Throwing the three files on the floor, Bai Ruoyao leaves the company with a smile on his face and his hands in his pockets.
The moment he stepped out of the office, however, the fire burst into flames.
Everything in the office was burnt to ashes and the whole building burned down. The players nearby immediately used their powers to put out the fire, and a baby-faced young man left the building without shame, as if he had never had anything to do with the fire.
A few more players noticed the fire and rushed to put it out.
In the crowd, only this tall, thin figure walked against the grain, away from the burning building.
The fire extinguished, Bai Ruoyao turned his head towards the darkened building and the moon that loomed from behind it.
He turned around again and, without turning around, waved his hand.
In the darkness of the night, the clouds part with the wind, and a bright moon shines high in the sky. Beneath the sky, in this vast expanse of land, there are those who, with their weary bodies, rush to a place they once called home, to recapture the ordinary, simple days before the Earth came online; there are those who have not yet awakened from the joy of the end of their nightmare, who lean on the streets and stare at the moon.
Just like four months ago, when The black tower announced its return to Earth, standing at the top of Guangzhou Tower, the dark-haired female returnee saw the moonlight she had not seen for a long time. She subconsciously shielded her eyes, but the moonlight was even more blinding than the sunlight, so much so that she somehow burst into tears.
On days when she has to play a new game of The black tower every ten minutes, with little rest, she uses those ten minutes to make her way back to Guangzhou from Burma.
When she is implored by her mother, whom she rarely sees, that she must find her sister and protect her no matter what, she looks at her dying mother and makes a pact.
Kill the top of the time chart and resurrect that girl without hesitation.
There was strangeness and surprise in the other's eyes, a multitude of emotions, but no joy.
Finally when the girl sneakily tried to kill herself in a game and stabbed that knife from behind, she surprisingly just said, "You're too weak."
Mu Huixue took the knife in her hand, which she had still given to the girl, a fine prop. A normal knife would never have been able to pierce her skin, only a prop could make her bleed.
Blood stained the blade red, Mu Huixue looked down at the girl in front of her, loosened her cut hand and asked with a smile, "Didn't we say we were going back to see the moon together."
The girl shuddered in fear, "Yes, I'm sorry ..." However, as soon as the words left her mouth, the knife stabbed forward again.
Her body reacted more than anything else and she killed her sister with her own hands.
Brothers raise their arms, mothers and sons fight each other, and everything seems incredibly natural in the world of the returnees.
It will all end eventually and both the hatred and the tears will be buried in the coming of a new world.
At the petrol station next to the Guangzhou highway toll booth, Tang Mo filled a drum with petrol and handed it to Fu Wenduo. Fu Wenduo leans against the door of his car, takes the bucket, opens the filler of his car and pours the fuel in. The fragrant smell of petrol soon fills the air.
Tang Mo has been rummaging around the petrol station for a while and found a map book. It takes half a day to drive from Guangzhou to Suzhou, and that's without clearing the traffic jams on the highway along the way.
Yes, Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo decided to go back to Suzhou, or rather to Beijing.
Originally Tang Mo wanted to take Chen Shanshan and Fu Wensheng with them, but the former decided to go back to Shanghai with Luo Fengcheng, and the latter wanted to go to Nanjing first. Fu Xiaodi's maternal grandparents live in Nanjing, and all of his mother's relatives are there. He still wanted to go back and find out if he could find some more relatives.
Tang Mo sat in the passenger seat and turned his head to look out of the window as the car drove slowly down the highway. As he clicks down the window, he sees the sky lightening up in the east, the uppermost layer of the sky still a deep blue, while the lower layer is a lighter shade of white where it meets the earth.
The wind blows Tang Mo's hair backwards through the window.
Tang Mo : "You can smoke?" He hadn't seen Fu Wenduo smoke much before. Tang Mo picks up the cigarettes from the car. The abandoned car had some of the original owner's belongings in it, most of which Fu Wenduo had put away in the boot, except for half a box of cigarettes.
Fu Wenduo glanced at it, "Very little. You won't?"
Tang Mo shakes his head: "I tried it once when I was a rebel in junior high school, and it was too choking." Despite this, Tang Mo takes out a cigarette and lights it up. A spark flickers between his fingers and the cigarette is quickly lit. After just one puff, he frowns and throws it out the window.
