RotA – Chapter 19

Chai Yuening felt she needed to re-evaluate Chu Ci.

She had reason to suspect that Chu Ci’s previously quiet and docile demeanor was merely a normal disguise for a non-human trying to blend in with a crowd.

Now, the non-human was exposed. She’d shown her hand, the act was over, and she wasn’t as easy to get along with anymore.

However, Chu Ci had a point. The bed in the guest room was huge, much larger than the one at her place. They were both women, and if neither of them minded, there was really no need for one to sleep on the floor.

The atmosphere in the room was a bit delicate, but in the end, only those who cared about such things would let their imaginations run wild.

“Well… then do as you please. I’m going to take a shower first…” Chai Yuening said, turning and walking into the bathroom. She stared blankly at the bathtub, which was surrounded by scattered flower petals.

The tub was semi-transparent, with two headrests, six knobs, and one faucet. Its sides and bottom were dotted with numerous holes and protrusions of unknown purpose.

Next to the knobs were some incomprehensible labels.

Things like “surfing,” “water curtain,” “bubbles,” “colored lights,” “temp control”…

Chai Yuening couldn’t quite figure out this plaything of the rich.

She studied it for a long time but couldn’t find the water inlet. Just as she was feeling awkward, Chu Ci walked in. Without a word, she stepped forward, examined it for a few seconds, and with a few quick twists, got the water running.

Water began to cascade down the sides of the tub like a waterfall, the temperature adjusted to a comfortable level, the sound of rushing water filling her ears.

“You’ve used one of these before?” Chai Yuening was dumbfounded.

“I forgot,” Chu Ci replied faintly.

“I forgot” seemed to have become this aberration’s all-purpose phrase.

Chai Yuening was momentarily speechless. She had a question she wanted to ask, but she was afraid she wouldn’t get an answer and would instead offend the person before her.

She hesitated for a long while, but in the end, she asked nothing, just smiling a little awkwardly. “You’re amazing. I can never figure these things out… Even if I could afford a contraption this big, my bathroom isn’t large enough to fit it. How is it more convenient than a shower head?”

As she spoke, Chai Yuening looked at the nearly full bathtub and froze, a bit embarrassed.

Normally, one required privacy to bathe.

But Chu Ci had come in, Chu Ci had turned on the water, and the tub was clearly big enough for two people—it even had two headrests.

Now that the water was almost full, should she ask Chu Ci to leave, or should she politely ask if Chu Ci wanted to join her?

Or perhaps, she could say nothing at all, just wash herself, and if Chu Ci wanted to join, she would, and if not, she would naturally leave.

It was such a simple question, yet Chai Yuening found herself agonizing over it without realizing.

By the time she came to her senses, the water in the tub was about to overflow, and a light mist filled the entire bathroom.

Chu Ci reached out and turned off the water, then turned and walked out of the bathroom, closing the door behind her.

Chai Yuening stood stunned for a few seconds, then dazedly took off her clothes and dragged her exhausted body into the tub.

The comfortable, warm water enveloped her entire body. Her tense nerves and aching right arm found some relief at that moment.

The sticky feeling of sweat and blood was washed away after changing the water.

On the principle that it was a rare opportunity to stay in a place like this and she might as well use the good stuff, Chai Yuening tried turning the other knobs.

Instantly, the tub lit up with a kaleidoscope of lights—red, blue, green, purple, a countless number of colors began to flash back and forth.

Jets of water suddenly shot forward from the holes at her back, and multiple protrusions on the bottom began to vibrate, startling her so much she jumped.

The shock was brief.

Chai Yuening quickly turned off the colored lights, which seemed utterly bizarre to her, and lay back to enjoy the massage from the bottom of the tub amidst the surging water jets.

The slight tingling and numbness from the jets and massage made Chai Yuening, who had finally relaxed completely, feel as if her escape from death had been nothing but a long, surreal dream.

This feeling suddenly sent her thoughts spiraling uncontrollably.

What was the origin of Chu Ci, the girl she had picked up from the Fog Zone?

Could the sudden retreat of the beast horde in the ventilation control room be related to the mist Chu Ci had released?

