I survived the famine by scavenging and supported my family.

Ning's mother's face lit up with joy. Following the order of the spaces, the next area to be unlocked should be... the living room!

"Is this the living room?" Ning's mother asked impatiently.

"Yes!" Zhao Ningning said, "This time, we're unlocking the living room! And the entire living room!"

Good heavens! She can finally stop sleeping in the entryway! Zhao Ningning announced: she's going to sleep on the sofa when she goes in!

"That's great! There's a medicine box in the drawer under the TV cabinet in the living room!" Ning's mother clapped her hands. "You... just drank some traditional Chinese medicine. Let's see how it goes tonight. If your fever doesn't go down, you can take some Western medicine... Take out the Western medicine first; I'll put a portion in my spatial storage!"

With another area in the house unlocked, Zhao Ningning felt her head wasn't hurting as much anymore; it seemed like she was already better!

She ran back and searched through the drawers in the living room. Sure enough, she found a first-aid kit. Zhao Ningning didn't bother to look through other things, took the first-aid kit out, and handed it to her mother.

"That's amazing!" exclaimed Ning's father. "It's like a timely rain unlocking the secret!"

"That's right. If we had known, we wouldn't have brewed the medicine. That way, Ningning could have just taken one fever reducer and we wouldn't have had to worry." Ning's mother said helplessly, but now that Ningning had already drunk it, they could only wait for the Chinese medicine to be absorbed and then see how things went.

"But... now is not the time to collect garbage, so why is the space unlocked?" Zhao Qi asked.

"There might be other triggering conditions." Ning's mother patted Ning's head. "Don't think about that now. Go to sleep, and remember to cover yourself well so you don't catch a cold."

Ning's mother told Zhao Ningning to go back to sleep first, and that they would talk about the rest after her fever subsided.

Zhao Ningning nodded, returned to the living room, took a stroll around, and found some potato chips on the living room table that she had taken out to watch TV earlier. She opened a bag and ate one before taking the blanket to the sofa and covering herself with it to sleep.

When Zhao Ningning woke up, she felt much more relaxed. She touched her forehead and found that it was no longer hot.

The fever has subsided!

She got up and looked around.

In the middle of the living room is a sofa, behind which is a small bar counter. Beyond the bar counter is the large balcony leading to the living room.

The living room has a long sofa and two single sofas.

There was a rug in front of the sofa, but no coffee table. Instead, there were two snack carts. In the corner of the sofa, there was a small square table for placing water glasses and remote controls.

Directly opposite the sofa is a TV cabinet, with a 100-inch TV on top of it, and a clock hanging on the TV.

Zhao Ningning looked at the clock hanging in the living room—6 p.m.

She got up, moved the bar stool next to the bar counter to the front of the TV cabinet, and took the watch down directly.

Now, their family can tell the time too!

Clutching her watch, Zhao Ningning reached for the remote to turn on the TV, but there was no signal and the screen was just a jumble of garbled images.

Reluctantly turning it off, Zhao Ningning walked out of the living room.

Back in the carriage, when Ning's mother saw her daughter come out, the fatigue on her face, which had been making her a little dizzy from the heat, vanished. She happily pulled her daughter over and placed her palm on her forehead.

But Zhao Ningning had just come out of the constant temperature space, and her skin still felt a little cool, so her mother couldn't feel it.

"The fever has gone down!" Zhao Ningning isn't really an eight-year-old child; she had already checked herself before coming out.

Zhao Ningning took out the watch from her pocket and showed it to her mother.

It had been a long time since she had seen such a modern thing, and Ning's mother held it with great delight.

Zhao Ningning decided to put the watch directly in the carriage. When the space was refreshed, she would take one down every day and save them up so that she could replace the battery when it ran out.

Zhao Ningning explained the living room area to her family in detail.

It's a pity that their living room area is not very well-equipped. After hearing this, Ning's father was still glad that he had insisted on using the kitchen on the right side of the entrance as a Chinese kitchen when the house was being renovated.

If the western kitchen on the west side only had some ingredients for making tea and baking, the family couldn't possibly eat cake every day while fleeing famine.

Even so, after getting some fresh air, Zhao Ningning returned to the living room to search for anything she could use.

With limited space and food storage at Ning's mother's place, Zhao Ningning put another bag of potato chips aside and found a can of yellow peaches at the bottom of the trolley next to the sofa.

Zhao Ningning was delighted, because this way a can of food would be refreshed every day.

The two small blankets that were originally on the sofa to cover the legs were also put away by Zhao Ningning.

Besides these two items, Zhao Ningning carefully examined the drawers of the TV cabinet.

