In the fourth year of the apocalypse, extreme cold had swept the globe, and all crops had long since been destroyed.
This was the coldest day since the apocalypse began. The biting wind scraped across her small, rough face, feeling like a knife's edge against her skin.
Xie Ning rubbed her frozen hands, shivering as she stood before a large townhouse. She waited for half an hour, then another.
The villa's door finally creaked open, and a woman emerged, bundled from head to toe in a thick, quilted coat.
Xie Ning would never forget the way the woman looked at her, sizing her up with a sidelong glance that traveled from top to bottom.
Her clothes were clean enough but painfully thin. On her small, thin frame, they hung loose and empty.
At that moment, Xie Ning felt as if she had been stripped bare, a pitiful creature who was lower than an ant in the other's eyes.
"Follow me." The woman turned away, her expression indifferent, her eyes holding a trace of contempt.
