Unlike her previous fake crying, this time Xia Runrun cried sincerely and heartfeltly.
These days, she suddenly traveled from Earth to this strange world. Even though the characters in this world were the same as the ones she was familiar with, and the general situation of the world was similar, there were no family and friends she was familiar with here after all, and it was not her original home.
After hearing what Chu Hang, who was also a time traveler, said, he couldn't stop crying.
It really couldn't be blamed on Xia Ruanruan being too willful and childish. After all, in her opinion, Xiaobai, a person with two bodies in his consciousness, was far more special than her.
What would a cat do if its own kitten started crying?
Of course I was shocked, angry, and comforted one after another.
Although they didn't understand what time travel actually meant, mutants like Egg Yolk, Dahei, and 666 all spoke out to comfort Xia Ruanruan. The large orange cat extended its paw to touch the little girl's head. 666 licked his face and burped into the little girl's arms. Dahei, the mutant wolfhound, patted Xia Ruanruan's back with his long tail to help her burp. Other mutants turned their heads, looking intently at Xia Ruanruan with a stern yet caring gaze. This scene filled the nearby green-feathered parrot with a look of wonder, though a hint of envy glint in its small eyes, barely noticeable to the other animals.
"Meow~ Meow!" (Xiaobai, what are you doing? Why did you make Ruanruan cry? Ah meow~!)
"Meow meow meow~" (You're such a nasty bastard, Xiaobai! Don't think I won't beat you up just because you've turned into a human, meow!)
The big orange cat bared its teeth at Chu Hang unkindly, its snow-white teeth gleaming coldly in the light of the campfire.
"Awoo~Woof!" (What the hell are you doing? Why is Ruanruan crying so sadly?)
Although Dahei and the other mutant dogs didn't understand what time travel meant, they knew that if their beloved pup was crying so sadly, it must be the cat's fault! The mutant dogs all looked at Chu Hang with unfriendly eyes.
Even though Chu Hang usually lacked understanding of other people's gazes and language, let alone any big reaction, he felt quite embarrassed when so many mutant beasts looked at him with unfriendly eyes. He stopped removing the stitches on the down jacket in his hand and fixed his eyes on Xia Ruanruan.
…
Xia Ruanruan was genuinely excited when Chu Hang said that he and she were in roughly the same situation, having come from the same place. The excitement that welled up from the bottom of her heart surged up her nose, and her eyes instantly turned red like two rabbit eyes.
Even though she could touch so many adorable furry creatures in this world every day and sleep on the belly of a giant orange cat, fulfilling the absolute wish of every cat and dog lover, this wasn't Earth after all. She couldn't see her parents, and her shrinking body and changing environment made her life extremely difficult.
There was no mobile phone WiFi, no express delivery, and even no rice or steamed buns. The mutant plants had grown thousands of times in size, which made the food taste extremely rough. The woody fibers of some plants almost broke her teeth. Even though she ate food that everyone envied every day in the shelter, it was still far inferior to the clear soup noodles her mother cooked for her when she returned home on vacation.
In addition, she was even more sad because this body might fail to complete the task published in the atlas, resulting in her being forced to maintain a young body like the Tianshan Tonglao for the rest of her life.
When parents are not around, the child will not eat well or live in a good place, and these problems will continue to affect the child's body until death.
All these things together made Xia Runrun feel depressed almost all the time. She would even think about it in the middle of the night and feel a little breathless, but she didn't show it on her face on weekdays.
Now that she heard that someone had traveled through time like her, how could Xia Ruanruan not be emotionally agitated? The more emotional she became, the more tears flowed from her eyes.
But as Xia Runrun cried, she felt that the atmosphere around her was a little strange. It didn't seem like they were meeting fellow villagers, and the fellow villagers' eyes were full of tears.
Xia Ruanruan: ???
She was so excited, but why didn't the person in front of her show any expression?
Oh no! Did she misunderstand?
Or is the person in front of her deliberately deceiving her?
But this person clearly has two bodies. Even if she's a time traveler, if they want to report her, they definitely won't be able to escape, right?!
"Ruanruan...what's wrong with you? Are you feeling unwell? Why are you crying?"
