Black Sky - Chapter 7

Under the dim light, everyone had different expressions, exchanging wary glances with each other.

“Miss Meng,” Uncle Ma, who hadn’t spoken for a long time, stroked his beard and said, “Today, we couldn’t find the ‘goods’. According to ‘Black Bridge’ rules…”

Before Meng Yilan could reply, Shi Lei said with a smile: “According to our company’s rules, after safely bringing you back to Bei City, we’ll be paid 60% of the reward.”

Bai Zi had heard of “Black Bridge,” a well-known security company. A year ago, Bei City was full of Black Bridge advertisements. They claimed to be a professional organization engaged in high-end security consulting work nationwide, providing professional personal protection and other services—that is, training security guards, bodyguards, or thugs.

“She’s not included in the contract,” Sister Hua pointed to Bai Zi unceremoniously, “Besides, we don’t know anything about her…”

Fatty Qiu interjected: “Sister Hua, she definitely hasn’t been bitten, otherwise she would have mutated long ago.”

“Shut up.” Sister Hua didn’t even glance at Fatty Qiu.

Shi Lei looked at Meng Yilan, and then said to Uncle Ma: “It’s not good to leave people behind in the wilderness, Uncle Ma, don’t you think?”

Uncle Ma didn’t answer, but sat leisurely on a mottled wooden rocking chair.

The water boiled, and white hot steam puffed straight out.

In the haze, Bai Zi saw Meng Yilan glance at herself through the hot steam, and then said: “Originally, I wanted Bai Zi to be an inside agent, but something happened later, so I didn’t include her.”

Shi Lei coughed, his face a little unnatural.

“An inside agent?” Fatty Qiu’s eyes widened, “You mean, she worked there?”

“In other words,” Sister Hua raised her eyebrows and looked at Bai Zi, “that mutant was your colleague? That’s why your jade was on him?”

Bai Zi hadn’t recovered from the “world without daylight” yet, and now she was caught off guard by the continuous questioning. It was like being suddenly pulled into a studio, without even seeing the script, and being forced by the director to act in front of the camera, and it had to be done in one take.

Especially Fatty Qiu, who was sitting next to her, kept asking: “These past few days, you’ve been locked up down there?”

Bai Zi turned to look at the director—Ms. Meng Yilan, who fabricated without any pressure: “Not these past few days, but this past year.”

“A year?!” Fatty Qiu’s eyeballs were almost popping out.

Sister Hua chuckled: “Then she shouldn’t not even know about the ‘no daylight’ thing, right?”

“She was among the first employees to be assigned there,” Meng, Oscar Best Director, Yilan said faintly, “In order to maintain confidentiality, they were not allowed to go out, nor were they allowed to communicate with the outside world.”

The simple-minded Fatty Qiu quickly accepted this explanation. He patted Bai Zi’s shoulder indignantly, but immediately remembered that Bai Zi didn’t like physical contact with others, so he immediately withdrew his hand and said: “If it were before, you would definitely be able to sue this company into bankruptcy!”

Company? Bai Zi frowned. For the past year, it wasn’t the government that imprisoned me, but a company?

Sister Hua still looked suspicious. Just as she was about to speak, Uncle Ma suddenly sat up straight, and the wooden rocking chair made a “creak” sound. He firmly demanded: “We’ll take you to Bei City, pay us 80% of the reward, and the contract will be terminated—but, in case of an accident,” Uncle Ma looked at Bai Zi, “the reward will still be paid, and the contract will still be terminated.”

Shi Lei was a little annoyed: “80%?! This…”

“Okay.” Meng Yilan didn’t change her expression.

Uncle Ma slightly curled the corners of his mouth, and turned his head to whisper to A Ben beside him: “A Ben, the water’s boiling.”

A Ben immediately poured the ginger candy powder in his hand into the pot, and the strong ginger smell spread out.

The conversation ended abruptly. No matter how uneasy Sister Hua was, for the sake of the reward, she could only bury her head and pack her luggage. Meng Yilan looked calm, as if nothing had happened. Shi Lei glanced at Meng Yilan, and stopped talking.

While prying open a luncheon meat can, Fatty Qiu enthusiastically told Bai Zi: “Drink some ginger soup first, and then stir-fry these meats, it’s very delicious.”

Bai Zi looked at the clear soup in the pot turning brownish-yellow, and asked in a low voice: “Has the sun…disappeared?”

The sun was one of Bai Zi’s favorite things in this world, even though she couldn’t stay in the sun for long because of allergies.

