A Way Out

This is a story of survival in the apocalypse. On the day the world collapsed, Lin Yue failed to become a hero. He was a pipe repairman for the water company and was fixing a leaking pipe when the disaster occurred. He hid in the apartment for thirty-five days. On the twelfth day, he stood on the balcony and wanted to ask himself a question. He didn't jump. He took out an old book from the tool box and wrote on the first page: "Essay: instant noodles x 5. Water x 3 bottles." A steel pipe, a wrench, and a notebook. He thought the doomsday would just keep hiding. Until I met a nurse holding a screwdriver in a hardware store, until I found a group of people who refused to die - veterans, couriers, workshop directors, and a teenager with his sister. They used machine tools to build a tow truck and led the zombies into the pit, thinking they had won. Then new footsteps came from deep in the earth. When the external threat recedes, rifts develop from within—new members versus old members, this community versus that community, those who believe in rules versus those who believe in fists. They learned to negotiate, compromise, and cooperate amid suspicion in the ruins. They picked up mechanical manuals and biochemistry textbooks from old bookstores, and relied on a repaired microscope and a walkie-talkie with an extended antenna to relight the world bit by bit. "Road to Life" is about a question: When everything is meaningless, why should we still live? Lin Yue had been repairing water pipes all his life and never asked what the pipe meant. He just fixed it. Once repaired, the water will flow. If the water is clear, people can still live. This is the answer. It's not something you think about, it's something you live out.