The little girl's voice wasn't loud, and Xia Ruanruan had tried to keep it down, whether she was talking or crying. But her suppression of her sobs didn't mean that Egg Yolk and Big Black had lowered their voices when warning Chu Hang. Naturally, the others around them also noticed the mutant animals' sudden baring of their teeth and low growls.
Yang Fan and his companions thought something had happened and did not care about anything else. They hurried over from the nearby campfire.
"Is it because your body has changed too much recently? Your bones are growing too fast, causing unbearable pain?" Yang Fan pushed Dr. Zeng next to him and asked him to check Xia Runrun quickly.
Although I don't know how the little girl in front of me suddenly grew so much taller, when the virus first broke out, many adults, whose heights were already set, still grew by more than ten centimeters because of the virus, and some even grew by twenty centimeters. If these people were in good physical condition and had sufficient innate nutrition, it would not be a big deal, and they would only experience fever and itching in their bones.
However, those who do not have good physical fitness will not only feel hot and itchy bones, but also feel severe pain all over the body during that period. The muscle membrane feels like being cut with a knife and pulled hard, and the person in pain is sweating profusely.
"No, no... I don't feel any particular pain anywhere. I just feel a little weird because I've grown up suddenly..." The little girl's eyes turned red, she sniffed and stammered.
Xia Runrun had just revealed her secret, and now so many people suddenly appeared, making her feel a little flustered for a moment.
Why was she so careless just now and suddenly told everything?
Oh no! It was all because Egg Yolk and Dahei were so powerful that they gave her courage.
Now that my courage is gone, all that's left is a growing sense of guilt.
"No matter what, let's take a look first." Chu Hang nodded at Dr. Zeng and made room for him.
He also had to take this opportunity to sort out his thoughts. In fact, just like Xia Runrun, he was not in a calm mood at the moment.
Since the outbreak of the virus, plants and animals around the world have mutated. Much of the world has been destroyed by the rampant growth of plants and animals. Cities are deserted, and countless houses have collapsed due to the impact of the mutated plants and animals. Water, electricity, transportation, and other seemingly insignificant things that support people's lives have collapsed and disappeared. You have migrated to small survival bases, and the entire society, both domestically and internationally, has been thrown into chaos.
At this time, even if people from other worlds travel to this world, it is actually not a big deal if you think about it.
Chu Hang lowered his head to look at the little girl who was examining his body. His eyes gradually turned cold and returned to their original state.
then……
20 minutes later.
After Dr. Zeng helped to check her body, Xia Runruan told Yang Fan, Huang Haichao and others that there was actually nothing wrong with her body. Then Xia Runruan continued to sit face to face with Chu Hang in front of the campfire.
"It was my mistake before... I thought you were an experimental subject who escaped from the underground laboratory of the Pearl Shelter." Chu Hang glanced at Xia Runrun and carefully told her everything about the Pearl Shelter and what had happened in the past few days.
"Three years ago, the world was struck by a viral outbreak. A virus called HCP spread through the air and gradually reached every corner of the globe. Humans, plants, and animals underwent transformations, completely altering the world... The power of governments was also greatly impacted by the destruction of cities and the mutation of plants and animals."
"The power, water, and transportation networks have all been destroyed due to the mutation of plants and animals..." Chu Hang's voice was low and deep. He looked at the campfire as if he could penetrate time and recall the initial appearance of the virus when it broke out three years ago.
"Nearly half of the world's population died in the viral outbreak. The remainder perished in the initial outbreak due to house collapses, mutant beast attacks, and other such incidents caused by animals and plants. Of the 600 million to 700 million people who survived, only around 100 million were able to enter the government-built survival bases. As for the rest... you know... they will become like us, like the rat swarms before the outbreak, carefully hiding in the corners of the city..."
"But the Pearl Shelter is different from other shelters..."
"The survivors in the other shelters are all people who, for various reasons, were unable to enter the official survival base... Some of them lacked food, some were too far from the survival base to dare the journey, and some were elderly and frail..."
“But—the builders of the Pearl Shelter are different. They are a group of lunatics who have the ability to enter the official survival base, but do not want to enter the survival base!” Chu Hang’s sight became colder and darker as his voice deepened. His sight was like the ice and snow hiding a thousand-meter-high mountain, freezing cold to the bone.
