Old Dreams

Things are moving too fast.

As fast as Ivy's first (and soon-to-be-ended) marriage.

The old models of expedition cars can usually only accommodate two people, but this year's new models have more space and can carry two more people, but the space in the back is slightly smaller, which is why Song Xu quickly lay down between the two seats.

Lorraine stood outside the car door. Before she even got in, the oxygen in the car seemed to have been forcibly squeezed out.

His presence is too strong to be ignored.

According to Nana, what kind of fear did Lorraine bring to this year's students? A frontline soldier in her team had nightmares about being criticized by Lorraine all night long and cried until he couldn't speak;

Nana also often has nightmares about Lorraine failing the exam.

"Why did you do that?" Ivy once asked her. "Lorraine didn't give you any lessons."

"This is the scary part..." Nana sighed and said sadly, "Forget it, he's your type. You study so hard, so you won't be afraid of him. For us students, hearing his name is like hearing our mom say 'If you don't behave, I'll feed you to the mechanical wolf' when we were little..."

Now, Mr. Mechanical Bad Wolf Lorraine Hector was standing in the cold moonlight.

Ivy looked up at the sky and found that today was a full moon.

I wonder if he will transform into a werewolf.

Lorraine seemed to glance at her, but also seemed not to.

Never mind, Ivy thought, they have already entered the divorce agreement stage, and all they need to be away from true "nothing to do with each other" is an official government report.

If he wanted to criticize her at this time, Ivy could also add malicious words like "scolding his wife without reason and making her miserable" to the divorce agreement.

Ivy kept staring at Lorraine and found that he was very calm, as calm as a queen who had gone through a day's affairs and discovered the empress and her little - wait, Ivy reacted slowly, why did she have such a strange idea?

Their marriage is dead in name only.

Song Xu's ears drooped after being criticized, and he asked Luo Lin unwillingly: "...Do you want to come up and sleep too?"

"There are twelve vacancies at the supply station tonight," Lorraine said. "Are you sure you want to sleep together in the car?"

Song Xu felt that he seemed to be deliberately emphasizing "together" and "squeezed in".

The tone was like watching them sleeping in a garbage dump.

Ivy didn't say anything. She closed her eyes and pretended she heard nothing.

Yu Mo said in a gentle voice: "Sorry, sir, this is my first time in a wasteland, I don't feel safe."

"If you don't feel safe, you can go to the warrior room. I don't think they will mind you sleeping on the floor," Lorraine said in a cold and vicious voice. "Doctor Yu Mo, I thought you were aware of your burden. It seems that I overestimated your ability."

Song Xu, who thought he was very capable, added: "I came here to comfort Ivy. During the day, Iris robbed her of the Ginkgo Forest she had discovered first..."

"It's not considered a robbery," Ivy knew that Lorraine would definitely ask more questions. She didn't want to waste too much time on this matter, so she just brushed it off. "We resolved it peacefully."

The mission of the expedition team is to survey the geology, biological species, discover the ecological features along the way, and deal with some mechanical remains in a timely manner... Green also received compensation from Song Feng.

Lorraine finally said the first words to her tonight: "You are more generous than I thought, classmate Ivy."

Ivy responded: "Your heart is bigger than I thought, Teacher Lorraine."

He looked at Yu Mo and confirmed grimly: "So you two are going to sleep in this car tonight, right?"

Song Xu quickly rolled up the blanket to cover himself, showing his determination with his actions.

Yu Mo said: "Xiaobao is not in a good mood, I think she needs me."

"Very good," Lorraine nodded, "Then you can sleep here tonight... Ivy."

Ivy said in a muffled voice: "Here."

"Get off the bus," Lorraine said. "The supply station has preferential policies for soldiers. I have applied for a single room for you."

Ivy: “Huh?”

Lorraine said nonchalantly: "You can go up and take a bath, have a comfortable sleep, and use the holographic projection to chat with your parents for free-"

Ivy was stunned.

"Or," he changed his tone, "you can stay here and sleep coldly in a dark car for a night, listening to two men snoring one after another."

Song Xu jumped up and said angrily: "I never snore when I sleep! Don't say bad things about me!"

At this point, Lorraine turned and walked out. Ivy hurriedly opened the car door and jumped out: "Lorraine!"

Song Xu wanted to catch up, but suddenly found that Luo Lin had opened the permission -

He simply locked Song Xu and Yu Mo in the expedition car.

Song Xu was so angry that he slammed the expedition car hard, but the sound insulation here was too good, and with the car door completely locked, his voice could not be heard at all.

Ivy knew nothing about this.

Lorraine walked steadily, and she hurried a few steps to catch up. She asked, "Cyril..."

"That's just an exaggerated story," Lorraine said. "Don't believe it."

Ivy looked down and saw Lorraine's black military pants.

There was no sign of amputation or limb reattachment surgery.

"...You are not from Hector's family," Ivy calmed down at this time. She said, "So your relationship with your parents is very weak - you said that I never really loved my parents, and in fact, you are the same."

"It's 11:23 p.m. now," Lorraine reminded, "I'm not your childhood sweetheart who doesn't have to take responsibility. I don't have that much free time to tell you a bedtime story, Ivy. You should get some good sleep and get enough energy for tomorrow."

