When a fabricated life comes to an end, all that remains is a handful of remnants.
This was the best description for the inner ruin of the waste heap—the structures within had already been completely obliterated in the Transformation, leaving only the hollow shells of walls standing outside. On the ground, the faded streaks served as Sorrowful Scars, a testament to life that had once existed.
The girl slowly crouched down and gently picked up a handful of remains.
“Hey, Shen Ning, what are you doing? How much longer are you going to look?”
“We’ll go home in a bit.”
After placating her girlfriend, Shen Ning closed her eyes. Yet, aside from the sensation of the fragments in her hand, she felt nothing else.
Remnant Temperature was Remnant Crossing. Besides the residue left behind, there was nothing remaining—not a trace of anything else. It was like the last shreds left after a human body is cremated.
The girl’s hand relaxed slightly, letting the residue slip between her fingers, as if the lifeblood of existence was flowing away from her grasp.
They once had form and lived like this. Now, in this state, are there still people who love them left in the world? And do they still remember each other?
This feeling was strange—because you truly could go and ask them.
The girl seemed to have grasped something, her expression faintly puzzled.
“Something’s not right,” Xu Chuyao suddenly said.
Shen Ning raised her head to look at her girlfriend. “What’s not right?”
“The numbers don’t add up. Why is there so little left here?” Xu Chuyao looked around. “Professor Swina only left a tiny bit here.”
The mineral might react, but it’s not like it would burn everything up in one go—it would always leave a portion behind. Like the last time they tested in the tail refinery block, even with such a huge event, two-thirds was still preserved in the end.
So why is nothing left here at all?
Shen Ning understood. “You mean, someone took the remaining Soulstones?”
“I don’t know. Let’s go ask.”
They exited through that window and returned to the area beyond the police cordon, where the guards greeted them with a salute.
“Reporting to Commanding Officer Xu, during the period after you entered and before you came out, not a single person went in!”
Even the tourists who usually come to check in and take pictures had all left.
“Very good. But I have a question for you,” Xu Chuyao said. “After the Crystal Stone Event, has anyone entered the site, or has anything been taken out from the scene?”
The guard scratched his head. “About that, there shouldn’t be, right…”
“Are you sure?”
“I can’t say for certain, ma’am. But after the incident, our department’s Supervisor ordered us to only guard from the outside. No one was allowed to go deeper in, and we weren’t to enter the police cordon afterward. That’s the order I received. As for the other departments, I’m not sure.”
Makes sense—if he knew all the Security Department’s operations, he wouldn’t be just a guard standing here.
With nothing further to ask, Xu Chuyao finished her questioning and took Shen Ning away. It was late now, the guard was about to end his shift, and it was time for them to head back to their dorms at Freiden Academy.
“It could have been handled by the Security Department, or the Clown Gang might’ve taken the opportunity to steal some. Both are possible. But honestly, a bit more or less doesn’t make much difference,” Xu Chuyao said as she eased off the gas pedal, both hands gripping the steering wheel as she spoke while driving.
She remembered Lu Lin saying before that the Clown Gang had hauled off thirty to forty crates that night. But then again, having that many Soulstones and only using them once—weren’t they being too frugal?
Shen Ning sat beside her. It wasn’t until they’d merged onto the main road that she realized she hadn’t fastened her seatbelt. She hurriedly buckled it, half paying attention, and grunted in response to show she was listening to her girlfriend.
The “Milk Pest” in the rearview: “You’re so unfocused. You should be taking notes!”
By the time they returned to campus, night had already fallen. Xu Chuyao dropped off her girlfriend, then went to park and return the car to the teacher. On her way back, she ran into the Principal, whose smile looked slightly stiff.
“Student Xu Chuyao, you’re back. Did you have fun out there tonight?”
“Yep, we visited several popular spots where lots of people were taking pictures.”
She wasn’t lying; that was how it was.
The Principal saw nothing suspicious and continued smiling. “That’s wonderful. I hope the trip left you both satisfied. By the way, today’s celebration brought a steady stream of guests to campus. If you’d like to get to know any of them, I can introduce you.”
So that’s why his smile looked so forced—he’d probably been giving his formal business smile all day.
Xu Chuyao politely declined, returned to the dorm, and prepared for an early night. She couldn’t sleep in tomorrow—being late wouldn’t be proper, and since it was an official event, the day was sure to start with drums and gongs. She’d have to fall in with the crowd.
“Shen Ning, I’m back.”
“We need to wash up soon and get up early tomorrow.”
“Want some dinner? What do you feel like?”
A muddled reply finally made Xu Chuyao notice her girlfriend’s distracted mood.
“What’s up with you today? You’ve been out of it since we left the site. What are you thinking about?”
Shen Ning raised her hand, showing her the Crystal Ash left on her palm. “I’m thinking about this.”
“Why didn’t you wash your hands yet?” Xu Chuyao pouted. “Little flower, did you eat something strange?”
“I’ll wash in a bit… I’m thinking about them. Are these people really dead?” Shen Ning murmured. “They’re not themselves anymore, but is it possible for them to return in some other form?”
“Then it doesn’t count,” Xu Chuyao answered without hesitation. “If they can come back, then it’s not true death. Even a fabricated life is still life.”
