CHAPTER 4

The original protective suit was silver-white in color, but later, after experiencing some events, it showed patches of mottled copper-green hue.

Li Haohao sat on the changing stool and stretched her legs, easing herself into her boots and slowly twisting the three rows of buttons.

From bottom to top, from inside to outside, there were a total of three rows of copper buttons. With each button fastened, the boot shaft tightened a bit more, firmly securing her calves and the protective suit. She pushed the hidden buttons on the trouser leg layer over her ankle, making a clicking sound.

Li Haohao stood up, stiff as a stick, and leaned against the wall with her chest puffed out. A white mist escaped from her breathing mask, revealing mischievous eyes through her goggles. She glanced at me sideways and immediately transformed into a curved, pleasing smile.

Inside the garage of the outpost, there were two vehicles—one large and one small. The larger one was covered with a black canvas, thick with dust, resembling a silent monster. The smaller one had rusty patches and a peculiar shape. If one had to describe it, it looked more like a tank with a bottle of ink underneath and six lamps in front.

I opened the roof of the car and climbed into the driver's cabin first. Li Haohao, stiff as a ham, stumbled inside and sat next to me.

As usual, I warned her, "Don't touch the dashboard," as I reached out from the narrow operating area to close the roof.

"Okay." She always behaved well when going out, keeping her neck extended and looking out through the tiny window without moving.

Boom—

With a rumble, the vehicle drove out through the gate, and I parked before getting out to lock the door.

The outpost, enveloped in iron wire mesh, resembled a four-layer cream cake, its contours blurred in the rain, as if it could collapse at any moment. There were shattered stones on the road, and as I circled the outpost, I saw the charred remains of an unknown creature and two or three bugs the size of coins, curled up and dead, partially buried in the soil.

Heading south along the winding road, it was said that it would take at least ten hours of driving to reach the first remaining human settlement. The outposts along the way received their supplies from there.

To the east and north, there were blurry mountains. I knew they were far away, but in the rain, I couldn't see them clearly. I only saw faint shadows, as if looking into the distance with nearsighted eyes, everything appearing hazy.

Dirty rain flowed down along the goggles, and the headlights suddenly lit up, resembling the wide-open eyes of a cat in the dark night.

Li Haohao couldn't contain her restlessness and began to fidget. I swiftly moved a few steps back into the vehicle, and Li Haohao sat up straight, as if she had never been disobedient.

The first time she sat in my car was not like this.

Back then, she was completely naked, with icy-cold eyes. The gold bead string on her wrists and ankles emitted an unusual purple glow. Her disheveled hair fell in front of her eyes, and in my peripheral vision, I caught a glimpse of her. She stared straight at me, with dark eyes peering through the gaps in her hair, her mouth open but unable to speak, her tongue split in half, with a translucent blade hanging from one side.

The entire time, I remained vigilant, attentively sensing the physical movement of the car carrying her, driving smoothly on the road with occasional bumps.

The dashboard emitted a faint blue light, then turned blood-red.

Gradually, my vision became blurred. Instead of holding the steering wheel, I was gripping two hands—as if someone extended their upper body from the car's front and held both my hands. When I turned the steering wheel, I ended up tearing off someone's upper body, leaving the spine standing alone in front of me.

I continued droving cautiously.

It had been a long time, the hallucinations disappeared. The control lever was just a control lever, and the dashboard emitted a mechanically cold white light. Li Haohao's golden bead string sparkled, and she was covered in blood, curling up in the corner where she was sitting now, exhausted.

To the south, in the wilderness, it would take a six-hour drive to reach the first remaining human settlement at that time.

Later, the higher-ups made a decision and collectively retreated to the next location.

Driving further and further south, I could see the ruins of a huge city in the distance, like a wounded dark gray dragon lying on the silent plain.

Li Haohao clasped her hands and stiffly indicated that she wasn't the one who turned on the lights just now.

I didn't pay much attention, what difference does it make if two out of six lights are on?

The vehicle rolled over the road, steadily moving forward. The rain was weak, pulling up a grayish-white mist from the ground. Besides the road in front of me, which was rolled out like buckwheat pancakes, I couldn't see any other scenery.

I didn't know if there was any scenery to see. If there were patches of grass, they were bound to be full of danger. Even if it was bare sand, there might be fist-sized ants hidden underneath.

Boom, I turned on two more lights. There was a figure in front of the car, standing on the road, bowing its head, flickering as it was rolled over by the tracks.

I abruptly stopped the car, and Li Haohao bounced out and leaned against the window, asking, "What happened?"

The mist remained calm, and there was no one standing in front. I breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Nothing."

Li Haohao suddenly covered her ears—through the protective suit, she couldn't precisely cover her cat ears, making it look like she had a headache. "It's so noisy."

But I still couldn't hear anything. After thinking for a moment, I turned off two lights.

The front became dark, and the mist still lingered around.

"Is it still noisy?"

Li Haohao shook her head while clutching her head, but the sound seemed to attack her, making her very cautious. She still wanted to maintain her curled-up posture, but her protective suit was stiff, so she could only lift her legs.

After a long time, she finally put her legs down. "It's not noisy anymore."

"This is just how it is during the acid rain season." I said.

"The rain has been falling for a long time."

"Even before the war, there were seasons like this, raining every day."

"Oh."

I started telling her about things before the war. "Some people enjoy the sound of rain and find it very relaxing... but when there's too much of something, it's not good. For example, if it rains continuously for three months, people will become very irritable, clothes will be wet and soggy, homes will be damp, and going out will be inconvenient. But if it only rains for a day, people will feel more comfortable."

