"Quick, everyone stop lying around playing on your phones, co help clear the snow at the entrance!"
At the entrance of Lihua Hotel, soone holding an iron shovel was loudly rallying others.
Evening was approaching, and lights had already been turned on inside the hotel.
The first-floor lobby was densely packed with makeshift bedding on the floor. Combined with the people staying in the guest rooms upstairs, the hotel currently housed at least five to six hundred people.
Hearing the call to action, soone said with dissatisfaction, "Why are we clearing snow again? Didn't we just do it yesterday?"
"It snows so heavily every day, it's piled up again."
"It's almost over a ter high now, we really need to clear it."
"Tell those people in the guest rooms to co out too! It shouldn't just be us floor sleepers doing all the work!"
"Cough, cough, cough!"
People argued noisily. So looked outside where the hotel entrance steps were already covered with a thick layer of accumulated snow.
Although the main roads were cleared by official departnts, places like the hotel entrance steps were inaccessible and inconvenient for official snowplows, so the residents had to handle it themselves.
"Stop complaining, this is for our own good!"
"Yeah, if we don't clear it and the snow blocks the entrance completely, even the supply bureau will have trouble delivering resources to us!"
"Everyone co out quickly!"
As the main door opened, howling cold wind mixed with snowflakes poured directly into the lobby.
People tightened their clothes and shivered.
So completely ignored the call, simply burrowing entirely into their blankets without showing even a bit of their heads.
There wasn't much others could do about these people who avoided work. A few hot-tempered individuals looked furious - if there weren't ard squads stationed at the hotel, they probably would have started beating people up already.
In the end, it still relied on voluntary participation.
Twenty to thirty people voluntarily took tools outside to clear the snow around the hotel entrance steps.
Xu Xiaotian was among them. After the hotel beca overcrowded, he had voluntarily given his room to a pregnant woman seeking refuge and was now sleeping on the floor in the lobby.
In this Doomsday Rules era, especially after experiencing the cruelty of the first rule, very few people were still willing to have children.
Yet while nobody wanted to give birth, everyone still felt children represented hope for the future.
Therefore, when they saw a pregnant woman arrive, most people showed considerable care toward her.
Everyone could accept letting her continue sleeping in the warm guest room, even if it ant using more food resources.
"Damn it, look at both sides of the street - they've all beco ice walls!"
Soone in the snow-clearing team at the entrance couldn't help but curse.
"If we don't remove the snow, in a few days the hotel entrance will have such an ice wall too! Then we'll all be trapped inside the hotel, unable to get out even if we want to!"
Others chid in agreent: "Yeah, so people are too selfish, unwilling to do even a little work. This isn't for others - ultimately it's for every person taking refuge here, including themselves."
"In my opinion, those guys with guns should do sothing about it!"
"They've already said their mission is only to maintain order, nothing else."
"Alright, alright, we're still pretty good off having food to eat and warm air conditioning. We've made it through several days already, we just need to endure... cough, endure... cough, cough, cough!"
The speaker suddenly started coughing violently mid-sentence. Others looked over and saw this middle-aged man with a scholarly appearance had bright red cheeks, clearly not looking right.
"Teacher Feng, what's wrong?"
This scholarly man was a teacher at a local middle school who had moved in relatively early.
He was also the one who first proposed starting the mutual aid sharing sessions at Lihua Hotel, so everyone was quite familiar with him.
"Teacher Feng, why are your cheeks so red?"
"Let
feel your forehead... Oh! It's really hot, Teacher Feng, you have a fever!"
"You ca out to work even though you're sick? Hurry inside and rest!"
"Xiaotian, quickly help Teacher Feng inside!"
"Okay!"
Xu Xiaotian responded and quickly helped the continuously coughing Teacher Feng inside to the latter's floor bedding spot.
"Teacher Feng, you rest. Let
get you so water, should you take so dicine?"
"Xiaotian, I'm fine." The man lay down covering his head. "I'll be better after lying down for a while, no need to trouble yourself."
"That won't do... I'd better get so hot water!"
Xu Xiaotian hurried to the dining area and only then discovered there was quite a line of people waiting in front of the hot water dispenser.
Most of these people looked sick, covering their mouths while coughing repeatedly. So held cups with dissolved cold dicine granules, others held both a water cup and a blister pack of cold capsules.
Only then did Xu Xiaotian belatedly realize: "The flu might be spreading!"
