"A black box?"
This was the first time Afterglow had heard of such a thing. The child listened patiently to Gao Ming's explanation, a maturity beyond those tender years appearing on that young face. "Is this something from your world?"
It was a simple question, seemingly casual, yet it gave Gao Ming a crucial piece of information—Afterglow seemed to have recognized him as an outsider, sensing that his soul did not belong in this city.
Gao Ming shook his head and changed the subject. "I have another question. Why are you injecting the excess medicinal fluid into my body? Isn't this stuff precious?"
Gao Ming's upper body was bare. Blood vessels and rootlets had pierced his chest, damaging the Blood City Tattoo. For once, he felt a little relief. Carrying Blood City on his back was hardly pleasant.
"I hate medicine, I hate Fate Flowers, and I hate that we become medicine. If I could, I'd dump all this stuff on someone else." Afterglow was only five years old. Even after pain and despair had forced the child to mature, those habits still differed from an adult's. "All the medicine is extracted from Fate Flowers. I didn't deliberately control anything. Your body is attracting the Fate Flowers, attracting those memories abandoned by the darkness."
The worlds in his eyes were still alternating rapidly. As the medicinal fluid continued flowing into Gao Ming's body, the worlds within his pupils grew clearer. Both existed at once. It was a strange feeling, as though he were both the observer and the subject being observed.
He reached out to touch Afterglow, reached out to pick up the photograph on the table; smiled at the darkness outside the window, smiled at the wall crammed with corpses. Gao Ming stood on a concrete floor, stood on