EDEH Chapter 151

“General.”

 

Colin stood by the floor-to-ceiling window in the hospital room. Hearing footsteps behind him, he turned with an expression between crying and laughing. He wanted to force out a smile, but it was too ugly.

 

“How are you?”

 

“Which aspect are you asking about?”

 

In a sense, Huo Yanji and Colin were currently in the same situation. Both had lost lovers, both survived alone.

 

Colin clenched his fist. Despite lying in bed for a month, his body still felt full of strength and very healthy. The doctor who examined him said that based on all examination standards, he could live at least another sixty years.

 

Sixty years.

 

Really didn’t know if that was a blessing or a curse.

 

“Wei Lan’s memorial is in the main city.”

 

Colin was stunned.

 

“I didn’t tell you before.” Huo Yanji said, “She chose euthanasia before her contamination index cleared, and applied to have her remains moved back to the main city.”

 

Three years ago, after contamination was recovered by Eye of Paradise and deviants began dying successively, ordinary civilians’ bodies were still mainly cremated, but most high-ranking officials preserved their remains.

 

Huo Yanji walked to the window, standing shoulder to shoulder with Colin. He said: “But her remains aren’t in the tomb.”

 

Colin turned his head, asking in shock: “Then where?”

 

“Display case.”

 

“…What?” Colin’s voice faltered.

 

Wearing hospital clothes, he got in Huo Yanji’s car and together they went to Huo Yanji’s former estate.

 

The estate’s land rights had been confiscated by Huo Yanji two years ago—it was no longer his private property. Starting three years ago, names on the memorial wall increased by thousands daily, and as space gradually became insufficient, it kept expanding.

 

Now it was like a huge memorial plaza where bustling crowds paid silent tribute. They either used these countless sacrificed names to remind themselves how difficult things once were, or came to mourn former friends and lovers, remembering the difficult emotions of the disaster period.

 

The lake in the estate’s center remained. Over these hundred-plus years, there had been no industrial burden from humans, so after contamination ended, the surface ecological environment had a qualitative rebound.

 

Without any artificial breeding, fish could be seen leaping from the water’s surface everywhere, many of them new species never seen before.

 

The lakeside cottage also remained, though a memorial hall had been newly built right next to it.

 

The memorial hall contained no tombstones, only several deviant remains, all voluntarily donated before death, even specially preserved in their mutated state.

 

The state of humans fused with natural creatures was perfectly preserved—tentacles, mushroom spores, bestial arms…

 

The era of deviants had ended, but their spirit of sacrifice hadn’t.

 

People couldn’t forget all the contributions deviants made in the late Collapse period. They were history’s drivers, or more appropriately, creators—those bright red lives had written every day of the past ninety years.

 

Colin initially didn’t seem too distressed—after all, over a year had passed since Wei Lan’s death.

 

But when he saw Wei Lan’s remains sleeping peacefully in the container, perfectly preserved through special means, his legs immediately gave out and he knelt against the glass, red veins quickly filling his eyes as his shoulders shook uncontrollably.

 

“Sir…”

 

Someone patted his shoulder, but only heard the man’s irrepressible sobbing.

 

Anyone who heard couldn’t help but feel their eyes sting.

 

Only three years had passed.

 

Yet it felt like a century. Their lovers, friends, family had been left in the past, forever ending three years ago.

 

Colin’s suppressed howling cries echoed in the simple memorial hall. Through the glass, he tried to hold Wei Lan’s hand hanging at her side.

 

They had never kissed, never made love—only shared a shallow embrace.

 

That tiny bit of warmth to sustain his remaining life seemed too harsh.

 

Those who walk alone into the future are all lonely.

 

The memorial hall wasn’t yet fully constructed. The top was open glass, letting long-absent sunlight pour down, coating the remains in the hall with a layer of golden light.

 

Wei Lan’s remains, wrapped in spores, glittered in the light, her expression as always peaceful and serene.

