“In this world, who could preserve such values? Maybe, there is a place we have yet to find that has survived through the end of the world by sheer luck, and that place is where you came from.” He fixed his gaze very far away, as if he was looking at Kansas Star and searching for a place that had been forgotten by time, a place where time had stopped ticking and had survived the end of the world.

“Where is that place?” I was trying my luck.

He retracted his gaze but didn’t reply. He only put my painting back onto my easel, and wore his faint, gentle smile again.

He walked towards me and entered Xing Chuan’s room. Standing before me in the orange evening light, he smiled at me. “Raffles told me. You...