Little Mushroom

An Zhe was dreaming.

The sound of rain, the sound of pattering rain.

The water droplets slapped on the broad leaves, flowed down the interlaced veins, dripped at the edges, rustled in the bushes, dripped down the roots of old trees, and soaked into the moist soil. The wet rainy season, from where his memory begins, the whole world is a rain.

He is a spore that floats down from the canopy of a mushroom and is blown into the soil by the wind before it rains.He seemed to have been falling asleep until he smelled the damp vapor after the rain.

Everything is out of his control. In the moist soil, the hyphae stretch out, grow longer, fork, extend outward, and aggregate.It grows from a spore smaller than gravel into a mass of hyphae that has just taken shape, and then pulls out the stalk to grow a canopy.

Everything is logical. Mushrooms are not like human beings who need to be taught from generation to generation. He has no impression of the mushroom that produced him, but he is born to know what he wants to get from the soil, and he also knows in what season he should be born. What should he do, and what season should he die, his mission in life is to produce a spore.

The sound of rustling rain just rang in his ears, around him, in his body, mind and memory, it was everywhere, as if urging something to happen soon.What followed was that wave from the distant sky, the boundless void, the boundless terror—until he snapped his eyes open.

The quartz clock hanging on the wall reached nine o'clock in the morning, and there was no one around him, and he was tightly wrapped in a quilt.But the feeling of being hugged by Lu Feng's arms still seemed to be there, and the heat stayed on the skin, scorching people slightly.Lu Feng originally hugged his upper body, where his shoulders were down, but when he slept in the middle of the night, his arms were pressed uncomfortably and pulled out. The man's arms were lowered a little and placed on his waist. The palms of the hands just pressed against his abdomen.

When he was hugged by Lu Feng, he seemed to be able to isolate the dangers outside. He felt very peaceful, but this person himself was the biggest danger. An Zhe couldn't remember what kind of mood he fell asleep again.

An Zhe looked at everything in front of him, his mind was empty.He moved his fingers, and the bones were soft, as if he had slept for too long after a nap, and his whole body lacked strength.

The air around is so moist, like it just rained.

Thinking of that weird and seemingly foreshadowing dream, he sat up from the bed and stretched out his hand.It's cruel to take the spores out of the stomach, and only an officer named Lu would do it.He controlled the flow of spores in his body. After 3 minutes, a group of white hyphae stretched out, surrounded by spores, and appeared on the palm of his right hand.

When it was put into the body, it was only half the size of a palm, but now it was as big as his fist.

He looked at it carefully with the light of the gas lamp, and at the end of the spore hyphae, there appeared tiny antler-like forks, white and transparent luster, like snowflakes, and its shape began to change.

He touched it with his left hand, and it stretched out mycelium to wrap around his finger intimately.He could feel its fresh, lush life, its coming of age.

He didn't know exactly when the spores matured, but it must have been soon.

Their hyphae will no longer entangle, and it will become a mushroom that can survive on its own.At the moment of maturity, it will automatically leave him, just like he was automatically blown away by the wind.

This is the instinct of mushrooms.Where is he going to plant it?Will it remember him in the distant future?An Zhe didn't know, but felt a little melancholy before parting, as if all tangible things in the world were about to be separated.

There was a noise in the corridor, his spores erected mycelium first, as if listening to the sound, then moved energetically, rolling towards the source of the sound, An Zhe folded his hands and clasped it firmly, just in case Lu Feng came in Before that, he took back this little thing that ate inside and out into his body.

Lu Feng stood at the door and raised an eyebrow at him.

"Wake up." He said.

An Zhe obediently got up and went to eat, and they spent the next few days like this. An Zhe would help Xibei cook and clean up the mine.Lu Feng often went outside, and An Zhe was afraid that he would not come back every time, but the colonel was safe and sound every time, and sometimes he even brought back a small bird.

More often they stayed in the cave with nothing to do. An Zhe read all the books here, and at the request of the colonel, he read a love story and a whole weapon illustration to him—this man didn't bother to look through them himself. .

In the end, they started playing chess with small stones. They were all very simple games, backgammon and flying chess. Lu Yan taught him first, and then they played together. Turn on the water.

