All was well on the way? Lin Yuan arrived safely in the imperial capital.

She said goodbye to the sentry beside her and returned to her home.

She pushed open the heavy door and walked through the deserted courtyard. The little crab was hiding in the porch, poking its head out to greet her.

Seeing Lin Yuan carrying a large box, Guo Suo quickly reached out to take it. When his fingers touched the box, he jumped as if he had received an electric shock.

"What's in it?" The little girl's face turned pale, and she almost wanted to throw the box in her hand. "It looks a little scary. Is it something similar to me?"

Guo Suo keenly sensed a strong will, so he curled up in this not-so-big box.

This brought back some memories of her past. That was many years ago, when she was still living in the polluted area, leading a miserable life.

In that bizarre world, there seems to be a powerful will similar to this one. It is the core of the entire area, so powerful that all creatures living in it are afraid and bound by it.

Although the box that the young lady brought back was not exactly the same, it also vaguely carried a bit of the aura of the "Pillar", which made her feel scared.

"It's the gardener. I hired the gardener." Lin Yuan didn't say anything extra, nor did he explain why the gardener was put in a box. He just told Xiaosuo, "Prepare a room for him. It should be a room with a terrace and plenty of sunlight."

She took off her dusty shoes and coat and walked up the wooden stairs barefoot.

The little crab called her at the bottom of the stairs while carrying a box. He raised his head and asked hesitantly, "Miss, did you have a smooth trip?"

The fair little face with a bob haircut showed a bit of worry, and the bright almond eyes were filled with genuine concern.

Is it going well? Lin Yuan wondered.

After many twists and turns, I saw the dark world and almost died there.

She thought back to the moment when she was about to die, and the only thing she missed in her heart was this desolate and quiet house.

What worries me most is the little crab that lives secretly in my house.

At that time, lying in Ni Ji's arms, I almost wanted to entrust my little crab to that friend.

"The one inside is the gardener." Lin Yuan said abruptly, "also... a family member. He will live with us in the future. Just like you."

Just like you. A family member.

family.

Only after she said the word did she go over the specific meaning of the word in her mind.

This is my home.

Although it is desolate and quiet, it is a place called home.

Will the people who move in become family members? Will they become people you care about, or will they care about your existence?

Lin Yuan filled his heart with this beautiful word, as if it filled a small gap in his chest.

Returning to her own attic, she opened the window and sank into the soft mattress.

The wind blew in from the window, and the moonlight looked very gentle.

The fatigue brought by the long journey disappears in this familiar small space, as if the world is quiet and peaceful, without any troublesome things.

Lin Yuan lay on the bed and reached out to touch the head of the orca doll on the bedside table.

After taking it off, the small wooden box that the killer whale had been guarding under its body was revealed.

Lin Yuan sat up, took off the heart-shaped pendant from her neck, and traced the groove on the box.

The size doesn't look right.

The necklace pendant that Windsor gave her was originally an ordinary heart-shaped stone. But after the tears from the golden tree dripped on it, it turned from an ordinary little stone into a heart of pure gold.

Lin Yuan went to the Golden Tree Polluted Area in order to find gems that could be embedded in the box.

But the situation in the Rose Camp at that time made her have no time to think about her own affairs. When all the dust settled and the contaminated area collapsed, she remembered that she had not yet obtained the gem she was looking for.

She got nothing else from the golden tree contaminated area, so she tried to put the golden heart into the groove of the wooden box.

On the worn wooden box, a golden heart-shaped pendant was placed in the groove where the phantom of the golden tree once appeared.

As soon as Lin Yuan's fingers left, the golden heart melted into liquid.

The golden solution flowed, seamlessly filling the small grooves in front of Lin Yuan's eyes.

The phantom of the golden tree appeared again, above the wooden box filled with golden solution.

The miniature golden trunks slowly rotated, and the golden branches and golden leaves swayed in the air, gently colliding with each other, making beautiful sounds, as if Windsor was singing that cheerful ballad.

The golden gems were embedded in the grooves, and the patterns were seamless. The golden veins began to spread on the wooden box, like drawing a map, from under the golden tree, flowing along the patterns on the wooden box to the next empty position of the gem.

There, the golden fluorescence lit up the empty groove, and above the groove, a solitary eye emerged, staring blankly into the air, the pupils were gray, as if blind, and a tear of blood slowly flowed into the air.

The phantom of the eye represents a new contaminated area.

Blind eyes.

Lin Yuan looked at the eye pattern for a long time, but for a moment he couldn't figure out what specific area it represented.

She took the golden pendant back, and the golden solution changed shape again, returning to its heart shape, and was worn around Lin Yuan's neck.

Lin Yuan lay back on the bed, gently touched the pendant on her chest with her fingers, and closed her eyes.

I remembered everything I saw in the Golden Tree contaminated area.

Weird minotaurs, pig-faced butchers, giant spores.

