Just then, the protagonist came in. They had already dismantled everything outside that could possibly be taken apart, and the inside of the room was piled high with items.
Even the hallway outside was filled with books stacked up for any emergency.
The protagonist was asking his friend, the Black man, whether he had heard any news on the radio.
The Black man told him that Europe had been buried and his father wouldn't be coming.
Just as the protagonist was about to retort, Liu Hong spoke up.
He had known all along that the protagonist's father would come, which was why he had come here to wait in the first place; he wasn't worried in the least.
"It's already evening, and I haven't even had lunch yet. Let's make something to eat!"
As he spoke, Liu Hong walked over to the pile of food he had brought back and rummaged through it.
He pulled out the pot first.
"I think we need some water. Which of you can go get some?"
Hearing Liu Hong's question, the others belatedly realized they were hungry.
The protagonist and the vagrant volunteered to take the pot and prepare to gather some snow.
There was actually water in the vending machines, but mineral water was scarce and needed to be conserved.
With the heavy snow falling all around, there was no shortage of snow.
The main concern was that if the cold worsened later and they couldn't leave the house, they could still drink the bottled water and beverages.
"We'll need to set up a stand to boil the water. Miss, does the library have any metal shelves?"
Liu Hong looked up and asked the librarian standing nearby.
The librarian shook her head. How could a library have metal shelves?
At that moment, the protagonist's Black friend spoke up.
"Yes! Just now in the staff lounge, we saw those blue stools made with metal frames and blue fabric! If we just take the cloth off, those are ready-made frames!"
The Black man said this with some excitement, then turned around to go fetch the stools.
"Bring a few more! We might even be able to have some barbecue!" Liu Hong called out from behind.
Hearing this, Sarah also wanted to go help carry the stools.
Another woman told her to rest inside since her leg needed it, and offered to go help move the stools instead.
Before long, the protagonist and the others returned with the stools, the vagrant helping to carry two of them as well.
As soon as they entered, they stripped the fabric off the stools, leaving bare metal frames.
Liu Hong placed a frame into the fireplace. Fortunately, the fireplace was large enough to fit it.
Then he placed the pot filled with snow onto the frame.
The fire in the fireplace would heat and boil the snow in the pot, and soon they could cook pasta.
Next, he took another frame and put it into the fireplace, dividing the fire into two piles burning beneath the two separate frames.
He placed a frying pan on the other frame.
Pulling out the steaks from the supermarket run, he turned around and counted the people present.
He took out the steaks, preparing to fry them one by one.
At this point, the woman nearby spoke up. Watching Liu Hong's rather clumsy technique at frying steak, she simply couldn't bear to watch any longer.
"Sir, why don't I fry them instead? My steak-cooking skills are fantastic!"
The Black woman nearby offered, and her child nodded along in affirmation.
Seeing this, Liu Hong shrugged indifferently and let her take over.
He walked back to the sofa, sat down, and nudged the dog. The dog expertly stood up, and Liu Hong put his feet down.
The dog immediately lay back down, resting across his feet.
Seeing this, the vagrant looked at his dog with reproach.
"Hey! Have you forgotten that I'm your master?!"
The dog glanced up at the vagrant and ignored him.
Liu Hong watched the vagrant, reached into his pocket right in front of him, pulled out a ham sausage, and tore open the packaging.
Catching the scent, the dog turned its head back, saw the sausage in Liu Hong's hand, and eagerly sat up.
Liu Hong fed the sausage to the dog.
"Hey! Just how many years have I been feeding you ham sausages?!"
The dog spared him a glance and continued eating the sausage from Liu Hong's hand.
Liu Hong chuckled, and noticing the comical vagrant, he reached into his pocket again and handed another sausage to the vagrant.
The vagrant instantly fell silent.
"Ha! Just stay right there and do a good job keeping our good friend's feet warm!"
Hearing the vagrant's rapid change of tune, everyone burst into happy laughter.
In an instant, it largely dispelled the pressing tension brought by the bitter cold.
Then the Black woman spoke up.
"Stop joking around. There's not enough water in the pot, go find some more snow!"
Hearing this, everyone stopped laughing and began figuring out how to bring snow inside.
Finally, they set their sights on the bags Liu Hong had used to haul the food back.
Emptying out the food, they found a total of nine bags—thick bags the supermarket used for large items.
Since the weather was too cold to stay outside for long, they decided everyone would go out together to gather snow, fill the bags, and run right back.
Under no circumstances could they afford frostbite or a cold.
There was no medicine available now.
Having made up their minds, everyone rushed to the second-floor doorway, moved the tray blocking the door, and pushed it open.
Instantly, their body heat was completely sapped away.
Daring not to linger, they rushed outside and began scooping snow right by the doorway.
With the snow half a meter deep, there was no need to search around.
Once the bags were full, they packed the snow down tightly, filled them to the brim, and ran back with their loads.
The protagonist walked at the very rear, closed the door, pushed the tray back into place, and hurried back inside.
Inside, seeing everyone gathered around the fireplace to warm up, the protagonist squeezed in as well.
They looked at one another, shivering from the cold, and burst into laughter again.
The woman pouring snow into the pot looked bewildered, having no idea what they were laughing at.
Through this ordeal, the distance between them had closed significantly.
