EDEH Chapter 123

Huo Yanji hadn’t brought personal guards out and wore casual clothes, keeping a low profile.

Therefore no one noticed the former Supervisor Supreme Executive sitting at a corner table—all were drawn to the nearby drama.

The vine at his chest poked out a small tip again, even poking his collarbone, as if asking if he wouldn’t intervene?

Huo Yanji ate his noodles, saying quietly and flatly: “If you’re discovered, you can stay at the research institute.”

Little vine: poke.

Huo Yanji was calm, speaking quite ruthlessly: “How could I rescue you? Rescuing you would put me in opposition to all humanity.”

Regardless of whether Sang Jue was beneficial to humans, he was ultimately an alien species.

Though contaminants had no subjective thoughts, humans had centuries of blood feuds with monsters. As a high-ranking human, being discovered entangled with a thinking, logical monster would probably only cause more intense and angry chaos.

The vines around his body instantly quieted. Just as Huo Yanji lifted his bowl to drink hot soup, he felt the vine around his lower abdomen suddenly tighten, harshly constricting a certain area.

“…” Veins bulged at Huo Yanji’s temples as he gave a low warning: “Sang Jue.”

The vine’s tightening force didn’t lessen at all, as if it couldn’t hear.

He had no eyes, so no ears either… hmph.

Rain continued outside, pattering against the roof with splashing sounds. The nearby fight attracted countless onlookers with its noise.

Just meters away in a corner, a vine was punishingly manipulating an extremely sensitive area of the human general through thin fabric.

Extremely angry.

Therefore especially unbridled.

His prominent Adam’s apple seemed to roll along a taut line. Huo Yanji’s eyelids drooped slightly as he tugged his collar, throat dry as hell.

He lifted the noodle bowl and drank most of the soup. The fire didn’t diminish—instead it grew hotter.

The nearby noise intensified: “You fucking hide in turtle shells being parasites! If I wasn’t risking my life outside, you’d still be here demanding money from me!?”

The noodle shop owner knocked to the ground hadn’t gotten up yet, staying silent.

But from the troublemaker’s few words, the incident’s cause could be roughly deduced—

Several deviant mercenaries came to eat noodles. Everything was fine initially until payment time, when one felt the fee was too expensive. The owner said he had clearly marked prices and wouldn’t budge, so the deviant who thought it expensive directly flipped the table.

Huo Yanji glanced at the adjacent small tavern—

Sang Jue’s clearly marked prices were even more expensive, probably another reason his business was average. People couldn’t afford it.

Theoretically, taverns had higher chances of encountering such troublemakers, but Sang Jue had never mentioned it.

Had he rarely encountered them, or because he’d beaten them all away and didn’t think it worth mentioning?

Over half a year, Sang Jue had really changed a lot and grown up somewhat.

From initially having no scheming and chattering about every trivial matter encountered in daily life, to now selectively sharing things—this was also growth.

The drama under the awning continued. The troublemaker raised his fist: “What, stare at me again and I’ll beat you to death!!”

An onlooker couldn’t stand it: “Come on, it’s not that expensive.”

“Just pay and leave, everyone’s having a hard time…”

“Am I having it easy!? That damn Dawn Plan—how many years do we have left? Right now we still have to risk our lives outside daily, and what are you people, sucking our blood, eating our flesh—”

This person had obviously been drinking and was raving incoherently.

His companions tried to restrain him but were shaken off. He raised his foot to kick the fallen vendor, but was suddenly grabbed by the shoulders and pulled back.

The troublemaking deviant shrugged violently: “Mind your own fucking business!”

However, the hand on his shoulder not only didn’t move but increased pressure, making him wince. When he turned back, he saw that sharp, cold face.

He was stunned, feeling the person looked familiar, but his alcohol-muddled brain couldn’t react in time. His arrogant attitude unconsciously diminished, staying motionless for a while.

“Broken table twenty coins, chair with broken leg fifteen coins, total meal cost thirty-eight coins—” Huo Yanji lifted his chin, saying coldly: “Pay.”

“Why should I mmph—”

A companion who recognized Huo Yanji quickly grabbed him, covering his mouth: “He’s had too much to drink today. We just brought him for noodles to sober up. Sir, he really didn’t mean it! We’ll pay immediately, and if the owner is injured anywhere we can go to the hospital—”

This deviant was still struggling: “I won’t pay, why should…”

Seeing Huo Yanji’s expression grow colder, the companion panicked: “General Huo, he just returned from outside the city this morning. Three brothers who went out together died, so he couldn’t control his emotions.”

Probably due to too much alcohol, or suddenly hearing about the three brothers who died outside from his companion, this person completely broke down, squatting on the ground like a child, hugging the broken table leg and wailing.

With snot and tears, he accused resentfully: “We fight desperately outside while you live peacefully here, treating us like tools…”

In the pattering rain, the surroundings fell into silence.

Such conflicts had actually played out countless times since the Dawn Plan was exposed.

Deviants were both bound by past sacrificial ideologies while feeling they shouldn’t be treated this way, struggling between thoughts of abandoning their duties while continuing to risk their lives for survival, also feeling they were risking their lives for others.

After all, they didn’t have many years left to live.

Take this troublemaking deviant—he looked about forty years old. Even if he could live the full thirty years, he only had about ten years left.

So why continue risking his life outside?

If just to earn a living, wouldn’t it be better to find work in the city now that policies had changed?

But he hadn’t.