"I don't know which lab those researchers belonged to, nor do I know which pharmaceutical company or school laboratory they used to work for... But about two weeks after the full outbreak of the virus, the Pearl Shelter was established. The people in the shelter were all a bunch of crazy researchers. They took advantage of the chaos in the city and used food to buy a lot of test subjects, and I was one of them..."
Chu Hang did not elaborate on the initial chaos in the city, nor did he elaborate on the process of purchasing the experimental subjects, but Xia Runrun could not help but clench the corner of the quilt in her hand, with shock in her eyes. She did not expect that Xiaobai's two bodies would be brought out from the laboratory.
It was not difficult for Xia Ruanruan to guess the details of the whole incident.
A global outbreak like this would initially spread only within a small area, then slowly spread globally. During this process, researchers either discovered something through the virus, or were instinctively interested in this super virus, which is why they stockpiled food early on.
After widespread chaos in the city, the military and government retreated to the survival base, using food to buy back the relatives and friends of the city's residents who were struggling to survive...
Xia Ruanruan's heart skipped a beat, and her heart sank as she thought about it. Doesn't this mean that Xiaobai was sold by his own family?
"Would you like some candy?"
Xia Runrun originally wanted to comfort Chu Hang like she used to comfort her best friend, but compared to the height of the man in front of her, he was too tall for her 7-year-old body. After taking a closer look at her short white paws, Xia Runrun regretfully withdrew her hand and could only take out two Little White Rabbit candies from the pocket of her down jacket and handed them to the other party.
There were a few soft dimples on the palm of the little girl's hand, which looked soft and small. The two little white rabbit milk candies didn't look big, but they occupied half of the little girl's palm. The orange-yellow flames kept dancing with the cold wind, giving the little girl's white and tender palm a warm yellow color.
The sweet candy with a warm yellow color made Chu Hang curl the corners of his lips involuntarily, as if he had already tasted the candy, even though he hadn't eaten it yet.
"No, take these two candies back and eat them yourself. Brother doesn't like candy."
Chu Hang rubbed the little girl's furry head. "Don't worry that I'll be sad. This happened a long time ago... If it weren't for you bringing it up today, I would have almost forgotten about being sent to the underground laboratory after having a fever three years ago..."
Xia Ruanruan: "..."
No... you almost forgot, how come you still remember that you were sent to the underground lab after having a fever? You clearly care about it! Don't think I can't see it just because you're expressionless! I'm not a four-year-old!
Chu Hang naturally didn't know what Xia Ruanruan was complaining about. He just looked at the girl's changing expression and talked about the past again: "When the Pearl Shelter was first established, the number of people was very small. Those researchers who wanted experimental subjects had to buy them from others. Later, as time went by, and they had food on hand, the number of people in the Pearl Shelter increased. Those who were willing to help them capture experimental subjects stayed and became survivors, expanding the shelter's staff. Those who were unwilling... were either killed... or became experimental subjects like me."
"Before the virus broke out, the entire city of Xingyue had a total population of over 20 million, making it a world-famous super first-tier city. Many people here are migrant workers. After the virus broke out, communications were cut off, and many people could no longer contact their families who were hundreds or even thousands of kilometers away. They were captured and used as experimental subjects, and not many people knew about it..." There was a hint of sarcasm in the man's eyes.
"If those guys hadn't either captured everyone in one fell swoop or asked for their identities beforehand, the secrets of the Pearl Shelter's underground laboratory wouldn't have remained hidden for three years..."
certainly……
In these troubled times, no one would care if such things were exposed.
This isn't a society ruled by law. Some people, just to eat meat, would even kill their friends and family. Using living people as experimental subjects is nothing. The only difference is that many people die every day in the Pearl Shelter. Over the years, at least four or five thousand people have been captured by the other party to serve as experimental subjects...
"Then how did you escape?"
Xia Runrun whispered the doubts in her heart and looked at Chu Hang without blinking. She was worried that this sentence would irritate the other party, but she couldn't bear his curiosity.
Judging from what the man in front of me said, there must be a lot of people in the Pearl Shelter. It is definitely not like the previous Xinghai Base with only 300 people.
It’s impossible that Xiaobai can handle all these people by himself, right?
"You don't know?"
