Epoch of Twilight

It was about midnight when Luo Yuan’s biological clock automatically woke him up.

He opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling for a while before he jumped out of the bed. The room was indeed spick and span after he cleaned it, but it appeared to be now barren and chillier than before!

He stretched out his hand to beckon the Zhanmadao beside him, and it flew quickly into the palm of his hands. After his Will leveled up, the speed of the flying Zhanmadao was quicker, but its attack range was still limited.

He would still need more time if he wanted to be able to fly his sabre around!

Luo Yuan had a go at a few slashes before he put the Zhanmadao back in its sheath. Then, he simply picked a jacket to wear and left the house.

The body of Mo Li was obviously found as the number of cops on the street increased. However, Luo Yuan deliberately escaped or damaged the cameras when necessary, to deter himself from being captured. Furthermore, it was very late at night, and nobody was on the street, hence, he was not worried about being found.

As Luo Yuan walked by, a few cops had taken a few more glances at him, before immediately shifting their focus.

He went around to the second floor and when he entered the military camp. Huo Dong was already waiting.

"Boss Luo!"

Luo Yuan patted Huo Dong’s shoulder and sighed, "It must be difficult for you during this period of time, could you lead me there?"

Before he visited Master Liu yesterday night, he had met with Huo Dong alone. When he heard about the recent condition of Huang Jiahui, he subconsciously recalled the doodle of Shishi and found an insight to the meaning.

The sun covered by the clouds was not pointing to a location, but was insinuating Wang Xiaguang1 instead.

Had Huo Dong not mention, Luo Yuan would never think of it, not because of his intelligence quotient but because of a dissimilar direction of thoughts.

...

"Have some water," Huang Jiahui handed a glass to Wu Xiaoxiao, who was hiding at a corner.

Wu Xiaoxiao shrunk her body subconsciously as if she was terrified. Since Sun Youde passed away, she had been keeping silent all the time.

Maybe other people had yet to discover but how could she know nothing as his wife? She had always been a light sleeper as she would easily wake up with any noise. In fact, when Sun Youde went out, she had already woke up.

She saw with her very own eyes that Wang Shishi went after him but when she returned, there was only Wang Shishi left; Sun Youde was gone.

Sun Youde was not a perfect husband. He was short, average looking, and his character was extreme with many shortcomings. If it was not for troubled times, she would never had chosen Sun Youde. However, since she got married to him, he pandered to her every whim. Unlike plants, human being had emotions, even a person with a heart of stone would be touched upon receiving such a treatment.

After that, she barely spoke and distanced herself from the rest. She even lowered her head all the time, in efforts to hide her insecurity and hatred.

Then, there was a commotion in the group. Huang Jiahui, Wang Shishi and the rest suddenly stood up with excitement.

As Wu Xiaxiao raised her head to take a look, her breath suddenly became quick and she had a rather complicated expression plastered across her face.

"Luo Yuan!"

She had a complexed feeling. She knew that she could not blame Luo Yuan for what was happening, but if she was not meeting him, she would not be in this situation. The life of Sun Youde would not be in mystery as well.

He was the main cause to all these!

Wu Xiaoxiao was rooted to the ground and her eyes turned red. She replied with constraint, and flashed a bitter smile when Luo Yuan looked at her. Luo Yuan shifted his focus and hugged Huang Jiahui in front of him. As he felt her shivering body, he patted her back, "You must have been through a lot recently."

"It’s great that you’ve come back!" Huang Jiahui tried her best to control her emotions and said, while trembling.

When Luo Yuan had let go of Huang Jiahui, Wang Shishi did not care what others might think and ran over quickly to hug him. Luo Yuan sighed and hugged her briefly. When he was about to push her away, he felt that his shoulder was damp, and then he comforted her with a gentle tone, "It’s over now."

"I knew you’d be fine, I knew it!" Wang Shishi was crying out loud.

This time, she was not only worried about Luo Yuan’s safety, but she was also enduring enormous pressure, because she was the strongest evolved person in the group after Luo Yuan. Therefore, she matured at a faster pace, but was exhausted from all that!

The volcano-like, blazing hot affection of the young girl made Luo Yuan, an old man, feel embarrassed, "Alright, alright, the others are looking!" Wang Shishi released him from her embrace; her face was flushed pink.

As Zhao Yali saw Luo Yuan was looking at her, she hurriedly wiped her tears away and took a step back. As she was bashful, she was not used to hugging in public. Luo Yuan also did not force her, as he knew her well.

Finally, Luo Yuan looked at Wang Xiaguang, and kept silent for a moment, before he said, "You may come back too, it’s not safe to live alone."

