Encountering Difficulties

The lights were off, and Chen Xu lay in bed, tossing and turning for over an hour, unable to fall asleep.

His sleep quality was usually excellent, and he rarely suffered from insomnia. Today was a special case.

The scene he had glimpsed through the glass in the bathroom earlier lingered in his mind, the image of her fair back seemingly dancing before his eyes. It felt like a fire was burning inside him, making him restless and hot.

Just as he turned over, he heard a slight movement from the other side of the bed.

She wasn't asleep either.

Am I just asking for trouble?

The thought suddenly popped into his head, and he couldn't help but sigh inwardly. This was a classic case of hurting himself in the process of harming the enemy. A mutual torment. Moving into this room might make her uncomfortable, but he wasn't having an easy time either.

To be honest, he had almost lost control several times and wanted to pounce on the bed.

But he didn't dare. Knowing her personality, she might have a knife hidden under her pillow. Getting stabbed to death would be one thing, but what if she went for a swift strike and gave him a clean cut down there...

Just thinking about it sent a chill down below.

Even if this was the Dream Realm and not real, it would leave a lifelong trauma.

There was no way he would dare to mess around.

"It's all that Virtual Dream Device's fault. It's one thing to make the scenes so realistic, but to replicate the characters with a 100% resemblance to the real person is just too much,"

He thought with some frustration.

If it were really like his own dream, where he could do whatever he wanted, that would be great.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the case at all.

"In my dream, shouldn't I be able to do whatever I want?"

Thinking this, he turned over again. Annoyed, he simply took out his phone from under the pillow, opened a novel saved on his phone, and forced himself to read it to distract himself.

He had saved the most classic and his favorite online novels on his phone, each of which he had read several times.

Gradually, his mind became immersed in the story, and as he read, he began to feel sleepy, his eyelids getting heavy, and he finally fell asleep.

The next day, Chen Xu woke up an hour later than usual. After busying himself, it was already breakfast time, so he had to postpone his gun practice for a day.

During breakfast, Luo Xiyun's face was cold, and she didn't say a word or even look at him.

Chen Xu felt it was necessary to explain, "Last night, I didn't do it on purpose. I really accidentally pressed that switch..."

With a bang, Luo Xiyun placed her chopsticks forcefully on the table and began to clear the dishes without saying a word.

Chen Xu immediately shut his mouth. Since she didn't want to listen to his explanation, he wouldn't bother making a fool of himself.

Originally, he had planned to rest at home for another day, but with the atmosphere like this, he didn't want to stay here staring at a grumpy face. After finishing his meal, he drove out.

This trip was mainly for scouting.

He was already very familiar with the roads nearby, and after two hours, he finally drove into unfamiliar territory.

The torrential rain that lasted for more than twenty days had flooded most of the city, and then the temperature plummeted, turning the water into ice. Driving along, everything was covered in ice.

He drove very slowly because the ice was slippery, and driving too fast could easily cause an accident. He wasn't too confident in the Anti-skid Chains he had made himself.

Every ten minutes or so, he would stop and leave a mark with red paint to avoid not being able to find his way back home.

The ice stretched out as far as the eye could see, the same in all directions. Without a compass, he couldn't even tell the direction.

He drove for two hours before he saw any signs of buildings, and he couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. Fortunately, it wasn't too far away. If he moved quickly, he could make a round trip in a day.

When he got closer, he saw the appearance of the buildings and cursed his bad luck.

It turned out that the buildings in front of him were all high-rise buildings that were half-submerged in water. Because the floors were very high, some parts were not submerged.

What he needed most now was gasoline. But gas stations couldn't be built on top of high-rise buildings, could they? These buildings were of no value to him.

He drove his car to the nearest building before stopping, took out his binoculars, and looked ahead. He could see more and more buildings appearing on the ice.

"It's 1:30 PM. It takes about three hours to get back to the Villa from here."

It took him four hours to get here. In fact, he spent a lot of time just leaving marks along the way. If he drove non-stop, it definitely wouldn't take that long.

After considering it, he decided to drive for another hour. That way, he could return to the villa before 8 PM, which wouldn't be too late.

With that decision made, he got into the car and drove forward.

The further he drove, the more buildings appeared. He felt a surge of excitement, which meant the terrain ahead was getting higher. Once he reached flat ground, he would quickly find a gas station.

Whoosh—

He hadn't gone far when the wind picked up outside, carrying snowflakes that pelted the windshield.

He couldn't help but slow down, driving even more cautiously.

Tap, tap, tap...

The sound from the roof of the car made him cry out inwardly; it was hail. Judging by the looks of it, it was going to snow heavily.

"I can't go any further."

He decisively turned the steering wheel, made a U-turn, and drove back the way he came.

Before long, he left the cluster of tall buildings and drove back along the road he had taken.

After driving for half an hour, he suddenly felt the car shake violently. He heard a hissing sound of airflow from an unknown location, and the car stalled.

Crap! He realized he was in big trouble.

The car glided forward for a short distance before coming to a stop.

At this moment, Chen Xu smelled a strong burning odor. Beads of sweat appeared on his forehead as he twisted the key, muttering, "Please don't fail me at a time like this."

He twisted it seven or eight times, but the engine remained unresponsive.

"This is bad."

He leaned back in the seat, rubbing his face vigorously with both hands.

The worst-case scenario had finally occurred: the car broke down, and he didn't know how to fix it.

Moreover, the car was stopped on an icy surface, with no village in front and no store behind. To make matters worse, it was hailing outside.

"What to do?"

After a while, he calmed down a bit, looking at the snowflakes swirling in the wind outside, his brow deeply furrowed.

After thinking it over, he decided to wait for the hail to stop. Getting out of the car now would likely result in being beaten to death by the hail.

The only question was, when would this hailstorm stop?

He had food, water, and gas for heating in the car, so being stranded for a few days wouldn't be a problem. What he was worried about was Luo Xiyun. If he couldn't get back, what would happen to her?