One of them was a medicine box, which Ning's mother bought according to the size of the drawer. It was packed full when it was filled, and when it was taken out, there were only two packs of cotton swabs left to fill the gaps.

Zhao Ningning took it out.

The other drawer contains charging cables for various household appliances, as well as instruction manuals for those appliances.

There's another drawer containing remote controls and batteries, and inside that's a Bluetooth speaker with faulty batteries.

This was used by Ning's dad to play music during a previous hike, but the battery ran out of power, so he brought it back and left it here.

Aside from these, there's really nothing else in the living room.

It doesn't even have as many items as the entryway cabinet.

However, its only advantage is that it has enough space.

Zhao Ningning dragged away the carpet in the middle, wiped the living room clean with a rag, laid a play mat on the floor, and then moved the cotton quilt that was originally laid in the entrance hall to be laid here.

The living room was empty, so she lay down on the sofa, feeling somewhat safe.

After setting up her new little nest, Zhao Ningning took the things she had scavenged from the living room and went out.

It was already completely dark outside, and the group traveling at night was at least half as slow as during the day. Zhao Ningning woke up feeling refreshed and took the initiative to go out and carry the torch for Zhao Qi, letting her brother go back to the carriage to rest for a while.

After confirming that his sister was alright, Zhao Qi took his curling stone back home.

Looking at the clock in the carriage, it was eight o'clock when Ning's mother called Zhao Ningning back to the carriage for dinner.

After they finished eating, Ning's father went back to the carriage to eat and rest for a while.

The line continued walking until 10 p.m. before finally stopping.

After stopping, the team started a fire to cook.

Ning's mother got out of the car, set up the stove, and cooked some porridge.

They had just eaten in the car and weren't hungry yet, so cooking some porridge wouldn't attract attention and could also serve as a cover.

The porridge was ready at 10:30. Zhao Ningning was pulled to drink the porridge, and her mother told her to go back to the car to have her temperature taken.

After finishing his drink, Ning's father, who had just finished feeding the two livestock, was installing a wooden plank for them to sleep on in front of the cart.

After Zhao Qi finished drinking, he conscientiously went to collect the bowls and stove back onto the car.

Later, I'll trouble you to take the bowls to the dishwasher in the room and wash them.

Ning's mother gathered the grain bags and firewood.

The family of four each had their own things to do.

After finishing their work, there were still four hours until dawn, so everyone hurried to get some sleep, otherwise they would have to get up and continue their journey soon.

Before going to bed, Ning's mother was still thinking that she should make more porridge next time, so that she could just take it out and cook it briefly at night and drink it without having to wait in front of the pot for half a day.

In his sleep, Ning's father felt something was shining.

He turned over, opened his eyes, and saw the dark mountain ridge in the distance, bathed in a crimson glow from the sun.

Weren't we supposed to set off at 3:00 AM? The sun's already up. Is the village head letting everyone rest a bit longer?

After waking up, Ning's father couldn't fall back asleep, so he got up to check on the livestock.

By the time they finished feeding the livestock, it was already broad daylight.

This time, not only Ning's father got up, but everyone else did too, all thinking that today's departure had been postponed.

The village headman hurriedly got up and saw that it was already bright outside. He thought he had overslept and quickly called his family to cook.

I was halfway through cooking when I noticed how incredibly bright the morning light was.

The village head squinted at the sky, and in the blinding light, he was momentarily disoriented.

Two bright things are in the sky.

He thought he was seeing things, so he rubbed his eyes and then covered his brow bone with his hand to look up at the sky.

Two suns?!

The village head hurriedly called his wife over to take a look. The village head's wife put down the pot she was holding and looked in the direction the village head was pointing—two suns!

"Two suns!?"

"How can there be two suns in the sky!"

"Is it the shadow of another sun?"

"It's over—one sun is already this hot, two suns, why don't they just kill me! God... please spare us..."

……

The villagers were making a ruckus. When several people, including the village head, were looking up at the sky, Ning's father also looked up and noticed something was wrong.

For no reason, there's an extra sun in the sky!

Inside the carriage, Ning's mother heard the commotion outside and came out, looked at the sky, then went back to check her watch.

It's only a little past four o'clock, but it's already light.

There was another sun in the sky; no wonder the temperature was so high yesterday... it turned out there was a sign.

"What should we do?" Ning's mother frowned.

One sun is hot enough, two suns, the ground would probably be scorched!

"Let Ningning stock up on more ice," Ning's father sighed. "What if this is just the beginning..."

The book doesn't mention the nine suns; it only describes the female protagonist eating and drinking, flirting with the male protagonist, and the male protagonist standing up for her when she encounters danger.