She had a right to say this—years ago, she was hit by a truck crossing the road, and the next day, she returned with the appearance of a stunning beauty. She’d tasted everything life had to offer; sometimes she called out for some ‘small fry,’ and someone would answer—what a vibrant life.
“Maybe. But now, they’ve turned to dust, and left behind their friends and loved ones—separated into two worlds.”
Shen Ning looked at her own hand, then slowly opened her fingers again. “But for me, it doesn’t feel that way.”
Those guys—who knows when they’ll next appear before her? Maybe they’ll freeze and get beaten half to death, or maybe they’ll stand at her side and help her be crowned king. Or maybe, if they died too cleanly, there won’t be anything left at all.
“So you’re beginning to feel alive?”
“No, I just have a really strange feeling, like I’m close to grasping some key, but I can’t figure it out yet.”
Xu Chuyao yawned, got into bed, and pulled up her blanket. “It just means you’re special. You can communicate with them without ever having learned their language—born with it. You’re way ahead of those who’ve studied it for years.”
“That’s right.”
But Shen Ning didn’t find this ability worth bragging about.
Then she saw the shadow in the room reach under the shorts and pull out a little red flower, pinning it to herself. As she did so, she declared:
“Chuyao said, you don’t need to study their language to interpret it. If you’re born able to understand both languages, that’s called identity.”
In no time, the other two shadows leaped out noisily, the one with “repressed desires” sounding especially shocked.
“Milk Pest, you’re bugging again! And you even pre-awarded yourself the MVP Trophy!”
She had been taking the MVP for granted all along thanks to a bug, but hadn’t expected it to end like this.
As for Shen Ning herself, she had no time to worry about who won the MVP. Deep in thought, she waited until her girlfriend was half asleep before suddenly asking:
“Xu Chuyao, are there people in the world who can naturally speak two languages without ever having to study?”
Already lying under the blanket, the drowsy girl yawned and muttered:
“Of course there are. It’s not that they never learned, but they never had to formally study. Like in the Spirit Age, in a household of ten thousand, Dad spoke Chinese, Mom spoke a foreign language, and the child just grew up bilingual. People like that are called Bloodline Children.”
The girl smiled quietly inside.
Although she wasn’t sure what “Chinese” or “foreign language” were—nowadays, there was only the common tongue and dialects—but she understood what a Bloodline Child was.
“So that’s how it is,” she said, “while saying this on one side, and something else on the other—you’re a blend of both. Milk Pest’s shadow patted its belly, the little red flower on its chest looking even redder. “You can speak human on this side, and hear ghost on that side, which means you’re…
‘Undying King!’”
The repressed desires shadow shouted, then glanced at the other shadows, all staring at it, and defensively snapped back, “What? Over there, that’s what they called me, I can’t help it!”
“Yeah… that’s enough,” the defeated shadow sighed. “Can’t you tone it down a little?”
Couldn’t she get a nickname like Border Walker or something a bit more elegant?
As for the Milk Pest shadow, it was already dozing off: “The nickname Yaoyao gave me is Twinborne!”
“So everyone has their own title. What about you—what do you want to be called?”
Shen Ning had no interest in their discussions of nicknames. Right now, her mind was chaotic. What Liu Fan said in her dream now made new sense—she’d realized that she’d never fully rid herself of the Soulstone’s influence, so in terms of identity, she was no different from the souls that left through her fingers today.
Am I not human?
“Of course you are,” the Milk Pest shadow continued patting its chest, “Chuyao says, when you’re in the current world you’re human. In that world, you’re…”
But then she fell silent.
“See, even you can’t say it,” the repressed desires shadow gloated.
Shen Ning took a tissue from her bedside, wiped her hand clean of Remnant Temperature, and looked up at the top bunk. Her big sleepy girlfriend was already sound asleep, the rise and fall of her chest silhouetted in the moonlight.
A fabricated life is still a life. As long as it can return to this world, that’s enough.
Thinking of her girlfriend’s words, the girl softly closed her eyes and, for the first time, actively welcomed the dream that had repeated a thousand times before.
Zzzzz
She didn’t fall completely asleep. Shen Ning had heard before that if you didn’t try to sleep deliberately, the night would pass in a flash.
But she couldn’t do that.
When she opened her eyes, the Dream Cave scene from three years ago was as vivid as ever. From far off came the sound of water dripping and echoing. More than twenty fully Transformed mutants turned to look at her.
She loosened her hand and let the Mine Bracelet fall to the ground.
Clang!
The sound of footsteps drew closer and closer, but Shen Ning didn’t move. Instead, she closed her eyes, her thoughts drifting like clouds in the sky—here and there, light and gentle.
I am not the human who pointed at the Mine Bracelet and sentenced others to death. I am a part of this place, of these people.
The shouting and clamor faded.
The frightening din did not rise up again. Instead, the footsteps became calm and orderly. When Shen Ning opened her eyes, she saw them lined up, heading for the exit of the mine.
There, a cloud of white mist hovered. In past dreams, whenever she tried to run out, the white mist would block her, as if marking the edge of the dream.
But now, she saw the figure ahead press a hand to the mist at the exit, and open the door.