"Last month, one of my… uncles was bitten by a monster outside and died. Then a few days ago, another uncle went out to look for supplies. Over those few days, the temperature shot up, and there was a sandstorm. He hasn't come back either. And after that were the two uncles I just mentioned." Xi Bei's fingers scratched at the paint curling off the table, and he slowly said, "There's only me and my grandfather left, but his illness is getting worse and worse. He used to be able to talk to me, but these days, his mind is not clear."
"Sometimes he'll cry out in pain, and sometimes he'll say things that I don't understand." Xi Bei looked at Lu Feng with an earnest gaze. "Can you cure him?"
Lu Feng said, "Back at the base, perhaps they can find out the illness's cause."
He did not make the guarantee that they would "definitely be able to cure him." An Zhe looked down at the words on the Base Monthly pamphlet. This page bore an obituary saying that a certain gentleman who had always been contributing to Base Monthly had passed away from illness and that the serialized novel Mission was thus discontinued.
Within the base—or at least in the Outer City—very fewcould live to fifty or sixty. What people fortunate enough to enter old age faced were various illnesses that came in quick succession. The artificial magnetic field was weaker than the original geomagnetic field, so humans still received the effects of slight radiation exposure. Thus, the incidences of genetic diseases—primarily cancer—was still very high, taking away more than half of the elderly. Moreover, the lifestyle of licking blood off a knife's edge inthe wilderness would make the survivors live in endless stress reactions and psychological trauma, which were also chronic diseases that cannot be wiped out.
"Thank… thank you," Xi Bei said. "My grandfather raised me, and it was he who taught me to read. He was also the one who had always been repairing our generators. Everyone said that there were no other people in the world, and it was Grandfather who always had us wait. He said that the aurora in the sky meant that there were still human organizations somewhere out there."
Lu Feng asked, "Was he this place's engineer?"
"Yes," Xi Bei said.
Lu Feng narrowed his eyes slightly.
He asked, "Why did he know that the aurora represented human organizations?"
After some thought, Xi Bei explained, "This place is a magnetite mine, and Grandfather was an engineer in this respect. He said… said that his own teacher used to work at some research institute and that the research institute had always been studying the magnetic poles. Grandfather's teacher told him that the cause of this calamity was a problem with the magnetic poles, but the research institute was trying hard to find a way to solve it."
"The Highland Research Institute," Lu Feng said flatly. "The base of the research on the artificial magnetic poles."
Xi Bei nodded. "I think that was its name."
"We have temporarily lost contact with the base," LuFeng said, not continuing the previous conversation topic. "When communications are restored, we will take both of you back with us."
Xi Bei forcefully nodded. "Thank you."
After that, they stayed in the mine. When communications would be restored was a mystery, so Xi Bei gave them a rough understanding of the mine's structure.
The place they were currently located at was the corearea. When the great calamity had not yet occurred, it was the temporary rest area for the miners and engineers. There were rooms for people to live in, basic living facilities, and some mining machinery that had been left behind, including generators and many tools. Because it was deep underground and surrounded by incomparably hard minerals, so long as the cave entrance was protected, this place would be a self-contained safety zone.
Outside the core area were several deep mine shafts, all products of the people who came before, that extended along the ore veins.
"Although it's dark, there are no monsters inside," Xi Bei said. "You can rest easy."
At noon, Xi Bei went to prepare food. An Zhe was curious about their kitchen, but he still did not know Xi Bei well, so he did not dare to recklessly intrude on other people's territory. Instead, he found something else to do.
Mushrooms liked water, and humans also needed to drink water. Water was something very important, sometimes even more important than food, so in order togather enough water, the people inside the mine went to great lengths.
