Letter One (Xie Ruonian Is Drunk with Her Sincerity, Alliance Leader)

Chapter 41: Letter One (Xie Ruonian Is Drunk with Her Sincerity, Alliance Leader)

The sun shone brightly, and the shadows of the trees swayed.

The clothes left behind after Eve was devoured were sent rolling by the wind, but the stone weighing them down kept them in place, motionless.

On the grass, a tiny black centipede slowly crawled out of the soil and approached the pile of clothes.

The centipede did not climb straight onto them. Instead, it kept circling around the clothes, going back and forth.

When it found that it could not burrow into the clothes, the centipede clearly grew impatient. It turned and crawled away.

Pfft! Just then, a black hand reached out from the pile of clothes and pinned the centipede down.

Whoosh.

The black hand withdrew into the pile of clothes and vanished. The centipede disappeared with it.

Before long, the pile of clothes seemed to be seized by something and yanked to the side. The stone was immediately dragged off and rolled away.

The clothes rolled about as if blown by the wind, as though they were alive, hurrying toward the place where the Post Office had previously gathered.

Rrrip! The envelope was torn open, and the letter unfolded.

Yu Hong carefully read this hard-won letter.

I'm Lin Yi Yi. I've been staying at Seaside Base for three days now. According to regulations, our squad will be stationed here for a long time, so you can send future letters directly here. The address is written at the end. But remember not to send anything important. It might get lost on the way.

"It really is Yi Yi." Yu Hong let out a breath. Seeing that Little Stutterer was all right, he finally set aside the worry in his heart.

He continued reading.

I left in such a hurry that day, but I don't actually regret leaving. White Mound Village has grown more and more unfamiliar to me, and more and more dangerous.

There were signs of something being crossed out here. Clearly, she had written more, but it had been deleted.

My father and grandfather disappeared, and then one day my mother went out and never came back.

I remember that by then, all the food at home had run out, so I started eating rats. Later, there were fewer and fewer rats and bugs, and I even ate tree bark and mud. Afterward, my belly grew bigger, and my mind became increasingly muddled. That was when I realized I could no longer eat mud and tree bark. So I went outside.

I stayed outside for one night then. You definitely wouldn't believe it, but luckily there were no Black Worms that night, and I survived. The place where I stayed was the Glowstone Mine near the village. If you ever find yourself unable to cope, go there too. But remember not to stay too long. After I came back from there, I developed a fever that very same day. I don't remember much of what happened afterward. I only remember that a grandfather who wanted to sneak into the house and steal things saved me.

I was still young then, and my mind was foolish. I didn't understand anything, so I gave him everything I had. Later, whenever I was about to starve to death, he would come out and give me a little food. But after I grew older, I never saw him again. Perhaps he died.

All right, I've said so much just to tell you that I'm fine, and doing very well. Don't worry. Oh, and this letter was written for me by my roommate, Anseline. She's a very good person, and she treats me very well too. If you have anything good, you can send some to her.

At the final sentence, Yu Hong could not help laughing. There was no way Little Stutterer had said that. Most likely, her roommate had added it herself. The smooth wording might have been her polishing the letter as well.

But it did not matter. At the very least, the contents proved that Little Stutterer really was fine.

Moreover, she had been in the mood to reminisce about the past, which meant she ought to be living in a relatively stable environment.

After finishing the letter, he turned it over. Sure enough, there was a somewhat rough map on the back.

The map depicted White Mound Village, the Post Office, the town, the Glowstone Mine, and the ruins.

Lines connected the various locations, with numbers written beside them.

Yu Hong examined the numbers carefully and realized they were probably estimates of the time Little Stutterer had spent walking.

His expression softened. With this crude map, he now knew exactly where the mine and the ruins were.

Just as he was about to fold up the letter and put it away, his eyes seemed to catch something on the map.

He stopped and unfolded the map again, examining it carefully.

Sure enough.

Right beside the ruins, the map also showed a small black dot.

The black dot was inconspicuous, but a red cross had been carefully drawn over it, along with a short line of writing.

Whatever you do, don't go!

"White Mound Village wasn't marked like this. Looks like this place is far more dangerous than White Mound Village." He memorized the location carefully.

After putting away the letter, he quickened his pace and headed toward the burrow where Jenny and her daughter lived.

He soon arrived at the entrance to the burrow.

He stopped.

He swept his gaze over the area around the burrow. Only after confirming that no one else was there did he take a Large Glowstone from his robes and approach the entrance step by step.

Crouching before the door, he took out the key, gently inserted it, twisted it, and pulled upward.

Click.

The Wooden Door disguised as a patch of grass gave a clear unlocking sound before being pulled open.

Yu Hong looked inside at once. Beyond it was a dark, deep tunnel.

A trace of hesitation appeared on his face.

In a place like this, once he crawled inside, if someone blocked the entrance from outside, he would certainly die.

If Jenny and her daughter were still there, they would definitely know whether there were other exits inside.

But he was not the owner and had no idea what dangers or exits lay within.

Pfft.

He covered the Wooden Door again, locked it, and turned to leave.

