After an indeterminate amount of time, Chen Yifei finally calmed down, and he spoke coldly,
"Officer Han Meng, if your questioning is over... please leave my house."
Han Meng didn't say anything more. He silently stood up and walked towards the door.
He pushed open the door, and swirling snowflakes drifted into the room. His black trench coat with four stripes fluttered slightly... He paused for a moment and turned back to look at Chen Yifei.
"Whether you believe me or not, I have always been fulfilling my duties... If you really think this world lacks justice, why not become it yourself?"
"You passed the martial arts exam as the top candidate on the reserve list and are now a formal law enforcer. You can report to the headquarters tomorrow."
"Also..."
"The qualification to enter the Ancient Relic of the Martial Path is also yours."
After saying these words, he stepped into the heavy snow, and the black trench coat gradually disappeared at the end of the street.
Chen Yifei's gaze swept across the empty room, and his expression was somewhat complex... After Han Meng had walked far away, he also left the house and headed towards the rear mountain.
...
The pauper's graveyard.
Chen Yifei carried the uncut cake box and slowly sat down in the accumulated snow.
"Muyu, I'm here," he said softly, looking at the uneven pit he had dug.
Snowflakes stuck to the teenager's temples, resembling white hair. He took the candles off the cake and inserted them into the snow.
"You already made a wish earlier, so I won't light the candles... I'll cut the cake for you."
Chen Yifei took out a plastic knife from the packaging box and carefully cut the cake into two portions. One of them was neatly placed before the pit, while he picked up his portion from the box.
Snow and ice covered the surface of the cake with the wind. Chen Yifei took a bite, unsure if it was cream or ice crumbs.
As he chewed, he spoke indistinctly,
"Muyu, do you know?"
"This world is really messed up... This cake tastes so terrible, yet it costs two hundred copper coins. In my original world, two hundred would buy a much bigger and tastier cake."
"If there's a chance, I really want to take you back with me. Although I'm just an ordinary worker, the money I earn would be enough for you to live comfortably."
"But then again, if you go back with me, you'd definitely live better than me... You're so good-looking, and your singing is so beautiful. You could easily become a short video blogger with millions of fans, a true inheritor of traditional Chinese culture."
Chen Yifei's face was flushed red in the cold wind. He took a few more bites of the cake and looked up at the sky.
"But there are also good things here..."
"The aurora here is beautiful, whether it's day or night."
"But what's the use of being beautiful?"
"Just surviving is already taking all my strength..."
"The path you showed me seems powerful, but it might also affect my mind... Is this what you meant by saying it's rough?"
"Han Meng asked me to join the law enforcers, but the 'World's End' calamity on me is like a ticking time bomb. Once it erupts, I'll become the target of everyone's attacks... So, by joining that society, am I taking a direct step?"
"Instead of letting them discover and arrest me, why not start on the opposite side of them?"
"Muyu... What should I do next?"
Chen Yifei spoke to the pit, muttering to himself.
Clack——
At this moment, something slipped out of the pocket and fell into the snow.
Chen Yifei picked it up. It was the silver cube given to him by Chu Muyun before. In the shivering cold wind, it felt icy cold to the touch.
Chen Yifei remembered Chu Muyun saying that through this thing, they might understand them better... But how to use it?
He played with the silver cube in his hand for a while. With a gentle push of his fingertips, a silver sliding cover detached from the body, revealing a section of silver metal with some square holes. It looked like a standard...
"USB flash drive?!"
Chen Yifei looked at the USB flash drive in his hand, bewildered.
Since coming to this world, Chen Yifei had always thought that its technological level was probably stuck in the era of the Republic of China in the previous world, with oil lamps, rickshaws, salt for melting snow, old-fashioned pistols... But seeing this USB flash drive, Chen Yifei was suddenly confused.
Should this thing appear in this world?
Where did computers come from in this world?
Without a computer, where to insert this USB flash drive?
One question after another flashed through Chen Yifei's mind. Strangely, he picked up the USB flash drive and inserted it into the snow beneath him...
The next moment, a string of dark green code automatically appeared on the snow!
[Number 129439]
[Reading...]
[Read completed]
Chen Yifei's eyes rolled up, and he fainted on the spot.
...
"Hush——"
The sound of rushing water echoed in his ears.
Chen Yifei suddenly opened his eyes, as if awakening from a nightmare, with cold sweat soaking his back.
He didn't know when he had left the mass grave and come to a small, square space. The sound of the toilet flushing gradually disappeared, replaced by a series of knocks on the door.
"Buddy, are you done? I can't hold it anymore..."
Chen Yifei came back to his senses and quickly scanned his surroundings...
"...Toilet?"
Chen Yifei stared in disbelief.
It wasn't the old toilet in his home on Hanshuang Street, but a clean, bright modern toilet. Both the sensor light above his head and the "TOTO" toilet behind him gave Chen Yifei a strong sense of familiarity.
"Did...did I come back??" Chen Yifei's eyes were filled with confusion.
"Buddy, if you're going to put on your pants, do it quickly. I really can't hold it anymore..." The man at the door sounded anxious.
Chen Yifei immediately pushed open the toilet door. The man wearing a POLO shirt at the door was overjoyed, sidled into the cubicle, slammed the door shut, and was followed by a comfortable groan...
Chen Yifei looked around, subconsciously sped up his pace, and walked out of the toilet.
The first thing that caught his eye was "Heytea".
Next to it were KFC, MUJI, Zhou Heiya, and Da Niang Dumplings...
Looking at these familiar brands and the pedestrians walking around in the mall, Chen Yifei's pupils constricted slightly... He seemed to have thought of something and frantically strode through the crowd, rushing out of the mall under countless strange gazes!
The instant he saw the high-rise buildings, only one thought remained in Chen Yifei's mind...
He was really back.
"Did...did I just have a dream?" Chen Yifei held his head and muttered, "No, if it was a dream... Why would I wake up in the toilet?"
"Just now, I was at the mass grave, talking to Muyu... Then I inserted the USB flash drive into the snow, and then..."
"Was it that USB flash drive??"
Just as Chen Yifei was talking to himself, the large screen of the opposite building suddenly flashed,
"Below is an emergency news bulletin."
"At nine o'clock this morning, a red meteor grazed past Earth. At the same time, extremely small regional earthquakes occurred all over the country..."
"In just three minutes, hundreds of buildings split and collapsed, including Meishang Grand Hotel, Jiangkou Football Stadium, Jingcheng Grand Theater... According to incomplete statistics, the current death toll exceeds two thousand people..."