Whenever it rained outside, it was time to accumulatestored water. A large amount of rainwater could be collected each time, after which it would be purified with alum powder and stored in a large cement bucket. But the weather was unpredictable after all. Nobody knew when the next rain would come, so over the years, the people living in this place had also created a water collection system. Along the largest and deepest mine, they had carved out complicated lines all over the stone walls. The interior of the mine was extremely damp, and due to the temperature difference between day and night, fine droplets of water would condense on the walls in great numbers. Once the droplets reached a certain weight, they would roll down, then slowly accumulate along the manmade carved lines, and land drop by drop in the water collection bottle at the very bottom. After the hundreds of plastic water collection bottles were filled, there could be close to a hundred liters altogether.
According to Xi Bei, the most recent lot of water collection bottles were almost full and could now be gathered.
Thus, An Zhe and Lu Feng, each bringing a plastic water bucket and a gas lamp for illumination, walked into the main path of the mine to help Xi Bei retrieve the water.
An Zhe first picked up the plastic bottle at the entrance and poured the water into the bucket, then put it back down and continued walking forward in search of the next one.
He noticed that Lu Feng hadn't moved, so he turned around to look.
This man was leaning against a stone wall, looking at him in a composed manner. Only after An Zhe gave him a look did he take a few steps forward and gather water withhim. An Zhe was baffled by his attitude, but the Colonel's subsequent actions were all very earnest, so he did not ask.
The mine extended deep underground, with metal tracks laid down in the middle. He and Lu Feng each took one side, both focusing on filling their own buckets.
This was a magnetite mine, rough all around and covered with dig marks. The main part was a wet dark gray hue, and the glow of the gas lamp had dimmed in the damp environment, turning the surroundings foggy.
Humans may not like this sort of environment, but the water vapor made An Zhe feel very comfortable. He even felt his spore do a relaxed roll inside himself, which amused him. With his eyes slightly curved, he gently gave his stomach a rub as a response to the spore—putting the spore in this place made him feel safe.
As he traveled along the mining track, the amount of water in his bucket continued to increase, and once he finally walked to the end of the water collection system, the water-filled plastic bucket had become the heaviest thing in the world.
After the last bottle of water had been poured in, An Zhe turned around with difficulty, water bucket in hand.
In front of him was a long, dark cave, and the place he had started from had turned into a point of light as feeble as a spark.
The water bucket in his hand was so heavy, and the road was so long. He had to walk back, but he was already on the verge of being unable to carry it. To haul the bucket back was practically an impossible task.
An Zhe was suddenly dumbstruck.
Footsteps rang out in the cave, for Lu Feng had walked over to his side.
The Colonel asked, "You aren't walking anymore?"
There was a lilt at the end of his words, seemingly containing a mocking laugh.
Silently, An Zhe looked at the end of the mine and felt his IQ being extinguished little by little.
Lu Feng cast him a glance and said dryly, "If you had walked here first and then started filling it with water—"
An Zhe said nothing. He was not in great shape.
If he had come here first with an empty bucket, then collected water as he walked back, he would have only needed to make one trip with the water bucket. Whereas right now—not only had he carried the increasingly heavy water bucket all the way here, he also needed to carry it back.
He also finally knew why Lu Feng did not move after seeing his actions.
This man, this man—
This man clearly predicted the aftermath from the very beginning but chose to watch him carry on as though nothing was happening.
An Zhe decided to get angry. He was a self-respecting mushroom, so with the incomparably weighty water bucket in hand, he started walking back and even strove to speed up his pace.
But Lu Feng had long legs and thus could effortlessly keep up with him. After walking more than ten steps, this man even reached out and stopped An Zhe with a hand on his shoulder.
"Look over there," Lu Feng said.
An Zhe looked to the side.
There was a cart two square meters in size parked on the metal track containing a few chunks of ore. It was clearly a mine cart used to transport rocks.
The weight in his hand suddenly lightened. Lu Feng had taken his water bucket and put it in the cart, then put his own in the cart as well.
Just as An Zhe thought that the Colonel was merely intending to save his energy with the help of this means of transportation, he heard him say flatly, "You get on too."