Humans were always so contradictory—sacrificing and risking their lives while feeling unwilling.

Just as his companion prepared to pay and drag him away, the noodle shop owner also got up, silently cleaning the mess: “No need to pay, just leave.”

With Huo Yanji present, the deviants didn’t dare not pay, insisting on payment.

“We have to pay, let us…”

“No need, just leave—”

As both sides pulled, the owner slipped on the noodle soup and fell again.

As if stunned by the fall, the owner raised his head after a while and shouted at the deviants trying to pay: “Get lost!! I said no payment needed—what more do you want!?”

Others were confused by this turn, all falling silent, at a loss.

The owner got up and grabbed a nearby bowl, smashing it hard on the ground. Porcelain shards scattered everywhere.

His chest heaved violently as he also fell into extreme anger, shouting in one breath: “Yes! You risk your lives, you’re amazing, you’re noble and great heroes, but ask any ordinary person here, ask those women helplessly hiding in the underground city—who among them has no ideals!? Who doesn’t want to be an apocalyptic hero!?”

“But are heroes alone enough? Do you think I didn’t want to be a deviant? I failed the genetic test!” The owner angrily rolled up his sleeve, showing a healed needle mark scar on his left arm from testing years ago.

“You lost brothers, my wife died yesterday too. I had an underground relationship with her for over ten years, always afraid of being caught and reported for deviant-ordinary people romance. Finally we could be open about it, but she took an official job outside and got infected. Yesterday, risking immediate execution, she came to the city gate and called me out, just wanting to see me one last time… You think only you suffer, only you sacrifice!?”

The owner’s voice choked: “I didn’t sleep all night, so miserable I didn’t dare close my eyes. I got up at 3 AM to prepare ingredients, pretending nothing happened while starting fires and opening shop, because morning has the most returning mercenaries, and a hot bowl of noodles makes them feel better. I was afraid if I closed, you’d have nowhere to go!”

“I tried my best!”

“I fucking tried my best!!”

Complete silence filled the scene.

Looking carefully, one could see the noodle shop owner’s eyes were full of bloodshot veins. This roaring had used all his strength. He sat dejectedly on a nearby chair, red eyes saying nothing.

His clothes were disheveled, pants soaked with noodle soup, noodles hanging in his hair—like a wretched madman already on the edge of breakdown.

Perhaps everyone in this era was a potential madman.

The new order department had just been established, so response was slow. Patrol unit personnel arrived late, calling to Huo Yanji: “General.”

Huo Yanji’s dark eyes showed little emotion: “Take him back to sober up first.”

This “him” naturally referred to the deviant still hugging the chair, still in a daze from being shouted at by the owner.

Then Huo Yanji looked at the noodle shop owner: “You need to come too. Whether compensation or prosecution, discuss it yourselves.”

The owner was silent for a while, then hoarsely hummed agreement, tilting his head back to hold back tears about to spill: “Sorry for troubling you.”

Huo Yanji asked: “Go now or this afternoon?”

After a long while, the owner stood up, hunched over and sniffled: “This afternoon.”

Right now there were tons of mercenaries at the city gate, all queuing to register their return. After eating dry rations in the wild for days or even weeks, they just wanted hot food in the city to release taste buds suppressed for so long.

People qualified to open this kind of noodle shop in the city were already few. If the owner closed, these people would have to travel far to find a hot meal.

The onlookers gradually dispersed. Huo Yanji asked the nearby patrol soldier: “Why did you come so slowly?”

“There was someone provoking newly arrived underground city residents on Changfeng Street…”

The word “provoking” was rather euphemistic.

Huo Yanji lifted his eyelids: “How was it handled?”

The patrol soldier hesitated: “They reconciled on the spot.”

When the Supervisor organization still existed under Huo Yanji’s iron-fisted rule, such conflicts could never be reconciled—regardless of who started any conflict, they would inevitably pay a price.

This was one reason why the main city’s public security had been very stable in past years.

Huo Yanji’s tone was cold: “Such situations must be severely punished without exception. Where there’s one, there’s two. The consequence of leniency is only more brazen oppression.”

The patrol soldier shuddered: “Yes!”

The drama ended, and most of his internal heat had also dissipated.

Returning to the small tavern, delicate ivy emerged from Huo Yanji’s body and transformed back into human form, putting on clothes.

Sang Jue was no longer angry. He approached Huo Yanji, resting his chin against his chest and looking up: “You’re unhappy.”

Huo Yanji looked down. After a while, he ruffled his hair and hummed agreement.

“Why?”

Huo Yanji’s tone was flat: “I used to want to do everything perfectly. Over time I realized the world rarely allows perfection, and comprehensive satisfaction is even harder to achieve.”

In his youth, he had indeed been a complete idealist, thinking nothing was impossible—only human hearts were wrong.

Later he discovered there really were so many things that couldn’t be done well.

Huo Yanji suddenly asked: “Is there any of yesterday’s mixed drink left?”

“No, mixed drinks don’t keep overnight.” Sang Jue put up a closed sign at the shop entrance, then walked behind the bar: “But if you want to drink, I can mix one anytime.”

Sang Jue stood before the bar, his pale chin carrying a bit of recent baby fat.

Huo Yanji rested his chin on his hand, quietly watching Sang Jue’s dancing, skillful fingers.

Huo Jiangmian’s unknown fate underground, humanity’s future, his and Sang Jue’s future passed through his mind repeatedly in endless cycles, like tangled threads.

**