Chapter 217 - 152: Accident! (Part 2)

He was just about to leave but found his car wouldn’t start in the freezing temperature. He felt absolutely miserable.

He thought for a moment. Since there was nothing at the office that required his personal attention, he decided to just stay at the hotel.

...

「December 17th.」

The snow was still falling. Although it had lessened noticeably, it hadn’t stopped.

The companies contracted for road clearance in the Capital City were working at a feverish pace, with snowplows driving back and forth constantly.

In areas that saw little sun and hadn’t been cleared, the snow was already deeper than a person’s calf.

This was an unusually heavy snowfall.

...

「December 19th.」

The snow had been falling for days on end, finally letting up into a light flurry.

However, transportation was paralyzed. The highways still needed clearing. As for train and plane tickets, it was impossible to get one, regardless of the price.

...

「December 20th.」

The highways were cleared.

Then the snow started falling again.

...

It wasn’t until December 24th, right before the New Year, that the sun finally deigned to show itself.

"Damn it, this is freaky. F*cking freaky. I’ve lived in the Capital City for so long, and this is the first time I’ve ever seen a snowstorm this bad!"

On the morning of the 24th, Zhang Liang pulled up to the hotel entrance, cursing under his breath.

As he helped carry their things, he shot a teasing look at Wang Chao and Xu Huo.

Wang Chao sighed.

"Ah, this damned ’point and line psychology.’"

"What does the snow have to do with me...?"

Zhang Liang couldn’t be bothered to respond and just kept quietly packing things up.

"Is there anything else?" Xu Huo asked, looking at Chu Xi.

Chu Xi glanced at the people there and shook her head.

"Alright, let’s head home then," Xu Huo said with a smile.

The six of them got into two cars that had been arranged to drive them back to the Capital City.

Along the way, both sides of the road were blanketed in snow.

The stark white snow reflected the sunlight, creating a blinding glare that made it hard to keep one’s eyes open.

Until...

"What’s going on up ahead?"

The car stopped. Zhang Liang stuck his head out the window, saw the horribly congested line of cars ahead, and started furiously honking the horn.

"What happened?" Wang Chao asked, confused.

"It’s all your fault."

Zhang Liang pulled his head back in and sat back down.

"Traffic’s jammed. There was a patch of ice on the road up ahead that wasn’t cleared. A car skidded and crashed, causing a pile-up of seven or eight vehicles."

Wang Chao’s eyes widened in disbelief.

"Hey, what does that have to do with me!?"

Zhang Liang didn’t say anything more. He glanced behind them, realized the car couldn’t move, and resigned himself to sitting in his seat.

"The road’s completely blocked. We’ll have to wait for a response vehicle."

No one argued. After all, the situation was what it was, and there were no better solutions.

Chu Xi leaned her head toward the window and exhaled lightly, a puff of vapor instantly swirling in the air.

She held out her hand and felt a chill.

Then she pulled it back.

Xu Huo glanced over, reached out, and took her small, cold hand in his.

Chu Xi looked at him, then at their hands, and whispered, "I’m not cold anymore."

Xu Huo nodded and let go.

But right after, Chu Xi shuffled closer to Xu Huo, reached out, and covered his ears with her hands, rubbing them gently.

"Are your ears still cold?" she asked, tilting her head up at him.

"Still a little," Xu Huo said.

Seeing this from the front seat, Wang Chao turned to look at Zhang Liang, who was dozing beside him with his head buried in his collar.

"Bro, I’m cold."

Zhang Liang didn’t move. His hands were tucked into his sleeves and his head was still buried in his collar, but his voice came out nonetheless.

"Drop dead!"

The car’s heater was on, but the temperature wasn’t set very high.

They didn’t know how long they’d be stuck in traffic. If they cranked up the heat, they’d run out of gas, and then they’d really be screwed with the car dead on the road.

After all, the heaters in cars these days were notorious gas-guzzlers.

"Bro, I’m really cold."

"If you’re in heat, go find a wife. Don’t come to me looking for a beating," Zhang Liang replied, still not moving.

Chao Zi was always like this.

Always stirring up trouble for no reason, acting like a jackass whenever he was bored out of his skull.

Wang Chao fell silent. ’The feng shui in the Capital City must be terrible,’ he thought, gazing out the window with a mournful expression.

’Now, in his mind, the feng shui of the Capital City, Jiangsan City, Linlan City, and Zhaozhou all sucked!’

SLAM!

Wang Chao got out of the car, crossed his arms, and went for a stroll.

A while later...

"Bro, the response vehicle is here."

Chao Zi was back, plopping down excitedly in the passenger seat.

"It’s here?"

Zhang Liang sat up, but halfway through, just as he was about to start the car, Wang Chao’s next sentence came out.

"Yep. The response vehicle crashed too."

Wang Chao cackled.

At this, even Xu Huo couldn’t help but open his eyes and look at him.

"You guys should’ve seen it. Man, that truck had just arrived when its brakes, which must have frozen, failed. It just plowed right into the pile-up."

"Now it’s even more crowded up there!"

Wang Chao snickered.

"Next time, could you just say the whole thing at once!?"

Zhang Liang’s face darkened. He turned over, muttering curses, wanting to go back to sleep.

But he found that, no matter how he tried, he couldn’t get back into that comfortable position from before.

This time, Wang Chao didn’t get out of the car.

Utterly bored, he leaned against the car window and watched the scene outside.

He breathed on the window, then started drawing something on the condensation with his finger.

Until...

He wiped the foggy window clear with his hand, and what he saw made him freeze.

Outside the window, a tiny white thing, like a flake of dandruff, was wavering as it drifted down from the sky.

’Is that...’

’Snow?’

Wang Chao’s eyes shot wide open.

Before he could say anything, Xu Huo’s voice sounded beside him.

"Is it starting again?"

Xu Huo rolled the window down a little, his brow furrowing as he looked outside.

"What is going on with this weather?"

"In past years, the snow would fall for three or four days straight at most."

"Why has it been starting and stopping all month?"

Zhang Liang found it all a bit ridiculous.

And just as everyone was wondering when this snowy landscape would finally disappear for good...