Chapter 114.1 – Revisiting the Hometown
Nothing had changed at the Garcia Grand Theater.
Shi Yuan saw the bus stop not far away. He had sat here countless times, waiting for a bus to go home. The bus was crowded with people, like a canned sardine, and he was so scared several times that he almost knotted his tail. Later, he left. There was only a tram in Fengyang City. He never experienced this wobbly feeling again. Later, he was with Lu Tinghan. Whenever Lu Tinghan was free, he would pick him up in person. He rarely took the tram anymore.
Shi Yuan told Lu Tinghan: “The first time I took the bus, I almost fell.”
Lu Tinghan: “You didn’t grab the ring?”
“I did, but when the driver braked sharply, I couldn’t hold on,” Shi Yuan explained, “After that, I used my tail to wrap around the handle.”
——Shi Yuan had always had a powerful tail, which could blow up scales and maintain balance, and could hold the handle and knock people unconscious.
They approached the theater, the marble statues at the door were covered with flowers, and they pushed the door in. The lobby, corridors, performance halls…were all surrounded by a sea of flowers. The two entered the No. 1 Performance Hall, which was the stage commonly used by the Wild Rose Troupe, where “The Martyrs” had been performed countless times and received countless applause.
Walking between the seats, a few small flowers saw Shi Yuan, pulled out the rhizomes from the velvet cushion, and ran away in a panic.
The other plants couldn’t escape. There was a huge sunflower with eyes, secretly staring at the two of them.
Shi Yuan greeted it: “Hello.”
Sunflower: “……”
It turned its head away and shut itself up.
Shi Yuan walked on the stage, but unfortunately, the room was dim and everything could not be seen clearly.
Lu Tinghan saw his thoughts, went backstage to study the switch, and pressed it “thud thud”. Accompanied by a burst of electric current, the stage light suddenly lit up and fell on Shi Yuan’s body.
“Wow!” Shi Yuan said, “The lights can still be on!”
“The wiring was not damaged, and the backup power is still available,” Lu Tinghan said, “But it can only last for a while.”
“That’s enough.” The tip of Shi Yuan’s tail swayed happily.
He and Lu Tinghan stood side by side on the stage.
It was like going back to the day of the first audition, Shi Yuan was scared to death, but wanted to be braver…
If you are a little more brave, you might be able to understand human beings and understand their joys and sorrows. Then he walked on the stage, the lights flooded him like a tide, and the audience was quiet and dark, while Lu Tinghan looked at him with a smile.
Shi Yuan played the God of Salvation.
He also thought he could save the city just like in the script, but in the end, it turned out that he would always be the god of monsters.
Times had passed, and the stage play had come to an end, but he had witnessed countless stories, seen the courage of everyone, understood the joys and sorrows, love and hate, and understood what home and homesickness are.
“It feels like a long time ago,” Shi Yuan said softly.
Lu Tinghan: “Yes, I remember the first time you invited me to see “The Martyr” and said my name wrong.”
Shi Yuan: “Yes, but what I told them was really “Lu Tingting”, it was Xia Fang’s ears that were not good.”
They sat in the audience together.
The surroundings were dim, only the stage lights were on. Shi Yuan said: “Qin Luoluo told me that when the Gleaning City was lively, people came from all over the world to watch stage plays and musicals.”
“There were also many people who came to see the wheat fields.” Lu Tinghan said, “After all, this city is called the “stage in the wheat field.”
“Oh yes, let’s go see the wheat fields later!
“Okay.”
Shi Yuan also told Lu Tinghan interesting things about the troupe.
In fact, when he shared his stories with Lu Tinghan every day, he had told many stories, but neither of them minded to revisit them once.
Shi Yuan said that Cheng Youwen and Qin Luoluo always quarreled. If it weren’t for Xia Fang’s gossip, he would never know that Cheng Youwen had a secret love for her; he said that the troupe was always short of money, and the advertisement for aphrodisiac oil had been hanging outside for several years and hadn’t been taken off; he said that Wolfgang didn’t speak a few words a day, and that he was like a different person on stage, speaking his lines to perfection. Tracy always liked to read fairy tale books; he also said that everyone was raising money for Ms. Isabella at that time.
“Ms. Isabella is long gone.” Shi Yuan said, “Her home in Fengyang City has become a welfare home. The money was all for Tracy.” He said, his chin on his palm. “It’s a pity that Tracy didn’t make it to the age of surgery.”
Lu Tinghan told him: “With the fusion agent, the sequelae of infection will be much better treated in the future. Now they have started to study.”
“That’s good,” Shi Yuan thought for a while, “Will there be a day of recovery?”
“I think there will be.”
They sat for a while.
It was dark when they went out, and they couldn’t see anything. They could only go to the wheat field tomorrow. The two returned to the aircraft for dinner and played cards for a while, but Shi Yuan still lost everything.
