EDEH Chapter 96

This small safe zone was about ten kilometers from the edge of the Thousand Wolf Mountains. Looking back, one could still see the continuous flames connecting with the horizon.

The safe zone was mostly populated by ordinary people. The deviants were basically all soldiers who could only guard the surface. Though the quiet and peaceful underground city was within reach, they could never return.

“Where’s the entrance?”

“The center of the safe zone.”

The garrison commander of the underground city safe zone was a deviant major general named Bernie. He approached them with official courtesy: “General Huo, it’s wonderful to see you safe and sound.”

Huo Yanji glanced at the time and said concisely: “Open the passage at six tonight.”

Bernie paused: “Understood.”

Huo Yanji had no interest in pleasantries and declined the welcoming banquet offered, only saying they needed to strengthen border defenses and remain vigilant against contaminated creature attacks—everything else required no extra attention.

The mountains weren’t far from here. The mountain fire would drive out many contaminants, and some would inevitably head this way. If defenses were neglected, it would be the start of another disaster.

Bernie said: “We’re already calling back mercenaries from the surrounding areas to the city. As you know about safe zone defenses, there’s no need to worry excessively.”

Though technically outranked, after the dissolution of supervisors throughout all zones, Huo Yanji no longer had authority to interfere in other safe zones’ affairs—it wasn’t within his scope of responsibility.

So Huo Yanji only reminded: “During special times, don’t be too relaxed.”

Sang Jue stood to the side, listening to them discuss possible arrangements for the underground city, obediently not interrupting.

He wore casual pants and a white, loose shirt. Combined with his beautiful, fair appearance, he looked incredibly clean—more matching the cityscape than anyone else present.

Bernie glanced at him several times until Huo Yanji’s cold gaze swept back at him, causing him to leisurely withdraw his attention.

Sang Jue keenly noticed that perhaps because Huo Yanji had rarely returned to the underground city and had little interaction here, the soldiers here didn’t respect him like those in other safe zones. Instead, their attitude was rather casual.

Perhaps it was because of Bernie, this major general—he had a quality similar to the council.

“We also need to prepare for migration.” Huo Yanji didn’t care about others’ attitudes and left with a final statement: “The best outcome for the underground city incident would be gradually expanding this surface safe zone and bringing underground city residents to the surface for settlement.”

Ordinary residents still didn’t know about the major events in the underground city, but the higher-ups basically understood and were beginning to prepare response plans.

Bernie said matter-of-factly: “If the underground city really can’t nurture newborns anymore, then there’s no need to concentrate women anymore. Shouldn’t they be dispersed to other safe zones and, as much as possible, naturally mate and reproduce like before?”

Huo Yanji’s rising step paused. He glanced over with a cold tone: “Setting aside how to transport such a large group across long distances to various safe zones, have you considered what treatment these residents would receive once dispersed to surface safe zones?”

The major general was stunned, taking a moment to understand—

Women from the underground city had been treated as population resources since birth. Only a few women could escape this cycle.

They hadn’t experienced the cruelty of the surface, hadn’t received technical training… couldn’t fight. Without any skills in this cruel apocalyptic world, once assigned to various safe zones, what kind of awkward situation would they face?

Unthinkable.

This wasn’t their fault—it was the karma humans received for confining one gender for the sake of reproduction and the future.

Bernie paused and said something inconsistent with his temperament: “Sorry, I didn’t think it through enough.”

Huo Yanji stopped there, but ultimately how to solve this issue wasn’t up to him alone. With the council dissolved, the path humanity’s survivors would take was no longer anyone’s dictatorship.

Everyone had to participate—deviants, ordinary people. The future depended entirely on themselves.

And how the underground city residents’ fate turned out would also affect the fate of all human survivors.

Huo Yanji took Sang Jue’s hand and walked toward a nearby street, stopping in front of a noodle shop and saying familiarly: “Two bowls of mouse meat noodles.”

“Coming right up.”

At the noodle shop entrance was a large round iron barrel with several ladles hanging from the rim. The noodles and meat were placed in the ladles, cooked in boiling soup then scooped out into bowls.

Sang Jue tugged at Huo Yanji’s shirt corner and whispered: “I don’t want to eat rats.”

“Mouse meat refers to a new post-collapse creature called the Flower Cloud Mouse, mainly living in the Luosang Plains. Genetically speaking, it has no relation to rats at all—it just looks similar and is equally timid and cautious.” Huo Yanji curved his lips slightly: “Even if you wanted to eat rat meat now, I couldn’t get it for you.”

Sang Jue hummed: “Did rats go extinct too?”

“Can’t really call it extinction, just much reduced in numbers. But they’ve almost all evolved into completely new species due to contamination—their genes have changed too much.” While waiting for the noodles, Huo Yanji explained in a flat tone, glancing at him: “Current rats are probably about twice your size. According to records, they have rough skin, thick and astringent meat that tastes sour—not good eating.”

Sang Jue said in amazement: “Someone actually ate them?”

Huo Yanji hummed, saying flatly: “In the early days when humans first returned from the underground city to the surface, resources were scarce and food was short. They probably tried everything except the giant monsters in the deep sea.”

After all, considering that people who could bring back tentacles from Rift Two to make slices wouldn’t find eating some rats unusual.

If they weren’t so unpalatable, mutated rats would probably also be on humanity’s dinner table by now.

Sang Jue said: “I wouldn’t eat them even if they were delicious.”

Huo Yanji asked: “Why?”

