Under the Embers

When he was 18 years old, Zhang Luokai saw the sky split for the first time. Scarlet light seeped out from the cracks, like something taking a breath outside the shell. He thought it was a dream, and everyone said it was a dream - the news, classmates, teachers, official announcements, every mouth told him: nothing happened. But the golden light in his chest was getting hotter and hotter. There are no animals, no flowers, not a single tree in Sun City. After walking on the gray-white streets for eighteen years, everyone thought that the blue sky was blue, until the crack tore open a corner, revealing the scarlet background underneath. Thousands of years of waiting are never divine grace. It's a prison. The city is fake, the sky is fake, and the memory is saved for him by others. There was something waiting for him outside that shell - the truth, the monsters, the last embers of a long-dead world. He doesn't believe in God. Don't believe the official. Distrust any voice that tells him "everything is fine." He only believed in the light on his chest. If the light is not bright enough, make it brighter. If my strength is not strong enough, I stand up again and again. If there is no God in this world—— Then he would climb up and sit in that position. He will be the light of the sun. He will tear the locks of the cage. Without divine grace, he becomes a god.