EDEH Chapter 114

Flying from District Seven to the main city only took about two hours, with most time spent avoiding dangerous terrain.

 

Though most rebels had been eliminated, it was uncertain whether they’d pursue victory and blockade after learning about the aircraft resources.

 

So the aircraft didn’t take conventional routes but went wherever was dangerous, nearly getting pulled into a lake by a long-tongued monster.

 

Fierce Sang Jue directly transformed back into an evil dragon and flew out to sever the monster’s tongue.

 

“Roar—!!”

 

007 said: “Please select landing location.”

 

Huo Yanji said: “The manor.”

 

007 didn’t ask which manor, because looking across all current human safe zones, there was only one manor.

 

A manor carved with the names of the dead.

 

Since the manor’s true face was exposed to the public, it had been temporarily managed by Major General Tang Bai. Many people came to look for familiar names.

 

This manor awakened people who had become numb to death and revived emotions buried deep in their hearts.

 

Walking among rows of burial walls, they’d look at each name with slight disappointment before moving to the next, and the next, repeatedly.

 

When they unconsciously began searching, they suddenly realized that people they thought they no longer missed were still in their hearts, and names they thought forgotten were actually carved into their bones.

 

The pain death brought returned like a bone-deep affliction—hurting terribly, yet somehow satisfying.

 

Row after row of burial walls, names densely packed and crowded. Finding that cherished name was too difficult. So there were always some people who came every day.

 

Every single day.

 

“Look! Alien flying saucer!!!”

 

“Damn, what is that!?”

 

Compared to those making a fuss, others were more rational: “This is that A… from last night…”

 

Someone nearby reminded: “AI.”

 

“Right, right, that whatever AI thing mentioned—the aircraft from over a hundred years ago?”

 

“Yeah, should be. What can such a small ball contain…”

 

“High technology from the past—you don’t understand.”

 

When landing, Huo Yanji’s troops also entered from outside the city, immediately conducting evacuation management of the manor.

 

So when emerging from the aircraft, there were only soldiers outside, no one else.

 

The leader was Deputy Zhang, not seen for a long time: “Sir, welcome back to the city.”

 

Huo Yanji had no time for pleasantries and asked directly: “Where’s Patrol Officer Liao?”

 

Zhang Min said: “Patrol Officer Liao was taken for investigation by the old general a few days ago for disciplinary issues and was only released last night.”

 

“…” Huo Yanji couldn’t be bothered asking what discipline Liao Te violated—anyone could see something was fishy.

 

Huo Yanji asked again: “Has anything strange happened in the city recently?”

 

Zhang Min said: “General Huo disappeared after turning back on his way to find you.”

 

Huo Yanji frowned but didn’t pursue: “First invite Deputy Director Mo and Dr. Hill to look at the resource list and organize what we currently need.”

 

“Yes.”

 

When leaving, Sang Jue, standing behind Huo Yanji, waved at him. Zhang Min also hesitantly raised his hand and waved back.

 

Huo Yanji turned and glanced at Sang Jue.

 

He understood Sang Jue’s inner world clearly: “Didn’t you quite like Deputy Zhang at first?”

 

Sang Jue defended: “I don’t dislike him now either.”

 

Huo Yanji asked knowingly: “Then why didn’t you speak?”

 

Sang Jue tilted his head to one shoulder, looking at the ground: “Because I don’t want to talk, so I don’t.”

 

Huo Yanji exhaled lightly, ruffled Sang Jue’s hair: “Where do you want to stay tonight?”

 

Sang Jue said: “Anywhere is fine.”

 

Huo Yanji said: “Then stay here?”

 

Behind them was Huo Yanji’s two-story building, a very simple structure. Rain pounded on the roof with a pleasant splashing sound.

 

The nearby lake water also splashed with droplets. Not looking at the densely packed burial walls around them, combined with the small house and courtyard, there was a somewhat tranquil and beautiful atmosphere.

 

Sang Jue calculated the time: “You haven’t lived here for over two months. There should be a lot of dust inside.”

 

Huo Yanji said: “I’ll have someone come clean.”

 

There probably wasn’t that much dust, but after indeed not living there for over two months, they should change bedsheets and other personal items.

 

Then they stood facing each other in the rain for a long time. After a while, Sang Jue looked away and mumbled: “You’re going to be busy.”

 

Huo Yanji hummed: “It’s not that I can’t bring you, but when they see you later, they’ll definitely ask how you got from the main city to the underground city before. Would you be happy about that?”

 

“Not happy.” Sang Jue turned around sullenly: “I’ll go tour your house.”

 

“Mm, password is six zeros. Take a shower. Someone will come clean later—don’t let your tail show.”

 

“Got it.”

 

Huo Yanji watched Sang Jue walk to the front door of the small house, enter the password, push the door open. The thin, wet figure gradually disappeared from the window.

 

Behind him, slow, heavy footsteps gradually approached.

 

Huo Yanji slowly turned around: “Just you alone?”

 

“What else?” The old general lifted his wrinkled eyelids, saying flatly: “They’re busy, no time to come congratulate your safe return. They asked me to pass along their words.”

 

The old general had indeed come alone, not a single soldier behind him.

 

He wore a black raincoat and walked to the lakeside, looking at the ripples on the water surface. Suddenly he said: “Do you have fishing rods?”

 

“Yes.”

 

Huo Yanji went to the tool shed and soon brought out two fishing rods.

 

Currently, there were no normal edible fish in outside lakes or seas—they had long gone extinct.

