Chapter 65: The Notebook
The door closed silently. Xu Xunyue got out of the wheelchair and parked it at the corner of the first-floor stairwell.
“Brother,” Zhu Hui asked in a whisper as he observed his surroundings, “Will this…?” Be easily discovered?
[They won’t go out.]
Xu Xunyue was the first to step onto the stairs.
[Yu Yuan is very good at following arrangements at a time like this. Yi Chengli just got over his headache and won’t act rashly. As for Cheng Tao, his action strategy is more conservative. If we don’t arrange it, he won’t take the initiative to explore.]
“…I think he’s a little strange, but not in a malicious way,” Zhu Hui suddenly commented, drawing his dagger from his waist.
He followed Xu Xunyue upstairs, his strides so large that he took three or four steps at a time. In a few moves, he was in front of the Guide, and then he returned to his normal pace.
[He’s an intelligence officer. He probably discovered something on his own, or heard some news and ran out. The people in the intelligence department work under Lu Si, and the Emperor has been seeing Lu Si very frequently in the past year.]
[You want to ask about his stance, right? This person is young and has a calm personality. He values family interests more. He’s not one of those who are completely loyal to the Emperor.]
[…Actually, I’m also wondering why the Emperor doesn’t choose some of his longer-serving subordinates to collect information.]
As they talked, the two of them had already gone up a floor.
This residential building had a total of five floors. If they were to check every room on every floor, it would not only take time, but the risk of triggering danger would also be very high. With the old shadows of Ghost Town replaying, it would be troublesome if they ran into a cataclysmic being that had once lived here.
A single cataclysmic being was not difficult to deal with, but it was not easy to escape from a group of them.
Zhu Hui said, “When I heard the footsteps, the source was probably on the third or fourth floor. But I’m not sure if the sound was there from the beginning, or if it started halfway through, like the cataclysmic being that suddenly appeared at the street corner before.”
Xu Xunyue glanced at the second-floor corridor and gestured for him to continue up.
The sudden strange rain had stopped, but because it was late, the sky and the corridor were still very dark. The door at the stairwell was eerily open, as if some monster would walk out of it at any moment.
The strange argument from just now was still ringing in their ears. If it were someone with less experience in a cataclysm zone, they would probably take one step and stop for ten seconds, and the psychological pressure of going up a floor would double, afraid that they would be ambushed and would flee before they reached their destination.
The three doors on the third floor were all tightly closed. Xu Xunyue and Zhu Hui didn’t stop. They paused at the fourth-floor stairwell.
The door of the middle household on the fourth floor, which was directly opposite the stairwell, was open.
The conversation of the old shadows of Ghost Town had happened in a hurry. The youth had rushed out the door, and the middle-aged man had followed closely behind. It was most likely that they hadn’t closed the door.
Without saying much, the two of them walked straight in.
A simple table, a narrow bed, a small balcony with a glass door… the layout inside was very similar to the single room on the first floor, but the floor was a gray-black from years of not being cleaned, and there were fragments of wine bottles and garbage on it.
The balcony curtain was not drawn, the glass door was not closed, and the cool wind from outside blew in faintly.
The small single room, filled with garbage, was not easy to move in. Zhu Hui turned around, confirmed that there was no danger, and stood on the side to be on guard.
Xu Xunyue glanced at the table. As expected, there were no paper items on it.
This kind of thing should be placed in a more hidden place, and the single room was simple, with not many places to hide things…
Spreading his spiritual power to sense, he thought for a moment, then walked straight to the bedside and reached into the gap between the head of the bed and the wall.
A notebook with a wrinkled cover was taken out.
He opened it.
[February 21st, cloudy.
Dad’s training task for me today is a 20-kilometer long-distance run, holding a horse stance for two hours, and two hundred push-ups and pull-ups each.
I’m not a Sentinel, and this isn’t the Sentinel Academy. Why give me this kind of training task? It’s going to kill me.
The weather is very bad today. The sunset is not even pretty.]
[February 28th, light rain.
I’m really so tired. It’s so uncomfortable to sweat in this cold weather. I have a bit of a cold, but he won’t let me rest. If I don’t practice well, he’ll hit me.
Annoying. If I awakened as a Sentinel, I could go to the White Tower to study, but at my age, it’s probably impossible for me to become a Sentinel.]
[March 9th, sunny.
It’s sunny today, and I’m in a good mood. In the afternoon, while he was not at home, I went to sister 102’s place to play for a while and also read the newspaper she subscribed to.
Sister 102 is also exercising. Strange, when did fitness become popular in the town?
Fortunately, sister’s exercise method is healthy and normal, not as perverted as my foster father’s training plan.]
[March 20th, moderate rain.
Still tired, but my body has indeed become stronger. I beat up the little hooligans who were blocking the school gate and extorting money today, hehe.
