Inside the Anta County Forest Protection Bureau.
"Damn, why's this thing broken again?" A scruffy-bearded man wrapped in a military overcoat patted the radiator and frowned.
"This place is too remote, and the pipes are too old. It's normal for them to break."
A young man in his early twenties carried over a stove and set it in the middle of the cramped office. He held his hand over its surface, and after confirming it gave off some warmth, continued:
"Uncle Li, how about we apply to our superiors and move the outpost into town? The heating fails every winter. How can we keep doing this?"
Li Deyang frowned and spoke firmly. "No. Monitoring that primeval forest behind us is our squad's mission. If we move into town and something happens in the woods, what then?"
The young man opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something, but ultimately stayed silent. He tucked his frost-reddened hands into his sleeves and lowered his head as he paced around the room.
The stove's warmth had yet to spread through the room, which was like an ice cellar. If he stopped moving now, he would soon be numb from the cold.
After fiddling with the radiator for a while to no avail, Li Deyang finally gave up. He slowly stood and walked to an old blackboard at the edge of the room.
The blackboard looked as though it had been taken from an old classroom, except only half of it remained. It had snapped down the middle, and several strands of Spider Silk clung to its jagged edge. Its surface had cracked from the cold, covered in fine fissures.
A massive forest map was pinned to the blackboard. Red circles had been drawn across it one after another, along with countless