Surviving on Greenland Until the End of the World

#This story will be available to read for a fee on February 26 at 12:10 a.m., with a bonus update of over 10,000 characters# #Thank you for supporting the official release# #Both leads are each other’s first and only# #Follow the author on Weibo: Longbizigoujj. Feel free to ask for updates~~# After being diagnosed with a rare disease, Min Shu decides to enjoy the little time he has left. He first goes abroad to study, choosing Canada, at the northernmost edge of the mainland. Knowing he doesn’t have long to live, Min Shu is unusually bold. In his second semester, he signs up for a tour to Greenland, the world’s largest island. During the trip, he gets so absorbed in watching a baby seal that he loses the tour group and ends up stranded on the island alone. Min Shu is horrified and rushes to find a ship back to Canada, only to be told that this is the last day before the sea freezes and shipping is suspended. There won’t be another boat to the mainland until next spring. Min Shu: ... #Anyone else get it, guys? I came here to study abroad, not to be exiled# But things are as they are, so Min Shu decides to make the best of it and focus on staying alive. Maybe Greenland’s air is exceptionally clean, or perhaps it’s too cold for germs to multiply. Whatever the reason, Min Shu’s rare disease never flares up again. He stays on Greenland for a long time. But when spring comes the following year, the boats that are supposed to connect the island with the mainland never arrive. Min Shu has no choice but to keep living among the few Inuit people in the area. He even learns their language, but still no boat comes. Worried that his visa will expire, Min Shu climbs mountains and crosses valleys to find the island’s only post office. He writes to the local government, but gets no reply for a long time. He can’t go on mooching food and lodging from his neighbors forever. So, to make money, Min Shu takes up the traditional trade of the old-timer immigrants: opening a Chinese restaurant. His restaurant becomes a huge hit among the Inuit, who have devilish dishes like ice petrel on the menu, and business keeps growing. Many years later, the last local Indigenous grandmother passes away peacefully, leaving Min Shu without a single customer. Min Shu: Well, would you look at that. With no customers left, Min Shu spends his days cooking Manchu-Han Imperial Feast after Manchu-Han Imperial Feast for himself and searching all over Greenland for other communities to attract to his restaurant. Every day, he goes to the long-abandoned, deserted harbor and stares into the eyes of the chubby seals by the shore, wondering if he should stop waiting for a boat and just swim back himself. After a long while, just as Min Shu is about to give up looking for people, a customer suddenly walks into his Chinese restaurant. That day, a blizzard sweeps across Greenland. Min Shu’s restaurant is the only place on the whole island with lights on. He sits in his little shop with a bag of sunflower seeds, happily rewatching a Spring Festival Gala from who knows how many years ago. He’s laughing so hard at an old comedy sketch that he’s doubled over when he suddenly spots a dark dot in the blizzard. The dot grows larger as it draws closer, coming through the snowstorm until it takes the shape of a man. He wears a military cap and a black fur cloak that billows in the gale. His military boots crunch through the deep snow as he strides toward the Chinese restaurant with an imposing air. Then he looks up. His dark eyes peer out from beneath the brim of his cap. When he sees the crooked characters for “Chinese Restaurant” on the building he’d mistaken for a lighthouse, he freezes in surprise. Min Shu never expected to see another living person in this life. He forgets to crack his sunflower seeds and stares at the tall man before him. After a long pause, all he can manage is: “Hey, want something to eat?” · Only after welcoming Wei Changchuan into the restaurant does Min Shu learn that the outside world has been destroyed. Min Shu: “Huh? What about my visa?” Wei Changchuan: “...Visas stopped being issued several years ago.” Min Shu is horrified. “That won’t do! I can’t be here illegally!” By then, Wei Changchuan has just finished a steaming bowl of stir-fried vegetarian zhajiang noodles with chili peppers. He looks blissfully full and satisfied. He raises his head and gestures toward Min Shu with a finger covered by a black glove. “Go get your passport.” Min Shu scurries off to fetch it. Wei Changchuan looks at the little booklet, now out of print, takes a stamp out of his bag, and stamps it. “There. Done.” He hands the passport back to Min Shu. “Your visa has been approved by the Supreme Commander of the World.” ----------A few things to know----------------------------- 1. Set in a post-apocalyptic world 2. Farming and cultivation progression story (?) 