 

Colin cried until he nearly fainted.

 

Looking back at the first half of his thirty years, he had come out of the Underground City like everyone else, been assigned to the main city, began training, wanted to become a deviant but was tested as genetically incompatible, so he settled for becoming a low-level regulator.

 

Not long after, he fortuitously entered the military as a soldier. He was excited when he tested into Huo Yanji’s unit, but that was all—he gradually rose to colonel rank.

 

Though from beginning to end he had no grand ambitions and just went with the flow, only he knew the hardships involved. This wasn’t peacetime—every promotion required genuine merit.

 

But he could treat any amount of life and death separation normally before. Now that disaster had ended, looking back at those buried in memory’s graveyard, his heart felt cut by knives, the pain making it hard to breathe.

 

Huo Yanji didn’t enter. He stood at the doorway, perfectly covered by shadow, while his straight spine was illuminated by light, appearing somewhat ethereal.

 

Zhang Min suddenly felt an inexplicable sadness.

 

Sad for his superior.

 

Sad for that ‘little monster’ he’d only met a few times.

 

Sad for their love.

 

Standing here now, Huo Yanji must be torn apart inside.

 

His lover had lost freedom because of humanity, falling into darkness, yet could never leave a bright mark in human history.

 

They were born to be opposed.

 

Behind that light-bathed silhouette, there must be a front side wrapped in shadow.

 

Zhang Min looked away, the corners of his eyes slightly red.

 

Several silver hairs at the back of his superior’s head gleamed in the light. Clearly only in his thirties… so young, yet having lost his beloved, he’d have to live torn apart for life, split in half by ideals, honor, and pain.

 

He began to panic.

 

After experiencing so much, could his superior really continue to persist and struggle against this division?

 

What Zhang Min worried about didn’t happen in the short term.

 

Huo Yanji still handled official business day after day, planning the main city, only occasionally staring absently at some spot as if an invisible presence stood there.

 

Huo Yanji also produced various backup proposals—building schools, printing the electronic books 007 had organized, expanding libraries, recruiting civilians for military training, encouraging natural reproduction—

 

Because research institute testing showed that Eye of Paradise had absorbed not only contamination but also surface radiation.

 

Humanity seemed to gradually get on track. Though life remained impoverished, at least there was upward hope.

 

The resources the Doctor had sent from a century ago were maximally utilized. For humanity now reduced to less than ten million, artificial wombs were undoubtedly the only tool for spreading the flame of civilization.

 

And those many extinct fruit and vegetable seeds, various energy and technological techniques…

 

All things in nature thrived more than humans. The contamination period had left countless new species of organisms that faced no death threats from contamination’s disappearance and even began normal reproduction.

 

Hard shells, massive bodies, toxic secretions—humans no longer occupied the top of the food chain, unable to hunt them wantonly as they had centuries ago.

 

Those wild areas outside human safe zones remained untouchable. Even with contamination gone, the creatures there still weren’t to be casually provoked.

 

This was a thriving world.

 

Cries diminished, life flourished.

 

Huo Yanji’s evaluation among the people was mixed. Some thought him too independent and arbitrary, while others believed that without him, even if contamination ended, humanity would struggle to transition through dawn into daylight.

 

After all, everyone knew the situation then—most high-ranking deviants were dying successively, ordinary people lacked the ability to succeed them, the old general had committed suicide in guilt, all safe zones were like scattered sand…

 

Just when everything was a mess, Huo Yanji, who hadn’t appeared for a long time, stepped forward, reorganized the situation, united survivors, and began reconstruction.

 

Without Huo Yanji, what would the new world look like?

 

It would probably truly fall apart.

 

Some who spoke harshly were mostly guilty—stemming from that vote three years ago.

 

Given the old general’s public confession, they all knew that vote referred to Huo Yanji, but no one dared mention it openly.

 

Suspicion, guilt, perhaps scattered remorse.

