Volume 9: The Days Can’t Be Lived Anymore
Advancing
Charge charge charge
Before the apocalypse, Ba-ge’s profession was a bus driver. After the new order was established, he took up his old trade, driving the bus assigned by the higher-ups and running all over Lost Paradise all year round. He had seen many people and knew a lot of news. Later, he simply became a middleman, introducing bosses to Evolutionaries1 like Ren Yue and collecting introduction fees from both sides as a side hustle.
Besides his very steady driving skills, Ba-ge’s biggest characteristic was being mouthy2, enthusiastic, and kind-hearted. He was the well-known old good man of their residential community.
For example, a matter like giving them a ride was not within his scope of service, but he still enthusiastically and proactively dropped his own work to come.
The bus drove very steadily; the situation Boss Huo worried about did not occur.
The temperature inside wasn’t high, so the windows didn’t frost over. The people inside the bus could easily see the scenery outside the windows.
Familiar buildings receded at high speed. The empty streets were exceptionally desolate. As far as the eye could see, one could hardly see any pedestrians or vehicles.
Sunlight scattered on the pure white snow, so bright it made it hard to open one’s eyes. The winter wind blew through the streets and alleys, rolling up a thin layer of accumulated snow and revealing the withered yellow weeds in the cracks of the asphalt road.
The post-disaster world was thus displayed before their eyes without any reservation. Except for this main road that had been cleared, it was white everywhere. The sky was vast and distant, looking even a bit bluer than before the apocalypse. They were clearly in the city center of the capital, yet it gave them the illusion of driving in the northwest wilderness—though it wasn’t much different, really.
The few adults in the bus were not in high spirits. Only Huo Dongdong was pressed against the window, his big, dark eyes curiously sizing up the world outside.
He was only a little over three years old when the apocalypse descended. It was not easy for him to have survived. Boss Huo had protected him very well.
But even so, the disaster had still carved a deep mark on his young soul, especially since he had also evolved that kind of ability…
This could be seen in one or two ways from his silence, which was different from that of ordinary children.
However, Ren Yue didn’t have much spare time to care about how other people’s children were doing. After all—
She changed her posture and continued to stare at Xiao Lou.
—after all, her own other half had not yet been successfully pursued.
The interior of Lost Paradise was composed of one residential community after another. Different communities were assigned different management personnel by the officials.
Humans are social animals. As the population continued to shrink, the population density in the communities decreased, making centralized management and aid inconvenient. Thus, people from the periphery gradually migrated inward, assigned new residences and living areas by the officials, to the extent that the outer areas were completely emptied.
There was naturally no need to send people to manage the emptied places, so the bus stopped after reaching the outermost community. The few people in the bus got off one after another, waving goodbye to Ba-ge.
Ba-ge didn’t get off the bus. He sat in the driver’s seat, baring his teeth as he waved goodbye to them. “I wish you success!”
Ren Yue nodded and reminded him, “Be careful on your way back.”
Ba-ge laughed, “Do you even need to tell me that? I’ve traveled this road eight hundred times, when have I ever had an accident? I heard that recently there are female ghosts stopping cars on the road after dark. I plan to lie low for a bit. I’ll be a homebody3 at home for a few days and not go anywhere. Remember to call me when you guys get back, I’ll come pick you up! If you’re bored, you can also chat with me, we can exchange food pictures and stuff. Of course, I don’t mean I’m craving your food…”
On a cold winter day, his words made Boss Huo break out in a sweat.
Seeing that he was about to arrange his entire next few days, Ren Yue hurriedly waved her hand at him. “We’re leaving, farewell.”
Ba-ge: “You think I’m annoying, right? Are you a bad sport? If you have the guts, don’t call me when you come back!”
Ren Yue: “I wouldn’t dare call, I wouldn’t dare call.”
It angered Ba-ge so much he almost rushed off the bus to give her a punch.
Watching the bus’s butt disappear from sight, Ren Yue turned around, looked at the three people behind her, and said, “The rest of the way can only be traveled on foot. From here, heading north, if we walk a bit slowly, in about four hours, we should be able to reach the small town near the labyrinth. We can rest there for a night and enter the labyrinth the next morning.”
Boss Huo had no objections. “You’re the professional, we’ll listen to your arrangements.”
The boss himself had no objections, so the two working stiffs naturally wouldn’t have any either. Seeing no one objected, Ren Yue looked at the Da xiongdi and arranged, “The snow isn’t thick but it’s relatively difficult to walk on. You’re tall and heavy, you’ll be responsible for walking in front and clearing the path. Any problem?”
The man shook his head. “No problem.”
Ren Yue added, “If you feel tired, just say so, and I’ll take over in front.”
“No need.” The Da xiongdi smiled. “I’m a strength-type Evolutionary. This little path is not even worth mentioning.”
That’s great.
Ren Yue stood on her tiptoes and patted his shoulder. “Then I’ll leave it to you.”
“Can Mr. Huo carry the child?” She looked at Boss Huo and asked, “Do you need help?”
Boss Huo weighed his son’s weight and said, “It’s okay, I should be able to walk for a while, but four hours might not be possible—I’ve never even tried that when the temperature was suitable.”
Ren Yue said, “It’s fine. If you can’t carry him, you can give him to someone else.”
The Da xiongdi immediately puffed out his chest. “Right, if you guys can’t carry your things, you can also give them to me.”
