Chapter 2: Inner City, Outer City, Winter City

"Ahhh!!"

A sharp, cicada-like shriek from a young man pierced through the hundred-square-meter apartment.

Yi Nanqing followed the sound and pushed open the door to her son's private sanctuary. Expecting to see a dramatic showdown between her foolish son and some insect or rodent, she was instead met with the sight of Xu Mingsong huddled against the bed frame on the floor, gasping for air.

"Mom?"

The boy visibly relaxed, but for some reason, he suddenly jolted, glancing toward the window with a nervous, guarded expression.

Yi Nanqing hesitated for a moment.

"Is there a cockroach?"

"No!"

"Then a mouse?"

"Not that either."

Xu Mingsong slapped his forehead hard and defended himself: "Mom, I told you last week, the weak version of me is dead."

"Yes, the weak you is dead, and the even weaker you has arrived on the battlefield. Be a good boy and tell me, who are you planning to surrender your room to this time? A cockroach? A spider? Or one of those moths fluttering all over the place?"

"Don't talk nonsense! Isn't it just a matter of grabbing a slipper and giving it a good swat?"

"But I was the one who had to kill the cockroach for you the day before yesterday." Yi Nanqing sighed as she walked into the room. "You know, my greatest hope in this life is for my son to be able to face ten million cockroaches without changing his expression. That would be a true man."

"This level of magnitude has nothing to do with whether I'm afraid of cockroaches or not—" Xu Mingsong clenched his fists, unable to hold back. "Ten million cockroaches? Any normal person would know to run, for heaven's sake... Wait! Mom, don't go near the window!"

Seeing his mother heading toward the window, Xu Mingsong scrambled up from the floor, shouting "Wait!" and lunging toward her in two or three quick strides.

But nothing happened.

"Go, go, go." Yi Nanqing pushed him away with disdain. Xu Mingsong leaned his head toward the window glass and took a look; outside, there was only the gray curtain of rain, and the city lights in the rainy night looked as hazy as another world.

Taking advantage of Xu Mingsong’s daze, Yi Nanqing pulled the curtains shut, sealing them tight.

"Why didn't you close the window properly in such heavy rain? And wait, why is your room such a mess? Everything is knocked over."

The composure of an artist from the older generation left Xu Mingsong struggling for words, and what he wanted to say was swallowed back down.

"Mom, I'm fine here, I just slipped by accident..." Xu Mingsong said vaguely, trying to brush it off. "You go out first, I'll tidy up."

*I can't let it go on like this,* he thought to himself.

Xu Mingsong pushed Yi Nanqing out of his room.

"You child, hey, what are you doing?"

"Don't ask so many questions, Mom, just go for now."

"Is there something you can't tell your mom—ah, wait? Mingsong, are you..."

His mother seemed to have misunderstood something.

Xu Mingsong’s mouth twitched, but he had no energy to explain. He slammed the door shut, slid down against it, and sat on the floor.

"Did it really leave?"

The monster looked like it had left, but who knew if it would make a sudden return?

It was flying around in a torrential downpour—was it just to stick to the outside of the glass and stare at him like a pervert?

Was he really handsome enough to be that captivating?

He couldn't figure it out, but making his mom leave was definitely the right move. If it really came down to a choice, it was better for the monster to keep coming after him. At least he was young and had a sturdy build.

The curtains had been drawn tight by Ms. Yi. Xu Mingsong felt uneasy for a long while, feeling that the curtain was like Schrödinger's abused cat—you wouldn't know the answer until you opened it... So, after careful consideration, he decided to keep it shut.

Quiet, he was thinking!

Xu Mingsong pulled up a chair and sat at his desk, only realizing then that his legs were trembling and felt like jelly. He tried his best to calm down, but every now and then he couldn't help but look back, his gaze fixed on the tightly drawn curtains.

By the time night deepened, he heard no more tapping on the glass. He suddenly felt the whole world go quiet, and then he started worrying about his family again. Like a reflex, he ran to the living room to check on his father and Ms. Yi, only to catch them whispering to each other about something. As soon as he approached, they both immediately stopped.

Seeing that his parents were unharmed, the weight on Xu Mingsong’s heart eased a little.

After his nerves had been stretched thin for so long, it was inevitable that he would eventually relax. Added to the "staying up late" debuff, his attention began to slip bit by bit.

It was deep in the night, and the sound of the rain was hypnotic, fading from heavy to light, and finally, into silence.

Streetlights cast their glow through the moist air, illuminating the Central Spire that soared into the clouds amidst the wind and rain, alongside the neighboring skyscrapers. In the storm, they looked like two giants silently watching over Winter City.

One could hear the violent noise of water splashing or tires rolling, but with his doors and windows tightly shut and living on a high floor, it didn't disturb Xu Mingsong as he slept face-down on his desk.

The dark clouds slowly dispersed, and a crescent moon emitting a faint, blood-red light emerged from behind the clouds, like some living, gargantuan entity, slowly traversing a path that had remained unchanged for thousands of years.

"Meow~!"

Faintly, a cat's cry could be heard.

Whose greedy little cat was that?

Awakened by the cat’s cry heard in his daze, Xu Mingsong woke up from his desk. There was nothing cat-related in sight.

He froze for a long time before realizing that they didn't keep a cat at home, and the windows and doors had been locked tight last night—where would a cat's cry come from? It must have been a dream!

Not to mention, sleeping face-down all night had left him with an aching back.

"My poor back..."

His hand was numb, too!

Sleeping face-down was comfortable at the time, but waking up to find his arm completely numb made him want to kill himself.

With some strange thoughts flashing through his mind, Xu Mingsong looked up at the thick, opaque curtains and yawned as he pulled them open.

The morning sun suddenly stung his eyes, and only then did Xu Mingsong realize—he had been incredibly brave.

But perhaps that monster was just a perverted creep who had the gall but not the guts.

Xu Mingsong opened the window, and what appeared in his field of vision was the scenery he had been most familiar with for the past seventeen years.

Thanks to the elder Xu's professional success, the residential complex where Xu Mingsong lived was quite decent. Winding paths shaded by green trees snaked between the residential buildings, and in front lay a large park beloved by the elderly. Emerald lawns met the azure sky, and clusters of buildings of various sizes were arranged in an orderly fashion. The glass buildings bathed in the late spring morning glow, shimmering brightly.

Fresh air rushed in, filled with the scent of soil and vegetation—that unique smell after rain that made one feel exceptionally comfortable and relaxed.

But in the distance.

The outer wall that blocked the view was over thirty meters high, surrounded by old buildings or single-story houses, appearing particularly dilapidated and desolate, almost as if viewed through a gray filter. Looking down from the inner city, where the architectural style was generally towering as if trying to reach the clouds, it looked like a humble servant prostrate at the feet of a giant.

Further out lay the wasteland blocked by the outer wall—a place that symbolized forbidden zones and death. Winter City and the nearby satellite towns were sporadically scattered across the wasteland, lighting sparks of human civilization in the area.

As a new generation born after "The Cataclysm," Xu Mingsong had never left Winter City, or even the inner city, and knew nothing about it. He had heard people talk over tea that there were humans living on the wasteland, but the idle gossip circulating in high school conversations always lacked authenticity. For example, a group of high schoolers couldn't imagine how people on the wasteland survived without supplies from human towns, as they couldn't conceive of things they hadn't seen.

Perhaps it was similar to the outer city near the outer wall?

The bright, jewel-like beauty nearby, the dilapidated, gray gloom of the old rain-boots-like structures in the distance, and the mist beyond the wall that could neither be reached nor explored—this was Winter City as reflected in Xu Mingsong's eyes.