Chaos
Chapter 27
Ji Yushi’s heavy eyelids opened a small sliver with much difficulty. Light entered his eyes, stimulating the pupils to constrict.
A brilliant aurora once again appeared. It was breath-takingly beautiful.
Green, blue and purple.
They flashed across the dark sky like waves and disappeared far into the distance.
The surroundings were extremely quiet. It was so quiet, Ji Yushi could almost hear his own heartbeat and breathing.
Where was this place?
That’s right, they had started a new mission.
Ji Yushi’s memory stopped at the point before they left.
After coming out of PU-31, they had rested for several days, recharged themselves and everyone had recovered to their best state. With everyone’s consent, they had accepted their new mission.
Everything was normal until they entered their capsules.
But what happened later?
Ji Yushi’s body was frozen stiff. A layer of frost had formed over his dark eyelashes.
He exhausted all his strength, but he could only raise his eyelids slightly. He saw his own capsule stopped not far from him. The silver-white capsule had a large hole and the transparent panel was covered with spiderweb-like cracks. The safety straps were scattered about and there were also exposed wires lying around messily, occasionally emitting small bursts of sparks from time to time.
An accident had occurred during the transition.
“Bzzz.”
The mechanical arm had been squashed into an awkward angle. It seemed to have detected a Guardian’s presence and raised itself, wanting to deliver nutrient solution to the living being.
Unfortunately it was too far.
The arm raised and lowered repeatedly, forming the only sound that could be heard here.
Ji Yushi took in his surroundings. He seemed to be in a large garbage dump.
Countless mechanical wreckage and discarded parts formed a high mountain, exuding a strong stench of engine oil and rot. The wreckage here may have been accumulated over a long time end there were vine-like plants growing through the gaps, entwining itself with the various machinery and blooming with transparent glowing flowers.
Where was this place?
Ji Yushi restored his gaze and saw that he himself was lying in the garbage dump in a strange posture. The pain on his body at this moment far exceeded the level he could tolerate, but he couldn’t make a single sound.
“Clang!”
A sound echoed from far away at a place that was not visible to Ji Yushi.
“Clang! Clang!” That sound got closer and closer. It was as if someone was stepping through the mountain of wreckage, approaching him step by step.
The night sky before his eyes was blocked.
A shadow suddenly appeared before Ji Yushi. Someone was looking down at him.
Round and plump face, blue eyes, flushed cheeks as well as messy reddish-brown hair and beard. That face came face to face with Ji Yushi.
The heat from the other party’s breathing sprayed onto Ji Yushi’s face. It smelled of alcohol and was very unpleasant.
Ji Yushi couldn’t move. He wanted to speak but he could only blink his eyes.
That bearded man looked at him for a few seconds and then stretched out his hand. Pinching his chin with his rough fingers, he looked at him left and right again, as if confirming that he was alive, before he murmured something under his breath. This voice was hoarse and rough, but it was a language that Ji Yushi didn’t understand.
Immediately afterwards, the bearded man walked away. The wreckage he walked through was kicked everywhere.
After a minute, the bearded man returned.
This time he had an extra thick iron chain with him. He used this chain to tie Ji Yushi up and then fasted a lock onto it.
Following that, the bearded man grabbed on end of the chain and dragged him in the other direction.
Ji Yushi almost clenched his teeth hard. He couldn’t exert any strength to make a sound.
His entire body was in severe pain. The addition of the iron chain made his already sensitive body due to the pain feel worse and the wreckage he was pulled over aggravated that pain further. He was sweating buckets. He felt that the things that would happen next probably wasn’t anything good —– This man didn’t seem to be saving him.
He wasn’t dragged for too long.
The bearded man seemed to have noticed something. He dropped the chain and strode off.
Ji Yushi tried to look with difficulty, only to see the other party’s giant body blocking his capsule.
“Clang——-”
It was another loud sound. The bearded man tore off the robotic arm and threw it into the garbage dump. When he turned back around, he held Ji Yushi’s packet of nutrient solution in his hand like he was holding a bottle of medicine.
