Chapter 9.2 – The World
The next morning, as soon as he left the room, Broken Copper put bread and milk on the table, while Broken Iron continued to guard the stairs.
Broken Copper said in a mechanical voice: [Two hours later, exactly at 10 o’clock, please cooperate with the full body examination.]
“I see.” Shi Yuan said, “Thank you, Broken Copper.”
Broken Copper: [Tip: According to the settings, my random name is Charles.】
Shi Yuan: “Okay, Broken Copper, I’ll remember.”
Broken Copper: […] It went back to guard the stairs again.
For the next two hours, Shi Yuan practiced using his mobile phone.
He had the contact information of Wang Yu and Lu Bafang, and he hadn’t looked at his phone yesterday, but when he opened it today, there were a whole bunch of messages.
Lu Bafang: [Where are you? Have you entered the city yet?]
Lu Bafang: [Are you still with General Lu? 】
Lu Bafang: [Shi Yuan, look at the phone, I taught you how to reply to text messages! Click “Reply” to reply to me!]
Lu Bafang: [Why don’t you reply to the message? Why don’t you reply to the message? Why don’t you reply to the message?]
Lu Bafang: [Remember to charge the phone, ah! Don’t try to feed it!!]
In contrast, Wang Yu’s text message was much more concise: [After entering the city, send us a message.]
Shi Yuan typed slowly and replied to Wang Yu: [I have already entered the city]
Wang Yu did not reply, she was probably busy.
Shi Yuan replied to Lu Bafang: [Yes, I’m in the city, I didn’t look at my phone yesterday]
Lu Bafang replied in seconds: [That’s good, you are not familiar with life and don’t understand anything. I’m afraid that you will get into trouble. Have you registered your identity? Did they assign you a residence?]
Shi Yuan thought for a while, someone was going to assign him yesterday, but before the assignment, he left with Lu Tinghan, and the “address” on his ID card was still empty.
He replied to Lu Bafang: [I have registered my identity, but I don’t have a residence]
Lu Bafang: [Ah, how come? Where are you? You didn’t sleep on the street, right?]
[No] Shi Yuan replied, [I’m at Lu Tinghan’s house]
Lu Bafang sent a series of ellipses that covered the whole screen.
Shi Yuan asked: [What happened?]
Lu Bafang: [(powerful) (powerful) (powerful)]
Lu Bafang: [I won’t bother you anymore (clasping fists)]
Then no matter how Shi Yuan asked, Lu Bafang didn’t answer him.
Shi Yuan could only continue to study his mobile phone.
After a while, Lu Bafang sent him another message: [Shi Yuan, I haven’t offended you these days, have I?]
Shi Yuan: ?
Shi Yuan: [No, why do you ask that?]
[That’s good.] Lu Bafang was obviously relieved. [I’m afraid a mouthful of pillow wind will blow me to death]
Shi Yuan’s tail curled into a question mark in confusion.
When he finally learned to watch videos, someone knocked on the door, it was the medical staff who had taken him in for an examination.
The two men showed their credentials, then took Shi Yuan into the car and drove to another huge, pure white building.
There were very few people in the building and there were no mutants. Occasionally, he could see a few people in blue and white hospital gowns, so Shi Yuan was less nervous. An old man with white hair came over, pushed his glasses, and asked, “Your name is Shi Yuan, right? General Lu let you come here?”
“Yes,” Shi Yuan replied.
“You can call me Professor Guan,” the old man said. “Come with me.”
They walked along the corridor one after the other, and the air smelled of disinfectant. When they passed by the window, Shi Yuan vaguely heard the sound of crying.
It was sorrowful and mournful, with a long drawn-out end, crying breathlessly.
Shi Yuan asked, “Why is he crying?”
“His test results are out,” Professor Guan replied. “It’s a common thing.”
A few steps forward, the cry was drowned out by the wind.
They went all the way to the top floor, where there were many instruments that Shi Yuan didn’t know. Professor Guan instructed the staff. In the next five hours, Shi Yuan was drawn a few more tubes of blood. All kinds of instruments were in operation. Some people carefully studied his devil horns, some checked his pupils, and some took his CT results to confirm repeatedly.
The final conclusion was that Shi Yuan was really healthy.
Except that the heartbeat was too fast – the phobia was strong.
After finally waiting for the results to come out, Shi Yuan waited for Professor Guan on the bench outside.
It was already evening, and the rich sunset light shone in through the window and fell on his shoulders. He was a little sleepy, but did not dare to sleep, yawning with his tail in his arms.
Professor Guan made a phone call to Lu Tinghan in his office.
“We did the most comprehensive inspection and found nothing unusual,” he said.
Lu Tinghan said, “That’s good.”
Professor Guan: “Are you… suspecting that there is something wrong with him?”
“A little bit, maybe it’s my illusion,” Lu Tinghan said. “I have never seen his type of infection.”
“If you haven’t seen it before, it’s even more impossible for other people to know.” Professor Guan said, “However, I said that Shi Yuan had nothing unusual based on existing scientific standards. The infection mutates too fast, during this period of time, the pollution value has fluctuated greatly, and there are some things that we may not notice. So do we need to do anything extra?”
Lu Tinghan was silent for two seconds: “It’s enough. If there is an abnormality, I will deal with it.”
