Eighty. Because of the happiness I'd known as a child, I was cheerful by nature.
But... life had turned me into someone so cold... someone who could even be called a little heartless.
Then there was Long Tianfeng... No, the good friend whose place Long Tianfeng had taken. His appearance had been like a small cloud in this
desert, helping me block the scorching sun for a little while and giving me a few drops of dew, letting me stubbornly... hold on to myself and survive until now.
Though years of growing up had almost worn away the silly, goofy personality I'd had as a child, my nature was still my nature.
Even if I was a little cold, and took everything in stride, the truth was, I was still pretty goofy.
It was just that I'd been through too much as a child. Even without those memories, my instincts still made me wary of everything around me.
So... after all this time, I'd probably lost my faith in people, hadn't I?
That was why I rarely let my goofy side show in front of others.
Maybe that was what they called "protecting yourself."
Cold around others, goofy when alone... Yeah.
Still, even though these children were only five or six years old, with mature-looking bodies and appearances—and knowledge that probably exceeded that of most college students—I couldn't bring myself to be wary of them.
Maybe it was because their childlike innocence hadn't yet been worn away.
Human nature was evil. In harsh circumstances, it was a natural means of self-preservation.
Human nature was good. In the right circumstances, it was a natural means of protecting others.
The first was easy to understand: let someone else die so you could live.
The second meant people naturally developed kind thoughts in