CH 28.2

Chapter 28.2 – A Fish

They left the orphanage.

Shi Yuan looked back in the car, the children’s laughter and the cartoon wall of colorful graffiti swayed away, and the white buildings were blocked by a block of old houses, completely out of sight.

“Where are we going now?” he asked Lu Tinghan.

“Nanping Cemetery,” Lu Tinghan replied.

The cemetery was not far away, and it was only a 20-minute drive from the orphanage.

It was the first time Shi Yuan saw a human cemetery, the white tombstones were arranged in steps, stretching as far as the eye could see.

Just left the orphanage, said goodbye to those young faces, and immediately came to the place of burial, from life to death, there was a clear difference.

In order to facilitate maintenance and save floor space, 10 people were buried in each tomb, and their names were engraved on the tombstones. Some of them were family members, some had nothing to do with each other when they were alive, and all of them eventually slept quietly here, undisturbed by the world.

For them, the long and painful journey was over, and for the living who had come to mourn the dead, the past was buried here, all the once bright and shining love in their hearts.

Shi Yuan followed Lu Tinghan, who was holding a bouquet of white chrysanthemums. The two passed through the scattered tombstones and came to a secluded independent cemetery in the far west.

Here were the graves of military officers, many of which had been decorated with flowers and were clean, someone probably came here to clean them.

Lu Tinghan squatted down in front of a pure white tombstone and put flowers in front of it.

Shi Yuan saw the writing on the tombstone:

[Loving Father Lu Zhun (2172-2224)

[Loving Mother Yu Qingmei (2179-2232)]

According to the biography, Lu Zhun was a colonel of the Alliance Army, and Yu Qingmei was an associate academician of the Academy of Sciences.

These two names were familiar, and Shi Yuan had heard them many times by accident, they were probably at the level known to all women and children.

There were photos on the tombstone. The man was handsome and the woman was beautiful, a perfect match. Their biography was dense with dazzling feats.

Lu Tinghan was silent and stood in front of the tomb for a while. He didn’t have many expressions, no sadness or nostalgia, as if he was looking at people who had nothing to do with him, polite, restrained, nothing more.

Afterwards, he said to Shi Yuan, “Let’s go.”

They returned to the road, and the shadows of trees scattered along the road fell on them.

Lu Tinghan said: “My mother died of an illness, and today is the anniversary of her death.”

“Oh…“ Shi Yuan couldn’t think of words of comfort, so he could only learn from what other humans say. “Condolences.”

Lu Tinghan went on to say: “She mainly focused in the direction of infectious organisms and made a great contribution to the research on the characteristics of abyss infection, and also participated in the development and improvement of inhibitors. Unfortunately, she was not able to complete her last research on Abyss No.0.”

Caught off guard, Shi Yuan froze.

The air seemed to freeze, and he asked, “…what did she research?”

Lu Tinghan replied: “That research was just in its first stage, still in the hypothesis stage, inconclusive and no value, and the project was called off after her death.” He paused and added, “After Abyss No.0 disappeared, many people brought up the project again, saying that since one abyss can disappear, can other abysses also be able to disappear?”

The disappearance of Abyss No.0 caused an uproar.

Some people believed that it was the hope of the world, and some people thought it was a sign of a nightmare. There were different opinions, and there was no conclusion.

The Alliance intervened to investigate the disappearance of Abyss no.0. A full year passed, and manpower and material resources were spent to no avail.

The whole thing was too hazy and illusory, like there was no end to it, and there would be no answers.

The abyss just disappeared.

Disappeared without warning and very willfully.

With scarce resources, the Alliance could not continue to invest heavily in a project that they had no clue about. They could only pull back the campaign to reduce costs.

Today, there were still projects to study Abyss No.0, but it was no longer the focus.

Everything gradually calmed down, and people accepted this fact, looking forward to the disappearance of other abysses.

Lu Tinghan said: “They all said that when the abyss disappears, everything will return to normal, and they will be able to return to their hometown.”

If the abyss disappeared…

The orphanage would be emptier than it is now, and there would be fewer tombstones in the cemetery. There would be no more wars, no refuges, no more farewells, the world would flourish, and everything would spring to life.

Shi Yuan was distracted, and his pace became slower and slower.

Lu Tinghan’s steps were big, pulling a huge distance by only taking a few steps, he turned his head: “Shi Yuan?”

“Ah!” Shi Yuan finally came to his senses, quickened his pace, and followed, but he became distracted again after a while.

The afternoon sun was diluted by the leaves and turned into a bright golden green. Spots of light danced across Shi Yuan’s cheeks and forehead, like a few golden fish, lively and nimble, making people’s hearts itchy, seducing you to reach out to fish, but they ran away, leaving only a piece of fair and delicate skin.

Lu Tinghan moved his fingers.

He reached out and wrapped his arm around Shi Yuan and walked forward with him.

The cemetery was very quiet, with a sense of tranquility that belonged to the dead. The trees on the side of the road were vibrant, and the branches were hung with buds in early spring.

They walked under the flowering trees.

Lu Tinghan remembered Yu Qingmei’s interview when she set up the project.

A woman in a white research suit stood in front of the camera with one hand in her pocket. She was extremely beautiful, with a few strands of hair on her forehead, and her face was like a white-painted peony flower. Unlike her rigorous style, her temperament was free and easy.

“…you want to know why I want to study Abyss No.0?” Yu Qingmei said, “I mentioned in the paper published in year 29 that it has a very special infection value. From that time on, my argument was that it might be able to ‘override’ other infection characteristics.”

She went on to explain, “At the moment, we haven’t found any samples of infected material from Abyss No.0 and can only simulate its infection wavelength.”