Chu Hang raised his head slightly, his eyes subconsciously looking at Xia Ruanruan, his voice unconsciously becoming cold, "Before you traveled to this world, a giant cat a hundred meters tall ravaged the Pearl Shelter. Houses and buildings were destroyed, and researchers were killed or injured. The whole thing happened at night, and in the end, few people escaped from the shelter."
People who come from a peaceful world probably cannot accept the fact that thousands of people were killed, even if those people all deserved to die.
But at that night, the researcher's painful cries, wails before death, and cries still lingered in his ears all the time.
Chu Kang couldn't describe his feelings at this moment. He wanted the person in front of him to stay away from such a cold-blooded him, but he was also afraid to see the disappointed look in the child's eyes.
Sometimes he thought that people like him were actually quite scary.
Although he was not an antisocial personality and did not enjoy killing, the painful groans of those people before they died never made him feel any sympathy. During this time, he even found the remaining researchers and lackeys in the Pearl Shelter.
The nerves in his brain slowly tensed up one by one as the flames flickered, but he didn't want to deceive the other party.
He was carrying not only his own life but also the lives of four or five thousand people.
The reason he was able to possess these two bodies was not because he was infected with a virus and mutated, but because they were watered with the blood of those who died in the underground laboratory.
Chu Hang looked at Xia Runrun who had been silent all the time and lowered his eyes slightly. He thought that this child must be frightened by him?
"Are you hurt?..."
Xia Ruanruan held her chin in her hand, took three or two steps forward, and squatted in front of Chu Hang. She tilted her head and looked him in the eye. Her voice was soft and small, but full of concern. Even her eyes were stained with worry. "That giant cat was transformed by Xiaobai, right? Are you hurt?"
Chu Hang looked up at Xia Runrun without blinking.
"When I saw Xiaobai, he was being held by those three villains. His body was covered in blood and wounds... At that time, I thought all the wounds on Xiaobai were caused by those three villains..."
"But……"
"It seems that many of Xiaobai's wounds are still from this battle, right?"
The little girl's eyes were full of worry for Chu Hang. His shadow was reflected in her dark pupils, and the shadow danced in front of the little girl's eyes along with the orange-red firelight beside her. Even Chu Hang's heart, which had been slightly sinking, was dyed with the warm orange light as the firelight danced, and gradually warmed up.
"No wonder it took so long for Xiaobai to recover after being injured, even with Sister He and Doctor Zeng's help. Xiaobai must take good care of himself in the future! Even though you are different from ordinary people and have two bodies and two lives, this life is yours. If you lose it, it's gone."
Xia Runrun tried to reach out and drape the quilt covering herself over Chu Hang. Fortunately, the 7-year-old's body was already about 1.3 meters tall, so she was able to drape a quilt over an adult sitting on a tree stump, especially since the adult was slightly bent over and lowered his head.
The warm quilt covered Chu Hang, and along with the flickering firelight, it warmed the man's heart.
At this moment, Chu Hang felt that patients with emotional indifference were actually not much different from ordinary people, and they could also feel the warmth brought by others.
"When I saw Xiaobai wearing a thin white coat, I felt very cold... Now it seems that it is very cold, even Xiaobai's arms are cold... I didn't bring any extra clothes, so Xiaobai should cover himself with a blanket first~!" The little girl smiled broadly at Chu Hang.
"Those scum who carelessly used humans as experimental subjects are dead, so let them die. Don't feel guilty, Xiaobai. This is the retribution they deserve! Don't punish yourself with their mistakes!" Xia Ruanruan grabbed Chu Hang's hands and said solemnly, "Don't worry, Xiaobai. It's their loss if they don't want you. From now on, Danhuang Dahei, Danhuang, and I will all be your family!"
Xiaobai spoke with a nonchalant air, his expression cold and unchanging from beginning to end. However, when he mentioned the destruction of the Pearl Shelter and the underground laboratory, his voice changed noticeably, and even his eyes became serious and solemn.
That look was exactly the same as when Xiaobai said he had forgotten how his family had sold him to an underground lab and used him as a test subject. Being abandoned by one's family or being used as a test subject was a terrible thing.
Xia Ruanruan held the man's hands tightly.
The little girl was wearing a thick down jacket, and she had been wrapped in a quilt sitting in front of the fire, so the temperature on her palms was particularly warm. The coldness on Chu Hang's fingertips dissipated with the temperature of his palms and drifted into the cold winter night.
