CH 2.2

Chapter 2.2 – Alien

Shi Yuan’s little common sense simply couldn’t stand up to the crowd’s chain of questions.

Everyone soon discovered that he couldn’t read a compass, a map, or any electronic device; he couldn’t boil water, eat self-heating food, and he didn’t know anything about infected people… He was like a flower in a greenhouse, or the most ‘silly and sweet’ one, making it completely impossible to imagine how he had lived to this day.

The convoy drove out of the forest, out of the empress bee’s range of activities, and came to the endless wasteland. It was the darkest hour before dawn when they stopped to rest for two hours before setting out.

Lu Bafang and Wang Yu got out of the car and went to transfer the overloaded medical equipment to another car. After moving the boxes, both of them were sweating profusely. Lu Bafang pulled Wang Yu aside and said, “Sister Wang, what do you think happened to Shi Yuan? He looks like a person from centuries ago. I just showed him how the phone works and he said ‘Wow! You’re amazing!’ and then especially worshiped me.”

Wang Yu looked up at the sky: “I don’t know either…”

The two of them coincidentally looked inside the car, where Shi Yuan was holding a compass with both hands, pointing it at the heater air vent, not knowing what he was studying.

Lu Bafang: “There are weird people every year, especially this year.”

Wang Yu was silent again for a while and said, “I have encountered this situation twice. The first time was when I went to the northern line defense station, we met a mother and son. The mother felt that the world was too cruel and did not want the child to face it, and created an ivory tower-like living environment for him. The boy was in his late teens, almost twenty, he had never seen television or listened to the radio, and had never seen the outside world. In his eyes the years are quiet, the world is peaceful, and monsters are just fairy tale books.”

“This spoiling is too morbid!” Lu Bafang’s jaw dropped, “Shouldn’t loving a child make him learn how to survive?”

“Yes. She has mental problems and hasn’t gotten better since her husband died while she was pregnant.” Wang Yu said, “Another time was when I went to Huaixi, where a small town was controlled by a private armed force. We negotiated with them peacefully, but there was a little friction…”

She paused for half a second and skipped this part: “In short, the armed forces have disappeared. Their leader had some eccentricities and kept a lot of little girls and boys, all of whom were ‘missing’ children of the locals.”

When she closed her eyes, she could still recall the unworldly eyes of the children.

They have never been taught any common sense and survival skills, they only know how to please others, and only know how to lie in bed and make a tactful moan of a nightingale.

“Beast.” Lu Bafang frowned.

“That beast died terribly, blown to pieces by C4, glued to the wall and couldn’t be pulled out. The children were also sent to an orphanage to be educated.” Wang Yu glanced at Shi Yuan who was staring intently at the compass, “I just want to say that anything weird can happen.”

“…Yes.” Lu Bafang said, “That’s right, ah.”

“Maybe one day we will know the answer.” Wang Yu glanced at Shi Yuan again and said in confusion, “But why does he keep holding the compass in front of the heater? Is he keeping it warm?”

Shi Yuan has been doing this for at least ten minutes, cautiously, not daring to move at all, even his tail froze in the air, as if he had been hit by an immobilization spell.

“Oh,” Lu Bafang was a little embarrassed, “I was teaching him how to read the compass. Before getting off the bus, I said that the compass was an egg I laid, and it was about to hatch, so let him help guard it and keep it warm, otherwise, my egg will die.”

He was always a person who talks casually and jokes around.

As a result, Shi Yuan was so frightened by him that he held the compass to the heater and didn’t dare to move.

Wang Yu: “…”

Wang Yu held her forehead: “Lu Bafang, I misunderstood you, you actually have the heart to lie to him…”

“I didn’t think he’d take it seriously, no normal person would believe this!” Lu Bafang cried and grimaced, “How should I explain to him that this thing really can’t hatch Little Lu Bafang?”

“Don’t explain.” Wang Yu patted him on the shoulder. “Let’s pretend you laid an egg.”

When they returned to the car, Shi Yuan carefully returned the egg to Lu Bafang and said, “It hasn’t hatched yet.”

Wang Yu said, “Don’t worry, it’s an idiot. That’s the way idiots are, it’s definitely not your problem.”

