RotA – Chapter 52

The vine branches that had spread out from Chu Ci as their center slowly retracted from the surroundings.

It was a process that wasn’t particularly long, yet it once again exceeded Chai Yuening’s understanding.

If she hadn’t seen it with her own eyes, Chai Yuening could never have imagined that the scene just now—of countless black vines “coming to life” and binding a giant beast to death—was actually related to Chu Ci.

After a fusion experiment that humanity had defined as a “failure,” Chu Ci had gained the ability to influence the black vines.

The seemingly inanimate black vines could not only sense her emotions but could also be moved by her joys and sorrows. The branches extending in all directions were the bridges through which she conveyed her will to the black vines; she could make them fight for her.

But establishing communication with such a large number of black vines seemed to take a huge toll on Chu Ci.

Right now, she looked extremely weak, leaning against Chai Yuening with a deathly pale face, her breathing faint.

Chai Yuening asked her softly, “Can you walk?”

Chu Ci nodded. “Mhm.”

The answer was affirmative, but Chai Yuening could feel that she was just toughing it out.

Chai Yuening: “I’ve told you before, you can say it if it hurts. Don’t hold it in.”

Chu Ci thought for a moment, then amended her answer. “A little tired.”

Chai Yuening’s brows curved into a smile. “Then let’s rest here a while longer.”

Chu Ci: “Aren’t you in a hurry?”

Chai Yuening: “What’s there to be in a hurry about.”

It’s not like we have anywhere to go. It doesn’t matter when we set out.

Chai Yuening stood up and helped Chu Ci to a slightly sheltered spot by a wall. The two of them sat down together, leaning against the mottled surface.

After the black vines’ “disturbance” had ended, the fog that had briefly dispersed here gathered once more. In this place where sunlight couldn’t penetrate, the summer air carried a slightly damp chill.

After a long, sleepless night, Chai Yuening was also getting sleepy.

Weariness crept over her brow. She closed her eyes heavily, but her grip on Chu Ci’s hand remained tight, not loosening in the slightest.

The Fog Zone was clearly a place filled with mortal danger, yet at this very moment, she felt an inexplicable and profound sense of peace.

She had a dream.

In the dream, the great fog had lifted. They stood under the sun, watching the crowds that had finally returned to the surface build a brand-new home upon the ruins of the old world.

Ren Dong’s voice came over the broadcast, announcing to the people moving into their new home that humanity had once again found rose seeds in some ruins of the old world.

She promised Chu Ci that when the base cultivated its first batch of roses, she would be sure to give her one.

But the dream ended quickly.

When she awoke, she was still in the ruins, the hand holding Chu Ci’s already slightly sweaty.

Fortunately, both in the dream and out of it, Chu Ci was there.

The corners of Chai Yuening’s mouth turned up unconsciously. As she raised her eyes, they met Chu Ci’s gaze.

Chai Yuening: “Did you sleep?”

Chu Ci shook her head.

Chai Yuening: “Aren’t you tired?”

Chu Ci still shook her head.

After a brief silence, Chu Ci’s thin lips pressed together. “I was afraid it was a dream.”

She was so afraid that everything before her was a dream, that if she so much as blinked, she would wake up and be back in that dim laboratory.

She was afraid of that place. It made her feel pain.

In the past, Chu Ci had thought she could go back. After all, she had spent countless days and nights there over the years. But when she truly returned, she realized that people are greedy. Once you’ve seen the sun, you can no longer endure the darkness.

It was still daytime, but the light was dim.

Not a single ray of sunlight could shine brightly into this dense fog.

Chu Ci didn’t continue, and Chai Yuening didn’t know what to say either. She just squeezed Chu Ci’s hand tighter, as if trying to tell her that this wasn’t a dream, that she would always be here.

Time passed, second by second. Chai Yuening saw a glimmer of tears gradually well up in Chu Ci’s eyes.

When was the last time she had seen tears in Chu Ci’s eyes?

Chai Yuening thought and thought, but could only recall the pathetic sight of Chu Ci wiping her tears while squatting in the bathroom after getting drunk.

