The night fell, and Song Lan and the others sat around a roaring fire, as if time had rewound back over a century.
Rosali had heard from the elderly that after the Third War ended, when the people hiding in the shelters returned to the surface, they were greeted by a world full of wounds.
Drought, radiation, and disease—every second spent on the surface meant a tremendous burden on their lives, yet even so, the shelter residents resolutely returned to the world that had once belonged to them.
During the period of building their homes, those people, after a day of toil, would do like they are doing now: light a bonfire, bring out a box of wine and canned food, and fantasize about what their home would look like in the future.
Just like them right now.
Rosali was born in one of the poorest villages of the "outer world," during the most chaotic and disordered times.
