Landlord in the Arctic

Just as Feng Shan was still lost in his dilemma,

the tavern door was gently pushed open, and Natasha walked in, her steps elegant yet slightly hurried.

Just a short while ago, she had been harboring a little resentment over Feng Shan’s tactless and impolite behavior.

But after arriving at the restaurant, she learned from her Aunt Natalia that a cold wave and blizzard were about to strike.

In that instant, the bit of resentment in her heart vanished without a trace, melting away like the last snows of spring.

Her original plan had been to take a flight back to Lengwan that afternoon, as many matters at home were waiting for her attention.

But now, all airports in the northern region were grounded, the airspace had been temporarily designated a no-fly zone, and all air routes were cut off.

It looked like she would have to stay in the Crown Territory for a few more days.

Having come to this conclusion, Natasha came to the tavern.

At such a critical juncture, she had to hear how Feng Shan planned to handle the situation.

After all, he was the owner of the Crown Territory.

"Natasha, it’s going to snow a lot!" Xiaohua’s voice, tinged with a mix of alarm and novelty, broke the somewhat heavy atmosphere in the tavern.

After the recent panic, Xiaohua, a girl who had grown up in the eternally spring-like Binhai City,

had never experienced a cold wave and had no concept of the extreme weather that was about to arrive.

However, upon hearing that a heavy snow was coming to the Crown Territory, her innocent eyes, contrary to the mood, began to sparkle with excitement, her face unable to hide her anticipation.

Seeing Natasha appear, Xiaohua acted as if she’d just found the perfect person to share her joy with.

She trotted over excitedly, her eyes wide with curiosity as she asked,

"Natasha, I heard it’s going to snow a lot! How much snow? Will it be more than the snow over at the bus camp?"

In Xiaohua’s limited experience, the heavy snow at the bus camp had already been a spectacular sight.

So she fully expected this coming snowfall to be even more breathtaking.

Listening to Xiaohua’s innocent and somewhat clueless words, Natasha couldn’t help but shake her head and smile. A trace of warmth bloomed in her heart; she felt Xiaohua’s purity was a welcome relief in such a tense moment.

Then, she reached out a slender finger and gently tapped Xiaohua on the tip of her nose, saying softly and kindly,

"No, it might even be a little lighter!"

"Oh, just a light snow!"

The moment Xiaohua heard that, her soaring excitement was doused as if with a bucket of cold water.

An expression of disappointment instantly appeared on her face.

Her lips pouted slightly, and the sparkle in her eyes dimmed a little.

It was as if a light snowfall wasn’t worth getting excited about at all.

However, Xiaohua had no idea that this was just a white lie Natasha told to comfort her.

In reality, Lengwan, situated on the shores of the Bering Sea, was assaulted by several cold waves every winter.

And Natasha had experienced it firsthand.

She had seen with her own eyes how, when a cold wave struck, the extreme low temperatures were like an icy curse from Hell, capable of mercilessly freezing everything in sight.

Rushing streams, swaying plants, even birds that couldn’t make it back to their nests—all of it would be sealed beneath a layer of crystal-clear ice.

But as ferocious as the cold waves in Lengwan were, they were merely the diminished aftershocks of a force that had traveled all the way from the Arctic.

According to the information gathered from multiple sources,

Natasha couldn’t help but gasp inwardly.

The straight-line distance from the Crown Territory to the Arctic was only 2,000 kilometers. It seemed far, yet it was perilously close, infinitely magnifying the threat of this cold wave.

The cold air mass was surging south from the Arctic Ocean in a vast, unstoppable tide.

With the two locations being so close, by the time it made landfall on Alaska’s Far North Tundra, it would have lost very little of its energy and would sweep through with devastating momentum.

In its wake, it would leave nothing but a dead, silent world of ice and snow.

And right now, the Brooks Range lay directly in the cold wave’s path, becoming the last straw that would break the camel’s back.

When the cold wave, carrying fierce winds and snow, aggressively cut across the tundra and continued to surge south,

the first thing it would encounter was this towering mountain range.

The Brooks Range, a continuous wall of peaks with an average altitude of 2,000 meters, formed a natural barrier, bluntly blocking the cold current’s southward flow.

However, in the area where the cold wave met the mountain range,

the obstructed airflow would cause the cold air to accumulate and rotate wildly, forming an eye of the storm with highly concentrated energy.

This junction would undoubtedly become the hardest-hit area.

And of all places, the Crown Territory was located right within the eye of the storm.

The thoughts flashed through Natasha’s mind. She tilted her head back slightly, took a deep breath, and did her best to calm her chaotic emotions.

A moment later, when she looked at the others again, the previous panic in her eyes was gone, replaced by a calm, sharp gaze. Like a star piercing the fog on a cold night, her look was direct and resolute as it fell upon Feng Shan.

"Does the camp have an emergency plan for the cold wave?"

An emergency plan for the cold wave?

Feng Shan froze, a muscle in his cheek twitching as a look of complete bewilderment spread across his face. He then shook his head helplessly, a hint of embarrassment in his eyes as he answered truthfully,

"This is my first time experiencing a cold wave too. I believe the Crown Territory should be fine."

He deliberately stressed the word "should," trying to make his words sound more confident and reassure everyone.

But this ambiguous answer, tinged with a bit of wishful thinking,

offered no sense of security whatsoever to those who heard it.

Should?

Hearing this response, Natasha was momentarily stunned, and then the corners of her mouth lifted in a mirthless smile.

’Things are already this critical, and he’s still being vague, unable to come up with a concrete plan.’

But after calming down a bit and thinking it over, she realized the outcome wasn’t so surprising after all.