A breeding farm that imprisons humans in iron cages to lay eggs, a Rose Camp that has been repeating this cycle for four hundred years, a giant scarlet egg wriggling in a cave, and myself with a hole in the abdomen...

Those darkest images slowly sank in my mind, like a nightmare that had long passed.

After experiencing that kind of death, the massive loss of blood, the body turning cold, the soul sinking into the dark abyss...she felt like she had become worse.

Did it feel good deep inside her body? It was like something was waking up, making her feel like she had become colder, weirder, and harder to control.

She wondered if she was becoming more of a monster.

But it's not all bad. She has experienced a lot and gained a lot of emotions that she has never experienced before.

I have tasted anger and reluctance, but also experienced happiness and joy, understood the reliability of partners, and learned to sympathize with my fellow countrymen who are suffering.

Think about it this way, isn't it? It's like I'm a human being again, with a real flesh and blood body that has experienced all kinds of emotions.

Lin Yuan touched the place where his abdomen had been pierced, grabbed the little killer whale cub and held it in his arms.

A strange sense of familiarity arose, as if she had once slept soundly and sweetly in the arms of a killer whale cub.

When did it happen? Lin Yuan closed his eyes and thought for a long time, but he couldn't remember.

Lying on the bed at home holding the soft killer whale, Lin Yuan had a dream.

In that dream, there were scarlet pulsating blood vessels everywhere.

She was crawling in a dark underground place with her tentacles.

In the darkness, the tentacles captured a figure.

It was a human being, unlike any human she had ever known or seen before.

He is exceptionally soft, exuding an alluring scent that tastes sweet.

The golden trees and scarlet blood vessels formed a fragmented picture that swayed before my eyes like a phantom.

This might be an illusion. I don't know who it belongs to, and I don't know when I was captured by tentacles and left in my subconscious, appearing in Lin Yuan's dream.

The tentacles cling to their prey, not letting him escape.

Lin Yuan heard an extremely strange voice in the darkness, and it took her a moment to realize that it was herself speaking.

"Come here," she heard herself say to the captured prey, "let me see what you look like."

She heard the crawling of tentacles, the guttural sounds of prey struggling.

She couldn't see the prey's face, it was as if she had no eyes.

"Don't resist. I will treat you carefully and won't hurt you." She heard herself say happily.

Lin Yuan suddenly woke up from his sleep, and the killer whale doll fell out of his arms.

It was already bright outside the window, and the bright sunshine shone on the weed-covered courtyard, dispelling the sticky and ambiguous dream.

Lin Yuan rubbed her face. She didn't understand why she had such a dream.

It's too absurd and yet realistic. It's like something someone is experiencing in a dream.

She thought about it carefully. When she fell into the illusion created by the Scarlet Egg in that cave, she should not have seen such a shameful scene.

Lin Yuan patted his chest. Fortunately, fortunately, this was just a ridiculous dream of his own and would not be seen by anyone else, such as a sentry.

After breakfast that day and after consulting Xiaosuo, Lin Yuan went to the annex to visit the new gardener.

Xunhua was placed in a room with a terrace and good sunlight.

There were two buildings in the courtyard of Lin Yuan's house, the main building and the auxiliary building, and countless empty rooms. There were only three people living there, and it was very empty. It took Lin Yuan a long time to walk to Xunhua's house.

Xunhua, who was taken home in a box, was wrapped in a large blanket and curled up on the terrace to bask in the sun.

Lin Yuan sat with him on the terrace for a while.

From here, you can see a large courtyard.

The sun was shining brightly in the sky, driving away the gloom that had lasted for a long time.

The overgrown courtyard was bathed in bright sunlight. Insects and birds were chirping in the courtyard, and various wild animals were running around in the grass.

A woodchuck poked its round head out from under the roots of a tree, rubbed its hands together, and soon disappeared again.

Xunhua was lying on the terrace, wrapped in a thick blanket, revealing her short silver hair. She was bathed in the bright sunlight, motionless.

The body under the blanket seemed to have recovered a lot, and it seemed that it had grown new limbs.

Lin Yuan sat with him for a long time, watching the little mouse burrowing in and out underground, and found it very interesting.

"You...don't you think I'm dirty?" A deep voice came from under the blanket.

"You must be mistaken." Lin Yuan thought for a moment and said with certainty, "It's not you who is dirty, it's those people and that world."

She said no more, took out the golden necklace, hung it on the window, and left.

The pure golden color sparkled in the window when the sunlight hit it.

After Lin Yuan came back, the number of visitors suddenly increased.

The first to arrive were Nicole and several other guide friends.

The door was opened for them by the new gardener.

"Oh my God, where did you recruit the gardener from?" Nicole was still craning her neck to look out the window until she sat down in the living room.

The gardener who had just led them in had a silver mask on the upper half of his face, revealing only his cool jawline and thin, pursed lips.

