The Underground District never saw true morning light. Only the chime of an alarm clock could tell its residents that morning had arrived.
In such an environment, it was truly hard to imagine how the people of the entire planet could still maintain almost identical biological clocks and social order.
"Cock-a-doodle-doo! Cock-a-doodle-doo! Cock-a-doodle-doo!"
The alarm clock kept ringing on the cabinet, giving rather the impression of a rooster crowing at midnight.
The big yellow cat in the photograph stared at the endlessly crowing clock with its round, jet-black eyes, probably wondering, Where are you hiding?
Jing Jiu and Zhong Lizi pushed open their doors and came out at the same time. Zhong Lizi called out a good morning, and Jing Jiu answered with a grunt. Then, as they had for many days before, Zhong Lizi began washing up, taking her medicine, fetching breakfast, and brewing tea, while Jing Jiu piled a few cushions together and leaned back in his chair to watch the news.
If one ignored the ages their faces suggested, and if Jing Jiu did not always skip breakfast, they really would have looked like a couple who had been married for over ten years.
But today was different, after all.
Zhong Lizi was about to leave this gloomy district for the distant, lofty world of the second layer, to pursue further studies at Star Gate University.
For at least the next six months, she would not return to this apartment building.
"You're sure you'll come with me, right?" She lifted her black tea and took a sip, hiding the anticipation on her face behind the hot mist as she spoke with feigned composure.
Watching a news report on television about an internal transfer order in the Far-Star-Region Fleet, Jing Jiu grunted in assent, then added, "I'll come