 

The fish in this lake were from years ago when Huo Yanji had distinguished himself in service. But due to stance issues, the council had always wanted to suppress him, unwilling to let him advance too quickly. So they deliberately gave him a hard time—didn’t his manor have a lake? They then bestowed a bag of fish fry, saying he could fish when he had nothing else to do.

 

In the underground city, fish fry were considered luxury items. The entire underground city had only one ornamental aquarium, and the fish brought in over a hundred years ago were also nearly extinct.

 

But for frontline military personnel, this kind of reward was tantamount to insult.

 

But Huo Yanji didn’t mind and casually threw the fish fry into this lake, actually bringing this dead body of water to life.

 

The old general obviously couldn’t fish. Though he was mostly buried in earth at his age—currently the only surviving general among ordinary people—his life resume could be called “monotonous.” At sixteen, he became a supervisor due to failing genetic testing; at twenty, he entered the military and worked his way up step by step to today.

 

Luxurious leisure activities like fishing he had only seen in history textbooks.

 

Huo Yanji looked straight ahead without offering unnecessary instruction. The old man had quite good intuition and figured it out before long.

 

The old general said: “Put on your raincoat hood. No matter how good your health is, getting soaked too long will make you sick.”

 

Huo Yanji declined: “No need. I haven’t washed my hair for days anyway.”

 

The old general chuckled with muffled laughter: “You’ve learned to joke now.”

 

The two stood three or four meters apart, both watching the rippling lake surface, not speaking for a long time.

 

“Seems the rain is too heavy—fish aren’t biting.” The old general said this but didn’t reel in his line: “Landing the aircraft here, aren’t you afraid of people talking?”

 

“Saying what?” Huo Yanji said flatly: “That I’m monopolizing power, hoarding resources?”

 

The old general sighed slightly: “See, you know too, yet you still do it.”

 

“Only I know what kind of person I am, and only I am controllable.” Huo Yanji said: “If no one can be trusted, then monopolizing power isn’t so bad. Sitting in this position, things like reputation have long been distant.”

 

Even now, countless people had changed their impression of Huo Yanji, supporting him, trusting him, respecting him… but to say everyone felt this way was impossible.

 

Right now, in this main city, there were definitely people cursing him in unknown corners, questioning him.

 

Huo Yanji never cared about these voices. Praise, denunciation, angry curses—they couldn’t make him joyful or angry.

 

The old general said: “When you were youngest, I always felt that though you weren’t as flamboyant as Jiangmian, didn’t have Bo Qing’s integrity, didn’t have Ji Zhen’s universal love, you were the most arrogant of the four.”

 

Huo Yanji’s arrogance wasn’t in conceit or self-importance, but in having millions of people in his heart while having no millions of people.

 

You could say his heart was very full, yet sometimes it felt very empty.

 

The old general suddenly said: “Do you know why things have reached this point today?”

 

Huo Yanji threw the question back: “What do you think?”

 

The old general said: “You might know why Bo Qing and Jiangmian reached where they are today, but you probably don’t understand why Evelyn and Ji Zhen ended up this way.”

 

Huo Yanji’s eyes moved.

 

“Evelyn was a proud child who didn’t inherit her mother’s strength and ideals. From childhood, she only had two things in her heart—wanting to see her mother and wanting to go to the surface with the person she liked.”

 

When saying “the person she liked,” the old general’s tone was somewhat awkward.

 

Having this old man who had been single his whole life say such emotional words was really rather uncomfortable.

 

But for Evelyn, her mother and the person she liked were everything—her hope, her life.

 

But in the end, all her hopes were shattered.

 

“But how could they let Evelyn see that woman? They were scared to death—the first time they were so afraid of a woman. They were also extremely angry at having to compromise. The ‘Women’s Freedom Agreement’ was like two slaps across their faces, the first time they felt their dignity had been challenged.”

 

“Knowing Evelyn was different from her mother, they still forcibly kept Evelyn underground and put her in the position of Madam, for no other reason than to humiliate the already murdered Lydia.”

 

Evelyn’s mother, Lydia, who had once been the beacon of hope for underground city women, was long dead.

 

Even though no one had seen her corpse or heard the death announcement, they all knew Lydia was long dead.

 

How could she possibly still be alive?

 

Only young Evelyn was obsessed, desperately wanting to see her mother once.

 

Huo Yanji suddenly paused, realizing: “Ji Zhen is because—”

 

The old general laughed: “So there are things you don’t know.”

 

As the rain grew louder, hitting their skin more painfully, the old general revealed a small secret—a young girl’s innocent thoughts from over ten years ago.

 

“Back then, when you four were in your teens, I went to bring you to the surface. That tiny, thin Evelyn privately stopped me and begged me to bring her to the surface too. She didn’t want to stay in the underground city. She wanted to go above to see her mother, and even more, she didn’t want to be separated from Ji Zhen.”

 

Under his raincoat, Huo Yanji’s wrist suddenly tensed.

 

“I didn’t know then that Evelyn was Lydia’s child. Later, when you were in your twenties and went your separate ways, after Ji Zhen’s incident, I finally realized what it was all about.”

 

The old general said slowly: “Though there’s no evidence, I think Ji Zhen’s incident in District Nineteen was also their doing. Unable to take revenge on that already dead woman, they went to ‘torment’ her child.”

 

If Bo Qing’s death could still be understood as deterring ordinary people and deviants from mating—having some connection to the bigger picture—then Ji Zhen’s ‘death’ for this reason was purely out of personal spite.

 

In the end, this created today’s result—

 

Ji Zhen, who had escaped death, became like a different person, determined to be enemies with the whole world. Evelyn, who had lost all light, rebelled, wanting only to destroy everything.

 

**

---