By the time the two returned to the village, the sky had completely darkened.
Le Rui ran over excitedly. “Sister Su Su, Sister Cancan, Brother Wei and the others said they’re treating us to hotpot tonight!”
Hotpot! The hotpot they had been craving but never got to eat!
Pang Cancan immediately straightened her back, and the lingering aftereffects of the snake venom disappeared in an instant. “Who’s providing the ingredients?”
“Brother Wei said they are!”
Pang Cancan rubbed her hands together like a fly. “Let’s go, time to fleece the big shots!”
The three of them had only taken a few steps when Le Rui suddenly asked, “Sister Su Su, where’s Xiao Hei? Is he still sleeping?”
Su Su responded with a simple “Mhm,” drawing a worried glance from Pang Cancan.
By the time they arrived at Wei Yan and the others’ courtyard, the aroma of hotpot had already spread for dozens of meters.
“You finally made it.”
Zheng Wenxiu set out six pairs of bowls and chopsticks, then instinctively glanced at Su Su, voicing the same question, “Where’s that python? Still hibernating?”
Usually, when Xiao Hei was around—even if he was hibernating—Su Su never really noticed much of a difference.
But the moment he was gone, his absence was felt in every way possible.
“Mhm, he’s at home.” She gave the same answer.
Zheng Wenxiu didn’t press further and invited them to sit. “We invited some others too, but they were too scared to come over. We had to send their food to their courtyard so they could eat by themselves.”
“Waaah!!!”
The moment Pang Cancan sat down, her eyes were completely captivated by the bubbling tomato-based yuanyang hotpot and the abundant ingredients laid out on the table.
Potatoes, instant noodles, canned luncheon meat, tofu skins, napa cabbage, ready-to-eat meatballs, eggs, egg fried rice… All sorts of seasonings were prepared, and there was even a jar of sesame sauce!
For these ingredients to appear on a post-apocalyptic dining table—it was nothing short of a miracle!
“We gathered quite a lot of ingredients from outside,” Zheng Wenxiu explained. “But some fresh ones might be gone after this meal.”
Foods like tofu skins had been made over the past half a year by the villagers under Brother Wei’s organization.
Now, they had become disposable consumables—unless they could establish a second Hot Spring Village.
“Brother Wei, Zixuan, come eat!”
The two men put down the freshly woven chicken coop in their hands and found seats.
Guan Zixuan had always been bold and carefree—he squeezed himself directly onto Su Su’s left side.
As for Wei Yan, his gaze had just landed on the seat to her right, but in the blink of an eye, Pang Cancan had already snatched it.
Wei Yan: “……”
Silently, he took a seat beside Zheng Wenxiu, next to little Le Rui.
“Su Su, try this seasoning—I’m telling you, the taste is absolutely divine!”
“Su Su, eat this meatball! Be careful when you bite into it—it’s filled with juice!”
“Su Su, do you want a bowl of egg fried rice? I’ll get it for you!”
“Su Su…”
A string of calls—no one could tell if Guan Zixuan was calling “Su Su” or “Susu,” but he certainly took full advantage of the intimacy.
“Thank you,” Su Su politely declined. “I can do it myself.”
Only then did Guan Zixuan regretfully give up. He shot a triumphant glance at Wei Yan, only to receive a cold, indifferent look in return, before cheerfully digging into his food.
The atmosphere at the table remained relatively harmonious.
For the most part, Pang Cancan chatted with the others, while Le Rui occasionally joined in. As for Su Su… The hotpot was delicious, but her mind simply wasn’t on it, and she ate in near silence.
She had told them not to worry about Xiao Hei, yet in truth, she was the one most anxious, the one who missed him the most.
With the mountains sealed by heavy snow and small animals freezing to death one after another, could he even find food out there?
Where was he hiding now? What if he randomly picked a place to hibernate and never woke up—never came back?
A sudden realization struck Su Su—if Xiao Hei went into hibernation in the mountains, as long as he didn’t wake up, she might never find him again. Not for the rest of her life.
“Su Su, are you already full?”
Su Su forced a smile. “I don’t have much of an appetite today. I’ll head back first.”
She put down her bowl and chopsticks, stood up, and left the courtyard.
After her figure disappeared, the people at the table exchanged glances.
Wei Yan frowned and looked at Pang Cancan. “Is Miss Su feeling unwell?”
He had asked the right person—Pang Cancan was the only one here who knew the truth.
But she didn’t dare say it. She didn’t dare admit that her loose tongue had caused a rift between Su Su and Xiao Hei.
“It’s probably because Xiao Hei has been hibernating for too long. Sister Su Su is just worried about him.”
This explanation made Wei Yan’s gaze dim for a brief moment.
Once again, he felt just how much Su Su cared about that python. It was as if all her thoughts revolved around it. The small fraction of attention she had left was given to her companions—leaving no space for anyone else.
A faint bitterness spread in Wei Yan’s heart.
—
Meanwhile, Su Su returned to her room alone.
