CH 71.2

Chapter 71.2 – Abyss No.0

After a long time, Lu Tinghan slowly spoke: “…When Gleaning City was finally evacuated, did you drive away the monsters?”

“Some of them,” Shi Yuan said, “but I was not able to save many people.”

Lu Tinghan’s expression eased a little: “Does ‘Overlook’ have anything to do with you?”

Shi Yuan replied: “Yes, I went to Iron City. There was another person living in Iron City. His name is Edward and he used to be a sergeant. His family was dead and he was crazy and just wanted to go up to the communication tower and dance a waltz. I was able to scare away other monsters and went to the communication tower with Edward. He helped me find a backup power supply and sent back the data of the “Overlook”. It’s a pity… in the end, ‘Overlook’ did not succeed.”

Lu Tinghan asked again: “Rock Snake that time, it was you who saved me?”

“Hmm.” Shi Yuan said, “When I found you, the ‘Heavy Hammer’ had already fallen, the other rock snakes tried to come over and were scared away by me. I watched the rescue team come over and put you on the aircraft before I left.”

“……” Lu Tinghan rubbed Shi Yuan’s head and said, “Thank you. Thank you for saving me.”

Shi Yuan was too sad today that he couldn’t make a purr. He looked up at Lu Tinghan: “So, I just want to stay with you. I am here for you.”

Lu Tinghan: “Why is it me? What’s so special about me…?”

“Because I like you very much. You stayed with me for ten years before I woke up from my deep sleep,” Shi Yuan said, “The abyss needs company and gaze. You were watching me, and I was watching you secretly, too.”

Lu Tinghan couldn’t help but imagine the scene.

He patrolled the abyss, thinking that there was only him, the watchtower, and the cypress forest in the world, but Shi Yuan wagged his tail frantically in the black mist, and looked at him with bright eyes.

He asked, “Because of this? Just because of companionship?”

“Hmm. This is the whole reason.” Shi Yuan thought for a while. “After coming to the city, you took me to see so many things, and everything made me like you more.”

Lu Tinghan: “……”

At this moment, his expression moved slightly.

Shi Yuan said: “I don’t know where I’m from. Things like the universe are too far away for me. You are my human, I have to be with you and be touched by you.” He looked at Lu Tinghan again, looked at those familiar eyes, and plucked up the courage to ask, “This is the whole story. So, are you going to drive me away? Are you going to…kill me?”

Lu Tinghan said, “No, Shi Yuan, I won’t kill you. I—” he paused, “I need a little time to think about how to handle this. This is an unprecedented situation. I’d like to believe you, but I also have a lot of concerns. I’m also confused and don’t know how to respond, and there’s no way to guarantee what will happen in the future. But no matter what, you won’t die.”

Shi Yuan heard this, his curled tail finally relaxed a little, and said, “As long as I’m alive, I still want to be with you,” he said sincerely again, “I’m sorry, I lied to you for so long and you’re still willing to believe what I said.”

“I have the ability to judge, or at least see people accurately,” Lu Tinghan said, “If I couldn’t see what kind of person you are after spending so much time together, then I don’t deserve to be a general.”

He pinched Shi Yuan’s face: “So stop crying.”

Shi Yuan was finally not so sad, and rubbed against Lu Tinghan’s hand.

He was really a very bad abyss, he thought.

He was the one who had to apologize, but he cried like that, and in the end, it was Lu Tinghan who coaxed him.

Shi Yuan couldn’t help but ask, “So what would have happened to the story if I had met you in the beginning with my real identity? Would you have killed me? Would you still have liked me?”

“I don’t know,” Lu Tinghan said, “To be honest, I don’t know. We can’t go back in time, nor can we imagine another possibility.” He looked at Shi Yuan. “I don’t know what the past is, I don’t know the future, and I can’t even make sure we can still be together. I only know one thing, that is, after listening to so many incredible stories, I still like you.” He smiled. “I still love you.”

He hugged Shi Yuan. Shi Yuan’s center of gravity was unstable, and his knotted tail couldn’t maintain his balance, he was carried over. He put his hands on the sofa, and straddled Lu Tinghan’s lap. Shi Yuan bowed his head—

They rubbed each other’s ears and exchanged the first lingering and fiery kiss of the day.

“Let’s set off at six o’clock and go to the scientific research center,” Lu Tinghan whispered in his ear. “Let’s sleep for two hours first, I’ll accompany you.”

Shi Yuan asked, “Can I still sleep with you?”

Lu Tinghan stroked his temples: “As long as you don’t infect me.”

Shi Yuan smiled.

Although his eyes were still red, and the smile was a bit forced, it was a smile anyway.

Lu Tinghan untied Shi Yuan’s tail. The two huddled on the small wooden bed in the bedroom and slept for two hours. Shi Yuan hugged Lu Tinghan tightly, with sour and tingling joy, as if reborn after the catastrophe.

Fortunately, his human still trusted him.

Lu Tinghan was the best human in the world.

At six o’clock in the morning, they set off on time and went to Fengyang City Research Center.

It was Professor Guan who met them.

Shi Yuan was sitting in Professor Guan’s office, while Lu Tinghan and Professor Guan met privately. Lu Tinghan told Professor Guan about the cause and effect.

Professor Guan opened his mouth wide, so shocked that his glasses fell off.