The bearded man looked very happy.
He examined the nutrient solution, murmured a few words and then stuffed it into his dirty pocket.
Ji Yushi was again dragged away by the bearded man.
The further he was from the tallest peak of that pile of garbage, the wider his field of vision became.
Amidst the excruciating pain, Ji Yushi continued to observe his surroundings. He saw that this was a huge garbage dump, and it was probably as wide as several football fields. In addition to his damaged capsule, there were even satellites, rockets and even space stations, all of which are expensive and advanced items. These were thrown here together with other scraps.
The sky also didn’t seem to be the sky he was familiar with.
It was extremely dark and extremely close to the ground, perhaps only a few hundred metres in height. It looked like a thick film wrapped around the world.
And that breath-taking aurora seemed to be a reflection of nothingness.
Apart from the mountain of garbage and vines that grew through it, there was nothing else in his field of vision.
The vitality of those vines seemed endless. It grew tenaciously through every gap, absorbing the nutrients of these wreckages.
From a distance, the entire garbage dump looked like it was filled with transparent glowing flowers. It looked like lights used to decorate trees during Christmas and it created a rather beautiful sight.
Ji Yushi was thrown onto a spacious, self-made, two-wheeled cart that was covered in unknown filth.
Then, he saw the bearded man throw some other things onto the cart.
Dirty blankets, chairs, some copper tableware, a few cans that appeared to have been damaged or expired.
The last item was thrown in.
Clunk!
Ji Yushi groaned internally. His chest hurt from the impact.
—- Shen Mian.
It was Song Qinglan’s gun.
*
Ji Yushi who was thrown onto the cart tried to keep himself awake but the unchanging sky above him made him even more tired and the rocking of the cart also made it worse.
Even when he was thrown off the cart, he wasn’t fully awake.
The frost formed on his black combat uniform had turned into water vapour. The cold from that reached his skin and drilled into his bones.
Ji Yushi shivered in his sleep. He noticed that he was lying on a cold and hard ground, but he didn’t have the strength to curl up and warm himself.
In such a difficult sleeping condition, he didn’t sleep well.
Where was he?
What happened to the teammates?
Why was Song Qinglan’s gun here?
What did the bearded man want to do?
Those thoughts continued to circulate around in Ji Yushi’s mind. They twisted into a tight string, always alert, constantly reminding him not to really fall asleep.
It was unknown how long he had slept when he heard someone talk to him in a low voice. His hearing however was delayed, and he couldn’t hear clearly.
Then, his stiff upper body was lifted by someone. Something wrapped him up. He opened his eyes slightly in daze and saw that he was wrapped up in the dirty blanket the bearded man had thrown onto the cart earlier. It was made of wool and it had holes made from cigarette butts as well as old sweat stains. It was unknown what could be infesting that blanket and it clearly looked filthy.
Even if every cell in his body wanted to escape from this filthy blanket, Ji Yushi didn’t have the ability to refuse it, nor could he refuse it. With that bit of warmth, his hands and feet gradually regained some of its senses.
He still couldn’t sleep soundly.
After a long time, he finally could move his head a little.
The blanket continued to transmit warmth. It was warmth from a human body. It meant that someone was holding him across the blanket.
It didn’t feel good. Ji Yushi wanted to struggle. In a daze, he saw before him a face that he recognised, and it was also one that left a deep impression on him.
That face looked a little different, but Ji Yushi at this moment couldn’t find the difference.
He was unable to tell whether this was a dream or reality. In any case, seeing that face, all his tensed mood was instantly relaxed, and he was no longer vigilant.
Following that, sleepiness overwhelmed him.
Ji Yushi fell into a deep sleep.
*
Waking up again.
The body’s senses had gradually restored, and the pain had diminished mostly. Apart from the burning sensation on his back —- The result of friction from being dragged by someone, Ji Yushi felt a lot better.
He wasn’t completely awake, but he opened his eyes.