If so, on the night she found Chu Ci in the Fog Zone, had the giant mutated beast and the massive horde that passed them by also been affected by something similar, causing them to consciously avoid them?

So, was their ability to walk until dawn that night without being attacked by any mutated beasts also related to Chu Ci in some way?

Was Chu Ci a human who had retained her consciousness after being infected by a mutated beast, or was she an unknown class of mutated beast that had acquired human thought by devouring a person?

That body, that Floating City identity—did they truly belong to her?

Her initial strange behavior—was it genuine cognitive amnesia, or was she in the primary stage of adapting to and imitating humans?

Was her arrival at the underground Base an accident, or an inevitability?

On these questions, Chu Ci had clearly hidden far too much.

The only thing Chai Yuening could be certain of was that Chu Ci held no hostility toward humans and was even willing to advance and retreat alongside her.

Chai Yuening couldn’t help but wonder, if Chu Ci was an infected human, how could a human, a young girl who looked less than twenty, be so calm in the face of death? Whether the danger was to others or to herself, she was as calm as a mere spectator.

But if Chu Ci was a mutated beast that had transformed by devouring a human, then having lived in the Fog Zone, she should have been completely ignorant of the human world. So why would she exhibit a state of cognitive amnesia where she knew of things without truly knowing them?

The Base scholars had clearly stated that human consciousness was insignificant in the face of the genetic infection brought by mutated beasts.

Countless studies had proven that once genes were infected and mutated, a human’s own cognition and memories would completely dissipate in a short period, with almost no possibility of remnants.

But Chu Ci was different from those mutated beasts.

She seemed to be a vine?

Scientists had never said that black vines could infect humans.

Wait, wait…

Chai Yuening couldn’t help but frown. She seemed to remember hearing a broadcast somewhere, a broadcast that mentioned something about… something about the fusion of black vines and humans as a direction for resisting infection.

Yes, she remembered hearing it, but she couldn’t recall the specific details.

So…

Should she hand this vine over to the Base Research Institute?

The sudden thought sent a shiver through Chai Yuening in the water.

She simply couldn’t understand, much less forgive, that momentary thought.

She had been to the main city’s research institute and had seen too many samples that had mutated during quarantine and were then transferred there for live research.

The research institute would not treat an aberration as a person.

Chai Yuening shook her head forcefully and stepped out of the cooling water. She grabbed a white towel and began to dry her wet hair, her mind still racing.

As her thoughts wandered, her peripheral vision caught sight of her blood-stained clothes.

Awkward…

She had forgotten to bring in a bathrobe.

The sensuous room with its delicate atmosphere was silent.

The bathroom door, which had been shut for a long time, was suddenly pushed open a crack from the inside. Warm, moist air squeezed through the gap, carrying the faint scent of shower gel and shampoo.

Chai Yuening poked out half her head. “Chu Ci, can you hand me a bathrobe?”

Chu Ci, who had been sitting on the swing in a daze, came to her senses and looked up at the two bathrobes hanging nearby.

“That’s the one,” Chai Yuening said.

Chu Ci stood up, took one down, and quickly passed it to her.

A few minutes later, the bathroom door opened again, and Chai Yuening emerged, wrapped in the large bathrobe.

“I’ve wiped down the tub, you can use it directly,” Chai Yuening said while drying her hair. “Don’t get your wound wet. I’ll help you change the dressing again tomorrow.”

“Okay,” Chu Ci nodded and walked in, holding a clean bathrobe.

“Um…”

“Yes?”

Chai Yuening pointed to the wound on Chu Ci’s right arm. “If it’s inconvenient, I can help.”

The words had barely left her mouth when a long, thin vine extended from Chu Ci’s fingertip and shut the door with a snap.

Chai Yuening: “…”

Alright, it seemed bathing was quite convenient for a plant.

Chai Yuening let out a heavy sigh, walked to the edge of the bed, and sat down, glancing at her pocket watch.

It was already past seven.

Chai Yuening kicked off her slippers, spread her arms, and fell backward heavily. The soft waterbed seemed to ripple beneath her, and her aching limbs felt as if they were suddenly lifted and floating. The fatigue of the entire day washed over her in that instant.

