Chapter 470: Lili

By morning, City S had settled into an uneasy kind of order. The western barricade remained closed, soldiers had been moving through the streets since sunrise, and military vehicles regularly passed carrying supplies or wounded survivors. There was still occasional gunfire beyond the walls whenever infected wandered too close, but compared to the chaos of the previous day, the city almost felt calm.

Chen had only managed a few hours of sleep, yet he felt better than he had in days. His father was alive, Skyy was beside him, and for once they weren’t running from something trying to kill them.

The little girl followed closely as they walked through the inner district. She had finally told them her name that morning: Lili.

They still didn’t know much more about her. Lili knew her parents’ names and remembered roughly where she lived, but she couldn’t give them an address. She had been separated from her family during the evacuation near the western station, and everything afterward seemed to blur together whenever she tried to explain it. Fan Xui had already arranged for someone to check the civilian shelters for her parents, but with thousands of displaced people inside City S, finding two specific people would take time.

Until then, Lili had firmly attached herself to Skyy.

She walked beside him holding two of his fingers, refusing to stray more than a few steps away. Skyy seemed equally attached. He kept checking whether she was tired or thirsty, and when they were given bread that morning, Chen watched him quietly tear his roll in half and give Lili the larger piece.

Chen immediately broke his own bread and handed half to Skyy.

Skyy blinked at him.

“Eat.”

A small smile appeared on Skyy’s face before he accepted it.

Chen shook his head as they continued walking. He could already see how this was going to work. Skyy would happily give the child everything he owned, and Chen would have to follow behind making sure Skyy didn’t accidentally starve himself in the process.

They were passing through an older residential district when Lili suddenly stopped.

Skyy continued for another step before noticing the small hand had slipped from his fingers. He turned around immediately.

“Lili?”

The girl stood several meters behind them, staring across the road.

Something about her expression made Chen stop as well.

He followed her gaze toward a row of aging residential buildings squeezed closely together behind rusted fences. Several windows had been boarded up, while vines had climbed over the walls of another building. There wasn’t anything particularly unusual about the street.

Then Lili ran.

“Lili!”

Skyy took off after her without hesitation.

Chen swore under his breath and followed both of them.

The girl crossed the road and disappeared into a narrow alley between two buildings. Skyy was only a few seconds behind her, but Chen still felt his heart jump unpleasantly. They had only just survived the railway station. The last thing they needed was either of them blindly running into an uncleared building.

When Chen caught up, however, Lili had already stopped.

At the end of the alley stood a small basement apartment built partially beneath street level. A narrow set of concrete stairs descended toward a faded green door. Dead leaves had collected along the steps, dust coated the small window beside the entrance, and one corner of the doorframe had cracked.

Lili stared at it.

Skyy reached her first, breathing hard from the sudden run.

“Lili, you can’t run away like that.”

The girl barely seemed to hear him.

“My house.”

Skyy’s expression immediately softened.

Chen stopped behind them.

Lili slowly descended the stairs, her fingers trailing along the railing. She no longer looked confused or frightened. She knew exactly where she was.

By the time she reached the bottom, she was running again.

“Mom?”

She knocked on the green door.

There was no response.

“Mom!”

Her small fist struck it harder.

“Dad! I’m home!”

The words echoed through the quiet alley.

Nothing moved inside.

Skyy descended the stairs but stopped a short distance behind her. Chen joined him and looked through the dusty window beside the door. The apartment beyond was dark and obviously empty. A blanket had been left crumpled across the sofa, cups remained on the table, and several colorful children’s drawings were still taped to one wall. It looked as though the people who lived there had left in a hurry.

Lili knocked again.

“My mom said she’d be here.”

Skyy’s hand slowly came up to his mouth.

Chen’s attention moved across the room until he noticed something white attached to the inside of the door.

A piece of paper.

“Wait.”

He wiped the dust from the glass.

The first word was written in large letters.

LILI.

The girl immediately saw it.

Her eyes widened. “That’s my name.”

Chen tried the door, but it was locked. Fortunately, one edge of the paper had been pushed through a narrow gap beside the frame. He carefully worked it loose and unfolded it.

The handwriting was rushed but readable.

Lili, if you find this, Mommy and Daddy are alive. We waited as long as we could. The soldiers made everyone leave after the eastern district fell. We’re going to Haicheng with the evacuation group.

Chen’s eyes moved lower.

If someone brings you home, please help her find us.

The final sentence had been written larger than the rest.

We love you. We will wait for you.

For a moment, Chen didn’t know what to say.

Lili was staring at him expectantly.

“What does it say?”

He glanced at Skyy and handed him the note.

Skyy read it quickly. Relief immediately appeared on his face as he crouched beside her.

“Your mommy and daddy are alive.”

Lili’s mouth fell open.

“Really?”

“They left this for you. They had to leave City S, but they’re safe.”

The relief on Lili’s face was immediate. Her entire body seemed to loosen, and for one brief moment she looked happier than Chen had seen her since they found her.

Then she looked at the empty apartment.

“They left?”

Skyy’s smile faded slightly. “The soldiers evacuated them.”

“But I came back.”

Her voice became very quiet.

Lili turned toward the green door again and sat down on the concrete step.

“I came home.”

Chen looked away.

That hurt more than he’d expected.

Lili had survived alone inside an infected station, hidden beneath a train seat while people died around her, followed two strangers through a collapsing checkpoint and spent the night surrounded by soldiers she didn’t know. Through all of that, she must have been holding onto one simple thought.

Go home.

Her mother had told her what to do if she ever became lost.

“My mom said if I got lost, I should come home,” Lili whispered. “She said she’d find me here.”

Her face crumpled.

Skyy immediately sat beside her and pulled her against his chest.

Lili began to sob.

It wasn’t the terrified screaming Chen had heard when the infected attacked the train. She simply buried her face in Skyy’s shirt and cried until her little shoulders shook.

Skyy held her tightly, one hand slowly rubbing her back.

“Your mommy didn’t leave because she didn’t want you,” he murmured. “She waited for you. Look, she even left you a letter because she knew you’d come home.”

“I want my mom.”

“I know.”

“I want to find her.”

Skyy’s hand stopped for a moment.

Then his eyes lifted toward Chen.

Chen knew that look immediately.

He shook his head.

Haicheng wasn’t somewhere they could casually visit. Chen didn’t even know how far away it was, what the roads were like or whether the city was still secure. They had only just reached City S after nearly dying repeatedly along the way. There was still the bombing warning in the diary, the problem of getting back to their own time, and whatever had gone wrong enough for Trexa to bring them here in the first place.

Leaving again because of a child they had found yesterday was objectively a terrible decision.

Skyy didn’t argue.

He simply continued holding Lili.

That somehow made Chen feel worse.

Then Lili lifted her wet face from Skyy’s chest.

“Can we find my mommy?”

Chen stared at her.

For a moment, all he could think about was the previous day. He remembered hearing Fan Xui’s voice across the checkpoint and the shock of seeing his father standing there alive. He remembered the relief that had hit him when Fan Xui pulled him into his arms.

He knew exactly what it felt like to search for family without knowing whether they were alive.

And unlike Chen, Lili already knew where hers had gone.

Chen rubbed a hand over his face.

“We’ll find out where Haicheng is.”

Skyy’s eyes immediately brightened.

Lili stared at him hopefully. “And then?”

Chen crouched in front of her.

“If there’s a safe way to reach your parents, we’ll take you.”

Lili threw herself at him so suddenly that Chen nearly lost his balance.

“Thank you!”

He automatically caught her, blinking in surprise as her arms wrapped tightly around his neck.

Over her shoulder, Skyy was smiling.