At this moment, Black Cat crawled out from under the sofa, a bottle of iodine tincture in its mouth, and swaggered onto the coffee table.
As soon as the old lady finally left, I immediately prepared the medicine according to the method Xiāo Jìn taught me in my dream.
I dreamed almost every night. It had become a habit to dream of the male protagonist from the book; he would teach me many ways to deal with the apocalypse. When I woke up, I would immediately record everything I remembered in my memo.
I smeared mint essential oil mixed with capsaicin on the doorknob and stuck a sticky note on the inside of the peephole. Just as I was about to relax, the washing machine suddenly beeped and started automatically, its display showing a countdown:
【00:59:59】
I instinctively jumped back half a step. Black Cat also puffed up its fur and leaped onto the drum, its round eyes staring intently at the window ahead.
Following the cat's gaze, I saw water droplets winding down the glass, forming the word "RUN." Xiāo Jìn had also drawn this word with the tip of his sword in a dream before:
"Run."
Run where? This is my home. I didn't understand.
With 43 minutes left on the washing machine's countdown, Black Cat was already squatting by the entrance, its tail impatiently patting my sneakers.
As I grabbed my backpack and stuffed it with supplies, my phone vibrated.
"Miss Jiang, your father needs to be transferred to another hospital immediately."
The nurse's voice sounded as if through cotton.
"His blood oxygen..."
Shouts erupted in the background: "Hold him down! The vein! Blue blood is flowing out of the vein..."
After the call was disconnected by the other party, my mother made seven video calls. The last photo she sent made my stomach clench: blue patterns, like branches, had spread across my father's arm. The EKG on the monitor by his bed was almost a straight line.
"Xinxin, the doctor said your dad won't make it through the night."
My mother's pixelated face was streaked with tears:
"Will you come to see him one last time?"
I bit my lip so hard I tasted rust. Xiāo Jìn's warning echoed in my ears: 【Hospitals are infection hotspots, with a mortality rate of 92.7%】.
In the photo my mother sent, my father was still wearing that worn wedding ring on his ring finger. My dad had a habit of constantly rubbing his ring when he was nervous.
If I went to the hospital now, in the worst-case scenario, the whole family of three would be infected.
Just as I was thinking this, Black Cat leaped in from the balcony, a sealed bag in its mouth. I opened it to find five N95 masks and a small bottle of alcohol gel. Written on the inside of the bag in lipstick was: "Sorry - Yan."
"You went to Lin Yan's place?"
My hand trembled as I held the note. Black Cat flicked its tail, revealing a new wound on its belly, the wound caked with some kind of blue powder.
Without delay, I made a protective suit from down jackets and trash bags. The washing machine let out another sharp "beep, beep."
The countdown reached zero, and the drum door sprang open. Inside were all the medicines I had hidden. I checked carefully; there was nothing out of place, the antibiotic boxes on the surface were still neatly arranged.
It seemed I needed to find a new hiding place for the medicine.
"Dad, wait for me."
I recorded this sentence on my phone, setting it to send automatically in two hours.
Black Cat jumped onto my shoulder, its claws hooking my earlobe and pulling it to the right. Outside the window, three ambulances, their blue lights flashing, were speeding towards the hospital. The snow on their roofs glowed with a familiar fluorescence.
Xiāo Jìn's voice came unexpectedly from the Bluetooth speaker:
"There's an unlocked ambulance in the North Gate parking lot."
Amidst the static, his tone was unusually urgent:
"Remember, do not touch anyone's blood—including your father's."
The power light on the Bluetooth speaker went out after Xiāo Jìn finished his last sentence. Black Cat's ears twitched slightly, catching sounds from outside the window.
I put on shoe covers made from three layers of trash bags. The sound of cold plastic rubbing together was particularly jarring in the dead silence of the apartment.
On the television, the lunchtime news anchor was dabbing sweat from her forehead. Her foundation had smeared into a mess:
"Ac-according to the latest announcement, the entire country is activating..."
A violent cough interrupted the broadcast. Blue mucus oozed from between her fingers as she covered her mouth.
The camera frantically switched to a map of the country, one-third of which was marked with flashing blue areas. The region where Harbin was located had turned a deep black.
"The National Disease Control Center specifically reminds you."
The voice-over continued mechanically.
"If you find that friends or family exhibit the following symptoms: blue spots on the skin, coughing up blood, body temperature below 35 degrees Celsius, please seek immediate medical attention."
I picked up my vibrating phone. Old Zhang's email contained only a photo of an Icelandic volcano monitoring station, with the message:
【Your older brother has been waiting for you here for three years】.
However, the IP address shown in the email details was: No. 22, Keyan Road, Nangang District, Harbin City, the former site of the research institute where my older brother worked before he disappeared.
Black Cat leaped onto the coffee table and pushed the Jade Pendant into my sweaty palm. The moment I touched it, the TV automatically switched to an old science and education program. My older brother, wearing a white coat, was explaining:
"When animals begin to hoard food abnormally, they often sense geological disasters 72 hours earlier than humans..."
In the background, laboratory cages flashed by. One of the cage numbers was TS-7.
I leaned closer to get a better look and my hand brushed against my backpack on the sofa, producing a metallic clinking sound from inside.
I unfastened an inner hidden pocket, and a car key fell out. Wrapped around it was a note with hastily scrawled characters:
【Fill the tank, toilet cistern at the gas station in the northern suburbs, Yan】.
Most of the writing was smudged by water, as if it had been dampened by teardrops.
A loud crash of breaking glass came from outside. In the building opposite, a family had piled furniture against their door to block it. The exposed forearm of the male homeowner was covered in tree-like blue veins that had spread to his elbow joint. When he moved a cabinet, he knocked over a fish tank. The water flowing onto the floor glowed with fluorescence.
Beside me, Black Cat suddenly arched its back and hissed. I followed its gaze to the entrance—blue liquid was slowly seeping from under the door, spreading like a living slime.
Xiāo Jìn's voice came from the Jade Pendant, this time with a crackling, burnt-wire sound: "Quickly, look outside the window."
The northern night sky was illuminated by a peculiar ethereal blue aurora. Tens of thousands of ice crystals floated among the clouds, like an inverted blue galaxy.
In my pupils, I saw the first specks of blue snow fall towards the human world.
I stood by the window, watching the blue snow fall outside, my pupils reflecting that strange color.
It wasn't like ordinary snow, light and fluffy, melting into a puddle the moment it touched the ground.
This snow was viscous, like dyed shards of broken glass, falling slowly from the sky, even making a faint "clink" sound as it hit the windowsill.
I reached out and caught a piece.
It lay in my palm, not melting.
It really doesn't melt?
I instinctively squeezed it, and my fingertips felt a strange texture, like crushing a tiny grain of ice slush, but stickier.
I brought it closer to my nose and smelled a faint scent of sulfur, just like the pungent smell of smoke that wafted from the stove when burning firewood in the countryside as a child.
"Meow—!"
Suddenly, a sharp cat's cry came from behind me. Before I could react, a black shadow shot onto my shoulder, claws "swish"ing through my sweater, the sound of tearing fabric clear.
"Hiss—!"
I pulled my hand back in pain and glared at the culprit.\n\n