She still clung to a small hope—a hope that when she opened the door, she would see Xiao Hei curled up on the bed, hibernating.
But reality was—
The bed was empty.
All that remained was a sunken nest, pressed down from being occupied for a long time.
Su Su stood there in silence for a few seconds before starting her nightly routine.
Her actions were too ordinary, as if she was completely unaffected by Xiao Hei’s absence. Calmly climbing onto the wooden bed, calmly extinguishing the candle, calmly pulling up the blanket, calmly closing her eyes.
The simple house sank into darkness and dead silence.
In the past, the moment she lay down, the sleeping Xiao Hei would sense the movement. Without even opening his eyes, he would instinctively burrow into the blankets, skillfully making his way into her embrace. His tail would coil tightly around her waist and legs, and his tongue would lazily flick over her cheek, lips, and neck…
Then, one person and one snake would slowly drift into sleep together.
Tonight, her embrace was empty—there was no familiar wriggling sensation, no cool, smooth snake scales instinctively rubbing against her.
Su Su lay awake with her eyes open for half the night, only falling into a hazy sleep much later. Yet, her dreams were filled with chaotic and fragmented images, leaving her restless even in slumber, her nerves constantly tense.
When she opened her eyes, it was already early morning, and the white light reflected off the snowy ground spilled into the room.
The space beside her bed was still empty.
Early in the morning, Pang Cancan came knocking. “Sister Su Su, has Xiao Hei come back?”
Su Su shook her head. “No.”
That’s bad… Could it be that he’s never coming back?
Pang Cancan grew anxious as well and suggested, “How about this? I’ll go to the back mountain and call out to him, apologize to him. Maybe if he hears me, he’ll come back!”
“You’re not allowed to go!” Su Su’s tone was stern. “You didn’t do anything wrong to him. Apologizing will only encourage his arrogance!”
A warmth surged in Pang Cancan’s heart.
She hugged Su Su’s arm, touched. “Sister Su Su, I didn’t expect that in your heart, I’m more important than Xiao Hei!”
Well… it was more about principles.
Su Su patted her arm. “Stop thinking about this. Whether Xiao Hei comes back or not depends on him. If he refuses to return, then once the snowstorm passes, we’ll set off for the southern base.”
“Mm.”
Pang Cancan mumbled her agreement, but deep down, she still hoped Xiao Hei would return. No matter how petty he was, no matter that he had bitten her, his presence along their journey had undeniably provided a sense of security.
No one had noticed Xiao Hei’s disappearance—everyone simply assumed he was still hibernating.
Su Su carried on as usual, helping the others build greenhouses, showing no signs of anything being amiss.
Two more days passed in a flash, and the cold-blooded black snake was still nowhere to be seen.
Wei Yan was speaking to Su Su, and she responded absentmindedly when suddenly, she felt the ground beneath her shake.
“What’s going on? An earthquake?” Guan Zixuan called out from not far away.
The tremors grew stronger. Su Su lost her balance and nearly stumbled to the ground.
Wei Yan quickly caught her. “Are you alright?”
Su Su shook her head and stared at the ground in confusion. “Does G City have frequent earthquakes?”
“There are occasional small tremors,” Wei Yan replied, shaking his head. “But none have ever exceeded a magnitude of four.”
That shouldn’t be right. The current shaking was already causing cracks in the ground! Could it be an exceptionally rare major earthquake?!
“Zixuan! Go call everyone out and gather them in an open space! Don’t stay inside the houses!”
“Got it!”
Guan Zixuan hurried into the village, bringing everyone to the open fields.
Within moments, the tremors intensified. In the distance, a massive bulge rose from the ground, snow sliding off its sides in cascades.
This sight… “Doesn’t look like an earthquake!”
Wei Yan immediately heightened his vigilance. After advancing to Tier 4, his air barrier could extend up to a hundred meters, instantly shielding everyone within its range.
Bang!!!
A massive black figure burst through the ground. It seemed to have caught the scent of living humans, its ferocious head sweeping toward the dozen or so “rations” before it.
“Where did such a huge python come from?!”
Wei Yan stared at the massive snake in shock, suddenly recalling a bizarre rumor he had heard as a child—
G City was filled with strange mountains and perilous ravines, its terrain complex and ever-changing. Beneath the soil lay countless underground caverns and sinkholes, some naturally formed, others resembling burrows carved out by giant pythons.
No one had ever actually seen such a python, but the locals passed down tales of a “dragon” that resided in these caves.
It wasn’t a “dragon”—it was a hundred-meter-long python!
Boom!
The giant python rammed into the invisible air barrier, its vertical pupils filled with confusion. Unwilling to accept the obstruction, it slammed into the shield several more times.
Each impact, with its multi-ton weight, caused the barrier to tremble violently. Wei Yan swallowed down the metallic taste of blood rising in his throat.
He shouted, “Attack it while we have the chance!”
