CHAPTER 16

Li Haohao's cavities were somewhat horrifying, forming two warring kingdoms within her mouth. Her twenty-eight teeth were neatly arranged, tightly packed together. In the crevices I hadn't cleaned thoroughly, there were residents barely clinging to life, their teeth intertwining, grinding, and chewing. Pieces of curry-flavored meat fell from the sky, getting crushed, and the corpses decomposed in saliva.

In the evening, I fetched a magnifying glass and examined my fingertip, observing the ridges and grooves as if it were a record. In my era, records weren't common, but I had a general understanding of their structure.

The thought of records surprised me. They appeared in something called a movie, a television drama. In the past, there were screens, computers, and mobile phones that projected stories with a bright and shimmering light.

Of course, there were also movies after the war, but their prices skyrocketed because most signal towers were destroyed. People could only watch the things stored from before, making them precious.

I remembered that our outpost would gather once a year to watch a movie in the underground conference room. We would solemnly wait for the music to start playing in front of the projection screen. The commander would raise his cup and say, "It's the Lunar New Year, my friends. Watch it and go to bed early. We'll have something good to eat tomorrow at noon. Apart from me, everyone is from the northern region, so let's make dumplings together."

I recalled many details from the past, even though it hadn't been that long ago, but it felt distant, like it belonged to the previous century.

Since the moment the shells rained down on the field and I ended up in the field hospital, I seemed to easily forget things. But because Li Haohao's cavities were causing the pollution index to rise, I miraculously remembered many things.

For instance, in the earlier times when we watched movies, there were many things to eat. Beef jerky, dried pork, dried shredded squid, spicy strips, crispy shark fins, popcorn, crispy rice noodles, cola, Sprite, lychee-flavored sparkling water. They gathered hot and steaming in a large cinema, sitting in rows, watching other people's stories.

I drifted off for a while before snapping back to reality and placing the magnifying glass back in the drawer.

But I forgot to lock the drawer, and when I woke up, Li Haohao was grimacing at herself in the mirror, using the magnifying glass to examine her own teeth.

She had boldly entered my room without any disguise this time. I stood beside her and observed for a while. Li Haohao turned her head, startled, and placed the magnifying glass next to the sink: "I didn't enter your room."

"Okay." I picked it up the magnifying glass, forming a duck beak with my right hand and opened it wide. Li Haohao hesitated and opened her mouth for me. "I just brushed my teeth, and I think they're pretty clean."

Her fluency in speech indicated that.

But this time, she rinsed right into the recycling machine, hoping it wouldn't be affected.

I lifted her chin to help me see inside. The magnifying glass revealed scattered, unclothed figures without reproductive organs kneeling on her incisors. The teeth had numerous grooves, within which some people were hidden, as if they had experienced a catastrophic disaster. The magnifying glass magnified the fear, and I felt them trembling. I looked up and saw a pair of enormous eyes gazing at me—

I looked through her teeth and could see people hidden in the gaps. They had dug caves within her teeth, temporarily ceasing their warfare after being brushed over and over. When they noticed my gaze, they didn't use anything to attack me.

"Does it still hurt?"

I slightly closed my eyes.

"It hurts. They hollowed out my teeth, and I can't clean them completely. I can only keep rinsing... But you mentioned earlier that we don't have enough water. If it doesn't rain again, we can only use it for half a month."

"We had rain recently, so we can use it for another half month."

"It's okay. Summer is coming soon, and there will be plenty of rain. We can save enough for a year."

Li Haohao felt relieved after listening to me. She turned her head and gargled, grumbling. I couldn't imagine the scenes of flooding, so I went to put on protective clothing.

Li Haohao called out incomprehensibly, indicating that I should bring her along.

When I went outside, I took her with me for half of the time and left her behind for the other half. Li Haohao rarely protested, so I didn't pay much attention. I squatted down to put on my shoes, and she rushed over, wanting to put on protective clothing as well.

"You stay here." I said.

"No."

She refused.

I sat on a chair with my legs spread out, and we fell into silence.

Li Haohao hesitated and finished putting on her own protective clothing. Seeing that I remained still, she took a few steps back, leaning her body, attempting to catch a glimpse of my expression through my visor.

I wanted to be alone for a while. When I saw Li Haohao, I couldn't help but think of her teeth. I couldn't think about it, the imagination was chilling. Her teeth had limited harm to me, but imagination left room for fear. Fear was a well-behaved student who diligently filled in all the blanks.

