"Boom boom boom—"
The boy knocked on the wooden door. Then there was a clattering sound of footsteps coming from behind the door. When the door opened, a delicate little face poked out, and when she saw An Ming, she immediately smiled.
"Are you back?" the girl asked.
"Well, we raised a lot of money today."
An Ming handed the donation box to Sister Hua Ling.
But Sister Hualing pushed the donation box back with a spoon.
"Just bring it in? I still have to go to the kitchen to cook."
My sister was wearing a rouge-colored apron with a black and white mountain cat embroidered on the corner. It was glaring at you with its teeth bared. Its round little face looked mean and ugly. An Ming always said that this cat was so ugly that it was not pleasing at all. But Sister Hua Ling said that he didn't understand this kind of cuteness at all. She said that this was called ugly cuteness, and it would definitely become popular in the future.
After saying that, Sister Hualing ran back to the kitchen with a spoon in her hand. An Ming also took off his coat at the entrance and hung it on the coat rack, then skillfully opened the door of the small warehouse and put the donation box in.
Three years have passed since he was discharged from the hospital and moved into this home. An Ming is now twelve years old. In these three years, he has completely regarded this place as his home. Although he has no memory of the past, it still does not affect him calling them "Dad", "Mom" and "Sister".
However, in the past three years, his family may not dare to let An Ming go out to collect donations alone because of the shadow of the past accident. Today is the first time he has completed the collection alone. Of course, it can't be considered as completing it alone, because this time the collection came from a request for writing an article on a charity program. They are recruiting leading figures in charity across the country to compile a charity book.
It is precisely because there are adults accompanying him that An Ming's family feels comfortable letting him go out alone.
"Dad, Mom, I'm back."
An Ming walked into the living room and said. Hearing this, the middle-aged man turned over the newspaper in front of him and raised his heavy reading glasses, while the woman sitting next to him also put down the clothes in her hands and smiled at him.
This is a very common scene in daily life.
"How was your day? Did those reporters give you any trouble?" the man asked.
"Dad, what a fool. Why are you making things difficult for him?"
The woman patted the man's shoulder with the clothes at hand.
An Ming replied with a wry smile.
"They didn't make things difficult for me. The leader was an older sister. After I finished the interview and took the photos, she treated me to a big meal. I've always wanted to try Colen Hughes' steak, and I didn't expect to actually get to eat it today."
"Oh My God."
The mother covered her face and said with some embarrassment.
"What's wrong?"
Looking at the helpless expressions on his parents' faces, An Ming was also confused.
"Actually, Hualing said that she wanted to celebrate your completion of the fundraising on your own today, and she has been preparing dinner since noon. She also said that she made your favorite stew. If you can't eat it later, she might be upset." The father added.
After hearing this, An Ming's face twitched. He could completely imagine Sister Hua Ling's expression of dissatisfaction with her hands on her hips.
"Then I'll go upstairs and take a nap to digest the food."
An Ming quickly found an excuse to escape so as to avoid running into Sister Hua Ling who was looking for him to taste the food.
His room was at the end of the second floor. It was small but well-equipped. An Ming took two quick steps without even turning on the light and fell on the bed.
Actually, wanting to sleep is not an excuse. Although the reporters did not make things difficult for him, they had a lot of work to do today because they were rushing to attend the show, and they invited him to dinner for this reason. He was exhausted and could fall asleep as soon as he stuck his head to the pillow.
◇◆◇◆◇◆◇
An Ming, floating in the air, finally landed on the ground.
Looking at his twelve-year-old self sleeping soundly in bed, he shook his head and blinked. When he opened his eyes the next time, he was already lying on the bed.
"Eh? What's going on?"
An Ming climbed out of bed, but he saw his own small hands. He had become the twelve-year-old self lying in bed.
"This nightmare is really well-serviced, and there is even a first-person experience for the climax chapter."
An Ming's heart was beating wildly and he couldn't help but complain, trying to calm down.
Suddenly, all the lights in the house went out. An Ming walked to the window and saw the lights in the neighborhood outside the window go out one by one, from near to far. The whole neighborhood was without power.
He exhaled slowly, stepped away from the window, turned around, opened the door, and went downstairs.
"elder sister?"
An Ming's body called out automatically. At this moment, he smelled a strong fishy odor, as if he had been thrown into a seafood market.
