After a full minute, the boy stammered, "You...you...people?"

He spoke unfluently and his pronunciation was very strange, unlike the common tone of speech of the people in the base.

Lu Xun said, "Take them out first."

The boy stared at them intently, his legs hanging at his sides trembling for several times, and then he suddenly ran over here: "Wait a minute!"

He led the way in front, taking the two of them around many twists and turns, stammering as he walked: "I'm... I'm sorry, you were afraid... afraid that monsters would approach, so you dug many... many traps. They can't get through,... we can also observe... we didn't... we didn't expect there would be anyone."

He hung his head, looking regretful and self-blaming, and said calmly, "It's okay."

When they reached the side of the mound, the boy pushed a device, and with a creaking sound, a heavy iron gate swayed and opened, revealing a dark cave.

"You...are you from the outside?" He turned to them, tongue-tied, and looked at Lu Xun first, but seemed to be frightened by Lu Xun's expressionless face, and turned stiffly to An Zhe and said.

An Zhe said: "Yes."

"You..." The boy took a few breaths, and his face flushed with excitement. If he was not half a meter away, An Zhe suspected that he would hear his violent heartbeat.

He said: "Are you okay?"

"You..." The boy seemed to finally react to what happened now, and it seemed that he was out of breath.

"Hello." But it was Lu Xun who spoke: "Northern Base, Trial Court. Do you need help?"

"We...we need help," the boy's eyes flashed with a gleam like the morning sun, turned and went into the tunnel, running deeper while shouting: "Grandpa!"

Following him, Lu Xun and An Zhe also walked into the deep and winding tunnel. After closing the iron gate, it was gloomy and dark here, but there was a faint flash in front. Unable to see the road under his feet, An Zhe carefully held the wall, and was grabbed by Lu Xun's wrist and led him forward.

This is a steep staircase leading downwards, and it is easy to fall. After walking downhill for about a hundred meters and turning a corner, it becomes a little wider. The gas lamps on the walls emit a faint white light, illuminating this cramped cave. Looking into the distance, it is deep and has no end. The sound of footsteps echoes inside, causing endless echoes.

Lu Xun: "Did you dig it?"

"No," the boy said, "It was a mine a long time ago, and many people hid here."

Lu Xun: "How many people are there? How long have you lived here?"

"I don't know," the boy lowered his head slightly: "I have been here since I was born, and many people later... died. This place is called Grandpa."

Before walking into the place where the boy mentioned "Grandpa", An Zhe heard heavy breathing, like the sound coming from the chest of an animal when it is dying.

In a ten-meter square hole, there was a wire bed less than one meter wide, and on the bed lay an old man with gray hair. An Zhe approached and saw that he was covered with a gray-yellow blanket, his cheeks were sunken, his eyes were cloudy, and he was shaking all over, as if he was enduring some great pain. Even when they came to the bed, he did not respond.

"He is sick." The boy said.

As he spoke, he sat on the bed, pulled up his grandfather's hand, and said loudly: "Grandpa, the people from the outside are here to see us! They said they are from the base, there really is a base!"

The old man was no longer conscious, and was not infected by the joy and excitement in his words, but frowned confusedly and turned his head away, as if he was escaping from his noise.

"We can go to places with a lot of people!" The boy seemed to be used to it and was not infected by the old man's negative attitude. His tone became more excited.

At this time, the old man's dry mouth moved and uttered a few unclear syllables.

His grandson said, "What?"

An Zhe also listened carefully. The old man's lips moved and repeated the syllables again.

"Time..." His throat was hoarse, and air leaked from his mouth, his voice was like the sound of broken wind: "Time... is coming soon."

The boy turned to Lu Xun and said apologetically: "Grandpa always says this sentence, he thinks he is seriously ill and will die soon."

After that, he told the old man: "Let's go to where humans are, there must be medicine there." But

the old man kept saying this sentence over and over again, so they had to give up. Until they left here, the old man was still mumbling "The time is coming soon", Anzhe felt that this sentence was very familiar, but he couldn't remember where he had heard it.

Then, the boy took them to a slightly spacious square room, which connected three dark cave forks, like a heartland with four passages. The rugged walls were covered with yellowed paper with the mine route map and operation instructions. There was a small square table in the middle, and two old sofas next to the table. The heavy moisture had corroded all the paint on the sofas.

Lu Xun was talking to the boy.

The boy's name was Xibei. According to him, when the unprecedented disaster came, the mine collapsed. But because there was no deadly radiation in the cave, some of the people inside survived and continue to live to this day. They would go to the nearby ruins of a small town to collect daily necessities, but would also be killed and eaten by the monsters inside. His mother had only him as her child, and slowly, of the dozens of people at the time, only he and his grandfather were left to depend on each other.

"We know that everyone is definitely not dead and must have built a new home somewhere. But we can't find you. Grandpa once said that when we found another exit from the mine, the outside world had changed and there was no one alive."

"The radio can't receive any signal and there are monsters outside. We can't get out and have to stay here, but we know there must be other people." Xibe's voice trembled with excitement as he took out a very worn thin book from a small compartment on the wall beside him.

"Two years ago, we found a car outside. There was a dead man in the car, but these things. We knew there were still people inside, and they... had been waiting for you to come. You... your compatriots must have been searching and rescuing." He looked at Lu Xun, his eyes full of hope.

Lu Xun said in a slightly lower voice, "The base welcomes you."

And An Zheshen looked at the top of the pile of thin books, and the dim gas lights illuminated its cover. The title was four words "Base Monthly". These four words triggered the fragments of memories stored in his mind. This was a booklet distributed to people by the main branch of the base.

This book was produced by a distant human base. The pornographic novel and the weapon illustrations were taken by mercenaries or soldiers, and then put on an armored vehicle that left the base. After a long journey, it was left in the wild forever. Then, the survivors of the desert took it out of the wreckage of the vehicle and passed it around in the mine day after day. They knew that it represented news about the distant human homeland.

The title page has turned yellow, with a line of small words written on it: "May you have a bright future." Turning down, it is the catalog page.

An Zhe, who was flipping the pages, suddenly trembled. His eyes stopped at a line on the catalog page, with two extremely simple words.

"Winter".

The ellipsis extended all the way to the right edge of the paper, and at its end were two more characters, representing the author's name.

An Ze.

An Zhe's breath paused for a moment, and in his residual light he saw the next line of "Winter Day", the chapter was called "A Day in 2059".

2059 is a distant time in history, so this name indicates that this is a sophisticated historical chapter.

Its author's name is a poet.

- These two names are quietly listed side by side on the page.

An Zhe's fingers fell on the paper. His fingers had once hugged An Ze's shoulders in the cave covered with vines, and had also been held by the poet in the dark carriage. Now, they gently stroked the names of the two people, and their figures were once again vivid in An Zhe's mind. He turned to that page - the two pages side by side. "Winter" is a short poem that describes the scene of snowflakes falling on the supply station square that winter. An Ze said that the snow was as soft as snow-white pigeon wings.

An Zhe could remember a detail of his voice. He seemed to hear An Ze describing it to him in person. In this brief moment, An Ze seemed to come back to life, and the poet stood in front of him again with a smile. He insisted on telling him the history of the base - there are still records left by them in this world.

An Zhe's eyes were filled with mist. He hadn't thought of these two people for a long time, but their figures were still as vivid as if they were right in front of him. A few hours ago, he was still complaining about the efforts made by humans to maintain their will. He thought that if Lu Xun became an alien, he would not abandon him. But this thought was slightly shaken at this moment.

He knew that the base was hopeless and that humans were at the end of their rope.

But they were also immortal.