The first thing entering his vision was the smooth floor and ceiling, as well as the walls and round hatch that appeared to be made of something similar to ABS alloy. Through the small round window on the wall, the sky was still dark outside.
This place was like an enlarged version of the inside of the capsule. To be more precise, it was more likely a small room inside a space capsule.
“Awake?”
Someone asked.
Only then did Ji Yushi realise that Song Qinglan was sitting next to him.
The other party had one of his long legs bent and he had his head and back leaning against the wall in an overall lazy and bored posture.
It turned out that it wasn’t a dream just now.
Ji Yushi finally knew why Song Qinglen seemed different.
Although the other party’s personality was domineering and like a thug, he paid great attention to his appearance and was the type of person whose appearance blessed other people’s eyes. That face that would usually be described as handsome was at this moment covered in stubble, making him look a little sloppy. If one had to put it more nicely, he looked a little more manly.
To Ji Yushi, he had only separated from his teammates not long ago after entering his capsule.
But from the looks of the stubble on Song Qinglan’s chin, they must have been apart for a while.
Ji Yushi laid on a small rectangular bed in the room with a dirty blanket over him.
The two of them are separated by a normal distance but Ji Yushi couldn’t be less clear about the source of the warmth earlier.
He opened his mouth and spat out a few words, “Just now, thank you…..”
It was fine when he didn’t speak but as soon as he spoke, Ji Yushi realised how unpleasant his voice sounded. It was dry and hoarse, as if he hadn’t spoken for a long time.
“You’re welcome.” Song Qinglan’s tone was the same as before. He raised a brow slightly, “If I didn’t warm you up, you would’ve frozen to death.”
Then, he paused for a moment. Seeming to think that there was something inappropriate with his behaviour just now, he then asked unnaturally, “You…don’t mind, right?”
Ji Yushi was confused. Why would he mind?
Shouldn’t it be Song Qinglan who should mind?
Song Qinglan seemed to have thought of something, and the corner of his lips bent.
What don’t mind? He shouldn’t worry about that. In any case, he would do the same even if it was another teammate.
It was just that Ji Yushi this person….Wasn’t his mysophobia pretty severe? He was clearly too sleepy to even open his eyes earlier, yet he didn’t want to be covered by this blanket and even let out a sigh in his sleep.
And that sigh was simply him making a compromise. It was extremely obvious that he didn’t like the blanket.
It was better to skip over this topic.
Ji Yushi had a lot of doubts, “Where are we? And when did you come here?”
He still remembered the bearded man dragging him back
And the mountain of garbage.
As well as the transparent glowing flowers blooming in the pile of garbage.
Song Qinglan answered, “I also don’t know where this is.”
Having said that, Song Qinglan’s lazy expression was gradually stored away, and it turned a little more serious. Following that, he told him everything he knew, “I only remember us entering our capsules. I seemed to have lost consciousness halfway and when I woke up, I was already here.”
It was unknown what went wrong.
When Song Qinglan woke up, he had also found himself lying amidst the large mountain of garbage.
“Maybe the capsule ruptured during the transition, causing the temperature to drop rapidly. The rapid change in temperature may have caused excessive sensory stimulation.” Song Qinglan paused and then continued, “I was in the same situation as you when I arrived here. I couldn’t move and laid in the garbage dump for a long time before I was suddenly dragged back by a big guy —– The same one who brought you back.”
“After waking up, I was kept in this small room the entire time.”
“Based on my observations during this time, it seems that this place doesn’t have day and night and I have never seen the sun. That person searched me and took away everything I had. Without a communicator, I also don’t know how long I have been detained in here for. Roughly estimating, I may have been here for at least five or six days.”
Ji Yushi furrowed his good-looking eyebrows, “Has it been that long?”
Song Qinglan nodded, “It indeed has been a long time. It’s just my conservative guess. It may even be longer.”
No wonder Song Qinglan looked like this. But for Ji Yushi, he had only been here for a few hours.
There seemed to be a deviation in time between the two of them, but it wasn’t a problem.