An Zhe looked at the mine cart, somewhat hesitant. He felt that the expression in Lu Feng's eyes contained some interest, as though he wished to play some strange games.
In the end, because he neither obeyed nor refused, Lu
Feng picked him up and put him in the cart.
The inside of the mine cart was very spacious. With his back toward Lu Feng, An Zhe sat down, arms wrapped around his knees. Lu Feng hung the gas lamp at the front end of the cart. The small mine cart was pushed forward slowly along the track, and the trundling of its wheels echoed gently in the mine.
Surrounded by mountain walls, this place was isolated from the world, and there were no lurking dangers. The gas lamp's yellow light softly illuminated a small portion of the area in front, and sometimes, specks of fluorescence glinted within the ores. It was like a place that would appear in human fairy tales.
An Zhe looked forward and reclined against the back side of the cart, feeling relaxed. It was a mushroom's natural character to relax and dislike moving, so he did not dislike being pushed along. And although he could not see Lu Feng, he somehow felt that the man was currently very happy as well. A mushroom's joy was obviously based on idleness, but as for what the Colonel's joy was based on, he really did not understand.
As he looked forward, he internally gave a scornful snort.
———
Unexpectedly, lunch was mushroom soup.
Xi Bei said that he had planted them in the mine himself,so they were clean. Oyster mushrooms grew quickly, and the remainder was still sufficient for several more days.
Upon hearing Xi Bei's words, An Zhe silently shrank into a corner. Xi Bei looked so gentle and friendly, An Zhe did not expect him to also be a mushroom-killing murderer.
But he had no choice but to become a mushroom-eating accomplice.
Before they began eating, An Zhe noticed Lu Feng cast a look toward him, and he believed the Colonel must have remembered that bowl of mushroom soup he could not drink before leaving the base. It seemed to be a type of regret, and humans did not like having regrets. Eating it today could be considered making up for before.
After the meal, Xi Bei showed them the food reserves. There wasn't much—some mushrooms, a few strips of air dried meat, and a packet of salt.
"The meat was stored in the past," Xi Bei said. "The pitfall traps can catch some small monsters. They say that if you eat the ones that look too strange, you'll get infected. Only the ones that aren't too strange can be eaten like the animals in the past."
Lu Feng said, "Monsters with low mutation levels can be consumed once twenty-four hours have passed since their deaths."
"Then those uncles were more or less correct," Xi Bei said.
Lu Feng asked him, "What kind of monsters are here?"
"Birds, lots of lizards, and big rats," Xi Bei said. "Sometimes there are bugs, the spidery kind. We eat quite a lot of rats."
"But after the sandstorm, I've rarely seen them. I spotted two especially ugly things, though." At that point, Xi Bei's complexion paled slightly. "They were especially big. I was scared they'd notice me, so I only looked at them through a telescope. I've never seen those kinds of things before. Do you know what they are?"
"This place ought to be the Eastern Hills. The originaldegree of pollution was not high," Lu Feng said. "But there was an accident with the magnetic field five days ago, which produced secondary mutations, and hybrid-class monsters started appearing."
"… Huh?" Xi Bei said.
Lu Feng's voice was slightly grim. "Through the food chain, the original small monsters aggregated into large hybrid monsters."
Xi Bei's complexion paled a little more.
As An Zhe listened to Lu Feng speak, he could imaginehow the monsters fought against each other, their numbers decreasing but their mutation levels skyrocketing. Perhaps what was even more terrifying was that the same thing was happening all over the world, and each day was becoming more chaotic than the previous one.
Lu Feng looked at Xi Bei. The combination of his eye shape and color formed a keen and ice-cold outline. Xi Bei, clearly still unused to meeting the Colonel's eyes, picked off another piece of paint from the table.
Lu Feng asked, "Has anyone ever mutated within the caves?"
"Yes. An uncle was bitten by a monster, and then he bit others."
"How was it dealt with?"
"They were released."
