It started with a suppressed whimper, followed by a series of sobs. The crying spread, and loud wailing filled the air.
Only a few dozen people escaped, men and women, young and old. They were squatting, lying down, or crouching, their eyes filled with tears, their faces buried in their hands in anguish. No one wailed; they simply stared numbly at the capital shrouded in dark clouds, seemingly pondering what this disaster was, how it happened, and what they had done wrong.
Su Ping'an, whom Zhang Xu was holding, perhaps had never seen so many strange adults before, and started wailing "waa waa waa" amidst the cries.
Zhang Xu had never taken care of a child before, and now, faced with the crying Su Ping'an, she didn't know what to do. She frantically patted Su Ping'an's back, trying to soothe the restless little one, but unexpectedly, under her attempts to calm him down, Su Ping'an cried even louder.
"Please, please stop crying."
The woman who had been standing there in a daze was drawn to Su Ping'an's howling and took the child from Zhang Xu's hands: "This child probably peed."
Zhang Xu watched as she skillfully changed Su Ping'an's wet diaper, her expression froze: "There's nothing left to change him now, he's just naked."
While thanking her, Zhang Xu took out a handkerchief from her pocket: "Take this and make do with it for now!"
The woman looked at Zhang Xu's handkerchief, then at the child's clothes: "This child isn't yours, is it?"
Zhang Xu's expression darkened as she recalled the nameless woman who had helped her: "This child is my savior. She was swallowed by the dark clouds to save me, leaving only this child to me, but I don't even know her name."
Such a person wouldn't even deserve a few words in the book, but this nameless character in the original book put himself in a desperate situation in order to give her a push.
The two-dimensional characters suddenly came to life before her, no longer emotionless NPCs, but human beings with feelings. The leaping words before her seemed to come alive.
The woman thought of her family members who had died in the disaster and lowered her head: "My surname is Wang. My family runs a dye shop. My husband was originally going to Yong County to buy cloth. I told him to go in a few days. I never expected this to happen. If I had let him go, would he have been alright?"
When those around him heard him say this, they thought of their own families and all looked in the direction of the capital.
"What exactly is this black cloud? Why does it turn people into dried corpses as soon as it touches them?"
"Could it be some kind of evil thing?!"
The others became even more pessimistic: "What are we going to do? We can't do anything about the evil thing!"
"We're just ordinary people, what can we do with evil things?"
"Is it really fate that we are doomed?"
"My children, my parents, are they still alive?"
The others dared not offer him any comfort. Those who had witnessed it firsthand understood that the moment he was swallowed by the dark cloud, all hope was lost.
The sun shone brightly on the earth, but a gloomy atmosphere hung over everyone in the city. Despair seemed to sweep over them once again. Despite having escaped death, the survivors felt a chill run through their bodies, as if they had fallen into an ice cellar.
Zhang Xu came to her senses and asked Liu Wu if there was any way to help.
Sixty-five shrugged, indicating there was nothing he could do! Things would only return to normal once the main characters dealt with the monsters in the city!
The book's settings all serve the main characters, which is unavoidable. But after experiencing it firsthand, Zhang Xu couldn't bear to treat them as lifeless paper figures anymore. At this moment, she wanted to do something—for Su Ping'an, for those who survived the disaster, and for herself.
Host! What are you trying to do?! Warning! Warning! Warning! Interference with the plot is prohibited!
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