Other than that, had Chu Ci ever cried?

Chai Yuening couldn’t quite remember.

In her memory, Chu Ci never shed tears—not when she was injured, and not when they parted.

Perhaps the only time in her life she had seen Chu Ci’s tears was as the dried stains left on that thin sheet of paper Ye Qing had given her.

So this was the first time she gently raised her hand to touch the corner of that tear-filled eye.

She could feel Chu Ci’s slight tremble, as if something was still being suppressed deep in her heart.

“Can you tell me? What’s on your mind,” Chai Yuening asked softly.

This time, she really didn’t want to miss anything again. “I want to know. I’m afraid I’ll be a step too slow in figuring it out again.”

Chu Ci looked into Chai Yuening’s eyes, her gaze becoming hesitant.

After what felt like a long time, she lowered her head, her eyes downcast.

“The day you left, I kept thinking, thinking about whether you would really come back,” Chu Ci said. “I thought about it for a long time. I hoped you would come back, but at the same time, I hoped you wouldn’t. After all, even if you did, we wouldn’t have had much chance to see each other again.”

“Are most people like this?” Her voice was as soft as ever, so soft that Chai Yuening had to lean in close to hear clearly. “Once you try to integrate into this world, you struggle, hesitate, feel conflicted, as if you’re sick. Before this, I could be neither happy nor sad.”

“Chai Yuening, that day you left, I watched Ye Qing’s car slowly disappear, and I truly thought I would never see you again.” Chu Ci spoke as if to herself, as if she didn’t need a response. “No one has ever been so good to me. You were the first, and perhaps the last… The world is so big. It was so good to have met you…”

At this point, her voice became almost inaudible. “But back then, I just felt a little regret.”

But Chai Yuening still heard it.

She finally understood how Chu Ci felt.

In that sunless underground laboratory, she had faced everything she should have long been accustomed to alone—whether it was the researchers’ indifference toward a specimen, or the fusion experiments that disregarded her life or death.

In truth, none of that was the source of her pain.

What caused her the most pain was that everything she had once obtained—the only, the sole, the cherished—had all been lost in an instant.

If, on that day, she had chosen to stay.

If she could have been a little more resolute, and told Chu Ci that she would wait for her until the day humanity regained its freedom.

Would the pain in Chu Ci’s heart have been a little lighter?

But what was the real difference between parting with regret and parting with hope?

Chai Yuening found she couldn’t think of an answer.

She just gazed deeply at Chu Ci and asked her softly, “Do you still have regrets now?”

Chu Ci didn’t answer the question. She just wrapped her free arm around her knees, her gaze distant and hazy as she looked into the distance.

Chai Yuening waited patiently.

After a long wait, she heard Chu Ci mumble a question in a super quiet voice.

“Where are we going?”

“Is there anywhere you want to go?” Chai Yuening asked in return.

“No,” Chu Ci said.

Chai Yuening thought for a moment, then smiled nonchalantly. “Then let’s just go wherever the road takes us.”

Chai Yuening said this with an air of nonchalance, but her stomach let out a quiet rumble.

A soft chuckle sounded by her ear, making her feel a bit awkward for a moment.

Chai Yuening: “Are you hungry?”

Chu Ci: “I’m okay.”

“Have something to eat.” Chai Yuening took out the only water and compressed biscuits she had from her small pouch, tore open the package, broke off a small piece, and held it to Chu Ci’s lips. “How long has it been since you’ve eaten?”

Chu Ci didn’t refuse, so she broke off a few more pieces and fed them to her.

After feeding her half the package, Chai Yuening, afraid she might choke on the biscuits, twisted open the bottle of water.

The night she chose to leave alone, she hadn’t expected to survive. There had been a fair amount of supplies in the armored vehicle at the time, but she had taken almost none of it.

She clearly didn’t have much food and water on her, not even enough for the two of them to have one full meal. Once today was over, she had no idea how they would survive tomorrow. Despite this, Chai Yuening still felt extremely happy.

It seemed she had really become the short-sighted person she claimed to be, unable to see too far ahead.

