He paused and looked at the grey sky in the distance as well as the brown eagle hovering in the sky. “It is hard to imagine all the efforts that humans made to survive from ancient times to the present are in vain and to become witness to the event of the total destruction of humans.”

He looked back at Lu Feng. “Honestly, you are a lot calmer than I expected.”

“How did you get hit?” He added, “I don’t know what type of species An Zhe but he managed to slip out of the base’s tight defenses. It is normal to miss him. Even if you catch him, you won’t be able to keep him. Don’t worry about it too much.”

Lu Feng didn’t speak. He just held out his hand. A soft, snowy little thing rolled out of his sleeve and he looked at it.

Strangely, a soft thought filled his mind. He seemed to have returned to the moment when An Zhe stayed quietly beside him. At night, they slept together. An Zhe always turned his back to Lu Feng but once he was asleep, he would turn over and lean gently against Lu Feng’s chest. In the morning, he wouldn’t know why. He would furrow those beautiful eyebrows and turn back. Then Lu Feng hugged him from behind.

It turned out that these were the most memorable few days of his life. The snow-white mycelium was affectionately wrapped around his finger.

The doctor froze. “How did you get it? You brought it back?”

“Yes.”

“What about An Zhe?” The doctor spoke very quickly. “Did you kill him?”

The spore seemed frightened by this man’s sudden loud voice and shrank back into Lu Feng’s sleeve. Then after a while, it appeared again and lovingly rubbed itself against Lu Feng’s neck. Lu Feng answered, “He left.”

“How can you be willing to let him go? What exactly is he?” The doctor’s eyes widened. “Can he protect himself?”

Lu Feng touched the soft spore and didn’t answer. In the darkness, his side profile was a silent silhouette.

The doctor stared at him and suddenly frowned. “Where is your gun?”

***

The roof.

An Zhe watched the convoy disappearing into the distance before moving his stiff body and standing up from the flowerbed. Yesterday’s heavy rain had filled it with water. At this time, some filament-like creatures were wriggling in the water. They had been born yesterday.

Then once the sky cleared up, the accumulated water would soon dry up. Shortly after birth, they would face eternal death. This was true of all living things. Will his spore live longer than these dead creatures? He hoped so.