"Hmm." An Ming quickly covered his mouth and nose.
He quickened his pace and went downstairs, but what he saw was not the usual peaceful room, but a mess. The familiar old furniture, the patched sofa, and the small table that his father bought from the second-hand market were all smashed to pieces.
Not only that, every piece of floor and wall in the room was covered in blood, as if the blood of several people had been sucked out and spilled.
I have to run away quickly! I have to find my sister and my parents quickly! An Ming immediately ran to the entrance in fear, but he was tripped by something at the entrance and fell to the ground. He quickly got up, but the ground was all wet, and the sticky liquid stuck to his feet and body, making it difficult for him to get up from the ground. At this time, his hand touched something that was neither hard nor soft, and he quickly turned his head to look over.
It was a head without a body, and the expression on the head was hideous, as if it had seen some evil ghost, or seemed to be in great pain of death.
That was Daddy's head. Not far away was Mom, but she had lost her limbs and head, and there was a big hole in her stomach.
In an instant, the adult An Ming and the twelve-year-old An Ming were in sync. Although he knew what was going to happen here, he still felt sad.
Damn it! Why kill them so cruelly? They are all good people! An Ming roared in his heart, but his mind was full of fear. That was probably the emotion of his twelve-year-old self, and he couldn't resist it.
At this time, the elder sister, covered in blood, ran out from the kitchen connected to the entrance. She ran out from her hiding place after hearing An Ming's voice.
"An Ming! Quick!"
Sister Hua Ling grabbed An Ming's hand and rushed into the room, opened the door to the basement, and threw her in.
"An Ming, listen carefully! Hide well, I'll lead that monster away! Remember, don't come out!"
"Sister, sister?"
An Ming was so scared that he couldn't speak clearly and even his tongue began to tremble.
And the self in his heart was roaring at him loudly, as if he had forgotten that this was just a dream.
"Stop her! Don't go! You will die! The basement is safe, didn't I survive? Don't go!"
An Ming shouted in his heart. However, his words could not reach his twelve-year-old self.
The door in front of me closed.
"Don't go, please!"
An Ming in his heart called out in pain, but no one paid any attention to him.
Twelve-year-old An Ming squatted on the stairs in front of the basement door, covering his ears with his hands. But it was surprisingly quiet outside the room, and he could still hear the noise outside even with his ears covered.
Did my sister succeed? Did the monster leave? But where is my sister? Am I safe? A lot of questions ran through my mind.
He stood up and threw himself in front of the door of the basement. At this moment, through the crack in the door, he saw his sister running towards the entrance, and the monster chasing her. The monster was white with black, with a body like the strongest man and a charming face like a woman. It stuck out its long and thin tongue and caught up with his sister at a speed that was invisible to the naked eye.
With a snap, the monster pierced my sister's chest with its hand.
The elder sister spat out a large mouthful of blood, and her cheek slightly turned towards the basement. An Ming didn't know if the elder sister knew he was looking at her, but at that moment their eyes met. An Ming saw a bitter smile on that painful face.
As if to say: "Don't come out."
Twelve-year-old An Ming was very scared. He immediately squatted down and hid in the stairwell, holding his head with his hands, as if trying to roll himself into a circle, like the protective armor of some insects.
The An Ming in his heart was also tired, and fell to the corner with his knees hugged, just like his twelve-year-old self.
All kinds of noises came from outside the door, noisy and quiet, and then quiet and noisy again.
An Ming looked at the motionless door. How much time had passed?
Then the basement door was opened again.
"Come here quickly! There is a survivor here! It's a child!"
The man shouted with joy.
Only then did An Ming realize that the night was over and that he was the only survivor of this terrible night.
My father and mother died, my sister died, my neighbor's grandmother died, their children died, everyone died.
Soon after, a slightly plump man came over and put his coat on him.
"Holy Mother, it's a miracle you're alive," he said.
Miracle? An Ming looked around and saw police officers not far away carrying out bodies one by one. Some bodies were even broken into pieces and could not be put together. They covered the bodies with white cloth, which was dyed red in large areas.
What kind of miracle is this? Bullshit miracle!
My parents were very good people, they were well-known philanthropists in the capital. My sister was also very good, she took in family members who had long forgotten about her and took good care of them, and the grandmother next door was also a good person, she gave me a piece of cheese when they first met.
