Chapter 24 The Gray Dome Tower 24 History Frozen Beneath the Ice.
However, just before they set off, they were stopped by Wu Qing.
"Do you really think you're made of steel? Haven't you heard of the saying 'a hundred days to recover from a broken bone'? No matter how important it is, you can't go today!" Wu Qing pushed Nanmen Jue back without room for argument. "You ignorant little brat, aren't you afraid of death? Even if you're not afraid of death, it's still not okay!"
Seeing Nanmen Jue's eyes, she actually guessed what she was going to say and retorted to her in one breath.
"You want to die? I can't just stand by and watch Old Zhao's student go to his death. If you dare to go out today, I won't keep an eye on your little girlfriend for you."
Nanmen Jue was speechless for once, “…Don’t you know I’m a woman?”
"Can't women have girlfriends?" Wu Qing seemed even more confused than her.
Nanmen Jue was speechless. She had realized that Wu Qing was the hidden boss in the resistance. When she got angry, Qin Yehan was like a greenhorn, just standing at the door without daring to make a sound.
"Alright."
Nanmen Jue didn't necessarily want to go and die, but she was becoming increasingly aware of the dangers of this world. She wanted to kill enough radiation monsters as soon as possible to avoid any unforeseen complications.
Seeing that she seemed to have obediently lay down and had no intention of forcibly leaving the house, Wu Qing's expression softened, and her large eyes looked at Qin Yehan at the door again.
"...Sister Wu, you're busy, I'll be going now." He left without looking back.
Wu Qing withdrew his gaze with satisfaction.
Having left the Gray Tower, he could no longer connect to its internal network and therefore could no longer access the books and materials within. Staring at the dim ceiling, Nanmen Jue began to ramble on.
"Sister Wu, since you're just killing time anyway, why don't you tell me about your love story with my teacher, and why you left Gray Tower?"
"I couldn't take it anymore, so I came out." Wu Qing brought over a cup of strangely colored powder. "Drink it."
Nanmen Jue sat up. "What the hell is this thing?"
“It calms the radiation,” Wu Qing said. “Do you think your radiation levels are safe? You’re only slightly luckier than that kid next door. He injured his heart, otherwise you would be the one lying there.”
Without a doubt, Nanmen Jue pinched his nose, drank it all in one gulp, and then gagged.
"What...did you add...?"
Wu Qing pretended not to hear, came over and took the cup away, then sat on the bed opposite her and looked at her.
Nanmen Jue realized she had something to say.
“Qin boy knows I have some connection with your teacher, so he sent me to give you some advice. You know what I’m advising you on, right?” Wu Qing cut to the chase.
Nanmen Jue swallowed hard, then silently looked away.
“I don’t understand why you’re so resistant to re-examining relapse hormone. You should have been in the project team from the moment this concept was proposed, right? How could Lao Zhao possibly let his most beloved student go?” Wu Qing said. “Is it because you were afraid after failing once? Or did Lao Zhao’s death have some kind of impact on you?”
"Are you sad?" Nanmen Jue suddenly asked.
Wu Qing was taken aback. "What?"
"You haven't seen the person you like for so many years, and the next news you hear about him is that he's dead. How did you spend last night?" Nanmen Jue asked.
"This doesn't seem to have anything to do with the problem we're talking about, does it?"
"You're asking me a question, can't I ask you one too?"
Wu Qing looked at her and laughed, "You little rascal, you're not small in stature and you have quite a temper. How did Old Zhao raise you? He's really lucky to have found a ghost."
Nanmen Jue stared at her, very interested in her answer.
Wu Qing cleared his throat under her gaze and adopted a more reliable elder's demeanor.
"To say I wasn't sad at all would be impossible. After all, he was someone I had a crush on during my ignorant teenage years. You have no idea how handsome your teacher was when he was young. He could have made a living off his looks, but he insisted on burying himself in the lab. You couldn't pull him out of there even if you tried. His most common phrases were 'The experiment isn't finished yet' and 'I haven't smoked...'"
Wu Qing's eyes sparkled. Despite not being young anymore, she still spoke of these things with the demeanor of a young girl, only with a touch of deep nostalgia.
Middle-aged people reminiscing about their youthful days and sharing their life experiences with younger generations might sound like a major embarrassment play, but the speaker shows no embarrassment, and the listener is completely attentive, so there's no awkwardness at all.
