[BBGCD] Chapter 7

 The man had always been so serious in front of him.

When Su Jiao had saved Gu Lingye in his previous life, he hadn't found any scars on his body. At the time, he had genuinely believed Gu Lingye's explanation that he had simply fainted from the cold.

He hadn't expected this man to lie to him just to keep him from worrying about him fainting.

Recalling the past, a faint smile appeared on Su Jiao's face. His eyes fell on the man's face, but the smile gradually faded. He let out a long sigh.

In this new life, many things had a chance to change.

Su Jiao couldn't be sure whether the man in front of him was the same person he had loved in his previous life. Nor did he know whether their future together would take a path he had never expected.

He didn't dare think too far ahead. Many things could only be left to fate.

He would stay true to himself in the present and not lose himself in the future.

Whatever happened, Su Jiao was certain that he wouldn't regret his choices whenever he looked back on this moment.

He pushed all his complicated thoughts aside, rolled up his sleeves, and began removing the man's suit.

Gu Lingye had a physique worthy of his profession as a boxing coach. The muscles covering his body were strong and well-defined. Even in his most relaxed state, unconscious, his body felt firm and resilient to the touch.

The man was tall, with long legs and a standard inverted-triangle build. Almost every part of his physique seemed perfectly proportioned.

Su Jiao's soft fingertips grew a little red from the warmth radiating from the man's body. He removed Gu Lingye's clothes without any trouble and changed him into the clothes he had bought in advance.

After finishing that, Su Jiao turned his attention to the man's head.

Gu Lingye was a typical tough guy, the kind who could look handsome and gentle at the same time.

Why call him gentle? These days, the mainstream preference among young women leaned toward the type described as "a stranger as beautiful as jade, a peerless gentleman."

Looking at that handsome face, Su Jiao remembered how Gu Lingye's stubble had scratched him in his previous life. He really wanted to get revenge by rubbing the man's face in return, but he was also hesitant. They had only just met again in this life, and he wasn't sure whether he should actually do it.

He held the man's head and examined it carefully. Eventually, he found a small raised bump.

It wasn't very large, and there was no obvious bruising or swelling around it. It seemed that Gu Lingye had been knocked unconscious by a blow to a particular pressure point.

Su Jiao gently rubbed the man's head for a while. After checking that the bump had become smaller, he finally withdrew his hand and went into the bedroom.

The quilt on the bed was still the thin summer one. Su Jiao took out the winter quilt he had prepared earlier, spread it over the bed, and tucked the man from the space underneath it.

The temperature was so cold that Su Jiao stared blankly at the unconscious man on the bed.

Memories of his previous life echoed in his mind. Su Jiao realized that he couldn't truly let this person go, no matter how much he had thought he could at first. He clearly remembered all the little moments they had shared in his previous life, as well as the care Gu Lingye had shown him through his actions.

Could he really separate his previous life from his current one?

Su Jiao asked himself that question, but he couldn't separate two people who looked exactly the same.

People's hearts could change. After experiencing different things, the same Gu Lingye might become someone entirely different from the person Su Jiao remembered. And the truth was, even in his previous life, he hadn't known Gu Lingye as well as he thought.

The blond young man sitting beside the bed seemed unable to feel the freezing temperature. His soft black eyes gradually took on a hint of stubborn obsession.

Su Jiao knew that Gu Lingye couldn't be exactly the same in this life as he had been in the previous one. But now that he had met the same person again, he naturally wanted to fight for his own happiness.

Whatever the future held was a matter for the future. For now, he just wanted to be happy in the present!

Having made up his mind, Su Jiao tucked the quilt around Gu Lingye, then gently pulled the bedroom door closed as he left.

Some of the things in the space needed to be taken out and arranged in the house. He would put daily necessities and tools on the second floor, clear out the other rooms on the first floor, and use one room for firewood and another for vegetables and food.

The temperature outside was extremely low. Su Jiao could faintly hear crying and howling from upstairs, as if someone had fainted.

He glanced at his phone. The signal indicator showed nothing but an X.

Hail was still falling outside. His car, parked in the courtyard and covered only with a layer of sunshade fabric, had already been dented and deformed by the hailstones.

Even wrapped in thick clothes, he couldn't keep himself warm. Su Jiao breathed into his hands, then pulled down all the curtains on the first floor. He even moved the living room furniture into the space.

Energy slowly circulated through his body. Su Jiao felt a little warmth in his chest. As he walked upstairs, he used his ability to arrange the furniture and supplies in a large compartment on the first floor of the space. This would become his bedroom inside the space.

The windows on the second floor were made of privacy glass. Su Jiao drew all the curtains, just as he had downstairs, and selected several rooms to store the furniture.

The sofa in the second-floor living room was a wooden one. Back when his grandparents were still alive, it had been part of the furniture set they commonly used on the first floor. Su Jiao ran his fingers over the scratches on its surface.

He put the sofa into the space, intending to move it downstairs for use later.