3. A highly skilled cook who may or may not be evolving, just trying to get by, × a fatherly future military leader with overwhelming combat power 4. A story about two people saving the world from Greenland, humanity’s last beacon of hope --------Coming soon: Heavenly Court Employee---------------------- Qiao Yang is a staunch atheist, or at least he was when he was alive. But after accidentally dying from overwork while pulling an all-nighter on his thesis, Qiao Yang is astonished to discover that there really is an afterlife. He looks at the endless layers of clouds before him and the sky-piercing pillars made of gold and jade, and hears his worldview being remade: “...So this is Heaven?” The suited man sitting in the middle of the clouds corrects him. “No, this is the Heavenly Court.” He casually points in one direction. “Look over there.” Qiao Yang turns and sees a “Blessing” character pasted on one of the pillars, swaying gently among the clouds. “It’s the twenty-first century,” the suited man says. “The Heavenly Court has to keep up with the times and embrace innovation.” He looks down at Qiao Yang’s résumé. “Qiao Yang, 21 years old. Skipped four grades during primary and middle school, completed undergraduate and master’s degrees at Jing University, then went straight into a PhD. Died suddenly while preparing his doctoral dissertation.” Qiao Yang: “...You didn’t have to tell me that. My heart hurts again.” The suited man looks up and says briefly, “My condolences.” His face bears an expression Qiao Yang knows well: the unshakable weariness of a wage slave, and the listless air of someone who doesn’t want to waste a single word. “Then I’ll get straight to the point,” the suited man says succinctly. “You died unexpectedly before your allotted lifespan was over, and your lifetime merit score was high. This court is willing to offer you a clerical position in the Heavenly Court. Two days off a week, room and board included, double merit points, and a chance to cultivate immortality after five hundred years. Would you be interested?” Qiao Yang: ... Oh my god, I still have to be a wage slave after I die?!! Qiao Yang is furious. He slams the table and leaps to his feet. “I died from overwork, and you still want to exploit me?? Is there any justice here? No! I absolutely refuse to take part in this workplace rat race, ” The suited man nods. “All right. If you don’t accept a position in the Heavenly Court, we’ll transfer you to the Underworld in accordance with the law, and you can prepare to be reincarnated.” As he speaks, he adjusts his rimless glasses. “However, I should warn you that, due to the declining birth rate, your chance of being reborn as a human is about 0.000009%.” Qiao Yang: … He slowly sits back down in the chair floating among the clouds, clasps his hands, and puts on a fawning smile. “Sorry, is that job offer you mentioned still on the table?” · On the seventh day after his sudden death, Qiao Yang successfully starts work at the Heavenly Court. Now that he’s landed a government job, Qiao Yang is in a pretty good mood. But on his first day, his superior, Lord Yuqing, is in a very bad mood. The reason is that Qiao Yang’s colleague, another new clerk, hasn’t reported to Yuqing Palace. Qiao Yang is secretly stunned. What kind of guy is bold enough to slack off on his very first day? Two hours later, a handsome immortal in robes, with his hair bound by a jade crown and seven-colored prayer beads in his hand, floats in. He walks right up to Lord Yuqing and lets out a huge yawn without a hint of apology. “Sorry, Martial Uncle,” he says coolly. “I just came out of seclusion, so I’m late.” Lord Yuqing flies into a rage. “Were you in seclusion or taking a nap? Explain yourself!” At the same time, Qiao Yang stares at the immortal’s handsome, otherworldly face, so shocked he nearly spits out the fasting pill he ate that morning. Isn’t this the unlucky undergrad who was always late and left early when Qiao Yang was his teaching assistant, talked back to professors and bullied his groupmates, was hopelessly bad at every subject except one, attracted a whole department’s worth of female students whenever he published something, and argued that Newtonian mechanics was fundamentally wrong???? · After getting used to life in the Heavenly Court, Qiao Yang asks You Xi during a work break, “So why did you go down to Jing University to study? Do immortals need degrees too?” You Xi replies, “Yeah. I was thinking of going to grad school too.” Qiao Yang smiles on the outside, thinking that he’ll be damned if You Xi’s grades are good enough for a guaranteed place in grad school. But he’s dead already, so it’s not his place to meddle. Let the kid take his cultivation-based physics system and sit the entrance exams! Then You Xi says, “But it wasn’t just for the degree.” He turns his head, his gaze settling on Qiao Yang’s face. “It was also to overcome a love trial.” A few things to know--------------------------------------------------- A brilliant, hardworking, perfectionist top student × a cool, aloof, immortal second-generation heir An opposites-at-war couple, though it’s mostly the shou taking on the gong Looks like an age gap with the gong younger, but he’s actually older A modern (?) workplace comedy about Heavenly Court employees + modern (?) cultivation Theme: Finding a lighthearted way to survive even in desperate circumstances