Wang Xiaguang expressed mixed feelings, glanced at Luo Yuan, and smiled with constraint, "No, I’m not used to such a big family. I would feel that I’m an outcast here."

"Nobody regards you as an outcast; we’re all good sisters," said Huang Jiahui sincerely, as she approached Wang Xiaguang, and held onto her hands.

"I know!" Wang Xiaguang took a deep breath, "In fact, I’d miss all of you too. But I’m so used to staying alone, so don’t try to persuade me anymore."

Luo Yuan looked rather glum. Having feelings was the most complicated problem of all. He definitely knew the affection Wang Xiaguang had towards him, but feelings cannot be forced. Besides, she wanted sincere feelings only between the two of them, which he was unable to commit to.

Wang Xiaguang looked very feminine, but her heart was much stronger than everyone else’s. Luo Yuan sighed and said bitterly, "If so, I’ll not force you. You can look for us anytime if anything arises. No matter what, we’re friends... the best of friends, even before the apocalypse."

Wang Xiaguang nodded and suddenly turned her back. Even so, Luo Yuan could clearly see that a drop of tear trickled down her cheek. He was consumed with mixed feelings and forced himself to shift his focus onto somebody else. When he saw Wu Xiaoxiao, he realized that somebody was missing, and asked, "Where’s Sun Youde?"

The atmosphere became rather quiet as nobody would speak a single word. At the end of the day, it was Huang Jiahui who replied obliquely, "He has gone missing!"

When Luo Yuan noticed Wang Shishi’s eyes blinking and Wu Xiaoxiao’s body slightly shivering, he wisely did not ask any further but comforted Wu Xiaoxiao, "Don’t worry, I’m rather close to Mayor Wu... We will find him."

Wu Xiaoxiao briefly shook her head, lowered her gaze, and said nothing.

Luo Yuan finally looked at Chen Jiayi and Mu Wenwen, "Alright, let’s go home."

Wang Xiaguang was seeing Luo Yuan and his group off, and suddenly felt the loneliness arising from her inner self. She slowly sat on the floor and felt lost!

...

In just a blink of an eye, three days had passed by!

Earthquakes kept occurring within these few days – no one knew why.

Fortunately, the magnitudes were all low, and they did not last long. Therefore, it neither caused injury nor destruction of buildings. Such a high frequency of earthqueakes were however, causing panic among the people and turned the atmosphere into a depressing one.

The Reconstruction Area was located at Taklamakan, where it was also part of Kunlun Mountain’s earthquake belt. Since the apocalypse, the rising sea level and changing mantle pressure, especially the intense activities at the earth’s core, and large-scale nuclear blast induced by the cosmic storm, had stimulated the active tectonic plates activities, frequent earthquakes and volcano eruptions.

According to the frequency of the earthquake, these low magnitude earthquakes made the people worried, as they could be a precursor to large-scale earthquakes.

As the refuge had been built underground, the effects of the occurrence of high magnitude earthquakes would be far too dreadful.

With Luo Yuan frequently going to the city council office these few days, he knew more about the matter at hand. Therefore, he became gloomier and stressed day by day.

The refuge had finally reconnected with the Reconstruction Area – the information and news they got were not optimistic. The location they were at, was located right in the region of the active tectonic plates.

A series of data showed that the tectonic plates of this area had collided into one another, hence, a new mountain range will be formed from the desert in a short time, which could also take thousands or even millions of years. However, the precursors of the formation of the mountain range could in fact, easily destroy the Reconstruction Area and also, Desert City. After all, the strongest man-made structures paled in comparison to the power of nature.

Besides, the range actually included almost half the Reconstruction Area.

It never rains, but it pours!

When the Reconstruction Area was still struggling to defend itself from the insect plague, another issue occurred simultaneously.

Besides, the city council had also received news, that the national large-scale second migration had begun. Had they not been connected in time, they might still be in the dark.

The migration in Desert City was also imminent. Even a person with ambition and desires would have to confess that all human beings must come and work together in order to survive while facing such stressful situations.

On the fourth day, the underground train station was finally reconnected again, after days of non-stop urgent repairs.

On the fifth day, the warehouses at the second floor of the refuge were opened. Numerous cars were seen transporting those goods and materials to the train station and being loaded into the train.

When it was about 9:30 p.m., Luo Yuan accompanied Mayor Song to look at the departure of two trains, which were transporting only important industrial equipment and instruments. Nobody was allowed to board the train.

What came as extremely bad news, was that Luo Yuan found out that Desert City was short of trains. Therefore, they had to wait for the return of the earlier train in order to migrate.