…
I don’t know how long it took, so long that Xia Ruanruan’s legs were almost numb from squatting, when five words softly rang in her ears.
"Okay, I understand..."
………………
In front of a tree stump, seven or eight heads gathered together, with a black and a green bird head next to them.
"Hurry up, hurry up, guess big or small?!"
"Big, big! I guess big!"
“Small, small!”
"Ga ga ga!" (Little little little!) 666 spoke.
"Big Aga! Huh! It says small Aga!" The green-feathered parrot finished helping with the translation.
"Yohoo, 1 2 3, little!"
"Huh! Why did I lose?! Why did I lose again? This shouldn't be the case, huh!" The green-feathered parrot was extremely irritable.
Early in the morning, not long after daybreak, seven or eight young men and two birds squatted in front of a tree stump, talking to each other and guessing the size of the dice in the bamboo tube. It was a short yellow bamboo tube, and no one knew where these people got it from. There were three dice in it. The loser would go out to collect firewood after two wins out of three games, and the winner would cook in the morning.
666 and the green-feathered parrot, both awake early in the morning due to their bird-like nature, stretched their necks to join the crowd and place their bets. The green-feathered parrot served as 666's temporary translator. As a parrot that knows eight languages, listening to the starlings was like listening to a parrot version of a foreign avian dialect; it didn't even begin to demonstrate its exceptional linguistic proficiency.
However, it was useless to be proficient in many languages. Fate seemed to be playing a joke on it. The green-feathered parrot rolled the dice three times but didn't win once. Instead, the black starling next to it won three times in a row. The green-feathered parrot was so angry that it flapped its wings and screamed.
Doesn’t this parrot·Sayuri·Amazon·parrot have any dignity? !
It would be fine if it was just rolling dice with humans, but there is another bird here!
This made the green-feathered parrot very angry. At this moment, the tall and strong man who was leading the dice rolling put away the dice and waved his hand.
"Alright, alright. Gangzi, the four of you go collect firewood, and Dahu and I will make breakfast... That's the happy decision we made this morning. We need to make some extra dry food to take with us on the way to avoid being hungry at noon."
"It's best to bring two thermoses of hot water~"
Green-feathered parrot: “!!!!”
How could this be possible? It hadn't even fought the black-haired one next to it yet!
When Xia Runrun rubbed her eyes and climbed out of the small carriage, what she saw was the miserable scene of the big green-haired parrot being "pressed and beaten" by 666, while more than a dozen heads gathered around them to watch the fun.
“Three ones,” “Three sixes,” “Wow! 666 wins again!”
"234" "Three sixes" "Yoshi! This starling wins again!"
"112" "Three sixes" "Oh my, why won't this parrot give up? How many times has it lost?"
Xia Ruanruan: "..."
Xia Runrun stared at 666, who was happily playing the dice game with the big green-feathered parrot while holding the bamboo tube with his bird's claws, and fell into deep thought.
She'd been carrying 666 around with her every day these days, but she'd never seen him, or had any particularly lucky encounters. Except for the first time she'd encountered 666, she'd vaguely felt that a starling had somehow managed to blend in with the crows. It seemed that 666 had coincidentally fallen into the nectar of black sunflowers, turning the bird black and escaping disaster. But it was still a bit of a coincidence, and Xia Ruanruan had even been vaguely suspecting there might be something wrong with the illustrated guide.
But now...
She felt that it was not that 666 was not lucky enough, but that 666 had no need to use the attribute of luck when he was with her on a daily basis. As for 666 going out to find food, he would come back after eating. She had no idea what happened to 666 outside.
Seeing the big green-haired parrot being beaten by 666's unique dice-rolling skills, it screamed and howled: "Wow! I quit, I quit! Why? Why? Haha!"
Xia Runrun wiped the non-existent sweat from her forehead and awkwardly carried the big green-haired parrot and 666 out of the crowd.
Facing the slightly sighing looks from the people around her, Xia Runrun scratched her hair awkwardly and gave everyone a silly smile.
The big green-feathered parrot held in Xia Runrun's hand had a face full of grief and pain. If it competed with that bird in dice rolling again, it would be a fool!
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