A sleek, black BMW was parked in front of the gates of the Warm Sun Home orphanage.
“In a little garden, we dig and dig and dig.”
“Planting little seeds, to grow little flowers…”
From the dilapidated, old, and squat three-story building within the courtyard, where the wall paint was peeling, came the tender and innocent singing of children.
The driver got out of his seat, jogged to the back to open the right-side door. A chubby little foot in an Ultraman sandal tentatively tapped the empty air. Seeing this, the driver quickly lifted the huffing and puffing little fatty, who was trying to “reverse into the garage,” out of the car.
He was a soft and tender baby with curly hair, his cheeks as plump as two snow peaches.
After wobbling to a steady stance, the baby lifted his head. His large eyes were bright and moist, and he flashed a sweet grin, revealing a set of tiny baby teeth. “Thank you, Uncle.”
The driver smiled and put the Little Yellow Duck Backpack from the back seat onto him. “You’re welcome.”
Looking at the child’s innocent smile, he couldn’t help but feel a pang of pity. This child was only three years old. A short while ago, he had personally helped his employer with the paperwork to bring him into the Qiao family. Now, less than a month later, he was personally returning him to this shabby and desolate orphanage.
As he adjusted the backpack’s shoulder straps, he said in a gentle voice, “Be a good boy at the orphanage, okay? Uncle will come to see you when I have time.”
The baby nodded his chubby, double-chinned head emphatically. He then made a gesture with his little hands as if holding a steering wheel and made a beeping sound in a milky voice, imitating a car horn.
“Beep beep beep, Uncle has to drive the little car carefully!”
“Uncle will drive carefully for people.”
The driver glanced down and touched his pocket. As the child ran toward the orphanage gate, he quickly stuffed a red envelope with a thousand yuan into the bottom pocket of his Little Yellow Duck Backpack.
The orphanage gate was shut tight. The baby squeezed his face into the gap between the iron bars, his small hands rattling the iron lock. “Teacher Xiao Mei, Grandpa Director, open the door! It’s Can Can!”
Just then, a stooped-backed old man emerged from the old building, his hands behind his back.
The driver quickly picked Can Can up and moved him away from the iron gate.
As the gate clattered open, Can Can, like an excited little puppy, darted over to the old man and ran circles around him. “Grandpa Director! Grandpa Director! Can Can is back!”
But the old man ignored Can Can’s enthusiastic calls. He just gave him a careful look with a grim face, then turned his cold gaze to the driver. “The paperwork is all in order, and the child has been returned. If there’s nothing else, you can go.”
The driver also felt a sour taste in his mouth. He relayed the words his employer had instructed him to say: “Director Wang Lao, please rest assured. President Qiao’s secretary has already transferred a considerable charitable donation to the orphanage’s public account. President Qiao will continue to sponsor our orphanage in the future. If the orphanage is short of anything, please feel free to contact me by phone.”
As expected, at the mention of sponsorship, the old man’s expression softened, and his wrinkled face even managed a smile. “Then on behalf of the children in the home, I thank President Qiao for his kindness. Would you like to come in and sit for a while?”
The driver politely declined and ruffled Can Can’s curly hair one last time before leaving.
Seeing the driver uncle leave alone, Can Can didn’t cry or throw a tantrum. He bounced and waved vigorously at the beautiful car as it sped away. “Uncle, Uncle, bye-bye!”
“Alright, he’s gone.”
Director Wang Lao pulled the child, who was about to run into the middle of the road, back. His gaze fell on the bulging backpack. “What’s in there?”
Can Can was a baby who knew how to share. He stuck out his round, chubby body and shook his backpack. “Apple-flavored jelly, little bear cookies, and red, red ‘straw-berries’! The driver uncle bought them!”
Director Wang Lao unzipped the small backpack and rummaged through it for a moment, discovering that it was indeed filled with nothing but ordinary snacks and fruit.
He cursed the Qiao family in a local dialect, then patted Can Can on the head. “Give the snacks and fruit to your teacher and let her share them with you and the other children. Once these things are in the orphanage, they’re not yours alone anymore!”
Can Can rubbed his head where it had been hit, but he still grinned. “Okay, okay!”
He was about to dash into the old building with his backpack on when Director Wang Lao grabbed him by the strap. “You are not to mention what you ate or what you played with this past month in front of the other children. Do you understand?”
Can Can blinked and shook his head. “But the food wasn’t yummy, and Can Can didn’t play with anything.”
Director Wang Lao frowned and waved his hand. “Go on back.”
The closer he got to the second-floor classroom, the clearer the familiar children’s song became. Can Can’s eyes lit up, and his short legs moved with more vigor as he sang along loudly, “Planting little seeds, to grow little flow’rs!”
The music came to an abrupt stop, and several children came tumbling out of the classroom, roughhousing.
“Hey, hey, look who it is!”
“Your new mommy and daddy didn’t want you anymore, huh!”
“Hahahaha, did they kick you out because you wet the bed?”
Can Can clutched his backpack straps tightly, his fair little face lowered. “Can Can… Can Can didn’t wet the bed at Uncle and Auntie’s house…”
“What’s in your backpack?”
“Can Can!”
Hearing this voice, Can Can immediately looked up. “Xiao Tiao!”
Seeing Wang Xiao Tiao, who wasn’t very bright but had a bit of a fierce streak, approach, the older kids pushed and shoved each other as they walked away.
