Unbearable hunger and thirst, Wu Ji walked into Silent Fog Village. Even though the sun was setting, he could still feel that this village had once been alive.
Silent Fog Village wasn't big, but it had everything — school, hospital, restaurant, shops, even a small cinema. The buildings were all mixed up, with narrow alleys crisscrossing like a maze. If you wanted to walk through the whole place, it'd probably take half a day.
Walking through an abandoned village that felt like something out of an urban legend, Wu Ji — who liked to think he wasn't afraid of anything — still felt his heart beating faster for no reason. There were no ghosts, no zombies, but the dead silence gave him the creeps.
Then he passed by a huge crater. The edges were black and charred — clearly from a bomb. The crater was filled with rubble and broken rocks, and the air smelled strongly of gunpowder.
Not far away, a wooden cross stood alone by the roadside. On it hung a charred corpse. The body was completely carbonized, barely recognizable as human. The stench of rotting flesh made Wu Ji wrinkle his nose.
"Looks like this is the center street they talked about in that post — the one that got bombed. And that corpse... is that the author?"
He muttered to himself, but he didn't believe for a second that the corpse was the author's.
He wandered aimlessly, hoping to find something useful. Then, from a run-down little house ahead, he heard a noise.
Wu Ji held his breath and crept closer. His heart pounded — both scared and curious. He didn't know what was inside, but he couldn't help wanting to find out.
He carefully pushed the door open. A wild dog was curled up in the corner, staring at him warily.
Wu Ji let out a sigh of relief. Just a dog.
He ignored the dog and decided to keep looking for food and anything useful.
But the dog saw him and started following, tail wagging. Wu Ji ended up naming it "Foggy."
As the boy and the dog walked toward an abandoned restaurant, another noise came from inside.
Wu Ji thought it was Foggy again and was about to turn around and curse, but then he realized — it wasn't him.
In the corner of the restaurant stood a person. Completely silent, not making a sound.
It was too dark for Wu Ji to make out any features — just a pair of wide, bright eyes glowing in the darkness. The figure stood still, not far from him.
Wu Ji, already a little creeped out, suddenly screamed: "AHHHHH! WHAT THE HELL?!"
His scream echoed through the whole restaurant.
But the figure was even more scared than him. It screamed too: "AHHHH!"
Then it bolted out of the restaurant in a panic.
"The hell? That thing was more scared than me? Wait — not a ghost, a person!" Wu Ji muttered to himself.
He looked around, picked up a broken mop handle from the floor, and chased after the figure.
Mop in one hand, flashlight in the other, Wu Ji followed the path where the figure had fled.
They ran through alley after alley, weaving through narrow streets. Finally, Wu Ji cornered the figure in a dead end.
It was a guy in his thirties — skinny, messy hair, wearing a ragged shirt and mud-stained pants. His face was pale, his eyes blank, but there was a weird smile on his lips.
His mental state was clearly unstable. He'd mutter to himself, then burst out laughing, then suddenly get scared and twitchy.
Wu Ji stared at this crazy-looking guy, full of confusion.
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and then Add to home screen.