Xiao Hu lay against my chest, paying no attention to what I was saying.
I sighed, roughly dried my hair with the towel, then let it hang loose as I carried him in my arms and walked out.
As I reached the door, Yangyang called out, "Sis, where are you going?"
I was just about to answer when I turned around and saw Yangyang getting smacked on the head by both Xu Shu and Han Xue.
Han Xue pointed out the window at Suo Tian and scolded, "You little brat, don't you know how to read the situation?"
I couldn't help but laugh, then pushed open the door and stepped outside.
Winter had already passed, the weather was warming up, and by now the sky was almost completely dark.
Even with wet hair, I didn't feel cold.
From a distance, Suo Tian noticed me and Xiao Hu right away, lifting his gaze to fix on us.
Out of nowhere, a wave of nervousness hit me.
For a long while now, I hadn't spoken much with Suo Tian.
In the valley, he had always been busy, constantly occupied, hardly ever coming to our group of six.
Even when I caught sight of him, it was only in passing.
When I reached him, he was still staring.
After a moment's thought, I forced myself to speak, a little stiffly:
"I… brought Xiao Hu to keep you company on night watch."
Hearing this, Suo Tian shifted his gaze to the boy in my arms.
After giving him a few looks, he said,
"This is the uninfected child?"
"Mm, that's him." I lowered my eyes to Xiao Hu, tugged at his bandaged hand, and added, "This wound… was from his father's bite."
At those words, Xiao Hu, who had been playing with my hair, suddenly lifted his head and asked,
"Sis, when are we going back to find Mommy and Daddy?"
Suo Tian's brows froze for a moment at the question, and then his eyes slid toward me.
I quickly waved my hand at him, and while Xiao Hu wasn't looking, I mouthed silently: Dead. They're all dead.
Suo Tian studied the boy for a while, as if deep in thought.
Then, after a pause, he moved slightly, reached out to pull open the nearby car door, and said sideways,
"Get in. Your hair's wet."
He reached out to take Xiao Hu, but the child wasn't willing to be held by him.
The moment he ended up in Suo Tian's arms, he started fussing.
Once I got into the backseat, Suo Tian followed, and I immediately took the boy back into my arms.
"There, there, Sis is holding you. No more fussing."
Xiao Hu had always lived in the valley with his parents and grandparents, never leaving their side.
Now, with all of them gone in a single day, he was forced to live among strangers.
No wonder he felt so insecure.
He clung to me because we had been imprisoned together for a few days—compared to the others, I was the most familiar face, a fragile lifeline he refused to let go of.
Suo Tian stared at him curled in my arms for a while, then suddenly pressed his lips into a faint smile.
Hooking Xiao Hu's chin with a finger, he teased,
"You've taken my place."
My face instantly flushed. I hurried to say,
"Don't talk nonsense in front of the child."
But Xiao Hu clearly understood him.
He immediately turned his body, wrapping both little arms tightly around me, then turned his head toward Suo Tian and let out a defiant "hmph."
Suo Tian's smile deepened.
I couldn't even remember the last time I'd seen him laugh.
Sitting so close, staring at him, I felt my head spinning.
His looks—if this were the world before—would have been enough to charm countless girls.
Compared to those TV idols who only knew how to pout and act cute, relying on makeup and special effects, Suo Tian was far more captivating.
I stared at him blankly for a while before finally asking Suo Tian, who was still teasing Xiao Hu,
"Did you have some kind of conflict with that man surnamed Yang?"
That man had fainted not long after we set out.
After his bleeding was stopped and wounds bandaged, he'd been carried into one of the side rooms of the restaurant and locked in there.
Even when I stepped out just now, he still hadn't woken up.
Hearing my question, Suo Tian glanced at me, then lowered his eyes back to Xiao Hu.
"Mm."
"What was it about?"
"His two children died."
"And what does that have to do with you?"
"He begged me to go save them. I didn't."
After saying this, Suo Tian sat upright, scanning the area outside the car window before he slowly continued,
"So he believes their deaths were my fault."
"Then… why didn't you go save them? Was it because the situation made it impossible?"
Suo Tian didn't answer right away.
His gaze fixed on one spot for a long while before he finally spoke, his tone carrying a rare trace of helplessness:
"I was exhausted."
That stunned me.
Suo Tian leaned his head back against the seat and tilted his face toward me.
"Those two kids were trapped on the thirtieth floor. The whole building was crawling with walkers. I couldn't save them."
His calm expression made emotions I couldn't quite name surge up in my chest.
All this time, every one of us had grown used to treating Suo Tian as if he were invincible.
Even the black-clad men had relied on him.
Deep down, we all thought as long as he was around, he could handle anything.