Lu Bafang: “…”

Shi Yuan: ?

Wang Yu sighed in her heart, looked at him, and said, “You look like a devil, but you are actually silly and sweet, you have wasted your potential to be a villain.”

Shi Yuan didn’t quite understand.

There were still too many things he didn’t understand.

*

Wang Yu and Lu Bafang were busy with something else, Shi Yuan was alone in the car, crouched at the window to secretly observe humans.

Guns and ammunition, supplies, gasoline and diesel… The convoy was ready to leave, and people were in a hurry.

Shi Yuan’s eyes stopped on a person’s back.

The man had brightly colored feathers on the back of his hands and neck, like a bird, and was immersed in tinkering with a black machine.

‘Is he a monster, too? Infiltrated the humans, too?’

Shi Yuan’s tail curved into a question mark, there was the joy of seeing his kind.

The machine was set up with the amplifier facing southeast. The man pressed the button, and it emitted high-frequency sound waves that were inaudible to human ears. The infected birds that had been following the convoy in the distance were frightened and dispersed in the noise.

The next second, the man turned his head and happened to meet Shi Yuan’s eyes.

Eyes firm and sensible, perhaps with an aversion for the flocks of birds.

He is by no means a monster.

Shi Yuan retracted his head.

—He is really the only one different here.

He felt that he might, perhaps, probably be the villain.

A little monster who had blended into the crowd and was about to go to the city.

But so what?

Monsters are very persistent, giant birds like shiny stones, piled up their nests, mushrooms sing songs all night, just to trap a curious prey to break the bones and suck the marrow, infected wolves kill for the territory, and the blood flows dry without stopping. Shi Yuan is not interested in all of these, he just wants to find his human.

You can learn if you don’t know how to use a mobile phone, and you can practice if you don’t know how to read a map. As long as you observe human beings over and over again, you can always learn their words and deeds, and learn everything about them.

People were still busy, so Shi Yuan took out his mobile phone and operated it slowly according to the way Lu Bafang taught him.

After a while, he still didn’t understand, and fell asleep holding his tail.

The convoy restarted and drove off into the wilderness.

Soon after, it was dawn.

The sky of the wilderness always had a beautiful color. With indigo as the curtain, the rich blue and purple colors intertwined, twisted and rolled out vigorously, like a gorgeous oil painting. The dull earth was dead, the trees were dead, and the weeds were in disarray. The only warm tones were where the gale and sunrise rose, a splash of bright red staining the land into a sea of blood.

Lu Bafang and the driver changed shifts and continued to drive while Wang Yu nibbled on dry bread.

Shi Yuan also woke up and looked into the distance with sleepiness.

He was wearing a certain soldier’s clothes, hanging loosely, wearing a pendant of wolf teeth, with graceful lines from neck to shoulder in the morning light, like a work of art.

一 Shi Yuan was good-looking.

As if he had been favored by God, his skin was impeccable, his eyes were bright, his brows were black, and the ivory-like luster of his skin could not be covered by mud and grass. It is the kind of beauty that others will remember even in this rough wilderness and in these hard times.

Shi Yuan didn’t realize that even with his unusual appearance, he still attracted a lot of attention. Roses have thorns, and there are always people who want to touch them.

…that’s the problem.

Wang Yu sighed lightly.

This kind of beauty could set anyone on fire without realizing it. It was better than thousands of pomegranate skirts and suit pants. If it was matched with exquisite thoughts, it could be really sharp as a blade, enough to kill people invisibly.

But put on the silly Shi Yuan, it was too soft, and even that little thorn looked like a bluff.

The combination of ignorance and soft beauty is a disaster, no exceptions.

“Shi Yuan,” Wang Yu called out.

Shi Yuan looked back at her.

Wang Yu said: “This world is very dangerous and you still have a lot to learn.”

“Oh…” Of course, Shi Yuan knew this, and tangled, “I’m trying to learn now.”

“Let me teach you something.” Wang Yu said, she took a deep breath, “There are so many things to say, it’s a little hard to know where to start… But let’s start with the most basic, do you know what ‘abyss’ is?”

Shi Yuan: “……”

Shi Yuan: ?!!!