They hadn't had a meal together like this, without any distractions, chatting and eating, in a long time.
Zhou Haimei looked at Xu An sitting beside her, her back reflecting in the firelight.
Eyelashes as long as crow feathers drooped slightly beneath her eyes, casting a shadow.
She always felt Xu An was a contradictory person.
As if holding many secrets, yet appearing utterly open.
Just like at this moment.
Xu An was sitting right beside her, perfectly fine.
Yet, Zhou Haimei felt Xu An was incredibly distant.
As if she could leave at any moment.
The night passed uneventfully.
The next morning, Xu An woke Zhou Haimei amidst the dense fog.
Being in the wilderness, neither of them had slept as soundly as they might have in comfort.
The campfire they had lit the previous night had died down, and there were several peculiar footprints around Xu An.
They looked like those of some sort of animal.
Xu An scuffed the gravel on the ground with the sole of her shoe, erasing the tracks.
If Zhou Haimei saw these traces, it would be difficult for Xu An to explain, so it was better to avoid trouble and destroy them.
Last night, to prevent mutated beasts from being drawn to their campfire and cooking smells in the middle of the night, she had specifically asked Zeyuan to keep watch.
Judging by the current situation, her worries had indeed been justified.
She silently thought to herself, "Thank you."
Zeyuan, either too tired or no longer bothered to respond to Xu An, remained silent.
Ever since absorbing the small mushroom from that well, Zeyuan had become very sleepy lately.
Basically, it only responded after being called three times.
Zhou Haimei opened her eyes groggily, the cold morning air stinging her face. She instinctively pulled her head further into her collar, murmuring, "An'an, what time is it?"
Xu An glanced at her watch. "It's six-thirty. Get up, we need to go. The temperature here is starting to drop."
Zhou Haimei zipped up her jacket to the highest point of her collar, exhaling cold air and feeling the biting wind.
"Why has it suddenly gotten so cold? It wasn't this cold yesterday."
Xu An, while tidying up the mess from last night's cooking, observed the unusual weather.
"That's not right. We were in the inn yesterday morning, and it felt a bit cold when we woke up. Perhaps it's been this cold outside all along, with a large diurnal temperature range, and we just haven't left the house this early before, so we didn't feel the external cold."
The protective suits worn by Xu An and Zhou Haimei were custom-made by the Lighthouse, featuring both cold-resistance and insulation.
The cold-resistance of this particular suit was developed to withstand temperatures of minus sixty degrees Celsius in the Arctic glaciers of the old era.
This meant that within a cold of minus thirty degrees Celsius, wearing this suit would result in no significant change in perceived body temperature.
However, they were clearly feeling the cold now, implying that the diurnal temperature difference on land was at least thirty degrees Celsius.
This was not good news for humanity as a whole.
Xu An didn't know if she was the butterfly that had caused the storm, but the natural disasters in this life were indeed changing significantly with Xu An's rebirth.
She still hadn't encountered the giant monster from before.
However, the extreme cold frost disaster, which was supposed to happen three years later, was quietly descending upon them without anyone noticing.
"Hiss—"
Hearing the sound, Xu An turned her head.
"What's wrong?"
Zhou Haimei held her hand up to Xu An. "My fingers are frost-cracked, it hurts."
A helpless smile touched Xu An's lips.
"You didn't bring any frost-cracked cream?"
Zhou Haimei shook her head sheepishly. She detested carrying bulky bags whenever she went out.
Even now, in the apocalypse, she preferred traveling with only her phone before.
This habit had only been slightly improved by the advent of the apocalypse, and not much at that.
Just like this time, if she hadn't feared starving to death, she wouldn't have even bothered bringing the nutrient solution.
"I'm really starting to wonder, what exactly is in your backpack?"
Xu An found some frost-cracked cream and handed it to Zhou Haimei, also finding her a pair of gloves.
She knew that Zhou Haimei also possessed a small spatial storage item.
It was inside the pendant on her chest, but the space was very small. According to Zhou Haimei, it was packed with 120 bags of... nutrient solution.
Zhou Haimei took the frost-cracked cream and, with a look of disdain, kicked her backpack towards Xu An.
"You look for yourself."
Xu An opened it: ...
If one didn't know better, they would think Zhou Haimei was carrying a bag of illegal firearms.
It was filled with all sorts of new weapons; whatever could fit into the bag, Zhou Haimei had packed.
The remaining space was filled with various types of bullets and energy cells.
Xu An, with a dark line on her forehead, discovered that Zhou Haimei had even brought a handheld, compact laser electronic cannon.
There were three energy bombs alone.
She knew that this item was designed by the Lighthouse to have the power of artillery, specifically for dealing with mutated beasts.
"Do you think we're going to encounter a bear, my dear sister!"
"Why would you bring a laser cannon!"
An'an was speechless.
Zhou Haimei, with a guilty look, put on her gloves and asked Xu An with a pained expression.
"An'an, can I just throw all this stuff away?"
She had initially thought she would go directly to the South China Sea and have a face-to-face confrontation with monsters, but instead, she had stayed hidden with Xu An until now.
The weapons she had brought down were of no use.
"No!"
Without hesitation, Xu An refused Zhou Haimei's absurd suggestion.
"If someone else picks these up, who knows how much harm they'll cause."
Finally, under Zhou Haimei's coaxing, Xu An placed these items into the spatial ring she possessed.
Without her backpack, Zhou Haimei smiled and looked at the bag on Xu An's back, asking,
"An'an, why don't you put the food in there too?"
"If neither of us carries a backpack, we'll attract more attention."
After packing up, Xu An gave everything a final check to ensure nothing was left behind, then got into the car. The two of them drove out of the jungle.
Xu An looked ahead. "Don't you think the fog has thinned out today?"
Due to her enhanced senses, the fog was virtually non-existent to her. She asked this because her visible distance had clearly increased today.
However, Xu An couldn't be entirely sure.
She could only try this method to test Zhou Haimei.
"No, you think it's thinned out?" Zhou Haimei asked, somewhat puzzled.
All this dense fog looked the same to her; she couldn't discern whether it had thinned or become denser.
Because no matter what, it was all a vast expanse of white.