As Nanmen Jue listened to Wu Qing's rambling, she pieced together a handsome Zhao Huai Ren in her mind whose hair wasn't so white. Actually, it was quite difficult. When she viewed them as pure NPCs, she felt that he should have been born with such white hair and a tired face.
"...Anyway, I couldn't get him to come out, so I just stopped asking him out and went into the lab with him. We've been working together for months, and he still hasn't realized that I'm his assistant." Wu Qing smiled. "In the sterile room, everyone is wrapped up like a dumpling. I deliberately didn't tell him, wanting to see when he would find out. As it turns out, he really hasn't paid any attention to anyone else."
She really liked him. Looking into Wu Qing's eyes, Nanmen Jue thought silently, words can deceive, but there's no need to lie about being infatuated with the past. When talking about Zhao Huai Ren, Wu Qing's eyes were clearly filled with pride. She was proud that she had liked such a person.
“Aren’t you curious why I left Gray Tower? I was a first-class researcher at the Life Society, enjoying high-level benefits and a clean identity. Why would I run away and not even get a bite of bird droppings?” Wu Qing looked at her. “This happened more than 20 years ago. At that time, Zhao Huai Ren had not yet become the chief of the Life Society. We were all first-class researchers. Because of a medical accident, I was pushed out to take the blame and offended a big shot. If I hadn’t come out, I would have been in prison for decades.”
"Who pushed you out?" Nanmen Jue asked.
"The chief at the time is probably long dead," Wu Qing said nonchalantly. "To be honest, I was really surprised that Old Zhao would become the next chief. I remember that this guy only liked to do research and didn't like to get involved in power at all. Letting him manage anything would be exhausting."
Nanmen Jue looked at her and slowly said, "Is it possible that your teacher chose this path because of you?"
Wu Qing was stunned. "For me?"
“It’s just a possibility,” Nanmen Jue said. “Whether it is or not, we can’t ask him anymore.”
Wu Qing fell silent. From the side, her large eyes looked even more puffy. Nanmen Jue thought tears would fall, but they didn't.
“He was the one who saw me off back then.” Wu Qing’s voice softened considerably. “He prepared a new bracelet and a car for me, urging me to leave the Gray Tower as soon as possible. I asked him, ‘What if you get implicated?’ He said, ‘Don’t worry about it. As long as one person lives, that’s one more.’ And that’s how I left. Over the years, I’ve occasionally heard news of him, knowing he’s become a chief, knowing he’s researching retroviral agents, but I never expected…”
Wu Qing turned to look at Nanmen Jue. This face didn't quite match her sorrowful expression; she preferred to look at him when he was acting crazy.
“I need to thank you, Nanmen. You told me about his death, so I don’t have to fantasize about meeting him again in reality anymore. I can just keep moving forward,” Wu Qing said. “As long as I keep going, one day I will see him again.”
"So... as long as you love him, it doesn't matter if you know he's dead, right?" Nanmen Jue asked in a low voice.
"You seem to be implying something," Wu Qing said, a probing look in his eyes. "You don't actually have a lover left behind in the Gray Tower, do you?"
"No." Nanmen Jue replied expressionlessly.
"If you don't have it, you don't have it. Don't be so angry, it makes you look old." Wu Qing tried to touch Nanmen Jue's prickly side, but she dodged him.
"I think love or not love can only be discussed when you're alive. No matter how much you love someone, if they're gone, your feelings for them are like blowing air. What's the point?"
"What meaning do you want to talk about... Does love have to have a meaning? Like war, it has to have a legitimate reason?" Wu Qing said, "Love that is not reciprocated is still love. If that's the case, then what's the difference between that old man who never reciprocated my feelings his whole life and him being dead or alive?"
Nanmen Jue couldn't explain it. She looked very serious but was actually lost in thought. She was confused, a confusion she had never shared with anyone before.
“Isn’t unrequited love just wishful thinking?” she murmured.
"So what? I'm willing." Wu Qing said matter-of-factly. "Actually, I've always felt that if that incident hadn't happened back then, maybe if I had waited a couple more years, I could have actually succeeded... What a pity."
Nanmen Jue said, "You've just never had him, so you've been romanticizing the idea of getting him in your mind."
