Zhou Haimei covered her stomach and laughed, "Hahahaha, An'an, Gou Dan seems to dislike it."
"No, you're mistaken."
Xu An stiffly turned her head, as if unwilling to admit this reality.
However, as the weather grew colder, Zhou Haimei's excitement gradually subsided.
"It's so cold, An'an, why is it so cold."
Xu An watched the two of them, their speech now carrying a chill.
"This cold is a bit abnormal."
In less than half an hour, the ground outside was already lightly covered in a layer of white.
"Why is it snowing so much?" Zhou Haimei also sensed something was wrong.
They had been talking for less than ten minutes, yet the snow had already fallen all over the ground.
The only one happy now was Gou Dan, frolicking freely in the snow, leaving behind a string of plum blossom prints.
"An'an, what are we having for lunch?" Zhou Haimei wrapped herself tightly in a blanket, only her head peeking out from the middle.
"Now that it's snowing, can we start a fire?"
Xu An was also thinking about this. Although she was still worried if starting a fire would attract anything else, the current weather didn't allow her to think too much.
Nodding, Zhou Haimei and Xu An put on the cold-proof suits they had prepared beforehand and took out all the tools for starting a fire and cooking from the trunk.
They swept away all the snow from the ground.
If Xu An had to name one benefit of the extreme cold period, it would be that in the coldest year, there were no traces of zombies.
These zombies seemed to also fear the extreme cold, their movements sluggish, and they were no longer aggressive. Over time, the traces of zombies disappeared into the vast expanse of white snow.
Seeing Xu An and Zhou Haimei get out of the car, Gou Dan excitedly circled around the two of them.
Coincidentally, Xu An wanted someone to scout the surroundings.
"Gou Dan, go check the surroundings and see if there are any suspicious people or beasts."
As soon as the words fell, Gou Dan, as if hearing an order, wagged his tail and ran off joyfully, disappearing from sight.
"Gou Dan actually understands you."
Zhou Haimei watched Xu An talk to Gou Dan, showing disbelief again.
Xu An smiled without speaking. She picked up her homemade simple broom and cleared a vacant space in front of the vehicle.
Having grown up in the north, she wasn't that fascinated by snow, feeling rather indifferent.
It was Zhou Haimei who looked at the small piles of snow.
"An'an, let's build a snowman together."
"Childish."
While calling it childish, Xu An couldn't do anything about Zhou Haimei and agreed to accompany her to build a snowman after dinner.
Before long, the hot vegetable soup was ready.
As the weather grew colder, Xu An was too lazy to cook anything too complicated. She found a few packets of vegetable soup mix and added some minced meat.
She broke the dried rations she had brought down into small pieces and cooked them together in the soup.
A bowl of hot vegetable and grain soup was ready.
Although its appearance was indeed somewhat unsatisfactory.
The taste remained delicious.
After preparing the meal, Xu An and Zhou Haimei got into the car with their pots and bowls.
The rear compartment was connected to the front driver's seat.
After getting into the car, Xu An lowered the partition in the middle and pulled down the oilcloth covering the trunk, wrapping the entire trunk.
This formed a simple semi-enclosed space.
"This is much warmer." Zhou Haimei held her soup bowl, the rising steam blurring her vision.
As if unable to resist, she drank it directly without even blowing on it.
"Huu~ So hot~"
Xu An looked at Zhou Haimei's wrinkled little face and said helplessly, "Slow down."
"It's so delicious, hahaha."
Gou Dan also squeezed in at some point, wagging his tail and staying by Xu An's side, as if he wanted to eat too.
Xu An served a bowl for Gou Dan before finally serving a bowl for herself.
A kerosene lamp inside the car cast a faint glow, adding a touch of warmth to the cold winter night.
In the blink of an eye, they reached the boundary of Nanhai, where there were still scattered households.
Perhaps it was the sudden drop in temperature that caught everyone off guard. Xu An saw that almost every household had taken out unused firewood to burn for warmth.
"Look, these seem to be primitive residents here, they haven't even enclosed their surroundings or set up any bases."
"It's probably because they are close to the sea, and these people have relied on the sea for generations. So, the apocalypse hasn't had much impact on their lives, which is why they haven't set up any bases."
As the vehicle continued to advance, the two of them saw the gradually appearing horizon.
The boundless sea surface was like silk, winding and embracing, with no end in sight.
"But this is also quite good," Zhou Haimei said while driving, "after all, having a base isn't necessarily a good thing."
Xu An knew that Zhou Haimei felt this way because the bases they had encountered along the way had left no good impression.
Hence, she had this thought.
But Xu An knew that bases were definitely a force that could unite in the apocalypse.
Even if it might be somewhat indifferent or不堪, in some aspects.
It was indeed humanity's last sanctuary.
Xu An stopped the car in front of a woman's house.
The woman appeared to be around forty or fifty years old. Xu An tidied herself up and got out of the car.
Seeing the woman struggling to chop firewood, she stepped forward and politely asked, "Big sister, have you seen any troops in this area?"
The woman turned her head impatiently upon hearing the voice, her face showing visible annoyance. She spoke a sentence in a dialect Xu An couldn't understand, coldly.
But Xu An didn't understand and looked at her in confusion.
Just as she was about to ask if the other party could speak Mandarin.
Zhou Haimei stepped forward at this moment and communicated with the woman in a language similar to hers.
Hearing Xu An standing by, looking dazed.
After a while, Xu An saw Zhou Haimei say something to the woman with a solemn expression, and the woman's expression actually showed a trace of disdain and mockery.
Before Xu An could ask what they had discussed and why the woman's attitude changed so quickly.
Zhou Haimei grabbed Xu An and pulled her away.
Only after returning to the car did Xu An look at her inexplicably, her voice tinged with anxiety, "What's wrong? Why did you suddenly pull me away? And what did that woman say? I didn't understand a word."
Xu An asked without context, not noticing Zhou Haimei's increasingly rigid expression.
"That woman was speaking Hakka."
"Then did you ask? What about Qin Chuan and the others?"
Zhou Haimei's voice was somewhat ethereal, barely audible if not listened to carefully.
"That woman said... all outsiders who came here have died, sacrificed to the Sea God..."