When Lan Jin brought over the ginger tea with brown sugar, Grandma Ling had already woken. The moment she saw Lan Jin, her voice trembled. "I've heard what happened. Thank you, child. But don't worry about me. You still have your own child. Don't let your little one freeze."
Lan Jin replied, "She won't. I brought enough ginger tea for all of you. Each of you should have a bowl to drive out the chill."
"Did you drink some yourself? Don't just think about us."
"I kept some. After I bring this to you, I'll go back and give my child hers."
Grandma Ling nodded quickly, as if afraid the tea might run out before Lan Jin returned. "Alright, then go. Truly, thank you for today."
"You take care of yourselves. I'll head back now."
…
When Lan Jin returned, she went straight into her space. As good as ginger tea was, it could not compare to the spiritual spring water inside. She filled a large bowl with the spring water, then went to the thatched hut to nap with her child.
They slept until—
Well, not too late. Lan Jin had stayed up the night before, but her little one hadn't. When it reached the usual time to wake, the small dumpling stirred.
Qiao Qiao rubbed her eyes, puzzled. "Mama… why here?"
Lan Jin said gently, "It got really cold last night. Mama didn't want you to get sick, so we slept in here together."
Qiao Qiao didn't really understand what "cold" meant in this way. She only asked, "Cold?" Then she pointed to the temperature-control clothes she wore. "Enough, right? No cold?"
Before bringing her in last night, Lan Jin had checked outside—it was already minus thirty degrees. If it had dropped more, she couldn't say for sure whether Qiao Qiao would feel it. This was her first time in such extreme cold. But the clothes were said to hold warmth at seventy degrees, so they should be fine.
Lan Jin replied, "Probably. But it's too cold outside. Let's wear thicker clothes on top when we go out. That way, if people see us, they won't suspect we have special things we can't explain."
Hearing this, the still-groggy Qiao Qiao stiffened. "No! Good thing cannot let people know. Wear thick!"
So Lan Jin dressed Qiao Qiao in cotton-padded clothes and pants over the temperature-control outfit, then added a fur-lined outer layer and a down coat. She dressed herself the same way before leaving the space together.
Truth be told, with the high-tech clothing, they barely felt the cold at all.
But when Lan Jin stepped onto the balcony, she saw the problem. Her thermometer only measured down to minus thirty degrees. Last night it had already hit that limit. Which meant she had no way of knowing the real temperature now.
Still… this had to be extreme cold, right?
For a southern city that rarely dropped below minus five to plunge in one night to who-knew-how-many degrees below zero—what else could it be?
…
The extreme cold had brought one bit of good news. The rain that had lasted two months, flooding up to the twenty-third floor, had finally stopped. Not only that, but the floodwater had frozen over. Whether the ice could be walked on was still to be tested.
What Lan Jin wondered more was how many people had managed to survive the freezing night.
The cold itself was terrifying, but the greater danger was the body's loss of heat.
When a person's body heat drained too quickly, their core temperature would drop, leading to heart and lung failure. And with the temperature falling in the middle of the night, most people would have been asleep. They might not even have opened their eyes before dying.
Lan Jin had no time to dwell on others. She still had many things to do.
She and Qiao Qiao had temperature-control clothing, but Nana did not. She needed to make a warm spot for him so he would not freeze.
She rummaged in her space, bringing out a space heater and two electric blankets. But just as she plugged them in, ready to use them, there was a loud bang—the battery on the balcony exploded.
Thankfully, the battery had been left outside.
Right… outside, in this kind of cold. Who knew how far below zero it was? No wonder it froze and burst.
Last night she had been on the balcony checking the thermometer and hadn't thought to bring it in.
At least it had been outside. Even if it exploded, it couldn't hurt her or Qiao Qiao. Still, the blast was loud in the quiet, and soon it drew the attention of nearby neighbors. Her balcony was right next to Ling Jiang's, and the noise had frightened her over. "Lan Jin! Lan Jin, was that from your place? Are you okay?"
Lan Jin hurried to open the door. "It's fine, don't worry. I was going to hook up the power, but as soon as I turned it on, it exploded. Luckily the battery was outside, so we're alright."
As she finished explaining, Lao Gao and Huang Jinghe, who had heard the noise from their balconies, came over. After she repeated the explanation, Huang Jinghe said, "I can bring my battery down. It should still work."
Lao Gao shook his head. "No use. Yours is still up on the rooftop. It stayed out all night. Try to power it now and it'll blow too."
Lan Jin was speechless. "How cold is it out there, that it can actually freeze a battery until it explodes?"
The other three were bundled up like round balls, clearly wearing much more than her.
"No idea exactly," Huang Jinghe said, his breath forming a white cloud. "I just spilled a drop of water—it froze instantly. I'd guess at least minus thirty-something."
Lan Jin replied, "More than that. My thermometer was already at minus thirty last night, and it's colder now. I'd guess close to minus forty."
"Whatever it is, it's cold," Lao Gao muttered, glancing over the balcony. "You'll have to manage for today. I've still got materials. I'll make two more hand-crank generators. You can take one. I tried mine this morning and it works fine."
Lan Jin did not refuse. She still had other power sources in her space, but Lao Gao's hand-crank looked interesting. Besides, he wasn't giving it only to her—Huang Jinghe would get one too. She could even treat it as barter for the food she had taken earlier.
And she already had an exploded battery outside, so bringing out other working power devices might look suspicious. "Alright. We'll trade like before for supplies."