European side.

Ice and snow howled outside the door.

Ma Qi sat nervously by the fire, trying to absorb the warmth released by the fire to warm her body. Her eyes were suppressed and she was holding a shovel in her hand, her knuckles turning white.

The two children didn't know what had just happened, and they didn't notice Ma Qi's nervousness.

But they did not play the same games as children before the disaster, because long-term hunger always makes people lack energy. Maggie and Willy both squatted by the fire, almost falling asleep.

suddenly.

"Mother."

Sharon suddenly looked at Maggie.

"What's wrong, Sharon?"

"Mom, today is Christmas." Sharon looked expectant. "Will Santa Claus give me a gift tonight? Sharon has always been a good child."

"Well, good children will get gifts." Ma Qi smiled and said in a complex voice: "What gift does Sharon want?"

This is the unique innocence of children. Children who are naive always believe in the existence of Santa Claus.

These romantic words made Ma Qi feel warm, but also made her feel a little uncomfortable.

"Sharon wants a rag doll..." The little girl was looking forward to it. She used to like all kinds of rag dolls the most.

but.

"Gululu~"

The protest from her stomach appeared at an inappropriate time. Sharon's face turned red, she held her stomach, and finally said: "No, I still... I still want a big meatball."

"A very, very large meatball."

"Well, big meatballs that can make me and my mother full." Sharon swung her hands in a circle and gestured: "So big!"

"And it's best to do it a little in advance... I want to eat it tonight with my mother and Willy..."

Maggie smiled: "Okay, Sharon, Santa Claus will give you a big meatball, a very big, very big meatball. You go to sleep for a while, and when you wake up, Santa Claus will bring it to you."

"

"Mom, why don't we have a Christmas tree this year?" Sharon suddenly asked.

Maggie didn't know how to answer.

"There are also colored lanterns and ribbons... there are none this year..."

"There's no turkey, and there's no dad either..."

Sharon whispered, and Maggie didn't know how to comfort her. After a long time, she wanted to say something, but Sharon had already lowered her head and leaned against Willy, snoring.

There was a gentle smile on the corner of her mouth, as if in a dream, she was opening gifts under the Christmas tree in a decorated room, and there was a fragrant turkey in the oven. Her father, mother, uncles and aunts were having fun.

They chatted about their experiences over the past year.

Ma Qi was silent for a long time, then stood up slowly, took out a piece of torn paper used as a fire starter from the corner, selected a few pieces of gray-red shredded paper, and pasted them in the room, and finally pasted them outside the cold and windy door.

A palm-sized piece of red shredded paper.

The color red seems to represent happiness in every national culture.

This decoration is much worse than before. As a former urban beauty, Christmas is always carefully prepared. Ribbons, lights, and Christmas trees must be prepared. But now I can only simply paste some red shredded paper.

Ma Qi suddenly remembered how warmly she and her husband used to laugh and put up colorful ribbons at home.

Of course, it seems a bit silly to still decorate for Christmas now, because unnecessary and meaningless actions will consume more energy.

But Ma Qi feels that perhaps it is these seemingly superfluous actions and these seemingly superfluous festivals that are the foundation of a national culture.

Only then can she temporarily forget the coldness of winter, give her hope to persevere, and allow her to feel warm despite the cold and hunger.

Outside the door, the neighbor across the door also posted a piece of shredded paper picked up from nowhere. The gray-red shredded paper that had been stored for a long time and had almost faded was almost lost in the wind and snow, but in this vast white and lifeless world

But it is still a bit dazzling, seeming to bring a bit of vitality to the cold winter, adding joy to the ice and snow.

Ma Qi and her neighbor looked at each other. Neither of them knew what to say. After a long silence, they said: "Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas."

There was some red in the room, and it finally had a festive atmosphere, breaking the depression of facing the white ice and snow for a long time.

Ma Qi glanced at her sleeping daughter and Willy, and then at a thumb-sized piece of dried meat hanging in the corner of the beam.

It was left by Willy's father for himself. It was an extremely luxurious food in the cold winter.

Ma Qi would only cook a small piece of meat when her children and herself really needed oil and water to make a pot of broth that smelled vaguely of meat and had a few oily stars floating in it. After more than a month, there were still these palm-sized pieces of meat left.