"Like I said, so what? Why take life so seriously?" Wu Qing smiled and patted her head. This time she didn't dodge. "Oh my, your hair is really nice. How did you manage to make it look like this? Sit up straight, I'll fix it for you."
"You have this skill?"
"If you live on your own for a long time, what skill can't you learn?"
Nanmen Jue sat up, and Wu Qing, with a scalpel in one hand and scissors in the other, began to cut Nanmen Jue's hair with a series of snips.
After the haircut, she held her face in her hands and examined it for a moment, her face full of satisfaction.
"No wonder that old man has his eye on her. Her beauty is undeniable. Even I, at my age, am completely captivated."
Nanmen Jue looked at the mirror next to him. His originally dog-chewed hair had not been trimmed into an obedient hairstyle. Instead, it retained its wild and arrogant style, but because of its soft texture, some of it fell down, making it look a little messy and elegant.
Nanmen Jue also examined him for a moment and agreed wholeheartedly, "I'm really handsome."
Both of them were very satisfied with Nanmen Jue's new image. Looking at Wu Qing's smiling face, Nanmen Jue suddenly thought that having a father like the teacher and a mother like Wu Qing would not be bad.
The two enjoyed a pleasant lunch together, and aside from Nanmen Jue's indescribable expression, the atmosphere was very pleasant.
She admitted that she had been a bit too loud about the food in the gray tower before, saying that in this day and age, there's no such thing as the worst food, only worse.
Zhang Chuxi woke up for a while, received a painkiller injection, and fell asleep again. She didn't fully wake up until the next day.
Upon seeing Nanmen Jue's new hairstyle, she was stunned for a while before saying, "I thought I was finally dead. Heaven took pity on me and sent me a super handsome soul-reaping messenger."
"I'm sorry to disappoint you, but you won't die anytime soon," Nanmen Jue said.
Even when Tong Gu came, he stared at Nanmen Jue for a long time, then poked Qin Yehan's waist and said, "Brother Qin, your position as the number one handsome man is in jeopardy."
Qin Yehan: "..."
The days at the rebel base were unexpectedly easy. Nanmen Jue thought Qin Yehan and Wu Qing would tirelessly persuade her to continue her research on antiretroviral agents, but they did not disturb her recovery time. A week later, when her wounds had basically scabbed over, she decided to go with Qin Yehan to see his evidence the next day.
The night before their departure, Nanmen Jue changed Zhang Chuxi's dressing. After thinking for a long time, Zhang Chuxi couldn't help but ask, "Nanmen, why are you so fixated on this question?"
"What?" Nanmen Jue said casually, "Obsessed with determining the truth or falsehood of this world?"
“Whether these worlds are real or fake, what does it have to do with us? Even if they are real, so what? We can't change anything.” Zhang Chuxi lowered her eyes. “I’ve also struggled because these worlds are too real… but like you said, only survival matters, isn’t it?”
Nanmen Jue moved gently, and after changing her dressing, he wrapped it with a neat bandage.
"Survival is a means to an end, not my ultimate goal. What's most important to me is figuring out what to do while I'm alive."
Zhang Chuxi didn't understand.
Nanmen Jue smiled slightly at her, a smile gentler than the night, and uttered the most forceful words.
"I want to understand this, that's all, no reason needed."
...
Zhang Chuxi's arm was broken too badly. Although she wanted to go with him, Nanmen Jue left her at the base.
She could tell, of course, that Zhang Chuxi's anxiety wasn't about confirming the reality of this world. So, as she pressed Zhang Chuxi back onto the hospital bed, Nanmen Jue bowed slightly and looked intently into her eyes.
"There aren't any protective suits like the ones in the Gray Tower here. Your wound is too deep, and you'll easily be affected if you get close to the radiation monsters. Once it's healed a bit more, I'll take you to replenish your points. Don't rush."
Zhang Chuxi opened her mouth, her eyes a little moist, and gave a bitter smile. "I'm sorry, I was just too anxious... Zhao Huai Ren is dead, so this side story is ruined."
"I know, I know." Nanmen Jue casually ruffled her hair, a gesture he had gotten quite used to now. "Don't worry, there's still more than a month left, there's plenty of time."
Zhang Chuxi lowered her head, her voice a little heavy, "There's still more than a month... In this kind of world, we still have to stay for more than a month."
At this moment, Qin Yehan came over to call for someone, and Nanmen Jue responded, saying, "Take good care of your injuries, I will be back as soon as possible."
