The old man just died.

I don't know how long it took for Dust to return from his sluggish state.

Well, well, he thought so.

Those who survive do not necessarily survive.

He slowly got up from the sofa, and touched the old man's hand, which was still warm, after all, he hadn't been dead for long.

The old man, the dead, the fresh blood will soon cool, and the ubiquitous microbes will carry out their eternal mission.

Dust rummaged through the old man's brown jacket and found a photo in the bag on the inside.

The photo is somewhat yellowed, but there are no creases, and it is clear that this photo is important to the old man.

In the photo, it can be seen that the old man himself is taking a group photo with a young man.

The young man seemed to be in high spirits and close to the old man, who was supposed to be the old man's child.

In addition to the photos, there is also a cowhide notebook.

He flipped through it and found that it was a work notebook, with a sloppy font that looked like ...... Written by doctors.

But at a certain frequency, there will always be several pages of different fonts, and those fonts look neat and well-written:

14 February 2001

Go to my son's kindergarten singing performance.

Shave your beard cleanly and dress neatly.

……

After a cursory flip, I found that the old man was a doctor and his child was adopted. The love of his life was dedicated to his children.

Last page:

August 16, 2022

Father, my health has become worse and worse over the years, and I am a doctor, but I have not been able to take care of my body.

Kid, I'm afraid it's too late, so I'm writing this thing down in advance.

You know, I told you when you were in junior high school that you weren't born to me.

I also remember when you were a kid you asked me the most about why everyone else had a mother.

I've also thought about finding a partner for you, but I can't, I can't go against my heart, my heart can't fit anyone else, I can't go against myself.

You might think I'm being selfish when you say that.

So I tried to express my love for you, and I poured all my love into you.

But after all, your childhood still lacked the role of a mother, which I can't make up for, I'm sorry.

The thing that worries me the most is that you don't have friends, you're too withdrawn, but I know my son is a gentle person, and you're just afraid of hurting others, aren't you?

You're doing a great job and you're moving up the ranks, but you're still keeping your heart closed.

I want to say to you, son, it's hard for people to understand each other because everyone is different, but you have to try to understand.

People will grow up in constant proximity and distance, and eventually find the most suitable distance between people, a distance where no one will be hurt.

I think you understand that, so go ahead and take that step.

Father who has always been there

Well, that's all.

May your future be bright.

Jiang Luochen slowly closed the notebook and sat back on the sofa.

The old man's son was not seen in this basement.

He could more or less think of something.

……

Travel

The lines of the horizon twisted, stirring the white world.

The snow is falling, and the emotionless snow is also blank in the depths.

How long have you been gone? I can't remember, it's been a long time.

This kind of thinking made Jiang Luochen's originally numb consciousness "active" again.

He felt the chill again, and his figure was buried in the song of wind and snow, staggering forward.

He looked around, and the snow didn't look like it had been hit badly, perhaps buried by the snow.

Dead dead wood curled up in a sickly posture, crisscrossed and staggered on white.

Others seemed to be burning, about to be burned out, and were dragged upwards.

Not far from his line of sight, Dust saw a black dot.

When you look closely, it looks like a small wooden house, standing alone in the middle of the snow and dead wood, but it looks very upright.

Dust approached slowly, and he walked a little cautiously.

The inside of the wooden house was surprisingly dark, and two figures could be faintly seen through the window.

He slid inside, and then turned into a collapsed state.

This time he didn't look at himself anymore, he decided to just look at it.

In the hut were two little girls, their hair disheveled and disheveled, and their clothes were tattered, apparently uncared for for a long time.

The taller one of the girls had a very bad complexion, her blood was faded, and her eyes were distracted, like machines.

Maybe it's to fulfill my responsibilities as an older sister. She kept holding the other girl in her arms.

The younger girl, who looked like she was only 6 years old, had natural curly hair, but she had clearly suffered a level that she shouldn't have endured at this grade.

Behind the two of them, there was a dark shadow. Jiang Luochen walked past them and saw a shocking corpse.

It has long been unrecognizable and mutilated.

That's the mother of the two girls. In the big hit. All three of them survived. But even so, it is a miracle that they have survived to this day.

Without sunlight, everything is dying. There was no food. There is no hope......

After the death of life, its body and will will feed another life, and the latter will carry the will of the former—

Stay alive.

My sister is very smart, she knows, there is nothing to be done. Understand that you should exchange your mother's death for their survival.

But after all, food is not unable to resist death, dust brings calamity, and without sunlight, illness is inevitable.

Many times they had diarrhea because of the problem of raw meat and polluted snow water, and my sister endured a lot, she was strong, numbly strong, but unfortunately the strength of people could not cope with suffering.

But now it is the end, and they are coming to the end, to a world free of suffering.

Souls roaring in the dark, longing for salvation.

The death of the old man had cast an indelible shadow on him, and he was once again confused, and he thought that if he hadn't been in front of the old man, the old man might not have died.

He understood that this was unnecessary self-blame, that old man had lost hope of life, and he would still die without Jiang Luochen.

Looking at the two girls in front of him, he wanted to redeem them and give them hope to live.

At least to give yourself a reason to escape.

Escape the fact that you are the only one who survives.

Dust began to observe himself.

The two girls were amazed, he appeared in front of them spotlessly, everything about him was so extraordinary.

Like a god.

He watched them silently. His eyes were full of sorrow.

"Do you want to live?" Jiang Luochen said.

Sister: "Yes." ”

Her voice was weak, like a filament.

Even though they were weak, they still leaned towards Jiang Luochen. The younger sister in her arms also stared at the stranger with wide eyes.

"It's really hard for you to survive......" Looking at the girl in front of him who was called his sister, Jiang Luochen's eyes turned red. His voice choked and touched his sister's head.