“The simulation was quite difficult, and it took us ten years to build a good model and run the simulation on the computer, and we were surprised by the results. It is well known that the infection of the abyss is mutually exclusive, for example, this rabbit.”

Yu Qingmei picked up the transparent container at hand.

The infected rabbit was screaming frantically, it had a lot of legs, twisting and struggling, like a hairy centipede.

The interviewer subconsciously took a half step back.

Yu Qingmei’s expression remained unchanged, and he carried the container: “It was infected by Abyss No.4, characterized by ‘multiple limb deformities’. And it can no longer be infected by other animals. In other words, you can’t infect creatures that have already been infected. It is impossible to have a rabbit that is ‘gigantic’ and ‘multi-limb deformed’ at the same time. The infection characteristics are unique and mutually exclusive.”

Interviewer: “Abyss No.0 is different?”

“Yes, it seems to be able to have an effect on already infected creatures,” Yu Qingmei said. “In the model, it changes the genetic sequence of the infected organism, destroying the original infection characteristics.”

Interviewer: “Destroyed?”

“Destroy, erase, cover, override, whatever you want to call it.” Yu Qingmei put down the container, pinned some strands of her hair behind her ears, and showed a picture from the terminal, “It ‘kills’ the infection.”

In the simulation experiment, the infected rabbit was affected by Abyss No.0, the excess limbs degenerated, and it turned back into an ordinary rabbit – of course, it was a rabbit corpse.

“Our model is very imperfect. Whether Abyss No.0 can really ‘destroy’ is inconclusive. It is not ruled out that it is a deviation of the data,” Yu Qingmei said again. “Therefore, the project needs to study its characteristics and what the infected creatures affected by it will look become.”

Interviewer: “Okay, thank you very much for your answer. You’ve been studying the abyss for many years and are quite knowledgeable in the field, so if you take your personal perspective – just a personal guess, what do you think the Abyss No.0 is like? Assuming that it can ‘kill’ the infection, does it mean that it can also end the end of the world?”

Yu Qingmei was silent for a long time.

She put one hand in her pocket, her gaze seemed to float far away, and slowly said, “Let me say something, I think it is never hope, it only represents ‘destruction’.”

Interviewer: “Can you elaborate on that?”

“There is nothing to say,” Yu Qingmei said. “Destruction is destruction. Destruction of cities, destruction of civilization, it is the end of humanity.” She looked at the open-mouthed interviewer and suddenly smiled. “Well, this is an unfounded guess – in fact, it hasn’t infected any creatures, it’s the most harmless abyss, isn’t it?”

That was the end of the interview.

Before the research was completed, Yu Qingmei died of illness and the project was put on hold. In the end, this was just a hypothesis and may never be confirmed again.

After many years, Lu Tinghan remembered her words again.

All the way back to the car, Shi Yuan was absent-minded.

He didn’t know that Lu Tinghan’s mother had been studying him, and he didn’t know that his disappearance had caused such a big storm.

“Why are you always distracted,” Lu Tinghan asked. “You don’t like cemeteries?”

“No,” Shi Yuan was still a little flustered, “just thinking about other… other things.”

Lu Tinghan: “Can you tell me?”

“Ah, no…” Shi Yuan curled his tail guiltily.

Lu Tinghan didn’t ask any further questions.

He just skillfully rubbed Shi Yuan’s head vigorously, took him to a restaurant, and ate a delicious mushroom fried rice.

In this way, he got another happy, purring Shi Yuan.

When Lu Tinghan finished eating, Shi Yuan was still immersed in the fried rice.

There were few people in the restaurant. They asked for the most secluded box. They couldn’t hear the crisp collision of bowls and chopsticks, nor the hustle and bustle of people. This environment was private and relaxing. Lu Tinghan took a sip of tea and looked at Shi Yuan. What he remembered was the scene in the afternoon.

The spring breeze, the flowers and trees, the quiet road, the golden fish on the cheeks.

At that time, his fingers moved, but he didn’t know what he wanted to do, he just held Shi Yuan’s shoulder.

At this moment, the golden fish appeared again, the light from the chandelier was printed in a diamond shape by the hollowed-out wooden carving wall, falling on Shi Yuan’s forehead, and then swimming towards the cheeks, neck, and collarbone, until it disappeared at the edge of the dark clothes.

A few drifts and a few swings.

So vivid.

Lu Tinghan was expressionless, he lowered his eyes. The black tea in the cup was warm, and the hot air blurred his vision.

Now he knew.

—He wanted to catch the fish.

…

After two days, the Garcia Grand Theater opened its doors.

Shi Yuan returned to the Wild Rose Troupe and started working.

Everyone hadn’t gotten together for almost two months, and everything was business as usual, as if nothing had happened. Wolfgang was silent, Tracy jumped up and down, Xia Fang complained that the men he met were stingy, while Qin Luoluo combed her hair while saying that a good man was hard to find.

Cheng Youwen threw his crutches aside and stepped on the sofa with his disabled right leg and said loudly: “Why are you guys so unmotivated, cheer up, cheer up! Where did all your love for the stage show go?!”

“Love is in the money,” Xia Fang said with no energy. “For men, love is also in the lower half of the body, my butt still hurts to this day, and the two are still too stingy…”

“Superficial!” Cheng Youwen scolded him. “We are in the hall of art here!” He looked around and was satisfied to see that everyone cheered up, waving the script in his hand, shaking his arms, and shouting, “People still have to have ideals in life. After so many years, so many troupes have given up, and we are the only ones left. If we don’t die for a day, art will not die, so let’s start acting until the world is destroyed!”