Wen Qian embarked on a long journey following the volcanic winter, even though it was spring, heading north was still rather chilly.
Afterwards, Wen Qian began traveling along a river towards the northeast, passing through areas that were once the widespread human habitation range.
Perhaps she had gathered bricks and stones from various abandoned human settlements, as Wen Qian no longer avoided human settlements like she used to.
However, in reality, even if she wanted to avoid them, she couldn't – before the volcanic winter, apart from deserts and primeval forests, anywhere accessible to humans would have human inhabitants.
Now, although many places had been abandoned, Wen Qian could imagine how the initial inhabitants had gradually transformed these places into habitable areas as she passed through.
As Wen Qian gradually headed northeast, she saw that the scenery on one side had transitioned from the towns and farmlands originally inhabited by humans to the color of yellow sand.
She had reached the edge of the desert – even in such conditions, people were still able to survive in these places.
Unfortunately, after they left, the boundary here was not maintained.
Wen Qian also saw that the shelter forests originally planted by humans were still there. As she continued along the desert's edge eastward, she returned to sparsely populated areas for the next stretch of time.
There were not many animals or plants, nor any human buildings.
As for the people still living here, Wen Qian did not see any – sometimes she traveled on highways, other times on national roads or ordinary rural roads.
There was nothing to take, except for sand – even so, she took quite a bit with her.
She wondered if she ever needed to raise any animals in the future, whether laying a layer of sand would make cleaning relatively easier.
So on the principle that she had come this far anyway, Wen Qian also took a good amount of sand with her.
After spending a long time passing through the desert, Wen Qian reached the Northern Shady Mountain Range, where the terrain slopes down from the northwest to the southeast, mitigating some of the wind, sand, and cold from the north.
On the southern side of the mountain range were alluvial plains, so there were still some inhabited areas.
A national highway happened to pass through the foothills here, allowing the visually fatigued Wen Qian to finally see something other than yellow sand.
Although this place was cold and arid, the grasslands in some areas had a tinge of green, allowing her to see something fresh.
Originally, this area was sparsely populated, and even before the volcanic eruption, there were not many people – needless to say, after the eruption, there were even fewer.
This time, it took Wen Qian over half a month to reach the prairie, which was transitioning from withered yellow to green, resulting in a mottled color from a distance.
Afterwards, as the tender grass gradually grew, it would form a lush green prairie – if the weather was favorable, this place would actually be quite suitable for grazing sheep and horses.
Unfortunately, in the years following the volcanic winter, it was mostly cold here, and cattle and sheep could hardly survive.
The people here also began migrating southward.
Over the past two years, as the climate gradually warmed, the prairie's existence here became slightly longer, but it was still cold most of the time.
Even when Wen Qian reached her desired dwelling place, she had prepared a buffer period of two to three years, as the temperature recovery would take time.
Continuing eastward, she saw the distant mountain ranges and forests.
After the temperature returned to normal, summer would arrive – at that time, except for the plateau regions, all other parts of the country would experience sweltering summers.
People might gradually migrate northward, but the human population on Earth had already decreased significantly.
Therefore, even if people returned to the place Wen Qian chose, it would still be sparsely populated.
The life she envisioned could only be provided by the distant forests.
Even if there were other places where she could live freely, she just wanted to do things according to her own wishes.
Nowadays, no matter what people do, their ultimate goal is to stay alive and healthy.
Therefore, other unimportant things, such as the opinions of others, were no longer that important.
Finally, in June, Wen Qian reached the forest in her view – the Peaceful Forest.
Wen Qian first searched for a suitable temporary dwelling outside the forest, then planned to slowly find a suitable location.
Afterwards, she followed a relatively narrow concrete path into the Peaceful Forest.
There were many logging camps on the outskirts of the forest, so transportation was still decent in many areas.
However, the area was quite remote – one could walk for a long time without seeing any houses or road signs.
But by following the concrete path, she wouldn't get lost. Wen Qian also dropped stones as markers for herself.
She found an abandoned logging camp where all the houses had collapsed.
She originally thought this place had been abandoned because of the volcanic eruption, but it had actually been shut down before the eruption.
This logging camp had been abandoned a long time ago, and then someone had rebuilt it into a summer camp.
They raised some small animals, planted flowers and some local fruits, and built wooden cabins and pavilions.
It attracted some young people from the cities to come to this remote place in small groups to experience forest life.
But after the volcanic winter, no one came here anymore, and years of accumulated snow without any maintenance collapsed all the buildings.
That's why it looked the way Wen Qian saw it now.
She found an open area, took out her little house, and then used large square bricks to build a high, thick, and sturdy wall around it.
Because in the following period, she had many things to do, and an important task was to explore the surrounding environment.
Therefore, she needed to build a solid fortress for her dwelling.
After arriving, Wen Qian took three days off for herself, just resting, cooking, and planning her upcoming tasks.
This might also be the reason why it took her so long to get here – she didn't skimp on rest and stopping along the way.
Wen Qian carried a bow and arrows on her back and a hunting rifle in her hand.
The things she had secretly prepared and dared not take out in the mountains after trying them out.
Now she could openly carry them.
In fact, apart from the slightly more populated base areas that still had control, everywhere else had already become a lawless land.
And after the disaster, the number of people killed by harming each other was also high – sometimes not due to natural disasters, but at the hands of their own kind.
The wild animals sensed the climate warming earlier than humans, so the animals that had survived the harsh northern cold also began gathering in warmer places.
Even before Wen Qian recorded the rising temperatures, some animals in the Northern Shady Mountain Range had already started to revive.
Therefore, the Peaceful Forest is still active with quite a few animals.
However, animals like tigers and black bears are still absent from the area where Wen Qian is located, as she has not seen any traces of them.
One possibility is that this is the outskirts of the forest, and many of the trees around the logging site are secondary forests rather than primary forests.
This place may not be suitable for large wild animals to survive, as the harsh winters cause slow or stagnant growth and reproduction of plants and animals, leaving it unoccupied by many plants and animals even without human presence.
However, the future warming remains uncertain.
