The blizzard conditions were ferocious. The biting cold wind scraped Gu Rong’s little face raw.

The streets were a complete mess, littered everywhere with garbage and corpses. Blood stained the snow-covered road black.

Gu Rong ran for half a day, completely directionless, not knowing where to find his Daddy and Mommy.

He clearly remembered the route to his parents’ company, but after the zombie outbreak, everything had changed. As far as the eye could see, everything looked vastly different from before; he couldn’t recognize the old landmarks anymore.

Gu Rong passed by the park where he had ridden his scooter before. He stopped his little feet, taking a moment to react before finally recognizing the park.

On a patch of grass in the park, corpses were piled up, forming a small corpse mountain. The bodies were all mutilated, chewed up, and tattered by something. At first glance, they looked very similar to trampled, rotten vegetable leaves in a wet market. Human lives were worth less than rotten vegetable leaves.

Gu Rong’s little face was flushed red from the cold. A tiny little figure standing at the intersection. A snowflake landed on his eyelashes, icy cold. He blinked, and it gently fell away.

Gu Rong didn’t linger long. Soon, he set off again, continuing to run forward.

After running past two streets, Gu Rong stumbled and fell twice along the way. Each time he fell, he climbed back up himself, wiped his small hands on his down jacket, and continued running forward, without crying or fussing at all.

Passing by a shopping center, Gu Rong encountered a zombie gnawing on two corpses. It was a man and a woman. Their faces were still largely intact, both with eyes wide open, unable to rest in peace.

The male corpse’s stomach had already been hollowed out. The zombie was currently digging into and eating the female corpse’s liver, blood dripping, still steaming in the cold air.

Hearing the movement, the zombie paused its actions, stiffly turning its head. Its white, pupil-less eyeballs fixed intently on Gu Rong, this fair and tender cub.

Gu Rong clenched his small fists, his little bun face tight, staring back at the large zombie without blinking.

After a two-second standoff, the zombie dropped the corpse in its hands, twisted its stiff body, and decisively lunged towards Gu Rong.

Gu Rong turned and ran. But Gu Rong’s short legs couldn’t run fast, and the large zombie’s movements were too swift. It was about to pounce on him.

Gu Rong’s mind was sharp. Knowing he couldn’t outrun the large zombie, and his props were now ineffective, his sharp eyes spotted a collapsed billboard. With a nimble dive, he squeezed directly underneath it, crawling into the innermost space.

That zombie lacked intelligence. Seeing Gu Rong squeeze into the gap under the billboard, it followed, trying to squeeze in too. The gap was wide at first, but quickly became extremely narrow.

Gu Rong, being tiny, easily crawled through even wearing his down jacket, but the large zombie got stuck. The large zombie reached its hand towards Gu Rong, its face rotten, ferocious, and twisted.

Gu Rong looked back at it once, then crawled out from the other end of the billboard, leaving the zombie stuck underneath.

–

Along the way, Gu Rong encountered several more zombies, all of which he skillfully evaded. The cub was very experienced at dodging zombies. Living in the apocalypse before, he saw zombies every day. He was a Little Zombie; the big, bad zombies bullied him and stole his prey. Whenever he couldn’t beat the big bad zombies, he would just squeeze into a small corner. The big zombies couldn’t reach him, so they couldn’t bully him!

But not all zombies were bad guys. There were also many good zombies – zombie brothers, sisters, uncles, aunties, grandpas, grandmas – who even shared human blood with him. It was just that all that human blood smelled too stinky; he couldn’t drink it.

After being chased by zombies several times, Gu Rong successfully got lost again. He had come out to find his Daddy and Mommy, but had no idea where to look. He wanted to go home, but was already too far away and couldn’t find his way back.

Passing by an abandoned subway entrance, a large rat, bigger than Gu Rong himself, jumped out. This rat had mutated. The fur on its body resembled steel needles, sharp and hard. It usually ran away upon seeing humans, but now, seeing a human cub two sizes smaller than itself, it stopped short, targeting Gu Rong directly.

The mutated rat’s mouth quivered, the whiskers on its snout tens of centimeters long. Gu Rong, standing before it, resembled a little coal ball.

Gu Rong widened his eyes, opened his mouth wide, and tilted his little head up to look at the large rat. His first reaction wasn’t fear, but amazement: “Wow! Such a big rat!”

The rat’s eyes gleamed greedily, its face fierce, about to pounce on Gu Rong. However, just as it tensed to leap, for some unknown reason, it seemed to see some supremely terrifying existence, looked fearfully behind Gu Rong, even showing a trace of pitifulness.