But I couldn't express this to Li Haohao, she didn't understand the concept of boundaries and discretion.

Speaking it out loud would seem like I was disgusted with her. I wanted to avoid misunderstandings with her.

Suddenly, Li Haohao crouched down and moved to my feet, struggling to fasten the second and third buttons of my boots.

Her eagerness to go outside was evident. I thought I would have to go out alone next time, perhaps when she had grown some strange things that prevented her from wearing protective clothing.

I went out this time because I had promised her to drive south and smooth out the wrinkles on that road.

Lifting the huge rain cover in the garage, the engineering vehicle appeared before me. It had teeth and claws, with a sturdy digging bucket. Li Haohao suddenly didn't want to sit in the driver's cabin and jumped into the shovel by herself.

This was her first time seeing the complete appearance of this vehicle. It was previously used for important tasks in maintaining the outpost. It had excellent defensive capabilities and was occasionally used for emergencies, such as spraying blue flames from the gun barrel in times of war.

I had a good idea. For example, I could directly drive there and solve everything in one go. However, once I sat in the driver's cabin, I realized that there wasn't enough fuel to sustain me driving this big guy all the way.

Next, I changed to a regular car and took out two iron shovels and a pickaxe, placing them in the back of the car.

Li Haohao sat in the bucket with all four legs in the air. When she saw me changing cars, she reluctantly climbed out.

I explained that it was because we didn't have enough fuel and patted the small car, indicating to Li Haohao not to be too disappointed.

Li Haohao didn't lie on the ground like a stubborn child, demanding a bigger car. She lovingly caressed the tracks of the big car, and together we covered it.

Through my visor, I looked into Li Haohao's eyes, but she didn't show a trace of loneliness.

I didn't know Li Haohao particularly well. We lived in a state of confusion, with only some basic understanding of each other. Every day, my speculations were overturned—I tried not to speculate as much as possible.

When we arrived at the location, we couldn't see any cracks or wrinkles on the road. It was as if someone had ironed the road flat. From the newer cement marks, it was evident that someone had recently repaired it.

Li Haohao stared at the road, and I continued driving south. She asked, "Did the people from the base come to fix it?"

"Yes."

She fell silent and didn't speak anymore.

The weather gradually grew hotter. Inside the protective suit, I could feel myself sweating. The breathing valve felt like a cage, clamping around my mouth and nose. Approaching noon, I parked the car by the roadside and pulled out fuel from the trunk to fill the tank. Li Haohao said she needed to go to the restroom. According to the standard procedure, this was not allowed. She was supposed to use a specially designed bag inside the car.

But for some reason, perhaps because we were outside the outpost or perhaps because I had been in contact with Li Haohao for some time, my definition of "normal" was like a curve, constantly fluctuating with the passage of time. Now, the standard was very low, or maybe it was because after seeing her mouth, going to the restroom seemed ordinary.

I waved my hand, and she happily ran to the side to take off her shoes.

I dug out a water bottle from the car, but then I remembered that I was wearing a protective suit and put it aside.

There were a pair of boots standing by the roadside, and a protective suit was folded in front of them. Li Haohao's fluffy hair floated among the weeds, like a bundle among the grass, floating in the warm sunlight.

After a while, she emerged, barefoot on the road. The golden bead string on her ankle sparkled.

She smoothed her messy hair and smiled at me subtly.

I leaned forward to reach the water bottle. "Gargle and wash your hands while you're at it."

"Do I really need to do that out here?" Her speech was slightly slurred, and when she opened her mouth, I saw her upper and lower teeth fighting. I turned my gaze away and listened to her gargling and washing her hands by the roadside. She handed back the remaining half of the bottle.

The weather was hot, and sweat trickled down my back. The car felt like a hot and stuffy container, and the protective suit felt like some kind of plastic packaging. I was a spoiled piece of salted meat, deteriorating in the hot wind. After resisting for a while, I finally crawled back inside.

After waiting for a while and not seeing Li Haohao, I stuck my head out again. She was leaning against the car, with her arm resting on the track, lying with her eyes squinted in the shadow of the vehicle. The protective suit formed the shape of a person, and she lay down exactly as it was, with her shoes placed by her feet, wiggling her toes aimlessly as if they had just grown out.

I sat beside her, feeling a bit cooler in the shade.

The rain from some time ago might have been a spring rain... Rainwater passes... Ah, it's been a long time since I counted the solar terms.

