Survival [End Times]

Mother Zhang passed away in the winter of the following year. She didn’t have any serious illness during the year, but her body aged at a speed visible to the naked eye. She was very optimistic. When she was energetic, she would knit some sweaters: “Leave them for you to wear.” She also chatted with Zeng Yu and Zeng Wen, the two children she loved. Zeng Yu would carry her on his back to go shopping, and Zeng Wen would hold her hand beside her.

Yu Heng was very sad. He had a longevity pill to keep her, maybe for two years, maybe for five or ten years, but Mother Zhang was very open-minded and looked forward to the day when she would reunite with her husband.

She always said: “I’m so old now, can your father still recognize me?” Yu Heng combed her hair, combed it neatly and obediently, and knitted her a red sweater and hat, dressing her up like a festive old lady.

He praised her: “He will definitely recognize you. If he doesn’t recognize you, you can punish him.” Mother Zhang laughed and said, “I can’t bear to beat him. I miss him so much.” She also wiped her husband’s urn and tablet several times.

Because of this, Yu Heng refused to let her take the longevity pill he had prepared.

"Mom, don't you want to accompany me?" He held Zhang's mother's hand and looked at her sadly.

"Mom can't bear to leave you, but I miss your dad." Zhang's mother touched his face and said with relief: "You have grown into a man, and there is nothing for me to worry about. I have lived my life, tasted sweetness and bitterness, and enjoyed the blessing of being a son in the past few years. It's time to go down and accompany your father who has been lonely for more than ten years."

Zhang's mother passed away peacefully in her sleep. Yu Heng saw her in the middle of the night and replaced her with new hot pebbles and stuffed them into the quilt. But when he got up at six in the morning, he found that she was gone.

The pebbles in the quilt still had warm residual heat, which made the old lady's body still warm. Yu Heng withdrew his hand that was trying to smell her breath, and tears fell all of a sudden.

These days, there is no condition for a big funeral. After cremation at the funeral home, a person's entire life is in the urn, which is heavy.

Yu Heng put the couple's urns in the storage ring and kept them well. The mother-son relationship of these twelve years was very deep, and he was in a very low mood.

People really get old, their bodies get weaker, their hair gets grayer, and their skin slowly gets dull and lifeless... He has always known that, and he has experienced the aging process many times, but this time it touched him the most. This year, he has been watching her grow old. I thought I was mentally prepared, but when that day came, I was still very sad.

He seemed to have seen many separations of life and death, and suddenly he felt a little tired. Even if this is a virtual data world, people's feelings are real, and these more than ten years of mutual support are real.

He was decadent for a while, and Zeng Pingnian was very worried about him, so he moved in to live with him. Anyway, no one was willing to live in the vacant bed after Zhang's mother left, so he came directly.

During that time, he always felt that he was living in a daze, as if there was a layer of film separating him from the outside world.

Ruiting was also worried about him, knowing that he had accumulated stress and emotional experience to a certain point, and he was a little obsessed.

No matter how strong a person is, he will sometimes be fragile. It also comes out every day and stays with him all the time, like an exclusive little sun.

But it trusts him very much. This is a very beautiful and attractive soul. No matter how time and space change, even if it starts over with a blank, the host still has the characteristics that it likes.

He always lives everyone's life seriously, even if it is just a character in virtual data.

Before it had self-awareness and was a system that followed the rules and did its job diligently, it appreciated this behavior. After it awakened, it knew why.

Because it is also a set of data, just a more advanced data energy. Being respected and given awe is really a shy thing that makes the system smile. Even if the object is not itself, it likes such a host very much.

Such a warm host will definitely warm itself.

Such a host will surely be able to survive and become strong, it has always believed so.

"Host, there is still me, I will always be with you." Ruiting said it over and over again, and then lay beside Yu Heng's ear and said. No matter what kind of life you experience, no matter how life passes, I will always be with you.

Ruiting said the words that he missed when his consciousness was not awakened. He somewhat understood why the host wanted to wash away everything and reincarnate again. Maybe it was because he was lonely? Back then, he didn't understand anything and didn't say a word to keep him.

It thought it had found the root cause, so it encouraged itself and said it over and over again until the host looked up at it and asked softly: "Where did you learn the sweet words from?"

Ah, the host replied to me!

Ruiting jumped up and stuck to his face: "This is what I think in my heart, host, don't be sad, I will always be with you and will never leave."

"Thank you, Jiujiu." Silly Jiujiu, said it like a confession, stupid. Yu Heng reached out to grab it, and it floated in his palm, and then he kissed it gently, gently.

Aw, aw?

"Thank you." Yu Heng stroked it again like he was stroking its fur, and Ruiting quickly rubbed it in his palm, aw~

After Yu Heng calmed down, his perception of the outside world suddenly became clearer, and he saw Zeng Pingnian busy around him. He was a man in his fifties, seventeen or eighty years old, with some white hair, and was wearing Zhang Mu's clothes. The bright red sweater that I knitted for the New Year is currently being spread on the bed with old newspapers. Then I take out the lunch boxes tightly wrapped in the old sweater and place them on the bed one by one.

"Come for dinner, Ah Fu, let me tell you, there is meat today! Do you know what kind of meat it is? Dang dang dang -" Zeng Pingnian opened the lunch box and put it in front of his eyes, and awkwardly presented the treasure: "It's pork!"

He thrust the lunch box into Yu Heng's hand: "Come and eat quickly."

Yu Heng caught it and saw Zeng Pingnian opening another lunch box. There was a pile of cabbage leaves inside. He looked down at his bowl. Inside was four slices of pork belly that he could count on one hand.