Everyone instinctively unleashed their abilities—wind blades, ice spikes, and venomous insects all surged toward the python.
From the moment the python appeared, Su Su had immediately determined that it wasn’t Xiao Hei. A wave of disappointment washed over her, but she still launched her abilities at it.
She had tested it before—her ability, which could control zombies, seemed ineffective on animals.
However, after advancing to Tier 4, she vaguely sensed some new, indescribable powers emerging.
For example, when she experimented on Pang Cancan’s venomous insects, she found she couldn’t control them at all.
Likewise, she had never been able to control Xiao Hei, who was still Tier 3.
As for the python before her…
When the white light of her ability seeped into the python’s body, it stalled mid-attack for half a second—but then, it quickly broke free from the restraint and slammed into the barrier again.
After that, no matter how hard she tried, her ability had almost no effect on the python.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The python rammed the barrier repeatedly, its eyes turning bloodshot. On one hand, the impact eased its previous injuries, making it feel better than wildly burrowing underground. On the other hand, it held a grudge—it couldn’t distinguish human faces, but it remembered being injured by “ants” before. Now that it encountered them again, it wanted nothing more than to swallow them whole.
“Hiss!!!”
The python increased the force of its attacks—but soon, it realized something was wrong.
The barrage of attacks landing on its body was too much. The wounds it had just healed ripped open again, and dozens of new injuries appeared.
The grudgeful yet cowardly python suddenly panicked!
It twisted its massive body and hurriedly burrowed back underground. Its enormous frame drilled frantically through the earth. Whenever it encountered hard rock layers, it had no choice but to resurface, its vertical pupils darting around as if searching for softer soil.
However, such violent movements triggered an even greater catastrophe.
After days of continuous heavy snowfall, the entire mountain range was covered in thick layers of snow.
Now, the python’s tremors destabilized the snow, setting off a chain reaction—
An avalanche thundered down in a massive collapse, like a domino effect!
The cascading snow, mixed with falling rocks, rushed down the mountain like a torrential flood.
The village nestled in the mountains was now on the verge of destruction.
“Fuck!” Guan Zixuan cursed loudly. “That damn thing triggered an avalanche!”
Escape was impossible—humans couldn’t outrun an avalanche, let alone with so many ordinary people here.
Wei Yan gritted his teeth, letting out a muffled grunt as he expanded the air barrier by another hundred meters, barely managing to cover half the village.
“Hiss!!!”
The giant python was also struck by falling rocks. It let out a pained hiss, struggling more violently, which only accelerated the avalanche.
“No! We have to kill that python first!”
A barrage of abilities rained down on the python once more. It let out two agonized roars, finally realizing fear, and began twisting its body, attempting to burrow back into its underground lair.
At that moment—
A ten-meter-long black python came sliding rapidly down the mountain, following the avalanche.
Against the vast expanse of white snow, its figure was strikingly distinct.
“Xiao Hei! That’s Xiao Hei!” Pang Cancan was the first to cry out. “Did he come back on his own because he sensed we were in danger?!”
Su Su’s eyes lit up instantly.
Her gaze locked onto the comparatively ‘miniature’ python, her breath turning shallow and tense.
“Xiao Hei…”
One kilometer, five hundred meters, one hundred meters…
Just as Xiao Hei was about to reach them, the giant python, which had been about to retreat into its burrow, suddenly darted forward—its massive jaws clamping precisely onto its smaller kin, lifting it from the snow.
“Hiss!”
In the blink of an eye, the giant python, with Xiao Hei in its mouth, slithered into the depths of the underground lair, its enormous body vanishing rapidly from sight.
“XIAO HEI!!!”
Before anyone could react, Su Su bolted from the air barrier.
With her evolved physique, she moved at a speed no normal human could match.
Just as the last segment of the snake’s tail was about to disappear completely into the burrow—
She lunged forward and grabbed onto its very tip.
In an instant, the force of the python’s retreat dragged her dozens of meters along the ground.
No one knew if she had been injured.
“Sister Su Su!”
“Sister Su Su!”
“Susu!”
Panicked cries erupted in unison.
The only one who didn’t shout was Wei Yan—he clenched his teeth, pushing his ability to its limit, forming a small protective barrier around Su Su’s body.
But that was all he could do.
Because the next second—
Su Su’s figure, along with the snake’s tail, vanished into the endless, abyssal depths of the underground cavern.
The giant python had disappeared—but the avalanche did not stop.
Endless snow and rocks buried every hole the python had created, altering the terrain slightly in the process.
Inside the protective barrier, the remaining survivors could only watch as snowflakes whirled around them, while boulders tumbled from the mountain, crashing violently into the village.
The snowstorm disaster, brought forth by nature’s wrath, raged on for over ten minutes—
Before finally, mercifully, it came to a halt.
At this moment, half of the village had been reduced to ruins. The newly constructed vegetable greenhouses were now buried deep beneath the snow.
The air barrier dissipated.
Everyone stared at the completely buried landscape, speechless.