CH 69.2

Chapter 69.2 – Old Debts

Lu Tinghan sorted out the remaining items for Shi Yuan again, took some more books, and a small snow globe.

The transport truck was coming soon, and Cai Deyuan finished smoking and started to move things downstairs.

Lu Tinghan finally said, “Shi Yuan…”

“Hmm? What’s the matter?”

Lu Tinghan: “……”

Shi Yuan asked again: “What do you want to say?”

Lu Tinghan said: “…Actually, the day after tomorrow is my birthday.”

Shi Yuan: “Wow!!” He was very pleasantly surprised, “I never knew!”

“I don’t celebrate birthdays, not since I was a kid.” Lu Tinghan leaned against the sofa and continued, “This time, I just finished handling the matter at hand, so I’ll give it a try later. “

“What gift do you want?”

Across the phone, Lu Tinghan could imagine that the tip of Shi Yuan’s tail must be swaying happily.

“I don’t know.” Lu Tinghan said, “You don’t need to prepare a gift for me, I just… want to talk to you.”

Shi Yuan: ?

Shi Yuan: “Okay. It just so happens that I also have something to tell you – very, very important!”

“Hmm.” Lu Tinghan rubbed his eyebrows. “Shi Yuan, before I come back, don’t go out and try not to contact others.”

Shi Yuan was confused: “Why?”

Lu Tinghan: “……”

Shi Yuan asked, “Why?”

Lu Tinghan said slowly: “…I had a dream.”

“What?”

“I dreamed that when you went out these three days, the scales on your tail fell off,” Lu Tinghan said, “It’s terrible, isn’t it?”

Shi Yuan was stunned: “This is simply the scariest thing in the world!”

“Right. My dreams are quite accurate, so I must not let this happen.”

Shi Yuan immediately believed Lu Tinghan: “Then let me see how to ask for leave, my tail can’t be bald.”

He thought for a while, but became entangled again: “But, but, I have to get Mr. Wu’s things the day after tomorrow. There was still something left there before, and I didn’t have time to finish it. Now the welfare center is about to empty his room. If I don’t go, his books and spaceship models will be thrown away.” He asked Lu Tinghan, “If I only go out this time and only go out for three hours, I should be fine, right?”

Lu Tinghan was silent for a while and said, “Only go out for three hours?”

“Well, I’ll be back soon. Will the scales still fall off like this?”

“Probably not,” Lu Tinghan spoke a little slowly, “Then go. Stay in the house the rest of the time, and don’t interact with other people, there’s food and drink in the fridge, can you do that? Can you promise me?”

“Okay,” Shi Yuan agreed, “I’ll wait for you to come back.”

Hang up the phone.

The cardboard boxes were all packed, and Cai Deyuan was waiting for him in the car.

Lu Tinghan took a long breath, got up, and walked downstairs. He put on his military hat, lowered the brim of it, and walked as firmly as ever.

He thought to himself, ‘it’s time to take a look at the world after waking up.’

To see whether it was endless darkness or flowers and light.

*

Wasteland outside the city.

“…In other words, in this ghost place, someone set up a burial mound for him?” Bai Ye said.

In front of him was a scrapped military vehicle covered with vines.

This was once a convoy supporting the south outpost of Gleaning City. It was attacked in the dense forest, one car was scrapped and the driver died. After more than a year, another team led by Bai Ye found them.

According to the report, the name of the soldier who died was Yin Zhou.

Bai Ye and his group came here, not intending to do anything, but to spend three minutes to confirm the scene, and then continue on their way.

They saw a very strange scene: Yin Zhou’s body was piled up with stones and a simple grave was erected.

Who would do such a thing?

Who would spend time collecting stones in the dense forest where monsters are rampant and patiently build a stone tomb?!

This was incredible and beyond recognition.

Such anomalies, Bai Ye immediately ordered everyone to investigate. The surroundings were dangerous, they had to hurry up, a team of people checked the abandoned military vehicles, and a team of people opened the stone mound.

