!" Old Li came back out of the house, head held high like a fighting rooster. "With fuel, we can go to sea. I was born by the sea and made my living off it—never starved in half a lifetime. You think two tidal waves and a bit of snow are going to starve me?"

"If you won't trade the fuel, I'll trade the gold jewelry Mom left me!"

"That's your dowry!" Old Li roared. "We've got winter clothes! I've lived all these years without freezing to death. You think I'll freeze now?"

The woman was furious and tried to charge into the house. "Always the same excuse—we've got some at home, no problem! We only have two thin down jackets! Just keep clinging to your old ways and wait to die! Do you know how many refugees have come from the south? Do you know how dire the situation is down there? The ones who didn't listen are already trapped by heavy snow and can't escape! What's more important than staying alive? Winter clothes get scarcer and pricier every day! If we don't buy now, we'll really freeze to death!"

Snowflakes drifted down one by one, and the wind swirled them into chaos.

Lin Tu didn't want to get involved. She turned to leave, but as she glanced sideways, she spotted two familiar faces—

"Yu Liu?" she said in surprise.

"And me, big shot!" Yu Liu's teammate waved enthusiastically.

.

Ten minutes later, everyone was seated calmly indoors again.

It turned out Yu Liu was the one renting Old Li's house. He'd just been out stocking up and came back carrying several large bags. Aside from canned food, there were wool sweaters, thermal underwear, gloves, and more.

Seeing that Lin Tu wanted boat fuel and Old Li was unwilling to sell, Yu Liu opened his own bags and spread the contents out before Old Li—

"I came from the south. We know how bad things are. Gold, oil—none of it matters as much as food and warm clothes stockpiled at home. These things alone cost me the price of a car. But I guarantee you, people still in the south would give everything they own for these two bags."

Old Li puffed on his pipe. The stubborn old man had just lost the argument with his daughter. Ever since his wife passed, he'd been fixated on his daughter's marriage, wanting to save and earn more for her dowry. He didn't believe what others said about stocking food and clothes, but he couldn't win against his daughter. Since she wanted it so badly, he didn't want to see her running around out there anymore either.

"Keep the bracelet your grandmother left you. It's a family heirloom of the Lis." With that, he went back to his room, moody and silent.

"And the fuel?" his daughter called after him.

"Sell it as you like!" Old Li waved a hand. "Your uncles probably still have some stored up too. Help them sell theirs as well!"

"Great!" A smile spread across his daughter's face.

The staff member, having pocketed his two packs of beef jerky, made a graceful exit. Yu Liu and his teammate offered to help haul the fuel, so they first went to the self-built house Yu Liu had rented to drop off his things, then checked the remaining fuel on Old Li's fishing boat—roughly over a thousand liters.

The current market price for winter clothes would only rise, but Lin Tu didn't take advantage. She traded six cotton quilts, six cotton coats, and four boxes of hand warmers for one thousand liters of fuel. With that, she got Old Li's daughter to convince her three uncles as well, adding another fifteen hundred or so liters in total.

Lin Tu first returned to her boat to pick up the supplies, while the others loaded the fuel and sailed toward the temporary rebuilt port. There, they spotted Lin Tu on her wooden boat at a glance.

Her boat was very distinctive—entirely made of red wood. It was less a boat and more like a small wooden house mounted on a hull. It had a lived-in feel: white patterned linen curtains hung over the windows and the glass door leading from the deck into the cabin, and the deck and stern were cluttered with various items.

On the not-so-spacious deck, Lin Tu was crouched over, taking stock of her supplies. Beside her stood a wooden shelf about a meter tall, topped with a homemade plastic snow shield. On the shelf hung a few withered cabbages with clear, dried veins; a string of garlic tied tightly with cotton thread like bells; a string of chili peppers; and a flat board holding split cherry tomatoes that were red to the point of being overripe.

