Nine years later.
Only a few buildings appeared on the empty snow, like some strange ice sculptures.
Crawling on the snow was a wolf-dog-sized mutant rabbit, with scarlet eyes and long fangs like a carnivore at the corners of its mouth.
The mutant looked around alertly, and as if it suddenly sensed something, it jumped behind an ice wall and hid.
In the heavy snow, a sturdy black lion with a layer of frost on its mane slowly walked over.
There was a man on the back of the black lion. He was wearing a thick animal skin coat, a fur hat and a scarf wrapped around his face. Only a pair of distinct black and white eyes were exposed on his body.
The eyes were large and clear, like two pools of water that never freezes, and the long and curled eyelashes were dyed white by the ice and snow, like two flapping butterfly wings.
The mutant behind the ice wall lay dormant without moving, its red eyes gleaming with greed and ferocity as it stared at the person on the lion's back.
The black lion walked casually, flicking its tail gently, and swayed across the snow.
The man on the lion's back was unaware of the danger and just swung his feet slightly.
The feet were also wrapped in thick animal skins and tied with ropes several times, making them round and fat, looking a bit silly.
Although the mutant was afraid of the black lion, hunger eventually overcame fear. The moment the black lion walked behind the ice wall, it pounced on the man on the lion's back.
It opened its mouth and exposed its fangs in mid-air, aiming for the neck under the thick scarf. It could imagine the warmth of blood flowing through its throat at the moment it bit the neck.
The man on the lion's back was completely defenseless and was still sitting there swaying. But just as the mutant's fangs were about to touch the back of his neck, he slid to the side as if he had not sat firmly.
The arc of his slide was not large, just enough for the mutant to pounce on him from the side.
The mutant's teeth bit into nothing, and only tasted cold air in its throat, but it turned around the moment it landed, ready to pounce again.
But its powerful hind legs kept moving, and the strength in its body was rapidly draining away. It staggered forward a few steps and then fell headfirst onto the snow.
—There was a knife wound on the abdomen with light gray hair, and the blood had coagulated before it could flow out.
The black lion seemed to be accustomed to all this. He picked up the corpse of the mutant rabbit and continued walking forward leisurely.
After a while, it stopped in front of a building that looked to be five stories high.
The man on the lion's back slid to the ground, and because he was wearing too many clothes, his movements looked a little clumsy. He stepped on the snow and walked to the window, pressed the combination lock, and climbed in through the open window.
Black Lion continued to stay outside the building, skillfully skinning the mutant rabbit, cleaning its internal organs, and then burying the internal organs in the snow far away from the building.
The people in the house took off their thick animal skin coats and leather pants, shook off the ice debris on them, revealing their light grey turtleneck sweaters and fleece pants.
This sweater is obviously hand-knitted, and the yarn is uneven in thickness. It doesn't look like machine-produced yarn, but rather like yarn made directly from animal hair.
The sweater was a bit too big, making him look quite small. When he took off his scarf and hat, he revealed a very handsome boy.
A head of curly hair fell down in a mess, covering his ears and his white forehead.