Chapter 6
The crisis was resolved without further incident, and traffic soon resumed its normal flow. Driving down the one-way roadway, the chauffeur was still chatting about what had just occurred.
“That was a high-security convict on the run from the White Fortress. No wonder Master Gu came in person to make the arrest.”
The Morna Republic had originally evolved from seven separate factions scattered across the continent. Later, with the rampant plague causing catastrophic population collapse, the current Morna Government military existed largely in name only. Real political and military power was divided between two major factions: the Sunflare Society and the Morningstar Society.
Chu Ya’s father, Chu Chengyu, served as president of the Morningstar Society and was also a prime candidate in the upcoming prime ministerial election.
With resources scarce, both factions fought tooth and nail over key institutions, each clamping down without the slightest intention of letting go. Certain apparatuses ended up co-managed, with both societies deploying their own personnel to maintain parity. Thus, while the Morna Government appeared to be run by the military, its members each answered to their respective masters in either the Sunflare Society or the Morningstar Society.
As a trusted confidant of Chu Ya’s father, Gu Lin had been positioned inside contested institutions like the White Fortress, becoming a colonel in the Government military and the warden overseer of the high-security penitentiary.
For Chu Ya’s inspection trip to the Abyss, he had traveled with military officials, but half of the delegation belonged to Chu Chengyu’s Morningstar faction.
Sitting in the back of the car, Chu Ya was still turning over the earlier encounter in his mind.
In his imagination, anyone locked away inside the White Fortress would look utterly vicious and depraved. Yet that man looked unremarkable, entirely unthreatening. When he had prepared to blow open the window with the mortar, he had even warned the people inside to back away so they wouldn’t get hurt.
Still, only those guilty of heinous crimes were imprisoned in a place like the White Fortress, proving he wasn’t as harmless as he appeared. Distinguishing good from bad was never simple based on a single action.
Chu Ya then recalled Gu Lin’s parting words.
It sounded like the man had only broken through after escaping from the White Fortress, less than a week prior. But what did Gu Lin mean when he said someone who had “broken through” was useless?
What did “useful” and “useless” even refer to?
Lost in his thoughts, the car glided out of the commercial district. The towering buildings lining either side had no solid exterior walls, each level supported entirely by bare cylindrical pillars. Beneath the artificial daylight cast by high-pressure sodium lamps, tiers of rice, wheat, and corn could be seen growing across every floor.
This sprawling sector was the Agricultural Base, and these structures were vertical farming towers—providing the sole touch of living greenery across this concrete-and-steel metropolis.
The Agricultural Base was also known as the affluent district, as residential high-rises were slotted into every available gap between the farming towers. Windows here opened directly onto green foliage. Even if it was merely corn stalks and potato vines, the properties commanded exorbitant prices, accessible only to the ruling elite.
The Chu family residence occupied one of those residential towers.
Chu Ya pressed the window switch, letting the crisp scent of vegetation drift into the vehicle. The sedan veered off the third-tier arterial road via an off-ramp, turning into a narrow driveway flanking rows of rustling cornstalks, before gliding to a stop outside a residential high-rise.
Chu Ya stepped out, and the driver took the car down toward the underground garage.
The so-called “underground” was actually the hollow interior within the specialized metallic hull that suspended Cloud Peak in mid-air. Every inch of that interior cavity had been repurposed, packed with factories and parking bays of every conceivable sort.
Chu Ya stepped into the private elevator on the far right, which carried him directly to the building’s penthouse floor.
The elevator doors parted to reveal the living room. Seated on the sofa was a well-groomed middle-aged woman who looked up at the chime, calling out with evident joy: “Little Ya.”
“Mother.”
Mrs. Chu rose to meet him, taking Chu Ya by the hands to look him over. “Did you manage alright down there?”
“…I was only in the Abyss for one night.”
“Did you take your differentiation stabilizer? Do you feel unwell anywhere? You’re looking a little pale.”
“I took it, and I feel fine.” Chu Ya gave his mother’s hands an affectionate squeeze. “Is Father home?”
