The next morning, Melody Summers was awakened by a commotion.

Outside her window, she could hear the excited shouts of the other residents in the complex:

"The sun’s up! The sun’s up!!"

"Look! The sun!! It’s the sun!!"

"It really is the sun! The sun is out!!" 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

"Everyone, come out! The sun’s up! It’s all over! This godforsaken period is finally over!!"

"Oh, thank God! The sun’s finally out! I haven’t seen the sun in half a year!"

"..."

These shouts were like a beam of light, piercing through the heavy cloud cover and instantly illuminating the entire residential complex.

The residents in the complex, ignoring the bitter cold, bundled up in thick clothes, stepped out of their homes, and gathered below their apartment buildings to gaze up at the sky.

Having not seen the sun for so long, the residents shielded their eyes, which were unaccustomed to the light.

They squinted, admiring the golden sun on the horizon, unable to hold back their excited cries.

Melody woke up amidst this chorus of excited shouts.

She raised a hand to rub her drowsy eyes, climbed out of bed, and opened the window to look outside.

The sun was just rising in the east. The gentle morning light spilled down, warm and dazzling, breathing life into a world that had long been shrouded in darkness.

After half a year of endless night, the volcanic ash in the atmosphere had finally settled to the ground with the snow, and Terra welcomed a long-awaited dawn.

Melody looked over at the complex’s public square in the distance and saw that quite a few people had gathered there as well.

Elated by the sun’s appearance, the residents began to voluntarily help the property management clean up the black snow on the ground.

It was as if this black snow was the final stumbling block to a return to normalcy. If they could just clear it away, Terra could go back to how it was before the cataclysm.

...

After getting up, Melody quickly washed up and went to the living room, carrying Albus.

In the living room, the thick, light-blocking curtains had been pulled back to create a wide gap, allowing sunlight to stream through the window and cast a faint golden glow on the dining table.

Her grandma, Miss Lowell, and her aunt were in the kitchen preparing breakfast, their laughter and chatter drifting out from time to time.

Before long, a hearty breakfast was ready. The Summers family sat down together and began to eat around the dining table.

Melody picked up a pan-fried beef bun. It was steaming hot. She took a bite, the crispy skin and the tender, juicy filling a perfect combination.

Seeing the long-lost sunlight had put the whole family in a good mood.

Grace Sutton sighed with emotion. "The sun is finally out. It’s been almost half a year since we last saw it. I’m actually not used to it!"

Colin Summers nodded in agreement. "Yeah, when I got up and saw the sun, I felt like I was dreaming, like we were back before the cataclysm ever happened."

Her grandma swallowed a bite of her egg pancake and sighed. "If only this disaster would just end like this... that would be wonderful..."

It was now October. The cataclysm, which had started in April of last year, had been going on for nearly two years. For over a year, most people’s lives had been thrown into dire straits.

Everyone hoped that the cataclysm would end immediately.

Melody took a sip of sweet soy milk. ’It’s far too early for the cataclysm to be over,’ she thought. ’The sun’s appearance is the true beginning of this blizzard disaster!’

In her past life, Melody had also cheered when the sun came out, believing then that the disaster was about to end.

But to her surprise, over the next three months, massive blizzards swept the globe, plunging all of Terra directly into a period of extreme cold and ice.

At the time, experts had said that Terra had essentially entered an "ice age." Most of the planet’s surface was covered in ice and snow, and the oceans had frozen to a depth of hundreds of meters...

After breakfast, Winnie Summers and Colin Summers left in a hurry. The second batch of national supplies was arriving, and they had been very busy lately.

Melody changed into a down jacket, put on a hat and scarf, and picked up Albus, planning to go out for some fresh air.

After all, the days when she could go for a walk outside and bask in the sun were numbered.

Just as Melody was all dressed and ready to leave, a knock suddenly came from outside.

Melody was puzzled. She looked at the monitor by the door and saw someone in a black down jacket knocking on the door of 1605, the apartment across the hall.

The entire Summers family was currently gathered in 1606, so there was no one in 1605.

After a moment’s thought, Melody opened her door, stepped out, and asked, "Can I help you?"

Hearing the sound, the person in the black down jacket turned around, revealing a fair-skinned face.

She had almond-shaped eyes and an oval face—a girl who looked gentle by nature.

The girl looked up slightly at Melody, a modest and gentle smile on her face, and asked softly, "Sorry to bother you. I live in 1601; my family just moved in this morning. I wanted to ask, do you have power right now? I’m trying to figure out if there’s a power outage or if there’s just a problem with my meter."

Building 4 had three elevators and six apartments per floor. Melody was in Unit A, which included apartments 1601 through 1606.

Previously, apartments 1601 through 1604 had been vacant. She hadn’t expected new neighbors to move in today.

Melody felt the girl in front of her looked familiar. She searched her memory for a moment before asking tentatively, "Are you... Joyce Lawson?"

Joyce Lawson froze for a second, surprised that Melody knew her name.

She looked at Melody in confusion and asked, "And you are...?"

Melody pulled off the hat and scarf that were hiding her face, revealing herself.

After getting a clear look at Melody’s face, Joyce Lawson was stunned at first, then exclaimed in pleasant surprise, "Summers! It’s you!"

Melody smiled and nodded. "Mona, long time no see."

Joyce Lawson was Melody’s university classmate.

Joyce Lawson was a medical student. She and Melody had once signed up for a biomathematics competition together and had been placed on the same team.

During their preparations for the competition, the two of them had gotten along very well and had become pretty good friends.

Joyce Lawson was surprised to run into Melody here. She took two steps forward, grabbed Melody’s hand, and asked, "Summers, you live here? That’s great! We can be neighbors!"

Melody smiled and nodded. "Yeah, it’s a huge coincidence."

The two chatted for a bit. When Melody learned that Joyce Lawson had just moved in and found she had no electricity, Melody suggested they go to the property management office together to ask about it.

The two of them walked out of the apartment building. As they crossed the complex’s public square, Melody noticed that the piles of black snow on the ground had been cleared away.

In the square, many residents were gathered together, chatting. They paid no mind to the freezing weather, wanting only to enjoy the long-awaited sunshine to the fullest.

Children ran cheerfully under the sun, chasing and playing with each other. Every so often, a pair of kids bundled up like dumplings would tumble to the ground in a heap.

The elderly sat on the benches in the square, resting with their eyes closed and faint smiles on their faces.

Some residents were taking selfies with the sun in the background, planning to post short videos to document their survival after the endless night.

Everything seemed positive and happy.

Seeing this scene, Joyce Lawson remarked, "The atmosphere in this complex is pretty nice... Hehe, looks like the money I spent on this apartment wasn’t wasted!"

Melody and Joyce Lawson walked side-by-side across the square, chatting as they went. Melody learned about what Joyce had been through in the year-plus since the cataclysm began.

Joyce Lawson was a medical student. The year the heatwaves began, she was in her fifth year of university.

Later, when the cataclysm struck, disaster and illness swept through the entire city. The entire healthcare system suffered an unprecedented blow, nearly collapsing.

There were injured and sick people everywhere. Due to a shortage of medical personnel, Joyce Lawson, as a student from a Top 2 university, was brought into the hospitals by her professors to begin her internship.