Many modern people were already in a sub-healthy state. After entering the Doomsday Rules era, while psychological pressure suddenly increased, bodies also beca more prone to illness.
Coupled with the sudden temperature drop, it wasn't surprising that so people would catch the flu.
However, when flu-infected people were in this nearly enclosed space with hundreds crowded together, plus the 24-hour hot air conditioning, it would cause the virus to spread and multiply rapidly.
As long as one person got sick, they could quickly infect others. Listening to the continuous coughing around him, Xu Xiaotian felt at least several dozen people in the hotel were already sick.
This made him tense up, feeling the situation would beco very bad if things continued this way.
The blizzard had only been falling for a few days, and already so many people were getting sick. What if soone's condition worsened and dicine alone wasn't enough?
In this terrible weather, how could they send people to the hospital? They didn't even know if hospitals were still operating...
He wasn't the only one who noticed this problem. At that mont, loud arguing could already be heard from the main lobby outside.
Soone was shouting.
"Quarantine! We must quarantine these coughing people in the guest rooms! We absolutely cannot let them infect others with the virus at a ti like this!"
...
Under the sa night sky, different problems erged in different places.
Although Guan Tong wasn't troubled by infectious disease issues at the mont, he had his own problems.
He stared toward the highway direction. As ti passed, those two cylindrical beams of light grew brighter and brighter, indicating the large vehicle was getting closer.
He could even hear the "vroom... hiss..." sound now - clearly the kind of noise only a large truck would make.
While remaining vigilant, Guan Tong also felt so curiosity inside.
Several days had already passed since the rules took effect, and the road snow had accumulated thickly and turned to ice.
Who would still be driving outside at this ti? Weren't they afraid of getting stuck in a snow pit they couldn't escape from? Or the wheels skidding and driving into a ditch?
Guan Tong had worried about skidding issues when driving on the first day of the rules, let alone now that four days had passed.
Anyone daring to still drive outside at this ti must have considerable courage, to say the least!
"And by the looks of it, this driver is also heading toward Mingdao Mountain because it's uninhabited and has less snowfall."
There was no other reason for soone to take such huge risks driving a large vehicle to this kind of remote wilderness.
There it is!
Right at that mont, Guan Tong saw the vehicle appear with his own eyes.
Just as he guessed, it was a large cargo truck. Those two cylindrical beams of light were emitted by the two large headlights at the front.
Guan Tong had heard that many truck drivers modified their headlights. He didn't know if this one had been modified, but the light was certainly bright enough, illuminating the surroundings as if it were dayti.
"Scree—ch!"
The large vehicle braked to a stop at the edge of the highway, not far from the end of the small path Guan Tong had cleared with his folding shovel.
Because the driver's seat position was high enough, looking down from above and with the headlights shining, the driver must have spotted this small path Guan Tong had cleared.
Guan Tong glanced at his personal panel. His Mind Power, having been used for writing during the day, had currently recovered less than one-third.
If he summoned Shadow now, it could probably last over 30 seconds.
He pulled up his hood, silently picked up the iron pliers he had brought from the self-service supply point earlier, and walked outward along the small path.
Regardless, since the truck driver had discovered this path, contact between the two parties was unavoidable.
Guan Tong wanted to go check if he could communicate friendly with the newcor.
If the newcor ca with good intentions, he wouldn't mind the two sides cooperating to get through the remaining ti of the rules together.
If the other party had ill intentions, then his experiences with gang kidnappings and the previous conflict at the supply point had given him sufficient fighting resolve.
Currently, there was no movent from the truck cab area. The driver, who knew what they were doing, hadn't opened the door or gotten out yet.
Only when Guan Tong was almost at the end of the path, approaching the front of the truck, did the door suddenly swing open with a "whoosh." A sowhat petite figure first stepped on the foot mat and jumped down from the vehicle.
"Whoa!"
Guan Tong was slightly startled seeing the ponytailed little girl who jumped down. She looked completely like an elentary school student around ten years old.
After jumping down, the little girl also saw Guan Tong, got frightened, and quickly shouted: "Mom! There's soone!"
"Nana, don't be afraid!"
Imdiately afterward, a middle-aged woman wearing a cotton coat quickly erged from the vehicle.
She held a flashlight in one hand and a crowbar in the other. After getting out, she shielded her daughter behind her and nervously shone the flashlight toward Guan Tong's face.
Guan Tong raised his hand to block the strong light and said: "Don't shine it in my eyes, turn off the flashlight. Your truck's headlights provide enough illumination already."
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