Epoch of Twilight

It was before 4 o’clock in the evening when the apartment was set on fire. Luo Yuan was getting ready to have his dinner when he smelled smoke. Without realizing what was happening yet, there was a loud explosion from downstairs.

The whole building shook, dust fell from the ceiling and thus the dishes on the table were covered with a layer of dust.

Both Huang Jiahui and Wang Shishi were so scared that their faces turned pale and their chopsticks fell on the floor.

“What is happening outside?” Huang Jiahui asked anxiously.

“Let me take a look!” Luo Yuan replied. Before he reached the staircase, he saw dense black smoke rising from a red flame downstairs. It seemed that the explosion was due to a gas pipe that burst.

Luo Yuan felt suffocated and coughed continuously. He quickly stepped back and shut the door.

Looking at both Huang Jiahui and Wang Shishi who were frightened, he said, “There’s a fire downstairs and I’m afraid that the building may be burnt down soon. Hurry up and follow me, we have to leave.”

“Argh, why is there a fire all of a sudden? Who’s so mean?” Huang Jiahui distractedly stood up and continued, “I’ll go grab some clothes and a luggage bag.”

“Quickly, the fire has already engulfed the third floor.” Luo Yuan said worriedly.

“Argh!” Wang Shishi and Huang Jiahui were both so nervous that they were sweating. They quickly ran towards their bedrooms.

Luo Yuan turned around anxiously and walked towards the window. He smashed it open and went to the storeroom to get a big bag of rice and threw it down. After he threw down two bags, he felt that the temperature of the apartment was excessively hot so he decided to stop.

He then went into Wang Shishi’s bedroom and noticed that she was still packing her clothes. He said, “Don’t waste your time. Go, get a blanket to cover your head and follow me downstairs.”

Without waiting for Wang Shishi’s response, Luo Yuan walked directly to his own bedroom and told Huang Jiahui the same thing.

Huang Jiahui put her things down reluctantly and took a blanket. Then, her hands suddenly stopped moving and she asked, “What about you?”

Due to the hot weather, each bedroom only had one blanket. As the only blanket in the room was given to Huang Jiahui, it meant that Luo Yuan needed to endure the burning flame without any protection. “I am an evolved person thus the fire cannot hurt me.”

Due to the limited time, Luo Yuan was not able to contemplate the effects of his special abilities. His body had suddenly appeared as several shadows as he speedily kept some important things inside his bag and held the bag in his hand.

Huang Jiahui was shocked when she saw Luo Yuan’s abnormally fast speed.

When they reached the door of the bedroom, Wang Shishi had also nervously run out with her blanket. At that moment, the whole house was already filled with the thick smoke which had a strong choking effect.

They dashed to the main door and quickly opened it to escape but the hot dense smoke gusted to their face due to the difference in air pressure. It was so suffocating that they coughed until they shed tears.

“What can we do? What can we do? We can’t go down!” Huang Jiahui said while trembling in fear.

During a fire, it was not the high temperature that was fatal. Instead, it was the emission of poisonous gases which was dangerous to our lives. Most victims die due to poisonous gases rather than the burning flame.

Under such conditions, they were unable to go downstairs. Despite Luo Yuan’s super speed and abilities, he found it highly risky to save both Huang Jiahui and Wang Shishi as they could both suffocate to death from the smoke.

Luo Yuan was worried. Suddenly, an idea struck him and he asked Wang Shishi, “Can you use your telekinesis to blow away the smoke?”

“Brother Luo, I’ll try!” Though Wang Shishi was coughing and tearing, she raised her head and replied.

After several days of training, her telekinesis had become a natural ability. It was as easy as controlling her limbs. When she started to exert her power, the smoke in the surrounding seemed to be swept away by an invisible power. They felt relieved.

“Well done!” Luo Yuan praised.

Seeing that she could help brother Luo, Wang Shishi smiled and was proud of herself.

“Let us try to go downstairs. Since her telekinesis can keep away the smoke, maybe it can keep the burning flame away too.” Luo Yuan said.

They went to the second floor. The upper part of staircase only had dense smoke but when they turned into a corner, a strong burning flame was right in front of them. If Wang Shishi had not maintained her telekinesis, all three of them might have been burnt alive.

Although Wang Shishi could split up the flames, there was nothing she could do about the extremely high temperature. With a temperature of more than 100 degree Celsius, the extreme heat caused their hair to curl up.

In light of this, they retreated back to the third floor.

“The temperature is too high, we cannot go down.” Huang Jiahui touched her red-hot face and said disappointedly.

“We still need to find a way. Another gas pipe may explode again later.” Luo Yuan said impatiently. He continued, “Now, there’s only one way. Shishi, give me your blanket.”

