NOVPUB62: Chapter 50 Polar Night
62 -50 Polar Night
The girl involved, Gu Yanzhi knew her.
She was one of the three girls he had rescued from Gu Qiang’s hands.
Originally, the three of them returned home happy and cheerful.
But after the girl went missing, her parents disregarded their health to search for her.
They passed away with regrets before her return.
At first, when the three returned, the girl was devastated to learn that her parents were dead.
The trio had planned to find a place to live together and get by.
However, her uncle’s family was still there, and the affairs of her deceased parents were dealt with by the uncle.
By dealing, it really just meant dumping the bodies in the water and taking over the remaining supplies left by the deceased elders.
When the uncle’s family saw the three girls returning with a significant amount of supplies, they became greedy.
They stuffed some flour into a box and claimed it was their parents’ ashes.
They sweet-talked and said they had done a lot for their siblings, who worried about her until their deaths, and they never stopped looking for her.
They offered for the girls to stay at their home, assuring they would take good care of them.
The girl, believing her uncle’s family to be kind, was deeply moved by what they had done for her.
All three had once lived in harmonious families, and if not for the apocalypse, they never would have encountered such unspeakable horrors.
They were simple-minded, and though they had suspicions, they were dissolved under the convincing facades of the uncle and his family.
So, the three settled in to live with the uncle’s family, staying in their original home.
At first, because of the supplies the trio had, the uncle’s family treated them well, catering to their every request.
That was until their possessions started to dwindle and their true intentions emerged.
They not only snatched whatever relief supplies the three girls had, but they gave them only a steamed bun each day and forced them to…
They were trapped in another hell, tied to beds in their home while different men entered and exited daily.
The uncle was cunning in his operations, allowing these acts only when everyone was at work during the daytime or soundly asleep at night.
The other two girls found a way to end their suffering early, leaving only her under stricter watch, and now, even in death, her body was to be used for gain, denied a complete corpse.
Gu Yanzhi had not expected that the three girls, who had once regained hope and longed for a new life with such anticipation, would step out of one wolf’s den and into the claws of a devil, ultimately meeting such a tragic fate.
When the girl’s body was carried out, the uncle’s family was also taken away by the police.
Gu Yanzhi asked Gu Yanlin about their fate; with the population diminishing daily, the government no longer advocated for capital punishment, and the severest punishment was to be sent to do the harshest labor with minimal food.
Gu Yanlin did not specify what would become of them, as that was currently a top military secret.
Not even Chu Guodong had a clear idea about this confidential mission.
After several such incidents, the security in City C had been severely rectified.
During that time, the military, government, and police were mobilized from top to bottom to patrol and arrest, day and night.
Coupled with the long-desensitized people finally finding some amusement, the streets bustling noisily made it seem almost livelier than before the apocalypse.
Every week on their day off, they would reinforce their windows, wishing they could make the external walls impregnable.
When collecting supplies, everyone gathered together, and as expected, after switching to monthly distributions, the supplies reduced.
Now, they received about twenty days’ worth of supplies per month.
However, because of the recent strict enforcement, no street robberies had occurred.
Gu Yanzhi knew this was the calm before the storm, a seemingly peaceful exterior belying the undercurrents that might erupt at any moment.
During these chaotic times, Gu Yanzhi had no desire to go out and explore, focusing instead on tending to her ginger at home. 𝓃ℴ𝓋𝓹𝓊𝓫.𝒸𝓸𝓂
It’s worth mentioning that the ginger had grown very large.
Gu Yanzhi dug up a few to send to the government’s supply assessment and recycling booth.
They were deemed very important, and all of the ginger was taken away under optimal conditions.
The relevant staff, upon learning that Gu Yanzhi had built her own planting room, discussed cultivating a batch of vegetables with her.
It would be best to grow vegetables that were easy to harvest, like spinach, mustard greens, and baby bok choy, which could yield a batch in about one or two months.
Currently, the people in City C received dry vegetable packs once every month or two as their source of vitamins.
Many were suffering from weakened immune systems due to the lack of vegetables.
The staff were anxious, but the cold weather made planting experiments very costly and yield little.
They could only spend a lot of time transporting supplies from other regions to City C.
Now, in every city, food was a scarce resource; having the time meant nothing if the others weren’t willing to share their supplies.
Finally seeing someone who could grow such a quantity of high-quality vegetables, the staff clung to her like a lifeline.
Not only did they negotiate ongoing vegetable cultivation and purchasing with Gu Yanzhi, but, with her consent, they visited the 17th-floor planting room and invited her and Song Zhao to be consultants for the planting base, just to feed the people of City C a bit more.
After agreeing to the terms, Gu Yanzhi and Song Zhao plunged into the research of crop cultivation in harsh winter conditions.
Neither was professionally trained in agricultural sciences, but they had stockpiled a large collection of related books and videos and had strong learning abilities, as well as guidance from agricultural experts, progressing smoothly in their research.
Gu Yanzhi herself, being a biotech genius, had a natural advantage in research, quickly mastering the ideal conditions for various vegetable growth.
Time slipped by as the enthusiastic couple busied themselves with growing, selling, and researching vegetables.
When the diligent duo sold another batch of vegetables and made a minor research breakthrough, they snatched a moment of leisure, only then to notice the changed weather outside.
The ice surface, after prolonged use, had become uneven.
Now, it had been smoothed out, and passable roads were planned.
Along the roadsides were rows of white pipes, hanging lightbulbs high above.
Seeing this, Gu Yanzhi remembered—the polar night was approaching.
Gu Yanzhi couldn’t recall the exact time the polar night would start, only remembering waking one day and finding the night unnaturally long, the darkness lingering without any sign of daylight.
Until the true onset of the polar night, the outside was thrown into chaos.
Initially, everyone thought they had just risen too early, but after an hour passed, two hours passed… the sun still failed to rise.
