When Chai Yuening woke the next day, the space beside her was empty.
In the living room, the radio was softly playing a soothing piano piece. Chai Yuening had a vague impression it was a melody left over from the Old World.
Chu Ci was sitting on the sofa, holding a book she had taken from the bookshelf, which looked to be a collection of poetry.
Chai Yuening gave a casual greeting and turned to the bathroom to wash up.
Afterward, she said she wanted to go for a walk downstairs, and Chu Ci, as always, followed her.
Perhaps for protection, or perhaps for supervision. The place they were staying wasn’t far from the City Defense Center. After going downstairs, Chai Yuening wandered casually around the residential area for a bit before asking for directions and heading toward the City Defense Center.
Chu Ci asked, “Are you going to ask the military for something to do?”
Chai Yuening nodded.
The Base was currently in a sensitive period. Anyone entering or leaving the Main City required permission from the military, with no exceptions.
Chu Ci asked again, “Shouldn’t we call everyone else?”
Chai Yuening didn’t answer, instead asking a question of her own. “Do you know the difference between the Base’s Inner and Outer Cities?”
Chu Ci shook her head, her eyes filled with confusion.
“Before the Great Cataclysm, the people of the Old World had no idea the surface would one day be completely overrun by black vines and mutated beasts. What they feared most was the outbreak of nuclear war.”
“At that time, the designers of the Underground City, with the government’s support, overcame all opposition and, despite widespread dissent, spent a fortune in manpower and resources to build a high-tech shelter a thousand meters deep beneath the capital.”
“The shelter’s location was chosen for its dozens of rich groundwater sources. It was built with formidable defensive fortifications, both internal and external, over a thousand specially designed ventilation shafts, power stations, signal stations, temperature control stations, as well as a relatively complete system for transportation, entertainment, education, and healthcare. It even had livestock and cultivation areas that successfully simulated surface light and heat, enough to accommodate one hundred and fifty thousand people for long-term survival underground.”
“Initially, the government wanted to build such a shelter in every city, but this kind of project, which wasted public resources and manpower, was met with frantic resistance and condemnation from the majority of the Old World from the moment it was designed. Thus, the plan was completely shelved after the first shelter was built. Back then, no one could have imagined that after the Great Cataclysm, it would become humanity’s last refuge.”
“The survivors fled into the Underground City, constantly searching for and taking in other survivors from the surface, forming a new human homeland.” As she spoke, Chai Yuening glanced around thoughtfully before continuing, “However, an underground city can only accommodate a limited number of people. After the cataclysm, the people of the Old World tried to defeat the unknown ecology with nuclear power, but in doing so, they destroyed the entire Old World and its technological tree. People could no longer build a second shelter as sturdy as this one. But even if they stopped surface rescues, humanity would still reproduce, and the population would still grow. And so, the Base got an Outer City.”
“The Outer City districts were all excavated later. They have poor transportation, low-quality medical care, and unstable power, communication, temperature control, and ventilation systems. From time to time, parts of them even collapse.” Chai Yuening said, “The Main City established a complex set of standards and settled all the people who were weeded out in the Outer City, stipulating that Outer City residents could not enter the Main City without permission… Many people born in the Outer City fight their entire lives just to enter the Main City and become a respected upper-class citizen.”
“Although I know my contributions to the Base are enough for me to enter the Main City, with the Outer City on the verge of ceasing to exist and the Main City having limited capacity, the fact that our entire team could be transferred to the Main City immediately without any qualification tests was really thanks to Lu Qi… Xue Zhou wants him alive. As long as he’s willing to return to the Main City, a few spots aren’t an issue.” Reaching this point, Chai Yuening shook her head with a self-deprecating smile. “The Base is so dangerous inside and out right now; he wouldn’t want Lu Qi to leave his protection. If I brought him along, we’d really be stuck doing security in the safest residential area of the Main City.”
Chu Ci pondered for a moment, then said softly, “That Major General cares a lot about Lu Qi.”
Chai Yuening: “He’s his brother-in-law.”
Chu Ci: “But Lu Qi doesn’t seem to like him very much.”
Chai Yuening: “That’s right. It’s more than dislike; it’s practically loathing.”
Chu Ci: “Shouldn’t you be happy when someone is good to you?”
“That kid joined the team three years ago. He’s had very formal military training, and his combat skills and marksmanship are excellent. If he joined the Main City military, he would certainly have a promising future. But instead, he took all his skills and ran off to the Outer City to be a mercenary. Anyone would find that hard to understand, right?” Chai Yuening said, lowering her gaze with a smile. “But that’s a person’s choice. To face it or to flee from it, it’s all decided in a single thought.”
“Did something happen three years ago?” Chu Ci asked softly.
“Mhm,” Chai Yuening said. “Lu Qi’s sister died. She was a medical worker at the quarantine center. She was accidentally infected, mutated, and died by her own husband’s gun.”
Chu Ci: “…”
Chai Yuening: “Sometimes I wonder, if it were me, could I forgive him?”
Chu Ci: “Could you?”
Chai Yuening: “I don’t know. It didn’t happen to me, so I can’t truly put myself in his shoes. But I know what it feels like to lose someone you care about. I understand his inability to let go.”
Chu Ci said no more, just quietly followed behind Chai Yuening all the way to the Main City’s Defense Center.
