CH 46.1

Chapter 46.1 – Scars

Soon, a thick fog rose from the end of the wasteland.

The weather outside the city was ever-changing, and the rain, snow, and fog could change in an instant. The night sky was so clear just now, but it was immediately engulfed by milky white mist.

Shi Yuan stood next to Lu Tinghan, watching the fog fill the air, and suddenly realized that Lu Tinghan hadn’t spoken for a long time. He looked up, Lu Tinghan looked at the Iron City, staring intently at the jellyfish group, as if waiting for something.

Shi Yuan followed his gaze.

The glow of the jellyfish was weak, and it could only be seen on a sunny day. Now, their translucent bodies were gradually disappearing.

Before they disappeared completely—

A vague, tall figure appeared. Its antlers were as intricate as the roots of an old tree, with a semi-transparent, slightly luminous white body, and misty eyes that drifted outward.

It was a deer.

A deer that was taller than any tree or any energy tower.

It walked very slowly, its head held high, its antlers were spectacular, and every step was full of elegance. Most of its body was covered in fog, leaving only a looming outline. Like the legendary beast descending, it slowly stepped out in this secluded night.

Before the end of the world, the deer leaped over the stream and wandered in the forest, and now it was wandering in the wasteland. This was its wonderland.

Shi Yuan realized that Lu Tinghan’s long gaze was waiting for it.

If he had enough common sense, he would know that this special creature was named “Deer Outside the High Forest”, and because it often appeared in the forest, most people also called it “Forest Deer”. Before the appearance of the pollutant “Black Queen” of Abyss No.0, it had always been the infected creature with the highest pollution value.

However, it did not attack the city.

Like the jellyfish, it hovered in the Iron City forever.

The fog thickened, the group of jellyfish flew into the sky, and waves surged over the deer outside the forest. When all the jellyfish disappeared, Forest Deer also hid in the wasteland, as if it was a bizarre and ethereal dream.

After that, the heavens and the earth turned white, and there was nothing left.

The temperature dropped several degrees in just 5 minutes. Shi Yuan exhaled white air from his mouth, he was hugged by Lu Tinghan and they got out of the city wall, and returned to the warm car.

The car drove forward in silence.

Behind them, the lights on the city wall were still hanging, continuing the long wait.

When Shi Yuan got home, he took a hot bath and then knocked on Lu Tinghan’s door. Lu Tinghan was sitting at the table reading a book, while he lay by the window looking into the distance. The night view was different from that of Gleaning City. There were windmills, solar panels, and energy towers everywhere. The tram tracks cut the entire city, which was very novel.

Shi Yuan thought of jellyfish and the deer outside the high forest again, and asked Lu Tinghan, “What kind of person is your father?”

“…He was a very good commander,” Lu Tinghan said, “Since graduating from the Alliance Military Academy, he rose to the top and was soon appointed as a commander in Iron City, winning many battles.”

“No, that’s not what I want to hear,” Shi Yuan protested. “I can find these things on the Internet. I want to hear what I can’t find, and I want to hear your story.” He emphasized again, “I answered Sudoku correctly, and you promised to tell me.”

So Lu Tinghan said, “He was not at home all year round. For as long as I can remember, he only came back to Fengyang City two or three times a year. I don’t remember much about him.”

Shi Yuan asked, “He was working in Iron City, why didn’t your family move there?”

“Because my mother was working in Fengyang Research Center,” Lu Tinghan said, “Lu Zhun was a very traditional kind of man. He was not very willing to take care of children. He always thought it was a woman’s business. In addition, he was very busy and really didn’t have time. Even if we moved to Iron City to live, I wouldn’t see him more. He was an excellent commander, but he had never been an excellent husband and father.”

Shi Yuan’s swaying tail paused for a few seconds, and then asked, “What about your mother? Did she take care of you?”

Lu Tinghan replied: “Not really. She always prioritized research first and rarely went home. When I was a kid, the people I saw the most were logisticians and nearby military cadets.”

Shi Yuan was very confused.