We forgot—he's just human.
Flesh and blood.
Dr. Yang's hatred of him probably came from believing Suo Tian had the ability to save those kids but chose not to—completely ignoring that even he had limits.
The more I thought about it, the more it hurt.
We always assumed it was natural, expected, for him to shoulder everything.
No one ever cared whether he was tired or not.
Feeling a tightening in my chest, I shifted closer and reached for his hand, holding it gently.
Without knowing what to say, I simply rested my head on his shoulder.
Xiao Hu instantly grew unhappy, stretching out his little hand to push my head away from Suo Tian's shoulder.
I was just about to tell him not to fuss when I heard Suo Tian chuckle softly beside my ear.
Then, releasing my hand, he tilted my chin up with his fingers.
I froze, puzzled, lifting my eyes toward him—and the next second, he leaned in.
Softness brushed my lips.
Just a fleeting kiss, light as a dragonfly skimming water, was enough to leave me dizzy and dazed.
Even after Suo Tian straightened back up, I was still in a fog, until he squeezed my hand lightly, grounding me back to reality.
There was a faint smile on his face again.
After looking at me twice, he bent down and said to Xiao Hu, "Why aren't you asleep yet?"
"He napped half the day. How could he possibly go to bed this early?" I blurted without thinking.
Meeting Suo Tian's eyes the next instant, realization hit me.
My cheeks burned, and I stammered,
"Th-tha… that's not what I—"
"What?" Suo Tian pressed.
"N-nothing…" I coughed awkwardly.
Xiao Hu blinked at him for a moment, then huffed and turned his head.
"Not sleeping."
Both of us burst into laughter.
I pinched Xiao Hu's cheek, just about to tease him for being such a little rascal—when Suo Tian suddenly raised his hand toward me, then pointed out the window into the distance.
I froze for a moment, then followed the direction he was pointing.
Our car was parked right in front of the restaurant, facing the plaza.
Beyond the plaza was a gas station, and further ahead was the entrance to the highway.
At that very moment, a few staggering figures were shambling toward us from the highway entrance.
Suo Tian drew his blade, pushed the car door open, and told me,
"Stay here. Don't get out."
With that, he ran straight toward the approaching walkers.
Holding Xiao Hu in my arms, I rolled the window down and leaned out to watch his figure dart away.
He was fast—before long, he had already reached the gas station.
By then, the walkers had also made it inside.
Suo Tian moved with ruthless precision, circling around a couple of the pillars inside before cutting them all down one after another.
When I saw him wipe his blade clean on one of the corpses before heading back toward us, I looked down at Xiao Hu and asked,
"Isn't big brother amazing?"
It was dark, and we were far away, so Xiao Hu could only make out Suo Tian's movements and silhouette under the faint moonlight—he couldn't see the bloodied details of the blade piercing skulls.
Hearing my words, he stared at Suo Tian for a moment, then looked up at me and struck a "Ultraman transformation" pose with his little hands.
Excitedly, he said,
"Big brother—shua!—turns into Tiga! Shua! Ka-ka! Boom! Then he beats the bad guys!"
His words were strung together with those vivid, childlike sound effects, and then he leaned back on the window, eyes fixed on Suo Tian walking back toward us.
It took me a while to piece together what he meant.
Realizing it, I laughed and asked,
"Oh, you're saying big brother is Ultraman Tiga, right?"
"Mm-hmm!" Xiao Hu nodded hard.
I couldn't help but burst out laughing.
Just then, Suo Tian reached the car.
Hearing me laugh, he glanced over and asked,
"What are you laughing at?"
Shifting to the side to make space for him as he climbed in, I pointed at Xiao Hu and said,
"Xiao Hu says you're Ultraman Tiga."
Xiao Hu, his eyes wide with adoration, stared at Suo Tian with unrestrained awe.
Then he suddenly broke into silly giggles, drooling a little at the corner of his mouth in the process.
Closing the car door, Suo Tian gave him a sidelong glance, bent down again, and asked,
"Why are you still not asleep?"
…
And so, fired up with excitement, Xiao Hu demanded story after story.
By the time I finished a few stories, it was already late.
At last, Xiao Hu drifted off into a deep sleep.
My own eyelids felt impossibly heavy, my head nodding as drowsiness took over.
Through the haze, I felt Xiao Hu being lifted gently from my arms.
The absence startled me awake, only to see Suo Tian carefully laying him down across the front seats, reclined into a makeshift bed.
Relief washed over me.
After settling the boy, Suo Tian returned to the back seat, slipped an arm around my shoulders, and pulled me close.
I rested against his chest, let out a long yawn, and glanced at the quiet night beyond the window.
The moon wasn't very bright, and all around us was silence…
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