Apocalyptic Hoarding Diary

Chapter 191 Sealing the Gate

The victims are now desperately seeking official help, but due to the nature of the cases as "civil disputes" and the current severe shortage of police resources, which prioritize dealing with more direct violent conflicts, the process is exceptionally slow and difficult. As a result, the victims are often left homeless, in a worse situation than before.

After reading the long post and the rapidly refreshing replies below, filled with anger, fear, debate, and scattered real-life examples, Xu Xiaoyan gasped. She subconsciously thought of her own front door.

The cold, official electronic notification sounded to her not just as a reminder, but as a ruthless and realistic declaration: every time she opened the door, it could be a gamble. Keeping the doors closed, drawing the curtains, and remaining silent was not just for warmth, but also the most basic and cruel survival strategy. "Sweep the snow from your own doorstep" had never been such an ironclad rule of survival as it was now.

Xu Xiaoyan silently stood up from the kang (heated brick bed). Although the room had been warmed by the fire, she still felt a chill. She first carefully checked the only small window in the room again to make sure there were no gaps or looseness.

Then, she walked to the door and gently ran her fingers over the cold metal doorknob and door panel. The water stains left from pouring hot water had frozen back into ice, and felt slippery and cold to the touch.

Suddenly, a thought flashed through her mind. She remembered something else: the weather was so cold that water would freeze instantly when splashed... A simple yet potentially very effective reinforcement method instantly formed in her mind: instead of passively defending, why not actively create obstacles?

She went to the kitchen first and turned on the tap—sure enough, she heard a hollow whirring and hissing sound coming from the old pipes. After waiting for a while, not a drop of water came out. The pipes had frozen due to the continuous low temperature, which was within her expectations.

She secretly rejoiced at her foresight. With a thought, a 5-liter plastic bucket appeared in her hand, filled with clear tap water. The water was at room temperature in the room, but as soon as it came into contact with the cold air inside, water droplets immediately began to condense on the bucket's walls.

She poured the water evenly and slowly onto the doorknob, around the keyhole, and at the metal hinges connecting the door panel and the frame. The water, upon contact with the icy metal surface, began to condense and turn white almost visibly, forming a thin, crystalline ice shell.

She didn't stop, patiently waiting for the first layer of water to freeze completely and become hard, then poured on the second layer, the third layer... The water covered and froze layer by layer, and the ice layer continued to thicken and extend. Soon, the entire door handle area, the keyhole, and even the edge of the door panel were completely covered and wrapped by a thick, hard ice block that shimmered with a faint blue light in the dim light.

Having gone this far, Xu Xiaoyan examined the area and still felt it wasn't safe enough. The gap between the door panel and the door frame, even with the sealing strip when closed, was still a potential weak point. Her gaze carefully traced the gap between the door frame and the wall.

She picked up the bucket again and began to slowly and continuously pour water along all the gaps in the door—the top, the sides, and even the bottom of the threshold. The water flowed and seeped into the tiny gaps, then was quickly absorbed by the cold metal and wood, freezing into ice. The ice expanded in the gaps, filling and locking them in place.

She worked to completely seal the inner edge of the entire iron gate with ice, allowing it to "grow" from the inside onto the door frame. As water was poured down, the ice layer thickened and spread, even flowing down the door panel, and a small, smooth patch of ice formed on the ground below the door.

Ultimately, the effect was remarkable—the entire iron door and the frame, even the gap under the door panel, were firmly "welded" together by a solid, thick, and seamless layer of ice! From the inside, the door appeared to have become one with the concrete wall.

Unless you use heavy objects like hammers or axes to break it open, or wait for the temperature to rise significantly and the ice to melt naturally, it is impossible to pry or break it open silently from the outside. Even if someone inside wants to open the door, they need to patiently pour hot water to melt the ice, which is a process that takes time and noise, enough to alert her and make her prepared.

Only after doing this did Xu Xiaoyan feel a slight relief from the tightness in her chest, and she felt much more at ease. This ice door was not only a physical barrier, but also a psychological declaration and separation.

She returned to the warm, heated kang bed, took off her heavy coat and boots, and, wearing only thermal underwear, crawled onto the kang covered with a thick quilt. The quilt was already warm from the fire, dispelling the chill from her limbs. However, she was not sleepy for a while. Her experiences during the day, the forum posts, the official notices, and the "Frozen Project" she had just completed were all churning in her mind.

She picked up her phone, the cold light from the screen illuminating her pensive face. She continued scrolling through forum posts, keeping up with the latest developments and rumors within the base. Besides the heated debates about the expulsion policy, there were also various requests for purchase, sale, help, and warnings.

Some complained that points had depreciated again, some boasted about finding a new source of fuel, some warned of a robbery gang in a certain area, and some posted to find lost relatives... The chaotic, contradictory, and anxiety-filled information flow gave her a clearer understanding of the current severe and complex survival situation, and strengthened her determination to stay at home, quietly stockpile, and wait and see for the time being.

After an unknown amount of time, a deep sleep finally came over her. She set her alarm for three hours later so that she could wake up on time to add firewood to the kang (a heated brick bed). After doing all this, she put her phone next to her pillow and closed her eyes.

Outside the window, the wind still howled. Inside, the firewood in the stove crackled softly and rhythmically, the only comforting background sound in this cold, desolate world. In this interplay of ice and fire, silence and noise, she drifted off to sleep.

However, sleep was not restful.

In the middle of the night, Xu Xiaoyan was awakened by a series of sudden, chaotic cries, arguments, and even shouts and shoving outside her window. The sounds came from the street not far away and were particularly clear in the silent, cold, and howling night.

She sat up abruptly from the still-warm kang (heated brick bed), and listened intently in the darkness.

The sounds weren't continuous noise, but rather came in bursts, like several groups of people clashing in different places, or like the expulsion operation encountering fierce resistance. She could clearly hear the pleas of adult men and women with tearful voices, sharp curses, the terrified cries of children, and a deeper, more powerful, commanding tone of shouts—clearly the military police or security personnel maintaining order.