To make matters worse, the destination of the trains was not anywhere nearby, as those cities had either fallen or moved, but Hope City needed a full day for a return trip – only if it goes smoothly.

Two full days were required to transport all the goods and materials. In other words, the people could start migrating only two days later. With eighteen carriages per train, even after dismantling the chairs and tables as well as the unnecessary facilities, each carriage could only fit about five hundred to six hundred people. All the all, the train could only take in ten thousand people, which amounted up to twenty thousand people for two trains. As the Desert City had a million people, the two trains were needed to make five return trips, in order to accommodate them all.

In short, it would take seven days for the people of Desert City to be finally evacuated.

Yet, they could only pray for safety during these seven days.

Luo Yuan got back to the lodgings worriedly. He looked glum because he hated the feeling of not being able to be in control of his life. However, he needed to adapt to being stuck not knowing what to do during the apocalypse and to struggle to survive, just like the rest.

Lying in bed, Luo Yuan felt the ground tremble slightly. He was tossing and turning around due to insomnia, furrowed his eyebrows and stared at the ceiling, wide awake.

...

The next morning, when he was having breakfast, there was a knock at the door.

Luo Yuan opened the door to find Zhang Wu and Yang Zhiqing, and an unfamiliar evolved person. Then, he realized that he had forgotten about Zhang Wu and did not contact him at all.

"Come in, you are?" Luo Yuan said.

"Hi Mr. Luo, I’m Yan Mengjun," the unfamiliar evolved person said uncomfortably.

Luo Yuan smiled, "Make yourself at home, come on in!"

"Mr. Luo, as we’re moving soon, do you have any plans?" Yan Mengjun asked, the very moment he sat down.

"Plans?" Luo Yuan doubted, "Aren’t you guys coming along?"

"The high frequency of quakes is really worrying. Besides, the news I got was that it would take a long time to move and we’ll have to worry about unforeseen issues such as the possibility of our railways being destroyed by the quakes. As I heard that Mr. Luo has abundant experience in traveling, I’d like to convince you to move, and we’ll move along with you."

Then, Yan Mengjun anxiously looked at Luo Yuan. He was one of the people who escaped captivity but did not follow Luo Yuan, because he was worried that his aims could possibly be too far-fetched. It was only when he talked about it with Zhang Wu, that he got to know that many things had happened and the whole rebellion was almost suppressed by Luo Yuan alone.

As the condition was getting worse, they kept exchanging messages when they met. They soon realized that the condition had jeopardized their life. After a thorough discussion, they had decided to take the risk, instead of waiting like a puppet of fate in the refuge.

However, they could not secure their safety by themselves, as Luo Yuan decision was the key to drive any further action.

Their words woke Luo Yuan up!

Luo Yuan was in a daze for a moment and felt renewed. Oh yes, why am I not leaving?

A commoner could not migrate by themselves but they had the potential to. Since the beginning of the apocalypse, they had been traveling almost throughout the whole of China. Could it be the cozy life that had conditioned him?

Luo Yuan pondered for a while and said, "You’ve reminded me well. As the situation does not look optimistic, we shall depart as soon as possible. The best would be by this evening!"

The few people who were there were glad to hear that. "Then, we’ll go back and prepare!"

After Zhang Wu and the others left, the atmosphere in the lodgings became somewhat gloomy.

After all, not everyone had such courage. A normal person would certainly have the innate fear towards the wild, especially with abundant mutated beasts. Many would be afraid and tend to avoid both snakes and scorpions!

"I’ll not be going!" Wu Xiaoxiao was cowering in fear by herself in a corner and said softly. It was not surprising to see her resisting so hard. In fact, Wu Xiaoxiao was disregarded in all aspects, ever since he came back. She would keep a distance from the rest, and her eyes would wander when she took a furtive glance at Wang Shishi.

Luo Yuan already knew the reason, but Sun Youde was not only not as close to him, he wanted to divulge information too. Therefore, he would feel nothing even if he had to die ten thousand times. For Wu Xiaoxiao, he was just trying to help, even for the very first time meeting her. Yet, with what happened recently, perhaps it would be better for her to leave.

Nonetheless, what surprised Luo Yuan was Mu Wenwen, a strong evolved person who had declined too. Considering her characteristics of being abnormally quiet and socially awkward, besides seeming to have an intense feeling of insecurity when coming into contact with dangerous environments, Luo Yuan understood and let her be.

Translator Notes:

1Xiaguang or 霞光 in Mandarin means "rays of morning or evening sunshine"