The shop owner brought over the noodles. Huo Yanji first handed Sang Jue a bowl and gave him a pair of disinfected chopsticks. Sang Jue carefully tasted a piece of the Flower Cloud Mouse meat and found it unexpectedly tender.

Sang Jue said: “Because the doctor said rats carry many bacteria.”

Huo Yanji said: “If you put it that way, every non-artificially cultivated food you’ve eaten here had plenty of bacteria when alive.”

The little evil dragon suddenly froze.

The little evil dragon who grew up in a laboratory was always more sensitive, after all the most common experimental specimens there were rats—all kinds of rats.

Sang Jue wasn’t human and wasn’t picky about food, initially wanting to try everything. Afraid he might actually eat them, the researchers competed to scare him, saying that after eating rats he would also turn into a rat, grow fungi all over his body, and become smelly and sour.

Huo Yanji subtly curved his lips: “If you can’t eat it, I can take care of the rat meat for you.”

Sang Jue was completely unaware this was a trap. The rat meat was delicious, but he didn’t quite dare eat it, so he reluctantly transferred the meat to Huo Yanji’s bowl.

He chewed the flavorless noodles while staring longingly at Huo Yanji’s bowl.

Huo Yanji calmly commented: “Very tender, fresh and delicious.”

Sang Jue bit his chopsticks, his delicate Adam’s apple bobbing: “After you finish eating, could you kiss me?”

Huo Yanji’s movements paused.

Sang Jue blinked: “I want to taste the aftertaste.”

Huo Yanji calmly looked around and said flatly: “Public displays of affection are improper.”

Sang Jue said a dry “oh” and lowered his head.

Out of sight, out of mind.

Until a large hand cupped his nape, a solid kiss landed on his lips, along with a piece of tender food. Huo Yanji’s kiss was fleeting. The little evil dragon blinked and quickly ate the rat meat in his mouth as if nothing had happened.

He commented seriously: “Improper.”

Huo Yanji chuckled softly, barely audible. On the surface, Huo Yanji was as steady and cold as usual, sitting upright even while eating noodles.

Sang Jue’s ears tickled from hearing it: “You should smile more.”

Huo Yanji said casually: “One gem per smile.”

“…You’re not selling smiles.” Sang Jue seriously calculated: “One gem per smile is too expensive. You still owe me many gems, too many to count.”

“Count carefully, I won’t make up for any shortfall.”

“…” Simply bullying dragons for being bad at math.

Sang Jue began carefully recalling exactly how many gems Huo Yanji owed him. Just for rescuing people from the mountain fire there were one, two, three, four… eight gems. Earlier Huo Yanji had said he found a premium gem on the road to bring back for him, and before that…

Even after entering the passage to the underground city, Sang Jue still hadn’t finished counting.

Unable to calculate clearly, Sang Jue began acting shamelessly and declared firmly: “Fifteen gems.”

Huo Yanji, entering the decontamination chamber with everyone else, asked: “Why don’t you say a hundred?”

Sang Jue said innocently: “That wouldn’t be right, would it?”

“…” Huo Yanji fastened a protective mask on Sang Jue: “Then fifteen it is, little math genius.”

The evil dragon’s lips curved up with slight happiness.

After decontamination, they officially entered the elevator to the underground city.

The elevator was large, capable of carrying about a hundred people at once. The car had a silver-white high-tech feel, with no decoration, smooth and cold.

Those who could stand here with Huo Yanji were all former supervisors under his command, while deviants could never set foot here again in their lifetimes.

Yet this peaceful homeland that many dreamed of returning to now seemed about to shatter as well.

Sang Jue gripped Huo Yanji’s shirt corner, barely feeling the elevator’s descent speed.

After about five minutes, the elevator dinged and a cold, somewhat familiar mechanical female voice announced: “Welcome back to the underground city.”

The elevator doors opened and everyone walked out of the building, arriving at the underground city’s middle level.

It was 6:30 PM on the surface, when the sun was setting in the west, and the underground city looked exactly the same as the surface, with warm red sunset light spreading across half the city’s buildings, gradually moving westward with time.

The city was magnificent and towering, building upon building, crowded and dense, three-dimensional and vivid. Brilliant neon lights spread out one by one as night fell, and there were even racing cars speeding by the roadside.

This was a city relic that didn’t belong to the current technological level.

Completely disconnected from the surface’s broken grayness, like two different eras.

Sang Jue slowly blinked, loosely gripping Huo Yanji’s shirt corner.

He missed home.

He missed the home planet city where he had lived for countless years but had never seen with his own eyes.

“Sang Jue?”

Called several times, Sang Jue finally came to his senses, looking at Huo Yanji in a daze.

“You have a fever.”

Sang Jue touched his forehead—it was indeed a bit hot.

This was already his third fever since coming to this planet. The first was from being infected by ganoderma, the second from green fungi infection, and this time…

Both spoke almost simultaneously—

Huo Yanji: “Was what scratched your leg before actually a tree or some kind of vine?”

Sang Jue: “It’s definitely because you put too much in last night.”

“…” Huo Yanji didn’t speak for a long while, then asked: “Did Colin teach you this too?”

The little evil dragon never falsely accused anyone. He looked at Huo Yanji purely: “No, I looked this up myself.”

He avoided the surrounding soldiers. His cheeks were probably flushed from the fever as he counted, whispering: “One, two, three, four… you put it in four times last night, and quite a lot too. I digested it all.”

**