Only a few major turning points were mentioned.

For example, floods following a drought.

However, Zhao Qi did not know exactly when the flood would occur, estimating that it would be at least a month later.

In other words, everyone will have to endure this hot weather for the next month.

The departure was delayed by half an hour, and the team did not set off until dawn.

Hearing that there were two suns outside, Zhao Ningning opened the carriage door and looked out.

The two suns were so close together that it felt like they were going to blind you. Zhao Ningning reluctantly turned her head back into the carriage.

Holding the curling stone in my arms, only the area around my arms was cool; I didn't even need to think about the outside temperature.

After thinking for a moment, Zhao Ningning went back to her spatial storage and found something to put water in the freezer.

Every morning, Zhao Ningning and her mother would exchange the contents of the freezer in the train car. Zhao Ningning would take things out, and her mother would put them back in her personal storage space.

The freezer is empty during the day, so Zhao Ningning will use basins and bowls to collect water and put it in to freeze.

Put a basin of water in it, and it will freeze solid in a whole day. Once it's frozen, break it up and give it to Ning's mom. Ning's mom will store it directly in her space. The ice cubes will be exactly the same as when they are put in and taken out.

When Zhao Ningning got back, she stared at the refrigerator and thought for a moment. She then made use of the refrigerator's crisper drawer by putting three basins of water inside.

Even if it doesn't freeze, the water in the preservation layer is still cooler than regular water, making it useful for cooling yourself or your livestock.

Otherwise... the weather is just too hot!

When the procession reached the hour of Si (9-11 AM), it was already at its last gasp. The village headman noticed that those families without livestock pulling their carts were walking unsteadily and was very worried.

While resting on the roadside, the village head sighed, fanning himself with a palm-leaf fan.

It's hot without a fan, but even with a fan, a blast of hot air doesn't cool you down.

It was hot no matter what, so the village head simply put down his fan.

The village chief, wearing a straw hat, strolled over.

"Old Li, we can't keep going like this," the village head said. "Look at the mountains over there. The temperature on the mountain should be lower than at the foot of the mountain."

The village chief looked up at the distant mountains.

"You want to go there?"

Upon hearing this, the village head shook his head, "It's not the right time yet..."

They can still travel now; once they reach Huangshi County, they can find a place to stay.

When Shang Jia joined the team, he said that the north was less affected and the further north they went, the greater their chances of survival.

"Get some rest early tomorrow." The village chief said, hands behind his back, and strolled away.

The next day.

It still gets light very early.

The first thing the village head did when he got up was to squint at the sky and think: what if yesterday's phenomenon was just a flash in the pan, and today it might turn back into a full sun?

When the village head looked over, he almost fell to the ground.

Another sun has appeared in the sky!

Before long, the villagers who had gotten up also noticed this, and they stopped cooking and started buzzing about the sun in the sky.

Some say it was because he angered the Rat God or the Locust God that God was able to do this.

Some people knelt on the ground for a long time, hoping to beg God to spare these poor people.

Heaven was incredibly cruel, ignoring the cries of the creatures on earth, and in the following days, the sun appeared in the sky more and more frequently.

The daytime hours are extended to eighteen hours, and it's incredibly hot.

The team simply couldn't move forward any further. During the midday period, even breathing the air was incredibly difficult, making it impossible to sleep.

The few hours at night are a bit better, but... you can't spend all of them walking.

The walking time was reduced sharply from thirteen hours to only six hours.

When the ninth sun appeared in the sky, the number of suns finally stopped increasing.

By this time, the team had been without water for a day.

It's still more than 70 miles from Huangshi County.

The village head's wooden water tank was reduced to just the bottom, not to mention the other villagers' water tanks.

Some people in the group were dehydrated and were swaying with every step they took, barely managing to keep going.

"Let's go into the mountains!" The village headman directed his eldest son to fetch the horse.

"We won't go any further tonight. You take the horse and lead your second brother to scout ahead."

After settling his two sons in, the village headman put the last bit of water in a water bag and handed it to them.

Wang Xiu held the water bag and solemnly called out, "Father!"

"Go." The village head lowered his head and waved his hand.

Wang Xiufeng glanced at his old man again. His mouth was so dry and cracked from trying to save a sip of water for his grandson.

He must find water!

Wang Xiufeng placed his own water bag under the carriage, only allowing his younger brother to carry one water bag.

While the group was resting, he rode off with his younger brother to find a place to stay.

On the other side, Ning's father harnessed the horse, and Zhao Ningning gave them her curling stone as well.