Chapter 13: The Ice Age Arrives

Word spread fast. Walmart South China’s senior management poured into the empty warehouse and alerted the police. Tom Watson, general manager, stood pale as a sheet, staring at the void. The U.S. HQ had already ordered supplies to be shipped back home—ships were due to dock at Tianhai Port. Everything was ruined.

Zhang Yi, however, slept easy. The theft was too surreal to be solved quickly. Even a full police probe wouldn’t clear things before the catastrophe hit. So he feigned terror through interrogation, got released, and stayed put in Tianhai as ordered.

From behind his blinds he watched the calendar tick: December 10. Two days left. On December 12 at 2 AM, a white light washed the sky. Gamma rays passed Earth, then the weather flipped. Heavy snow began to fall and temperatures plunged. From his sealed safe house Zhang watched the drifts pile up while most people slept through the change, thinking it was just a cold snap.

They didn’t know the truth: the snow would last for months, temperatures would keep dropping, and this was only the start. Zhang Yi, with billions in supplies tucked away in a pocket that no one else could open, closed the curtains and smiled. He’d done his homework—now he could wait out the ice age.