April 1. Sunday. Night, 22:22.

Eighteen-year-old Ding Zi vomited dinner on the floor, and the young man handed over a few napkins in due course. She wiped her mouth in a panic, not daring to point her phone at the elevator entrance, where lay a dead woman—technically half a woman, and her lower half had gone down the stairs with the elevator.

Future Dream Building, 5th floor.

The dark and empty corridor of the mall is like a tombway, and the screams and cries for help from upstairs and downstairs are heard throughout the atrium on the fifth floor at the same time. Ding Zi took a picture of his mobile phone to the other side, revealing a row of large amusement machines, which were "Tommy Bear Happy World", fishing machines, dancing machines, and racing machines...... I remembered Christmas Eve a few months ago, and I came to play crazy with Hae-mi.

Ding Zi straightened his messy hair and turned his head away in embarrassment, not wanting the boy to see his embarrassed appearance. Obviously, Haemi couldn't be here, and she didn't expect her to run from the fourth floor to the fifth floor to find her.

"I'm going downstairs!" She found the nearest escape route, and the teenager took the lead to make sure there was no danger deep up the stairs.

Ding Zi suddenly asked, "Who are you?" ”

"Don't ask me who I am!" The boy replied coldly.

She felt a little frustrated, so she lowered her tone more gently: "Then what shall I call you?" ”

As the beam of Ding Zi's mobile phone passed through the thick black hair that covered his eyes, illuminating a pair of precocious pupils, he gently spat out two words: "Little light." ”

"Huh?"

"You can just call me Xiaoguang."

"Little light? It's a good name, I like it. ”

This straightforwardness made the boy a little shy, and he pushed open the heavy security door and went to the corridor on the fourth floor of the mall.

"Where are you from?" Ding Zi didn't want to let him go, for fear that he would blend into the fleeing crowd, like a drop of water falling into the sea, and he wouldn't be able to find it in a blink of an eye.

"I don't know."

"You don't know where you're from?"

In the face of her chattering questions, the young man suddenly turned his head and shot a wolf-like gaze in the darkness: "Don't ask too much!" ”

She took two steps back in fear: "I'm annoying you? ”

"Nope."

"Can you get out with me, then?"

"No, we can't escape."

"What do you say? We can't escape? ”

He didn't say it a second time, but it made the previous sentence even heavier, like a stone smashing Ding Zi's heart. Instead of looking anxious to escape, he wandered among the counters of the mall on the fourth floor, scanning every corner with his phone, as if searching for people who might be trapped or injured. She followed the boy all the way, shouting Hae-mi's name, expecting her to wait for her on the fourth floor.

Walking to the other end of the floor, I stepped over the broken glass and the fallen counter, and saw a woman lying on the floor—face down on the floor, dressed in a lady's outfit, young in shape and hairstyle. However, there was a large piece of glass stuck in her back, and the blood stained the whole dress red, and nine times out of ten, she was dead.

Ding Zi trembled and ran over, not caring about what terrible sight he would see, boldly turned the fallen woman over and used his mobile phone to illuminate the other party's face. She closed her eyes, afraid to look at the face of her best classmate in high school, and the eyes of what might have been her only friend, if they were still open.

Suddenly, she heard someone whisper in her ear, "She's not your friend." ”

The voice of the little light. The warm air he exhaled touched her sideburns, from the base of her ear to the soles of her feet.

In an instant, Ding Zi let go of his hand and let the corpse fall to the ground, the courage just now vanished, and he didn't dare to look at the dead man again.

"Xiaoguang, how do you know it's not Haimei?" She called out his name for the first time. Although she asked, she was convinced in her heart, and she believed every word he said.

"When I saw you for the first time, I also saw the girl next to you, and I remember her face - rest assured, it is not her who is lying on the ground now!" The boy pulled her up and quickly left the poor corpse.

"Thank you!" She let out a long breath, her phone still swiping to the side.

"Are you still looking for someone?"

Xiaoguang took her around the atrium of the mall and searched the shops on the other side, but there was no one else except for the tattered ruins all over the ground. After confirming that there was no Haemi, they went to the third floor through the escape passage and saw a gray light shining below.

Ding Zi excitedly threw himself to the railing of the atrium. Hopefully, rescuers will come, and at least the power will be restored to the building! She saw a dense crowd of people gathered at the exit of the mall on the ground floor, and men digging with various tools within the light of the emergency lights. The rest of the place is still covered in black, and the lights are nothing more than islands in the middle of the sea. But she had hope of escaping from this grave.

All the survivors of the earthquake ran to the ground floor of the mall to escape for their lives, and Haemi must have been hiding in it. Ding Zi ran down the stairs, but Xiaoguang stood far behind. She shouted, "Why don't you go down with me?" ”

"What's the use of going down?" The boy slowly took a few steps closer, revealing his gloomy eyes under his long hair in the faint light.

"Do you want to die here?"

"If you really want to go down, I can go with you."

This is a bit strange to say, but she listens to it very intimately, reminiscent of the dialogues often found in Tanmei's novels.

When Xiaoguang walked to his side, they walked side by side to the second floor and heard a piercing "help" sound. Ding Zi was frightened and wanted to go to the ground floor, but Xiaoguang stopped and pushed open a security door in the escape route.

didn't dare to go down alone, let alone let Xiaoguang go alone, Ding Zi could only follow behind him. Public toilets in large shopping malls are usually connected to escape routes, and the sound of "help" comes from the door of the women's toilet. The door of the toilet was damaged and fell to the ground, crushing a struggling man, dressed in a female cleaner's uniform.

