CH 74.2

Chapter 74.2 – A Wonderful Night

“…no,” Lu Tinghan said.

This time, he thoroughly understood that the young man was not a human being.

His thinking was already confused, and he thought dizzily, but the little monster saved him, and…perhaps because of his existence, they were not attacked by other monsters all the way.

The black mist stopped, and the young man tilted his head in confusion.

Lu Tinghan endured the burning sensation in his lungs and said, “No, I’m going back to the city. That is my home, do you know what ‘home’ is?”

The boy was still confused.

“There are things I like to read there,” Lu Tinghan explained, “Everything is there, I want to go back.”

Or die on the way back.

The young man was slightly startled and looked at him.

He could see it. When he talked about this topic, Lu Tinghan’s expression was nostalgic and soft, just like those old photos that had been saved. He had never seen such an expression before, and he didn’t understand it, but the soft piece in his heart was gently poked.

It was a kind of…very pure love.

It also reminded him of the look of this human walking towards him step by step: leaving the convoy to go to the wasteland, traveling thousands of kilometers in the sea of flowers, in order to find him and take him home.

The young man had been in the dark for too long, for far too long, dreaming of never ending dreams. For the first time in his life, someone felt his loneliness.

Lu Tinghan came here for him.

Lu Tinghan continued: “Have you always been alone? One day you will understand, and you will have a home too.”

“Ho…home?” the young man mimicked his words.

“Hmm. Home,” Lu Tinghan said, looking into the distance, “It’s in that direction.”

Across the endless sea of flowers, it was as if he saw the city walls, the long streets and buildings, the homeland where he was born and raised.

He told Shi Yuan: “Don’t infect other creatures. If they are infected, they won’t be able to go home.”

The young man repeated: “…home.”

Lu Tinghan said, “Home.”

A gust of wind rose, and the sea of flowers swayed like a tide. Lu Tinghan could feel that they were beginning to bloom again, and they could carry him through the wasteland again.

“Let’s go quickly!” He was pleasantly surprised and said, “It’s time to go back! I’ll take you away!”

He took the young man’s hand, but was pulled back.

The young man stood still.

Lu Tinghan still tried to pull him again, but failed. The young man looked at him fixedly and let go of his hand.

Lu Tinghan was taken aback: “Won’t you go back with me? Is it because… you’re a monster?”

The young man didn’t understand and just looked at him in silence.

After a long journey, he saw a sea of flowers. He also took a few flowers that Lu Tinghan gave him and refused to let go, and smiled at Lu Tinghan.

Lu Tinghan guessed: “You have walked so far with me, are you afraid? Afraid of seeing humans.”

He remembered that there was timidity in the eyes of the young man. Outside was a world that the young man had never seen in his life. He was not ready to go to the city, and no one had made him like it enough to walk into the crowd of thousands of people.

This one day of journey was like a dream.

But the dream had to come to an end.

Lu Tinghan: “…I understand, but I can’t stay, I’m leaving. What to do?”

The young man couldn’t answer him.

Lu Tinghan’s body became colder and colder, and his mind began to blur.

In the chaotic thoughts, he tried to stay clear, thought for a while, stood on tiptoe, tried to touch the young man’s head, and watched the tip of his tail sway happily immediately.

“I’m sorry, but goodbye,” he said, “Thank you for saving me, and hopefully we’ll see each other again, and then you’ll like every scenery I’ve shown you.”

He turned around, took two steps, and looked back again.

The young man hugged the flowers and stood looking at him in the dim light, still alone, still lonely.

For such a soul, a mere ten hours of companionship was only a blink of an eye.

He reminded Lu Tinghan of the times when he sat in an empty home, the lights were dim and everything was silent, he’d sneak out and climb into the tall energy tower, and he’d look at the city in the night, hoping to guard it, but after coming down from the top of the tower, he’d see locked doors and windows one after another. Loneliness caught him like a shadow when he strolled down a long, deserted street, all at once under the streetlights.

There’d be a few moths circling the white light bulb and kept hitting it, making a slight rattling sound. He’d hear the wind blowing in the wasteland, whining and whimpering.

He understood this feeling.

At this moment, their feelings were intertwined.

Lu Tinghan: “……”

Lu Tinghan suddenly said, “I will come back to you again.”

The young man bent his tail in confusion.

“I will come back to you again,” Lu Tinghan stepped forward and promised, “No matter what happens, no matter what the price is, I will come back to you.”

