Evelyn looked at the others, took a deep breath, and enunciated each word clearly. "Because... the polar night is here."
Evelyn hadn’t expected the polar night to arrive so suddenly. Just last night, everyone had been making wishes, hoping the extreme cold would end soon and the sun would come out.
A night passed, and none of their wishes came true. Instead, the polar night had arrived first.
"Polar night? You mean the opposite of a polar day? No sun, just darkness from now on?" Quincy looked at Evelyn in disbelief. He would rather believe that time had gotten messed up, or that it was a total solar eclipse.
"Evelyn, could it just be a total solar eclipse? Maybe things will go back to normal tomorrow?"
Evelyn mulled it over for a moment. "That’s a possibility. For now, let’s get all the emergency lights and light strips installed."
Evelyn took out all the emergency lights and light strips from her space. The generator kicked on, and an hour later, the inside of the cabin was as bright as day.
"It’s two o’clock, and there’s still not a single glimmer of light outside."
Everyone sat in the living room, anxiously looking out the window.
"It really is a polar night. I read about it once in some old book. A polar night occurred once in history. It’s just like nighttime, with no distinction between day and night as the sun completely disappears. The one in the history books lasted for half a year. Crops started dying without sunlight, and it had a huge impact on people, too. No sun means you become deficient in calcium and vitamin D, your skin ages, and you can get depression, rickets, and osteomalacia." After Taylor Vance finished his analysis, everyone grew even more panicked.
"What are we going to do? Is the sun really gone? Why is the polar night here when the extreme cold hasn’t even ended?"
Evelyn rubbed her temples. She didn’t have answers to those questions either.
"The only silver lining is that we built a house. If we were still on the run and a polar night suddenly hit, we’d be in real trouble." Wyatt Vaughn held Zoe tightly. Thinking about the illnesses Evelyn had mentioned, she sighed again.
"Evelyn, can artificial light replace sunlight for photosynthesis?"
"Yes." Evelyn’s eyes lit up. "As long as we take vitamin and calcium supplements, get some exercise every day, and live under the lights, it won’t be that different from living under the sun."
"I just wonder how long this polar night will last. We can endure a few months, but if it’s like the extreme cold and goes on for years, people definitely won’t be able to take it."
"I hope it ends soon. The sky went dark so suddenly... it just feels a little scary."
The entire day was spent in a state of anxiety. They barely touched their dinner; aside from Zoe, no one had an appetite.
After returning to their bedroom, Evelyn and Ronan Kendrick entered the space.
Evelyn planned to set up a workout area in the planting zone. The polar night was different from the polar day; without sun and exercise for a long time, a person’s bones would rapidly age.
"We have to exercise two to three hours a day. We have to improve our physical stamina."
There was also a gym inside the cabin. Evelyn had collected a lot of fitness equipment while scavenging for supplies before, and now it would come in handy.
"I don’t think we need to be so nervous."
Evelyn looked at Ronan Kendrick. "What do you mean?"
"Remember? When the polar day occurred, no other natural disasters happened at the same time. Now that the polar night has suddenly appeared, the extreme cold should end soon. Once the extreme cold is over, the temperature will rise. The sun hasn’t actually disappeared. It’s like night and day, except the night has been ’frozen’ in place. While we’re experiencing this darkness, the Southern Hemisphere is probably going through a polar day, just like the polar day we had all those years ago. While we experienced it, the Southern Hemisphere was in a polar night. These disasters have a pattern. They’re frequent, but there’s a balance to them. While the polar night is happening, there probably won’t be any other disasters."
"One more thing. The polar night will likely last as long as the polar day did."
Evelyn nodded. "I understand."
After the training area in the space was cleared out, Evelyn took a stroll through the medicinal herb fields. The herbs were growing well, and many were ready for harvest.
The ground in the chicken coop was covered with white eggs. Evelyn called Ronan Kendrick over, and it took them a long time to gather them all.
Evelyn was a little troubled. "There are just too many chicken and duck eggs. We need to do something with them soon. We’ve run out of baskets to put them in."
"How about we make some tea eggs and salted duck eggs? The salted duck eggs we made before were delicious."
Ronan Kendrick nodded. "They were delicious. Should we take the duck eggs out now?"
"Let’s take out two thousand for now. Making salted duck eggs uses up a lot of salt, but luckily, we’re not short on it."
After a busy night, Evelyn was covered in sweat.
’When you’re busy, you don’t have time for wild thoughts. All you want to do is work, and you feel full of energy. People can’t afford to be idle. The more idle you are, the lazier you become.’
After leaving the space, Evelyn gathered everyone else. Since there was no difference between day and night anyway, they could sleep whenever.
Evelyn now subscribed to a single principle: as long as you’re alive, you should work hard and not be idle.
"Everyone, let’s take care of these two thousand duck eggs before we sleep today."
Everyone stared at Evelyn in disbelief. "We can’t possibly eat all of them, can we?"
"I’m not asking you to eat them. I want you to turn them into salted duck eggs. I saw how worried everyone was today. You probably wouldn’t be able to sleep if you went to bed now anyway. It’s better to get some work done. Working will keep your minds off things."
"Evelyn, aren’t you worried?"
Evelyn nodded. "No, I’m not. It’s not like I can chase the polar night away, so I might as well stay calm and face it head-on."
"Alright, everyone, don’t worry too much. This polar night will end within a year, at most. Trust me."
Evelyn then took out two tons of napa cabbage. "Wyatt, Joelle, Wendy, the four of us will make kimchi. Let the men handle the duck eggs."
The cabin was incredibly bright, a stark contrast to the darkness outside.
Evelyn’s reassurances calmed everyone’s frayed nerves.
Everyone put on gloves and got to work. Zoe even came over cheerfully to help. The day’s fear and anxiety vanished in that moment.
"Evelyn, you have to give us work to do every day. It really is much better to be busy. People shouldn’t be idle; a lot of worries come from having too much free time."
Evelyn couldn’t agree more. "Alright. I’ll give you tasks every day. I still have a lot of medicinal herbs. Starting tomorrow, everyone can help me wash them."
Evelyn felt a bit like she was brainwashing a pyramid scheme cult. Seeing everyone so full of energy, she breathed a sigh of relief.
The next day, the sun still hadn’t appeared. But no one was sighing or complaining about their fate anymore.
Because the kitchen was piled high with medicinal herbs that needed washing, no one had time to wallow in self-pity.
"Time to work, time to work! We need to wash all these herbs today, then sort them and lay them out to dry. After they’re dry, you’ll all have to chop them into pieces."
"There’s so much! Is this three or four tons?"
Evelyn wagged her right index finger. "Don’t be so shocked. This is just a small portion."
"After we’re done with the herbs, what’s next?"
Evelyn smiled. "Don’t worry. I’ve got enough to keep you busy for a year."