They arrived at the same point in time, but it was just in a different order.
Ji Yushi asked, “And the others?”
Song Qinglan said, “Except for that big red-haired guy, there is no one else here and I haven’t seen any of the teammates.”
No one else?
Ji Yushi thought about it. Could the other teammates have also had something similar happen to them and would arrive later than them?
Seeing him in thought, Song Qinglan also thought of something and said, “I thought only my transition had an issue and that I would need to grow old here with that bearded man but fortunately he picked you up. Looks like the other members of the seventh squad will very likely come here too.”
Suddenly being separated along the long passage of time and space, not knowing what year, what month, and where this place was, and being confined alone in an unfamiliar room with no one knowing of their whereabouts, any ordinary person would have already broken down.
But from Song Qinglan’s tone and from his expression, Ji Yushi didn’t find any trace of fragility or fear.
It was unknown whether Song Qinglan was joking or not, “I have to thank him for picking you up. With this, even if we don’t return, I won’t be bored to death.”
Ji Yushi: “………”
Ji Yushi: “No wonder you were afraid of me freezing to death.”
“That’s true. At least I have someone who can talk to me.” Song Qinglan’s lips carried a hint of a smile, “You should know that that big guy doesn’t speak the same language as us. I had to rely on screaming and shouting and doing everything I could to get that big guy to understand what I meant and only then did he reward me with the blanket to wrap you up with.”
So that was how the blanket came about.
Song Qinglan noticed something and teased, “Isn’t it much warmer?”
Ji Yushi had already given up struggling.
After sleeping, his entire body was soft and limp. What was done was done and he no longer wanted to move, “Yes, thank you.”
As he said this, there was knocking on the round alloy hatch about two metres away from them.
A red beard appeared behind the glass on the hatch and then the beard moved down, revealing flushed cheeks and blue eyes.
It was the bearded man who had picked them up.
The bearded man saw that Ji Yushi had woken up and very quickly opened a small rectangular hole at the bottom of the hatch. His blue eyes looked through that grid and he muttered a lot of things. It sounded like interrogative questions.
Song Qinglan seemed to be used to it. He looked coldly at the hatch.
Ji Yushi also didn’t understand.
The bearded man spoke to himself for a minute or two, changing the pronunciation of several words and the wording of the question. As if he had run out of patience, he suddenly slammed his fist against the hatch angrily and then threw something into the room through the hole.
A can rolled across the ground. The small hole was closed, and the bearded man angrily stomped away.
Ji Yushi was puzzled. He felt like he was being treated like a pet, “He’s feeding us?”
“Probably still wants to communicate with us.” Song Qinglan said, “He would come every once in a while. The first few times he spoke to me non-stop just like this but later, probably because he realised that I didn’t understand, he only threw food in. Now that you’re here, he’s trying again.”
Song Qinglan stood up and walked over to pick up the can.
The trademark was written in English. They didn’t dare think about where it was from. In any case, it looked like spam.
Overall, it wasn’t a bad meal.
The bearded man probably didn’t learn mathematics well. He right now needed to feed two people, but he only gave one can.
Having not eaten after a long sleep, Ji Yushi was a little hungry. He could only support his sore body up and share the can with Song Qinglan.
“It was nice back at the transfer station. We could eat anything we wanted.” Song Qinglan ate very little. Perhaps it was because he was a little dissatisfied with the taste. He eventually gave the entire can over to Ji Yushi, “We should think of something. Can’t be locked in here the whole time.”
“What do you suggest?”
Ji Yushi had his eyes lowered as he ate. Even if he was very hungry, he ate very sophisticatedly.
Song Qinglan looked at him, “Don’t worry, we have two people now. We can discuss it after you’re done eating.”
The author has something to say:
Little Song swallows: Wow, it’s spam. It must be New Year.
A while later, little Song thought to himself: Advisor Ji is so frail and he’s eating so well. Forget it…….I’m really a good captain.
KK has something to say:
A new mission!