 

They attributed the one-sided voting results to “mental contamination’s” influence while celebrating that Huo Yanji hadn’t pursued the matter, taking it for granted.

 

If he had pursued it, they’d have reason to suspect Huo Yanji had “defected” to the monsters’ side.

 

In an era when not every household had internet, information spread somewhat slowly. Many didn’t know that Huo Yanji’s rumored deviant partner was the little monster in the old general’s confession, didn’t know they’d actually been together, only thinking it was a humanoid creature that had taken a liking to a human, like the Evil Eye valley dragons taking pretty humans home.

 

Of course, some let their imaginations run wilder than reality. “Main City Daily” had daily submissions of melodramatic, forceful “love” stories between Huo Yanji and the little monster.

 

As for who was being forced, it was naturally General Huo.

 

The little monster had taken a fancy to the distinctively handsome General, intending to drag him back to warm his nest. But General Huo had an undisclosed partner, so began a love triangle of pursuit and escape…

 

Some questioned where General Huo’s underground partner had gone.

 

This issue’s author provided an answer—killed by the jealous little monster, which was why General Huo remained partnerless and close to no one, all to commemorate his dead lover.

 

What a magnificent and moving love story.

 

This fabricated tale actually gained quite a bit of approval, because according to a staff member at a marriage registration office, General Huo’s status showed as married.

 

However, due to permission restrictions, the staff couldn’t view the spouse’s name.

 

…

 

Until two years later, what Zhang Min had worried about finally happened.

 

The aurora recovery phenomenon at Eye of Paradise had faded almost to invisibility, and the night sky had returned to its deep black color.

 

According to research institute monitoring, this meant surface contamination had completely dissipated.

 

Though they very much wanted to research what exactly lay beneath Eye of Paradise, what relationship Sang Jue had with the initial surface collapse—whether humanity’s disaster was inevitable or began with an energy being’s playful runaway…

 

Unfortunately, they were willing but unable.

 

Technology levels were insufficient, talent was lacking. They couldn’t even get close to Eye of Paradise’s interior—the magnetic field effects there remained unsuitable for humans.

 

Whether Sang Jue’s ‘running away from home’ caused surface collapse and contamination’s beginning, or whether surface collapse and underground material loosening caused Sang Jue to leave his original position, had become an unsolvable mystery.

 

Perhaps only humans a thousand years hence, when technology recovered or even surpassed historical peaks, would have hope of solving the puzzle.

 

But on this day, the main city and all major safe zones rang bells eighteen times.

 

The tolling wasn’t mournful or plaintive, but long and lingering, with an indescribable melancholy.

 

—Death knells.

 

According to official announcement, the former highest executive of main city regulators and military General Huo Yanji had died of illness at home in mid-year 4 of the Dawn era following the Collapse Calendar’s end, at only 39 years old.

 

Death from illness sounded like a ridiculous reason.

 

Though humans had been abandoned by contaminated genes before, genes weren’t stagnant—they continued slow evolution. For instance, people of this era were all stronger and healthier than humans from the technological age centuries ago, let alone Huo Yanji who had walked the edge of life and death for years.

 

He should have been the most powerful representative among ordinary humans. Death from illness was an ending many found hard to accept. Even those who disagreed with him felt a surreal sense of absurdity.

 

After the surreal feeling passed, they had to accept reality.

 

Huo Yanji was truly dead.

 

Officials held a funeral, erecting a separate tombstone at Huo Yanji’s former estate, right beside the lakeside cottage. Future visitors might have guides introduce—

 

Look, this is General Huo’s tombstone in history, this is his former residence.

 

But Zhang Min knew that in Huo Yanji’s heart, his true home wasn’t the estate but that small apartment in the city district.

 

After several years, Zhang Min stepped into this place again, feeling as if separated by a lifetime.

 

He still remembered the last time he came here—he’d knocked, and Sang Jue had opened the door from inside, greeting him in purely peaceful tones: “Long time no see, Deputy Zhang.”