He probably saw that I was adapting, so the training volume has also increased TT]
The youth who wrote these things was an optimistic person. He tried hard to maintain a lively tone between the lines.
Even so, the handwriting on the paper became more and more sloppy, and the time interval also gradually became longer.
He seemed to have less and less energy to record these things.
[April 10th, heavy rain.
I finally know why that guy is forcing me to train.
He wants me to be a volunteer for Lord Huang Shao’s event… what volunteer? I heard from my classmates that it’s a drug tester. If you’re selected, you’ll get a considerable bonus.
He wants to send me to be exchanged for money.
Before, I was too young to withstand long-term experiments. Now that my body is better, will it be soon…
I don’t know if I should tell sister 102, but she also wants to be a volunteer to earn money. Will she help me?]
The handwriting on the last page was from more than half a month later.
[May 1st, heavy rain.
It’s been raining recently, for more than a month. The weather has not been good.
I’ve been preparing to leave. I hope I can succeed.
He is a Sentinel. I can’t outrun him, and I can’t beat him.]
The handwriting stopped here.
Next, was the scene the five of them had witnessed not long ago.
The middle-aged man had found and opened this notebook, and the youth had taken the opportunity to run away.
And then, the Cataclysm had happened.
Huang Shao. Xu Xunyue had no impression of this name, but he was definitely a key figure in Ghost Town.
Combined with the activities, experiments, and volunteers mentioned in the diary… he might be able to draw out a deeper connection.
In the Imperial Capital, a thousand miles away, in a pitch-black small house.
The Sentinel who had been asleep for a long time’s eyelids trembled slightly. After a long time, he opened a slit. His fingertips curled, and for a moment, he couldn’t make a larger movement.
He lay quietly for a long time. The Guide girl with the basin of water pushed open the door and walked to the bedside as she had every day in the past.
When she put down the basin, she inadvertently glanced down.
Clang!!
The wooden basin fell to the ground, and the warm water soaked the floor. This was a mess that the usually cleanliness-obsessed Qiu Shuang could not tolerate, but this time, she could no longer care about anything else.
“Qiu Ye, how do you feel? How much worse is it than before? Do you know you’ve been asleep for almost a month!”
As she spoke, she used her spiritual power to tentatively touch the Sentinel’s spiritual landscape.
As expected, she was blocked by a thick spiritual barrier.
“…”
In the darkness, the two of them looked at each other without a word.
Qiu Shuang was so angry she wanted to curse. She thought to herself, How can Qiu Ye be so guarded against a Guide at a time like this?
She complained inwardly, not saying anything, but Qiu Ye could completely guess what she was thinking. After all, such a scene had happened too many times over the years.
“You don’t need to give me a mental soothing… that thing is like an anesthetic. It can’t solve the fundamental problem.”
He had been lying there for a long time and had finally recovered some strength, so he could slowly speak.
“I will eventually reach that end. It doesn’t matter. Everyone has to die. But I feel good now.”
“You—”
“Alright, tell me, what’s been happening in the Imperial Capital recently?”
“…Captain and the others have already left for Ghost Town. The Imperial Capital… nothing major has happened in the Imperial Capital recently. I don’t go out of the palace much either,” Qiu Shuang forcibly suppressed the unease in her heart, frowned and recalled for a long time before saying, “If I have to say there’s a problem, I think the people in the palace guard are a little strange, especially the Emperor’s personal guards, who have the highest authority.”
“Tell me in detail?”
“I can’t explain this clearly. I’m not a combatant either. Sometimes when I meet them on patrol in the palace, I just feel that their eyes are dazed. I’m not sure—Qiu Ye, what are you doing? Wait, what bed are you getting out of when you’ve just woken up! Have you recovered yet?”
Seeing her little uncle suddenly sit up from the bed, Qiu Shuang subconsciously wanted to push him back down.
But she found that she couldn’t push down the Qiu Ye who had just woken up today.
“Hey, hey, don’t be anxious. Can you please not call your elder by his name? You can’t even push me down now,” Qiu Ye scratched his face with some helplessness, then his expression tensed, and he said in a deep voice, “There’s definitely a problem in the palace. Guide Xu and the others haven’t come back yet. If the problem breaks out now, it’ll be a disaster.”
“What do you mean?” Qiu Shuang was stunned. As if she had a premonition of something, her voice involuntarily lowered.
“I’ll tell you, don’t panic.”
Qiu Ye took a deep breath, organized his thoughts in his mind, and told his only relative everything he had speculated about the Emperor over the years.
In the past, he had often hidden things in the name of protection, but at a truly critical moment, he found that there were some things that he couldn’t not tell his relatives. Time had passed in a flash, and the child who was only up to his waist back then had long since grown up.
“…So.”
The young Guide who had learned everything pressed her temples. “How do you plan to solve this predicament? Are you going to see the Emperor? Are you sure you can solve it if you go?”
“If I don’t go, I can’t solve any problems.”
