CH 77.2

Chapter 77.2 – The Rain of Butterflies

Shi Yuan looked at all the things Lu Tinghan had collected to make sure that nothing important was left out.

He saw the family portrait where Lu Zhun, Yu Qingmei, and young Lu Tinghan stood together. They had a perfect family background, outstanding contributions, three polite strangers.

In fact, thinking about it, the personalities of Lu Zhun and Yu Qingmei were very different: one was unconventional, behaved casually, dared to take his child to play outside the city, and also gave money to his child to buy adult magazines; the other was rigorous and rational, with a strong sense of responsibility, and had a child purely to contribute one more population to the Alliance. No matter how one looked at it, they were like a couple who’d quarrel every day.

Fortunately, they were busy enough and lived far away so they couldn’t quarrel.

Shi Yuan asked, “How did they meet?”

“I don’t know,” Lu Tinghan replied, “They didn’t mention it to me.” He recalled for a while, “Teacher Su told me by chance that they met in the laboratory. It was probably when Lu Zhun went to transfer the data and met my mother during a meeting in the research center.”

“So that’s how it was.”

Lu Tinghan: “In my opinion, they never really liked each other. My mother from the beginning was just wanting to have a child. It just so happened that Lu Zhun’s genes were good. Lu Zhun was more like… casually playing around. From the beginning of their marriage, he didn’t stay in Fengyang City for a few days, and he didn’t intend to have children.” He smiled, “But it’s all in the past, and I don’t care.”

Shi Yuan: “Do you really not care?”

Lu Tinghan said, “Shi Yuan, I don’t care about other people’s emotional history, even if it’s my parents.”

“Okay,” Shi Yuan said.

Lu Tinghan was indeed not a person who could gossip about relationship history.

Shi Yuan rummaged through it again and found an old mobile phone in the corner of the box, packed in a transparent bag. He asked, “What is this?”

The phone is old, it has been dropped many times, and the screen has countless scratches.

Lu Tinghan said, “I don’t know whose mobile phone it is, I just found it in the cupboard.” He paused, “It might be theirs, or it might be some friend who left it here. I’ll ask Uncle Cai about it.”

“It seems that the battery is dead?”

“Well, there is no charger for this model at home,” Lu Tinghan said, “We can only go to the main city to take another look.”

Shi Yuan put the phone back.

At night until before going to bed, Shi Yuan was playing the harmonica.

He learned a little music theory when he practiced the violin before, and now he was playing according to the score.

Lu Tinghan leaned on the bed to read a book, listening to the intermittent sound of the harmonica, as if a person was about to swallow his last breath, making a strange wailing.

And the sound stopped.

He looked sideways, Shi Yuan was lying on the quilt and wasn’t moving, and his tail was wilting.

Lu Tinghan asked, “What’s the matter?”

“…blew too much air,” Shi Yuan said in a muffled voice, “I’m a little dizzy.”

He lay down for a while, then got up and played the harmonica again. Just halfway through the score this time, his head tilted, he completely fell into the soft pillow, and fell asleep within half a second, becoming the first abyss ever to play the harmonica until he fell asleep.

When he woke up the next day, Shi Yuan sat up and stayed in the morning light for half a minute.

He asked Lu Tinghan: “How was my harmonica playing?”

Lu Tinghan affirmed again: “It really sounded especially good.”

Shi Yuan gave up the harmonica.

In this way, the evacuation of Fengyang City lasted for two or three months, and the city became more and more empty.

The research center was also going to be empty, and Professor Guan and a few assistants remained there, sorting out the last equipment and documents.

Professor Guan always said: “When we get to the main city, we will continue the ‘Deep Dive’ plan.”

Shi Yuan asked him, “How long will it take to complete?”

“I don’t know,” Professor Guan smiled, “Who knows about such things.”

Shi Yuan hesitated: “Then, is there enough time?”

Shi Yuan’s infection was too complicated – if there was a different abyss willing to cooperate, then the Alliance would soon be able to simulate their wavelength of infection.

There was nothing to be done about it.

Shi Yuan was special and they couldn’t ask for more than that.

Professor Guan did not answer directly, but just said: “We’ll do everything possible. If it really doesn’t work, we can still try…”

He didn’t go on, shook his head, and said, “Forget it, pretend I didn’t say it, it would be su*cide, and it would be impossible to succeed.”

Shi Yuan helped clean up, and in the afternoon, he went home and handed the wretched fish and the big white bird to the transporter.

He kind of wanted to bring Broken Copper and Broken Iron, but unfortunately, they were left behind in Gleaning City. He didn’t know if they were still cooking and making tea.

The wretched fish was spitting bubbles, the big white bird was cursing endlessly, and the transporter drove the car and disappeared at the corner of the street.