 

Long time no see.

 

Later, one protagonist of the apartment disappeared. Now the other protagonist had also disappeared.

 

Why use the word “disappeared”?

 

Probably because Zhang Min didn’t accept in his heart that his superior had truly died.

 

No one had actually seen Huo Yanji’s corpse. Major General Colin handled all funeral arrangements, leading some to speculate that high officials couldn’t stand Huo Yanji’s monopoly on power and conspired to kill him for a power grab.

 

Public speculation abounded, but the truth was probably only known to the parties involved and Major General Colin.

 

Zhang Min came today to organize Huo Yanji’s belongings.

 

But upon arrival, he discovered Huo Yanji had virtually no belongings.

 

His office contained only work-related items and documents, not even a single decoration.

 

The apartment had no work documents, but personal items were pitifully few. The living room only had several wine cabinets filled with empty bottles. The accompanying recording officer took photos for future reference—

 

Perhaps the iron-fisted General Huo was privately someone who enjoyed moderate drinking.

 

The bedroom bed didn’t even have bedding, and the wardrobe contained only a few neat military uniforms.

 

Beyond this, nothing.

 

As predecessors had predicted, Huo Yanji was destined for loneliness, dying alone.

 

No one understood his private appearance or preferences. They could only guess from details that he might drink but didn’t smoke. From the fishing rod left in the estate’s small cabin, he also fished, though from the heavy dust, he probably hadn’t fished in years.

 

Beyond his achievements, public impression of him consisted of various romantic gossip versions in city newspapers.

 

·

 

·

 

By the seaside, a campfire rose slowly.

 

A man wearing a crude bronze mask sat before the fire, his eyes flickering in the light.

 

Even at night, the seawater remained deep blue. Jellyfish could be vaguely seen floating on the surface under moonlight—blue, purple, very dreamlike.

 

But less dreamlike creatures existed too, like a dolphin-shaped sea creature that leaped from the water, instantly devouring several jellyfish.

 

Whether this was a new species or just dolphins from centuries ago was unclear—size and appearance were very similar.

 

But centuries-ago dolphins rarely fed on jellyfish.

 

Huo Yanji watched for a while, then looked away.

 

For a period, Sang Jue had loved calling him “Huo Dolphin.” Whenever he used this nickname, it meant Sang Jue was unhappy about him resting too little.

 

He stayed by the sea for five days total.

 

The nearby safe zone had been destroyed many years ago and never rebuilt, so there were few people around even now, and mercenaries rarely came.

 

This was also because even with contamination gone, the seaside beaches and reefs remained dangerous. Not only were tides irregular and sudden, but the sand held many venomous scorpions and small worms—one careless step could be fatal.

 

Leaving the seaside, Huo Yanji headed toward Eye of Paradise valley.

 

The magnetic field here remained abnormal. Aircraft, as human technological products, still couldn’t enter—only walking was possible.

 

In the silver-white space, an AI’s cold greeting sounded: “007 can only take you this far.”

 

“Mm, thank you.”

 

“You’re the second person to say thank you to an AI.”

 

“Who was the first?”

 

“Little evil dragon.”

 

Huo Yanji’s expression remained calm, his tone indifferent: “Then I should be the first ‘person’ to say thank you to you.”

 

007 coldly praised: “You’re quite good at joking.”

 

Huo Yanji said nothing more, shouldering his backpack containing equipment for going underground.

 

As he was about to step out of the hatch, 007 spoke again: “Out of professional ethics, I still need to ask you to be cautious. Though little evil dragon took my chip down with him before leaving, the signal comes and goes—I can’t determine the exact location, only a general direction. Once you go deep underground and run out of food, only death awaits you.”

 

“That’s not bad either.”

 

“Finally, even if you find that place, humans likely cannot survive there—you and little evil dragon were people from two different worlds to begin with.”

