Yue Bay District.
Twelve o'clock noon.
The Zhao Hengping family started their lunch on time.
Zhao Aixia suddenly shared some news: "I heard from a friend in Tintera that there's a type of poisonous mosquito over there, and many people have been killed by them in the wild."
Zhao Hengping paused in surprise: "That serious?"
Zhao Aixia nodded: "My friend also said that the poison of these mosquitoes is very strong. If bitten by several mosquitoes, parts of the body can become paralyzed.
"They'll attract more mosquitoes to attack, injecting more toxins into the victim's body, ultimately causing cardiac arrest."
The family's faces changed as they listened.
Zhao Aixia continued: "In places where poisonous mosquitoes appear, many people are now afraid to go out at night, yet the authorities have been slow to offer solutions."
Zhao Hengping seemed not surprised at all: "The Tintera higher-ups are split into two factions, busy attacking each other all day and not doing anything substantial."
Zhao Aixia shared more news: "Many countries, upon knowing about the threat of the mosquitoes, are concerned they might spread, so they've refused entry to Tintera's flights."
Zhao Hengping looked relieved: "Good thing we left early; another few days and we might not have been able to leave."
Zhao Aixia gazed at her husband with love: "Yes, dear."
Zhao Xiaoying listened to her parents, sensing for the first time that leaving Tintera to come to Great Xia might have been a very wise decision.
*
Linjiang City.
Lanjiang's ice surface.
Yang Fan's eyes focused on the third ice hole as he chewed a piece of spicy beef jerky, his mind wandering elsewhere.
Through a small sparrow, Spicy Chicken No. 18, he was observing a building.
This was one of his daily pleasures.
From the outside, there's no apparent anomaly, but from a different perspective, it's a completely different scenery.
For instance:
At a Great Xia Business Communication supply station.
A male employee ran to the restroom four times in one morning.
Initially, Yang Fan didn't notice anything strange, assuming the person had prostate issues leading to frequent urination.
Later, he discovered this person always inserted his left hand into his down jacket pocket upon entering the restroom.
The male employee wouldn't go to the urinal but directly entered a stall and quickly came out.
If someone were to stand inside the restroom, they wouldn't notice any abnormality.
Spicy Chicken No. 18, standing at a high point, saw the male employee remove his down jacket through the restroom window and seem busy with something.
Upon putting the down jacket back on and leaving the stall, his left hand wasn't in the pocket.
Yang Fan thought for a moment and suddenly realized—this was a rice thief.
The trick he used was relatively primitive.
This person's down jacket had been modified, with a secret pocket sewn inside specifically for hiding rice.
Seizing the opportunity in the restroom, he'd grab a handful of rice and discreetly open the secret pocket inside the stall to stash the rice.
Through the sparrow's view, it was clear to see the secret pocket bulging, containing at least a pound of rice.
One or two pounds a day amounts to dozens a month.
In normal times, it might not matter, but now in the Age of Calamity with Xia's comprehensive ration system, every family can buy only limited food; many people prefer skipping meals to let their children eat more.
This person working at a grain station, there would be no issue filling his belly, so his act of stealing is undoubtedly for profit.
Yang Fan shook his head: "Plump rat, plump rat, don't eat my millet. No wonder the ancients said, the mice in the granary are the fattest."
He instantly issued an order: "Fur Kid Number One, go!"
"Meow～"
A cat's meow rang out.
Yang Fan's underlings were not limited to the likes of crows and sparrows; he also assembled a ground unit.
The team members included—three tabby cats.
Since sensing the Primordial Star Formation, his Spiritual Power had advanced greatly, already capable of "contracting" with higher-intelligence animals like cats.
Granaries troubled by mice call for the cats to step in.
Before long.
A cat sneaked into the grain station, entered the restroom, lurked there for a while, and then left.
After a while.
Another grain station employee entered the restroom and suddenly discovered a line of extremely messy writing on the wall: "Liu Ming hiding rice."
The "Liu Ming" mentioned was exactly the name of that previous guy.
And at a grain station, anything involving "rice" would naturally be spotlighted.
Logically.
This incident escalated.
Liu Ming was brought over, and upon inspection, the rice hiding was confirmed.
In just a short time.
Officials arrived and took away the weeping Liu Ming.
Yang Fan watched the scene, quipping: "Now the weather is cold, you hide rice in your down coat; when it gets hot, will you be hiding rice in your pants?"
He immediately praised: "Fur Kid Number One, well done, you'll be rewarded with a fish tonight."
"Meow～"
The tabby cat responded.
Yang Fan caught another one-pound fish and dropped it into the large barrel, shifting his focus to another sparrow partner.
