When Carlos Saw Lingren
Besides the cleanup teams, most of the survivors in the base are responsible for labor to maintain the base's basic operations.
Apart from the elderly, the infirm, and the disabled, everyone else, like the cleanup team, was assigned a work time and location. After dinner in the evening, some people could wash up and rest, while others had to hurry up and finish the work they hadn't done during the day.
To conserve energy, the base turns off all lights at 10 p. m., leaving only essential facilities for patrol personnel and motion-activated lights in the dormitory corridors. That is when the virus is most active, and the management has a rule that after 10 p. m., everyone must stay in the dormitory except for the toilet and not go anywhere else.
Carlos, dressed in the base's uniform white striped dress with an apron over it, was humming a song as he bent over mopping the floor.
He works in shifts every two days; this time, he and his roommate are cleaning the base's meeting room.
The conference room is located in the central building of the entire complex. It is quite spacious, with one wall removed and replaced by floor-to-ceiling glass windows.
The orange-red sky reflected outside the window, the clouds tightly enveloping the sun. Since the end of the world, this world has never faced the sun directly. Even on the best days, the sun's halo can only be seen through the thick clouds.
The weather was lovely this evening; the sky was so clear it looked like it was on fire, and the green leaves swayed in the wind, revealing a dazzling array of jewel-like colors.
The sky and the jungle reflected each other, and when Carlos looked up, his emerald green eyes, mirrored in the sky, created the same effect.
His eyes were full of warmth, and you could tell from his cheerful humming that the beautiful scenery was to his liking.
"Brother Luo, you seem to be in a good mood?" His roommate was a very young boy, probably only fourteen or fifteen years old, with a typical Eastern face. He carried a bucket of water to Carlos's side and wiped the dust off his cheek with the back of his hand.
"Isn't it beautiful outside?" Carlos smiled at the child. "If the sky were a little redder... it would truly be a world where the setting sun is like blood, and the whole world is inverted by the blood-red sky. How poetic!"
The child is completely overwhelmed by him.
After a two-second silence, the child said with a blank face, "Brother Luo, I've never met anyone more knowledgeable than you, but how come you sometimes say things that are chilling when you think about them..."
"Just kidding." Carlos shrugged, put the mop into the bucket the child brought, and quickly twirled the mop handle to wash it clean.
The meeting room is almost cleaned; we just need to mop the last small empty area, and then we can call it a day.
Then it was time for him to send a message to Zhao Yijiu.
"You're always scaring people," the child pouted. "It makes me wonder if you've been infected with a virus, Brother Luo. Scaring people can be deadly!"
"Sigh, if you had the chance to study art, you wouldn't think that way." Carlos held up an index finger and tapped the child's head. "Art is always more extreme, more exaggerated. You're too young to understand the destructive poetry."
"Is that so?" The child was somewhat skeptical, but couldn't find a reason to refute it, because he truly had no opportunity to learn art; the apocalypse had come too soon.
Just then, there was a knock on the closed meeting room door from the outside.
The man was very polite; after knocking three times, he waited quietly outside without making a sound.
Carlos's smile remained unchanged as he muttered, "Does someone need the meeting room?"
The child, puzzled, wiped his hands on his apron and skipped away, saying, "I'll go open the door."
He was truly happy; he'd been happy all day.
He really liked Xiao Luo. When he was with Xiao Luo, he could always hear all sorts of novel stories, and the atmosphere was relaxed and pleasant. Xiao Luo always seemed to have the ability to control the pace of conversation, so he would never feel bored. However, the other people in the dormitory probably thought the same way. Xiao Luo was always surrounded by a group of people, like a shining star.
Today, I happened to be assigned to work with Xiao Luo. It was just the two of them, and the child felt that he was being watched by Xingxing all the time. He had a very happy day.
He has no family, but he relies heavily on his roommate whom he has only known for two weeks; perhaps that's what you call personal charisma.
With a big smile on his face, the child reached out and opened the door.
Then he froze.
A young man of medium build stood outside the door, wearing an external breathing filter on his face and the base's combat uniform.
The young man had his hair tied in a ponytail, with a few strands falling from his temples. His eyes and brows, which were exposed to the air, were very gentle, and he exuded a moon-like aura.
Upon seeing the child, the young man greeted him with a slight smile, "Hello."
"Wow, hello." The child exclaimed, then turned to Carlos with some surprise and said, "Brother Carlos, it's the cleanup team!"
Carlos paused, straightened up, and glanced in their direction with his emerald green eyes.
Then his good mood seemed to shatter, and he wore a strange expression, as if some trouble had come knocking on his door.
He loosely clenched his fist to his lips, cleared his throat, and said, "Oh, it's you. Cough cough, the newest member of the cleanup team. Coming to the conference room at this hour to let me know who needs to use it?"
"No, I need to talk to you about something." The young man still smiled, his tone calm.
"Huh? But Luo Ge and I are still working." The child sensed the awkward atmosphere between the two and subconsciously tried to make an excuse for Carlos, "If big brother wants to see Luo Ge, let's talk about it after we finish working, okay?"
"What a clever child." The young man's smile deepened, and he looked down at the child with an ambiguous expression, extending his hand.
He seemed to want to pat the child's head.
But before he could even touch the child's hair, a stick suddenly appeared and blocked his hand.
As expected, the young man looked up and saw Carlos holding a mop handle, looking somewhat wary. He gave a stiff smile and said, "No problem, no problem. Anyway, the work is almost finished. The cleaning team probably has something to ask me. It's alright."
Then Carlos turned to the child and said, "Little guy, you didn't eat dinner, you must be hungry. Give me the rest, you can still make it to the cafeteria now."
The child hesitated.
Carlos narrowed his eyes, subtly emphasizing his words: "Go eat, children need to grow."
Sensing the hint, the child tugged at his clothes hesitantly, then turned and ran away.
Suddenly, only two people remained around the conference room.
The Lingren laughed, "That stick blocked him just in time. If you hadn't moved, I would have shattered his soul."
"But he's still a child." Carlos's professional, eight-toothed smile gleamed in the orange-red sky reflected in the floor-to-ceiling windows behind him.
The Lingren remained noncommittal, commenting, "A troublesome child."