Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio  Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

The lights were off. Chen Xu had been snuggling into his blanket and flipping around for more than an hour, but he couldn’t seem to fall asleep.

He was normally quite a deep sleeper; seldom did he suffer from insomnia. Today was a special case.

The scene in the bathroom that he had seen through the glass just now was stuck in his head. A blurry figure was still wavering before his eyes. Within his body, there was a burning ball of flame, sweltering and intolerable.

When he flipped over, he heard some small movements coming from the bed.

She hadn’t fallen asleep.

“Am I torturing myself?” he wondered.

The thought had suddenly emerged in his mind. He couldn’t help but sigh on the inside. This was self-flagellation. Hurting each other and moving into this room could indeed make her suffer some, but in the end, he wasn’t having a great time either.

In all honesty, there were a few times recently where he almost lost control and pounced on her bed.

But he didn’t have the courage. With that personality of hers, she might very well have hidden a knife under her pillow. It would be one thing to be stabbed to death, but if she sliced downward and cleaved off his penis…

Just the thought itself sent chills down his pants.

Even if this was a dream and nothing was real, it would cast a shadow over his consciousness for a lifetime.

He didn’t dare to act recklessly.

“It is all because of that virtual dream device. The environment is so realistic. Fine, I understand that. But do they have to clone the characters one hundred percent? This is such a pain in the ass, is it not?”

He thought drearily.

How great it would be if he could do anything he wanted to do as if he was in his own dream.

But sadly, that wasn’t the case at all.

“In my own dream, shouldn’t it be that I can do whatever I want?”

Thinking of this, he turned over again and with frustration, grabbed his phone from under the pillow, opened up a novel, and forced himself to read it to divert his attention.

All that was saved within his phone were the classics, which were also his favorite web novels. He had gone through each one of them several times.

Gradually, his mind sank deep into the story. As he read, exhaustion came over him, and even his eyelids became a little too heavy to lift. Finally, he fell asleep.

……

On the second day, Chen Xu woke up an hour later than usual. After doing his work, it was already time for breakfast. He had to call off shooting practice for a day.

During breakfast, Luo Xiyun’s expression was icy cold. She didn’t say anything or even look at him.

Chen Xu felt the need to explain himself, “I didn’t do that on purpose yesterday. Pressing that switch was truly an accident…”

Following a loud thud, Luo Xiyun plunked down the chopsticks on the table and began cleaning up the dishes without saying a single word.

Chen Xu zipped his mouth immediately. Since she didn’t want to listen to his explanation, he wouldn’t bother to bring contempt upon himself.

Initially, he had planned to rest at home for an extra day. But with the current atmosphere, he didn’t want to stay back looking at a face full of indignation. After finishing his meal, he drove out in his car.

The main purpose of this trip was exploration.

He was already very familiar with the roads nearby. It wasn’t until two hours later that he finally arrived in an unfamiliar region.

The downpour that had lasted for more than twenty days left half of the city submerged underwater. With temperatures plummeting at night, all the water froze into ice. As he drove, it was all ice beneath him the entire way.

He drove very slowly as the ice was slippery and driving too fast would easily land him in an accident. He wasn’t that confident with the snow chains he had made himself.

Every ten minutes, he would stop and leave a mark with red paint in case he couldn’t find his way home.

There was no end to the ice. All directions seemed the same. Without a compass, he wouldn’t even know where he was heading.

He drove for two hours straight before he saw signs of buildings. He was relieved. Fortunately, it wasn’t that far away. If he were speedier, he could come back and forth in a day.

He could only see the appearance of the buildings clearly when he got closer, and that was when he cursed at his foul luck.

It happened to be that, the field of buildings before him were all tall edifices half-submerged in water. As they were very tall, portions of them weren’t drowned in water.

What he needed the most now was gasoline, but gas stations couldn’t possibly be built on tall buildings. For him, these buildings were worthless.

He drove his car until the nearest building, stopped, grabbed his telescope, and looked forward through it. More and more buildings on the icy surface came into sight.

“It is now 1:30. I can get back to the villa in about three hours or more.”

He took four hours to get here. It took him quite some time just to leave traces behind along the way. If he had driven all the way here without stopping, it would not have taken that long.

After some consideration, he decided to advance further for an hour. That way, he would arrive at the villa before eight o’clock at night, not too late.

Having decided on that, he hopped in the car and drove on.

More buildings came into view as he continued forward. He was feeling a little excited because this meant that the terrain was getting higher. As soon as he hit flat ground, he could quickly find a gas station.

Fhuuuush——

Not far out, winds began swirling, whirling up snow grains and smashing them across the windshield.

He had to slow down and drive more cautiously.

Thud, thud, thud…

The noise that came from the roof panel made him feel anything but reassured. These were hailstones. From the looks of it, it was about to snow heavily.

“I can’t go any further.”

He held tight to the steering wheel, made a U-turn on the spot, and drove back.

Swiftly, he exited the cluster of buildings and drove back along the road from where he came.

Half an hour in, all of a sudden, he felt a violent jolt as the sound of a blast of air came from an unknown location. The car had flamed-out.

Shoot!

He realized that he was in big trouble.

The car glided forward for some distance and stopped.

At that moment, Chen Xu got a whiff of a strong scorching stench. Big droplets of sweat involuntarily rose to the surface of his forehead. He twisted the key as he mumbled, “Please don’t die on me now.”

He turned the key for some seven or eight times, but the engine remained unresponsive.

“I’m fucked.”

He leaned back in his seat and rubbed his face with both his hands.

The worst had finally happened. The car broke down, and he didn’t know how to repair it.

Moreover, the car was on ice, stranded in the middle of nowhere. What was even worse was that there was a hailstorm going on outside.

“What to do?”

After a while, he regained some of his composure. Gazing at the snow grains that were caught up by the wind, he frowned intensely.

No matter how he thought of things, waiting for the hail to cease was his only option. If he were to get out of the car at this moment, he could get pulverized by the hailstones.

The unknown variable was when this hail would come to an end.

In the car, he had food, water, and gas to keep himself heated. Being trapped for a few days would be no problem. The one he was worried about was Luo Xiyun. What would become of her if he couldn’t return?