Por que isso nunca termina

Year 4623.

Savin Mountain, South District of Tanyi City, in the Third Division.

Along a winding mountain path, more than twenty children from St. Anne’s Convent, dressed in gray linen robes, were picking wild vegetables under the supervision of a stern-faced nun.

The nun, around fifty years old, already had streaks of white in her hair. The skin on her cheeks had grown loose and sagging with age, and even when her face was expressionless, there was an unmistakable severity that inspired fear.

The group stretched out in a long line. The nun stood at the front, while the children, scattered in small clusters, occasionally brought their finds to her, asking whether they were edible.

At the rear of the group, a red-haired girl followed behind a black-haired boy. Her pale blue eyes, like crystals steeped in a mountain stream, were full of alertness as she watched the grass rustling around them.

“Jane, come here!” the boy called, his expression alight with excitement. “Look what I found!”

The girl crouched beside him, her gaze falling on a dark brown mushroom growing from the earth. Her expression changed at once and she instinctively drew back.

“Don’t be afraid,” Bo Heng said softly. “It isn’t chelating fungus—just a regular mushroom, perfectly safe to eat. Look…”

She approached, still uncertain.

The boy produced a small knife and carefully pried the entire mushroom from the ground. Its cap was brown, and the mycelium beneath was caked with a little dirt. With a swift flick of his short blade, he trimmed off the soil