Gu Rong found it strange. Before he could react, the large rat turned and fled desperately, disappearing in the blink of an eye.

“Huh?” Gu Rong tilted his little head.

“Meow~” A cat’s cry came from behind him.

Gu Rong turned around and saw a small black cat following slowly behind him, its eyes emerald green. Seeing Gu Rong turn back, it meowed at him again.

Gu Rong recognized this little cat at a glance, his eyes brightening: “Little kitty cat! How did you follow Zaizai here? You scared the big rat away!”

This time, the little kitty cat didn’t even meow, as if it couldn’t understand what Gu Rong was saying.

Gu Rong wanted to pick up the little kitty cat, but upon trying, he surprisingly couldn’t lift it. Perhaps he was too hungry and lacked strength.

Unable to carry the little kitty cat, Gu Rong could only walk side-by-side with it.

Gu Rong said crisply: “Little kitty cat, why you follow Zaizai? Zaizai has no yummy food. Zaizai self tummy hungry.”

He patted his own flat little tummy, his thoughts turning to food. Even if he couldn’t eat, talking about it was good too. “Zaizai wants to eat a big chicken leg! Also wants to eat a big hamburger!”

The little cat maintained its stinky face, ignoring him completely, looking noble and aloof. But it followed closely beside Gu Rong, step for step.

The little cat didn’t talk to Gu Rong, but Gu Rong was a chatty cub and could chatter nonstop bababa by himself. But perhaps because he was too hungry, after saying a few sentences, he ran out of energy to open his mouth.

“Hungry.” Gu Rong sighed like a little adult, spreading his fair, tender, but now mud-streaked little hands. His hands were empty, nothing there. He could only go hungry.

“Little kitty cat, have you seen my Daddy Mommy?” The little cat naturally wouldn’t answer him.

–

After wandering aimlessly outside for two days, Gu Rong arrived under a bridge culvert, too hungry to walk any further. In these two days, he had only drunk one bottle of milk he found, luckily discovered in an abandoned supermarket. He hadn’t eaten anything else. After the apocalypse, food had been looted clean. Adults struggled to find food, let alone a two-year-old cub.

Gu Rong’s down jacket had also become dirty, his little face turning into a little dirt cat. Snow was still falling, seemingly without end.

The space under the bridge was piled high with discarded cardboard boxes. There were no people, nor any zombies. Gu Rong stumbled over, sat down behind the broken boxes in the furthest corner, curled into a small ball, his entire body shivering violently from the cold.

Gu Rong listlessly lowered his eyes, the tiny cub looking just like a doll. The bridge culvert couldn’t completely block the wind and snow; snowflakes still blew in.

A three-year-old cub appeared before Gu Rong, looking down at him, the hem of His black robes embroidered with dark gold patterns resting on the ground.

“Lord Devil…” The three-year-old cub paused slightly. Lord Devil? Why could this cub not only see Him but also know He was Lord Devil?

The three-year-old cub was precisely Lu Li. But at this point in time, He had not yet met Gu Rong.

Humanity’s apocalypse; the Devil descends upon the world. He is this world’s most evil god. No one could see Him, only this two-year-old cub.

Gu Rong’s vision caught a glimpse of a black robe hem. He looked for a long moment, then slowly raised his head. But the space before him was empty. As if what he saw just now was an illusion. There was no Lord Devil.

The little black cat snuggled beside him, its eyes half-closed. Gu Rong saw the little cat. Afraid it was cold, he reached out, wanting to hold it in his arms for warmth. The little cat glanced at him, then jumped into his lap itself.

Strange to say, the cub himself was already frozen like an ice sculpture. Staying in his arms offered no warmth at all, only cold. But the little cat remained curled in his lap, motionless.

Absurd. Lu Li thought. A cub about to die himself, yet still thinking of offering kindness to others.

Gu Rong huddled behind the broken cardboard boxes, shivering all over, his small face pale.

“Little kitty cat, Zaizai is sleepy. Want sleepy time.” Gu Rong said.

The little cat opened its eyes, slowly looking at him.

Gu Rong hugged the little cat, closing his eyes, his small milky voice murmuring like sleep talk: “Find Daddy… find Mommy…”

Lu Li: “…”

Snowflakes blew over, landing on Gu Rong’s small face, but he himself was unaware.

Lu Li paused for a moment, then extended a cat paw, gently wiping the snowflakes away for him.