Lu Tinghan said, “You can do Sudoku, why are your card skills still so bad?”
“I don’t know,” Shi Yuan replied honestly, “Maybe I can’t do it, so I can’t do it.”
The Lu family’s spirit of never admitting defeat was defeated by him.
Early the next morning, they set off for the wheat field.
The wheat was infected and grew strangely, but at least it was golden. The huge machines, which had been strolling around, spraying water and spraying a rainbow, were now without energy and rested in the wheat fields, looking like a framed oil painting.
There were no animals in the barn and poultry house.
The cow that almost bit Shi Yuan’s cuff was gone, and the bleating goats were nowhere to be seen. The walls were riddled with holes, probably because they suddenly turned into monsters and escaped. Shi Yuan stood at the gap, looked around for a while, and saw a few figures flashed across the wheat field, but he didn’t know if it was them.
The world was still a large golden yellow as far as the eye could see.
It was beautiful and unchanging.
Shi Yuan looked at them, but what he thought of was the wheat fields of the past. Probably as Lu Tinghan said, the most important thing is that it once existed.
After that, they went home.
Half of the wall on the west side of the house collapsed, and the wind and sun made the house unsightly.
Shi Yuan found Broken Copper and Rotten Iron at the entrance of the stairs.
The two housework robots stayed in place, guarding the home faithfully. Shi Yuan squatted down, patted Rotten Iron on the head, and heard a few muffled noises “boom boom boom!”.
But the robot’s signal lights couldn’t be turned on, maybe the line was aging, so he had to give up.
The two went to the balcony and looked into the distance.
Shi Yuan saw the clock in the far distance. Whenever someone died, the death knell would ring through the Gleaning City, magnificent and vast. At that time, Lu Tinghan often came to the balcony and looked at the city and the wasteland silently.
Today’s sky was blue and refreshing, the city was still the city, and the wind blowing from the wasteland was exceptionally fresh.
Shi Yuan leaned against the balcony and watched for a long, long time before saying, “Lu Tinghan, let’s go.”
The last place they went to was the pedestrian street.
This used to be the most prosperous area of Gleaning City. The workers were sweating like rain, the children were running and playing, and the small vendors were selling canned food, clothes, snacks, and all kinds of sundries.
As soon as Shi Yuan entered the city, Lu Tinghan brought him here. Shi Yuan took his cuffs and walked on the street. For the first time, he saw all beings in all states and ate delicious grilled sausage and beef noodles.
At that time, Shi Yuan felt that the night was long, and the street was so long that he couldn’t finish walking. Now that they set foot on this street again, there was no one around, and the flowers and plants were growing luxuriously. They stopped and looked around, and reached the end of the street before they knew it.
Shi Yuan said, “Lu Tinghan, do you know what I’m thinking?”
Lu Tinghan: “What?”
“I should have eaten a few more grilled sausages at that time,” Shi Yuan said, “It was so expensive, and you were buying anyway.
Lu Tinghan smiled.
In the next few hours, they traveled all over the city.
Shi Yuan tried his best to climb up the ruins, trying to pick a beautiful flower, but as soon as he climbed up, he smelled a stench – the big stinky flower was so powerful that his tail was knotted and he was still sneezing after a full 20 minutes.
Then they went to the underground shelter and saw the familiar triangular structure. Shi Yuan wandered around and found the room he had been in. There was a line of small print carved with a knife in the corner of the wall: [The world is beautiful, we live to die].
When they went out of the shelter, the air was exceptionally fresh. They walked through the streets and alleys to a main road, where people offered a sea of flowers to Lu Tinghan.
“I love it here!” Shi Yuan said, “I was standing in the crowd watching you, and the sea flowers were so beautiful.” He thought for a while, “Later, how did you find me?”
Lu Tinghan’s triumphant convoy drove away, and Shi Yuan walked in the alley, ready to go home. Unexpectedly, Lu Tinghan appeared behind him, called his name, and walked on the street with him in his arms – Lu Tinghan was wearing a black mask, and the brim of his hat was pressed very low, so no one could recognize him. They walked into the glow and thousands of people.
Lu Tinghan replied with a smile: “I don’t know. I just know you are there, it’s always been like this.”
“Oh.” Shi Yuan was very happy, “You can find me every time!”
Lu Tinghan patted his head, his eyes were full of smiles.
No matter how happy the journey was, it would always end, the streets and alleys had been visited, and it was time to part, they left the Gleaning City.
Lu Tinghan asked Shi Yuan if there was any place he wanted to visit. Shi Yuan thought for a while and said, “Or let’s go to the watch tower and take a look.”
Lu Tinghan agreed, and the aircraft flew straight towards the watch tower of Abyss No.0.
The journey was long, Shi Yuan fell asleep on the table, and in his dream, it seemed that someone had gently touched his temples.
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