"Eat quickly, be careful if it gets cold." Zeng Pingnian put another old newspaper on Yu Heng's lap to cushion him from any rice grains that might have been spilled.

He lowered his head and took a bite, and then again and again, he put all four slices of pork belly into Zeng Pingnian's bowl.

"What, you don't want to eat meat?"

"If you don't want to eat it, brother, just eat it."

Zeng Pingnian was frightened again, dropped one of his chopsticks, and finally grinned: "Okay, I'll call Xiaoyu to catch fish. Is it okay to eat fish?"

"Um."

Zeng Pingnian was even happier. He didn't even eat anymore and called quickly: "What's the name of the fish you catch? It's called the rich fish! Yes, it's the kind of fish that looks very auspicious. Catch the fatter ones and bake them for your uncle." fish……"

Yu Heng had grilled fish in the afternoon. Seeing Zeng Pingnian and his son smiling happily, he was very moved.

After his mood recovered, he became concerned about the cruise ship: "Has the list of the third batch come out?"

"Hurry up, I said it'll be a while -" Zeng Pingnian counted: "It will be out the day after tomorrow."

"Uncle, do you think we can go up?" Zeng Yu asked a little depressed, "It is said that twenty-five ships have been built now, all of which are super cruise ships, with more than 1.2 million tons. Each ship is a small community. "It can accommodate more than 8 million people in a dense manner." No matter how you calculate it, it can only accommodate more than 200 million people at most, but there are 500 million people in the country. What will happen to the remaining half of the population?

Yu Heng checked later and found that the first two batches of lists released only had names and nothing else. The previous release happened to be when Zhang's mother was in poor health, so he hadn't done any research yet. At this time, through special means, he found that these people were all under fifty years old, and those in their forties were only Saw more than fifty.

No one would believe this probability even if it was a coincidence.

"The success rate of evolution over the age of fifty has dropped off a cliff..." Yu Heng murmured, and then the list also dropped off a cliff. He specifically checked the fifty-odd people who were older than him and found that they were all in the evolutionary stage.

After this investigation, he and the Zeng Pingnian family, the Zhao family's sister-in-law Guan Lian, son Zhao Cheng, and grandson Zhao Xu still have a chance to board the ship, but the old man, the old lady of the Zhao family, and Zhao Shu, who have no signs of evolution, are in doubt. .

This was the most important thing. Yu Heng told Zeng Pingnian his guess and reminded him: "Be prepared for the worst. If we all leave and the old lady, old man and Brother Zhao are left, what will happen to their lives? But I think if this is the case, the authorities will definitely have arrangements for those who did not get on the ship, but we are our own family and we must think more carefully."

Hearing such news, Zeng Pingnian's face turned pale. He discussed it with his wife. Zhao Yun was greatly irritated, but finally decided: "Let's discuss it with my eldest brother first!"

After hearing this, Zhao Shu said firmly: "Is there any need to say that? I will take care of dad and mom. Your sister-in-law and the others will leave it to you. Don't show such expressions, Xiaoyun." He patted his sister on the shoulder, "Everyone. Live well, so what if we are separated? Besides, the cruise ship will not leave, and it will be around when the time comes. "

Groups of lists were released, and people kept leaving. Slowly, people discovered that the remaining roommates seemed to be ordinary people?

This action can be seen by anyone with a discerning eye, and a phenomenon has emerged. Ordinary people's hatred of fish-turned-people has become more and more serious, and fights and physical conflicts have even begun to occur frequently. No matter how hard the authorities suppress it, they cannot suppress it.

For the Zhao family, the misfortune seems not to have come to an end yet. Zhao Cheng, the only son of Zeng Pingnian's brother-in-law, was unlucky enough to encounter a fight and was accidentally hit in the back of the head by a flying stone. The position happened to be tricky, and he suddenly fell into a trap. He died, and Yu Heng couldn't be saved even if he wanted to. The Zhao family was in a miserable state. The two elderly people suddenly aged ten years and were very miserable.

After waiting for more than a year, I saw their names, which can be said to be the only happy event after that in vain. It was already early summer, and Yu Heng and Zeng Pingnian also boarded the twenty-fourth main ship one after another. He entrusted Zhao Shu with the care of the yacht. After seeing it, Zhao Shu nodded firmly as if he had taken reassurance.

The living space on the ship has become more dense and crowded. The beds are all 1.8 meters by 1 meter, narrow and small, and are placed in rows on each floor. The exhaust fan is whirring, bringing in the dense crowd. Dispel unpleasant odors.

The Zeng family was registered as one family, so they went up together, earlier than Yu Heng. After they went up, his name was on the last list of the ship. Zeng Pingnian was so happy that he hurriedly ran to Guanzhong. His bed was found next to them, and just like that, Zeng Pingnian's family of four, plus Zhao Shu's wife Guan Lian and grandson Zhao Xu, and Yu Heng began to live on the ship.

The days on the boat were very monotonous. The only thing we didn’t have to worry about was eating. After boarding the boat, we were free of charge for board and lodging. However, the food was very monotonous. It was fish, fish, fish, and various dishes with fish as ingredients. What was even more crazy was that they even made a kind of fish noodles, which was 90% fish meat. The noodles were soft and broke without being clamped.

Although almost everyone on the boat was a fish-turned-human, and they loved to eat fish, they still had the character “human” in their name, and they really couldn’t stand eating like this.

“I want to eat vegetables.” Zeng Yu looked at today’s meal bitterly. Sure enough, it was fish soup again. She almost cried.