“Disappeared? Impossible!” Fatty Qiu seemed to have heard something unbelievable, his brows furrowed like the East African Rift Valley, “If the sun disappeared, the Earth’s surface would be covered in ice and snow in just a week. Although it’s cold now, isn’t it still green everywhere outside?”

Fatty Qiu continued to popularize science with great enthusiasm: “Some people also say that the daytime disappeared because the sun stopped nuclear fusion, which is also impossible! In that case, the sun would turn into a black hole and suck in all the nearby planets…”

“The Earth would definitely be sucked away too.” Shi Lei echoed.

“What is nuclear fusion?” Sister Hua was rarely interested in what Fatty Qiu was talking about.

Uncle Ma, who was dozing off on the wooden chair, also opened his eyes slightly, and even A Ben, who was frying pork, slowed down his movements.

“Let me explain it to you…” Fatty Qiu began to vividly explain what “nuclear fusion” was.

Only Bai Zi and Meng Yilan were distracted, and the two of them recalled the scene they saw on the rooftop a year ago – the sun was like an oil lamp, extinguishing little by little from the center to the periphery, and finally, the light completely disappeared.

Meng Yilan also remembered the figure she always dreamed of this year – before the sun “went out”, Bai Zi’s fisherman’s hat was blown away by the strong wind, and her dark black long hair spread out like a fan. At that moment, this back view actually exuded an unspeakable powerful aura.

“Thanks to ‘Hongya’ for cooperating with the government to allocate resources in a timely manner, otherwise we would all be dead.” Bai Zi and Meng Yilan were pulled back to their senses by the “Hongya” in Shi Lei’s mouth.

Sister Hua showed a disgusted look: “What ‘thanks to’? We can only be considered to be scraping by now! Haven’t those capitalists done enough dirty things behind our backs?”

“Sister Hua, you can’t say that. If it weren’t for ‘Hongya’, even Bei City would be gone…” Shi Lei glanced at Meng Yilan and immediately defended “Hongya”.

“Didn’t they say that they could control the situation in half a year and restore it to its original state within a year?” Sister Hua rolled her eyes, “What about now? Apart from those capitalists living comfortably, where has it been restored to its original state?”

Shi Lei didn’t want to be outdone: “But now a new living system has been formed, and currency can still circulate as usual…”

The crowd began to discuss the Hongya Group. They didn’t seem to know that the daughter of Meng Fan, the chairman of the group, was sitting next to them.

Bai Zi looked at Meng Yilan, and remembered the bad father-daughter relationship between her and Meng Fan.

A year ago, Hongya Group was the top enterprise in the entire Hua Country, without exception. The scope of their business was extremely wide, from film and television media to drug research and development, they had quite good results.

All the elite members of the country hoped to enter Hongya Group to work, which not only meant that they could receive high salaries, but also raise their social status by several levels, and there was still the possibility of continuing to rise.

And now, even though the world had changed, the status of Hongya Group didn’t seem to have changed, and it had even become the pillar of survival for the entire society.

“Come on, have some, it will continue to get colder at night,” Fatty Qiu handed a bowl of ginger soup to Bai Zi, “You don’t know, the changes outside this year are huge. Except for first-tier cities like Bei City, almost everything else has become ruins.”

Bai Zi looked down at the hot steam rising in the bowl, but didn’t move her mouth. Fatty Qiu, on the other hand, scooped a bowl of stir-fried meat for himself and added: “Now, the entire Hua Country has been divided into three zones: ‘Red’, ‘Yellow’, and ‘Green’. Bei City is a ‘Green Zone’, where people can live and basically maintain normal life order, but the ‘Yellow Zone’ is a quarantine area specifically for imprisoning those suspected of being mutants. As for the ‘Red Zone’, it’s the so-called ‘restricted area’, you can’t even call it ‘ruins’, it’s simply hell.”

After a long silence, Bai Zi finally opened her mouth to ask: “What zone is this place?”

“It used to be a Yellow Zone, but then there were several explosions in a row, and it became a Red Zone,” Fatty Qiu said, suddenly frowning and asking back, “By the way, where is your home?”

Home—Bai Zi was slightly stunned when she heard this word.

As early as when she was sixteen years old, Bai Zi’s home was gone.

“I have a younger sister who is like you, she doesn’t like to talk much. How about this—” Fatty Qiu patted his chest, “No matter where you’re from, anyway, you’re my, Li Feiqiu’s, savior. If you need anything in the future, just come find me!”

“What status do you have, telling people to come find you!” A Ben, who hadn’t spoken for a long time, suddenly glared at Fatty Qiu.

Fatty Qiu’s face changed slightly, and his spirits drooped. After that, he only lowered his head to eat meat and stopped talking.