After arranging all the furniture, Su Jiao placed the daily necessities from the space directly in the second-floor living room. He then returned to the first floor and moved the firewood, charcoal, grain, and vegetables into separate rooms.

Once that was done, Su Jiao planned to build another fire pit in the living room near the entrance. But when he went to get the bricks, he realized that the only cement he had was the small amount delivered with the bricks from the factory.

Su Jiao: ...

He had thought of almost everything, but never expected to overlook something as simple as this.

He could think of other uses for the bricks, but for this fire pit, he could only use cement.

He glanced toward the bedroom, then entered the space through the toilet.

The temperature outside was too low. The cement would freeze before he could even mix it properly. Su Jiao decided to build the fire pit inside the space first and move it out afterward. That way, he could also feed the animals while he was there.

As for the outside world...

The large amount of supernatural energy brought by the cold current had already eliminated the barrier between Su Jiao and his space. The energy circulating inside his body also flowed more smoothly. He could now clearly hear what was happening outside, even while inside the space.

Su Jiao quickly moved the bricks and stones to the open area. First, he estimated the general shape and size of the fire pit, then placed the cement nearby.

Cement couldn't be used on its own. Su Jiao searched for a long time but couldn't find any sand.

After thinking for a moment, he took some of the soil he had dug out of the pond on the second floor. He also gathered the fine wood chips from beside the firewood and mixed them with the cement.

The temperature inside the space wasn't particularly high, so Su Jiao worked quickly. First, he built a large square base, then constructed a smaller square structure on top of it.

To make it easier to install the chimney later, he made this smaller structure a little taller. By the time he had finished, his fingers had become stiff from the cold.

Unable to bear the low temperature any longer, Su Jiao rubbed his hands together. Then he used his ability to spread the remaining cement over the surface of the bricks and stones, making the layer in the middle of the smaller square especially thick.

This kind of delicate work consumed too much energy. His body had only just entered the apocalypse, and he didn't have that much energy to spare.

Su Jiao soon felt an intense hunger. He took out a bag of snacks and squatted down to examine the cement he had carefully applied to the bricks using his mental power. At the same time, he began thinking about what to eat that evening.

Gu Lingye didn't like a solemn atmosphere, so they might as well have a hot pot meal.

As for the pot, how about a Northeastern-style iron pot stew?

He could also add some flatbreads and put in more staple ingredients.

Making noodles would be a little difficult right now. He would have to start a fire first and then cook the noodles in the pot.

After barely managing to fill his stomach, Su Jiao turned around and poured food into the feeding troughs in the animals' compartments. He then took a bowl of regular animal feed to the second floor to feed the seafood in the pond.

He hadn't even reached the pond when he noticed that the seafood inside seemed to be distributed strangely, as if each species had been separated into its own area.

Su Jiao stopped walking and focused most of his mental power on the pond.

The situation inside the pond appeared in his mind. Its space had been divided in an orderly manner.

Different kinds of seafood were separated by thin energy walls. From time to time, seafood with weaker physical abilities managed to escape the boundaries of its compartment and wander into other areas, only to be preyed upon by creatures higher up the food chain.

Su Jiao frowned. Why did he feel that the pond was larger than its actual dimensions suggested?

He had never really understood how his spatial ability worked. His momentary confusion soon passed, and he walked over to the pond, pouring all the animal feed from the bowl into the water.

The feed dispersed through the water and soon reached the different energy-separated compartments.

Seeing that quite a lot of seafood hadn't received any feed, Su Jiao took a piece of fresh meat from the first floor, cut it into pieces with a knife, and tossed them into the pond.

After feeding all the animals, the fire pit on the first floor was almost ready.

Su Jiao returned to the first floor and carefully examined the cement on the fire pit. He reached out and gently tapped it.

It had frozen solid, too.

He returned to the house through the toilet and opened the door.

Gu Lingye was still asleep in the bedroom. Su Jiao placed the finished fire pit a little away from the center of the living room. He took out a thin matchstick, lit it, and placed a piece of firewood about as thick as a finger over the flame. Finally, he added a thicker log.

The fire caught, driving away some of the cold.

Su Jiao pulled over a stool, sat down, and held his cold palms near the flames. The warmth gradually chased away the chill between his hands. His eyebrows relaxed, and his cheeks and fingertips slowly turned rosy.

After warming himself up a little, Su Jiao took out the fire table and placed it over the fire pit. He laid the thick tabletop on its frame and pressed it firmly into place.

Once the heated table was ready, Su Jiao moved the wooden sofa beside it. He clapped his hands, took out a portable brazier from the space, and placed it beside the table so they could warm themselves after eating.

With the fire table set up, there wasn't much else to do. Su Jiao sat beside the fire and took out the iron pot stand from the space, placing it nearby.

He brought over a shelf and set it against the wall behind him. He put several basins on it and placed a low table beside it.

With the basic arrangements in place, Su Jiao took a bucket of water from one of the storage containers in the space and placed it beside the fire pit to keep it from freezing in the cold air.