Moving

For the next several days, Chen Xu went over to Luo Xiyun's place every day. After all, she was injured now; it was only right to look after her.

Calling it looking after her was a bit of an exaggeration. Really, he was just making enough food for one more person.

Perhaps his words that night had worked. Although Luo Xiyun remained as quiet as ever, at least she no longer gave him the cold shoulder or said anything harsh to him.

They still sat across from each other when they ate. The table was small, leaving them close together, with a rechargeable desk lamp beside them for lighting.

In the gaps between bites, Chen Xu would occasionally look up and see her face. Whenever he did, his heart would skip a beat. Under the white light, her skin seemed to be veiled in a soft glow.

It felt completely different from looking at photos or videos. The women in those photos and videos might have looked more refined, more flawless. But after staring at them through a computer or phone screen for too long, he felt nothing much anymore.

Now, Luo Xiyun sat less than a meter away from him. He could sense her breathing, even faintly smell her fragrance, and see the shadows cast by the light upon her long eyelashes...

All of it left his heart unsettled.

Chen Xu quickly looked away, restraining the restlessness stirring within him.

He was not someone determined to stay single for life, but if he never met the right person, staying alone was fine too. He had been through it before and felt that relationships between men and women were nothing all that special.

But once he had been cut off from the environment of modern society and was truly left all alone, it really was not easy.

Before, when he had kept his distance from Luo Xiyun, he had not felt much. But after being in such close contact with her, he realized that his willpower was nowhere near as strong as he had thought.

If this went on, he felt that one day before long, his animal instincts would take over...

"Can't the generator be fixed?"

Just as his thoughts were running wild, Luo Xiyun suddenly spoke from across the table. Her voice was quiet, and he was so dazed that he thought he might have imagined it. He could not help raising his head to look at her.

It took him nearly a second to confirm that she had really spoken. He said, "Uh... the motor's broken. It can't be repaired."

"Oh." Luo Xiyun merely gave an oh at his answer.

Chen Xu thought to himself that this counted as her taking the initiative to ease things between them, right? Considering how stubborn she had been over the past few months, it must have been a difficult step for her. He wondered whether he should take the initiative and say something too.

"Will we die here?"

Before he could think of what to say, Luo Xiyun spoke again. She looked toward the doorway, as though asking him, yet also as though speaking to herself.

Chen Xu had not expected her to ask something like that. Her expression was calm, but beneath that calmness, he sensed something wrong with her mood. Not knowing how to answer, he could only ask in return, "Why would you ask that?"

"It's been raining for days. I've never seen rain this heavy, lasting this long."

Chen Xu knew she was right. Five days had passed since the typhoon began. The typhoon itself had stopped after two days, but the rain showed no sign of letting up.

It had rained heavily for five days and five nights. As far as Chen Xu could remember, he had never encountered anything like it. Plenty of low-lying areas were probably already flooded.

This place stood on relatively high ground. At least during the two years he had worked at the company, he had never heard of anywhere nearby flooding during the summer storms.

But if the rain kept falling without end, that would be another matter.

That morning, he had gone out to take a look. Standing water had already begun accumulating in quite a few lower areas.

In fact, he had already been considering moving if the rain did not stop in another couple of days. He had even picked out a destination.

Chen Xu comforted her, "The rain will stop eventually."

"What if it never stops?" Luo Xiyun turned to look him in the eyes. A trace of confusion showed in her dim gaze. "At the end of the world, anything can happen, can't it?"

To her, this was already the end of the world. Humanity had vanished, leaving only the two of them. If that was not the end of the world, what was? The relentless rain had made her pessimistic about the future. Perhaps that was why she had finally let go of the "grudge" between them.

Chen Xu said, "As long as we're alive, it isn't the end of the world."

Luo Xiyun looked at him, and her eyes gained a little more light.

"Still, your concern is valid. We don't know when this rain will stop. I think we should prepare to move out in advance." Chen Xu took the opportunity to voice his own thoughts.

"Move?" Luo Xiyun was puzzled at first, then surprised.

At first, Chen Xu had only regarded this place as a temporary camp. He had never intended to live here for all six months. Later, after Luo Xiyun arrived, the two of them entered a "cold war," and it was not easy for him to bring up moving, so the matter kept getting delayed.

He had made preparations long ago. A Twelve-wheeled Truck, filled with fuel, had always been parked in his garage, its cargo compartment stocked with plenty of supplies.

Now, he was grateful for his foresight. The rain was even heavier that day, making it a huge hassle to move things. Thanks to his prior preparations, there was much less for him to carry.

He spent a day filling the truck's remaining space with food and water. After resting for a night, he left the place they had lived in for more than four months with Luo Xiyun early the next morning.

When Luo Xiyun got into the vehicle, she seemed somewhat reluctant to leave, and fearful of the unknown future.

"Let's go. If we get the chance, we can come back someday," Chen Xu comforted her. He started the truck and drove toward a new future.

His driver's license was a C License, which normally did not permit him to drive a heavy truck like this. He had taught himself over the past few months. At first, it was because clearing vehicles from the roads one by one was too troublesome.

So he came up with a simpler method: driving a heavy truck and ramming the cars blocking the road aside. It proved far more efficient. In less than a month, he had cleared all the roads around them.

Familiar with the roads, he avoided the low-lying areas that might have flooded. It took him quite a bit longer, and he did not reach their destination until nearly noon.

It was a villa built on a mountain. This was a Villa District, the highest ground in the entire district, not too far from his company. He had come here once while searching for supplies and discovered that it was an excellent place to live.

Most importantly, the villa he had chosen came with a generator.

Life without electricity was simply too inconvenient, especially on rainy days like this.

He parked the truck in front of the villa. After the two of them went inside, they first began a thorough cleanup.