Chai Yuening said something to the guards at the entrance. Someone went inside to report, and she and Chu Ci leaned against the cold glass wall outside the City Defense Center to wait.
Before long, a military officer came down from upstairs and walked toward them.
He wore a crisp military uniform and looked to be in his early forties. He was tall, with a deep and resolute gaze, and didn’t seem like an easy person to talk to.
Chai Yuening stood up straight. “Major General Xue.”
Xue Zhou: “Captain Chai, what brings you here so early?”
Chai Yuening: “I wanted to see if there’s anything I can do to help the Base.”
Xue Zhou: “After pulling back the defense lines, the military can handle the current situation. The transfer of personnel from the Second and Ninth Districts is also proceeding in an orderly fashion. Captain Chai need not trouble herself with this. Once the matters in the Outer City are resolved and the Growth Season is over, the Base will need Captain Chai’s help.”
It was just as Chai Yuening had expected. The military major general’s greatest wish right now was for Chai Yuening to take the Thirteenth Mercenary Team and live peacefully in the Main City until the Base was no longer at risk.
But that wasn’t what Chai Yuening wanted. She took two steps forward and pleaded, “Major General Xue, I came out today without telling the others in my team. Let me join the military. I’ll do anything. I can escort the personnel being transferred from the Outer City, or I can go to the fallen districts to help the Base search for research samples. I have plenty of combat experience against mutated beasts. I don’t want to just wait around like this, I…”
“Captain Chai, the Base has always recognized your abilities,” Xue Zhou said, looking at Chai Yuening with a heavy voice. “But when the outcome cannot be changed, the more you do, the more pain you will feel. We are all mortals, made of flesh and blood. In this situation, saving the Outer City is something no one can do. You don’t have to be so hard on yourself.”
Chai Yuening unconsciously bit her lower lip.
She lowered her eyes, struggling for a long time, before finally lifting her head and saying earnestly, “I still hope to do something for the Base. I promise I will return to the Main City within the stipulated time.”
As she spoke, her gaze was fixed firmly on the military major general before her. “I don’t think wanting to do something is being hard on myself. On the contrary, if I just hide in the Main City before everything happens and do nothing, I’m afraid I’ll regret it for the rest of my life.”
At that moment, the military officer before her fell into a long silence.
After what felt like an eternity, he let out a soft sigh and said to Chai Yuening, “Dr. Ge hopes to obtain more new samples before the Outer City is destroyed.”
“I can do it!” Chai Yuening was instantly overjoyed.
“Follow me,” Xue Zhou said, turning and walking into the City Defense Center.
Chai Yuening hurriedly followed him, turning back to give Chu Ci a wave.
What followed was processing the paperwork for mercenary enlistment, permits for entering and exiting the Main City, the issuance of a military communicator, and an explanation of some time restrictions.
Due to Dr. Ge Heguang’s request, a military unit consisting of two squads was already fully armed and would set out for the Outer City at one in the afternoon to search for new mutation samples.
They were to head to the Main City entrance and, with their enlistment papers, rendezvous with that unit.
The moment all the procedures were completed, a faint look of relief finally appeared on Chai Yuening’s face.
She took Chu Ci’s wrist and started walking toward the exit of the City Defense Center.
Suddenly, the person beside her stopped.
Chai Yuening turned back and asked, “What’s wrong?”
Chu Ci looked at her for a long time, as if wanting to say something but hesitating. Finally, she gently pulled her hand free and ran back toward the military major general’s office.
Chai Yuening subconsciously chased after her, all the way to the fourth floor of the City Defense Center, once again pushing open the office door that had just closed moments before.
The major general, who had just finished a communication, was standing in front of a file cabinet. He turned to look at them, a trace of surprise flashing in his eyes.
Chu Ci walked forward with a determined gaze and extended her clenched left hand toward him.
She opened her hand. A damaged, square object of indeterminable material, caked with dried blood and less than five millimeters wide, lay quietly in her palm.
Chai Yuening instinctively stepped forward and tugged at her arm. “What are you doing?”
Chu Ci: “Major General, the Floating City has always remembered its agreement with the Underground City and decided to provide full support the moment it discovered you were out of contact. But because we couldn’t establish communication, it was difficult to pinpoint the Underground City’s location. We had no choice but to send a vanguard unit through the Fog Zone to conduct geographical reconnaissance. However, the ecological deterioration in the Fog Zone was far worse than we imagined. Besides me, the entire reconnaissance team was sacrificed.”
Chai Yuening: “…”
“This is the tracking and positioning system implanted in my body.” Chu Ci looked down at the square object in her palm and said in a low voice, “It was damaged in the Fog Zone and cannot be activated for now. If it can be repaired, the Floating City will definitely be able to locate this place.”
As she spoke, she looked up at the man before her and asked with an almost naive tone, yet with utmost seriousness, “If I give this to you, can you give the Outer City a little more time?”
Xue Zhou asked warily, “Who are you?”
Chu Ci: “Floating City, Experimental Sample A0027, Chu Ci.”
Chai Yuening: “…”
So, that tiny sliver of “hope,” smaller than a fingernail, was a shackle an experimental subject had carved from her own flesh.
If she had been just a little more selfish, she could have thrown it away for good.
Author’s Notes:
Ah, she loves her so much [ducks for cover and runs away]
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