Chapter 32 Desert Ruins - 6 "Young Master Louis..."
"Young Master Louis, it's been a long time." The middle-aged general said gently on the other end of the line, a kind smile on his aged face. He carefully examined Lu Yi through the video: "You look much darker."
"I've been sunbathing for the past three months." Lu Yi smiled and touched her face. "Doesn't it look good?"
Because the city is shrouded in fog all year round, and the residents never see the sun, Lu Yi, who was originally very fair-skinned, had become quite rosy by the time he met Tang Bufan, and now his skin is almost a wheat color.
“No, you’re very healthy. You look great,” Angus said with a smile.
Lu Yi smiled and remarked, "Wandering is quite interesting."
After he finished speaking, he got to the point and told Angus about the strange mutated poison people in the town of poison people and the abandoned mothership. Upon hearing this, the middle-aged general's expression immediately became solemn.
"Have similar strange poisonous people been found around the Western Federation?" Lu Yi asked Angus seriously.
“No.” Angus frowned. “But if those mutated poisoners appear on the edge of the Federation, they will pose a great threat to the lives of the surrounding residents.”
“That’s what I’m worried about, so please remind Lord Phil that his territory is the closest to here, and tell him to pay attention to perimeter defenses in the next few years,” Lu Yi said seriously.
“Okay, I’ll remind him.” Angus thought for a moment, then asked Lu Yi with concern, “Do you need me to send someone over to support you?”
Although Lu Yi is powerful, he is only 17 years old and an important successor to the throne of the Western Federation. He cannot afford to have any accidents happen to him.
"No, I'm leaving soon, and the Autumn Beasts are coming, so the Federation needs manpower. Just keep an eye out for any suspicious scientists in the dungeon."
After Lu Yi finished speaking, he thought for a moment and added, "If the Federation still has some spare capacity after dealing with the beast tide, we can send another team to explore. There's an oil field in the nearby desert, and the wreckage of this space carrier is also of great value. We can have the Federation's researchers assess whether it's worthwhile to transport the supplies back. If it's not worth it, then forget it."
“Alright.” Angus nodded to indicate that he understood, then asked, “Is there anything else you need, Master Louis?”
Standing behind the sand dune, Lu Yi couldn't help but look in the direction of the RV. Thinking of Tang Bufan's repeated nagging about his studies, his eyes softened and he smiled gently.
"I will apply to the academy for a free exploration in the wild as an internship. I will submit a report on this period a year later. After the certificate of completion is stamped, please have someone send it to me. At that time... I should be in the Eastern Federation of Orcs."
Lu Yi lowered his eyes, his expression becoming somewhat dejected. He wondered if Tang Bufan had successfully entered the underground city at that time, and whether he was still alive...
"Are you in a relationship?" Angus suddenly asked.
Lu Yi was startled and looked up at the virtual screen in astonishment, only to find that the gentle middle-aged general was watching him through the video.
"No...no." Lu Yi denied it, feeling inexplicably guilty, so he raised his hand and awkwardly touched the back of his neck: "I just met a very interesting friend."
"..." Angus was still scrutinizing him when he spoke gently, "You can bring this friend to the Western Federation as a guest, so I can meet him too."
“He… probably won’t go to the Western Federation.” After a moment of silence, Lu Yi added, “I don’t plan to go back either.”
"..." Angus fell silent. The two were speechless for a moment through the video. After a while, Angus said kindly, "Just think of it as coming back to see your mother. The rose garden is blooming especially well this year. Every year you would pick the most beautiful bouquet and put it on her tomb. She will definitely see it in heaven."
Lu Yi's eyelashes trembled slightly, and the image of the woman lying in pieces flashed through her mind again, the red pool of blood spreading from beneath her like her favorite blood rose...
“…We’ll talk about it later.” Lu Yi was having trouble breathing, and immediately said to the middle-aged general, “I have other things to attend to here, I’ll contact you again when I have the chance.”
