"Go gently into that good night—"

Anzhe and Kelin walked in a long white corridor. They heard a voice reading aloud beside them. The voices were very childish and gathered together, creating a faint echo around them.

This was the first floor of the Garden of Eden. The man who led them in was about three years old. His name was Lin Zuo. He wore a white shirt and a pair of thin gold-framed glasses. He looked gentle and elegant.

The two of them were taken to the office. Lin Zuo said, "Is it okay here?"

Kelin said, "Very good."

Lin Zuo said, "The conditions in the main city are better than those in the outer city."

Anzhe realized it. At least when he was in the outer city, he had never thought that there was a building as big as the Garden of Eden in the world.

In this corridor, apart from the office, there are a total of 5 rooms, 5 classrooms, and 5 dormitories for children. The dormitories are filled with small low beds, and each can accommodate 100 people. According to Lin Zuo, this level of the Garden of Eden is composed of 5 corridors like this, and the children on each level are the same age. In other words, there are four human cubs who are close to 20 years old.

"Originally, most of the children would be sent to the outer city to wait for adoption after they turn one year old. But now that the outer city has fallen, the main city has to take on the task of educating them when they grow up. We are short of staff, so it's a good thing you are here." Lin Zuo said, "Infants under the age of 18 dare not be handed over to newcomers, so this batch of children will be assigned to you after they turn one year old."

An Zhe said, "Okay."

"The further education arrangements have not been announced yet. Can you two follow me to familiarize yourself with the process first?"

Ke Lin replied, "Yes."

Lin Zuo smiled slightly and took a few manuals from the bookshelf: "Take a look at these textbooks and rotation arrangements first, and ask me if you have any questions."

An Zhe took his copy.

There are two courses in the education here, one is language and literature, the other is mathematics and logic. He got the language and literature textbook. Children of 18 years old have already mastered the basic pinyin and grammar. There are some short fables or poems in the textbook. An Ze learned these things very well, so An Zhe did not recognize any syllables or words. After

flipping through the textbook, it was time for class. An Zhe moved a set of tables and chairs and sat in the corner at the back of the classroom. He held a seating chart for the children. Lin Zuo gave him the task of not only listening to the class, but also recording the children's listening. If a child takes the initiative to answer questions or ask questions, he should be alerted, whisper, or do some irrelevant actions, and then he should be turned away.

When he sat down, the cubs all turned their heads to look at him. The cubs' skin was very soft and their eyes were pure and clean. They wore the same white clothes, black shorts, and similar short hair styles. It was difficult to tell the genders at first. They whispered to each other for a few seconds and continued to look at Anzhe, who smiled at them.

——A few of the cubs smiled at him. One of them blinked and fluttered his eyelashes. He asked, "Are you the new teacher?"

An Zhe said, "Yes."

"Wow." Another cub whispered, "You are so beautiful." An Zhe

said, "Thank you. "

The cubs said, "You're welcome."

A cub asked, "What's your name?"

An Zhe said his own name.

The cubs chattered, "My name is Bai Nan."

"My name is Ji Sha."

"My name is Du Cheng."

Of course, there were some indifferent cubs, such as the one in the corner, who looked at him and turned his head away.

But the liveliness around An Zhe did not last long, because Lin Zuo came in.

The cubs dispersed from Anzhe's side in an instant and returned to their respective seats. Lin Zuo looked around and confirmed that no one was absent before starting the class.

He was talking about the poem that Anzhe had heard in the corridor before, and the last poem in the textbook - it was more complicated than the others, and it was what he heard a child in a classroom reciting while he was walking in the corridor.

The cubs first read the poem from beginning to end.

"Go gentle into that good night.

We should burn at twilight.

Rage, rage against the passing of time."

"Though the wise know that darkness will come.

Though their words no longer strike lightning.

Go gentle into that good night."

...

After reading it once, Lin Zuo stood in front of the podium and asked, "Is there anything you don't understand?"

A cub raised his hand, and Anzhe compared it with the seating chart. This was the cub named Bai Nan.

Bai Nan cub said, "You understand everything."

The other cubs all laughed.

Lin Zuo: "Narrow down the scope of the question."

"Then..." Bai Nan scratched his head, his tone hesitant: "Why can you walk into the night so gently?"

An Zhe added a point for Bai Nan on the form, then looked at Lin Zuo, waiting for his answer.

He also knew the answer to the question Bai Nan asked. In the abyss, in the human base, he had seen too many times that dusk gradually replaced daylight, and every night landed on the ground so gently, and he couldn't resist.

Lin Zuo's eyes swept over them, and his lips were slightly pursed, a slightly serious arc.

"This is the last lesson of your year's course," he said. "It has the same meaning as all the previous lessons, although it may be a little difficult for you."

He turned around and wrote the words "Go gentle into that good night" on the whiteboard, and turned back to the cubs in the audience.

"This is a poem made up of metaphors and symbols," Lin Zuo said: "Go gentle into that good night, and its meaning is: accept death with meekness."

An Zhe slightly widened his eyes and wrote this sentence in his notebook.

Then, Lin Zuo began to speak from the first sentence, and An Zhe took notes carefully. After

speaking, the cubs read the poem from beginning to end again.

"On this sad mountaintop,

curse me and bless me with your tears.

Go gently into that good night."

Anzhe paused as he wrote. He looked out the bright window. In the distance, the twin towers shone in the sunlight. The city slowly unfolded, its edge disappearing into the azure sky. He knew that the city had not yet entered the good night, and was working hard to enter that good night.

After a day's class, Lin Zuo left work and handed the children over to him and Ke Lin. They have to take the cubs to eat with Teacher Donghuo, and then gather in the dormitory to watch the news of the day. In order to enhance the relationship between him and the cubs, Anzhe has to answer their confusion about the news at any time, and he can only leave work after the news is over.

The cubs who have eaten are very active in spirit. They play and talk in the corridor. Anzhe feels like there are ten thousand mosquitoes screaming in his ears, but he tolerates these human cubs. Even in the abyss, monsters will treat their cubs gently-but only their own.

Until the news time is up, Teacher Donghuo takes out the clock. After seeing the clock, the cubs suddenly become quiet and spontaneously gather in a circle next to the large projection screen, with Anzhe sitting in the middle.

He was looking at the screen when he suddenly felt something touching his fingers. He looked down and saw the cub named Bai Nan sitting next to him and hooking his fingers with his.

An Zhe had not had much physical contact with humans. He had a deep memory of the time when he bumped into Lu Feng and his head was hurt by the badge on Lu Feng's chest. But the cub's body was soft, just like Lu Feng.

The human cub stayed quietly beside him, just like the spores stayed quietly in his body. An Zhe gained a false peace through this fantasy and touched Bai Nan's head again.