Li Haohao pondered, "If acid rain falls for too long, strange things will appear, right?"

"Yes, perhaps the sounds you hear are from those strange things."

"But I hear the sounds inside the house." Li Haohao emphasized.

"Like raindrops falling on the tiles?" I discussed with her the sounds she heard.

"Roof tiles... oh, a little, it's like dripping on the floor."

"Is there a difference?"

"It doesn't sound like rain from above, 'drip drip drop', the sound of dripping on the house," Li Haohao gestured from top to bottom. "Because our floor is different from outside, it doesn't make much noise, it's dull, like when I accidentally spilled water, and it's already flowing on the ground. But there's still some water on the table, drip, drip, falling on the floor like that."

"So, it's like an amplified version of that sound?" I asked.

"Yes." Li Haohao finally made her gestures clear.

"It's probably a leak in the circulation area on the fourth floor." I said.

"Then why can't you hear it?"

"I'm already getting old, and my hearing was also affected by the bombardment before... and you have cat ears, so you're more sensitive to these subtle sounds."

"How old are you?" Li Haohao suddenly asked.

I remained silent for a moment, calculating my age as I drove. "Probably... forty-five?"

"Oh." Li Haohao acted as if she had just found out.

She had asked before.

After a while, she started counting on her fingers. "No, I asked last time, and you said you were thirty-seven, but it hasn't been that long... I've only been here for one, two, three... a little over a month."

"I can't remember clearly. When you reach a certain age, time becomes blurry."

"Deception."

"And the outpost doesn't have a calendar. I haven't been keeping track of the days, doing the same things every day, so I really don't know how much time has passed."

"Calendar..." Li Haohao caught onto a keyword, and I was about to explain what it was when she suddenly said, "I know, you don't have special days."

"Hmm?"

"Every week, I turn into something strange. So, if I count how many times I've changed, I'll know how long I've been here."

"Mm."

"But you don't change."

"That's right."

"Okay, then I don't know how old you are either."

"Somewhere between thirty and fifty years old."

Li Haohao was about to say something when she suddenly stared out the window and quickly said, "Stop the car."

The tracks stopped rolling, and the mist split apart like water.

I leaned out and could only see the road continuing ahead.

Li Haohao anxiously said from inside the car, "The road ahead is broken."

We got out of the car and walked forward on foot, approximately for about three minutes.

The asphalt road cracked open from the center and then closed again, like a zipper being pinched, with teeth protruding, undulating and uneven, rising from the ground like crooked teeth. It was slightly shorter than me but the same height as Li Haohao. When she tried to jump over the bumps on this abandoned road, she stumbled and rolled before getting up.

Leaves and grass on both sides of the road were fluttering, and something that looked like the entrails of an animal had been crushed and dragged, spreading deep into the mist.

A terrifying massive creature was lurking here. If I wanted to pass through, I would have to risk going around the grass on the sides of the road, which was even more frightening than the mess in front of us.

"There's no way to go further south." I said.

Li Haohao was very frustrated. "Okay."

"There's no way."

I ran back, and Li Haohao's legs, which were stiff from the boots, followed behind like stilts. I climbed back into the car, and a finger was inserted into the keyhole of the car key.

I focused for a moment and saw our outpost's ordinary black key inserted into the keyhole.

"It's dangerous outside." I said, turning the key and not daring to turn around. I could only stare at the window as I slowly reversed the car.

"So is this why you don't go out when it rains?" Li Haohao asked.

"Most of the time, yes."

"Do you go out sometimes when it rains?"

"Yes, sometimes I collect some things."

"Did you not want to collect what we just saw?"

"The entrails haven't decomposed yet, indicating that the culprit is nearby."

"Oh, then let's wait for a while and come back when the weather clears up." Li Haohao said.

I nodded. "Yes, we'll come back when the fog clears. Maybe we can collect some samples of the exotic creatures."

"What would you do if we encountered it just now?" Li Haohao stretched her legs and didn't sound afraid.

"We would have run it over." I tried to sound calm and reasonable.

"But we weren't in a car just now."

"In that case, there would have been no way." I felt like we had been far away from there for a while as I slowly adjusted the car in reverse.

"Really?"

Suddenly, Li Haohao leaned forward and touched the hard object fastened to my waist. Ignoring the fact that I was adjusting the control lever, her entire upper body pressed against me.

"You don't even take off your gun when you sleep." she said.

"So you not only entered my room but also lifted my blanket to see if I was dressed?" I replied.

Li Haohao immediately recoiled and continued to act tough. "I didn't enter your room, it was you who kicked off the blanket."

"My door opens inward, and my bed is tucked in the blind spot behind the door. If you quietly push the door open, you can't see my bed." I followed her logic and said. Li Haohao's face mask emitted hot breath, making her look like a steam locomotive.

"So you would use your gun to kill that monster, right?"

"I would."

"Would you kill me too?" Her voice suddenly became low.

"And not only did you lift the blanket to see my clothes, but you also lifted my clothes and saw the gun inside," I continued to hold her accountable. 

She huffed and puffed for a while before saying, "I've seen guns before. I can tell by the holster."

"So you really did lift my blanket."

Li Haohao squirmed around in her seat, making the cramped space even narrower. "I didn't! It really was you kicking the blanket!"

That at least wasn't a lie.

On a certain day in the past, she openly walked into my room for the first time.

As I pretended to sleep, I turned over, revealing my gun.

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