Accepting the Call

"You liked being with Ding Dong, so you were willing to travel thousands of miles to Forbidden Zone No. 002 just to eat some fruit he had prepared for you, then leave."

At dusk, Yang Yang spoke softly.

The setting sun shone upon their faces until it finally sank, lonely, behind the mountains.

"Yes." Qing Chen nodded. "Only by seeing him can I remember what kindness looked like in the beginning. Yang Yang, before the Transmigration Event happened, I was just an ordinary student. I didn't know how to get through the days ahead. Every day, I still had to go to that little alley in Junmin Lane to play chess with the shop owner. He knew I was poor, so even though he kept losing, he kept playing with me. He wasn't learning chess at all. He was simply moved by how hard I was trying to survive and wanted to help me out. Back then, I thought he was the kindest person in the world, but my pride kept me from saying it, as if those games of chess had truly been fair transactions."

Qing Chen sat beneath the supermarket awning in that little alley, watching people at the far end hurry to catch the No. 103 bus.

He watched raindrops fall onto the ground beyond the awning.

He had once felt safe there, but only within that little alley. Once he left it, he still had to face the entire world.

Qing Chen said, "It's too hard to remain kind in this world. Life will tell you more than once just how worthless the moral standards you cling to really are. Those who murder and burn reap wealth, while those who build bridges and mend roads die unburied. Living examples of success teach you to stop at