Since sweeping the tomb, he had checked Lu Zhun and Yu Qingmei on the Internet. The report was full of compliments. The dutiful and excellent colonel father, the rational and intelligent academician mother, and the amazingly talented child, this family could only be described as perfect. Everyone knew and gushed about it.

When Shi Yuan looked at the family photo, he felt that they were like three polite strangers, but he thought it was because he couldn’t read people’s minds.

Now it seemed that it was not an illusion.

The more Shi Yuan thought about it, the more confused he became: “If none of them wanted to take care of you, why did they give birth to you?”

“Lu Zhun didn’t want children, my mother wanted them.” Lu Tinghan put the bookmarks together and closed the book. “She didn’t like children, but she felt that giving birth was a very important thing in this era. She had to do her part for the society, so she had me. After I was born, she completed the so-called ‘responsibility‘ and returned to research. She was always so rational, and if the pregnancy hadn’t interfered too much with the research, I would have had several more siblings.”

Shi Yuan didn’t know what to say for a while.

He had no parents and had never experienced family affection, but he also knew that for human beings, this kind of affection was irreplaceable and would always be placed in the softest corner of their hearts. He had seen how soft Wolfgang’s eyes were when he put a toy bear for Tracy, laid out a quilt, and gave her a good night kiss.

He curled up the tip of his tail: “It’s too unfair to you…”

“It’s okay,” Lu Tinghan said. “The lack of family affection has not had any profound impact on me. I also have my business to attend to, remember what I told you about the military cadets? The chief of the military academy and Lu Zhun knew each other and acquiesced in my entry and exit. I stayed with the military cadets very early, listened to their courses, and followed the training. After Lu Zhun died, I enrolled in the military academy and started a life of closed management until I graduated.”

A few years later, when he served as an Abyss Watcher, Yu Qingmei died of illness.

He didn’t have time to attend the funeral. When he returned to the city later, he mended a bunch of white chrysanthemums in front of her tomb.

Shi Yuan was completely unhappy, drooping his head and wilting.

Lu Tinghan smiled: “Isn’t this what you wanted to know? Why are you upset?”

He added: “They weren’t completely absent in my childhood, either. Lu Zhun took me out of the city, hunting infected creatures, and taught me to dissect a mutant lizard. My mother was more responsible than Lu Zhun, she would think of me regularly once every half month and ask me what I wanted. She brought me chess and card games, badminton, insect samples, limited pens and gradient ink one after another, which I loved at the time.”

Shi Yuan saw all of what he said in the second bedroom.

They were all old things, but they hadn’t been thrown away even today.

A seemingly perfect family on the surface, with a dazzling halo of admiration. They were all too individualistic and ambitious to be bound by anything.

Maybe, only when Lu Zhun helped Lu Tinghan’s hand cut open the lizard’s skin and black blood spewed out, or when Yu Qingmei brought home a few novelties, did this family briefly exist. Afterward, the three lines ran off to different distant places.

Lu Tinghan looked at Shi Yuan and said, “I told you, my story is not interesting at all. Family affection is irrelevant to me and can be replaced by other feelings.”

Shi Yuan asked, “For example, what?”

“For example, beliefs, such as friendship, such as liking someone.” Lu Tinghan put the book back on the shelf. “It’s getting late, let’s go to bed.”

Turning off the light and lying on the bed, Shi Yuan couldn’t sleep.

He still felt that he should say something to make up for the lost affection, so he whispered: “Lu Tinghan, Lu Tinghan.”

Lu Tinghan: “Hmm.”

Shi Yuan asked, “Can I be your father?”

Lu Tinghan: “……”

Shi Yuan thought he hadn’t heard clearly: “I can take you outside the city to play, I can show you monsters, I can still…eh?” He was pressed on the head by Lu Tinghan and was pressed directly into his arms.

“Don’t talk, sleep,” General Lu coldly rejected his proposal.

Unable to be a father and unable to supersede the generation, Shi Yuan could only sleep regretfully.