Before she could answer, he continued, "The apocalypse is a blessing. It allowed me to meet you. Without it, I might never have known you. So, in a way, I've been quite happy."
His tone was detached and cool, as if the pre-apocalypse and post-apocalypse were entirely indistinguishable to him.
She lowered her eyelashes slightly and smiled faintly, "For me, there's no happiness or unhappiness. This is simply a change in environment for survival."
Mei Yuebai gazed down at her, knowing that to get her to open up, he first had to reveal his own wounds.
"I've never truly understood you. I want to get to know you again, to let you see the real me."
Xu Qian's lips curved upwards slightly. "I'm all ears."
Mei Yuebai took a deep breath and began to recount his story. "My family was in A City, prominent executives. I have no siblings. My parents were in politics and always busy with this and that. After giving birth to me, they left me with a nanny, and that's how I grew up.
One year, when I was about seven, they were on a business trip and died in a traffic accident. I wasn't sad. I saw them less than three times a year. They didn't deserve to be called father and mother. From then on, my feelings became rather extreme.
Later, my grandfather took me in. He was also very busy and left me, a seven-year-old, in the courtyard to play with other children.
Of course, no one dared to bully me. But those comfortable days didn't last long. When I was ten, my grandfather sent me abroad to fight alongside a famous soldier.
I was young and ignorant then, I didn't realize how terrible war was. It wasn't until one time when everyone was blown away by a bomb, and I saw mangled corpses lying before me, that I truly understood the horror of war.
I stayed abroad for three years, seeing so many dead that I became numb. How could they think a child so young wouldn't have post-war trauma?
Even after returning to China, the shadows of that period couldn't be erased. When I see large amounts of blood, I go mad. I want to kill, I want to kill more people..."
His palms trembled slightly, the gruesome images flashing before his eyes like vivid paintings.
Bloody corpses, mangled organs, scattered limbs.
Mei Yuebai panted, his voice growing hoarser and hoarser until he could no longer speak.
Xu Qian felt as if a heavy stone had pressed down on her heart. She reached out and grasped his fingertips, which were already ice-cold.
She sighed, unsure how to comfort him.
Suddenly, a famous quote flashed through her mind: To comfort others, the fastest way is to out-misery them.
"Let me tell you my story. My life before the age of thirteen was wonderful. My parents had a good relationship, and we had a little money. My sister and I lived a comfortable life.
When I was thirteen, my father died of a cerebral hemorrhage. My mother passed away not long after. Our relatives divided up our family's assets and left my sister and me on the streets.
They didn't even send us to an orphanage. My sister and I lived as homeless for nearly a year.
Before she finished, her hand was clasped by a pair of slightly cool palms. Xu Qian shook her head, indicating she was fine.
"We wandered with a beggar. He was very smart. To this day, I don't understand why he was a beggar. He taught me how to deal with people and how to steal.
Later, he disappeared. Then, some kind people sent us to an orphanage. We started middle school, high school... Oh, and my sister has congenital heart disease and needs a lot of medication.
Although it's an orphanage, they can't afford expensive drugs. I worked every night and dozed off in class in the morning, wanting to earn money to send my sister to Country D. But... it's not that easy.
She didn't want to lie about the events of her past life and the current one, so she stopped there.
"That's how the first half of my life has been, up until now..."