This was Spicy Chicken No. 5.
It was soaring over a frozen lake.
The lake was called Tan Lake.
In previous years, July and August marked peak tourist season, with Tan Lake always bustling with visitors.
Now the lake surface is frozen, and there isn't a soul in sight.
Yang Fan glanced at the ice a few times and suddenly exclaimed, "What's this?"
Originally, he just wanted to see if there were any Spiritual Source Values, no, any big fish under Tan Lake, but he ended up discovering something different.
With his mysterious intuition, he keenly sensed that beneath the ice layer, in the lake water, there seemed to be countless small things being nurtured.
Yang Fan focused his senses for a while and murmured, "This feeling is really strange, kind of like little lives about to hatch."
But logically, this didn't seem possible.
With the current cold weather, nighttime temperatures below minus twenty degrees, what could hatch?
Yang Fan thought for a bit and made a decision: "Anyway, nothing to do, might as well go check out Tan Lake tomorrow."
Two hours later.
Yang Fan planned to pack up and go home.
Today's luck was quite good; he "fished" a total of 0.8 Spiritual Source Points, increasing his accumulated points to 2.8.
He carried a large bucket, his feet in ice boots, swiftly gliding over the ice.
After gliding a bit.
Yang Fan encountered another middle-aged fishing buddy.
The other took the initiative to greet him, "Xiaoyang, how was the catch today?"
Yang Fan opened the bucket lid and shook his head, "Not good today, only half a bucket of fish."
In fact, this was only a very small portion of the catch; today, the Space Pearl had more than three thousand pounds of fish, a gain one and a half times more than yesterday.
The middle-aged fishing buddy peeked in and looked envious, "So many fish is already good, I've only caught three so far."
This guy then complained again, "I don't know what's wrong today, the fish underwater don't seem very active."
Yang Fan couldn't help but quietly laugh.
The river fish in this stretch of water were almost all caught by him.
If the fish were still active, that would truly be a ghost sighting.
The middle-aged fishing buddy brought up another piece of news, "When I came, I ran into Old Gangster, that old fellow is going home with an empty bucket today."
Yang Fan smiled.
He certainly knew that Old Gangster was too lazy to break the ice and was fishing in the hole he previously made.
Why pick someone's hole, and it had to be mine?
*
At 4:31.
Yang Fan arrived fashionably late at the bus stop.
Right on schedule, the bus was stationed at the platform.
As he got on the bus, he happened to hear the passengers grumbling.
"Is the bus leaving or not?"
"It's been stopped for a minute already; what's going on today?"
The driver first exchanged a glance with Yang Fan before pretending, "Sorry, there was a small malfunction just now, I adjusted it a bit."
Afterward.
The bus started.
When Yang Fan got off, he quickly placed a black plastic bag containing two fish into the bucket beside the driver.
The driver glanced over, his face instantly lighting up with a smile, and discreetly signaled with a "later transfer" gesture.
Nowadays, supplies on the market are scarce, and buying fresh fish is not an easy task.
The pedantic moralists who pretend not to touch the secular world and the sanctimonious moralists who chatter endlessly yet refuse to sell the driver two fish at a low price.
So even amid passenger complaints, the driver is willing to wait thick-skinnedly.
This is the mundane world.
Upon entering the community.
Yang Fan happened to overhear two community residents chatting.
"The pipes at home freeze several times a day, it's so annoying."
"Every time, we have to boil hot water to thaw the pipes, wasting a ton of gas, and with these high gas prices now, it's really heart-wrenching."
He nodded slightly to himself, "It's indeed quite troublesome."
After going home.
As expected, Yang Fan found that his pipes were also frozen.
He sighed and flicked his fingers at the pipes.
"Crack!"
A wisp of scarlet electricity hit the pipes.
Soon.
The faucet began to flow with water.
This was the electricity turning into heat energy, melting the ice inside, thereby clearing the pipes.
In short.
Superpowers are truly convenient!
Yang Fan scrolled his phone for a while and saw a news article: "Tintera Kingdom discovered a type of giant poisonous mosquito, capable of causing death."
He read the news carefully, feeling a bit startled, "Have hundreds of people already died? That's terrifying!"
At this moment.
Yang Fan was suddenly enlightened, "Tan Lake, ice melting, poisonous mosquitoes, I get it!"
One clue after another connected in his mind.
An astonishing conclusion surfaced.
Yang Fan stood up abruptly, "Linjiang City is going to warm up soon."
Without hesitation, he activated the Spiritual Language Superpower and commanded, "Liu Hei, I have an urgent message, quickly relay it to Liren."
"Caw!"