She thought, no matter what happens tomorrow, I’ll let myself off the hook for today.

She thought, even if I wake up tomorrow to find myself buried by black vines, I don’t have the will to struggle anymore.

She thought, we both live in the outer city, so how come You Lan’s life is so much more comfortable than mine?

As her thoughts drifted, she used her last bit of consciousness to roll over twice, leaving enough space for Chu Ci.

In a state of half-sleep, someone turned off the pink and purple lights in the guest room.

The round bed trembled slightly. Someone lay down behind her, covered her with a thin blanket, and then, quietly, fell asleep with her.

She was sleeping in the same bed as an aberration.

Chai Yuening thought drowsily.

As she thought, her mind drifted into some forgotten dreamland.

She woke again to the sound of her stomach raising a ruckus.

Chai Yuening sat up, her hair a tangled mess. A dull ache throbbed at her temples, and the soreness in her right arm was even more intense than last night.

She sleepily ran her fingers through her hair a few times. Just as she was about to let out a big yawn, she heard a very soft, faint laugh from behind her on her left.

“…Morning.” She had almost forgotten there was someone else lying next to her.

“Morning,” Chu Ci replied softly, her smile fading.

Chai Yuening subconsciously began to smooth her hair with her fingers.

“I’ve washed all the clothes,” Chu Ci said.

“Mm,” Chai Yuening responded. Remembering the wound on Chu Ci’s hand, she couldn’t help but frown. “You should have left them for me to wash.”

“Then we’d have to wait another half a day for them to dry.”

“…You’re right.”

It wouldn’t be appropriate to go out wearing bathrobes, so they could only stay in the hotel until their clothes were dry.

Chai Yuening looked up and saw their damp clothes hanging on a rack through the thin pink gauze curtains, feeling a wave of emotion.

If nothing had happened yesterday, they would probably be sitting at home, bored—one reading, the other listening to the radio.

And Du Xia would be in the Fifth District with her grandmother, while Ren Dong, Lu Qi, and Lao Xiang would surely be visiting the simulated ecological zone in the main city.

If nothing had happened yesterday, in a little while, the military’s approval would come through, and they would issue supplies to the mercenary team. Everyone would end their leave, get into that noisy, bumpy old vehicle, and head to the surface for missions, just like before.

It was strange. They were all just ordinary people who could bleed and get hurt, but once they were together, it was as if they could overcome any difficulty.

As Chai Yuening was lost in thought, a voice pulled her back.

“Chai Yuening.”

“Hm?”

“Are you thinking about Du Xia and the others?”

“Yeah.”

Chu Ci sat up, hugged her knees, and remained silent for a long while before saying softly, “Everyone will be okay.”

“Yeah!” Chai Yuening nodded.

She knew it was just a comforting phrase, but she truly believed it. She believed that her teammates, who had been through life and death with her so many times, would definitely manage to transfer to a safe area and reunite with her soon.

Before that, she felt she needed to meet with You Lan.

---

Under the pink and purple lights, amidst the light pink gauze, a woman with wavy, gradient-brown hair sat sideways on the waterbed, one leg crossed over the other.

She was an exceptionally beautiful woman, her curvaceous and graceful figure wrapped in a dark green silk qipao. Her face was small, round but not plump, with willow-leaf eyebrows and a cherry mouth. Her eyes weren’t large, but their corners tilted up slightly like a fox’s, and every expression she made carried an air of sophistication, maturity, and bewitching charm.

Everyone appreciates beauty. No matter where such a woman appeared or who encountered her, they couldn’t help but look a few more times.

If only she were mute, she would be even more perfect in Chai Yuening’s eyes.

“My rate here is forty a night. Captain Chai took two rooms, so that’s eighty,” You Lan said. “Considering Captain Chai just escaped from the Sixth District with her life, your financial losses must be significant. You can owe me for all of it for now.”

“You didn’t mention money last night.”

“Oh, dear, I must have forgotten,” You Lan laughed. “It’s all your fault. You asked for my help before the power was even back on. I was dead tired, how could I remember so many details?”

