"Teacher Feng? Teacher Feng!"
"Oh no, Teacher Feng is in critical condition, we need to get him to the hospital immediately!"
On the morning of June 9th, many people at Lihua Hotel were anxiously gathered around a scholarly-looking man.
This Teacher Feng had started running a fever several days ago. Everyone thought he would recover with more rest, hot water, and medicine, but instead his condition had worsened over the past few days.
When someone checked on him this morning, they found him burning up with fever and unconscious, completely delirious. This was beyond what medicine could solve—he needed to be hospitalized immediately.
The problem was, how to get him there?
"We need to have the authorities send a vehicle to pick him up!" someone said. "We can't transport him ourselves!"
"Call the Emergency Management Department! Call the hospital!"
People discussed and dialed the official department numbers, explaining the situation once connected.
"Hello! This is Lihua Hotel. Someone here is critically ill and needs immediate hospitalization!"
"Understood, we'll coordinate arrangements as quickly as possible."
"Please hurry! The person has already lost consciousness!"
After the call, everyone waited for over half an hour, but no vehicle arrived. When they called again, the response was the same: "There are too many people requesting assistance currently, we'll coordinate arrangements as quickly as possible."
This was truly worrying. Someone went to find the armed squad leader stationed in the corner, but even he was helpless with this problem.
"We're only responsible for handling public security issues. I'm afraid we can't do anything about other problems," the squad leader said.
He was telling the truth. At times like this, the guns in his hands couldn't save people, nor could they summon rescue vehicles out of thin air.
"If we delay any longer, he might not make it!" A man who was close to Teacher Feng couldn't sit still. "I propose we carry him to the hospital!"
When the man said this, the people around him looked at him with extremely strange expressions.
"Carry him to the hospital? Are you kidding? The nearest hospital is two kilometers away..."
"It's over twenty degrees below zero outside, with a blizzard that hasn't stopped for a moment. Going out would be suicide!"
"Are we just going to stand by and watch him die from illness?!"
Someone walked to the entrance and pointed outside, telling the man, "Come take a look yourself at what it's like out there!"
Looking outside from the hotel entrance now, only the main road had relatively less snow accumulation because officials sent people to clear it twenty-four hours a day. Beyond the main road, it had completely become a frozen wasteland.
The sidewalks across the street had piled up ice walls over four meters high. These ice walls connected continuously, forming what looked like a small-scale Great Wall of ice and snow when viewed from afar, completely blocking all the storefronts behind them.
Looking further into the distance, because the heavy snowfall never stopped, visibility was extremely poor. Aside from a vast expanse of white, nothing could be seen clearly.
Even around the hotel entrance steps, despite dozens of people going out daily to clear them using various methods like sweeping, shoveling, and sprinkling salt, many slippery thin layers of ice had formed due to the persistent low temperatures.
Yesterday when the supply truck came to distribute goods, two people slipped and fell while going out to collect them, nearly breaking bones.
Carrying someone to the hospital under such harsh conditions seemed completely impossible in most people's eyes.
With few people responding, the man who had made the proposal earlier had no choice but to give up. They could only carry Teacher Feng back to his room for now.
Currently, out of the hotel's 150 rooms, over 50 were occupied by people with colds and fevers. This was decided by vote—on one hand to let them rest peacefully, and on the other hand as a form of isolation to prevent them from spreading viruses in public spaces like the lobby.
However, this approach wasn't very effective. New patients still appeared daily, and some existing patients showed signs of worsening conditions. If this continued, fatalities would occur before long.
"CRASH!!!"
"SMASH—"
Just as many people were anxious about Teacher Feng's unconscious state, a loud noise from the entrance accompanied by the sound of shattering glass startled everyone.
Everyone in the lobby looked toward the entrance and saw that the large four-character "Lihua Hotel" sign had fallen down, smashing through the hotel's glass door.
Glass shards flew everywhere instantly. Without the thick glass door blocking it, large amounts of cold air rushed into the lobby from outside, making many people shiver and causing panic among the hundred-plus people in the lobby.
"The main door is shattered!"
"Oh no, the snow accumulation above must have been too heavy and made the hotel sign collapse!"
"Hurry! Hurry and block the door! Cold air is coming in!"
People scrambled to move tables and grab quilts to block the entrance. However, some disagreed, worried that sealing the door would make it difficult to collect supplies later.
The hundreds of people in the hotel consumed large amounts of supplies daily. The Livelihood Security Bureau sent supply trucks every seven to eight days. If they blocked the door now, it would be inconvenient to clear the entrance snow daily. Within three or four days, ice walls similar to those on the sidewalks would form at the entrance, trapping everyone inside the hotel!