—At that time, neither the child nor the young man understood the weight of this promise.

And he still promised: “I will find you and stay with you.”

The young man blinked gently.

Lu Tinghan thought, he probably understood what he meant.

Lu Tinghan turned his head and walked into the sea of flowers. The young man watched him leave.

The wind rose, the petals flew, and he disappeared into the wasteland.

Later, Lu Tinghan, who had disappeared for more than a day, miraculously returned to the convoy.

Test after test was done, he was not infected but had a high fever for a whole week. The infected xuejian flowers were harmless, and the prolonged inhalation of pollen and exposure to cold and hunger left him feverish and unconscious.

When he woke up again, the child sat up and said, “I seem to have… gone to the abyss, and there is someone under the abyss.”

“The nearest abyss is thousands of kilometers away, and it’s impossible for you to get there.” The nurse turned her head and said in a low voice, “The boy is burnt silly.”

“I really saw him.” The child held his head which was throbbing with a headache. “I even talked to him, he, he… what does he look like again?”

No matter how he recalled it, he couldn’t remember that face anymore.

Moreover, that memory was fading rapidly, as if waking up from a drunken dream.

“Take a good rest.” The nurse pressed him and asked him to lie down. “Look, it’s all nonsense. I’m telling you, sometimes when you have a high fever, you will have messy dreams that are not real – you just need to rest now. You are really lucky to have survived like this.”

Little Lu Tinghan stared at the white ceiling of the hospital.

His head was still hurting, and he suddenly asked, “Then—what happened to Abyss No.0?”

“Abyss No.0?” The nurse was a little surprised. “I don’t know much about this…Listening to Captain Huang who sent you over, it seemed that it had suddenly calmed down.” She smiled. “Oh yes! When you said that, I remembered it. Captain Huang also said that it was quite strange. Originally, Abyss No.0 was showing signs of restlessness, everyone thought it would infect other creatures and erupt a wave of infection, but it suddenly calmed down. It’s a miracle.”

She put a glass of hot water on the head of the bed: “Child, it’s a miracle that you survived. Go to sleep for a while, after waking up, you will forget all your dreams.”

Lu Tinghan closed his eyes and fell into a drowsy sleep.

After waking up, he drew a sketch of a young man holding flowers and standing in the light.

Later, even this painting was forgotten – who could believe such a wonderful night?

Later, he grew up and entered the military academy.

Yu Qingmei had been studying Abyss No.0, and Lu Tinghan asked her several times about her progress.

Subconsciously, he paid a bit of special attention to Abyss No.0, and even he couldn’t tell the reason.

Once, Yu Qingmei frowned at a cup of tea, lowered her eyes, shook the cup gently, and replied: “To be honest, I think someone should monitor Abyss No.0.”

Lu Tinghan: “Why?”

“It’s just a feeling,” Yu Qingmei said, “Because I always think that… I can find light in it.” She smiled. “To be honest, I think it’s best for you to monitor it. Can’t you guess what the monster thinks? Maybe you can figure out what’s special about Abyss No.0. I still believe that my research on it is meaningful.”

Finding light in the abyss.

This sounded like an incredible thing, and for Academician Yu, it was also an extremely emotional sentence.

But Lu Tinghan believed it.

As graduation approached, Lu Tinghan suddenly had a strong feeling: he had to go to the side of Abyss No.0.

He must go.

Everyone was against him, but Lu Tinghan insisted.

In front of many officers and in front of General Su Enqi, he stood upright and presented Yu Qingmei’s research conclusions and hypotheses one by one. He said that Professor Yu also felt that Abyss No.0 was special, and he wanted to find the answer – and it had to be him, who knew how to understand infected creatures.

“Ridiculous!” Su Enqi patted the table angrily, “I won’t agree! Professor Yu’s project hasn’t come to fruition yet and no one will be working on it in the future, how can you believe in this groundless theory?! We can send someone else over, it doesn’t have to be you!”

Lu Tinghan did not back down.

The argument lasted for a long time, and finally ended with Su Enqi’s concession. He asked Lu Tinghan to undergo a psychological assessment of five times the intensity, and at the same time, during the surveillance period, he had to participate in the command of the battle.

The old soldier sighed: “I’m still too soft-hearted. Do you think that the older people get, the more soft-hearted they will be?”

Lu Tinghan saluted him.

Before leaving, Lu Tinghan said again: “Moreover, this is also to keep my promise. That is…a very, very important promise.”