The four seasons after the war are also blurred, but I know this is spring.

Li Haohao's delicate arms shone in the wind. She wore tattered T-shirt and shorts, and her hands and feet glittered gold. I was wearing a sweater inside, and looking at her, I felt a bit cold.

Li Haohao comfortably squinted her eyes and after a while, she started talking to me. "When I woke up, I felt toothache. My upper and lower teeth were fighting. My teeth are very good."

She spoke incoherently, but I understood what she meant. She wanted to say that it wasn't because she didn't brush her teeth properly that she had such a mouthful of living creatures.

I didn't dwell on it. "Does it hurt now?"

"It stops hurting after I brush my teeth. Honestly, as long as they're inside, I don't feel pain. But when they fight each other, my tongue and the base of my teeth hurt."

"Gums," I explained, "the base of your teeth."

"When they fight, you should rinse your mouth."

"Brushing teeth removes a lot of things, but actually... um... I don't want to eat people anymore."

I looked at her as she used her fingers to dig into her mouth, trying to dig out the people inside her teeth, but it was futile. Finally, she said, "I don't know what war is. When you talk about before and after the war, I don't know what it means..."

"Hmm."

"Some people mention things before and after the war. I didn't know at first, but now I know, it's about brushing teeth."

"Mm-hmm."

"Do you fight too? Who do you fight with?"

"I fight with other people."

"Oh," Li Haohao tugged at my protective suit, "You're sweating. Take it off."

"We can't take off the protective suits in the field."

Although I said that, Li Haohao intentionally violated my principle and unbuttoned it, pressing down on my legs.

"The smell of the wind," she sniffed and made me put my shoes aside, "Feel the breeze. You're working so hard in the heat."

I was wearing a black sweater, enveloping my body. There were scratches on the arms below the sleeves, those were my old wounds. When I killed Lin Buxiu, she grabbed my arm and her nails dug deep, leaving three deep grooves. I used the sweater to cover my scars.

Li Haohao flaunted her scars unreservedly, as if they were naturally there.

I didn't think about anything. If I didn't think about all the "abnormalities" around me, everything would seem normal.

It felt like an afternoon before the war. I was driving, taking my relative's child for a camping trip in the wilderness.

I crossed my legs, and the wind embraced me like a soft rag doll. The scent of grass and earth filled my nostrils.

"I'm sleepy." Li Haohao pressed against my legs, holding onto my arm tightly as she lay down.

"Then take a nap for a while."

She fell asleep quietly, and I couldn't suppress the random thoughts in my mind.

I had to speak about things that I could think of, things I could tell myself.

"My name is He Ran. I enlisted before completing university and went to the front lines. I didn't know who I was fighting against, I just followed orders, trained constantly, fired guns, cannons. People kept dying, getting injured, and being sent to hospitals."

"After I got injured, I was sent to a field hospital, and then... the people in the hospital... and then someone called me to participate in an exam. The exam was answering many questions on paper and meeting some people to answer more questions. In the end, some people were taken away. We hadn't been on the vehicle for long when shells rained down, and the field hospital was no more."

"The war seems to continue... but I don't know when it started because some people called historians define these things. Before the war, it referred to pollution happening on a very small scale. We were born, ate, grew up, studied, worked... everything was in order. After the war, it refers to the present. It's hard to find books to read, can't cultivate crops, no internet access, making friends is difficult... it's easier to die now, and everything is different from before."

"In the outpost, we can." Li Haohao suddenly opened her eyes.

I looked at her, and she closed her eyes again. "I didn't say anything."

"Is the Daomiao base still there?"

The ruins of the Daomiao base were two hours away by car.

Li Haohao tugged at my hand. "He Ran."

"Hmm?"

"I like the post-war period."

I pondered her words. "Do you like having cereal porridge with me at the outpost?"

"I don't like cereal porridge."

She had experienced the so-called "pre-war" period, I thought, probably because there was order within the outpost.

But its disappearance was so abrupt.

I remembered one day when our comms officer received a distress call from the Daomiao base. We hadn't received real-time information for a long time, relying solely on the efforts of our supply officer.

The captain urgently summoned us for a meeting, and in the end, he decided to respond to the call for help, even if we had only a small force.

Not all nine of us could go, so we drew lots, and it was me, Lin Buxiu, and Zhao Xinyan who stayed behind.

They hadn't been gone for long when a thick fog rolled in, enveloping the entire outpost.

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