Thirty Days to Hoard: Reborn into the Frost

Compared to Hang Cheng, the life of the residents in Han City was simply paradise.

“Management requires a lot of energy,” Beiming Qianye said with a smile. “It’s easy to see that the chief of the Han City Base, Comrade Gu Rongjin, is an outstanding and promising young man.”

Seeing the Han City Base managed in such an orderly manner, Beiming Qianye was highly satisfied with Gu Rongjin. It was already past eight in the evening when he returned to his room from the cafeteria. Since there was no special entertainment in the apocalypse, he read a book for a while before deciding to rest. The empty room mirrored his empty heart.

Suddenly, Beiming Qianye thought of the child he had seen in the vast snowfield earlier that day. For some unknown reason, he felt a special connection with the boy. It was exactly because of this feeling that he had given away his personal bionic bird. He could use it to contact the child.

Beiming Qianye pressed a button on his watch, and a childish voice came through clearly. “Mommy, this is the bird the nice man gave me. Look, isn’t it pwetty?”

He couldn’t help but smile. It seemed the child was showing off his newly acquired little bird to his mother! Curiosity suddenly got the better of him. He found himself missing the child. He sat up in bed and picked up the tablet on the table, allowing the signal from his watch to automatically transfer over.

This was a specially made military tablet. All its chips and functions were independently developed by the nation’s top team, and he was the only one who could receive its information. The child’s magnified face appeared on the screen—adorable and innocent, just like a pure, unblemished flower.

“Mommy, this bird is super smart!” Chen Xiaobao showed it off with a delighted face.

Beiming Qianye couldn’t help but smile.

“Which nice man gave it to you?” a woman’s voice asked.

“It was a… a nice man wearing white clothes!” Chen Xiaobao said. “He’s really tall and super handsome.”

On the screen, Chen Xiaobao was trying his hardest to describe his impression of Beiming Qianye. He almost laughed out loud.

Xu Xiaoka walked over with a cup of hot water and sat down next to Chen Xiaobao. She smiled and corrected him. “That’s silver, not white. Sister Momo, a handsome guy wearing silver clothes gave this little bird to Chen Xiaobao.”

The woman’s voice immediately sounded again. “Then did you say thank you to the nice man?”

Chen Xiaobao nodded. “Xiao Bao did. Mommy said I have to be polite. So Xiao Bao said thank you to the nice man.”

Listening to Chen Xiaobao’s childish words and looking at that innocent, adorable little face, Beiming Qianye smiled affectionately. In this harsh winter, the child’s smile was like a little sun, warming his heart tremendously.

Somehow, the view on the tablet suddenly shifted, and a woman’s face appeared on the screen. The smile on Beiming Qianye’s face instantly vanished. He stared fixedly at the face on the screen, his heart violently spasming. It was her!

Chen Momo clearly had no idea she had become the subject of observation. She was currently devouring a late-night snack. For the past few days, she had been in the base’s kitchen improving the recipe for fish with pickled mustard greens to welcome the soon-to-arrive Chief. This was not an easy job. Chen Momo was so busy every day that she didn’t even have time to eat proper meals. She could only come back at night and eat a late-night snack to fill her stomach. At this moment, the plate in Chen Momo’s hands held a serving of boiled frozen dumplings. She stuffed her mouth with dumplings while asking about the man who had given her son the Lark.

“Xiao Ka, are you sure he was wearing silver clothes? Our base doesn’t seem to have silver uniforms,” Chen Momo pointed out the crux of the issue.

Xu Xiaoka tried hard to recall and finally nodded with absolute certainty. “It was definitely silver clothes, no mistake about it, Sister Momo! And that silver outfit fit him perfectly, as if it were custom-made for him. It’s not like our winter suits, which are all standard S, M, or L sizes. His clothes fit exceptionally well.”

Chen Momo found this very strange. The base’s winter suits indeed came in several colors, but the uniforms were strictly navy blue. However, whether it was a winter suit or a uniform, there were no silver ones. It was truly bizarre that this person was wearing silver.

“Sister Momo, don’t overthink it,” Xu Xiaoka said. “Hurry up and finish your dumplings so you can go to sleep. It’s been a long and tiring day.”

Chen Momo nodded in agreement. She set down her empty plate and patted Xiao Bao’s head. “Xiao Bao, it’s getting late. You need to go wash up and head back to your room to sleep.”

“Got it, Mommy!” Xiao Bao nodded. With that, he called out in a crisp voice, “Xiao Jiu, we’re going back to our room!”

FLUTTER. Xiao Jiu flapped its wings and landed on Xiao Bao’s arm. Xiao Bao happily carried Xiao Jiu back to his little room.

Beiming Qianye flipped the tablet face-down on the bed. He clutched his chest, feeling his heart spasm violently.

“How could I see her here?” he wondered. “No, that wasn’t her… But why does she look so much like her? Is it her? Could it really be her?”

Countless questions swirled in Beiming Qianye’s mind. Now, his head was splitting with agonizing pain as well.

“Chief!”

Noticing that something was wrong, Shen Zhongchen immediately ran from the living room to Beiming Qianye’s door. KNOCK KNOCK. He tapped on it gently. Receiving no response from inside, Shen Zhongchen gathered his courage and pushed open the door to the room.

He saw Beiming Qianye dressed in black pajamas, curled up on his side on the bed. One hand was tightly clutching his chest, and his face was deathly pale. Shen Zhongchen anxiously rushed over. He pulled a bottle of pills from a black bag, poured a cup of warm water, and helped Beiming Qianye swallow the medication.

After swallowing the medicine, a hint of life finally slowly returned to that pale face.

“Chief, did you think of her again?” Tears welled up in the corners of Shen Zhongchen’s eyes as he looked at the tormented Beiming Qianye.

Although she had been dead for many years, she lived on in the Chief’s heart like a dark curse. And Shen Zhongchen had watched with his own eyes as this curse subjected Beiming Qianye to endless torment time and time again. On the evening news, he was the awe-inspiring General Beiming, the supreme commander of the armed forces. But only Shen Zhongchen knew about his other side in private.

Even before the apocalypse, Shen Zhongchen had hired the best specialists and medical teams from all over the world to treat Beiming Qianye’s illness. But it had all been to no avail. Even the best team of specialists prescribing the most expensive medications could only temporarily relieve his pain; they could never completely cure him.

Shen Zhongchen remembered Beiming Qianye telling him not to waste his efforts anymore.

This illness could not be cured. It was a sickness of the heart. Only the one who held his heart could heal it.