“He left just a moment ago. Said he had to attend an emergency meeting and won’t be back until very late. Have you eaten?” Without waiting for him to reply, Mrs. Chu added with knowing warmth, “I’m sure you haven’t. I’ll have Ah Qin whip up something for you. By the time you’re out of the bath, it’ll be ready.”
As Mrs. Chu headed into the kitchen, Chu Ya remained in the entryway, shrugging out of his suit jacket and placing it alongside his overcoat on the shoe-changing bench. Wearing only his shirt, he hurried toward his bedroom, calling out over his shoulder: “Sister Qin, please make sure to disinfect my clothes after washing them!”
“Will do!” the maid Ah Qin called back from the kitchen.
The Chu residence was a two-story layout, with bedrooms situated on the second level. Chu Ya headed upstairs into his room, stepped into the shower to rinse off, and then sank into the bath.
As hot water enveloped his body, soothing warmth seeped into every limb and muscle. Reflecting on his mother’s words, Chu Ya couldn’t shake the feeling that his father had run into something troublesome—his schedule lately had been unusually relentless…
When the lunch bell rang, Shen Quanquan was finally released from the punishment room by the supervisor. He scrambled in a frantic rush to tuck his square tin box back into its old hiding spot in the backyard before charging toward the cafeteria.
Meal service hadn’t started yet, but several queues had already formed, each headed by two large iron buckets containing lunch. Just as he was about to barrel inside, an older boy on hall monitor duty blocked his path.
“You’re too dirty. You can’t go in. Go wash your face first,” the monitor said.
Shen Quanquan’s eyes remained glued to the two iron buckets as he rubbed his face vigorously with both hands. “There, all clean!”
Looking at a face that was somehow even dirtier than before, the monitor immediately spun around: “Reporting to the supervisor—”
“I’ll wash it! I’m going right now!” Not daring to slack off any longer, Shen Quanquan pumped his short little legs, darting like a gust of wind toward the washroom at the end of the hall.
The water trickling from the tap was still cold, but considerably warmer than it had been in the freezing dawn. Shen Quanquan removed his cap and necktie, rolled up his sleeves, and scrubbed his face and hands with thorough diligence. When he looked up into the wall mirror, staring back at him was finally a fair, clean little boy with huge, bright eyes.
This time, Shen Quanquan made it into the cafeteria without a hitch and found the junior-class queue. Spotting Lin Duozhi standing at the very back staring at him, he slipped into line behind him.
“Did the supervisors find out about the black balls and lock you up?” Lin Duozhi asked in a hushed, nervous whisper.
“No, I hid the black balls.” Shen Quanquan tapped his coat pocket. “I ran outside, then ran back in, and ran outside again, and got caught outside the front gates.”
Since chocolate had come up, he couldn’t resist dipping his head to sniff his pocket. Lin Duozhi leaned over to sniff too, prompting Shen Quanquan to clamp his hand down and twist away. “Sniff your own!”
“Mine’s under my mattress.”
“Well, what if you sniff all the smell out of mine?”
Lin Duozhi backed off, asking instead, “Why’d you run out the front gates anyway? If you went through the fence hole, they wouldn’t have caught you.”
Shen Quanquan felt a twinge of regret, keeping his mouth pressed shut in silence.
“Shen Quanquan!” someone called from nearby. Shen Quanquan turned his head, spotting Liu Sijin in the neighboring line, and waved. “Liu Sijin.”
“Come stand over here with me,” Liu Sijin said, patting the space beside her.
Shen Quanquan turned to Lin Duozhi. “Should we go over?”
“Who is she?”
Before Shen Quanquan could answer, an older girl with a shaved head standing behind Liu Sijin smacked her on the back, snapping crossly, “You’re not allowed to play with smelly boys.”
Liu Sijin fell silent. Shen Quanquan rounded on Lin Duozhi: “They don’t play with smelly boys, so you can’t come. I’ll go by myself.”
Lin Duozhi was displeased. “I took a bath just last week! I don’t smell! You haven’t taken a bath in forever!”
