Lin Yu’an finished processing the snowshoe rabbit, carefully rolling up the complete pelt he’d skinned off, tying it with a fine string, intending to use it for making warmer gloves or boot liners.

The rabbit meat was cut into small pieces suitable for cooking and preservation and placed inside the snow well fridge.

The sky was no longer the previous somber hue but had turned into a nearly ink-black lead gray, so heavy that it seemed the dome of the sky was pressing down inch by inch towards the ground.

What were just small snow particles in the morning had by now transformed into dense, thick snowflakes.

The increasingly violent north wind, no longer slanting as before, crashed into Lin Yu’an’s windproof clothing like white sharp arrows, making a "swoosh" sound as they rubbed against it.

An encroaching blizzard that had been brewing for a long time was announcing its domination over this land, and the whole world was beginning to be engulfed in a swirl of white chaos.

"Looks like a new blizzard is coming; today’s long-distance exploration plan is going to be scrapped."

Standing at the shelter’s entrance, Lin Yu’an only opened the thick door to a narrow gap, but a gust of wind like thousands of steel needles pierced through, instantly giving him a shiver.

He quickly shut the door tight again, wedging it closed with a wooden stopper, as if this thick door was a fragile barrier separating two completely different worlds.

Inside was the warm, tranquil orange flame, and outside was a raging, cold, white hell.

He walked to the hearth, adding a few blocks of durable birch wood, and the warm flames immediately rose, dispersing the chill that had just crept in.

December also seemed to feel the harshness of the outside weather and wasn’t playing as usual.

Instead, it quietly curled up on its wolf-skin bed, ears pricked up alertly, listening to the sounds of the wind outside, like thousands of wild beasts roaring and charging across the barren landscape.

Lin Yu’an sat down, looking at the GoPro camera always on his chest, even with a slight smile, as if the wild wind and snow outside were merely a grand backdrop of a stage play.

"In such weather, any reasonable living creature would choose to stay in its warm nest. Forcing oneself outside is not just challenging nature but also scornful of life. But..."

He paused, a gleam flickering in his eyes, "This also presents me with a perfect opportunity to complete another long-planned project—building a cold smokehouse."

"I have stored quite a lot of fish and meat. To be honest, I truly, truly don’t want to eat salted roast meat every meal for the next twenty-plus days."

"Therefore, I need another food preservation technique—cold smoking. It not only extends the preservation period but also imparts a complex smoked flavor."

"But building a cold smokehouse has a huge challenge."

He continued his analysis, "It requires digging a flue and piling up walls, yet the ground here is frozen harder than rock. Using the tools I have to dig permafrost is almost an impossible task."

"However, now... this blizzard has come to solve this biggest problem! It has delivered the most ideal building material for large-scale use on this frozen ground—snow!"

He explained seriously to the camera the timing behind his seemingly crazy decision that couldn’t be missed.

"Doing outdoor engineering in such harsh snowstorm sounds like a crazy idea. Why not wait until the snow stops and work on a nice weather day?"

"Because the blizzard itself is a high-speed operating ’natural building materials factory’, and the top-tier materials it produces have a shelf life."

"The wind continues to break, grind, and then press the snow hard. Only in such extreme weather can the ’wind-packed snow’ be formed best suited for cutting."

"Now, these top-quality snow brick materials are readily available on the ice on the lake."

"Once the blizzard stops, a thick layer of useless, loose drifting snow will cover the solid snow layer below like a quilt, and I’d have to exert several times the effort to dig them out."

"Worse, on the ice surface, the snow’s preservation time is very short, as the sun’s radiation will cause these compacted snow layers to sublimate rapidly even if the temperature remains low."

"Starting to turn loose from the inside, becoming crumbly like something degraded. By then, out of ten cut pieces, eight might break."

"Moreover, on a blizzard day, I can’t make any long-distance hunting or exploration. It’s a wasted time. If I can utilize this time, complete my infrastructure project."

"Then, when the weather clears, I can take my weapons and pursue bigger targets. In the wilderness, precise judgment and timing utilization is paramount."

He candidly assessed, "I’ve evaluated, although the wind is strong, it hasn’t reached the level where it could blow me down; the risk is controllable."

"Thus, I’m not battling the blizzard, I’m using it. I must seize this ’golden window period’ while it’s ongoing."

With action springing from his words, he donned his thickest full-set cold-resistant gear and a windproof down jacket with a hood.

Checked his equipment, a logging axe hung on his waist, and on the other side was the beautiful-patterned Damascus Hunting Knife.

He did not bring an ice drill but tucked the sharp triangular hand saw inside his coat in case he needed to cut wood quickly.

"December, sleep tight, I’m going out for a while." He finally advised before unlatching the door, throwing himself into the raging blizzard outside.