“…Very well, Master Louis.” Angus sighed silently and bid him a gentle farewell: “Have a pleasant journey with your friend.”
"Oh, right, don't tell my father I'm going to the Eastern Federation," Lu Yi suddenly remembered and reminded him.
"good."
Then the virtual screen floating in the air flashed, and Evelyn's gentle electronic female voice rang out: "The video call has ended."
"Evelyn, scan this mothership and then send the 3D image to Kaige," Lu Yi instructed Evelyn, calmly emerging from behind the sand dune.
Evelyn responded and began scanning the surrounding area with radar.
Anderson lay on the grassy slope with wildflowers not far away, staring blankly upwards.
The high-ranking orcs had very keen hearing, and Lu Yi knew that he must have overheard his conversation with Angus... If that incident hadn't happened back then, Anderson would have been Angus's proud son and heir.
Life is unpredictable.
Lu Yi didn't disturb him. He slowly walked back to the RV, raised his hand and gently knocked on the door. Kai opened the sturdy metal door.
Lu Yi went upstairs. Tang Bufan was still sleeping. Kai Ge closed the door, and the car was plunged into darkness again.
Lu Yi silently pried open the folding chair on the wall, sat down facing Tang Bufan, and thought of Angus's question.
Are you in a relationship?
Why would he ask that...? Did his face show something? Lu Yi raised his hand to touch his face again, his brows furrowing slightly.
He could almost hear the woman's words to him before she jumped from the tower:
Louis, don't follow your father's example; never harm humans.
Lu Yi's eyes were slightly red. He sat there, leaning over, painfully raising his hand to support his head, and making labored breathing sounds in the dimly lit RV.
No, Mother, I have always done well. I have never harmed humans, nor will I marry or have children. I cannot ask other orcs not to love or reproduce, but I can ask myself to.
Tears streamed down Lu Yi's face as she looked at Tang Bufan, who was sleeping peacefully there.
I'm sorry, teacher. I will try my best to get you to the East District Dungeon. If I fail... I can only watch you die in silence.
***
Tang Bufan woke up. It was dark inside the RV. He looked up at the driver's seat and saw Lu Yi sitting there, looking at the glass screen.
Tang Bufan slowly sat up. Kai Ge turned on the lights in the carriage first, and Lu Yi then walked over.
"What time is it?" Tang Bufan asked Kai Ge in a slightly hoarse voice.
"Eight o'clock in the evening," Kai replied in a gentle, electronic male voice.
Lu Yi quickly went to the kitchen, took Tang Bufan's favorite cow mug, and poured him a glass of water.
"Teacher, water."
"Thank you." Tang Bufan took it, tilted his head back and gulped it down. The cool water made his throat feel much better.
"Lettuce and a slice of meat for dinner?" Lu Yi asked him.
"Okay." Tang Bufan nodded, sat there and sighed deeply, feeling weak all over: "Why do I keep sleeping?"
"I'll give you another injection of the antidote later," Lu Yi said as he took the frozen meat out of the freezer.
"We only have about twenty bottles of antidote left, so let's use them sparingly." Tang Bufan did a dazed calculation. One injection every five days, so twenty bottles would take a hundred days, or three and a half months. But at their current pace, they couldn't sense the East District Underground City.
It would be good enough if we could get to the Northeast Plain before winter.
“We can collect more later.” Lu put the frozen meat aside to reassure Tang Bufan: “Evelyn marked the locations of the markets we might pass through on the way for Kai Ge. Each market has vendors selling medicine.”
Tang Bufan thought for a moment before nodding, "Alright then."
Putting yourself in a low-energy state just to save on medication isn't a good idea. Tang Bufan raised his hand to look at his arm, feeling that the veins were more prominent, and there were several obvious needle marks on it.
Tang Bufan didn't ask Lu Yi for help. He pulled out the medical kit from under the bed himself. Since he started injecting these small brown bottles of antidote, his hand tremors had been effectively cured, but his drowsiness was still very serious.