Wang Shishi has a complicated relationship with Luo Yuan. He seemed like a brother to her because he was so kind and caring towards her. However, because she was still very young, she was easily influenced by what she saw and heard. Sometimes, she would imagine that she was sister Huang and she would daydream of every single bashful scene she had with Brother Luo. In every moment, she trusted him like nobody else. She passed the blanket to Luo Yuan directly without any hesitation.

Luo Yuan took possession of the blanket, covered her and hugged her in his arms.

Wang Shishi screamed in shock. However, she realized that her body was in contact with Luo Yuan’s, though separated by the blanket. She started blushing and had forgotten about the danger outside.

Then, without asking, Luo Yuan took Huang Jiahui’s blanket as well and covered her up. He carried her on his shoulder even though she was screaming and complaining.

“Let go of me!” Huang Jiahui yelled. She felt sad and tried to speak even though she felt choked, “You cannot carry me, just take Wang Shishi and go, it’s alright.”

“Shut up.” Luo Yuan was blunt in the heat of the moment. “Wang Shishi, please help me push away the smoke and the burning flame. I’ll start running.” Luo Yuan said.

“Got it, brother Luo. Shishi is ready.” Wang Shishi suddenly felt so weak but she pulled herself together and answered with a sweet and soft voice.

Luo Yuan took a deep breath and dashed downstairs.

Fortunately, both of them were slim and the sum of their weights were less than 100kg. Though they were light and easy for Luo Yuan to carry, his body had become very heavy. He passed about five flights of stairs and each step he took made a heavy tremor that made people wonder if the staircase would collapse.

“Shishi, watch out!” Luo Yuan shouted when they were about to reach the second floor.

“Oh!” Wang Shishi gave an acknowledging reply and pushed her telekinesis to her limit. The surrounding flames seemed to get “scared” and gave way. Some of the gravel and ashes were also swept away.

The second floor was completely burnt by now. The wall was cracked, the air was hot and the temperature had already increased up to more than 100 degree Celsius. The marble floor especially, had blackened and was fragile under the extremely high temperature. A gentle step on the floor was enough to break it. Furthermore, if Luo Yuan’s shoes were not blue level, it would have melted by now.

Their shoes and clothes helped protect them from the fire. However, Luo Yuan’s body hair was quickly curling under the high temperature and his skin was also burning with pain. Along the way, he did not breathe as he was afraid that his lungs would be burnt by the hot air as well.

He ran desperately. Due to the burden of the two people with him, his speed was similar to that of a normal person. As it was not far to sprint from the third floor to the first floor, Luo Yuan took only about ten seconds to get there.

He put down both Huang Jiahui and Wang Shishi and panted heavily.

The two struggled to free themselves from their blankets and they were finding it so difficult to breathe that their faces were very red. Then, they looked at Luo Yuan who was extremely fatigued and seriously burnt that he looked like a cooked crab. Huang Jiahui felt bad when she looked at Luo Yuan but during that time Wang Shishi tiptoed and bravely kissed Luo Yuan’s face. With a soft voice, she said, “brother Luo, Shishi was so scared just now.”

“Did both of you get burned?” Though Luo Yuan was still in shock, he recovered quickly and asked.

“No!” Wang Shishi answered quickly.

She stared at Luo Yuan with her watery eyes and felt that the kiss was not enough for her. Her heart was throbbing fast, her face was blushing and excitedly, she thought to herself, “Finally I can kiss him. I wanted to kiss him on the lips but unfortunately, I wasn’t daring enough. I should not continue to be like this, after all, brother Luo is mine too, not only sister Huang’s.”

Huang Jiahui felt uncomfortable and cast a furtive glance at Wang Shishi. But she said nothing because of the situation they were facing.

“Then let’s go and look for a place to stay.” Luo Yuan said.

“Where can we go?” Huang Jiahui asked doubtfully.

“Anywhere!” Luo Yuan looked towards the nearby residential building.

“Do you mean other buildings? What if they don’t let us?” Huang Jiahui said worriedly.

“They’ll have to!” Luo Yuan took out the Zhanmadao from his bag, smile slyly and said, “Please help me with my bag. Let’s go over there and have a look. I threw down two big bags of rice just now. After we find a place to stay, we should be able to survive for a few days.”

It was a long-lasting war between human beings and nature. The dead silent town had given a chance for the greens to grow wild. It was only about ten days but the greenery had already covered the entire desolate city.

The district was covered with greens and weeds that had already grown to a meter tall. There were some trees around and they stood out among the weeds while they were trying to spread their branches and leaves to fight for their own space. Somewhere in front, there were also unknown vines growing towards the upper part of a building which covered the entire building tightly like a green jacket.

Luo Yuan walked to the right side of the building and found that the two big bags of rice had disappeared. As he looked to his left and right, he saw that there were four people in raincoats not far from them and two of them were carrying bags of rice towards a nearby residential building.