bookrandom Chapter 1012 The Winter of Humanity
Chapter 1012 The Winter of Humanity
"Ah!" Xiao Juan let out a short scream. Her thin body staggered backward like a kite with a broken string. She tripped over a piece of gravel, lost her balance, and hit her head hard on a sharp-edged piece of broken brick that protruded from the ground with a dull thud!
Before she could even utter a sound, her eyes instantly lost focus, and her small body slumped softly to the ground, motionless!
In the chaos, no one noticed the little girl who had fallen.
The crowd fighting for the grain had completely lost their minds. They pushed and shoved each other like mad dogs, cursing as they rushed toward the discovered grain pit.
Someone stepped on Xiao Juan's thin arm, and a sickening cracking sound rang out! Someone else stepped on her frail chest and abdomen! Many more people didn't even have time to bend down and simply stepped over her!
Fresh blood gushed from Xiao Juan's mouth, nostrils, and even ears, quickly spreading into a glaring, ever-expanding crimson patch on her pale, paper-white face!
"Xiao Juan!!! My child!!!"
Li Shouren, who was being beaten on the ground, witnessed this most tragic scene in human life through the gaps between the legs of the crowd!
He let out a heart-wrenching howl, completely inhuman, like that of a dying beast! His eyes were bloodshot, almost bulging out of their sockets, from extreme pain and rage!
He struggled desperately, trying to rush over, but the force pressing down on him was like a mountain. He could only writhe in vain like a fish pinned to the ground, feeling the vibrations from the ground as it trampled on his daughter's frail body!
Each step felt like it was landing directly on his heart, crushing his soul to dust!
Inside the room, Widow Sun had already used her body to firmly hold the dilapidated wooden door shut. She listened to Li Shouren's screams outside, Xiao Juan's brief cries, and the rioters' frenzied shouts. Tears streamed down her face, and her whole body trembled like a leaf in the wind.
She dared not open the door; outside lay hell! She could only use her back to shield the dozen or so other children inside, who were huddled together in terror, unable to even cry out. Her weak, desperate cries escaped her lips: "Stop hitting them! Please stop! This is a terrible thing to do! Leave the children a way out! God, please open your eyes!!"
The robbery itself didn't last long, but to Li Shouren and Widow Sun, it felt like an eternity.
The commotion gradually subsided when the last bag of rice and the last can of food were found and clutched by the mob like trophies.
Manager Wang counted the "spoils of war," a twisted, satisfied grin spreading across his face.
He glanced at Li Shouren, who was lying on the ground barely alive, then at Xiao Juan, who lay in a pool of blood not far away, her life hanging in the balance. He spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva and cursed, "Bah! The end of a traitor! Let's go!"
Having just completed a cannibalistic plunder, the group of people, clutching their looted food, vanished quickly into the shadows of the ruins outside the courtyard gate like a triumphant band of robbers, without even turning their heads back.
The courtyard fell into a deathly silence.
Only the cold wind continued to howl tirelessly, swirling up snowflakes and bloodstains on the ground, making a mournful sound.
The courtyard gate was wide open, like a huge wound facing the gray sky outside.
The courtyard was a mess, littered with broken debris, overturned earthenware pots, and... two pools of glaring blood on the ground, one belonging to Li Shouren, and the larger one to his unfortunate daughter, Xiao Juan.
Hope, that faint, flickering oil lamp, was utterly extinguished at this moment by the coldest, most merciless wind from its own kind.
The winter of humanity has arrived so thoroughly and so cruelly.
. . . . . . . . . .
Time seemed to stand still in the courtyard.
The clamor and frenzy left behind by the rioters receded like the tide, leaving only a deathly, suffocating silence.
This silence was more terrifying than any noise; it pressed heavily on every corner, swallowing up all life.
Only the cold wind, tirelessly howling, poured in through the open courtyard gate, stirring up dust, snowflakes, and the still-dried stench of blood, swirling in the empty courtyard, making sounds like the low weeping of countless wronged souls.
Li Shouren lay limp on the cold, hard ground, like a tattered sack stripped of all its bones and soul.
His face was bruised and swollen, his mouth was split open and covered with dark red scabs, his nose seemed crooked, and blood flowed down his philtrum to his chin and dripped onto his shirt.
But he felt no pain whatsoever, as if this ravaged body no longer belonged to him.
All his senses, all his consciousness, were firmly held captive by the small, motionless figure lying in a pool of blood not far away, nailed there like an iron nail.
Xiao Juan... His Xiao Juan...
A strange, hoarse sound, like an old bellows straining to draw air, came from his throat; it was so dry it seemed to be smoking, yet not a single drop of saliva came out.
He used all the strength he had left to crawl forward on his hands and feet, his elbows and knees scraping against the rough frozen ground and gravel, leaving bloody marks, but he was completely unaware of it.
Finally, he climbed to his daughter's side.
He trembled like a leaf in the wind, his outstretched hands, covered in frostbite, grime, and fresh abrasions, hovering in mid-air, hesitant to bring them down, afraid to touch that small body that seemed so fragile.
He was afraid, afraid that what he felt through his fingertips was only coldness and deathly silence.
Xiao Juan lay there quietly, beneath her a pool of dark red blood that was not yet fully congealed, looking particularly gruesome on the gray-white ground.
Her face was deathly pale, devoid of any color, her lips were a pale bluish-purple, her eyes were tightly closed, and tiny teardrops clung to her long eyelashes.
Her breathing was so faint that it was almost imperceptible. Only by getting very close could one see the extremely slight, intermittent twitching of her nostrils, as if it would stop at any moment.
Thin streaks of blood were constantly and slowly seeping from the corners of her mouth, nostrils, and ears, appearing shockingly red against her pale skin.
One of her arms was twisted at an extremely unnatural, reversed joint angle, hanging limply at her side, clearly broken by someone stepping on it.
"Xiao... Juan..." Li Shouren finally uttered a broken, almost incoherent murmur, his voice as light as a feather falling to the ground.
He could no longer restrain himself. Carefully, as if holding the most precious and fragile piece of glass in the world, he gently, gently embraced his daughter's cold and soft little body.
When Xiao Juan's soft body pressed against his blood-stained chest, a heart-wrenching pain instantly shattered all his numbness.