"Hey! Hey!"
Shouts came from the restaurant direction at this moment.
"The water pipes aren't working! The water's stopped!"
"What?!"
"This is terrible, the pipes must be frozen! I knew it—with the outside temperature staying so low, the pipes were bound to freeze eventually..."
"What do we do now? Do we have enough drinking water left? Should we contact the Support Department immediately to deliver water!"
Misfortunes never come singly. The continuous stream of accidents threw the entire hotel into chaos. People panicked, and fear spread rapidly.
"Everyone calm down!" At this critical moment, the armed squad leader stepped forward and shouted, "Don't panic! We'll handle the problems one by one!"
...
Doomsday Rules Countermeasures Research Office, conference room.
Due to the severe and rapidly changing nature of the current rules situation, this was already the third additional meeting.
An analyst stood before a large screen, explaining based on information gathered from across the country.
"As of yesterday, June 8th, these rules have caused six-figure casualties. The casualties are currently concentrated in rural areas around megacities. The main causes are building collapses from snow accumulation, with many people buried and unable to be rescued."
"Among the ten megacities with populations over ten million, the statistically verifiable casualty numbers aren't high yet. But this number is rapidly increasing over time, related to supply issues with basic resources like water and electricity."
"Taking Wuming City, which has the highest statistically verifiable casualties among megacities, as an example. The city has vigorously developed new energy sources for years, with part of its electricity coming from wind and solar power.
After the rules began, clouds blocked direct sunlight, severely affecting solar panel efficiency. Meanwhile, many of the city's wind turbines froze due to the blizzard and couldn't operate to provide electricity, ultimately creating power shortages in the city."
"In areas with power shortages, since people couldn't use air conditioners, electric heaters, and other devices for warmth, chaos quickly erupted at gathering points. Even with armed squads suppressing the situations, several conflicts occurred resulting in bloody casualties."
"The city has now begun citywide power rationing, with electricity supplied to different areas during different time slots. What's alarming is that other megacities may soon face similar crises."
The analyst paused, then switched charts and continued: "The persistent low temperatures have also caused numerous water pipes in cities to freeze and burst, creating water supply problems. This is especially true in several southern megacities, where pipe freezing occurs frequently because they didn't install heating tapes underground."
"Finally, there's the supply transportation issue. Warehouses everywhere stockpiled large amounts of daily necessities in advance, enough to meet survival needs. But during transportation, exits of many gathering points became buried by snow or blocked by ice walls due to insufficient clearing, preventing smooth delivery of supplies to people."
"However, some cities have barely solved this problem by deploying drilling vehicles to create snow tunnels... According to our analysis department's assessment, the biggest casualty risk currently remains building collapse hazards."
The analyst said seriously: "It's not just rural brick and earth houses that collapse under snow accumulation—many urban shops have been crushed in recent days. Yesterday, a stadium in Fengnan City housing over a thousand people collapsed under snow accumulation overnight. The roof fell in, blizzard snow poured inside, and almost no one inside survived..."
"Damn shoddy construction! They must have cut corners when building!" a hot-tempered scientist cursed. "The construction and supervision responsible parties should all be arrested and executed!"
"The urgent task now is to immediately notify Emergency Management Bureaus everywhere. Have them coordinate resources and ensure the safety of gathering point buildings at all costs!"
"Right, we can't just clear snow from main roads—we need to handle snow accumulation on these gathering point building roofs too. The snowfall in these cities is enormous. Snowflakes may look light, but accumulated together they become incredibly heavy!"
"According to density calculations, just one foot of snow accumulation over a hundred square meter area can create total weight measured in tons! And with megacity snowfall rates, this level can be reached in just one day and night."
The person in charge, Gao Liangwei, said: "Immediately share the relevant information with Emergency Management Bureaus everywhere for them to handle. And reiterate—ensuring people's survival is the top priority. No amount of resource consumption is too great for this purpose."
After speaking, Gao Liangwei remembered something and asked someone wearing the white uniform representing the Police Department: "What's the current investigation status regarding that multiple kidnapping case targeting High Mind Power Individuals?"
"The Police Chief in Yunhua has identified a key figure, but due to the blizzard rules, further investigation hasn't been possible yet. Also, we only have witness testimony currently—the evidence chain isn't complete."
"My opinion is to arrest now," Gao Liangwei said without hesitation. "In the current situation, this isn't the time to consider so much. Delays risk changes—evidence can be supplemented later. First, secure the person, determine the kidnapping purpose, and whether there are other accomplices."
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