Chapter 429: Chapter 429: The Heating Stopped
Melody Summers took off her hat the moment she stepped inside, rubbing her cheeks, which were numb and stinging from the cold.
But the next second, she was shocked to discover the temperature inside was almost the same as it was outside!
’This can’t be right!’
A chill shot straight to her head, seeming to travel up each strand of hair to her brain. Melody Summers quickly put her hat back on.
With a puzzled look, she asked Noelle Quillan, "Why is it so cold in here?!"
Even though the heating hadn’t been very strong lately, the indoor temperature should have at least hovered around freezing.
But now, Melody Summers felt the living room was as cold as the hallway, at least forty or fifty degrees below zero.
Noelle Quillan, wrapped in a thick quilt, exhaled a dense white fog with every breath. Her voice trembled as she answered, "...The... the heating went out... the day before yesterday..."
The heating had been intermittent for a while, shutting off from time to time, but it usually only stopped for a few hours at a time. This was the first time it had been off for more than 48 hours straight.
Melody Summers was stunned. "The heating is out?!"
The Summers Family had always used natural gas for their own heating. With the power out now too, no one was talking in the homeowners’ group chat, so Melody Summers hadn’t known the heating had failed.
After a moment of shock, Melody Summers realized what was happening. She remembered from her past life that during the extreme cold, the government’s heating had also been sporadic. By the end of 2026, it had shut down completely.
There wasn’t enough energy, with shortages of coal and fuel, so the government had no other options. In her past life, many people had died during the cold disaster. Many who had survived the extreme heat and the long night couldn’t escape this deep freeze and ended up freezing to death in their own homes.
Thinking of this, Melody Summers felt a sense of helplessness. It was currently December 2026, and the weather wouldn’t warm up until March of next year at the earliest. That meant they still had nearly three more months to endure...
Noelle Quillan looked at Melody Summers’s crimson cheeks and said with a trembling voice, "...It’s too cold out here. Let’s go to the bedroom! I have a charcoal fire burning in there, so it’s a bit warmer than the living room!"
Just from being out in the living room for this short time, Noelle Quillan felt like her eyes were about to freeze shut.
Melody Summers nodded and followed Noelle Quillan into the bedroom.
The moment they stepped into the bedroom, Melody Summers was hit by a thick, foul stench!
The smell was so overpowering that Melody Summers staggered back two steps, bumping right into the wall behind her.
She pinched her nose in surprise and asked Noelle Quillan, "Wh-what is that smell?!..."
’Could it be that Gene Young and his wife are dead?! Is this the smell of rotting corpses?’
Hearing this, Noelle Quillan rubbed her hands together awkwardly and answered in a small voice, "...I dried our feces and burned it as fuel, so it smells a bit... I thought it would be a way to save some coal."
Gene Young and his wife had hoarded a decent amount of supplies, and there was enough coal for the time being, but Noelle Quillan was a thrifty person. To save coal, she had dried her own feces and that of the couple to use as fuel.
So, while the room was warm, it was filled with a lingering, foul odor.
After hearing Noelle Quillan’s explanation, Melody Summers didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. She could only hold her breath for the moment and scan the room.
She noticed the bedroom layout had changed. The bed, which had been in the middle of the room, was now moved next to the bay window. Gene Young and Yvonne York were lying on it, covered by two quilts, fast asleep. They hadn’t been woken by Melody Summers’s arrival.
Before Melody Summers could ask, Noelle Quillan began to explain the situation. "I was originally sleeping in the guest room. The day before yesterday, I woke up and found the heating was off. The room got incredibly cold all of a sudden, so to save coal, I just moved into the master bedroom..."
At this point, Noelle Quillan reached out from under her quilt and pointed to Gene Young and Yvonne York on the bed. "Since I had to sleep in the same room with them, I was afraid they’d try something while I was asleep, so I drugged them to make them sleep more each day."
Melody Summers was puzzled. "Where did you get the drugs?"
During the apocalypse, medicine was a scarce resource.
Noelle Quillan replied, "They were what the couple bought to use on the women they kidnapped. I found them. If you mix the drugs into food, they make a person weak all over and able to sleep for over ten hours."
Hearing her say that, Melody Summers felt somewhat relieved.
Then, Melody Summers remembered the reason for her visit. She took out her phone, opened the photo album, tapped on the most recent picture, and asked Noelle Quillan, "Take a look. Do you know this person?"
Yesterday, Roman Rhodes had sent Melody Summers a photo of Kevin Kent. Based on Kevin’s confession and the information Melody had provided earlier, Roman had deduced that the pregnant woman who made the deal with Kevin at the time might have been Noelle Quillan.
So Roman had asked Melody to confirm it with Noelle.
Noelle Quillan leaned closer to the phone screen. When she got a clear look at the face, she gasped sharply!
Then she nodded repeatedly and said, "It’s him! It’s him! ... He’s the one who bought Divine Fortune from me the first time!"
Noelle Quillan would never forget that face as long as she lived! After sleeping with him, she had been dragged away for an abortion. It wasn’t a proper medical procedure. Noelle had been tortured to the point where she was trapped in a living hell.
Melody Summers nodded. It seemed Roman Rhodes’s deduction was correct.
Noelle Quillan’s voice was urgent as she asked, "How do you have his picture? Has he been arrested? Is he in jail? Did he get what he deserved?!"
Melody Summers didn’t answer her. She didn’t know what would happen to Kevin Kent either. Whether he would be severely punished or allowed to atone for his crimes through good deeds would depend on his own actions. She composed Noelle’s response into a text message and sent a confirmation back to Roman Rhodes.
After sending the message, Melody Summers glanced at Gene Young and Yvonne York on the bed. Once she confirmed they were still fast asleep, she lowered her voice and asked Noelle Quillan, "Have these two been behaving lately?"
Noelle Quillan nodded. "They were rowdy for the first couple of days, screaming for me to let them go, so I gagged them. But they’ve been much quieter recently and haven’t caused any more trouble."
Gene Young and Yvonne York had been eating only one sand vine cake a day. They didn’t have the energy to cause trouble even if they wanted to. Every day, aside from eating and drinking, they just lay in bed to conserve energy and body heat.
Melody Summers nodded and said to Noelle Quillan, "I asked the police. Your daughter, Joelle Lawson, is still in prison. The police told me that as long as you keep a close watch on Gene Young and his wife and hand them over to the authorities after the snow disaster ends, they can try to arrange for your daughter’s bail."
"So, for the authorities and for yourself, you have to watch these two closely. Don’t let them escape, and don’t let them die! Got it?"
Noelle Quillan immediately promised, "I know! Don’t worry, I’ll definitely keep a close eye on them!"
Melody Summers thought for a moment, then added a warning, "Now that the heating is out, there might be trouble in the apartment building. You have to be extra careful. After I leave, barricade the door with furniture. No matter what you hear outside, don’t come out and don’t make a sound."
"You have plenty of supplies here, so lasting a few more months won’t be a problem. Just stay put at home and don’t go anywhere, understand?"
Noelle Quillan nodded. "I understand, I understand! Don’t worry, I’ve got it all down!"
******