Ding Zi's heartbeat began to accelerate, and he looked down with Xiaoguang. Under the heavy door panel, there was a woman in her forties, with wide eyes and shouting, "Help me!" Thank you! Thank you! ”

The boy rushed to carry the heavy gate first, but one person was not strong enough to move.

"Come and help!"

With his scolding, Ding Zicai stretched out his hands in a panic, his face turned pale with fright, but he lowered his head and didn't dare to let him see it.

Finally, the female cleaner crawled out. The two let go at the same time, and the moment the door panel hit the ground, a deafening sound echoed in the dark escape passage.

The cleaner fell to the ground weakly, still saying "thank you". I think I was cleaning the toilet when the earthquake happened, and I was about to run away when I was crushed by the collapsed gate. Xiaoguang helped her up, but was stabbed in the eye by the light of a flashlight, and subconsciously blocked it.

There was a man walking across from him, a face in his twenties, and a dusty security uniform.

"You got her out?" The security guard had a strong mainland accent, and when he heard it, he was from the countryside.

"Yes." Xiaoguang replied calmly. Ding Zi hid behind him and hid his face in the shadows.

The security guard knew the female cleaner and said a few words to her, and it seemed that there was nothing serious, except that she had a sprained ankle. The boy didn't want to attract attention, so he lowered his head and bypassed the security guard and the female cleaner, and walked down the stairs with Ding Zi.

April 1. Sunday. Night, 10:44 p.m.

Ding Zi and Xiaoguang came to the first floor of the Future Dream Mall. Most of the place was still pitch black, with only the light of the mobile phone screen and the beam of the flashlight. Falling from several floors piled up in the ground floor atrium, forming a ruin.

There are many people surrounding the entrance of the mall, digging escape routes under the emergency lights. Ding Zi anxiously rushed up, looking for Haimei by the light. At ten o'clock in the evening, there could be no high school girls like them. However, there are so many crowded men and women who are more lively than the subway in the evening rush hour, including shop clerks preparing to leave work, unlucky customers who leave late, and perhaps passers-by who can't afford to go into the mall to hide from the rain.

Suddenly, the crowd screamed, followed by applause and cheers, and everyone rushed forward and huddled forward. It seems that the men who are struggling to dig have dug a way out, or have seen rescuers outside. Ding Zi was pushed by the flow of people, and involuntarily walked forward, but felt that his arm was grabbed by a hand.

Ding Zi screamed in fear, afraid that someone would take the opportunity to rub the oil. She subconsciously swung her fist behind her, but she didn't expect her wrist to be held tightly again. She couldn't control her body, and was dragged back for more than ten meters, plus everyone stabbed forward, so she broke away from the crowd. Under the flashing emergency lights, she saw a pair of young, cold eyes.

"Little Light!" As she shouted the boy's name, there was a loud rumble behind her, followed by an even more terrible scream, mixed with the screams of many men, and a gust of cold wind swept her back with dust, and the world was once again plunged into darkness.

I don't know what happened behind me, it can be said to be earth-shattering. Instead of letting go of her, Xiaoguang grabbed her tighter and pressed her to the ground.

This was followed by more cries for help, the sound of messy and hurried footsteps, the sound of various objects breaking and breaking. To avoid being stepped on, they touched a corner and curled up next to each other.

It's hell.

The chaos lasted for at least five minutes, until most of the people quieted down—Ding Zi thought to himself, probably forever.

Ding Zi and Xiaoguang got up again, each shining their mobile phones on each other's faces, and they didn't seem to be hurt. Countless people lay in a mess, many of them bleeding beyond recognition, others grunting in pain*, and some stiffening themselves on the ground - thankfully there was nothing left in her stomach to vomit out.

Leaning on the boy's shoulder, she tiptoed past several corpses and used her phone to illuminate the mall's exit — the foyer was completely out of sight, only the rubble piled up to the second floor. Among the piles of broken stones and twisted and exposed steel bars, the limbs of the dead were apparently men who had just been desperately digging out.

There were no rescue teams at all. The men dug to a certain depth, and the hollowed-out part could not withstand the weight of the upper part, and as a result, it collapsed. Those who rushed ahead were swallowed up by the rubble, and there was no chance of survival. Those who were about to flee with them fled in fear, the emergency lights went out, and an even greater tragedy occurred in the darkness - a stampede!

The worst tragedy! The dead on the ground were trampled to death by the people around them. Such a way of dying must be very painful physically, and it is also sad and helpless in the heart.

Finally, Ding Zi squatted down and retched a few times. She wiped the corners of her mouth and continued to boldly use her mobile phone to take pictures of the ground - she hoped that she would not shine on Haimei's face, and even if she did, she hoped that she would not be trampled on to a bloody blur.

The light on the mobile phone screen is too faint to see how many people have died, and some of the painful injured people are mostly serious injuries such as broken bones, and I don't know which one to save. They had no first-aid knowledge, so they could only pick up a casualty and move it to the side in a hurry. The man was about thirty years old, and he was able to move because he was thin. He wore a bloodstained white shirt, a pair of tattered glasses on the bridge of his nose, and a work card of a multinational company hanging from his chest, and appeared to be a white-collar worker in an office building with more than nine floors. Except for the bleeding from his left arm, which didn't appear to be visibly injured, he gasped and said, "Outside...... Outside...... The Outside World...... The Outside World...... Already...... Destroyed ......"