How strange—
It wasn't even opening time yet for Wanda Plaza, so Lin Mo simply slowed down and drove along the street, her eyes scanning the shops on both sides, thinking about what else she could stock up on.
Turning a corner, a sign reading "Old Street Taosu Bakery" caught her eye. The red paint was slightly faded, but it gave off a classic feel.
She pushed aside the door curtain, and a rich, nutty aroma hit her nostrils.
The smell was so familiar. When she was a child and her parents were working overtime, she would soak taosu in warm water to eat. They were high-calorie, but tasted way better than compressed biscuits.
Behind the glass counter, taosu were piled into a small mountain. Golden-brown cracks dotted with black sesame seeds, some even embedded with half a piece of crispy walnut, shiny with oil.
Lin Mo walked straight to the counter: "Hello, I'll take all of these ready-made taosu."
The elderly man stopped his work, pushed up his reading glasses, and sized her up: "All of it? Girl, we've got over a hundred catties here. That's not a small amount."
"Yes, all of it," Lin Mo confirmed, pulling out her phone to scan the payment code.
"Hey, hey, don't rush to pay!" The old man quickly waved his hand, pulled over a scale, and wiped it clean. "Take a seat over there and wait. Let me weigh it and get you the exact price."
Just as Lin Mo sat down, her phone vibrated with a "buzz," and a news alert popped up:
"Red alert for heavy snow in the north continues. Multiple cities in the south activate Level 4 emergency response for low-temperature, rain, snow, and ice disasters. Experts advise citizens to stock up on 72-hour emergency supplies."
Her finger paused; she quickly opened Weibo. The news was still buried deep with little traction.
The top trending topic was clearly: "Nationwide central heating for universities under severe pressure; students and faculty evacuated overnight."
Among the top comments, one was especially striking: "S City University of Technology students relocated to a chemical plant to help restart backup generator sets."
In the attached photo, students in military-green cotton coats, hunched their necks, carrying toolboxes in the cold wind. Frost-covered pipes gleamed white under the cold light—it looked freezing.
Lin Mo frowned: "Even students are being mobilized? Electricians must be completely overwhelmed."
But in the comments section, nobody seemed to realize the seriousness behind it. It was quickly drowned out by joke-filled replies:
"Haha, a new form of social practice: low-temperature survival training," "Cold-wave version of 'Transform Me,' from greenhouse flowers to cold-resistant warriors."
Whether people were really carefree or someone was controlling the narrative, with those top comments setting a lighthearted tone, the following replies didn't carry any sense of gravity at all.
Still, evacuation waves were happening nationwide, making people question: Why does S City need evacuation? How severe is this cold snap, to the point where schools can't provide enough heating?
Occasionally, student replies were mixed in: "Our S City XX University doesn't even have air conditioning—we have to take shelter!" With selfies taken at the shelter.
The light bulb above cast a dim yellow glow, looking somewhat basic, as if underground.
"Location: Chongqing. I'm in an air-raid shelter. Finally warming up. At school, with no A/C, I was frozen numb."
"We're from Zhejiang Province. Our dorm doesn't have A/C. The bus took us to an industrial area with plenty of water, thermal, and hydro power nearby, and there's a river branch. They told us to take online classes here."
Lin Mo looked at this and relaxed a bit: although the evacuation was massive, the government at least had arrangements, which was reasonable. She scrolled back to the comment asking "How severe is the cold snap?" The pinned reply was a satellite cloud image.
The gray-black blizzard cloud mass, like a huge ink stain, was visibly moving southward. The caption read only: Inside info from the weather bureau: this cold wave, once in a century.
She also spotted a few scattered comments on Xiaohongshu, enough to glimpse the severity:
"Strange. Location: Zhengzhou. My aunt is a veteran surgeon, retired for five years, but she's also required to evacuate to the shelter for support."
"Location: Chongqing. My dad is an engineer. He told us to pack up; we're heading to the air-raid shelter soon, seems we'll support the makeshift hospital construction. Can bring family to take shelter."
You could see the level of national attention. The situation seemed worse than she imagined. Lin Mo put down her phone and quickly opened the small group chat with Bai Jie and Jian Qing, her fingers flying to type.
As soon as she sent the message, Bai Jie sent a video. In the footage, heavy snow was swirling, already thick on the ground, and the windows were frosted over.
Bai Jie: "We've got a blizzard here. High-speed rail and flights are all suspended. I heard a village in Mohe lost power and internet. Roads are blocked, so no way to repair the cables. If I go offline, don't worry—maybe I'm just cultivating in a dead zone."
Lin Mo's heart tightened. She quickly replied, "Is it warm inside?"
Bai Jie: "Don't worry. The kang is heated nicely. Northern houses have great insulation. With charcoal fire and heated bed, no snow can scare me. Just treating it as a long vacation, resting a few days."
Lin Mo felt a pang of regret: "I should have grabbed you two tickets south days ago. Then you wouldn't be stuck now."
"No way," Bai Jie retorted. "The south isn't necessarily better. No insulation in the houses, damp cold seeps into the bones. Guilin already issued a freezing rain warning. Once freezing rain falls, water pipes and power lines freeze, power goes out in no time. I've got kang, fire, food, and drink up north. Much better than squeezing in the south."
Just then, Jian Qing popped up: "Hahaha, lucky I ran fast. Decisively went to Indonesia. I'm pestering my boss to open more Indonesian projects. At least it's warm here. Among the three of us, the most pitiful is you, the leftover kid in S City. Stop worrying about us."
Lin Mo laughed: "Alright, you be careful about Indonesia's dirty water diseases."
Jian Qing: "Damn, I saw the notice last night and immediately ordered a high-power heater for you. But just now I checked JD.com and it directly showed 'service suspended'—can't deliver!"
Lin Mo felt warmth in her heart: "I'm fine. We have four heaters at home, and I just bought a new bathroom heater."
"Just worried the heavy snow might snap power cables. But S City is a big city, it should be okay," Bai Jie said. "You go stock up more, then don't go out after that, so you don't freeze."
Lin Mo: "Don't worry, I'm stocking up now."
Bai Jie, acting like an older sister, reminded again: "Jian Qing, don't let your guard down. I see Indonesia has also cooled down. Get some supplies too."
Jian Qing: "Ok ok. Snow? Impossible. Just worried about abnormal weather and heavy rain. I'll go to 7-Eleven later and wipe the shelves, get enough food and drink."
After chatting with the two, Lin Mo drove to Wanda Plaza. As soon as she entered the parking lot, she was stunned. On a workday, there would usually be plenty of empty spots, but today it was hard to find one. She circled twice before finding a space.
She pulled her small cart to the mall entrance, and before she even got inside, she was shocked by the scene: noise, shouts, the squeaking of shopping cart wheels carried through the glass, lively as a vegetable market but with a chaotic panic.
All the shopping carts at the entrance were gone, not even a few baskets left. The shelves for rice, flour, and oil were packed tight—elderly people carrying bags of rice and jugs of oil, all moving nimbly. The fresh produce section was even more crowded, with leaves scattered and torn—latecomers couldn't even grab a root.
Lin Mo paused, a bad feeling rising. At this rate, she wouldn't get anything useful inside, just waste time. She decisively turned around, exited the supermarket, and headed straight to the B2 food court area with her cart. Here, everything was freshly made, and most of the elderly were focused on grain and oil, so there were few people. Lin Mo went from stall to stall, speaking quickly and decisively:
"Hello, ten catties of fried chicken skeleton, ten catties of fried mushrooms. I'll pick them up later."