“How come you’re back! Did your mommy and daddy come too?”
Wang Xiao Tiao was three years older than Can Can, six years old this year. He was a bit dark and chubby, with a very round head and thick, black eyebrows, looking a lot like the little farmer from the card game “Fight the Landlord,” just without the headscarf.
The two little friends hugged each other and spun in circles the moment they met.
Can Can got a little dizzy. “Uncle and Auntie don’t want to raise Can Can anymore.”
Wang Xiao Tiao patted his chest. “That’s okay, our home is great too.”
“Our home is just great!”
Can Can tilted his head again. “Where’s Ming Ming?”
“Ming Ming is sick and went to get a shot!”
“Then what about Can Can’s Little Cloud Twisty Car!”
“Teacher Xiao Mei took it back to her dorm!”
Last year, a kind person had donated a twisty car or a small bicycle to every child in the orphanage. Only Can Can was given what looked like an eighth-hand twisty car, for which he was teased by several children for a long time.
But Can Can wasn’t unhappy; he loved this little twisty car very much.
Hehe, his little car was old and shabby, so the naughty big kids never tried to take it!
“Then what about Can Can’s Little Flower Blanket!”
Wang Xiao Tiao pressed his thick lips together, looking a bit timid. “Your blanket…”
“Can Can is back?”
“Teacher Xiao Mei!”
Can Can turned his head and saw a strange older boy standing next to Teacher Xiao Mei.
Wang Xiao Tiao whispered in Can Can’s ear, “It’s this mean-looking big kid who’s sleeping in your little bed and using your blanket!”
“Oh, okay.” Can Can scratched his face, not daring to look at the strange older boy. He whispered back in a breathy, sneaky voice, “The big brother is fair and skinny, he looks like he smells nice.”
“He really does smell nice!” Wang Xiao Tiao said excitedly.
The two children thought they were being very quiet, but in fact, Teacher Xiao Mei and Wei Cheng had heard everything.
Wei Cheng clenched his fists, his eyes gradually turning red as his gaze remained fixed on the fair, chubby little child.
After ten long, dark years, he had finally seen his younger brother again.
Wei Cheng had been reborn from the Apocalypse.
Just like in his previous life, eight-year-old Wei Cheng had been abandoned at the orphanage by his maternal grand-uncle. On his third day there, he once again encountered Can Can, who had been returned from his foster home.
Wei Cheng had been different from other children since he was young. He was quiet, intelligent, and cold-blooded. After the death of his grandmother, with whom he had depended on for survival, he had closed himself off even more, rejecting anyone who tried to get close to him.
The children at the orphanage both disliked and feared him, never paying him any mind. Only Can Can, like a little puppy, would always cautiously curl up by his leg to nap.
Life at the orphanage was simple and poor, but because of Can Can’s presence, the gates to Wei Cheng’s heart melted like ice and snow, gradually opening.
Just as he had resolved to live well and one day provide a good life for Can Can—the end of the world quietly arrived.
It all started with a torrential downpour, followed by scorching high temperatures, a persistent, flesh-corroding fog, and finally, man-eating, bone-gnawing Zombies. The extreme weather repeated in cycles.
The world descended into chaos, and order collapsed.
People around him died one after another. More terrifying than the walking dead was the complexity of human nature.
Wei Cheng gritted his teeth and led Can Can through countless dangers, but unexpectedly, they were separated during a zombie horde.
At that time, Can Can was only four years old, still a baby who stumbled when he walked.
Wei Cheng risked his life to return to the base where the zombie horde had broken out. The ground was littered with corpses, and severed limbs were piled up like mountains. The howls of zombie packs could be heard from time to time in the distance.
He searched from night until the next morning, only to find a small, blood-stained Ultraman shoe.
After the Apocalypse began, Can Can had grown even more fond of these shoes. He would always lift his thin, sallow little face to look at him and ask, “Brother, when is Ultraman coming to save us?”
Wei Cheng would stroke the child’s head and say with a bitter smile, “Soon.”
Even though his brother always said “soon,” Ultraman never appeared “soon.” But Can Can was still very happy because he believed his brother’s words. He wouldn’t even cry when he went to sleep with an empty stomach at night.
Wei Cheng wiped the bloodstains from the shoe, bit by bit, and placed it in his backpack with solemn care.
He resolutely embarked on a journey to find his brother. The search lasted for a full ten years, and the cruel trials of the Apocalypse had forged him into a renowned Bounty Hunter.
But he still hadn’t found the grown-up Can Can.
During one mission, as he looked at the zombie horde that resembled a swarm of locusts, he seemed to have lost the motivation to continue struggling to survive.
He had lost his brother. Perhaps he should have long ago…
The moment he closed his eyes, he didn’t hear the excited howls of zombies, only the familiar yet strange alarm of a heart monitor.
He had been reborn to the day his grandmother passed away.
Pushed and favored by fate, he was somehow able to see Can Can once again.
“Brother.”
Wei Cheng heard someone call him.
“Brother, why are your eyes raining?”
Can Can’s little face was flushed, and he quickly waved his hands. “Can Can didn’t, didn’t ask you for the little bed and blanket.”
“Mm,” Wei Cheng wiped away his tears. “Thank you.”
Thank you for letting me come to your side again.