I need someone guarding the outside before I can try searching inside.

There was another way, but it was not suitable to use at this time.

He quickly left Jenny's home and went straight to Doctor Xu's door.

Unlike Jenny's home, the burrow where Doctor Xu lived was simply an ordinary cellar dug into a hill.

The door was sturdy, and there was a cross-shaped window on one side. From the outside, it looked as though the entire hill had been hollowed out.

Knock, knock, knock.

Yu Hong stepped forward and knocked.

"Who is it?" Doctor Xu's wary voice came from inside.

"It's me, Yu Hong."

"When did we part ways last time?"

"Before the High Tide Period erupted. First, make sure the Large Glowstone hasn't reacted." Yu Hong reminded her.

Silence fell behind the door. After several seconds, the Wooden Door clicked open.

Doctor Xu's face appeared from behind it. She looked tired and haggard, but her eyes were far brighter than before.

"You came at just the right time! My herbal medicine succeeded!" Her voice brimmed with delight. "I tested it on rats and found that it really can replace the treatment and disinfection of wound inflammation! It's only slightly weaker than penicillin and the like. Of course, I'm also making my own penicillin and erythromycin, but I can't solve the problem of contamination interference. I need better sterilization equipment."

She pulled Yu Hong inside, locked the door, and then hurried excitedly toward the interior.

The cellar had three rooms. One was the bedroom where she kept her bed, another was filled with all kinds of vessels and tools and was clearly her workspace, and the last was a storage room that also seemed to double as a bathroom.

The entire burrow reeked strongly of mold and was cold and damp.

That was also common in most cellars and basements.

"Come, come over here! I promised you herbal medicine, and this time I really made it!" Doctor Xu's face was flushed, as though she were in a state of intense excitement.

She pulled Yu Hong into the workspace and pointed at a plate of green, muddy paste.

"This is it! I succeeded! I tested it on rats, and the inflammation disappeared completely! This is a brand-new Anti-inflammatory Medicine. If society were still functioning, I'd definitely make a fortune! I'd earn lots and lots of money!"

"Impressive!" Yu Hong nodded, and his estimation of Doctor Xu rose considerably.

Being able to make herbal medicine like this meant that, if it truly worked, they would have a steady supply of herbal medicine in the future. For them, with medicines in severe shortage, this was undoubtedly a huge boon.

But he had not come this time to see Doctor Xu's new medicine.

After she had talked at length and calmed down somewhat, he organized his wording and said seriously to Doctor Xu,

"Do you remember Jenny's daughter, Eve? The one who wanted to infect us with the Black Handprint."

"Of course. After all this time, she must be dead, right?" Doctor Xu frowned, gradually calming down from her excitement. She had vaguely sensed that Yu Hong's sudden visit might mean something was wrong.

"She's dead." Yu Hong nodded. "Her mother, Jenny, is dead too."

"Jenny is dead too?" Doctor Xu was slightly surprised, but quickly accepted it.

"That makes sense. With her daughter's condition, she might have been infected too. It's better that she's dead. I've finally seen the true faces of the two of them."

She paused, then suddenly looked at Yu Hong.

"You know a new Mailman arrived?"

"Yes, I just saw him. His name is Li Runshan. He seemed like a decent person." Yu Hong nodded.

"He can send letters from his side. Yi Yi sent me a letter, and I plan to write back, but the price is a little high." Doctor Xu frowned.

Yu Hong had been considering that as well. Large Glowstones were heavy and difficult to mail, and they might be taken along the way. No—they would definitely be taken.

"Then this works out perfectly. Jenny and her daughter are dead, but their belongings and supplies are still there." Yu Hong's voice deepened.

At this, Doctor Xu's eyes lit up as well.

A moment later, the two of them returned to the edge of Jenny's burrow.

Yu Hong lifted the cover, revealing the pitch-black tunnel below, then looked at Doctor Xu.

"Who's going in?"

Although he trusted Doctor Xu more than the others, he was still worried about entering a sealed tunnel at a time like this.

"I'll go." Without another word, Doctor Xu bent down and crawled into the tunnel.

Before long, she vanished into the darkness.

Yu Hong guarded the entrance, vigilantly looking left and right.

After roughly five minutes, movement came from the tunnel again. Doctor Xu laboriously dragged out a large plastic bag as she crawled out.

"Done!" She was covered in dirt, and sweat had soaked her hair and part of her gray shirt, revealing the full curves of her body, but she paid it no mind.

"There are quite a few good things inside, but I didn't dare take much. There were many things I didn't even dare touch."

"What do you mean?" Yu Hong frowned and pulled her out.

"A lot of things inside showed no marks at all, but the moment the Large Glowstone I was carrying approached them, it reacted." Doctor Xu pulled a Large Glowstone from her chest, where she wore it as a pendant. More than half of the stone had already turned gray.

"But I did manage to take out the most important thing. We can come back for the rest later." Her expression changed as she took a black square box from her pocket. It looked like a pager, was about the size of a palm, and had a gray liquid-crystal screen in the middle.