But this miracle did not give them a single cent.
What was An Ming? He was nothing! Compared to those good people, he was as ordinary as could be. Those so-called good people were dead, leaving behind a person who didn't care whether he lived or died. What kind of miracle was that?
As if the memories were lost, the scenery before my eyes was a gray phantom. Then, the phantom began to flow, and everyone began to move backwards.
Soon, An Ming returned to the old gate. He looked around, the monster, the blood, the basement, his sister... everything was gone, and he was back to the beginning.
An Ming opened the door with Kant's mood.
"An Ming, you're back?"
The figure who greeted him was still the same.
An Ming couldn't help but want to laugh, he already knew what would happen next.
He entered the living room again, went back to sleep again, woke up again, was pushed into the basement again, saw his sister die again, again, again, again…
He kept repeating this day, watching his loved ones die, then seeing them come back to life, and then die again. Those repetitive death scenes were like invisible blades, piercing his heart again and again. It was full of holes and blood.
So that's how it is, this is a miracle, An Ming thought with a smile.
He has never been able to forgive himself for living a life of mediocrity, and now this miracle has given him a chance to start over again.
If he is killed in a dream, will he really die? Who cares.
An Ming didn't want to think about anything anymore. His mind was in a mess, with only this endlessly repetitive story remaining.
This story needs a proper ending, one in which he rushes out of the basement, stands before his sister, and bravely faces death with her.
But what would have happened if you had rushed out at that time? It would have just left one more body. Another voice in An Ming's heart said to him.
It made sense, of course it made sense. At least he could die with his family in that little house where no one cared, instead of being reported in the news as "a miracle".
This death could give his life meaning.
Go ahead, open that door, and die at the hands of that monster, a voice inside said.
He slowly stretched out his right hand and slowly moved closer to the door handle.
go Go...
Like a magic spell, my hand slowly touched the door handle and slowly turned it.
At this moment, he felt a faint warmth spreading through his palms. That warmth melted the coldness in his heart. It was as if he had found a small, lighted cabin in the endless winter night, and the warm firelight in the cabin was like a big hand that embraced him.
"The whole world is against me, so I hope to have an ally. Now that ally is you, Senior An Ming."
The words that the petite girl with golden hair had said to him suddenly echoed in his mind.
In an instant, the memories that had been suppressed by this nightmare came flooding back.
Painful things, happy things, and things that have to be done.
Yeah, that girl is still trapped in that ruin, and she's going to die if I don't go.
An Ming looked outside the door, his face full of helplessness.
"Sister, I'm sorry. It seems I can't die yet. Because there are still people waiting for me to save. She called me a senior, I can't let the junior down."
An Ming opened his eyes, and the first rays of sunlight in the morning illuminated his cheeks. The sunlight was a bit dazzling, so he reached out to cover his eyes.
He was rescued again in this dream. He felt that this would be the last time. For the first time, he felt that this ray of sunlight had warmth.
"Holy Mother, it's a miracle you're alive." said the fat man again.
An Ming glanced at him and replied, "...Yes, it's a miracle."
◇◆◇◆◇◆◇
"Okay, what do we do now?"
After An Ming made up his mind to leave the dream, the warmth around him became stronger. But even so, he still did not wake up.
He walked past the police surrounding the room, went up to the second-floor balcony, and found a high platform.
"Little brother, what are you going to do?"
The police officer nearby saw him doing something dangerous and wanted to stop him.
The boy who was rescued seemed a little strange. Could it be that he was scared silly?
"Mr. Policeman. Do you know that if you see someone falling in a dream, you will wake up in shock?" An Ming said simply.
"I think I've seen a movie about this." The policeman scratched his head.
"Of course, I just heard it from others, I have no evidence."
"Little brother, no matter what you have to say, it's too dangerous to stay there, come down quickly."
However, An Ming obviously didn't listen to him. He stood up and squinted at the sun.
"The sun is so comfortable. It's a beautiful day." An Ming said casually, and then he quickly turned to face the policeman who wanted to stop him. "Mr. Policeman, thank you for saving me. But I have to say goodbye to you. Please say hello to the gentleman who saved me, because now I have to go back to my own world."
Then he jumped on his back.