Nanmen Jue got into the back seat, Tong Gu was still driving, and Qin Yehan sat in the passenger seat. There were only the three of them on this trip.
Tong Gu adjusted the rearview mirror, revealing Nanmen Jue's complete face. "Being able to drive while looking at this face is quite a nice thing."
"Stop being cheeky," Qin Yehan said. "Watch where you're going."
Tong Gu turned his head and made a face at Qin Yehan, but Qin Yehan ignored him.
Nanmen Jue fiddled with his bracelet, glancing at the silent play out of the corner of his eye. "You two have a good relationship."
“I was picked up by Brother Qin. If he hadn’t saved my life, you wouldn’t be seeing me now,” Tong Gu said.
Nanmen Jue casually asked, "You also escaped from the Gray Tower?"
"Maybe so." Tong Gu scratched his head. "But I injured my head when I was rescued, and I don't remember much before that."
"Of the known areas, only the Gray Tower and our base show signs of human habitation," Qin Yehan said.
"Not necessarily. Maybe I come from another gray tower. Aren't we looking for them right now?" Tong Gu joked.
Over the course of a few days, Nanmenjue got along well with them, and the atmosphere along the way was very pleasant and relaxed, until they encountered a small group of radiation monsters.
After a biological mutation, its original structure is distorted, and it looks like just a bunch of naked tissue. It is impossible to tell whether it was a human or an animal when it was alive. The only thing to do when encountering a radiation monster is to be told.
Nanmen Jue stretched his still somewhat inflexible left shoulder, slung an oxygen tank over his shoulder, picked up his gun, and got out of the car.
She had jokingly suggested that Qin Yehan take her to a place where monsters gathered, but as expected, he seriously refused, not for safety reasons.
Qin Yehan said at the time, "Just follow the route, and you won't lack opportunities to encounter them."
It's not uncommon. In this era, it's not easy to find a living person, but monsters are everywhere, as many as you can find.
There weren't many monsters, and the three of them quickly finished clearing them out. Nanmen Jue glanced at his score, which had now reached 10,300.
At least even if she were ejected from this world now, she wouldn't be wiped out because her points were reset to zero.
She calmly closed the panel and muttered, "They're all the lowest-level monsters."
Each one was given a perfect score of 100.
This remark drew intense stares from the two men. Tong Guai exclaimed, "What are you talking about! You're not happy about encountering a low-level monster? There are only three of us little Karami. Even a big one wouldn't be enough to fill its teeth."
Qin Yehan said, "Intermediate and high-level monsters are rare to begin with, so this is a good thing."
Nanmen Jue couldn't explain to these indigenous people, so he just shrugged and continued on his way. He didn't encounter any more monster piles that required him to get out of the car to clear them. Those that were left alone were simply run over by Tong Gu's car.
Around noon, the car stopped. Nanmen Jue looked out the window and could only see a precipice hanging in the air, covered with ice. The sky was gray, and the depths of the ice seemed to reflect no light at all, like a pitch-black abyss.
"Bring your oxygen tanks; we have a long way to go," Qin Yehan said.
Nanmen Jue said, "You mean, we need to go all the way down here?"
“Absolutely right,” Tong Gu said. “The snow is getting heavier. Hopefully, we can still find our car and start it when we get back.”
Nanmen Jue paused for a second, tidied up her equipment, and got out of the car. When she reached the edge of the cliff, the unexpected sight made her hold her breath.
She thought she would see an abyss, but what she saw was a frozen ruin.
Three enormous cooling towers stood silently beneath the gray sky like dead giants. The round openings, which should have been emitting steam, were now filled with dried-up corpses, most of which had turned into a clump of bones. The outer shells had weathered away, and deep black liquid flowed down from the tower openings through the cracks, spreading an ominous color.
This is an abandoned nuclear power plant.
Qin Yehan came to her side, his eyes fixed on the dusty building. "It's quite a sight, isn't it? When I first discovered this place, I was so shocked that I couldn't speak. This is the ruins of a pre-civilization, but we don't know what it was used for."
Tong Gu, wearing an oxygen mask and coughing incessantly, walked over. "Every time I get close to this place, I feel very uncomfortable... Are there too many monsters here? Or is there some kind of curse?"
The open space beneath the cooling tower was teeming with monsters, which wandered aimlessly, emitting unintelligible roars.
