My brother entrusted his child to me, and I livestreamed raising the baby, making the Empress cry wi

The alley is located in a low-lying area, and rainwater from the slightly higher surrounding areas flows into it, but the water cannot be drained out.

The walls on both sides were blackened by the rising water, and the plaster bulged up in patches, like blisters on scalded skin. Some of the plaster had already broken, revealing the wet and rotten brick core inside.

The rain slanted down, and the soaked plaster on the wall made a soft pattering sound as it fell off piece by piece, silently sinking into the water and becoming part of the trash.

Dark green moss climbed up the base of the wall, over the bulging plaster, over the black water stains seeping from the cracks in the bricks, thickly covering the entire wall, looking like mold growing after the wall rotted.

The floodwaters had reached above knee level by early morning on the third day of the heavy rain, making it impossible to stay any longer.

Shu Jingwei looked down at the water, which was now right at the position of her kneecap.

Because the water was too murky, she couldn't see her own legs underwater; she could only feel the chilling sewage seeping into her bones bit by bit.

After leaning against the wall for a while, Shu Jingwei blinked hard.

Water droplets from her hair fell into her eyes, making them sting and sting.

Various things were floating on the puddles.

The rotten vegetable leaves were soaked until they swelled up, and the edges turned into a translucent dark green, slowly swirling on the surface of the water.

A tattered rag was wrapped around a stick that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, and it trembled with the current, like a hand reaching out from the water to cry for help.

There were also rat carcasses that had swelled up from being soaked in water.

Its belly was swollen like a ball about to burst, its four paws were stiffly pointing upwards, and most of its gray-black fur had fallen off due to being soaked in water, revealing the pale and bluish skin underneath.

The mouse's eyes were still open, with two black pupils protruding from their sockets and covered by a grayish-white membrane.

Shu Jingwei's gaze lingered on the dead rat for a moment, and she felt a chill run down her spine, so she quickly turned her face away.

She struggled to hold up the tattered, soaked quilt, draping it over her head and body like a cloak.

The quilt was quite thick, but after being soaked by the rain, it became unusually heavy, making her feel shorter.

His already thin shoulders slumped under the weight, his neck hunched, and his chin almost buried in his chest.

But she couldn't bear to throw it away; it was the only thing she could consider an asset now.

Shu Jingwei was soaked through; the water-soaked fabric clung tightly to her body, feeling both cold and heavy.

The icy rain seeped into my skin, climbed up my veins, and crept into my bones.

She braced herself against the wall, tentatively feeling around the surface with her fingertips. After finding a crack in the brickwork, she bent her knuckles and pressed her fingertips against the edge of the brick to probe inside.

Find the recessed spot, then use all five fingers together, stretching your knuckles until they turn white, your fingernails digging into the moss in the brick crack, squeezing out a small stream of dark green juice.

Taking a deep breath, Shu Jingwei tightened the muscles under her ribs, and used this as a fulcrum to move her upper body forward, taking a step along with her feet.

With the heel of her palm pressed against the cold, rough brick surface, she could feel the tiny particles on the brick rubbing against her skin with every inch of movement.

With one good leg dragging the broken leg, she struggled to move underwater, each movement breaking through the water's resistance. Sewage parted on either side of her leg, creating murky waves with her movements.

Every step felt like torture.

Every short distance she went, she had to stop, bend over, and brace herself against her knees to catch her breath.

The leg, which was already broken and not fully healed, finally began to throb with pain after being in the cold and dirty water for several days.

The broken area began to swell slightly, as if something inside was expanding and trying to stretch the skin and flesh apart.

After the swelling subsided, the pain returned.

The pain was dull, seeping from the very bones, like someone was holding a blunt knife and scraping at the broken surface of her bones, bit by bit.

With each stroke, the whole leg trembles.

The same goes for that arm; although both had broken bones, there weren't any visible wounds.

But under the influence of this terrible weather, it started to hurt and itch, as if there was a nest of ants crawling inside and gnawing at her bones.

Itching is more agonizing than pain.

Pain is bearable; you can grit your teeth and it will pass. But itching is different. That itch comes from deep within the skin and flesh, and you can't scratch it; you can only endure it.

She paused, grabbed the elbow of her severed arm with her intact hand, and instinctively squeezed it, but unfortunately, it did not relieve the pain at all.

Shu Jingwei had no choice but to grit her teeth and let the itching continue. She hunched over and kept walking forward, her soaked hair sticking to her scalp in clumps.

Stray hairs fell from her forehead, covering half her face and the scar, revealing only a pointed chin and two bloodless lips.

Several cracks appeared on her lips, the deepest one reaching into the flesh. The blood that seeped out was diluted by the rain, leaving only a faint red ring on her lips.

The eyes were sunken in their sockets, the bones of the eye sockets protruded sharply, and the whites of the eyes were covered with red blood vessels.

Shu Jingwei left the place where she and Shu Rou had spent many days step by step.

The hand she was using to support herself against the wall moved her fingers from one brick seam to another, the skin on her knuckles chafed raw by the brick surface, the oozing blood mingling with the green sap of the moss.

The alley behind me became increasingly blurry in the rain.

The pile of garbage in the alley that they had rummaged through countless times, and the makeshift "shelter" they had built, were gradually swallowed up by the rain, blending into the gray background and turning into dark patches that were difficult to identify.

She needs to find a new place to settle down.

At that moment, she was all alone.

Shu Rou was taken away the night before.

The day before, the sky was just as dark as it is now, except that the water wasn't as deep then, only reaching my calves.

Back then, you could still see the brick seams at the base of the wall, and even a couple of yellowish-white grass sprouts emerging from those seams.

The grass shoots had been soaked in water for several days, their roots had rotted, and their stems and leaves limply clung to the base of the wall, emitting a fishy stench unique to rotting aquatic plants.

Rainwater pattered against the walls on both sides of the alley.

The water seeped in along the peeling paint on the walls and flowed out from below, forming dark, damp rings. The old houses on both sides looked as if they were being soaked and rotted from the inside out.

The broken bricks that Shu Jingwei had picked up to use as stools were now completely submerged in water.

The murky water flowed slowly through the alley, its movement barely perceptible on the surface.

But if you stare at it for a while, you'll notice that the trash on the water's surface is drifting into the depths of the alley at an extremely slow speed.

Rotten vegetable leaves spun on the water's surface, once, twice, pushed forward by the unseen underwater currents.

The mushy pieces of paper lay spread out on the water's surface, the writing on them long since blurred into clumps of ink.

The ground is completely unsuitable for sitting, unless you want to have most of your butt submerged in water.

Shu Jingwei looked up at the sky.