Su Enqi rubbed his eyebrows: “What promise?”

Yeah, what is the promise? The promise that made him travel thousands of miles to the towering watch tower.

Lu Tinghan didn’t remember either.

He didn’t remember seeing the sea of xuejian flowers, the lonely young man, and the promise that no matter what happened, no matter what the price was, he would come back to him.

Even if the promise had been forgotten, he still kept the appointment.

Half a month later, at the age of 18, he carried a bag on his back and sat on the aircraft.

The aircraft swept across the beautiful sky and flew to the watch tower of Abyss No.0.

In 10 years.

At the age of 8, he walked through the sea of xuajian flowers, went to the wasteland to find the young man, and offered a bouquet of flowers to the abyss; at the age of 18, he kept his promise and became a watcher, accompanying Abyss No.0 for 10 years until the horn of war sounded again; at the age of 28, he had to end the surveillance and return to the city. A few months later, a strange young man appeared, holding a knotted tail, and plunged into his arms to let him untie it.

Lu Tinghan didn’t find the answer he wanted, but their story began from then on.

Time flew, and the cold rain outside the house was pattering, accompanied by muffled thunder, like the thunderstorm in the main city many years ago.

Shi Yuan nestled in his arms and said, “I know you don’t remember this – I didn’t understand what you said at that time. But, when I saw this sketch, I think you should be promising me to come back and stay with me.”

“…yeah,” Lu Tinghan said, “Yes, I promised that.”

Shi Yuan said: “I still remember your expression – I just woke up at that time and I was very restless. Fortunately, I met you, otherwise, I don’t know what will happen. Maybe I will be the same as the other abyss.”

“You found me, gave me flowers, and touched my head. When you showed me those photos and talked about your home, I saw for the first time what liking is.” He thought for a while. “I didn’t understand the word at that time, I just remembered that feeling, thinking that one day I might have it too. Later, when you came back to stay with me, I knew that I liked you very much too. This is what you taught me. I ended up liking the things you’ve shown me, too.”

Lu Tinghan was speechless for a while.

Shi Yuan: “So I was thinking, actually, I’m a little sorry that I couldn’t meet you using my true identity – I now know what a ‘ritual’ is.”

Lu Tinghan thought of something and smiled: “Yeah, think about it carefully, we have met three times…it’s a bit strange. The first time we met, I fell down and looked like a mess, I was also sick. The second time, you didn’t talk to me. The third time, I saved you from your captor. It was not a suitable scene for a reunion.”

“That’s right.” Shi Yuan rolled up his tail, tangled. “But what to do? We shouldn’t have a fourth meeting.”

“It’s okay,” Lu Tinghan said, “It’s okay now, it just so happens that I haven’t properly introduced myself either.” He looked at Shi Yuan. “It’s strange to say this again after such a long time, but, Shi Yuan, let’s get to know each other again.”

The tip of Shi Yuan’s tail swayed immediately: “Then I want to come to you! This time, it was me who found you!”

Although it was a play, they had to do a full set seriously.

So, on this rainy night, Shi Yuan knocked on Lu Tinghan’s door again.

Lu Tinghan opened the door.

The young man with little devil horns stood outside the door, with a delicate appearance and bright eyes.

As if it was the first time they met, the young man looked at him with timidity and desperate courage and said, “Hello, I, I am Abyss, can you continue to stare at me?”

He added: “I have helped you bury the garbage every day, oh!”

Lu Tinghan: ?

Lu Tinghan: ?？？

He just remembered something and his eyes widened suddenly.

Seeing his expression, Shi Yuan immediately protested: “Why do you have this expression? I’m so serious!”

“…Oh, I see.” Lu Tinghan recovered from the shock of throwing garbage and restrained his expression.

The light fell on his body, sketching his ramrod posture and deep eyebrows. He looked at Shi Yuan and said, “My name is Lu Tinghan.”

“I am the general of the Alliance, your watcher, and your lover.”

“I will keep my promise to be by your side, I will always be sincere and honest. I will take you to see every corner of the city, and…never let you bury garbage again.”

“Okay,” Shi Yuan said gently, “If you say that, then I will forgive you for your lack of quality. Now, Lu Tinghan, we are officially acquainted.”

“Hmm.” Lu Tinghan stretched out his hand at him.

Shi Yuan threw himself into Lu Tinghan’s arms, smiling broadly.