“You really want to go? In your dreams!”
Qiu Ye rubbed his nose and looked at the ceiling with a bitter smile.
Ghost Town.
“Student Yi, does your head still hurt? Do you want to take a rest now?”
Yu Yuan’s voice sounded in the room. The other two Sentinels were standing and observing the surroundings, very quiet.
Yu Yuan checked the new and lively items in the room while whispering, “I see that the rain has stopped outside. When the captain and the others come down from upstairs, they might have to move at night.”
Wait, there’s a watch on this cabinet. It seems to use the pre-Cataclysm technology recorded in the textbooks. I wonder if I can get merit points for it if I take it back to the White Tower.
But it was already rotten before. Will it really be useful if I take it out?
“Thank you for your concern. I will pay attention to my own condition.”
Yi Chengli quickly replied. He bent his knees slightly and tentatively sat on the edge of the bed.
The support from the bed was as real as it could be. He couldn’t help but sigh, “…I can actually sit.”
Cheng Tao, who had been silent, glanced at him and said in a supportive tone, “Yes, you just have to pay attention to when the environment will change back.”
Yi Chengli nodded in agreement, then quickly stopped nodding.
The sudden headache had just passed not long ago. It was better not to shake his head for the time being.
Damn it, when did I get this headache problem? At first, I was beaten up by Zhu Hui because of it, and later I was looked down upon by my family because of it. If there are sudden situations like this in the future, won’t I become a time bomb, or rather, a cripple?
I absolutely cannot let this happen. Even if it costs all my savings, I have to find the cause and solve it.
His mind was in a mess. Yi Chengli closed his eyes, and was about to close them for two seconds and then open them again, when he suddenly had a strange feeling of being watched.
A Sentinel’s sharp senses allowed him to feel that something was wrong even with his eyes closed.
This feeling of being watched came from behind, not directly behind, but above.
So, it wasn’t Yu Yuan staring at him, nor was it Cheng Tao staring at him.
…Then who could it be?
His breathing quickened, and his adrenaline suddenly soared. His violent emotional fluctuations caught Yu Yuan’s attention.
Yu Yuan’s hand, which was checking the items, paused. Her shoulder moved, but she didn’t turn her head.
She asked through the mental link: [What’s going on?]
Before Yi Chengli could transmit the information, he heard a knocking sound from above and behind him.
—It was the glass window on the side of the single bed by the balcony that was being knocked on.
No longer pretending that he hadn’t noticed anything, he suddenly turned around, looked up, and raised his gun, the muzzle aimed at the source of the knocking.
You couldn’t just open fire at will in a cataclysm zone at night. The loud noise would attract a pursuit from the cataclysmic beings, and they were separated by a glass door. They could only aim first and then act according to the situation.
Then, Yi Chengli’s hand holding the gun froze.
Outside the glass door, next to the curtain, a swollen, upside-down face was revealed.
A rotten chin, bleeding lips, a scar that ran across his left cheek and the bridge of his nose, and bloodshot white eyeballs.
It was that middle-aged man.
It looked as if it had just crawled out of the sewage, and the lower end of its long cotton coat was dripping water onto the ground.
The three of them looked outside the glass door at the same time.
The thing outside grinned, and from a blind spot outside the glass door, it pulled over a round, rolling thing.
Black, with messy, dripping, short fur.
The middle-aged man formed three words with his swollen face.
[Is it pretty?]
Whoosh—!!
The next second, its head fell off, and the head in its hand also lost its support and rolled into the grass next to the residential building.
The three of them were shocked.
The two Sentinels both thought it was the cataclysmic being on the other side playing some trick—although they had never seen any trick that required its head to fall off, a special region and a special target deserved special treatment.
They subconsciously wanted to cover Yu Yuan’s retreat, but found that Yu Yuan had no intention of moving.
[It’s the captain and the others.]
Yu Yuan said through the mental link.
[Teacher Xu just sensed my mental fluctuation. The one who came down was Student Zhu.]
Halfway through the information transmission, the three of them finally saw Zhu Hui’s figure clearly.
He held a dagger and expressionlessly stabbed the pile of things on the ground many times.
After he was done stabbing, he made a few gestures to the three of them, then climbed up from outside the residential building again.
Seeing him come over, the snow wolf, which had been left on the fourth floor, lay down at Xu Xunyue’s feet as usual. Xu Xunyue stood on the balcony with the notebook and waited for him.
It wasn’t really waiting, since not even a few seconds had passed.
“Very impressive,” Xu Xunyue habitually pinched Zhu Hui’s arm and praised his Sentinel with a smile. “I was originally going to clean up the traces of our presence here, but now there’s no need.”
“It was still brother’s timely action of closing the door.”
Zhu Hui wiped the dirt off his dagger and put it away before he went to hold Xu Xunyue’s hand. “If the glass door on the first floor hadn’t been closed, things would have been much more troublesome.”