His behavior doesn't show at all that he has experienced hardship.

Ivy has seen both sides of the Dark Zone and knows that the children there grow up in chaos, disorder, darkness and dampness.

Well, Lorraine's harsh words were indeed dark and damp.

Ivy asked: "But when we got married, I remember that Hector's family didn't have a second child, so-"

"Ivy," Lorraine interrupted her and repeated, "you should go to bed."

Ivy read his hint and realized that he had absolutely no intention of continuing the conversation.

Lorraine was reluctant to talk about the past.

...Is that why he interrupted when Yu Mo mentioned it?

Did he really just happen to appear next to the car?

Lorraine obviously didn't intend to answer these questions for her. He was wearing a combat uniform. This uniform was not black, but a special dark blue close to pure black. There were no patterns on it, and the buttons and badges were all cold silver metal. Ivy smelled a slight smell of sweat on his body. It seemed that he could no longer take a shower three times a day in the wasteland.

Surprisingly, Ivy didn't hate this atmosphere.

She looked up and found that there were several wounds on Lorraine's cheeks, and blood was oozing from the broken skin.

He turned the injured half of his face to the side, where Ivy couldn't see him.

"Go on up," Lorraine said, "and have a wonderful night without your ex."

Ivy said: "I hope you can change the way you talk soon. Your vicious words will make it impossible for me to continue to sympathize with you."

"Sympathy? Do you think this is a good word?" Lorraine seemed to have heard something funny. He turned around and looked at her chest with a cold gaze. "Put away your self-motivated charity."

His eyes had a gleam in the darkness that was not that of a living being.

He didn't say anything sharp or vicious at this moment, but at this moment he looked the least like a human being, but a complete machine.

"Only the weak need sympathy," Lorraine said, "Ivy."

He strode away, his military cape fluttering in the wind like the tongue of a python. He only wanted respect.

Ivy stood in the open space until Lorraine's tall and silent figure was completely out of sight.

Yu Mo's bedtime stories really worked.

Ivy, who was sleeping soundly in the quiet king-size bed room, had a bizarre dream.

For the first time, she dreamed of real life in the wasteland, trekking with her parents.

They have no car, so they can only follow the supply trucks; but not every supply truck is on the right route, and not every truck is willing to take refugees away. Most of the time, they still have to rely on their legs.

My parents are very optimistic. My mother would complain that my father's feet smelled bad after sweating, and would help him pick the blisters and apply herbal medicine. My father would lightly tease my mother that she has finally "lost weight", but at the same time he would touch her wrists that were so thin that they were as thin as bones and shed tears at night.

Then came acid rain.

Acid rain fell suddenly, precisely, and unbiasedly, only once in twenty years, landing precisely on the refugee settlement.

In order to avoid the acid rain, people rushed to hide in shelter. The acid rain could easily corrode plastic, iron sheets, and fabrics... Ivy was tightly protected by her parents, and the abandoned building was shaking and about to collapse, breaking and falling in the middle.

In the dream, Ivy fell heavily to the first floor. Acid rain fell from the gap in the roof and dripped onto her arms, corroding her skin and muscle tissue in an instant - the pain made her scream heart-wrenchingly.

A limping boy picked her up, frowning. "Don't scream," he said solemnly, covering Ivy's mouth and nose with his sweaty and dusty hands, "Your voice will attract 'them'."

Ivy looked up and saw a pale face with long black hair hanging down, covering most of his face. His black spinel-like eyes were gloomy, his nose was high, and his thin lips were cold and restrained.

The boy knelt on one knee and expertly treated the wound on her arm. He sprinkled a large amount of white powder on the corroded wound and tore off a strip of his shirt to wrap it.

The real pain and the deep wound made her unable to bear the pain. The boy frowned and said "It's really troublesome" while slowing down his movements. He bandaged it neatly and tied an exquisite bow.

He knelt on one knee, picked her up, and scolded her coldly: "If you don't want to die, just be quiet. If screaming in pain is useful, I would have become hoarse by now."

Only then did Ivy notice that the boy had no right foot.

His ankle was completely cut off, and was replaced by a partially mechanical prosthesis; the strange limp in his gait was also caused by the damage to the prosthesis caused by being hit by a rock.

The boy asked her, "Where are your parents? Why are you alone?"

As he said this, he held Ivy in his arms and ran forward using his clumsy mechanical prosthesis to support his body.

In the distance, someone called him: "Cyril! Come here——"

"I see!" the boy said loudly. "Wait for me a little longer, Hector!"

As soon as the words fell, screams of pain rang out all around, and acid rain fell again. A drop of rain as big as a bean hit the ground hard, quickly corroding a deep pit as it hit the ground, emitting white smoke with a hissing sound.

Big drops of acid rain fell, and the boy holding her dodged quickly, but due to his disabled body, big drops of acid rain still fell on him.

Sizzle——

Ivy smelled the unique smell of corroded flesh and felt excruciating pain. The boy said nothing and seemed so indifferent that he was oblivious.

She lowered her head and saw a scarlet wound on the back of the boy's hand that was corroded by acid rain. The flesh was rotten, revealing the white bones.

Blood gushed out like a rotten rose.