The communications were still blocked, but the Colonel carried out his duties. In the afternoon, Lu Feng borrowed paper and a pen from Xi Bei and wrote down simple notes on their situation.
Nighttime was rest time. In the entire mine, there was only one usable generator, and the routes were damp and aging. In the entire mine, there remained only one empty room with electricity, so the two of them lived in there.
After bathing, An Zhe rubbed his hair dry and played with bits of magnetite. In this mine, magnetite could befound everywhere.
With one piece in each hand, he faced the same poles of the magnetite pieces toward each other, wishing to push them together. There was clearly only air between these two black pieces of magnetite, but no matter how much strength he used, he could not put them close together. It was like there was an invisible force in the middle pushing them outward.
He frowned, not knowing why it would be this way. He could not understand a lot of human knowledge, just like how humans could not understand a lot of this world's knowledge. But he still stubbornly wished to put them together. He felt that so long as there was enough strength, there would not be anything that could not get close to something else.
With the sound of footsteps, Lu Feng entered the room. His coat, which An Zhe had washed, was now drying in aventilated spot. Looking up, An Zhe saw that the Colonel's upper body was clad only in the military's standard black undershirt, revealing the graceful and sleek lines of his shoulder and arm muscles. The legs of his pants were tucked into his black boots, which made his figure seem even more imposing and beautiful. His offhandedly toweled hair was in slight disarray, and crystalline droplets of water hung from the stray locks over his forehead.
An Zhe looked at him. Without the Arbiter's uniform and without the badge, Lu Feng seemed to only be a promising and powerful young officer. Even though his visage was as cold as ever and the temperature of his chilly green eyes had not risen by any substantial degree, An Zhe had the feeling he was much more relaxed. He suddenly remembered that, according to how human age was counted, one's twenties were clearly when everything had just begun.
A certain person in his twenties was fiddling with the communicator, head bowed, but the communicator only repeated again and again, "I'm sorry, but due to the effects of the solar wind or the ionosphere…"
After turning off the communicator and putting it on the table, Lu Feng sat down next to An Zhe.
No matter what An Zhe did, he could not put the same poles of the two pieces of magnetite together. He looked at Lu Feng.
"It's mutual repulsion," Lu Feng said.
An Zhe frowned.
Lu Feng took the two pieces out of his hands. Because opposite poles attracted, with a change in orientation, the two pieces of magnetite snapped together perfectly. Then
Lu Feng tossed them aside.
An Zhe picked them back up and once again played with them, but no matter how many times he tried, the results were the same. Between two of the same poles was aninsurmountable resistance, and they could never be put together. On the other hand, the two opposite poles had an
unimaginable attractive force. So long as they came even a little close to each other, they would automatically break free of his fingers and fly toward each other.
An Zhe asked, "What's in between them?"
He was a mushroom, and An Ze had never taken physicsclass before, so their combined knowledge could not explain this phenomenon.
Lu Feng said, "Magnetic fields."
An Zhe asked, "Is it the same as the artificial magnetic field?"
"Mm-hm," Lu Feng said.
An Zhe asked, "Can it not be seen?"
"No, it can't."
"Why not?"
Lu Feng stuffed him underneath the quilt. "Many things can't be seen."
"Oh," An Zhe said. It was a little warm under the quilt, so he uncovered his arms and shoulders.
Lu Feng looked at the collar of his soft white T-shirt, where a blue bruise was showing. Then he reached out and pulled the collar down.
Beneath the collar, upon the skin that was originally a smooth and flawless milky white, blue-purple bruises wereeverywhere and evenly spaced out, so evenly that one could not find which particular bruise was the source.
Saying nothing, An Zhe pried Lu Feng's hand off and silently pulled his collar back into place.
Lu Feng's gaze still lingered there. Of course he recognized this kind of mark. When the base approached serious criminals whom they needed to extort confessions from via torture, they would use high-intensity electrocution. Nobody could get through it without confessing. The sequelae left by electrocution were varied, ranging from physical to psychological. Marks on the skin were but one of them, and still more people would never be able to cast off this painful nightmare in their entire lives.
