Chapter Seven: Wild Grass

"Are you waiting for your parents?" Liu Tao asked, puzzled.

"Yes. I went home just now and saw they weren't there, so I left them a note telling them to come find me at school. If I leave now, I'm afraid they won't be able to find me."

"How long will you wait?" Glasses chimed in from the side.

"At least until nightfall."

"Then we'll wait with you," Fatty interjected. "It's not like we're in a hurry anyway."

Fatty had barely finished his sentence when his mother, who was even stouter than him, pulled him aside. Liu Chang didn't need to guess what she'd say to him once they were away from the group.

She was a woman steeped in the ways of the marketplace, usually without much of an opinion—her drastic change in attitude before and after their trip to the convenience store was proof enough. Still, her love for Fatty was genuine—otherwise she wouldn't have come rushing here the moment the red mist descended.

She didn't want Fatty to get separated from the others, so she pulled him aside to persuade him not to wait. Seeing this, Liu Chang averted his gaze.

"You guys can go ahead if you want. I'm going to wait for my parents. If I find them, I'll come looking for you," Liu Chang said offhandedly, but everyone knew that in this fog-choked world, without any means of communication, splitting up meant they might never see each other again.

Hearing this, Fatty and Glasses looked awkward, but were soon pulled aside by their respective parents. The adults gave Liu Chang a smile. "We'll go ahead, then."

And so, hurriedly, they dragged their children away. After just a few steps, the fog swallowed their forms, leaving only one person behind.

"I'll stay with you," Liu Tao said, pulling up a desk beside Liu Chang and sitting down. "I won't be seeing my parents anyway, and I'd rather keep you company than go out there alone with no one I know."

"Huh?" Liu Chang was surprised.

Everyone knew Liu Tao was the least sociable in their dorm. He spent over eighty percent of his free time studying, rarely interacting with anyone. He liked to flaunt his knowledge, which made the others less fond of him. That he was the one to stay behind now was unexpected.

"Liu Tao, are you coming with us?" Fatty's voice came from within the fog.

"You go on ahead. I'll wait here with him. If his parents don't show up by sunset, we'll leave together," Liu Tao called out, waving to the vague figures a few steps away.

They answered and left. With just one more step, the indistinct shapes vanished completely.

"You really don't have to stay with me, you know," Liu Chang said.

"You're thinking we don't have that kind of friendship, aren't you?"

"Even if we did, there's no need for this."

"I just don't want to be with those other two families," Liu Tao replied, then reached out to Liu Chang. "Got a smoke?"

"No, I don't smoke—you know that," Liu Chang shrugged. "And you don't smoke either, do you?"

"Well, nothing else to do, and the mood is so heavy. Just feels like having one. I used to avoid smoking because I didn't want to waste money on cigarettes. But now that the world has ended, who cares about the price of a pack?"

"True enough." Liu Chang laughed, pulling a few pieces of candy from his backpack and handing them to Liu Tao. "No cigarettes, but have some candy instead."

"Haha, candy is the most sought-after high-calorie food in the apocalypse. Aren't you afraid of wasting it?" Peeling off the wrapper and popping one in his mouth, Liu Tao mumbled, "Do you know why I won't go with those two families?"

"Why?" Liu Chang was curious.

"Because I just can't fit in. They're families, and I'm an orphan..."

"An orphan?" Liu Chang's heart skipped a beat. Instinctively, his hand reached into his pocket to touch the half-finger that had once belonged to his father. The skin was now loose and inelastic; a gentle squeeze left a small dent that would never spring back.

"Yeah, an orphan." Liu Tao gazed at the blood-red sky and said nothing more.

The two waited in silence for a while. When boredom and anxiety set in, Liu Chang wandered outside to check the situation, then returned to wait again.

Time passed in that ambiguous way—quick and slow at once. After two or three such circuits, dusk began to fall, but Liu Chang's parents still hadn't arrived.

"We can't wait any longer. The world outside is changing too fast," Liu Tao said as he and Liu Chang stood at the school gate, gazing at the wild grass overtaking the land.

"The grass is already waist-high. If we wait until tomorrow, we might not even be able to see the road at all," Liu Tao frowned. "It's getting more dangerous out there, reminds me of the perilous Amazon jungle. You know, in the law of the jungle, night is always ten times more dangerous than day."

"Yeah, no more waiting," Liu Chang nodded painfully. He yearned to see his parents, but reason told him it was pointless to stay any longer.

By now, most of the people on campus had left, each no doubt finding shelter elsewhere. Few had chosen to spend the night at school.

"Come on, brother," Liu Tao said, clapping Liu Chang on the shoulder with a smile when he saw his troubled expression.

"Let's go," Liu Chang replied, stepping first into the world beyond.

Once they set foot on the former highway, everything felt unfamiliar. In just half a day, the city's traces of civilization had all but vanished.

Everywhere, wild grass and all manner of plants shot up from both soil and cracks in the pavement, thriving exuberantly. The once-solid concrete roads were now losing their battle with nature—broken open and overrun with greenery.

The streets were quieter too.

Gone were the crowds who had gathered out of curiosity or panic earlier. Now, after the initial wave of terror, everyone seemed to have made their plans—no fools left wandering. Some holed up at home, others sought help elsewhere. Few people idled on the streets.

Liu Chang and Liu Tao's goal was still to find a convenience store.

Kaifeng, like any city, had plenty of convenience stores and small supermarkets lining the streets—one every few hundred meters. But since the apocalypse had only just begun a few hours ago, most people were still alive, and the store owners, taking advantage of their position, had locked their doors and holed up inside.

So, the two of them tried several convenience stores without success. When they passed a large supermarket, they heard the sounds of a brawl inside.

"People are fighting in there." The red mist had been rising for hours, permeating everything so thickly that indoors and out were equally shrouded. Standing at the supermarket entrance, peering into the fog and listening to the clanging from within, both had different thoughts.

"There's a lot of stuff in this supermarket," Liu Tao noted, recognizing the chain. It was spacious and well-stocked—enough supplies for a thousand people to last a long while.

"But it's not food for us! There must be hundreds fighting inside!" Liu Chang frowned.

"Seems that way," Liu Tao agreed. "We can't take them, and even sneaking in to pick up scraps would be dangerous."

"Let's go, then."

Once more, they faded into the dense fog. After being turned away by several more convenience stores, they finally found one with an unlocked door. Delighted, they were about to go in when someone emerged from inside first.

"Who's there?" The newcomer, seeing someone trying to enter, instinctively grabbed an iron bar and shouted.