“Just take good care of your boss,” Ren Yue said, pointing ahead. “Let’s set off. See that wall? Just walk in that direction.”
The group looked in the direction she was pointing. They could faintly see the shadow of a red wall in the clouds and mist. The wall was like a huge mountain peak, soaring into the clouds, standing tall between heaven and earth.
That was the outermost wall of the labyrinth. After passing that wall, there would be a world with fewer ghosts.
Boss Huo said with emotion, “Looking at the mountain runs the horse to death4. Just looking at it makes me feel tired.”
The Da xiongdi smiled. “No matter how tired you are, you still have to walk. Wasn’t it you who decided to go?” As he spoke, he directly lifted his foot and stepped onto the rarely-trodden path, walking forward one footprint at a time.
“I’ll follow him, Xiao Xiao Lou5 will follow me, and Mr. Huo will walk at the end.” Because she had already obtained the highest command authority, this time she didn’t ask if it was okay, but chose to directly issue orders.
After speaking, she didn’t look at their reactions again. She directly stepped onto the large footprints left by the Da xiongdi and walked forward.
The city was left behind. The snowdrifts on both sides of the road, which were a section higher, were flowerbeds. In the flowerbeds were some pine trees that remained verdant even in winter, adding some other colors to this journey.
A long trek consumes a lot of physical strength. To ensure smooth breathing, they didn’t wear masks or scarves on their faces, continuously exhaling puffs of white breath. The cold wind howled, stabbing at their faces like knives, freezing their exposed skin until it was hard and red, with a faint stinging pain.
When they were on the bus, each of them had stuck a warm baby6 inside their clothes. Although it wasn’t of great use, it was better than nothing.
Previously, Ren Yue had also considered that traveling in winter would definitely be more difficult than in summer, but it rarely snowed this heavily here. This was also her first time traveling by treading on accumulated snow, and only now did she discover that it was more tiring than she had expected, and the time taken might also be longer than she had expected.
She stood on the spot and caught her breath, taking out her phone from her pocket for a look.
An hour had passed, and they had walked about a quarter of the way. Although it seemed like they could just finish in four hours, they hadn’t rested yet since they started walking. Even the breathing of the strong and sturdy Da xiongdi had become a bit heavy.
Seeing her stop, Boss Huo asked, out of breath, “What’s wrong? Are we not walking anymore?”
“Rest in place for five minutes, then we’ll walk again,” Ren Yue replied.
“Hoo—” Boss Huo put his son down to hold his hand, and leaning on the railing in the middle of the road, he said, “Why don’t we just keep walking? I’m afraid if we stop, I won’t be able to move my legs anymore…”
What he said also made sense. Ren Yue looked around and asked, “What about you guys?”
Da xiongdi: “I’m still okay, not very tired.”
Xiao Lou also said, “Whatever.”
Ren Yue took a deep breath of the ice-cold air and said, “Alright then, let’s keep walking.”
The Da xiongdi looked at Boss Huo, who was already a useless person. “Should I carry Dongdong?”
Boss Huo turned his head to ask Huo Dongdong, “Do you want Pengfei-gege7 to carry you?”
Huo Dongdong shook his head without speaking, but his small, gloved hand held his father’s hand, and he took a step forward on his own.
Boss Huo led his son and said, “Let’s go.”
The group continued to advance. Ren Yue took off her hat to air out her already wet hair, then quickly put the damp hat back on. She turned her head to curry favor with Xiao Lou, “Are you tired? Do you want to give me your things? I can carry them for you for a while.”
“Just walk your own walk.”
Ren Yue shrugged her shoulders. “Call me anytime if you’re tired.”
The further they walked, the fewer traces of people there were, and the thicker the snow became—probably a little above an adult’s ankle. The adults took large strides, which was a considerable challenge for the already short-legged Huo Dongdong. The child’s chin and nose were covered by a thick scarf. At this time, a layer of white frost had appeared on his eyelashes, eyebrows, and the top of his hat, but he didn’t mind it. He was concentrating on trying his best to keep up with his father’s pace, striving not to hold the adults back.
“Wait a moment…” Boss Huo’s heart ached terribly. He took the initiative to call a halt, no longer caring about the issue of face8. “Pengfei, I’ll have to trouble you to help me with the luggage… I’ll carry Dongdong on my back.”
“It should have been like this long ago.” The Da xiongdi clapped his gloved hands. “What did you hire me for? To do charity? Xiao Lou is doing the bodyguard work, Rabbit is doing the guide work, all I have left is this body of strength with nowhere to use it, and you’re still always thinking of solving things yourself. A boss ordering an employee around, can that be called trouble?”
Boss Huo smiled embarrassedly. “It was me who was too considerate…”
The Da xiongdi slung Boss Huo’s luggage bag in front of him, carrying one on his back and one in front like that. Boss Huo, in turn, carried his son on his back.
In this way, their speed of advance increased quite a bit. They might even be able to reach their destination before dark.
But just in case, she reminded the group, “If it’s already dark when we arrive, then don’t be in a hurry to go in. If we can enter, I won’t say things like ‘let’s go quickly, let’s go in quickly.’ To prevent accidents, I will only sing a song loudly, that one that goes ‘let’s go, we’ll go,’ just those five words, sung three times. My singing is quite terrible. If you don’t hear a terrible singing voice, don’t go near the small town. Remember that?”
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