But after An Zhe wrapped himself tightly in the quilt, he only dropped his eyelashes a little and said quietly, "It doesn't hurt anymore."
Looking at his peaceful expression, Lu Feng sometimes wanted very much to bully him and sometimes wanted to treat him well.
Then he saw An Zhe wriggle toward the inner side of the bed, making room for him to lie down.
The bed was not big. After Lu Feng lay down on his side, they were very close to each other. An Zhe also spotted a wound on his arm that seemed like it had come from being struck by a blunt instrument, but that wasn't all, for there were faintly visible bruises and scratches on his shoulder as well.
He reached out to touch the longest one, but halfway there, afraid of hurting the Colonel, he retracted his hand and docilely shrank back into the quilt.
The expression in the Colonel's eyes seemed gentle. "Sleep."
"Mm," An Zhe said, then closed his eyes.
His eyelashes cast faint shadows in the light, giving his expression a softer and quieter cast. He was also completely relaxed, something Lu Feng was very easily able to recognize. This little xenogenic seemed certain that Lu Feng would not hurt him—even after his body was covered with electrocution marks.
This was not the first time Lu Feng felt puzzled by his actions. When they had just met, on that disorderly night when he had left the city gates and had nowhere to go, An Zhe had also said to him, unguarded, "you can stay with me." At that time, he had thought either that this boy had hidden motives or that he was as pure as his exterior, as though he didn't know people did not often invite strangers to stay overnight.
Having had these thoughts, he voiced them as well.
"… You aren't afraid of me?"
At that question, An Zhe slowly opened his eyes. Beneath the dim glow of the gas lamp, his eyes seemed to be covered with a layer of soft, beautiful mist.
In this brief span, he seemed to have almost fallen asleep. Voice muffled, he asked, "Why would I be?"
Lu Feng said nothing. He lifted his upper body and looked down at An Zhe, gaze heavy, while his other hand picked up the gun that had been placed next to the pillow. Its ice-cold muzzle briefly touched An Zhe's cheek.
An Zhe gave him a clear-eyed look and frowned slightly. Seemingly angry again, he pushed aside the barrel of the gun, then rolled over to face the other way, yanking the quilt away with that movement.
Lu Feng looked at his slender neck along with his thin shoulders and back that rose and fell slightly in time with his breathing. A person like this seemed both very easy to hurt and very easy to protect. After a long while, he turned off the light and lay back down.
A slight weight settled over Lu Feng as An Zhe pulled back over him the part of the quilt he had yanked away earlier.
Like a dragonfly's tail tapping the calm surface of a lake on a summer night.
What the ripples disturbed was not only the previously calm water.
In the silence, it was unclear if Lu Feng was driven by some emotion or it was just a subconscious action when he hugged An Zhe from behind. Lu Feng's arm pressed down against An Zhe's, and An Zhe stirred. He had planned to move his arm downward but there was nowhere he could put it, so he moved it back up a little and rested his fingers on Lu Feng's forearm, just like how he used to curl his hyphae around nearby rocks or tree trunks.
Lu Feng felt his movement.
Very softly, An Zhe asked, "Aren't you afraid I'll infect you?"
Lu Feng did not answer An Zhe, just as An Zhe did not answer him earlier.
Between an Arbiter trusting a xenogenic or a xenogenic trusting an Arbiter, it was hard to say which was more absurd—no matter what reason they had. Perhaps the day they met was the beginning of the world's most absurd story.
But in the darkness, neither of them could clearly see the other's face. In this place that was isolated from the world, in this moment that nobody knew of, it seemed as though regardless of what one did, it would not matter. Everything would be forgotten, and everything would be tacitly agreed to.
While listening to An Zhe's soft breathing, Lu Feng closed his eyes.