They weren't going to cook pasta after all. They had originally planned to, but the woman realized that even if they cooked it, there would be nowhere to put it to eat.
Then she noticed that among the instant food the protagonist and the others had brought from the staff lounge, there were instant noodles—the boxed kind.
And so, the plan to cook pasta turned into cooking instant noodles.
Once the noodles were finished, everyone would have a bowl to use, complete with forks.
Hearing this arrangement, everyone agreed it made complete sense and approved the decision to eat instant noodles instead.
The frying pan was too small to fry more than one steak at a time.
The first one went to Liu Hong, seeing as he was the one who had scavenged all the food.
Before the noodles were even done, Liu Hong eagerly bit into his steak.
That's right, he just bit straight into it!
With no knife, only a fork—and a plastic one from the instant noodle cup at that—how was he supposed to cut the steak? He had no choice but to tear into it savagely.
He ripped off the first piece of unseasoned steak and tossed it to the dog.
His warmth for the next few days depended entirely on this dog, so he had better treat it well.
Seeing Liu Hong give the first piece of steak to the dog, the vagrant started playing the clown again.
"Look at that! The treatment you get when you side with the right master is different! Eating steak and everything!"
Hearing the vagrant's teasing, everyone laughed.
The woman picked up a freshly fried steak and handed it straight to the vagrant, effectively shutting him up.
"Ha! I get to eat steak too!"
The vagrant looked down at the steak in his bowl, just about to dig in, when Liu Hong stopped him.
The vagrant looked up at Liu Hong in confusion and asked what was wrong.
Liu Hong rummaged through the pile of seasonings and told everyone to season their food to their liking.
He told them not to rush and to eat slowly.
Liu Hong pulled out some black pepper sauce, and just as he was about to pour it over his food, someone announced that the noodles were ready and they should go scoop some out before they got mushy.
Liu Hong went over, scooped up a portion of noodles, and laid the steak right on top. Wasn't this just a steaming hot bowl of beef noodle soup?
The only difference was that the beef in this noodle soup was definitely way bigger than usual.
He walked back to the sofa, sat down, warmed himself by the fire, and slurped up the noodles and beef, savoring the flavor.
It felt absolute bliss, like being an immortal.
What kind of disaster was this? This was practically a vacation paid for by someone else!
Liu Hong squinted his eyes in contentment.
Seeing Liu Hong's blissful expression, the others quickly copied his way of eating.
A bite of meat, a bite of noodles, and finally a sip of broth.
The moment the noodle broth hit their stomachs, their entire bodies warmed up.
It truly felt wonderful.
The dog whimpered softly down below, clearly wanting a share.
Seeing there were still a few boxes of instant noodles left, Liu Hong opened one, grabbed a bowl, scooped some from his own bowl into it, and handed it to the dog.
Looking at the food placed before it, the dog eagerly dug in, wagging its tail as it ate.
It seemed to love it as well.
After the meal, nobody wasted even the noodle broth; they polished off every last drop among them.
Only after finishing the meal did they truly feel alive again.
Seeing that it was getting late, everyone prepared for sleep. They couldn't sleep on the floor—it was far too cold—so everyone dragged over sofas, which had thick sponge cushions that would keep them warmer.
One sofa per person, sleeping alone or facing another so they could rest their feet on the opposite sofa.
Dressed in thick layers and covered with heavy blankets, they tucked themselves in.
After making thorough preparations, they even adopted the vagrant's newspaper insulation method.
Only then did they drift off into a deep sleep.
That night, everyone slept soundly.
Having transmigrated into this movie world, though he didn't know when he could return, Liu Hong slept deeply, free from the pressure of debts and repayments.
When Liu Hong woke up, the sky was already bright.
The Black woman was already preparing breakfast, with two others assisting nearby.
The rest of the people were still snuggled up in their sofas.
Even though the fire in the room had never gone out, whether because the temperature had dropped further or not, it still felt bitterly cold.
It was much warmer under the covers, and nobody wanted to move.
The protagonist and his young girlfriend were whispering sweet nothings to each other.
Liu Hong didn't disturb them. He was deep in thought, trying to recall the subsequent plot.
The Black woman was truly an exceptional cook. This morning she had steamed potatoes and made mashed potatoes—a bowl for each person.
Having mashed potatoes for breakfast was simply amazing.
Most of the things Liu Hong had brought back were meat, so he had assumed they would be eating meat early in the morning too. He never expected the woman to whip up mashed potatoes.
Still, having mashed potatoes in the morning was quite nice and prevented any greasy feeling.
After breakfast, Liu Hong curled back up in the sofa. On a freezing day like this, what else was there to do besides lounge in a sofa?
When he got bored, he would pull a book from the towering piles to read and listen to the library staff talk about the importance of books.
With a whole day of idleness ahead of him, Liu Hong felt thoroughly happy.
He heard that some of these were rare library collections—truly one-of-a-kind, sole copies in the world.
Out of curiosity, Liu Hong even pulled some over to look at.
The third day was equally uneventful, though the protagonist's young girlfriend didn't seem to be doing well.
She appeared to have a fever.
When the protagonist asked around, he found out that her leg injury hadn't received timely treatment and was now getting infected.
Her fever was a result of the infection.
But where on earth were they supposed to find fever-reducing medicine now?
At that moment, Liu Hong also recalled what would happen next in the story.