Chapter 284: The Rose of Winter

Zhao Yi stood at the doorway, like a statue.

His vacant gaze slowly swept across the room, over faces so pale they were shocking. He knew these people. They were all survivors from District Three, neighbors who supported each other in this building, companions who huddled together for warmth in a foreign land.

And now, as if experiencing a strange warmth, they had shed the thick blankets they were wrapped in, nestled together, faint smiles on their lips, as if peacefully asleep.

In this quiet and serene atmosphere, Zhao Yi's chapped lips trembled as he parted them...

"Boss Xu...?"

"Aunt Li?"

"Uncle Xu... Uncle Xu?"

Zhao Yi tried calling their names, hoping they would open their eyes, yawn as if just waking up, then smile and ask why he had suddenly returned, busy themselves preparing a welcome dinner for him. The dinner might not be extravagant, but there would surely be vegetables and meat. Aunt Xu knew he loved stir-fried pork with chili peppers, and she would definitely make that dish. Uncle Xu might pull him to sit outside the door for a drink, asking how he had been lately...

No, he thought, he was already a ghost-like figure. They would surely be startled, and then he would nervously explain that he was, in fact, Zhao Yi...

Zhao Yi's mind was completely muddled.

He didn't know what he was thinking, only that his limbs were uncontrollably trembling, his body, which had been full of strength moments ago, now felt as if it had plunged into an ice cave. No one responded to him.

After an unknown amount of time, Zhao Yi finally mustered the courage to step into the house. He carefully maneuvered around their limbs, his fingertips trembling as he tried to check for their breaths, but the outcome was as expected.

In such a low-temperature room, any breath would produce visible mist, but the house was utterly silent.

They had all frozen to death.

"No... this shouldn't be happening..." Zhao Yi murmured to himself.

He stumbled to the spot nearest the brazier. There, Xu Chongguo and his wife were nestled together. At the corners of their eyes, a few teardrops glimmered faintly like diamonds. A little closer, a small figure was curled into a ball.

"...Ling'er... Ling'er??!"

Zhao Yi's voice was utterly hoarse, his mind a blank. He frantically pulled the figure into his embrace, only to be met with endless cold.

A dry, raw roar echoed in the deathly silent room. Zhao Yi's eyes were bloodshot. Holding Ling'er's body, he rushed out of the house like a madman, screaming and howling at the sky above:

"Why... why?!"

"Why did I survive in the end... while they died?!"

"What did they do wrong?! They barely escaped District Three with their lives! They had just started a new life with great difficulty! What did they do wrong?!"

Zhao Yi knelt weakly on the pale ground, the cloth covering his face snatched away by the wind. This monster, whose entire body was covered in runes, cried out hoarsely like a child who had lost everything, before the silent, icy small building.

At the same time, a figure in a white lab coat, moving like a zombie, approached from a distance. Hearing the roars, he subconsciously stopped.

Dr. Yi paused slightly when he saw Zhao Yi holding the girl in the snow.

"It's him... he's actually still alive?" Dr. Yi murmured to himself. "Has he had an initial fusion with the Forbidden Sea Disaster Cells? But without the follow-up stabilizing agents, he'll still collapse and die sooner or later... Every single one of them ends up this way... Heh, every single one of them..."

As if he had heard Dr. Yi's whisper, Zhao Yi, who was kneeling on the ground, abruptly lifted his head. His eyes, covered in runes, instantly locked onto Dr. Yi's figure. After recognizing Dr. Yi's face, his pupils contracted slightly!

Whoosh—!!

His speed was so immense that Dr. Yi only felt a blur before him, and then a tremendous force lifted him entirely, slamming him down heavily beside the girl's corpse.

"It's you! You're that scientist!" Zhao Yi recognized Dr. Yi, as if he had grasped a lifeline. He pointed at Ling'er and the small building behind him. "You... aren't you very powerful?? You could save me! Help me... help me bring them back too! They're all good people! They're just ordinary people who wanted to live well! They... they..."

Zhao Yi's voice began to stammer. He didn't know what he was saying, only that he was continuously shaking Dr. Yi's shoulders, tears streaming down Dr. Yi's cheeks, freezing into ice.

Dr. Yi stared blankly at Ling'er, frozen to death beside him, then bitterly closed his eyes.

"...I can't save them," he whispered hoarsely.

"What did you say?!"

"I said I can't save them! Don't you understand?!" Dr. Yi roared back, veins bulging on his neck. "I can't save them! I can't fucking save anyone! Don't you understand?!"

Zhao Yi froze. Trembling, he released Dr. Yi's shoulders and stumbled to the ground.

Just then, his fingertips seemed to brush against something. In Ling'er's arms, there was a neatly folded note.

Zhao Yi stiffly took the note and slowly unfolded it. A series of wobbly, distorted letters appeared before him; the lines of the characters were all crooked, suggesting that the writer must have been shivering from the cold while writing the message...

Brother Xiao Yi, are you okay?

Uncle Xu said if I had anything I wanted to tell you, I should write it down quickly, or I might not be able to later... But I'm so cold, my hands are shaking. I wanted to warm up a bit before writing... but Uncle Xu said I had to write it now, so my handwriting is really, really ugly. Brother Xiao Yi, I hope you can still read it?

Brother Xiao Yi, when will you come back? Uncle Xu said you went to work far away and earned a lot of money, and when you come back, you can buy me a new dress... But I don't want a new dress. I don't want you to be so far away from me... I'm afraid you'll be like Grandma, too far away to ever be found again.

It's so cold today. Uncle Xu said the price of coal outside was being hyped up too much (he said they were "eating people"), so he took people to confront the coal sellers, but they got beaten up... If Brother Xiao Yi were here, you would definitely beat them, wouldn't you?

In the end, Uncle Xu only brought back one piece of coal. They said it was bought with all of Uncle Xu's savings. We all huddled together so the warmth wouldn't scatter.

Brother Xiao Yi, the glowing red coal is so beautiful, like a rose...