“Then I’ll find someone to send Shi Yuan back?” Professor Guan asked.
“No need,” Lu Tinghan said. “I’m almost downstairs.”
Professor Guan was taken aback.
Shi Yuan didn’t see the professor come out for a long time, he was feeling drowsy when his phone vibrated.
Unknown number: [Shi Yuan, come downstairs.]
For some reason, as soon as he looked at it, he knew that the text message was from Lu Tinghan. Professor Guan happened to be out of the office, Shi Yuan said “thank you” to him, and then ran away in a flash.
Lu Tinghan’s car was downstairs, the dark silver body was very low profile. When Shi Yuan got into the car, the driver silently stepped on the accelerator, and Lu Tinghan asked, “How is your day?”
He changed into casual clothes, a pure black shirt, and slim-fitting trousers that outlined the lines of his long legs.
“I met a lot of people,” Shi Yuan said. “And a lot of instruments.”
“Were you scared?”
“A little.”
Lu Tinghan nodded and said, “You haven’t eaten yet, I’ll take you somewhere.”
Fifteen minutes later, the car stopped at the intersection, and further ahead was the pedestrian area where cars were not allowed to enter.
Lu Tinghan put on a black mask to cover his face, Shi Yuan followed him out of the car, and the plainclothes guards were not far from them.
This was a long street with old buildings and peeling walls. There were also many construction sites with cordon lines along the road.
It was dinner time, and the workers were topless, with white towels draped over their bronzed shoulders. They were gathered in a circle, the air was hot and smelled of sweat. In the center of the circle were several large buckets of rice and porridge, and the man with the rice spoon shouted, “Come one by one! Do not squeeze, do not squeeze! Show the meal ticket, everyone has a share! Hey, hey, don’t cut in line!”
Going further, there were more people.
Shi Yuan saw a kindergarten. The iron gate opened, and several round human cubs poured out, running faster than the wind, the schoolbags on their backs clattering.
There were a lot of people here. Shi Yuan quickened his pace, grabbed Lu Tinghan’s cuffs, and said, “It’s so lively.”
“It happened to be break time,” Lu Tinghan said. “This area is a living area under construction, there is a restaurant just ahead.”
Sure enough, small vendors soon appeared on the side of the road.
Most of what they sell were compressed food and nutritional supplements. And all kinds of reserve food were piled on the trolley, with the price clearly marked: [Canned Corn – 15 Alliance Coins] [Nutrients – 10 Alliance Coins] [Compressed Biscuits – 13 Alliance Coins] [Canned Pork – 60 Alliance Coins]
Only one person was selling hot roasted ham. Shi Yuan hadn’t seen it before, so after a few more glances, Lu Tinghan asked, “Do you want to eat it?”
Shi Yuan said, “I want to.”
Lu Tinghan bought a ham sausage and handed it to him. This ham had no meat, it was all starch, but it was just roasted until the skin was slightly cracked, and it was very fragrant. Shi Yuan took a few bites and said, “It’s delicious.”
“There are other places to eat ahead,” Lu Tinghan said. “This is the most prosperous area.”
Shi Yuan just tugged at Lu Tinghan’s cuff and walked down the street.
With Lu Tinghan by his side, he was no longer afraid and looked around with wide eyes.
The buildings were scattered in high and low, the walls were all gray and white, and the only bright colors were the clothes fluttering on the balcony, red and white plaid shirts, dark blue nightdresses, and autumn yellow windbreakers. The sound of “clanking” came from the construction site, the workers raised the hammer and dropped it heavily, their sweat beads flying. The person holding the rice spoon banged the porridge bucket loudly, shouting: “Don’t cut the line, don’t cut the line! Otherwise, I’ll hit you on the head with a rice spoon!”
The human cubs ran around, laughing and joking. One ran too fast and almost bumped into Lu Tinghan. Lu Tinghan held the child’s shoulders, and turned him around, the child ran out again like clockwork, until he jumped into the arms of his mother – the woman embraced the child, she did not recognize Lu Tinghan, she smiled at him and Shi Yuan, her long skirt fluttering in the wind.
Farther away, the cook was carrying a freshly cooked meal, saying: ‘Yoo-hoo, the dishes are here!’ These days, meat was a rare commodity, but vegetarian dishes stir-fried together in an open fire burst with aroma, and they can be smelled from a long distance. With a glass of ice water, you can eat two large bowls of rice.
Shi Yuan listened to Lu Bafang tell a lot of stories about the city, and he also looked at the city wall side by side with Wang Yu, but it was only at this time that he had a real feeling.
This was different from the wasteland and the high forest.
There were soft beds, hot showers, and everything he had never seen before.
After a few minutes, the street lights came on one by one. The light climbed all the way up the cable, high up, not particularly bright enough to shine ahead. Shi Yuan heard the workers complaining that the porridge was thin again, smelled the scent of mushrooms, lettuce, and tomato, and saw someone’s red clothes on the balcony fell off, riding the wind, swaying; a bunch of little kids looked up and watched, and issued a uniform “Wow—!!”
No one paid attention to them, there were so many people here that they could drown the general and his little monster. Shi Yuan followed Lu Tinghan into this night, the ham sausage in his hand was delicious, and the road in front of him seemed to be endless.
Lively and bustling, vigorous and vibrant.
He came to the human world.