"They don't allow smoking in the army, and I only tried it once after Earth came online." Fu Wenduo turned a corner and said, "But I don't think I'll be smoking it again either."
Tang Mo didn't say anything and put the cigarette back.
Fu Wenduo didn't say that the first time he smoked was the first day after Earth came online. He rushed as fast as he could to a classified office of the state and found it empty. Not only that, but in the entire office building there was only one young soldier trembling and falling to the floor; everyone had disappeared.
The sudden end of the world has put a lot of pressure on Fu Wenduo.
Tang Mo went home very calmly and decided to go to his best friend to make sure he was okay. What Fu Wenduo was thinking was: it was really over. He had the burden of the whole country on his shoulders and he knew the seriousness of the situation. So he stood there in silence and, after a while, went over to the only young soldier left, skilfully took the cigarettes hidden by an officer's friend from his drawer and handed one to him.
The bitter, dry smell of smoke lingers on the nose and Fu Wenduo coughs a little.
The more truths you know and the more facts you see, the more pressure you will be under.
So Fu Wenduo was desperate to find out everything he could about The Black Tower, and even took the risk of travelling halfway across China to Shanghai to find out what happened. That's how he came across Tang Mo.
But these have passed.
Fu Wenduo : "I'm tired."
Tang Mo turned his head to look at him, not understanding what he meant.
Tired?
For them now, three days and three nights without sleep is nothing.
Fu Wenduo slammed on the brakes and unbuckled his seatbelt, "You drive, Tang Mo ."
Tang Mo : "..."
Tang Mo felt puzzled, but got out of the car to change places and drove himself. When he had been driving for a while, he heard a steady breathing sound. He glanced quietly and saw Fu Wenduo sitting in the passenger seat, somehow asleep with his eyes closed. He wasn't dead asleep, his hands were slightly clasped to his chest, but his expression was calm.
Tang Mo's heart flutters slightly as he slows the car down and closes the windows.
Fu Wenduo is really tired and can finally rest.
The next morning, the two returned to Suzhou.
It was the first time Fu Wenduo came to Tang Mo's house, and instead of walking around, he stood at the door and changed his shoes. Tang Mo himself was amused when he finished changing his shoes: "It's been so long since I've been back, there's dust all over the floor." When he turned around and saw a man changing his shoes, he was stunned and then said, "You're quick."
Led by Tang Mo, the two cleaned up the house.
There are very few people in Suzhou, and after a closer look, there are only two other people in the area besides Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo.
In the empty city, everything looks deserted and strange.
Tang Mo had finished cleaning a window before he remembered that he could use his powers, but then it occurred to ... him that he didn't really have any powers that he could use to clean his house. "We're going to Beijing in a few days and have to clean your house?"
The Fu family's house is several times larger than Tang Mo's, so it really takes time to clean. But soon, Tang Mo thought, "Beijing is gone.
If you return to Beijing, you may have to rebuild the city first.
Tang Mo: "Are we going to live in Beijing or Suzhou?"
"It's all good."
It's the same wherever you live anyway, but that brings up a very important point.
Fu Wenduo : "What do you do afterwards?"
Tang Mo froze: "Huh?"
Fu Wenduo explains, "Occupation."
Tang Mo : "..."
He was surprisingly speechless.
After being asked for a long time, Tang Mo silently said, "... librarian?"
Fu Wenduo smiled.
Tang Mo : "..."
Books are the ladder of human progress! Not to mention the past, the present, and even the future, librarians are an iron job!
Fu Wenduo: "It's better to stay in Suzhou for longer."
Tang Mo : "Why?"
Fu Wenduo thought about it: "Less competitive employment?"
Tang Mo : "..."
Not skinned and eaten by Granny Wolf, not run over by Father Christmas, not made into flower fertiliser by the Queen of Hearts and not caught by the circus master as a pet.
Tang Mo, the world's most powerful official player, never imagined that he would be facing a new world where he would have to compete for employment again.
"Do you think there will be any more civil service exams? I'm quite good at exams."
Fu Wenduo looked at the young man's serious look and could not resist lowering his head to give him a light kiss.
"The future, it can only get better."
"Hmm."
The existence of human beings is justified.
When Tang Mo said these words in front of The black tower, he had already seen the brightest future of humanity. The darkness that once enveloped the earth was never the darkness, but the brightest light of humanity.
-[END OF EXTRA] -