Chapter 11: Release

28TH DEC 2021~ VERALUCTL

Mo Yannan had yet to see anything clearly when An Jie suddenly pushed him down, a round of bullets sweeping past them. Who knew how at that moment, An Jie was able to ignore his bleeding wound completely. The veins of this once eloquent-looking man filled with some bloodthirsty craze and when he picked his gun up, that desire passed into his eyes and his expression.

Despite the situation, Mo Yannan’s heart was calm. After the countless shocks of his journey, the many preparations he had made for his death, believing again and again that he had reached the end… he became calmer and calmer.

The machine gun roared and screams and shrieks followed it. An Jie pushed Mo Yannan’s head down, and Mo Yannan shut his eyes tightly, waiting for it all to pass, waiting for the peace after the war.

When he opened his eyes, the sky above was already fully bright. An Jie let him go gently. The cage above them had finally collapsed after taking the weight of so many giant monsters and the rounds of bullets sprayed at them, living up to his expectations. An Jie let out a light whistle and slung his gun over his shoulder, his wounded arm grabbing the rocks where purple blood had flown down numbly and senselessly, climbing them. He looked back and reached out a hand. “Quick, get up.”

Mo Yannan was suddenly moved in an indescribable way, and it dawned on him that throughout this entire journey, there had always been this one handsome man with his light smiles, nonchalantly reaching out to him with a hand, telling him to get up.

Who said that between people, there would only ever be chance meetings?1

Seeing him standing in place, An Jie thought that he was afraid and added with a smile, “Don’t worry, your beads here are like warding charms; I kept an eye out just then and none of those sparkly bug-things dared approach me. Lao Mo, your eyes really are sharp huh? When we get back to town, how about you pick some souvenirs out for me?”

Mo Yannan felt like he had suddenly become twenty years or so younger, and after confronting death, even less cowardly, like he had regained some of the courage of the youth. He clasped An Jie’s outstretched hand. “Sure, as long as you’ve brought enough money, I’ll pick as many as you want…”

Even that burning desert sun now seemed amicable. After the disaster, a lot of things that he hadn’t understood suddenly became clear. Mo Yannan recalled Li San’er and Lao Ma slumbering in that underground city, and was hit by a wave of overwhelming emotion, followed by an insight.

Once you had walked through the gates of life and death, you could leave behind worldly matters.

Suddenly, Mo Yannan’s smile froze. Behind An Jie!

Without thinking, he pushed the man in front of him away, whose face was still one of relaxed ignorance, and immediately, he felt something cold piercing through his chest, boiling liquid flowing out with a heat that could burn skin. He saw An Jie’s shocked face and had the untimely thought that this person had never looked so panic-stricken before.

An Jie watched dumbly as the old bookworm pushed him into a stumble with a strength that came out of nowhere; as the scythe of a man-faced monster buried itself into his chest and blood flowed down in mere moments.

He almost instinctively pulled the trigger and the monster didn’t even have the time to shriek before it collapsed in a bloody mess… along with Mo Yannan.

But for you, to come with many, and leave alone-

The curse of Lu Zhu city, it was real.

The glasses of the old professor had already been lost when they were underground; whitish-grey hair messily covered his forehead, his skin a waxy yellow from malnutrition due to the long expedition. In some places, age spots dotted his skin. Those blurry brown eyes struggled to open, but where they were focusing became less and less obvious.

“Professor, Lao Mo!” With one shot, An Jie blew off the monster’s leg, and with difficulty, he kicked its giant corpse to the side. Just one glance at the old professor’s wound and he looked away; he had seen too many injuries in his life, he knew there was no saving him.

Mo Yanan’s lips trembled and An Jie had to press his ear next to his mouth to hear what he was saying.

He said, “Congcong… Xiao Jin, Xiao Yu… I’m… not a good father…”

The old professor lifted his hand with difficulty: one inch, followed by another. When he reached his own chest, he suddenly lost all his strength. That head which had read through all of history but was unable to understand the human heart, along with those hands which had held a pen for their entire lives but were forced to hold a gun in the end, lowered at the same time.

An Jie pursed his lips and felt for the small pocket in front of Mo Yannan’s chest, taking out the leather wallet which he had kept next to his heart: a family of five, the parents and children holding each other in joy.

He stared dazedly at those smiles locked in time, the desert vast behind him, the wind and sand reckless. 

There was the gentlest sound of something cracking. An Jie looked down numbly to see the bracelet of green beads that had bound itself so tightly to his wrist suddenly snapping, his movements most likely having been too wild when he had opened fire on the monsters. One by one from their centers, the beads broke open, turquoise liquid spilling out from within and sticking onto his wrist.

The green seemed to be alive and slowly climbed up his body. A strange heat rose up from his skin, but the insides of his body seemed to slowly cool down. It was difficult to describe that coldness- it was as if his organs were all freezing over. An Jie’s consciousness slowly blurred.

He thought bitterly, so it was waiting for him here.

His fading vision was filled with the bleak desert, the burning sun, the yellow sand… the rolling dunes, the wind so dry it threatened to blow off a person’s skin…

At last, he was giving up his life in a place that no man nor ghost would visit. At last, after so many years of adventuring.

He felt a strange sense of freedom.

Mu Lian… Mu Lian… Are you still waiting for me?

Who is thinking of you? And you, who were you thinking of at the end?

Moon of Qinghuai, snow of Balin, a pair of eternal lovers

A generation’s beauty in dreams falls low from a crumbling tower

A hundred years of hate will leave no trace in time

But for you; to come with many, and leave alone.

Author’s Notes: Phew, they’re finally all dead. Now, let us enter the main story~

1That strangers will only have chance encounters with each other, and that the bond between them won’t be very strong.