Chapter 26: Omen of Winter

Chapter 26: Chapter 26: Omen of Winter

That evening, after finishing his daily workout, Xu Mo was leaning back on the sofa, reading an "Emergency Trauma Treatment Handbook" he had brought back from somewhere, by the light of a lamp.

Just as he was getting engrossed in his reading, Xu Mo’s movements suddenly paused. He looked up, his brows knitting slightly.

He suddenly felt a strange, indescribable sensation creep over him.

He turned his head to look around. Nothing in the room seemed to have changed; everything was as it had always been. Yet, Xu Mo couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off. He didn’t know if something new was present or if something was missing, but it just felt wrong. The sensation was subtle, not something he could see or hear. It was more like a shift in the overall atmosphere.

Putting down the handbook, Xu Mo held his breath and focused, listening intently as his hawk-like gaze swept over every corner of the room.

There were no unusual sounds, no unfamiliar shadows.

’Am I overthinking this?’ he muttered to himself. But deep inside, the string kept perpetually taut by the apocalypse refused to slacken. Vigilance was etched into his very bones.

This inexplicable unease made it impossible for Xu Mo to focus on his book. He stood up, picked up the Bone-Cutting Knife he kept by his side, and tiptoed down the stairs to the first-floor entrance, which was barricaded with all sorts of furniture.

Xu Mo carefully inspected every object in the barricade, even giving them a hard push to confirm they were still secure, with no signs of being moved or damaged. Still feeling uneasy, he brought over some more heavy junk to further reinforce several key support points. Only after doing all this did he feel a little more at ease.

Wiping away nonexistent sweat from his forehead, Xu Mo turned to go back upstairs.

The moment Xu Mo turned and set foot on the staircase, his steps froze. His pupils contracted almost imperceptibly.

He finally realized what was wrong.

Standing on the stairs, Xu Mo peered outside through the transom window at the landing. It was the same time as usual, but tonight, the darkness seemed exceptionally deep.

It wasn’t the darkness of clouds obscuring the starlight. It was a deeper, purer black—a thick darkness, as if the light itself was being devoured by something invisible.

Xu Mo remembered that around this time on previous nights, he could still make out nearby objects by the light of the stars and the waning moon. But now, it was an inky blackness outside, so dark he couldn’t see his hand in front of his face. Only the transom window reflected the faint light from inside, and this reflection, rather than illuminating anything, only served to emphasize the profound darkness without.

’What’s going on?’ Alarm bells screamed in Xu Mo’s mind.

Could it be because a new season had started, like how the days naturally shorten and nights lengthen in the northern hemisphere after the autumn equinox? That was the first scientific explanation that came to his modern mind.

But... could there be another reason? In this bizarre apocalypse where things like zombies existed, could the change in light be caused by something else? A change in atmospheric composition? Or perhaps some incomprehensible energy field was affecting the light?

Xu Mo couldn’t be sure. But whatever the cause, for a lone survivor in the ruins, longer nights meant more danger and less time to be active.

A faint sense of danger, like a cold snake, slithered silently up Xu Mo’s back.

That night, Xu Mo did not sleep soundly. The unusual darkness outside felt as if it had weight, pressing down on his heart.

The next day, Xu Mo deliberately woke before dawn and waited by the window, observing carefully.

Just as he thought!

Usually by this time, the eastern sky would be turning a fish-belly white as the sunlight gradually dispelled the darkness. But today, the world outside was still shrouded in deep night. A noticeably longer time passed before the first light of dawn finally arrived, and even then, it seemed dimmer than usual.

Daylight was coming later!

Combined with the earlier arrival of a much deeper darkness last night, a clear conclusion formed in Xu Mo’s mind.

Winter was coming.

This wasn’t just a concept on a calendar. It was a grim signal of survival, brought on by a real change in the environment.

Xu Mo took a deep breath, feeling a chill pierce his lungs. The weather had been mild until now, causing him to almost forget about the changing seasons. But now, nature was reminding him in the most direct way possible: the difficulty of survival was about to level up.

Longer nights meant the window of opportunity for him to explore and search for a suitable "gate" would be drastically shortened.

The accompanying drop in temperature would mean a faster expenditure of energy, requiring more food—especially high-calorie food—to maintain body heat and stamina.

Furthermore, the need for warm clothing had become urgent. Although Xu Mo had recently acquired a batch of clothes, it was uncertain if they would be enough to withstand a harsh winter.

’Looks like I need to start preparing ahead of time.’ Xu Mo felt an unprecedented sense of urgency.

Warm clothing, high-calorie food, and possibly heating equipment—these would become the new priorities for his future supply runs.

Survival in the apocalypse was never a single challenge, but a cruel game that required constant adaptation to new variables. The footsteps of winter were silently drawing near.

Realizing that winter was approaching, Xu Mo finished his daily training and immediately threw himself into a more urgent survival task: reinforcing his shelter against the coming cold.

He first turned his attention to the windows. Most of them had broken glass, which he had previously only covered lightly with random objects. With winter’s arrival, these holes had to be dealt with.

Instead of simply and crudely nailing boards over the holes on the outside of the window frames as he’d first considered, Xu Mo opted for a more time-consuming but stealthier method: reinforcing them from the inside. Nailing new boards on the exterior would make them stand out like a sore thumb, openly declaring that someone was living there.

He took carefully selected wooden boards and nailed them tightly to the inside of the window frames. This way, from the outside, the windows still looked dilapidated. The cracked and empty panes of glass remained, but a thick, solid barrier of wood was now in place behind them.

To seal the gaps between the boards, Xu Mo tore up old clothes and bedding, stuffing the cracks with cotton and fabric scraps to block out as much of the cold air as possible.

Finally, on the inside of all the sealed windows, Xu Mo hung curtains he had fashioned from old bedsheets and curtain fabrics. This extra layer would provide further insulation and also prevent candlelight from accidentally leaking out of the peepholes at night.

While doing all this, Xu Mo didn’t forget to leave peepholes. He chose a few clever spots, skillfully leaving narrow viewing channels when nailing the boards from the inside, and made sure the interior curtains could cover them completely.

Now, from the outside, the building looked no different from any other abandoned structure, its broken windows telling a story of dereliction. On the inside, however, a relatively sealed living space, capable of effectively warding off the cold wind, was beginning to take shape.

As for his daily training, Xu Mo planned to move it to the third-floor room he had left untouched. It needed no camouflage, as it was already in a perfect state of ruin.

After finishing all this, Xu Mo breathed a small sigh of relief. He finally understood that old saying he’d learned as a child: the duck is the first to know when the seasons change.