Shi Yuan heard screaming before he went upstairs.

There were screams from the end of the street, the voices of many people. He turned his head sharply and saw a huge cloud appearing in the sky.

The clouds were colorful and thick, and they quickly floated towards the city. It was like a thunder cloud, surrounded by lightning, and the lightning was also colorful. It did not have a narrow and snake-like shape, but was closer to a spherical shape. When it shone in the clouds one after another, it was like…butterflies that suddenly spread their wings.

This storm came from the northern district.

It was also heading in… the direction of the data center!

Shi Yuan rushed to the data center. Along the way, the cloud completely covered the city, it softly engulfed all anti-aircraft missiles and aircraft, and then, raindrops fell one after another.

Every drop of raindrops that fell on the ground, trembled a few times, and turned into colorful water butterflies. Their whole body was translucent, but the edges of their wings were colored, and their hind wings were very large and long, and they took off gracefully.

There was constant lightning and bursts of thunder. This was a butterfly thunderstorm.

Shi Yuan ran as hard as he could, and when he arrived at the data center, it had already become a paradise for water butterflies.

The building of the data center had hard lines and cold colors, revealing rigor from every corner. But when these translucent creatures fluttered, the cold, hard building seemed to soften, a wonderful sense of blending.

Gunfire came from the building, and Shi Yuan couldn’t tell where it came from.

He only remembered that Professor Guan said that he was going to the basement to sort out old materials in the afternoon.

He ran straight to the basement and vaguely heard the sound of bombs and flares exploding.

The way in the basement was winding, there were countless rooms, and there were also a few butterflies on the wall, trembling their wings. Shi Yuan ran into the empty corridor and shouted, “Professor Guan! Professor! Where are you?!”

After running through more than a dozen rooms, he finally heard the old man’s voice: “Cough, cough…Shi Yuan…”

Shi Yuan ran over and found Professor Guan and his assistant in [Data Room 31].

—After the two of them saw the butterfly, they locked the door of the data room in time to not be touched by the butterfly. But when escaping, Professor Guan was hit by the storage shelf to the foot, and now walked with a limp.

Shi Yuan breathed a sigh of relief: “I’ll take you guys out.”

Professor Guan grasped his arm tightly: “There are still a large number of energy cores in the tram base station in Northern District that have not been transferred. Many soldiers went there just now, ready to transport them away, and they must still be there now… The energy core is too important. With every extra one, the power grid of the main city can last for a few more days, and we have a little more hope. Shi Yuan, can you, can you…”

“Okay,” Shi Yuan agreed, “Let’s go to a safe place first.”

Shi Yuan and the assistant carried Professor Guan out of the basement and to the reception lobby of the research center.

A team of soldiers immediately rushed over, and Professor Guan looked at Shi Yuan and said, “Go! Go all the way to the north, you can see the base station at a glance!”

The assistant suddenly said: “The base station is two or three kilometers away from here, you can ride the bicycle at the door to go there!”

Shi Yuan was already very tired after running all the way, and the army car did not have time to come.

Shi Yuan: “I don’t know how to ride a bicycle…”

“It has extra wheels!” the assistant shouted, “I was going to bring it to my son!”

So Shi Yuan got on the red bicycle for newbies.

It was one size smaller than a normal bicycle and had extra wheels. It was probably designed for teenagers or…children. Shi Yuan had seen others riding bicycles in the movie, stepping on the pedals stiffly, and moving forward awkwardly.

Fortunately, he quickly mastered the skills, and the bike moved forward quickly, which was indeed much easier than running. He rode for almost ten minutes, and when he was just about to relax, his body suddenly tilted.—

Shi Yuan: ?!!

The road was slippery on rainy days.

Shi Yuan slid into the ditch on the side of the road.

He crawled out of the ditch, but he didn’t have time to pick up his bicycle and ran forward on foot. His lungs were burning hotly, and no amount of breathing could ease his heartbeat.

After another street corner, Shi Yuan stopped and held on to the wall to catch his breath.

The rain was getting heavier, and hundreds of butterflies were dancing in the water, with flowing colors on their bodies.

There was a flash of light behind him.

Shi Yuan turned his head and saw Alice standing in the rain. She never got wet from the rain, with her hands behind her back, looking at the sky, her white skirt was as neat as ever.

“Why are you here?” Shi Yuan asked her.

Alice still looked at the sky.

Shi Yuan followed her gaze and saw a splash of color exploding in the clouds. They were so lively, even if it was a deadly and strange thunderstorm, it was still beautiful.

She just stared for a long time.

For the first time ever, it was not the data that jumped in her green eyes, but the rising radiant light – her eyes were lit up with a soft and beautiful light.

She said, “Fireworks.”