Cold and Heat

Yao Wei's tone had turned increasingly melancholy and emotional.

They both climbed into the car. Lu Xi'an said, "Let's hurry back and fill the bottles. If we wait too long, the faucet might freeze and stop running."

Yao Wei nodded, started the car, and drove up the small road they had taken to get there. Once they reached the main road, she headed straight for the villa at Jiangyu Road No. 272.

The cold wind made the leaves rustle, and the whole world seemed to lose its vitality all at once.

But this was only the beginning.

Having been through this kind of sudden change in weather countless times, Lu Xi'an knew that if it lasted much longer, many leaves on the trees would freeze and shatter, scattering everywhere.

By then, it would seem as if all life had vanished from the world. As far as the eye could see, there wouldn't be a living thing in sight.

Under such extreme environmental changes, people's spirits would sink especially low. They couldn't help wondering what was the point of living in a world like this. Enduring torment day after day—it would be better to just die.

That was why Lu Xi'an constantly reminded himself to keep his spirits up. As long as he was alive, hope would come eventually.

Just think, there was still half a load of wild boar meat in the trunk. With the weather turning cold, he didn't have to worry about it spoiling. It would make another delicious meal come dinner time. Wasn't that a good thing?

As he comforted himself, he turned to glance at Yao Wei.

The car had no air conditioning, and the steering wheel was freezing. The weather was so cold that even the engine's heater was useless. The woman kept switching which fingers she used to steer, but she couldn't manage to grip the wheel with all ten fingers.

She was as cold and aloof as ever, her expression well suited to the weather. He wondered how she managed her emotions.

Fog began to cover the windows, blocking their view. Yao Wei had no choice but to keep wiping the glass with a rag, clearing away the white haze so she could see the road ahead.

"I'll do it."

Lu Xi'an took the rag from Yao Wei and helped wipe the windshield so she could focus on driving.

Working together like that, they headed for Jiangyu Road.

The rag in Lu Xi'an's hand quickly grew damp and cold, but he could only grit his teeth and keep working.

At last, the car reached the entrance of Jiangyu Road No. 272, and Yao Wei stepped on the brakes.

Lu Xi'an had the dog get out first and go inside to check around. After confirming there was no problem, he and Yao Wei got out with their bottles and went in.

Several of the hyena carcasses in the villa were gone. The ones that remained had been reduced to bare bones, frozen stiff.

He guessed the hyenas must have come back.

When scavengers were hungry, they would eat the carcasses of their own kind.

If his guess was right, then there was no need to worry about coming back now.

The hyenas had eaten their fill and carried off the remaining carcasses. They certainly wouldn't return again anytime soon.

The two of them went to the swimming pool in the courtyard. Luckily, the water in it had thawed.

Lu Xi'an had the dog check it. The water seemed fine, and they could drink it.

Yao Wei hurriedly filled the bottles. Lu Xi'an suddenly remembered something. He came out of the bathroom and glanced at the wall.

There was a black-trimmed switch on the wall that controlled the various lights in the house. Beside it was a white control panel. Like the switch, it was already covered in dust.

But Lu Xi'an could still see clearly. The panel had two rows of buttons, including ones for power, mode, and adjusting settings.

When he had come here before, Lu Xi'an had confirmed that it was the villa's central air-conditioning controller.

Unfortunately, he had tried it, and the air conditioner was broken.

But that wasn't what mattered now. That wasn't what he had remembered, either.

He hurried upstairs to the second-floor bedroom. Sure enough, in the corner near the ceiling, he found something wrapped in cloth. It wasn't very big, and was long and narrow with a slight curve.

A pipe about as thick as a baby's fist stuck out from the cloth and ran through an opening in the wall to the outside.

Lu Xi'an dragged over the bedside table, stepped up onto it, grabbed the edge of the cloth, and yanked it down.

Dust swirled through the air, filling his nose.

