37: Weather station buried by heavy snow

"Yuran."

She looked up, her eyes shimmering with tears.

"I... I don't know. I need time to think."

Su Yuran took her hand:

"No rush. Take your time. When you've thought it through, we'll talk."

She paused and added:

"And you don't have to decide right now. Qin Lin's mission has a time limit, but it's not immediate. Just rest well first and get used to life here. As for the rest... let nature take its course."

Lin Wanwan nodded, but her mind was in a mess.

Just then, the door opened.

Qin Lin came in carrying a chill, brushing the snow off himself.

"The snow is getting heavier outside," he said. "Visibility is low, so we'll have to drive slower."

He took off his coat, hung it up, and walked into the living area.

"What are you talking about?" he asked casually.

"Talking about you."

Su Yuran said with a smile.

"Praising you for being handsome, capable, responsible, and gentle."

Qin Lin glanced at her, then at the blushing Lin Wanwan, likely guessing what they were talking about.

He didn't respond, picking up a glass of water and taking a sip.

"Rest for ten minutes, then we continue," he said. "The Weather Station is still twenty kilometers away."

"Okay," the two girls replied simultaneously.

Qin Lin returned to the driver's seat and started the vehicle.

The RV drove back into the wind and snow.

In the living area, the conversation between Su Yuran and Lin Wanwan paused, but the atmosphere was subtle.

Lin Wanwan looked out the window, Su Yuran's words echoing in her mind.

"A more intimate relationship..."

"The whole team will benefit..."

She turned her head, looking at the back of Qin Lin in the driver's seat.

The man who saved her and gave her a second life.

If he wanted it, would she give it?

She didn't know.

But at least, she wasn't repulsed by the possibility.

This realization made her heart beat faster.

Su Yuran sat nearby, watching the changes in Lin Wanwan's expression, with her own calculations in mind.

She really did want to help Qin Lin complete the mission.

For supplies, for upgrades, and for Qin Lin.

But she also had her own selfish reasons.

In the Apocalypse, being alone was too lonely.

One more reliable companion meant more strength.

And if this companion also had an intimate relationship with Qin Lin...

...then they would be a true 'family,' bound tighter and harder to separate.

And... she stole a glance at Lin Wanwan's delicate profile.

Such a beautiful Senior—if she were to end up with an outsider, it would be better if... she shook her head, tossing away the slightly dark thought.

"Let nature take its course," she said to herself.

The vehicle moved steadily through the snow.

Inside the vehicle, the thoughts of the three people intertwined and collided in the warm space.

Like seeds quietly sprouting in winter, waiting for the moment to break through the soil... [Disaster Warning Radar Alert: Extreme weather detected ahead, proceed with caution.]

The System's warning didn't worry Qin Lin; instead, he became excited.

After the RV was upgraded to Lv2, it had radar warnings that could monitor extreme weather changes within a five-kilometer radius.

"There's something here."

Qin Lin didn't stop and continued forward.

The RV trudged through the snow for nearly two hours.

Finally, as noon approached, they reached the area marked on the map as the location of the Weather Station.

But the sight before them made Qin Lin slam on the brakes in the driver's seat.

"This... this is..."

In the passenger seat, Su Yuran's eyes widened, her voice filled with disbelief.

Lin Wanwan, leaning in from the back seat, covered her mouth and gasped.

Ahead, not a single Weather Station building, antenna tower, or observation equipment could be seen.

Only snow.

Endless snow.

It wasn't a normal accumulation of snow, but something... supernatural.

Marked by an invisible boundary.

On the other side of that line, the snow wasn't falling from the sky; instead, it was like a waterfall, generating out of thin air in mid-air and pouring down.

The snow waterfall was at least two hundred meters wide and looked to be over fifty meters high.

Like a massive pure white curtain, it blocked their vision and cut off the world.

On the ground below the snow waterfall, the snow had piled up to an incredible height.

Qin Lin estimated it to be at least twenty meters deep, completely burying the original terrain and buildings.

The snow wasn't loose; it had been repeatedly piled and compacted, forming a texture nearly like a glacier.

Under the gloomy sky, the surface shimmered with a cold, hard cyan-blue light.

The weirdest part was that the range of the snow waterfall was extremely precise.

Just about ten meters in front of the RV, the snow suddenly weakened, returning to normal snowy weather.

Five meters further ahead, the snow was even lighter.

And where the RV was positioned, only a few scattered snowflakes fell.

It was as if an invisible giant hand had torn a hole in the sky above the Weather Station, letting the snow pour only there.

"Localized blizzard..."

Qin Lin muttered, "No, 'blizzard' doesn't even begin to describe this..."

This was a scene that only appeared in disaster movies.

The snow flowed like a waterfall, attacking a specific area as if it were alive.

And that area was exactly their destination—the Weather Station.

"The Weather Station... is buried?"

Lin Wanwan's voice trembled.

"Completely buried?"

"Yeah."

Qin Lin nodded, pulling up the Weather Station's reference photos he had downloaded earlier for comparison.

In the photos, there was a white observation building, a spherical radome, a tall wind vane tower... now they were all gone, replaced by a deathly silent snowfield.

He checked the outside temperature:

-44°C.

It was exactly the same as the temperature along the way, without the slightest change.

After waiting another five minutes, the temperature reading stabilized, fluctuating between -44.1°C and -43.9°C, within the normal error range.

"No temperature anomaly?" Qin Lin frowned.

This didn't make sense.

In the places where they had found eternal frozen marrow fragments before, the temperature was significantly lower than the surroundings.

The Science and Technology Park lab was -61°C, and the artificial lake was -62°C.

That kind of low temperature was a 'feature' of the fragments, as distinct as a fingerprint.

But here, the snow waterfall was so terrifying, yet the temperature was normal?

"Could it be... there's no crystal stone?" he muttered to himself.

"But this snow..."

Su Yuran pointed at the wall of snow outside the window.

"It's too abnormal. If it's not the influence of a crystal stone, then what is it?"

Qin Lin fell silent.

Indeed, if not a crystal stone, what power could create such a localized snow waterfall?

And it had lasted for at least half a month.

From the start of the disaster until now, if it had been falling like this, twenty meters of snow was reasonable.

"Could it be..." Su Yuran spoke softly.

"...that there's more than one type of crystal stone?"

Qin Lin and Lin Wanwan looked at her at the same time.

"I mean, Qin Lin, didn't you say that the pure white crystal stone you have is different from the eternal frozen marrow? So could the crystal stone here be a third type? Maybe... it doesn't lower the temperature, but... creates snow?"

This guess sent a jolt through Qin Lin's heart.

He suddenly remembered that pure white crystal stone.

That crystal, which might have been what caused his Rebirth, was something the System explicitly said 'cannot be used for RV upgrades.'

Its properties were completely different from the eternal frozen marrow.

He had always thought it was a special case, but what if... there were many types of crystal stones to begin with?

The eternal frozen marrow released extreme cold, causing the surrounding temperature to plummet.

The white crystal stone might be related to time and Rebirth—though he wasn't sure.

Then the ability of the crystal stone here was to 'create a snow waterfall'?

It was entirely possible!