"So?"
"Yeah, I noticed there was a small hole in one corner, on the roof of the food storage room. I thought it must be the rats. And yes, my guess was right."
Little Yu found the hole and then collected all the remaining food boxes, he moved the boxes to the kitchen, in a drawer to make sure the food was safe from rats.
After that, he looked for something to be a foothold so he could reach the hole in the ceiling.
The boy pulled a chair from the kitchen into the storage room. Then piled some pieces of the wall on top of the chair. And make the pile as a foothold.
However, he couldn't possibly make the hole in the corner of the ceiling bigger with just his two hands. So, Yu came back down. With a little haste, he returned to the octagonal room.
In the spacious room, Yu had time to see a strange and unique iron ingot, displayed in the glass cabinet where the collectibles were located.
"What strange iron bar do you mean?" asked Alina with a frown. "If it's just ordinary iron or an iron pipe, it can't be in that glass cabinet as a display, can it?"
"Hmm…" Yu scratched his head with a smile. "When I remember well," he said, "it was actually a silver statue."
"A silver statue?"
"Well, a statue of a naked girl. Ermm, roughly the size of half a meter."
"Good grief…!" Alina smiled by folding her arms under her large breasts, shaking her head in such a way.
At a glance, Alina saw a subtle movement in the man's crotch, which was only covered by his underpants.
As soon as Alina's face turned red, she turned her gaze to the large screen on Yu's left. She cleared her throat.
No wonder he was a bit reluctant to say it, Alina thought. Once again, she judged that Yu was a man who was not only kind, he was also a gentleman.
"With the silver statue," Yu continued. He of course did not realize that the subtle movements in his crotch were visible to the beautiful doctor. Because Yu was in his simulation realm. "I can finally make the hole wider for me to go through."
"So you managed to break into that ceiling?"
"That's how it is."
"Then what did you find behind that ceiling?"
After struggling to enlarge the hole in the ceiling with the silver statue of the naked girl in his hand, Yu was finally able to climb up to the ceiling.
The ceiling was quite dark and stuffy, little Yu even had to bend down to get to the point where the sunlight was coming in, and it looked quite far from where Yu was now.
From that state, little Yu realized that this building was very large and spacious.
The boy continued to walk very carefully. Due to the dark conditions, Yu didn't want his bare feet to step on anything that could injure the soles of his feet.
When he reached the point he was aiming for, little Yu smiled happily because that hole was big enough for him to go through. He was glad he didn't have to go back down to get the silver statue of the naked girl.
Little Yu entered the hole which turned out to be the highest peak, part of the buried mansion.
The eight-year-old boy smiled happily when he was finally able to come out from under the surface of the sand.
However, he became a little frightened because as far as his eyes could see, he found nothing on the surface. There were only two pieces of debris sticking out from under the surface of the sand.
The first is the rubble where he stands now. And the second is the rubble that some time ago he was about to go to, the rubble where the street thugs raped a little girl, and Yu tried to stop that.
"Yeah, I remember that," said Alina. "Those thugs are after you, right? Until you fell into quicksand and ended up in an underground corridor."
"Yup!"
"What did you do after that?"
"Nothing," said Yu. "I had to go back downstairs. Besides, it's very hot outside."
Yu, who had memorized the intricacies of the room beneath the surface of the sand, finally chose to stay there, and only came out at night to enjoy the free air without any disturbance from the thugs, without the hot light of the sun.
"So you decided to stay in that room for a long time?" asked Alina.
"Yeah," said Yu. "I can't remember for sure. But, more or less until I was twenty."
"Twenty years?"
"That's how it is."
"Wait a minute!" said Alina. "Didn't you tell me that the food you get in that room only lasts one week?"
"Yes, that's how it really is."
"Then, if you survive to the age of twenty, that means you are in that room for twelve years. Where do you get food from? As for drinking water, I guess you can catch rainwater, can't you?"
"You're right," said Yu. "When it rains, I will come out of hiding with some containers to collect rainwater. And about food," Yu smirked. "Believe me, you don't want to know, Alina."
The young doctor took a deep breath. If the man was reluctant enough to tell her, it was certain that it was something disgusting or something. At least, for Alina herself.
Yu, who ran out of food under the surface of the sand, had to find other ideas to make a living. Relying on the Muntingia fruit alone in that octagonal room was not enough. After all, the fruits that the tree produces are not always there every day.
So, little Yu had to rack his brains to get his food. And the rats hanging around the ceiling of the room were the answer.
Of course, it was predictable that Yu would vomit for the first time he tried to eat the rat meat, even though he had burned it before.
Among the hardships of life that he experienced, Yu found little ease or so to speak. The luxurious kitchen under the surface of the sand has quite a lot of gas reserves.
So, with the fire from the stove in the kitchen, Yu burned the rats before he ate.
Sometimes, if he was lucky enough, Yu would find a bird or two that had strayed into the octagonal room. Any kind of bird, it doesn't matter. The most important thing is that Yu can continue his life.
But the adult Yu didn't tell Alina this part. He didn't want the girl to become disgusted, or to hate him for consuming something unnatural.
On one night, after Yu made the underground space his home, as on the previous nights, Yu who was then ten years old came out of hiding to enjoy the cooler and fresher night air.
The ten-year-old boy lay on the sand, on his back looking up at the sky, which at that time was so beautiful with so many stars adorning the night sky.
Yu smiled, he propped his head with both hands. Even though he was alone, he felt happy because all this time he had never been afraid of being chased by street thugs.
He had heard fairy tales from his mother's bedtime story. People who have died, then their soul will be with the stars.
So, Yu looked at every star up there. Then pray for the good of his mother and father who have died long ago.