During the meal, Xi Bei said, "You two have such a good relationship."

"There were people in the cave who fell in love before, and grandpa married them." Sighing lightly, he put down his chopsticks, and said, "I want to fall in love too, but there is no one else here."

Lu Feng didn't speak.An Zhe comforted Xi Bei: "There are people in the base."

—Although there are only [-] of them.

Xibei seemed to be comforted, and began to pick up the chopsticks with vigor.

Seven days later, the communication was still not restored. Xibei told them the unfortunate news that the food storage was not enough for two days, and they had to go to the ruins of the city several kilometers away to search for supplies.

So they left some dry food for grandpa, and took the remaining mushrooms and jerky in their backpacks, as well as several bottles of water. Xibei took out a small alcohol stove from the kitchen, and no one in the mine died. Jueqian often goes to the city to look for supplies, so the equipment is very complete.

"We used to open a dirt road, and we could ride bicycles." Xibei said with a slightly frustrated tone, "Now it's turned into sand, so I can't ride."

So before An Zhe left, he looked reluctantly at the few bicycles piled up in the corner, which he had never seen before.

Lu Yan put his elbow on his shoulder and said lazily, "Come back and take you to ride."

Just as they were preparing everything and preparing to open the top of the cave, the sound of heavy and slow footsteps came from the depths of the mine.

An Zhe turned his head. Under the dim light, a skinny old man was leaning on the wall and moving over from the corner. His gray hair was disheveled, and the corners of his mouth kept trembling, like the flame of a pale candle flickering in the wind.

Xibei stepped forward: "...Grandpa?"

The old man stared at him with cloudy eyes, without any expression, and he didn't seem to recognize him. He opened his mouth and said, "I'll go too."

Xi Bei hugged his shoulders: "Just stay here, we'll be back in a day or two, and we'll bring food back."

The old man still said in a hoarse voice: "I will go too."

No matter how Xi Bei tried to stop him, he only had this one sentence.Because of this persistence, his chaotic and sluggish face unexpectedly showed an unusual sobriety.

Xi Bei had no choice but to look at Lu Feng for help.

Lu Feng looked at the old man for a long time, and said, "Take it."

Xibei agreed, and helped the old man out—his stumbling steps were precarious, and anyone who looked at him knew that this dying life was about to come to an end.

At the entrance of the cave, Lu Yan said, "I'll take him."

Xibei shook his head. He picked up his grandfather and said, "Grandpa is very light."

An Zhe looked at the old man's emaciated body. The disease had consumed his body until only a loose skeleton remained.

They came to the earth, and the light of the sky poured down.An Zhe narrowed his eyes and took a while to get used to it.

He saw Grandpa leaning on Xibei's back and closing his eyes. His face was covered with the kind of brown spots that would appear on the human body in old age, but in the sunlight, his expression was very peaceful.

His mouth moved and he said a word.

"People grow on the ground."

This was the only sentence that An Zhe heard from his grandfather these days that didn't sound like raving.

He looked up at the gray-white sky. At this time, the sky was showing faint light green. Even if it was not in the dark night, he could still see the aurora, which was different from before.

Lu Feng said, "The magnetic field has been tuned."

An Zhe nodded.He didn't know what the words meant, but as long as the poles were good, everything was fine.

On the sand, they walked with one deep foot and one shallow foot. On the too empty wasteland, it seemed that they were the only life.The wind blows from an unknown distance, and it has been blowing like this for 1 or [-] million years. The creatures walking on the ground are renewed, some die and some are born again, but the wind will not change.When it blows into the crevices of the stones, a long, strange cry resounds across the wasteland.

In the wild cry, An Zhe spontaneously grabbed Lu Feng's sleeve corner and followed him.

Lu Feng glanced at him lightly: "I'll carry you?"

An Zhe shook his head, he can walk by himself.

Lu Feng didn't speak, and looked back to the front.

After walking for a while, An Zhe was tired and his arms were a little sore.In the past few days, as the spores slowly matured, his physical strength seemed to be getting worse and worse. He wanted to let go, but he didn't really want to let go.

Lu Yan moved his wrist, An Zhe understood what he meant, he annoyed the colonel, so he obediently let go of his hand.

Then, his hand was held by the colonel.