The night was silent.
The temperature did not fall but was instead oppressively stagnant.
The air was like thick sludge, choking one’s breath within it.
Twenty kilometers from the County, a small town, in some corner.
The town was originally by the river, but as the high temperatures continued, even the river had dried up.
Beneath the dried riverbed, many Yellow Wax Stones were revealed.
These Yellow Wax Stones, after being directly scorched by the hot sun during the day, absorbed a great deal of heat and began to radiate it as night fell.
On the other side of the river, there was a small hill, not very tall, tens of meters, but it could provide shade.
By the river, there was a bridge, and at the end of the bridge, there was a house.
The house had seven stories, including two underground.
On the second underground floor, in the innermost room, dark and gloomy, a heart-wrenching sound could be heard.
"Teng Fei, Teng Fei, wake up. Please don’t sleep, you said you were the bravest and the strongest, right? Don’t sleep, don’t sleep." A man held an emaciated child, shaking the child’s body, calling out.
"Second Brother, cough, cough, give the child some more water," someone next to him said, also pained at the sight of his nephew.
Shan Feng, however, was as if deaf to this, shaking the child’s body as if obsessed.
"Sigh..." Another person, with great difficulty, stood up. He was wearing only a pair of shorts but was still drenched in sweat; every breath he took was exceedingly difficult.
"Second Brother." He stood up to stop Shan Feng from shaking the child like that.
On the child’s forehead, there was a damp towel, his body burning hot.
Shan Feng sobered up a bit and laid the child down on the ground before removing the cloth that was still on his head.
The cloth was scorching hot.
He gently touched his son’s forehead, his heart filled with endless regret.
If only he had entered the Big Camphor Tree Base with the others from the start, blaming his own stubbornness for involving his son in this.
Regret, powerless, and anger.
But by then, it was already too late.
It was night, and if they were to go to the Big Camphor Tree Base for help, the road would be fraught with danger, and the base’s door-opening time had already passed.
Most importantly, under such high temperatures, they barely had the energy to move their bodies.
Suddenly, his son Teng Fei convulsed violently, and after two seconds of convulsing, the twelve-year-old boy woke from his coma.
As Teng Fei awoke, he saw his father with his face red like charcoal, clamping his mouth shut, he used all his strength to say to his father, "Dad, am I the bravest, cough, cough."
Blood flowed from the corner of his mouth with his cough.
"Don’t talk, Teng Fei, don’t talk," said his father, shaking as he saw blood flowing from his son’s mouth.
"Am I, am I... the strongest?" After Teng Fei finished his sentence, his body went limp, collapsing softly like a clump of mud.
Shan Feng was momentarily stunned; the next second, he screamed out loud, "You are, you are, you’re the strongest."
But Teng Fei did not hear it.
Shan Feng pulled his own hair, acting like a madman.
Refusing to give in, he touched his son’s nostrils with his hand; there was no breath left.
Then he laid on the child’s chest, listening for a heartbeat, and there was none.
He muttered, "No, no, no, we, father and son, have come through the most dangerous times, how could we not get through this, wake up, wake up..."
His hands did not stop moving as he shakily used the wet towel to wipe the child’s body.
But during the cleaning process, he noticed how hot the child’s body had been.
And how quickly it cooled.
Excited, he reached out to feel his son’s breath again, but there was none.
A terrible realization struck him – bodies only cool down after death.
He didn’t want to believe it, numbly, mechanically wiping the child’s body. ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ novｅlfire.net
The others were also distraught, but they no longer had the energy to grieve. The scorching weather evaporated the moisture from their bodies; they had to continually replenish their fluids.
Food was also scarce, leaving them weak and listless, lying down as if waiting for death.
Perhaps ten minutes, maybe twenty minutes, or an hour.
"Ah!!!" After mechanically wiping, Shan Feng realized that his child showed absolutely no signs of life.
Killed by his hubris, his stubbornness!
He thought, he believed.
He had never felt such remorse, never felt such sorrow.
The apocalypse had erupted for over a year, and throughout this time, Teng Fei had been very sensible, never whining about hunger, even constantly adapting to the world, living toughly.
Fighting zombies, battling harsh environments, battling the darkness, fighting against malicious humans.
They were like rats in the sewers, struggling to survive in the basement.
Shan Feng was a proud man.
He had always been proud, from his younger days when a disagreement would lead to fistfights, to his working life, obstinate in his views, only caring about what he said, not caring what others said.
Continuous changes made his character become more radical, and he became more extreme.
His extreme character made him stubborn to an unstoppable extent.