I can upgrade the shelter-Chapter 167 - 165: Frozen Dead Body

Mo Qingyan’s kiss did not bring any different changes to their relationship because both she and he knew it was just a gesture of gratitude.

Chen Xin didn’t take it to heart, and Mo Qingyan didn’t feel she would have any feelings for Chen Xin; they just saw each other as brothers.

So after kissing Chen Xin, Mo Qingyan went home with her equipment, looking for Li Yulong’s people to help install the equipment, while Chen Xin continued doing his own things step by step.

After the drought-resistant rice was harvested, it was necessary to reapply the base fertilizer and plow the land. He had promised to help Dr. Hong Rui plant herbs, which also needed a planting area to be planned. The vegetables that were about to mature needed harvesting as well, so Chen Xin actually had a lot on his plate.

For these tasks, he could only tackle them one at a time due to his limited capacity. After all, he was just one person, only able to do one thing at a time.

Applying the base fertilizer and plowing the land after harvesting the dry rice were relatively easy tasks. The small agricultural machinery Chen Xin had exchanged for was not just a combine harvester. The cultivator could integrate multiple functions such as tilling, weeding, trenching, and sowing.

All Chen Xin had to do was prepare the machine, then apply fertilizer and plow the land.

Since the soil hadn’t hardened over the winter, the soil in Chen Xin’s planting greenhouse was still relatively loose. Even without plowing, there wasn’t much of a problem. The main reason Chen Xin did it was to apply base fertilizer and enhance the soil’s fertility.

After all, the fertility in the soil was greatly depleted after a round of cultivation. Without fertilization, it would undoubtedly affect the growth and yield of the crops for the next season.

The high yield of seeds comes from not only the variety but also from their heavy reliance on fertilizers.

Since Chen Xin couldn’t prevent seed degradation or cultivate new seeds himself, all he could do was ensure the soil’s fertility as much as possible so that the crops he planted could grow better, allowing for a better harvest.

With so much to do, naturally, Chen Xin had to get up early every day, otherwise, there might not be enough time.

So upon being woken by the alarm clock, Chen Xin immediately got dressed, brushed his teeth, washed his face, ate breakfast, and then prepared to start his day’s work.

It must be said that since he had rice, Chen Xin’s breakfast had become much more sumptuous.

Previously, he could only eat shelter food or his emergency reserves. But now, he could cook a pot of congee in the evening, setting it aside for the morning. With white rice porridge, ham slices, and two energy bars, it was enough to make him full and comfortable.

After filling his stomach, Chen Xin didn’t immediately start working in the greenhouse. Instead, he planned to clear the snow accumulating outside the shelter door.

Although, like he said, he could go a long time without going out, too much snow at the entrance would still be a bit bothersome.

After changing into a two-piece short Protective Suit, putting on a respirator, Chen Xin opened the shelter door.

Because Chen Xin had already cleared the snow once when Mo Qingyan came before, there wasn’t much snow blocking the door, preventing the door from opening.

Chen Xin had considered changing the outward-opening door to an inward-opening one, which would be much more convenient. However, after careful consideration, Chen Xin decided not to modify the door’s structural design for now.

This wasn’t because of anything else but the better protective performance of an outward-opening door compared to an inward-opening one. Although using this protective feature might be irrelevant by now.

Today, though, the door’s opening feel puzzled Chen Xin a bit. The wheel used to unlock the door seemed jammed, causing him to exert some force, even needing a wrench to turn the wheel, and there was some resistance when pushing open the door, making it not open very smoothly.

"Strange, is it frozen outside?" Chen Xin couldn’t help but frown, as it was the first time he encountered such an odd situation.

Even when heavy snow nearly buried the door before, Chen Xin could open the door smoothly. This kind of trouble in opening the door happened for the first time.

This caused Chen Xin to be more alert, and only after grabbing a gun and flashlight did he walk out of the shelter to check what might have gone wrong with his door.

However, when the flashlight illuminated the scene outside the door, Chen Xin was stunned.

A man holding a little girl in his arms, two frozen corpses lay on the door, and the thing obstructing the wheel movement was nothing else but the man’s arm frozen to the wheel.

Because Chen Xin had tried to open the door earlier, the arm, initially frozen, was now broken.

Looking at the two bodies, Chen Xin immediately felt a pang of sadness but could only shake his head in helplessness. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

He could almost deduce what had happened without thinking.

A father, protecting his young daughter, for some reason had left the shelter they lived in, traversed the snow, finally found Chen Xin’s shelter, and thought they could be saved. However, the thick protective door not only blocked the cold but also their cries for help outside.

A 20-centimeter-thick protective door surrounded by steel and reinforced concrete, even hitting it with a large iron hammer wouldn’t make much noise, let alone transmit that sound tens of meters underground to wake Chen Xin from sleep.

Unable to open the shelter door, this father and daughter pair could only despairingly freeze into an ice sculpture in the cold night of wind and snow.

Staring at these two bodies, Chen Xin felt his heart freezing over as well. His warm breakfast seemed to have turned into ice, making his intestines and stomach feel a painful freeze.

This made him regret not having installed a doorbell at the entrance. If there had been a doorbell last night, hearing someone outside, he would have at least checked to see what was going on, allowing the father and daughter a chance to seek refuge.

Even though it wouldn’t have let them into the shelter’s interior, letting them sleep in the decontamination room just a door away wouldn’t have been a problem, and they wouldn’t have frozen to death at his doorstep.

But unfortunately, the people were already dead, and even if Chen Xin wanted to change something, it was already too late.

Sighing, Chen Xin didn’t disturb the two bodies but went back into the shelter and contacted Qin Lan to inform her of the two bodies at his doorstep needing handling.

After making the report, Chen Xin took a pot of hot water outside the door, melting the broken hand frozen on the wheel with hot water, placing it beside the man.

Seeing the father still tightly holding his daughter in his arms, shielding her from the wind and snow as much as he could, Chen Xin was genuinely saddened.

Life was so fragile, and yet death came so easily. Just a single cold night took two lives from this world, one of whom was so young and hadn’t even experienced the beauty of this world.