Clicked.

Ma Qi sighed, stood up, took out the piece of dried meat, took out a small knife, and prepared to cut off pieces of meat as big as the tip of a fingernail as before.

But looking at the last bit of bread in the corner, Ma Qi suddenly felt a sudden change in her heart and simply cut the entire thumb-sized dried meat into luxurious slices.

Ma Qi poured all the meat pieces onto the fire

He was about to open the door to add ice and snow to the pot, but suddenly.

"Bang bang bang!"

Someone knocked on the door.

"who!"

Ma Qi's face suddenly tightened.

The sound of the wind and snow outside the door was too loud. The people outside the door did not hear Ma Qi's inquiry at first, until Ma Qi repeated again: "Who!"

"Ahem...it's me, Dylan!" the person outside the door responded in a low tone.

"It's Uncle Dylan!" Sharon, who was woken up by the knock on the door, smiled happily: "Mom, it's Uncle Dylan!"

Willy is also very happy.

Dylan is Maggie's neighbor across the door, and he is also the single man who was robbed of all the food by Rory, Mark and others.

Because he lives alone, and because both his father and mother died in the last battle, the Alliance of Gods will give Dylan extra rations, which is equivalent to the pension in exchange for his parents.

So before winter came and traffic was blocked, Dylan accumulated a lot of rusks.

Because he lives alone, he has relatively plenty of food. If there are no accidents, it will be enough for him to survive this cold winter.

He is a nice person who is willing to share. Sharon and Willy like to visit him the most, because Uncle Dylan will always generously give them some rusks to fill their stomachs, and then watch them play with a smile.

It brings rare laughter and warmth to a house where we live alone amidst the howling of ice and snow.

This also allowed Ma Qi to save a lot of food, which has allowed her to survive until now.

"Mom, Uncle Dylan is here!" Sharon smiled happily.

If it had been left, Maggie would have been very happy, because every time Dylan came over, he would bring some rusks for Sharon and Willie.

But Maggie was not happy because she knew that Dylan's food had just been looted.

Maggie could vaguely guess what Dylan was going to do, and she was even a little scared... After witnessing what Rory and Mark did, she realized how dangerous a woman with two children could be.

"Ma Qi, I beg you, please open the door."

"Mom, open the door for Uncle Dylan quickly."

Maggie wanted to refuse, but looking at Sharon's bright, innocent eyes, she didn't know how to explain it, and finally smiled and said: "Okay, mom will open the door for Uncle Dylan."

She bent down and hid the pot with the meat under the bed, then picked up the shovel and slowly opened the door.

What made her relieved was that Dylan did not carry any weapons, his eyes were not cruel, and he was still as kind as before.

Dylan, whose head was broken, wore a simple bandage of rags and stood shivering in the cold wind.

Seeing Maggie opening the door, Dylan's eyes were a little grateful.

But when he saw the shovel in Ma Qi's hand, the smile on his face suddenly became a little stiff.

"boom!"

The howling cold wind closed the door behind her. Maggie looked at Dylan and whispered: "What's wrong?"

"Ahem, Maggie, Merry Christmas." Dylan's eyes were lowered, with a pleading smile on his face. After planning for a long time, he finally said with difficulty: "Maggie, we are friends, right."

Maggie didn't answer.

"Maggie, my food was taken away... Ahem, those damn Rory and Mark... they didn't leave any for me at all... They even came to my house to eat the food cooked by my parents before!"

"Ma Qi, can you lend me some food?"

He looked at Ma Qi carefully, and when Ma Qi didn't answer, he said solemnly: "I will definitely pay it back! I...I don't know how to pay it back, but I will definitely pay it back."

"I just don't want to be hungry on Christmas Day, ahem, after all, it's Christmas..."

"I know it's not easy for you to have two children, but, I gave you and Sharon a lot of food before... If it wasn't really helpless, I wouldn't want to come and beg you, and they all rejected me...

"

"Ma Qi, I know you will definitely help me. I don't need too much, just a little is enough. Just keep me from going hungry tonight. I won't ask you for anything again... This is Christmas after all. Thank you.
To be continued...