Encountering Trouble

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

He usually slept well and rarely suffered from insomnia. Today was a special case.

The scene he had glimpsed through the glass in the bathroom lingered in his mind. That pale, bare back seemed to still be swaying before his eyes. It felt like a fire was burning inside him, leaving him unbearably restless.

He had just turned over when he heard faint movement from the other side of the bed.

She was still awake too.

Was I just asking for trouble?

The thought suddenly surfaced in his mind, and he could not help sighing inwardly. This was practically killing a thousand enemies while losing eight hundred of his own. Moving into this room might make her uncomfortable, but he was not having an easy time either.

To be honest, several times just now, he had nearly been unable to resist pouncing onto the bed.

But he did not dare. With her personality, she might have hidden a knife under her pillow. Getting stabbed to death would be one thing, but what if she brought the knife down and gave him a clean cut...

Just thinking about it made him feel a chill below.

Even if this was a dream and not reality, it could still leave him traumatized for the rest of his life.

How could he possibly dare to try anything?

"It's all that Virtual Dream Device's fault. Making the setting so realistic was bad enough, but it even had to replicate the characters with one hundred percent fidelity to the real people. What a pain in the ass."

He thought gloomily.

If this were really his own dream, where he could do whatever he wanted, how great would that be?

Unfortunately, it was nothing like that.

"In my dream, shouldn't things go however I want them to?"

Thinking that, he turned over again. Frustrated, he simply took out his phone from beneath his pillow, opened a novel he had saved on it, and forced himself to read in order to distract himself.

The novels saved on his phone were all classics, and also his favorites. He had read every one of them several times.

Gradually, he became absorbed in the story. As he read, drowsiness overtook him. His eyelids grew too heavy to keep open, and he finally fell asleep.

The next day, Chen Xu woke an hour later than usual. By the time he had finished getting ready, it was already breakfast time, so he had no choice but to put off his shooting practice for a day.

While they ate, Luo Xiyun's face was icy. She did not say a word or look at him.

Chen Xu felt that he needed to explain. "Last night, I didn't do it on purpose. I really hit that switch by accident..."

With a bang, Luo Xiyun forcefully set down her chopsticks and silently began clearing the dishes.

Chen Xu immediately shut his mouth. Since she did not want to hear his explanation, there was no point in making a fool of himself.

He had originally planned to rest at home for another day, but with the atmosphere like this, he did not want to stay there looking at that sour face. After breakfast, he drove out.

This trip was mainly to scout the route.

He was already very familiar with the nearby roads. It was not until two hours later that he finally reached unfamiliar territory.

The torrential rain that had lasted more than twenty days had flooded over half the city. Then the temperature had plunged, freezing all that water solid. Everywhere he drove, there was nothing but ice.

He drove slowly because the ice was slippery, and going too fast could easily cause an accident. He did not have much confidence in the Anti-skid Chains he had made himself.

Every ten minutes or so, he stopped and used red paint to leave a marker so that he would not lose his way home.

The ice stretched beyond sight. Every direction looked the same, and without a compass, he could not even tell which way was which.

He drove for another two hours before finally spotting buildings in the distance, and he could not help breathing a sigh of relief. Fortunately, they were not too far away. If he moved quickly, he could make a round trip within a day.

When he got closer and saw what the buildings looked like, he silently cursed his bad luck.

The buildings before him were all high-rises submerged halfway by the floodwaters. Because they were so tall, part of them had remained above water.

What he needed most right now was gasoline. But gas stations could hardly be built on top of high-rises, could they? This cluster of buildings was of little value to him.

He drove all the way up to the nearest building before stopping. Taking out his binoculars, he looked ahead and saw more and more buildings emerging from the ice.

"It's one thirty now. It should take a little over three hours to get back to the villa from here."

It had taken him four hours to get here. In fact, he had spent quite a bit of time leaving markers along the way. If he had driven nonstop, it definitely would not have taken this long.

After considering it, he decided to drive forward for another hour. That way, he could still get back to the villa before eight in the evening, which was not too late.

Having made up his mind, he got into the car and drove onward.

The farther he went, the more buildings appeared. He felt somewhat energized. This meant the terrain ahead was getting higher and higher. As long as he reached level ground, he would soon find a gas station.

Whoosh—

He had not gone far when wind began blowing outside, carrying pellets of snow that struck the windshield.

He could not help slowing down and driving even more carefully.

Tap, tap, tap...

The sounds coming from the roof made his heart sink. It was hail. At this rate, a heavy snowfall was coming.

"I can't go any farther."

He decisively turned the wheel, made a U-turn on the spot, and drove back.

Before long, he had left the cluster of high-rises and was following the route he had taken here.

After driving for half an hour, he suddenly felt the car shake violently. A hissing sound of escaping air came from somewhere, and the engine died.

Damn! He realized that he was in serious trouble.

The car slid forward for some distance before coming to a stop.

At that moment, Chen Xu caught a strong burnt smell. Cold sweat immediately covered his forehead as he twisted the key and muttered, "Don't you dare break down on me now."

He turned it seven or eight times, but the engine still did not respond at all.

"This is bad."

He leaned back against the seat and rubbed his face hard with both hands.

The worst-case scenario had finally happened. The car had broken down, and he did not know how to repair it.

Moreover, the car was stopped on the ice, with nowhere nearby in either direction. To make matters worse, it was hailing outside.

"What do I do?"

After a while, he calmed down somewhat. Looking at the snow pellets being swept up by the wind outside, he frowned deeply.

No matter how he thought about it, he could only wait for the hail to stop first. If he got out now, he might very well be beaten to death by the hail.

He just did not know when this hailstorm would stop.

There was food, water, and gas in the car for heating, so being trapped for a few days would not be a problem. What worried him was Luo Xiyun. If he could not get back, what would she do?