“If you’d said so earlier, I would have slept in the car,” Chai Yuening said, displeased.

“Don’t be such a cheapskate. We’re old friends, what’s wrong with giving me some business?” You Lan said, raising an eyebrow to look at Chai Yuening in her large bathrobe, then at Chu Ci, also in a large bathrobe on the swing. Her tone turned suggestive. “I’d say your money was well spent. Isn’t an adult’s exquisite pleasure worth the price?”

Chai Yuening: “Don’t talk nonsense.”

You Lan: “Who doesn’t know you took her back to your place after getting her out of Ban Xiangming’s custody? Don’t be shy. I’ve been around here for so long, what kind of people haven’t I seen? You know, the things that happen after the lights go out… as long as there’s a spark, gender isn’t an issue.”

Chai Yuening was at a loss for words.

This person could just talk normally, what was with that rising, teasing intonation at the end of her sentences?

You Lan: “Captain Chai, you didn’t call me over just to show off your conquest from last night, did you?”

Chai Yuening nearly choked. “What… what conquest do I have?”

You Lan: “Tsk, still being shy. Look how calm your little treasure is.”

Chai Yuening turned to look at Chu Ci. Chu Ci was also looking at her, a hint of confusion in her eyes.

She understood. This little aberration hadn’t understood a word You Lan was saying. It seemed her foolish look when You Lan tricked her into the detention center wasn’t an act after all.

Chai Yuening took a deep breath, no longer bothering to explain to You Lan, and said directly, “I’m not going to argue with you about this. I really need to see you about something.”

Since Chu Ci didn’t understand, as long as she wasn’t embarrassed, no one else in the room would be.

You Lan shifted her position, looking down to admire her freshly manicured nails, and asked faintly, “What is it?”

“I need to send someone to the Ninth District, and then I might go to the Tenth or Fifth District,” Chai Yuening said. “I need more powerful firearms and ammunition supplies. The more, the better.”

You Lan frowned slightly and said softly, “I heard the seven districts that have fallen are now as dangerous as the high-risk zones on the surface.”

“I know,” Chai Yuening continued. “So if it’s possible, I’d also like a military armored vehicle, the kind Luo Kun managed to get before. I’m not buying, I can’t afford it. I just want to borrow it for a few days. I’ll return it.”

“You… are you really going?”

“If that’s not possible, something a little less powerful is fine. In any case, it can’t be worse than my team’s vehicle,” Chai Yuening said, taking all the money out of her waist pouch. “This is all I have on me. Can I owe you the rest?”

You Lan fell into a thoughtful silence.

Chai Yuening considered it and felt that her requests were indeed a bit much.

Heading into the fallen districts at a time like this was probably no different from seeking death in others’ eyes. You Lan was a shrewd businesswoman; it was unlikely she would accept an IOU from someone who could die at any moment.

So she nonchalantly changed her tune: “Never mind. Just see what you can get with this money and get me as much as you can.”

You Lan hesitated for a moment before finally taking the money from Chai Yuening’s hand.

“Then wait for me for a day or two. What a hassle,” she said, standing up. She walked gracefully to the door in her black high heels.

The moment she pulled the door open, she turned back to look at Chai Yuening and said, “I’m afraid you’ll kick the bucket before you’ve had a few good days in your life, so I’ll waive the room fee for two days. Someone will deliver meals regularly. Just wait for my news.”

Chai Yuening: “…”

The door closed, leaving only her and Chu Ci in the room again.

With the sharp-tongued woman gone, Chai Yuening sighed with mixed feelings.

Chu Ci tapped her toes on the ground, setting the swing into a gentle motion again.

After a long silence, she looked up and asked softly, “What was Boss You talking about just now?”

Chai Yuening didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “She thinks I’m going to die, so her conscience kicked in and she decided to take pity on me before I go.”

Chu Ci: “She said that after the lights go out, gender isn’t an issue. What does that mean?”

Chai Yuening: “…”

Chu Ci: “She said you had a conquest last night. What does that mean?”

Chai Yuening: “…”

Did aberrations these days have such a strong thirst for knowledge?