 

“Who told me to promise him.” Huo Yanji didn’t turn back, saying calmly: “A promise made long ago—can’t go back on it now.”

 

That was near the Thousand Wolf Mountains by the Underground City.

 

Sang Jue was still hiding his origins then, only asking: “When the day comes for me to leave, would you be willing to come with me?”

 

Huo Yanji at the time had already guessed he came from a century ago, yet still answered “yes.”

 

“But at least wait until all disasters have subsided.” The 35-year-old general told his young, innocent lover: “Wait until everything is on track, until humanity walks the right path—then you can take me anywhere.”

 

Now Sang Jue had left alone, unable to take him anywhere anymore.

 

He could only go find him himself.

 

If he couldn’t find him… then it would probably be fate. He shouldn’t disturb a sleeping little monster again.

 

Below the abyss, there was only darkness with not a trace of light.

 

There were thick vines hanging between the walls. Huo Yanji gauged the distance, put on friction gloves, grabbed the vines before him, and swung directly to the opposite side dozens of meters away.

 

Caves were everywhere, interconnected in all directions—extremely easy to get lost.

 

Huo Yanji marked every place he’d already been. When he repeated a path, he’d change direction and continue.

 

He went deeper and deeper underground, forced to put on oxygen tanks due to lack of air. He kept moving forward in endless darkness, repeating the search process without feeling bored or afraid.

 

Darkness calmed him.

 

Only hallucinations became more obvious—figures resembling Sang Jue would appear from time to time, watching him from afar or suddenly darting around corners to attract his attention.

 

It had been like this for four years.

 

Only then did Huo Yanji understand that the hallucinations caused by monsters at the Waste Waters highland were probably his most unwilling fear—

 

Sang Jue had disappeared, yet was everywhere.

 

All fake.

 

Countless days and nights—time had no meaning underground.

 

Huo Yanji was like a wanderer traveling through night, with no one knowing of his existence, only darkness as witness.

 

Staying in darkness too long brought hallucinations and auditory illusions.

 

A voice kept repeating remembered words in his ear: “You can’t kiss a dragon and then treat the dragon badly.”

 

“If you make me angry, I’ll eat you.”

 

“I’m called Sang Jue, what’s your name?”

 

“You don’t want me, so I don’t want you either.”

 

“Wife…”

 

“I want you to be as sad as me…”

 

“I want you to be as sad as me.”

 

Inside the oxygen mask was all fog from Huo Yanji’s heavy breathing.

 

The dark underground had no sounds or creatures. He could even hear his own rapid heartbeat, occasionally mistakenly thinking it came from that false phantom ahead.

 

At first he still searched purposefully, but soon lost his sense of direction and simply followed the hallucinations’ direction.

 

He couldn’t remember how long since he’d last eaten. Huo Yanji repeatedly performed the act of moving forward, sometimes unable to tell whether it was his body or soul advancing.

 

Maybe he’d already died long ago, with only obsession still wandering underground.

 

Until much later, a flowing “wall” appeared abruptly in the distant darkness—or rather, a wormhole-like “door” was more appropriate, composed of multicolored matter.

 

He stood before the door for a long time. Had he really found it? Or was this a hallucination from obsession before death?

 

He didn’t know.

 

He slowly reached out his hand.

 

His hand passed through and disappeared, followed by his arm, body, until his entire silhouette was swallowed.

 

The underground returned to deathly silence, as if no human had ever been there.

 

·

 

Several years ago, Sang Jue who had fallen into the abyss had asked: “After everything calms down, will you come find me and let me eat you?”

 

At the time, the young human general seemed to give no answer.

 

But the answer had existed long ago.

 

You’re here—where else could I go?

 

He had brought dawn to humanity, yet also abandoned dawn.

 

***

 

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T/N: Thank you for reading and all the comments! i wont be translating the extras so the story is completed from my side. Hope you all enjoyed it!