Still hoarding supplies in the apocalypse? I'll just go on a killing spree and looting!

The off-road vehicle drove down the winding mountain road, and about half an hour later, a small town built along the road came into view.

The town is small, with dozens of buildings along both sides of the road—gas stations, restaurants, pharmacies, small hotels, etc.

These buildings were all residential houses with their doors and windows tightly closed.

The setting sun was sinking below the western ridge, bathing the entire town in a weary, dark orange hue.

The streets were full of weeds and garbage, and several abandoned cars were leaning against the roadside, their bodies covered with small vines.

Lin You parked the car next to a gas station at the entrance of town, where it was on higher ground, turned off the engine, and rolled down the window.

It was very quiet around, with only the whistling of the wind.

Lin You looked up at the sky, where the clouds under the setting sun seemed to have been scorched red by flames.

Above the clouds are clusters of bulges, irregularly shaped like domes or blunt cones.

It looks like it might rain tonight.

"We'll spend the night here." Lin You opened the car door and scanned the town with binoculars. "Traveling at night is too dangerous. The nocturnal beasts are more active than during the day, and it might rain tonight."

Mu Xue turned off the engine and looked out the car window at the clouds, which seemed excessively thick.

Will it rain tonight?

Lin You put down the binoculars and took out the drone from her backpack.

The drone quickly took off and hovered in the sunset, transmitting every corner of the town to Lin You's mobile phone screen in real time.

The camera pans across the parking lot behind the gas station, where a line of cars is parked. Near an overturned bus, there are several dried, blackened pools of blood on the ground.

I swept past the entrance of the grocery store where empty cans and broken glass were scattered.

The drone began to circle around the town along the highway, scouting the entire town.

Soon a person appeared on the phone screen.

The man carried a bulging canvas bag on his back and held a somewhat withered bouquet of flowers in his hand. He walked briskly along the alley.

They seem to be heading to a certain place.

Lin You zoomed in on the image.

The man was holding a short shovel, and his canvas bag was bulging with something he couldn't tell what it was.

The man finally stopped, seemingly muttering something in front of an open space, then bent down and placed the bouquet he had planted on a wooden board.

When Lin You got closer, she realized it was a tombstone made of a wooden board.

There is only one name on it: Tomb of Dou Yong.

And then there was nothing else.

The soil on the grave mound was very fresh, and there wasn't even a weed.

The man squatted in front of the grave and slowly placed the bouquet he had brought from the town's flower shop on the grave mound.

The flower stem was too soft to stand upright, so he dug a small hole in the soil with his hand, buried the flower roots deeper, and then pressed the soil down with his fingertips.

The setting sun cast a long shadow of his back onto the tombstone.

This is what Lin You saw when she walked over from the street corner.

She didn't say anything, but just stood on the edge of the street corner, watching the man squatting in front of the grave, busy with his work.

Unaware that two pairs of eyes were watching him from behind, the man stuck the last wildflower into the ground, wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand, and then took something else out of his canvas bag.

The half-pack of crumpled cigarettes was the cheap kind that cost a few dollars a pack before the apocalypse. The cigarette box was flattened, and there were only a few cigarettes left inside.

He took out two cigarettes, put them in his mouth, and lit them with a lighter.

He then took a deep breath, followed by a suppressed cough, and with trembling hands, he planted one of the sticks in the soil in front of the grave.

The cigarette butt flickered in the twilight, burning slowly, as if someone were taking their time smoking.

The man looked at the cigarette pack in his hand; it was empty.

He gave a wry smile, threw the cigarette pack on the ground, and plopped down in front of the tombstone.

"There's only one left. After you smoke this one, I'll have to roll leaves for you to smoke from now on."

His voice was very soft, as if he were chatting with his brother lying in the next bunk, afraid of waking others.