But that didn’t seem so bad, either.

After they finished all the food she had, she stood up and extended a hand to Chu Ci. “Can you walk?”

Chu Ci nodded and took the hand Chai Yuening offered her.

Everything was just like when they first met.

They walked deeper into the Fog Zone, with no clear direction and no purpose whatsoever.

This area was temporarily safe. After all, it had previously been the giant beast’s territory. For that thing to have grown so large, it had most likely eaten every living creature in the vicinity.

Before leaving the city ruins, Chai Yuening led Chu Ci on a tour around the area.

This place wasn’t far from the Floating City, a day’s drive at most. The Floating City also had mercenaries who came down to the surface to make a living. It was normal for mercenaries to die in the Fog Zone, and it was also normal to find supplies left behind by deceased “predecessors.” So, if their luck wasn’t too bad, it was entirely possible to find some food and clothing.

Heaven never seals off all exits. In these vast city ruins, there was indeed something she desperately needed.

She found a mud-caked backpack containing a flashlight, a box of compressed biscuits, two packets of sugar, and two bottles of water.

If they ate these things sparingly, it would be enough to last them a few more days.

After stowing the newly found supplies, the two continued onward into the unknown.

Along the way, there were many abandoned vehicles from the old world, but most were completely broken down. Not a single one was drivable.

Progress on two legs was slow, but they didn’t care about speed. No matter how fast they went, there was no destination they needed to reach.

They walked on, scavenging as they went.

When they got tired, they would find a random place that could shelter them from the wind and rain and hole up for the night.

Whenever they heard a strange noise, Chu Ci would release a mist to conceal their presence and trick it into leaving.

No one knew how long they would have to walk this road, where its end might be, or whether an insurmountable danger would suddenly descend, bringing death with it.

They just kept walking forward, not letting themselves stay in one place to feel despair.

On the third day of their wandering, they walked out of the city ruins and continued onward into the boundless wasteland.

On the eighth day of their wandering, having run out of both water and food, they came across an armored vehicle abandoned by a river.

The vehicle was fully stocked with supplies, and there was even a case of spare fuel.

The key was lying in the mud not far from the vehicle. The bloodstains on the key and the door weren’t too old, and the layer of dust and mud on the vehicle wasn’t very thick. The incident had probably happened less than a month ago. The place seemed utterly quiet; they couldn’t guess what the mercenaries in this vehicle had encountered.

Regardless, they had found a new path to survival.

A vehicle in decent condition, and enough food to last them a while.

But moving forward without a goal was always accompanied by endless aimlessness.

Chai Yuening thought that perhaps they needed a direction.

They washed themselves by the river and changed into clean clothes from the armored vehicle. They didn’t fit well, but they were much more comfortable than their dirty ones.

Her hair wasn’t dry, and she hadn’t started the vehicle. Chai Yuening leaned back in the driver’s seat, thinking. Finally, she turned her head to look at Chu Ci and asked softly, “Do you remember anything from before the cataclysm?”

Chu Ci was taken aback, her gaze gradually growing hazy.

The year the old world was destroyed, she would have been around ten, an age when one starts to form memories.

Chai Yuening: “You had a home, right? Do you remember roughly where it was?”

Chu Ci opened her mouth, her gaze vacant and confused. It was hard to say if all those years of experiments had muddled her memories.

Just as Chai Yuening was about to give up, she finally spoke.

“In… a place with a lot of mountains.”

“A mountain city?”

“Mhm.” Chu Ci nodded.

Chai Yuening thought for a moment, then smiled. “Then I’ll take you to find it.”

She sat up straight and stepped on the accelerator.

“You know which way to go?” A trace of admiration appeared in Chu Ci’s eyes.

“Uh…” Chai Yuening was suddenly at a loss for words. “Probably. Not for sure.”

The world was so big. Could they really find it?

Maybe not, but at least, from this moment on, they had a direction, a goal to strive for, a reason to travel on together.

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Author’s Notes:

Chu Ci: She seems to know everything.

Chai Yuening: She seems to think I know everything.

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