Since then, Jiang Luochen has relied on his quantum body to find many remaining materials and medicines in the urban area.

This is an advantage that the average person does not have, because he does not need to take into account any bad weather conditions, and he can walk through the ruins to find those things that are buried.

Their mother, not far from the wooden house. In a land where the sun often shines, I fell asleep peacefully.

The two of them gradually got better under Jiang Luochen's care.

But my sister still suffers from severe asthma.

Because the heavy dust can affect the health of the respiratory tract, Jiang Luochen spent a week renovating the wooden house with the dead wood around it to fill in the gaps.

Every day, all the dishes need to be upside down, otherwise unnecessary water will be wasted every morning. Also, the cutlery will be covered with a thick layer of dust.

Jiang Luochen thought about finding an underground shelter, finding some survivors, and taking them somewhere. There is too much pollution in the city. Humans can't stay there for a quarter of an hour before they are infected by radiation and die. So much so that the three of them could only live in a wooden hut in the middle of the snow in the suburbs.

Moreover, he prefers that there are doctors among the survivors, and it is best to cure his sister's illness.

He thought of the old man again, the father who had nothing but had the whole world......

In such a world, they did not question Jiang Luochen's supernatural powers, they just wanted to have such a support.

Dust also took them as an expectation.

Man cannot live without what he depends on. Everyone has something in their heart that they want.

……

"Brother, what are you going to eat tonight?" My sister asked seriously with big eyes.

They have been together for a long time. In their hearts, they have recognized the boy as their only relative.

"Hmm...... There was only one last can left, and the packaging was not broken, which was really lucky. There are very few things that can be found now. I'll look for it again tomorrow. Surely you won't go hungry. Jiang Luochen touched his sister's head and said.

"Hmm!" The light of a candle reflected in my sister's eyes.

When Jiang Luochen looked at her, he would think of his sister Jiang Luoxi, like, really too similar.

In an instant, he was in a trance......

My sister was busy packing up.

"Be careful next time you go out." She said quietly, her voice still quiet. The work in hand still does not stop.

Jiang Luochen taught them a lot, taught them literacy, and taught them how to get clean food and water in this dirty world.

What made Jiang Luochen happiest was that he found a set of tape drives in the city, and the original owner left many tapes, all of which were of very good quality metal tapes.

Music sublimates the soul.

He introduced them to music and made them feel it. Let them touch the music.

They listen to jazz, they listen to symphonies, they listen to city pop, they listen to the blues...... Music is solace in these last days. It is the purification of the soul.

In countless sunsets, they silently watched the glimmer of hope that broke through the dust in the distance.

Whenever the battery runs out and the tape stops, they feel sad and helpless. As if in reality without it, the world is most powerless.

Therefore, when Dust goes out, he always looks forward to finding a whole box of batteries in a house.

Today is the day when Jiang Luochen went out to look for supplies.

"Xia, then I'm leaving, you have to take care of Yan, the rest of the family can still be eaten by you for 5 days, I will rush back as soon as possible."

As usual, Jiang Luochen walked into the distance.

On the third night of his departure, the Grim Reaper appeared at the door of the hut with its sickle.

The moonlight reflects the snow in a flawless white.

In the wooden house, the two sisters are lying on the bed listening to music.

The bed was small and basic though. But cozy.

The candlelight flickered faintly, and it was very quiet.

……

The man hadn't eaten for a long time.

When he saw the wooden house with a flickering fire in the distance, he knew he had come to the right place.

He crawled up to the hut and knocked on the door with his dirty hands.

Hearing the movement, my sister subconsciously shouted, "Brother, are you back so soon?" ”

The door opened, and the familiar face in my sister's imagination did not appear, and in its place was a strange and dirty face.

"You...... Who are you? She asked, she had never expected to deal with such a situation.

But he quickly calmed down, and slowly approached the window in the corner, where there was also an axe under the plank, which Jiang Luochen hid there in case of an accident.

"I haven't eaten in a long time. Can you give me something to eat......" the man said weakly.

"Want to eat? The cupboard next to there was all food, but it couldn't hurt us. She looked at the man, her voice choked up.

She understood that she could not compete with a grown man, even though he was already weak.

"Okay." The man bypassed her and pounced on the remnants of food on the table.

But when he finished eating, his eyes were not filled with food. It's my sister sitting on the bed in front of me.

She was still staring at the man with wide eyes.

"What are you going to do?" My sister noticed that something was wrong with the man, "Hurry up and leave after eating." I'll give you all our food, so let's go. Her tone gradually turned to pleading as the man's gaze changed.

One of her hands quietly lifted the plank and grabbed at the axe.

While the middle-aged man was looking at the sister in her arms, she picked up her axe and threw it at the middle-aged man's head.

The man was stunned and didn't react immediately, but because of the girl's fear, he threw it on the middle-aged man's right shoulder, and blood sprayed wildly.

"Ahh

But he actually endured the pain of death and pulled out the axe!

In just a moment, he was in front of the girl. In his left hand, he still holds a sharp axe dripping with blood

She looked up at the foul-smelling man, who was still gasping for air. Bursts of bad breath are emitted.

In the great shadow of the man, the girl is as small as an ant.

"Don't move, it'll be fine soon." The man said quietly.

Blood ran down Kasumi's neck, and she felt hopeless.

She prayed in her heart. Pray that her brother will appear in front of her.

But the miracle didn't happen.

……

A few days later

Jiang Luochen returned with a full load, and the battery in the satchel in his waist reflected the faint sunlight.

He was sure they would be happy

As we approached the hut, the rare sunlight pierced through the thick clouds. Sprinkled under the feet of dust. The wooden house in the distance was still there, hiding in the shadows.

Perhaps, the sunlight will soon arrive at the hut and illuminate the darkness inside.

He thought.