"Xiao Yuan's scar has almost healed. Yesterday, he looked at himself in the mirror for a long time and said it looked like a little fish. I said it looked like an earthworm. He got angry and chased me around the yard several times. This child still has so much energy, just like you used to. You used to carry him on your back and run, now he chases me. Sometimes I feel like he's brought your energy with him."

The man took another puff of his cigarette, then thought for a moment and pulled out a small bottle of Erguotou (a type of Chinese liquor) from his pocket.

He opened the bottle, took a small sip, and then poured some more in front of the tombstone.

"Brother, I know you love to drink, but I can't drink too much in this situation. I need to stay sober."

The man hesitated for a moment before saying, "However, you're in a much better position than me now. At least you're not as busy and can drink more."

He poured out most of the wine from the small bottle before resealing it and putting it in his pocket.

He muttered to himself.

"Xiao Ning's peas have grown taller, even faster than before. She says it's because something in the soil is helping her. I asked what it was, and she said she didn't know. It wasn't insects or fertilizer, but something deeper and warmer."

The man paused, then smiled wryly.

"You know what? Her eyes lit up when she spoke, just like Mom used to when she was growing vegetables. Ever since she found out she could talk to plants, she's been a completely different person. She talks more and laughs more. But something she said to me yesterday has been worrying me ever since. Never mind, you're asleep, why would I tell you and make you worry?"

As he spoke, the man took another deep drag on his cigarette.

"Okay, I knew you'd worry about Ningning. She said—'Brother, I can feel the flowers on the north side of town are scared.' I asked her why the flowers were scared, and she said she didn't know, but the roots of those flowers were trembling. Ah Jie, do you think I should believe her? If I do, I don't know what to do next?"

"If it were you, you would definitely make the right choice. But me... there's nothing I can do."

After that, there was another silence.

Amidst the swirling smoke, only the red glow of that cigarette butt flickered intermittently.

"Yesterday we passed by that noodle shop we used to frequent. The door was still open, but half of the signboard was gone, and the inside was full of weeds. Do you remember? Every time we went, you would order beef noodles with two spoonfuls of chili oil. You'd cough from the spiciness but still insisted on eating it. The owner always told you that eating so much spicy food would give you stomach problems, but you wouldn't listen. Now that I think about it..."

"Those days were fucking good. No monsters, no spiders, and no checking the windows first thing every morning. The biggest worry was how to save money before payday so I could buy you a new phone—your old phone screen was cracked for half a year and you wouldn't replace it, so I secretly paid for it myself. A few days after you got it, the day before the apocalypse, you told me the new phone took better pictures than the old one. I said, 'Of course, the price difference is so big.' Do you still use that phone? I bet it's unusable now. You used to say there was no hurdle in this world that you couldn't overcome. Now that you're over there, you probably don't need to overcome any more hurdles."

He was silent for a moment, the wind blowing through his hair, and he looked down at his fingers.

The cigarette butt had already burned away amidst the babbling fumes, leaving only the cigarette butt.

"I don't know how much longer we can hold on. We still have a decent amount of supplies, but every day when I close my eyes, I think about whether some monsters will rush in tomorrow, or whether people even worse than monsters will come knocking on our door. I don't dare to show my true feelings in front of Xiao Ning and Xiao Yuan during the day, but I only dare to tell the truth when I'm alone here at night. You said I was the most resilient of the four of us, but now that you're gone, I don't know how much longer I can hold on."

The man took a sudden drag, and the pitiful little red glow on the cigarette butt went out completely.

"I'll come again tomorrow. Next time I'll bring you some peanuts, and if we run out, I'll bring you some biscuits. If we run out of cigarettes, I'll roll some leaves in them. You used to say that as long as your brothers are still around, you won't be afraid of not having cigarettes. Your brothers are still around. So are you."

He stood up, hoisted the shovel onto his shoulder, and hung the canvas bag on the shovel handle.

"Who is this to you?" a woman's voice suddenly rang out.

The cold, icy voice sounded both abrupt and eerie in the darkness of the night.