Bai Zi took a sip of the ginger soup, and the heat flowed from her throat into her body, but this didn’t bring her any comfortable feeling. Compared to “heat”, she seemed to enjoy the freedom that “cold” brought her more.

Lost in thought, Bai Zi didn’t notice that Meng Yilan, who was sitting opposite her, was secretly turning her face to look at her after rejecting the ginger soup that Shi Lei handed her because she couldn’t stand the pungent smell.

When she heard Fatty Qiu ask Bai Zi where her home was, Meng Yilan was also stunned for a moment.

Regarding Bai Zi’s background, Meng Yilan knew nothing except that she came from Yutian City in the south—especially she didn’t know where Bai Zi’s obsessive feelings for her came from.

But the other party knew everything about me like the back of her hand.

Thinking of this, a strange sense of resistance rose in Meng Yilan’s heart again.

Just then, Meng Yilan felt her trench coat pocket vibrate. She took out a small communication device similar to a mobile phone from it, and looked at the screen. It was a message sent by Shi Lei, who was sitting next to her.

Although there was no signal nearby, they were all equipped with special communication devices, which could view maps and send text messages to each other within a certain range.

After reading Shi Lei’s message, Meng Yilan’s eyebrows furrowed slightly.

“It’s nine o’clock at night now,” Uncle Ma looked at the watch on his wrist, “Everyone seize the time to rest, and set off at five o’clock tomorrow morning, and strive to reach the suburban ranch before tomorrow night. Everyone, please bear with it, we’ll be back in Bei City in three days.”

A Ben dragged a large cardboard box from the next room, which contained a pile of sleeping bags. He distributed one to each person, except for Bai Zi.

“It’s okay, I’m not sleepy.” Bai Zi said to Meng Yilan.

It wasn’t that she didn’t need warmth, but that she didn’t need sleep.

Meng Yilan opened her bag and took out a few thick clothes: “If anyone has extra clothes, would you mind taking them out? We should be able to pile up a mattress.”

“I don’t mind,” Fatty Qiu was the first to respond, he was still munching on unfinished instant corn kernels, “I have a set of super thick pajamas, which can be used as a pillow when rolled up, and two extra coats…”

“No…” Before Bai Zi could say the remaining “need” word, Meng Yilan had already folded several pieces of clothing and spread them on the ground.

Uncle Ma and A Ben also took out a few pieces of clothing, while Sister Hua was still acting indifferent, pretending not to hear, and only pulled open her sleeping bag and lay down.

Although Shi Lei handed a sweater to Meng Yilan, his face was not very good. After discovering that Meng Yilan seemed to be planning to sleep next to Bai Zi, his brows furrowed even tighter.

In the end, Bai Zi thanked everyone and lay down stiffly next to Meng Yilan.

After everyone fell asleep, Uncle Ma turned off the lights, and the room was pitch black again.

Bai Zi lay on the “bed” that Meng Yilan had made for her, covered with the “quilt” made of everyone’s clothes, staring blankly at a thin spider web in the corner of the ceiling, on which a spider the size of a fingernail was perched, seemingly waiting for prey that would arrive at an unknown time.

Most spiders in this weather would use thick spider webs to form a warm nest to get through the winter, otherwise, they could only wait to die.

Looking at the spider that was not known to be dead or alive, Bai Zi thought of herself lying in the incinerator waiting to die. Only a day had passed since that time, but now—Bai Zi slightly tilted her head and looked at Meng Yilan, who was facing away from her—it was like coming from hell to heaven.

A palpitation that hadn’t appeared for many years rose in Bai Zi’s heart unconsciously. She knew very well that this feeling would pull her into a deeper vortex, just like before.

Only at this time would Bai Zi realize that she wasn’t a walking corpse after all.

However, this realization didn’t make Bai Zi happy. She didn’t want to repeat the same mistakes.

Bai Zi believed that she had to end all of this in advance.

At this time, there was a sound of branches shaking outside the house. Bai Zi distinguished that it wasn’t the sound of the wind blowing the branches, but the movement caused by someone or an animal climbing the trees.

Suddenly, Fatty Qiu sat up.

“Where are you going?” A Ben asked.

“I…I want to go to the toilet…” Fatty Qiu said through gritted teeth, and hurriedly put on his clothes.

Bai Zi sat up: “I’ll go too.”

Before the two were about to open the door and leave, A Ben threw a handgun to Fatty Qiu: “Take the gun with you.”

Fatty Qiu endured the colic in his stomach and took the gun.

After the two left, Meng Yilan in the sleeping bag opened her eyes. She took out the communication device and looked at the message that Shi Lei had sent her earlier again—

She must be handed over.