Couples Were Only Suited to Watching Cartoons Together

At daybreak on October 15, several strange rumbles of thunder sounded in the sky. Before long, hail began to fall.

The temperature plummeted, dropping from over thirty degrees Celsius to just a few degrees in only an hour.

After the sudden drop in temperature, Jiang Nian and Cheng Jing wrapped themselves in small blankets and curled up on the couch after breakfast, taking out a tablet without internet access to watch a movie.

They chose an obscure arthouse romance with two male leads. The plot was good, but it was a little explicit.

As they watched, both of them grew restless. By the time things were heating up for the protagonists, they had rolled under the covers themselves.

Just as in college, they could never finish watching anything even a little risqué together.

So couples really were only suited to watching cartoons together.

Come to think of it, they hadn't been intimate for over ten days. Cheng Jing had been too tired when he returned last night, so they had both behaved themselves. Now that they'd gotten worked up so early in the morning, there was no stopping them.

Hail hammered down from day into night, only stopping in the early hours.

The next day, October 16, Jiang Nian trimmed Cheng Jing's hair in the bathroom before the team headed out again.

Over the next few days, the temperature continued to drop slowly, with no sign of warming up.

Even though the resettlement sites had made preparations, the temperature drop still caused considerable chaos. There were also more and more zombies, gathering on instinct toward places filled with the vibrant life of humans.

Zombies wandered outside the wire fences surrounding every resettlement compound.

Every day, gunfire could be heard as rescue teams shot down zombies, but the shots would draw even more of them.

Zhou Li therefore ordered that no one was to fire indiscriminately near the resettlement sites, leaving the job of eliminating nearby zombies to the ability users.

An ability like Cheng Jing's, which reduced zombies to ashes, was especially well suited to the task, so their team was assigned to patrol near the compound.

The compound was safe now, and his teammates weren't traveling far, so whenever Jiang Nian had time, he would go downstairs and patrol the area with them.

The weather grew colder by the day, and finally it began to snow.

The rescue teams continued to move survivors to the various resettlement zones, though far fewer people were assigned to the task.

The rescue center called on survivors to cooperate with relocation promptly, and to make their own way to a resettlement site if they were able.

All districts issued emergency warnings at the same time, devoting all available manpower to collecting supplies so that the people living in the resettlement sites could get through the bitter cold.

More people heeded the call to relocate, but quite a few remained stubbornly unwilling.

Another ten-odd days passed, and the temperature had already dropped to minus ten degrees Celsius, with a continuing downward trend. Each district shifted its focus to preparing for the cold.

Short on manpower, Zhou Li called on survivors in the resettlement sites to work with the rescue teams to help themselves, pooling their ideas and using every method of keeping warm and insulating their homes that they could think of and put into practice.

First of all, sealing doors and windows was the most basic way to retain heat.

For a time, hammering rang out in every compound as work proceeded at full tilt. The impact of the poisonous rain was etched into everyone's memory-who knew how cold this damned weather could get?

By November, the temperature had fallen to minus thirty degrees Celsius, with no sign of stopping. The rescue command center announced that preparations for the arrival of extreme cold were underway.

Those who had refused to relocate earlier began to panic after losing the rescue teams' help. With the power and communications down, they had no way to call for help, and many could only brave the bitter cold and venture outside.

In the end, they either froze to death or became zombies.

Some people made preparations, writing pleas for help on their necks before going out. After becoming zombies, they wandered around so that people would see the messages and rescue their families.

However, this was a southern city. Once heavy snow had shut it down, most vehicles and machinery could no longer operate normally.

After the space ability users carrying supplies had distributed all available relief supplies to the resettlement sites in the four controlled zones, the command center, which also served as a supply station, announced that it was temporarily closing to shelter from the cold.

The entire city seemed to slowly fall into silent hibernation. Even the zombies hid away, driven by some instinct, while those wandering outdoors became ice sculptures.

Apart from ability users and well-equipped rescue personnel, ordinary people hardly went out anymore. Heat-energy ability users were responsible for holding down the resettlement sites and supplying energy reserves such as electricity and fire.

Officials were responsible for guarding and distributing the supplies at each resettlement site, while ability-user rescue teams delivered them once every three to five days.

As when rescue teams had been recruited before, those responsible for delivering supplies and those who joined the resettlement sites' patrol teams each received a share of supplies as payment.

Now the weather was too cold, people weren't going out, and the zombies had stopped moving. The rescue teams had plenty of manpower, and many people eagerly signed up as supply delivery workers and patrol members just to get an extra share of supplies.

As a result, Cheng Jing and the others, who had plenty of supplies, readily gave the opportunities to others.

Apart from Cheng Jing, who went to Building 1 on schedule every day to use his ability to store electricity and provide fire, everyone else stayed home contentedly as salted fish while improving their abilities.

Among the survivors at the resettlement site, some had previously grumbled that they were given too few supplies and complained about the policy of dividing the area into controlled zones. Now that the extreme cold had arrived, they obediently shut up.

Although the rescue teams had stopped going out to look for survivors because of the cold, and those who had previously refused to relocate had been tacitly abandoned,

Some survivors who had awakened abilities made their own way there, so the resettlement sites in each controlled zone continued to take in newcomers from time to time.

People who had awakened abilities also saw improvements in their physical condition in every respect, making them much more resistant to cold and heat than ordinary people.

This was especially true of natural-energy ability users like Cheng Jing, Liao Yu, and Lu Ningzhou, who feared neither heat nor cold and could be said to have bodies blessed by heaven for any climate.

Every day, Cheng Jing spent almost half the day at the Materials Center and returned at lunchtime. He didn't overexert his ability; after all, he still had people close to him to look after.

With Cheng Jing serving as a human power bank, the team members had no trouble charging storage batteries and modifying the connections to run heaters off them. They could also try running air conditioners, but there was no need; that would make people resent them. It was better to keep a low profile.

With nothing to do and boredom driving them restless, their teammates came over to Cheng Jing and Jiang Nian's safe house more often to freeload meals.

People's appetites also grew considerably after their abilities awakened. Fortunately, they had enough food for everyone to eat as they pleased.

Everything else was fine, and it was lively and pleasant with more people around. It just made it harder for the couple, who were deep in love, to be intimate, and they had to entertain guests for all three meals a day...

It wasn't until Huang Qian, who lived relatively far away, protested and said she wanted to come live with them that Cheng Jing closed their door to visitors. If anyone was truly short on supplies, they could bring some over, but he refused to let them into their home.

After that, in the warm, well-stocked safe house, Jiang Nian let loose and had fun, eating, sleeping, practicing his ability, and then clinging to Cheng Jing for some intimacy.

Compared with the same period in his previous life, he was living very comfortably this time around. Everyone else had lost weight after the apocalypse, but he alone had put on some flesh, showing no signs at all of having been battered by the apocalypse.