However, according to Kai Ge, the body's desire to sleep is a self-protective mechanism; slower breathing and a slower heartbeat are all helpful in delaying poisoning.
Despite the discomfort, Tang Bufan inserted the sharp needle into his arm, truly fearing that one day he might fall asleep and never wake up again.
Lu Yi quickly brought over the salad he had made and took over Tang Bufan's syringe. Although Tang Bufan's hand was not shaking as much, it was still unsteady. The needle would wobble slightly when it was inserted into the flesh, and there was much more bleeding than when Lu Yi helped with the injection.
"Thank you." Tang Bufan looked at the orc boy in front of him with mixed feelings.
Lu smiled gently at him and pulled out the needle: "Teacher, you don't need to be so polite with me."
"I don't know how to repay you." Tang Bufan pressed a clean gauze against the needle hole.
Unable to repay him, she could only climb onto the roof of the car to keep Lu Yi company, deliberately saying some ridiculous words of encouragement to ease her own sense of indebtedness.
Lu Yi squatted down next to the medical kit, tidying up the syringes and medicines, and said in a relaxed tone: "My teacher has already rewarded me. I am very happy to be wandering with you."
Tang Bufan looked at his sensible son and couldn't help but smile: "Happiness is too illusory, let's get down to business. This car is yours from now on."
Apart from this RV, Tang Bufan had nothing.
Lu Yi raised an eyebrow slightly and looked at the camera flashing red in the driver's seat: "Brother Kai, you don't have any objections?"
“I respect all of Xiao Tang’s decisions,” Kai said in a gentle, electronic male voice.
“I clearly upgraded your emotional module.” Lu Yi was dissatisfied with its answer: “You should have acted cute with the teacher and asked him not to abandon you.”
"I am the AI system of the RV, and acting cute is too difficult for me," Kai said objectively.
The two chatted happily, and then Lu Yi went to the kitchen to continue cooking, while Tang Bufan sat down on a folding chair and started eating salad.
His two heavy fanny packs were placed at the foot of the bed. Tang Bufan suddenly remembered the beacon fragment and lost his appetite. He put down his fork and sat down at the foot of the bed.
Lu Yi, who was frying meat in the kitchen, turned to look at him and saw Tang Bufan pull out the small fragment from his waist bag full of various small tools.
Tang Bufan looked up at him with some concern, and the two met each other's gazes from a distance.
"..." Lu Yi turned his head away to avoid the question, and continued to fry the meat.
Tang Bufan hesitated for a long time before letting out a soft sigh. He took the beacon fragment and slowly walked to the shelf, bending down to take out a transparent umbrella from the gap next to the shelf.
The desert and wasteland are hot and dry, so there is no need for an umbrella. Lu Yi had seen the umbrella long ago after getting on the bus, but never paid attention to it. Only when he saw Tang Bufan take it out did he realize that this umbrella was not an ordinary umbrella.
The two lived together in the car, and some things were simply unavoidable. Tang Bufan had thought it through, so he reached out and beckoned Lu Yi over.
"Take a look and see if the logo on this beacon is the same as the one printed on this umbrella handle."
When Tang Bufan called him, Lu Yi turned off the induction cooker and quickly went over. He bent down and looked closely. On the white plastic umbrella handle was a small totem, a sphere made up of several waves.
Lu looked again at the beacon fragment in Tang Bufan's hand. The white mark was a circular edge and a wave and a half; the rest was gone.
"Yes, the wave patterns are consistent." Lu Yi's expression became more serious. He looked up at Tang Bufan with a puzzled expression: "What is this umbrella?"
"It's the doctor's." Tang Bufan didn't hide it from him, his dark eyes meeting Lu Yi's gaze: "I don't know if the father the poisoner is talking about is him, but without a doubt, the organization conducting the secret experiments here is his."
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