"Let's go, we can't go down this road." Qin Yehan.
Just as he was about to turn around, Nanmen Jue grabbed his arm. When he turned his head and saw her serious eyes, his expression also became serious.
After spending some time together, he came to understand Nanmen Jue's temperament. This girl was usually very annoying and always used unbelievable methods to achieve her goals, but she was unambiguous when it came to important matters and was definitely the most reliable comrade-in-arms.
"Bring two extra oxygen cylinders," Nanmenjue said. "We have to get up here in two hours at most."
"...You know this place?" Qin Yehan came to a startling conclusion.
“This is a nuclear power plant. If you don’t know what this is for, think about why we are in a long winter right now,” Nanmenjue said.
Qin Yehan and Tong Gu reacted for two seconds, looking down with horror in their eyes. Tong Gu immediately took several steps back.
"Will this thing explode?"
“Theoretically speaking, yes, but after so many years, I’m not sure if there’s still any energy inside. But whether there is or not, it’s a very dangerous place.” Nanmen Jue took a deep breath. “Going in without protective clothing… I should say you’re lucky, right? Even if there’s some residue, the radiation level here must be alarming.”
Having been out of control for so many years, it's easy to imagine how the radiation energy inside dissipated. In that case, those monsters around it...
Nanmen Jue looked down again, and this time, seeing these mindless monsters who couldn't distinguish between humans and animals, her feelings were somewhat complicated.
These things may have originally belonged to the nuclear power plant workers, as well as the small animals in the area.
"Should we continue using it?" Tong Gu asked timidly.
"You can stay here and watch over your car."
Nanmen Jue didn't have a strong desire for a large entourage; she just needed someone to lead the way. She walked in the direction Qin Yehan had pointed out earlier, and Qin Yehan turned to look at Tong Gu.
“…I understand, I’ll go, I’ll go.” Tong Gu muttered as he followed Nanmen Jue.
The ice layer, accumulated over the years, is very thick and completely covers the original terrain. Even though Qin Yehan has chosen a relatively good vantage point, the visual effect looking down from above is still astonishing.
Nanmen Jue glanced at it, then took out his mini steel cable and tried to hang it on the ice wall.
This time, having plenty of time, she wrapped a belt around her waist to prevent her feet from slipping and falling.
Watching her movements, Tong Gu couldn't help but ask, "Nanmen, are you really just a researcher? Do the researchers at Gray Tower need to do rock climbing training on a daily basis?"
This was certainly not training in the Gray Tower; it was just Nanmenjue's personal hobby. She didn't smoke or drink, but she loved doing extreme sports, including fighting.
This was obviously impossible to explain to the indigenous people, so she simply gave Tong Gu a meaningful smile.
Tong Gu's eyes darted down in terror, as he read something from her expression.
Nanmen Jue appeared relaxed, but she was secretly sweating. It wasn't that she hadn't climbed ice rocks before, but this was the first time she had climbed one so high and so steep, with almost no safety measures. Her muscles were tense the whole time, and the wound on her shoulder that had already healed started to rupture and hurt again.
"Don't worry, I'm right below you," Qin Yehan said from below. "If your arm hurts, don't force it, I'll catch you."
Nanmen Jue didn't say anything, but he did feel a little more relaxed.
Tong Gu was a step slower, sliding to her side and climbing down parallel to her.
She didn't ask for help, and neither did the other two. The three of them silently climbed to the bottom of the cliff. Qin Yehan was the first to land and pulled out his dagger to clear out the monsters around him.
Shadows flickered in the distance, and monsters roamed every corner of the place. Qin Yehan turned around and gestured for the two to be quiet, giving Nanmen Jue a particularly warning look.
Nanmen Jue returned an innocent look.
Even if she sometimes does something dangerous, she wouldn't deliberately seek death. If she provokes monsters here, she'll face a monster horde in a three-on-one confrontation.
Qin Yehan led the way, with Nanmen Jue following closely behind. The middle position was the safest among the three of them. Along the way, she only killed two monsters before arriving inside the building.
It was still noon, but a gloomy and cold atmosphere enveloped the whole body, and the vision became dark. All that could be seen were collapsed rubble and mangled pieces of corpses. A few thin rays of light shone in from the arched dome, and dust motes danced in the air.
Time here is frozen in the past.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com