He said: “Just because I’ve been studying the abyss all my life, it doesn’t mean that the abyss will come into my office one day!” He glanced at Shi Yuan. “He is still eating my mung bean cake!”

“It’s going to expire soon, it’s a waste if you don’t eat it,” Lu Tinghan’s tone of voice was righteous.

Professor Guan rubbed his eyebrows frantically, feeling his blood pressure rising abruptly.

He leaned against the wall, tried to calm down for more than ten minutes, and then cleared his mind before speaking: “So, you want me to make sure of two things first. First, will he attract monsters to approach the city; second, will contact with him infect others.”

“Yes.” Lu Tinghan said, “First figure out these two things, and we will talk about other things later.”

“If it’s a general result, we can figure it out soon.” Professor Guan put one hand in his pocket and looked at the ceiling. “I can experiment in private, but what are you going to do in the future? Do you want to tell others?”

Lu Tinghan: “I have my own considerations.”

“…Okay, I definitely don’t believe what other people say, but I believe you,” Professor Guan said, “But first, you tell him to stop eating my mung bean cakes.”

The week after that, Shi Yuan stayed in the research center almost every day.

Under Lu Tinghan’s instructions, he ate all the professor’s mung bean cakes.

The scientific research center housed a lot of monsters, and Professor Guan, as the manager with the highest authority, had easy access to them.

He let the monsters make contact with Shi Yuan through the containment glass, and after hundreds of rounds of experiments, he came to a conclusion.

The wind on the rooftop blew comfortably, and Professor Guan and Lu Tinghan stood side by side, he told him: “Most monsters are fearful of Shi Yuan, afraid of being killed by him. A very small number of monsters showed fanaticism towards him out of their desire for ascension, and therefore wanted to get close to him. But the range is not very large, beyond 800 to 1,000 meters, no monster will actively approach him. My guess is that they do not feel the presence of Shi Yuan all the time.”

Lu Tinghan took half of the cigarette and asked, “Which means?”

“In other words, he will not attract monsters to approach the city,” Professor Guan replied, “More experiments are needed for detailed conclusions, but it is basically certain that those attacks have nothing to do with him. And didn’t you also say that before and after he entered the city, the monster’s actions had no abnormalities – at this point, your judgment will not be wrong.”

Lu Tinghan did not answer.

Professor Guan turned his head and saw that Lu Tinghan was looking at the sky. Only then did he notice that half of the cigarette had already been crooked by Lu Tinghan, which showed how nervous he was just now.

It was the first time he saw Lu Tinghan unable to control himself, he couldn’t help but be surprised.

“Great.” Lu Tinghan still looked at the sky and murmured, “…that’s great.”

The sky was clear and blue, he crushed out the cigarette and stopped smoking.

Professor Guan said again: “As for whether he will affect the people around him… When he was in human form, he did not have any symptoms of infection at all. You have been checking him before, you have done many inspections, and there are no abnormalities. Without wavelengths in our perception, we will not be affected or infected.”

He looked at Lu Tinghan for a while: “I entrusted my students to check the records – of course, I didn’t tell them why. In short, other people who have been in contact with Shi Yuan for a long time have no problems in the records of the medical system, regardless of the old, the weak, the sick, and the disabled. You are also a living example. You have been in contact with him for so long and have not changed at all.”

“Still, further experiments are needed to have conclusive results, but basically, it can be confirmed that this is the correct conclusion.”

Lu Tinghan smiled very lightly.

Professor Guan: “But I want to ask one more question, to what extent have you… been in close contact with each other? Live together and sleep together?”

Lu Tinghan: “Hmm.”

Professor Guan suddenly felt wrong: “Wait, what else?”

Lu Tinghan: “I touched his head, held his hand, and kissed him.”

Professor Guan’s eyes widened and he stammered: “And, and?”

Lu Tinghan looked at him.

This kind of gaze was saying ‘We are both men, you must understand.’

Professor Guan’s glasses flew off again, and this time, they fell straight to pieces.

He tried his best to maintain the qualities of a researcher: “How many, how many times?”

Lu Tinghan: “Well, quite a lot, I don’t remember.”

It was all because Shi Yuan was so fun that he couldn’t stop playing once he started.

Professor Guan was greatly shocked and muttered, “Then Shi Yuan must be safe, too damn safe, too f*cking safe, 10,000% safe.”

Before leaving, Professor Guan held his broken glasses in one hand, and kept murmuring words like “safe”, “mung bean cake”, and “worthy of being a general.”

Lu Tinghan went to the office to take Shi Yuan away.

Shi Yuan asked, “Is the experiment all done?”

“For now, it’s done,” Lu Tinghan replied to him.

“Is there any problem?”

“Not at the moment,” Lu Tinghan touched his head.

They went home and had egg and vegetable noodles together in the evening.

It’s a rare and ordinary day, as if nothing had happened.

After eating, Lu Tinghan looked at Shi Yuan and said, “Shi Yuan, I have something to tell you.”

“What is it?” Shi Yuan’s tail bent into a question mark.

Lu Tinghan: “In this week or so, I have thought about our relationship properly.”

Shi Yuan: “……” He suddenly became nervous and hugged his tail.

Lu Tinghan continued: ” After all that has happened and knowing the truth, I can’t pretend that I don’t care about anything. So, I want to ask you a question.”