"A high wall? Then find a way to break it."
"What if you can't?" [Hunger King] pressed. "If you can't break that high wall, and you can't grow food either, what will you do?"
Ma Zhuo was stumped. If they couldn't break the wall and had no food, wouldn't they simply starve to death? No one could solve a situation like that.
He gave a bitter smile. "That's far too cruel a hypothetical."
"But... if it's a wall, then we have to climb to the top and get over it. Pile stones beneath our feet, pile the bodies of the dead beneath our feet-find any way we can to climb over."
Ma Zhuo clenched his fists. "At a time like that, pooling all our strength and finding a way out is the only right answer, even if it means letting others climb over on my shoulders."
"What if you can't succeed?"
Ma Zhuo picked up his spoon and put it in his bowl. "Even if we can't succeed, we still have to climb. Rather than starve to death, we'd be better off fighting until we die of exhaustion. At least we'd have hope at the end, and it wouldn't be too painful."
[Hunger King]'s hollow eyes widened a little. It felt as though part of its heart had caved in, and the endless clamor in its ears fell quiet.
The noisy din vanished from its ears, leaving the peace of a tranquil night. It was a stillness it had never felt since its birth, and every cell in its body felt comfortable and at peace.
A glimmer entered its eyes, like a speck of preserved sunlight set into a gray, empty world. It lowered its head and stared blankly at the soft porridge before it.
Ma Zhuo truly treated the