Lu Xi'an quickly covered his mouth and nose with one hand and squeezed his eyes shut. When he opened them again, he saw what had been hidden beneath the cloth.

A white half-cylinder, with a slightly open cover that revealed a glimpse of the vent underneath. What else could it be but an air-conditioning unit?

As expected...

Still, he really hadn't expected that in a villa with central air conditioning, the bedroom would also have a separate, smaller unit.

The temperature had been comfortable before, so he hadn't needed the air conditioner. When he checked the bedroom, he hadn't paid much attention to this spot.

But even though he hadn't looked closely, it had stuck in his mind. That was why he could think of it now.

Still, with the weather this cold, he wasn't sure whether the air conditioner would be able to help...

Lu Xi'an let out a soft breath and looked down. "Dog, go connect the power."

The Mechanical Dog had followed Lu Xi'an upstairs. At his command, it immediately turned around and staggered out of the bedroom and downstairs.

Lu Xi'an flipped the switch for the bedroom light. He heard a series of clicks gradually grow fainter, then stop. A moment later, the light came on.

Lu Xi'an had also found two remote controls before, in the bedside table drawer. At the time, he had thought they were for the television and hadn't paid them much attention.

Thinking back now, one of them had to be for the air conditioner.

But they were no use. The batteries in the remotes had long since died. He had tried them before.

Luckily, the air conditioner had physical buttons on it: power, fan speed, airflow direction, mode, and timer, all lined up in a row.

In his previous life, he would have thought such a design was unnecessary.

Why would a wall-mounted air conditioner need buttons? A remote was enough. But now, he could only admire how farsighted the designers of this world had been.

The air conditioner's power cord had been plugged into the wall the whole time.

Lu Xi'an had already checked. He reached out and pressed the power button. He tried holding it down, tapping it, and pressing it two or three times in a row, but nothing happened.

He had no idea whether there was a problem with the circuit or the air conditioner itself.

Lu Xi'an didn't give up. He jumped down from the bedside table and hurried outside the bedroom. Leaning over the upstairs railing, he called, "Dog, come up."

But to his surprise, Yao Wei came up first.

She had finished filling the bottles and brought both hers and Lu Xi'an's with her. Now she had come to see what he was doing.

The Mechanical Dog came in behind Yao Wei, swaying as it walked. Lu Xi'an picked it up, stepped onto the bedside table, and asked, "Can you connect this air conditioner plug?"

A hatch immediately opened on the dog's back, revealing a socket.

Lu Xi'an thought that the dog really was just a Power Bank at heart, much like Yao Wei's device. Then he plugged the air conditioner into the socket on the dog's back.

Beep—

He heard the air conditioner make a sound, and his eyes lit up. He quickly pressed the buttons again, switching it to heating mode and setting the fan speed to maximum.

Whirrrrr—

The old machine, which had sat idle for who knew how many years, started running again. First it blew out cold air, then the air warmed, driving away the chill.

Lu Xi'an immediately felt warm and comfortable. The air conditioner was putting out a musty smell, but that couldn't drown out the pleasure his skin was signaling to his body.

It really worked!

Lu Xi'an was astonished.

He had only been trying it out. In his previous life, an air conditioner would have been useless in weather this cold.

It seemed that the air conditioners in this world were a lot more powerful than the ones in his previous life.

This was great!

"How is it?"

He turned and asked Yao Wei with a smile.

Yao Wei stared blankly at the air conditioner, not answering for a moment.

She could feel the warmth too.

"Tell me, what if we took this air conditioner down and installed it in your car?"

Lu Xi'an suddenly had the idea and asked her.

It was too cold. The car's heater was useless, and even if it helped a little, Yao Wei wouldn't want to keep the engine running and waste gas while they rested.

Yao Wei thought it over carefully for a while, then shook her head. "The car can't power it."

The car's voltage was nowhere near enough to run this indoor air conditioner, of course.

Lu Xi'an smiled faintly and patted the Mechanical Dog on the head. "That's what we've got the dog for, isn't it?"