Chu Che spent the entire night sensing the eerie presences, not daring to relax for even a moment.
He was like a master martial artist dancing on tiptoe atop a blade. One wrong move could cost him his life.
Outside, the rain fell relentlessly, rattling against the vehicle's windows.
Chu Che knew that after this ordeal, the convoy would lose at least half its people, perhaps even more.
On a night of such heavy rain, it was easy to imagine how many people would fall behind.
Even if Chu Che couldn't bear it, there was nothing he could do to change any of this.
Chu Che sensed some of the eerie presences trailing the convoy stop their pursuit.
He closed his eyes slightly, a flicker of pain crossing his face.
He could imagine what had happened.
They were the convoy members who had fallen behind.
The entities had followed the convoy's trail and found those stragglers.
Now they could begin a delightful hunt or picnic.
Those survivors would slow the entities down, allowing the rest of the convoy to escape safely.
Once the entities had new food or toys, there was a good chance they would abandon their pursuit of the convoy.
That was also why Chu Che always tried to take the survivors traveling on foot with him.
When a gecko faced danger, it would shed its tail to draw the predator's attention, allowing it to escape at leisure.
Those survivors on foot were the gecko's discarded tail.
But no one except him knew that secret.
Perhaps Nana had guessed, too, but she had never asked Chu Che about it.
When a pale streak of dawn appeared on the horizon, Chu Che's expression finally relaxed.
Within his perception, even the nearest entity was more than twenty kilometers away.
That distance was safe enough.
A wave of exhaustion washed over him. Chu Che could barely hold on any longer.
He spotted a road sign ahead bearing two enormous words: "Yan Prefecture!"
They had actually made it here.
Chu Che was a little startled. He hadn't expected to get here so quickly.
When he saw a brilliant rainbow appear not far away, he didn't know what to say.
It was winter!
A trace of scorching summer heat reached him, startling Chu Che once again!
It was late November.
How could it be this hot?
This... was definitely not normal!!!
"Yan Prefecture? This is Yan Prefecture?"
"I actually made it to Yan Prefecture?!"
Chen Ye stared at the road sign and the endless desert before him, momentarily dazed.
He had already reached Yan Prefecture?
Without even realizing it, I'd traveled this far, all the way from Jiang City to Yan Prefecture?
He remembered learning in school that Yan Prefecture had distinctive terrain, with mountains, river valleys, plateaus, the Gobi, deserts, and more.
But Chen Ye had no interest in admiring the desert before him.
A faint band of dawn had already appeared on the horizon, staining the clouds a dazzling gold.
Yet Chen Ye was in no mood to appreciate it.
He had fought intensely for hours in Longevity Village, then traveled at a relentless pace all through last night.
It was late November, and the weather had already turned very cold.
Besides, it had rained all night.
Chen Ye was now dizzy, his vision swimming.
He had a feeling he was about to fall seriously ill.
The heavy rain had stopped.
Chen Ye was soaked from head to toe.
His hair clung to his scalp, dripping water. Rainwater covered his face, his eyebrows, even his eyelids.
His shoes were heavy, and he could feel how much water had collected inside. The slightest movement sent it sloshing around.
Chen Ye trembled slightly, forcing himself to stay upright on the Motor Tricycle.
Even the dazzling rainbow that appeared on the horizon as the sun rose failed to catch his attention.
Rainbows usually appeared frequently only in summer or autumn.
Yet one had appeared in late November.
At last, a campsite came into view nearby.
Chen Ye forced himself to drive the Motor Tricycle into the camp.
Small clusters of tents had already been pitched around the camp, and fires were burning in quite a few places.
The aroma of food drifted into Chen Ye's nostrils, making him draw two greedy breaths.
A trace of dry heat washed over him, dispelling the chill in his body and making him feel a little better.
Chen Ye was exhausted beyond measure. He had no energy to question whether this heat made any sense.
When Chen Ye's Motor Tricycle arrived, quite a few survivors glanced his way before returning to what they were doing.
Their eyes were filled with bewilderment and despair!
Whatever happened to anyone else had nothing to do with them.
Chen Ye parked the Motor Tricycle and plopped down on the scorching sand.
The dry heat continued to drive the chill from his body.
"Huff, huff, huff..."
Breathing shallowly, Chen Ye pulled a pack of cigarettes from his jacket pocket.
As soon as he took it out, he saw a string of water droplets seep from the pack.
"Fuck!"
Chen Ye set the sodden pack aside to dry.
Even though the cigarettes were soaked, he couldn't bear to throw them away. Once they dried, he could still smoke them.
He fished out another pack, tore off the plastic wrapping, then took out a cigarette and lit it.
Fortunately, the plastic wrapping had held up well enough to keep this pack of Chunghwas from getting soaked.
"Hsss..."
He took a fierce drag, burning through nearly half the cigarette before he stopped.
Feeling the nicotine course through his body eased some of his exhaustion.
Only after smoking almost half the cigarette did Chen Ye recover a little.
It was then that Chen Ye noticed something was wrong.
Why was it so hot?
It was late November. It was winter.
I'd never heard of winters in Yan Prefecture being this hot.
This wasn't the south!
Only then did Chen Ye begin examining his surroundings.
He was beside a national highway in Yan Prefecture, with a vast desert stretching before him. Sand dunes and yellow sand filled his vision.
A blazing sun glared overhead.
It was the first time Chen Ye had ever seen a desert, and for a moment, its beauty left him awestruck.
But he soon lost the ability to appreciate it.
Hot!
So hot!
His rain-soaked body had already begun to dry.
Even his hair was mostly dry now.
Chen Ye noticed that the survivors nearby were all dressed in short-sleeved shirts and shorts, as though it were summer.
He took off his jacket and jeans too, hanging them over the front of the vehicle.
He removed his shoes as well. When he tipped them upside down, water poured onto the sand and quickly vanished.
Then he took off his sweatshirt and long johns too!
This weather was far too hot.
Chen Ye suspected that this extreme change in the weather was probably connected to the apocalypse.
By the time he finished another cigarette, he wished he could strip down to his boxers.
Sweat was already seeping from his skin.
After eating two pieces of bread to replenish his strength, Chen Ye eagerly began checking what he had gained in Longevity Village.
The number of slaughter points gave him a slight shock.
He actually had more than seven thousand slaughter points.
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