Beside the shelf of dried vegetables and fruits were a few buckets, and leaning against the door was a fishing rod. Further along was a grill covered with plastic sheeting, with a small table next to it that seemed meant for holding food.

Yu Liu and his teammate couldn't help twitching at the corners of their mouths. Just from looking at all this, they could already picture Lin Tu lazily fishing on the deck, grilling, even having a drink or two.

Then they thought of their own place—Yu Liu recalled the self-built house he'd just rented. It was a structure of a few bricks and sheets of iron. He'd done his best to tidy it up, but with apocalyptic conditions being what they were, the shelf he'd managed to scrounge held only cans of meat that looked like cat food, and bottles of flavorless beans and pickled radish strips. Of course, when food ran out, he still had black bread vouchers in his backpack.

They were both players, so why was the gap so wide?

"You're here?" Lin Tu lugged two big bags of supplies and quickly carried them off the boat.

Old Li's daughter had been a little worried Lin Tu couldn't come up with that much stuff, but when Lin Tu opened the packaging and she saw the cotton coats and quilts, she couldn't help exclaiming in delight, "These are all brand new!?" Checking the tags, they were even the thickest kind.

Thick was naturally better than thin—thick could be taken apart, reworked to be thinner, or split into two pieces, while thin ones simply had less cotton and couldn't be made thicker no matter what.

"Two thousand five hundred liters, fifteen cotton quilts, fifteen cotton coats, and ten boxes of hand warmers." Lin Tu counted them one by one and confirmed everything was correct, and the deal was struck.

Lin Tu used the two thousand five hundred liters to top off the fuel she'd burned over the past days, with plenty left over. She cleared out space on the houseboat to store it, piling the rest on the deck. Her days of sailing against wind and waves had taught her that the stronger the wind, the more fuel she burned. She was still far from the next human settlement, and the more fuel she stockpiled, the safer she'd be.

After buying what she needed, Lin Tu intended to set off immediately and continue north. Yu Liu hadn't expected her to be in such a hurry—she wasn't even planning to stay in Nacuo City for a couple more days. Of course, what surprised him even more was that Lin Tu intended to sail this wooden boat all the way to the Arctic.

"Really not staying in Nacuo City a couple more days? At least stock up more supplies and reinforce the boat a bit more," Yu Liu urged. If the person standing before him weren't Lin Tu, he'd probably have asked if she'd lost her mind.

"It's fine. I've stocked up enough supplies, and the boat's about as reinforced as it needs to be," Lin Tu said matter-of-factly.

Yu Liu recalled how she'd produced that many supplies all at once, and how she'd indeed sailed all the way from Xihai City—crawling with giant leeches—to Nacuo City. For a moment, he had nothing to say.

"Big shot, the local vegetables and fruit might be radioactive. Better not eat them," Yu Liu's teammate said, scratching his head. "I see you've dried a lot of cabbage."

Lin Tu gave an "oh." "I grew them myself."

At that, Yu Liu really had nothing left to say. Worrying about Lin Tu was like worrying about himself—she wasn't just stronger in combat, she had more supplies than him, and she even grew her own vegetables. If Lin Tu said right now that she kept a brood of chickens, Yu Liu wouldn't even be that surprised.

With that thought, he asked anyway, "Do you keep anything else?"

Lin Tu looked at him curiously. "How did you know? I do keep a few leeches, fed with fish I've caught by rod or net. Of course, I originally wanted to farm fish—that shelf was meant for drying fish meat—but then I found out eating the fish here was risky, so I switched to leeches. Why?"

Yu Liu was stunned speechless.

Leeches were C-class mutant monsters—how was she keeping them as pets? He'd originally wanted to ask what she kept leeches for, but then realized asking these questions was pointless.

Yu Liu glanced at his teammate beside him. The newbie, who'd only been in the game for a few rounds, wore a look of admiration, his eyes full of "now this is a real big shot." Yu Liu waved a hand helplessly.

"Nothing. Just wanted to exchange some things with you before you leave."