CH 37.1

Chapter 37.1 – Farewell Dinner

Lu Tinghan didn’t know when he would come back.

Shi Yuan could only wait for him silently.

Originally, the next day was the farewell dinner of the troupe, but the Level III warning came suddenly, and they entered the shelter again.

The shelter was narrow and depressing, and the lights were turned on for 6 hours a day.

Shi Yuan hid on the bed in the far corner, holding the crystal and looking at the light.

The surface of the crystal was jagged, but it did not affect its permeability. The butterfly was clearly visible, beautiful and strange.

So when would Lu Tinghan come back?

How would Lu Tinghan react? Would he be surprised or scared, would he be happy to see an old friend again, or be angry after discovering that he had been deceived?

Would his ability be really useful for guarding the city? What would he do if humans forced him to kill all the monsters?

Shi Yuan thought about these questions for several days, but still had no answers. In any case, in order to prevent Cheng Youwen from engraving a QR code on his grave, Shi Yuan still had to give it a try.

Take it step by step.

Gamble on Lu Tinghan’s preference for him.

At night, the earth shook, and the infected group roared in the distance. Shi Yuan fell asleep with his tail on his pillow.

He had a strange dream again.

The stage in the dream was bright, and the monster looked at him silently under the stage, attracting much attention. As last time, Shi Yuan didn’t know what they were waiting for.

In the long dead silence, the bright blue butterfly fluttered. It flew from the end of the darkness, with a faint light on its scales, gracefully flying around Shi Yuan.

Shi Yuan stretched out his hand and the butterfly fell on his hand.

“What about you, what do you want?” he asked.

The butterfly fluttered its wings.

The sound of insects fluttering their wings came again, from far to near, deafening.

The butterfly flew away suddenly and disappeared into the darkness. Shi Yuan subconsciously wanted to chase it, but the darkness overwhelmed him again. The performance came to an end, and the monsters once again hid in the dream.

[Don’t tell him]

They murmured.

[You are our protagonist]

Three days later, they left the shelter.

The next day, Lu Tinghan still didn’t come back, and Shi Yuan was about to go to the theater for a farewell dinner.

You now need a pass to go out. Fortunately, this was the last day of the transition period, the conditions were relatively relaxed. All members of the troupe have received a single-day pass. In the morning, Shi Yuan took out the crystal from under the pillow, put it in his pocket, zipped it carefully, and got into the car to the theater.

Out of some intuition, he had to carry the crystal with him to feel at ease.

Cheng Youwen arrived earlier than him. He hasn’t finished cleaning up his things yet, so he wanted to take this opportunity to clean them up.

There were mountains of books and manuscripts in his office, and he was on crutches, panting while cleaning up. Shi Yuan helped and packed a few boxes of books, but the whole room was not the least bit less.

“I can’t take it anymore, I can’t take it anymore, let’s do it later.” Cheng Youwen gasped and sat down, wiping the thin sweat from his forehead. “Shi Yuan, go and rest first, if you are too tired, you won’t be able to eat.”

Shi Yuan thought for a while, took off the wolf tooth pendant, and handed it to Cheng Youwen: “Here you go.”

Cheng Youwen’s eyes widened slightly: “…Isn’t this the one Lieutenant Xie gave you?”

“Hmm.” Shi Yuan said, “But I think it’s better if you keep it.”

“How can that be.” Cheng Youwen waved his hand. “The things that are given to you are yours, I don’t want them. I also have his gift, don’t you remember? That gold-plated fountain pen.”

“Actually, I didn’t tell you everything.” Shi Yuan said, “Xie Qianming should… hate me very much.”

“Huh?” Cheng Youwen’s eyes widened. “What happened?”

Shi Yuan: “I can’t tell you.”

The memory of that night flashed in his mind, the man trembled and said, ‘you lied to me, you are also a damn monster.’

He took the pendant in name only. He once wanted to transfer it to Lu Tinghan, who also knew Xie Qianming, but Lu Tinghan didn’t want it either.

Shi Yuan said again: “He must regret giving me the pendant, so I want to give it to you. Aren’t you good friends?”

Cheng Youwen only shook his head and said, “Yes, he is my only…confidant. I miss him very much. Every time there was a show, I would wonder, if he was still here, what would he say to me? Would he praise me or criticize the plot? Would he watch many performances and never forget them until he got home… I have imagined it too many times, and I almost thought it was true. Hahahaha! Shi Yuan, I don’t know what happened to you, but you came to the troupe because of him, right?”

“Hmm.” Shi Yuan nodded. “I promised him.”

“That’s enough. You did a great job, no one else could play the role the way you did.” Cheng Youwen put his crutches aside. “Although you are so bad at playing other roles, you have always been very serious and attentive, and I have seen it all.” He paused. “Moreover, you are a kind person.”

“Kind person”.

Duan Mu also said this about him, but Shi Yuan didn’t quite understand.

Cheng Youwen continued: “If the lieutenant were still alive, I don’t know how he would feel about seeing you – and we’ll never know. Since he chose to give you something, you are entitled to carry it with you.” He unconsciously rubbed the fountain pen case on the table. “Whether it is love or hate.”

“…okay,” Shi Yuan said, putting the pendant back on.

They packed another box of books, and Shi Yuan suddenly remembered something: “By the way, if we can’t get out of the city, can’t we give the money to Ms. Isabella?”

“Hmm? Oh, don’t worry about this,” Cheng Youwen said, “She—she has been in good condition recently. Besides, we can save money and transfer money, but it’s a bit troublesome.” He scratched his head. “Wolfgang and I don’t believe in the banking system. Maybe it will be gone one day. It’s better to hold the money in your hand, that is more practical.”

Shi Yuan said again: “You said that you want to show her the most perfect performance.”

“We have no way of doing this now.” Cheng Youwen scratched his head. “When the peak period is over, there will still be a chance.” He stuffed another book into Shi Yuan’s hand: “This is for you.”

It was a script, the title was “Waiting for Godot”.

Cheng Youwen said: “Look at it when you have time. This is my favorite play. It’s very interesting. The plot is that two homeless men are waiting for a man named Godot on the mound. They waited for a long time, but Godot did not show up in the end.”

“Who is Godot?” Shi Yuan asked.

“No one knows,” Cheng Youwen said. “It was a fruitless wait, they didn’t know who Godot was, they didn’t know if he would come, and they didn’t know why they were waiting, unexplainably and meaninglessly. But reality is so absurd, isn’t it? We always do things that don’t make sense and never see results.”

Before leaving, Shi Yuan turned his head and saw Cheng Youwen sitting among the mountains of books.

Those books were full of memories. Some were masterpieces, some were screenwriting books, and some introduced the development history of stage plays. Just looking at them, there was a sense of heaviness, as if they had been read by people in countless nights with lights on. Cheng Youwen was sitting at a sandalwood table with a gold-plated fountain pen in his hand, and his notebook was spread out on the table. He seemed to want to write something, but was hesitant to do so.

Finally, he said softly: “In this world, you and I are both martyrs.”

This was the line from the last scene of the script.

The protagonist died, his friends grew old, and the God of Salvation never appeared again.

Fortunately, thousands of years later, there were still legends of them in the world.