In a humid and warm environment, the corpse had long turned into a skeleton. They found Yin Zhou’s dog tag.

And something bizarre happened: they also found a bullet hole in Yin Zhou’s skull, as well as a brass-colored bullet.

The bullet hole was to the right of the center of the frontal bone, killing him with one blow.

“F*ck…” Bai Ye said slowly, “F*cking hell, was he shot by someone?”

One soldier said, “Did his comrades-in-arms give him a painless death when they saw that he was hopeless?”

“No,” Bai Ye said, “I just read their report. After the convoy was attacked, they didn’t even know that Yin Zhou was still alive. After transferring the personnel, the convoy left the forest directly. If he was shot by his teammates, it would definitely be written in the report.”

The soldier was shocked: “In other words…”

“In other words, Yin Zhou was still alive after the convoy left.” Bai Ye stared at the skeleton closely. “Then someone shot him and set up a stone mound for him.”

They also looked around nearby, but they didn’t see any other bodies for the time being. It was impossible to confirm whether the gunman died or left.

Bai Ye’s expression became more solemn.

“Captain!” Another person hurried over with a sealed bag. “There is a new discovery!”

In the sealed bag was a military gun, covered with dirt and mucus.

Bai Ye said: “Take it back, and immediately do bullet trace identification and fingerprint extraction.”

“Yes!” The soldier salutes.

The sky in the distance was turquoise, and a touch of azure was spread on the top. Bai Ye looked at Yinzhou’s hollow eyes – Yin Zhou seemed to be still looking at the sky.

Bai Ye asked, “What did you see?”

No response.

The gun was packed into a sealed box. Bai Ye murmured: “Come on, let me see who you really are.”

Two days later.

Fengyang City.

Shi Yuan took his leave as promised and didn’t go to work for the past two days.

But today he had to go to the welfare center to get back the last of Wu Zhengqing’s belongings.

He didn’t sleep well yesterday.

Lu Tinghan didn’t come back. He dreamed of the stage and the monsters again. Countless sights fell on him, expectantly. He was the only protagonist.

He never got rid of this dream.

But Shi Yuan was ready to confess to Lu Tinghan.

He also had the idea of confessing when he was in Gleaning City. He wanted to protect the city, so he went to the wasteland and trapped a blue butterfly in the crystal, ready to prove his ability to Lu Tinghan.

As a result, the empress bee of the purple light bug, the “Black Queen”, appeared.

It had a terrifying infection value and endless time, enough to become the ultimate disaster of the city. Fortunately, it was hit by a space-based weapon and was contained in the main city laboratory.

Lu Tinghan told him about this and asked him if he had seen the empress bee.

Shi Yuan lied.

His ability couldn’t save the city, it could just make the situation worse, so there was no need to confess.

At that time, Shi Yuan didn’t know how to be honest.

He didn’t understand that in a close relationship, honesty was the most important foundation and the most fundamental respect – maybe he didn’t have to tell the truth for the sake of the city, but he should at least tell Lu Tinghan.

Lu Tinghan had the right to know everything.

Shi Yuan took the tram to Tower 4 and thought to himself, ‘when Lu Tinghan’s birthday is over, just tell him about it.’ He had to apologize well and explain everything well.

He hoped that his honesty would not be too late.

He still believed that the story would have a happy ending.

When he arrived at the welfare center, Wang Yu was leaning on the front desk, eating canned food. Shi Yuan said hello to her, went to Wu Zhengqing’s room, and started to clean up.

Wang Yu continued to eat canned food.

The canned food was noodles in mushroom soup, the noodles were slippery, and every cut was very short and tasteless.

She was frowning when she heard the sound of footsteps.

Dozens of soldiers with guns stepped into the welfare center.

It was the Fengyang City Law Enforcement Team.

Wang Yu: “……?”

Her eyes widened.

The leading soldier gestured at her, signaling her to leave, and then merged his index and middle fingers, pointing to the end of the corridor.

That was where Shi Yuan was.