He had short silver hair that was neatly combed back with hair gel. He had thin limbs, gloves on his hands, a scarf around his neck, and his movements were elegant, like those of a noble family.

He doesn't look like a gardener at all, but rather like a nobleman from a century-old world.

He was a little cold and didn't like to talk to people. He led the guests into the living room, bowed slightly, and then retreated to the courtyard without saying a word.

Under a big tree, I was teasing a groundhog that had just come out of its hole with some food.

"Yes, his craftsmanship is good. Although your garden is still desolate, it is much better than the last time I came. Now it really has some unique wild charm." Shu Jingtong praised.

"I'm lucky. I met him, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to invite him here." Lin Yuan said.

The next person to visit was Roy, a colleague from his special research institute.

"I simply can't believe my ears." Roy's expression was extremely exaggerated, and his words were somewhat incoherent.

"It's spread all over the White Tower that Contaminated Area 77 has collapsed. It was a guide who opened the door, and it was also a guide who caused the contaminated area to collapse."

"As soon as I heard it, I guessed it was you who did it. No other guide could do such a thing except you."

"This is truly unprecedented explosive news. Now everyone is talking about it. Even Her Majesty the Queen has expressed her concern and contacted our Special Research Department."

Roy's mouth was dry after talking for a long time. He took the tea handed to him by Xiaosuo, said thank you, and took a sip of tea.

"Well, the tea is pretty good. But why is the yard you live in so dilapidated? No one has been hired to take care of it. When I walked in, I thought it was a haunted house."

Lin Yuan answered him, "We have already hired a gardener. It will be fine soon."

Roy was successfully diverted from the topic by her and began to care about the living conditions of the girl living alone.

"There are too few people. Such a large villa should have more people to make it more lively. It will also be safer. You should have maids, butlers, butlers, bodyguards and cooks..."

"Oh no, I was just about to tell you that you clearly promised me that you would not go to Contaminated Area 77, so why did you sneak in?"

"Do you know how dangerous that place is?"

"Are you injured? I've applied for compensation and leave for you."

"During this period of time? Okay? Okay? Stay at home, attend more dances, get to know more decent sentinels, and stop thinking about running around."

After seeing off the mumbling Roy, Lin Yuan received a new guest.

He was a sentry, with one arm broken and he was extremely thin, but his features showed a firmness that had not been worn away by the vicissitudes of life.

He saw Lin Yuan at the gate, knelt on one knee, lifted up Lin Yuan's fingers and kissed her hand.

"This is the most solemn etiquette of our family." The sentry stood up. "My name is Yunluo. Do you remember me?"

Lin Yuan remembered him. When he was helped out of the cage in the Golden Tree contaminated area, he was tortured and seriously injured. He looked helpless, wolfish and extremely weak.

But now he had tidied himself, and a warrior's determination was restored in his eyes and brows, and he stood in front of her as a sentinel.

"I remember you." Lin Yuan stretched out her hand to him. "We agreed to meet again when we get out alive."

The two people's palms touched each other and shook gently.

The palms of each other were warm and alive. They were not dead in that dark place. They met each other alive in the sunshine as they had agreed at that time.

Lin Yuan asked Yun Luo about the injury on his arm.

"Don't worry, as long as you are willing to spend the money, you can get a mechanical arm." Yun Luo calmly moved the small part of his arm that was left. "Compared to being able to get out of that place alive, a little disability is not a big deal."

He left a gift, his address and an invitation letter to Lin Yuan, hoping that Lin Yuan would have the opportunity to visit his home.

In addition to Yunluo, there were quite a few sentinels who came to visit. Some of them had escaped alive from the contaminated area No. 77. After hearing about the situation, they came to express their gratitude.

In addition, some noble families sent invitations to the banquet. Perhaps after hearing the recent exciting news, they became curious and wanted to see what kind of supernatural guide could open the contaminated area that had not been opened for hundreds of years.

Lin Yuan soon became tired of such bustle and became impatient. He closed the door and refused to receive the endless stream of guests.

She nestled in the living room, eating all sorts of desserts stored at home and drinking the tea that Xiaosuo made for her.

Xiaosuo's tea-making skills are becoming more and more sophisticated, and the snacks are also very sweet.

The new gardener planted a rose by the window.

Cultivating the soil, transplanting, watering. The rose plant shook its branches in the moonlight, looking so tender and juicy, as if it had taken root and sprouted in an instant, and would soon bloom.

After finishing his work, the new gardener glanced at Lin Yuan, who was sitting in the living room holding a cup of tea.

"You really didn't notice?"

Lin Yuan stuffed his mouth with cookies, but before he could swallow them, he puffed up his cheeks and mumbled, "What did you notice?"

"You should be able to catch him." Xunhua sighed, "He has come here several times. Every time he stands in that alley for a long time, watching other people coming in and out. He seems a little pitiful."

"Yes, I mean the killer whale."