Shen Quanquan was outraged. “I just washed my face! You didn’t even wash your face today! And I’m not a smelly boy, I’m a smelly kid!”
“Then I’m a smelly kid too!”
Both boys had raised their voices, prompting a burly junior-class boy standing further ahead in line to whirl around, flapping his hands frantically in front of his nose: “Stinks! Stinks so bad! You two stink bugs, you’re disgusting, totally gross!”
“You’re the stink bug!” Lin Duozhi shot back.
The boy held up his hand. “You’re a freak! You have six fingers! Freak stink bug!”
Lin Duozhi went completely quiet, slipping his left hand behind his back.
Shen Quanquan immediately scanned the senior-class queue. Finding no visible threats after a quick sweep, he pulled an ugly face at the boy and sneered in a shrill, mocking voice: “Dung beetle, dung beetle! Wang Zhusheng is a dung beetle who pooped his pants!”
As if struck right where it hurt most, Wang Zhusheng’s round face flushed crimson. He suddenly whipped around toward the food counters and hollered, “Bro!”
Among the duty monitors standing up front, a tall, brawny older boy glanced over.
“What is it?”
“Bro! He’s calling me a dung beetle!”
Shen Quanquan had never imagined Wang Zhusheng’s older brother would actually be there. Paralyzed with terror, he stood frozen like a wooden stump, eyes wide with horror as the older boy hurled his serving spoon into the bucket and came storming straight toward them.
“Quanquan, Quanquan…” Lin Duozhi was trembling so hard his voice shook.
Wang Zhusheng’s brother marched up to Shen Quanquan, seized him roughly by the collar, and hoisted him off the ground. Shen Quanquan didn’t dare resist, dangling in mid-air with his short body ramrod straight, hands glued to his sides.
With supervisors nearby, the older boy didn’t dare go too far, but he still growled with savage malice: “You call my brother that again, and I’ll kill you.”
Shen Quanquan kept staring at him in frozen terror. Wang Zhusheng’s brother shoved him down onto the floor, spitting out a harsh, “Get lost!”
Shen Quanquan stumbled back into the queue, his cap tumbling onto the floor. None of the junior kids dared to move an inch. He remained sprawled on the ground, terrified to get back up, until Wang Zhusheng’s brother turned and walked away. Only then did Liu Sijin and Lin Duozhi haul him up.
“I’m gonna tell the supervisor,” Shen Quanquan muttered, looking down and rubbing an abrasion on the back of his hand.
A child nearby warned, “Don’t tell! If you tell, he’ll beat you up.”
This was hardly the first time Shen Quanquan had been put in his place by older kids, and having suffered before after snitching, he had no real intention of telling on him. With eyes rimmed in red, he picked up his padded cap and pulled it back on.
“He’s gone now. You’re fine.”
“Wang Zhusheng’s brother hits really hard. I’ve seen him beat up other big kids.”
“He’s super mean! Even the big kids can’t beat him.”
A busy supervisor looked over, and seeing the children huddled together, rapped a wooden ruler against the desk beside him: “What are you all doing over there? Stand in line properly, no talking!”
The children straightened up. Shen Quanquan peered ahead, catching Wang Zhusheng smirking maliciously back at him, mouthing the words: Stink bug. Stink bug.
Shen Quanquan pretended not to care, averting his gaze and looking all around as if nothing had happened.
Yet the grievance and sting in his chest were too much to bear. Turning around to pretend to chat with Lin Duozhi, tears began spilling down his cheeks, pattering onto his coat.
Lin Duozhi kept whispering comforting words: “Don’t cry, please don’t cry… I’ll let you smell my black balls later, okay?”
Shen Quanquan hiccuped softly: “…I, I have my own.”
Reaching into his coat pocket, his fingers brushed against a patch of cool, smooth silk. He stroked and kneaded the fabric, squeezing it tightly within his small fist. A faint sense of solace washed over him, and his tears finally subsided.
Wiping his face with a hasty swipe of his sleeve, Shen Quanquan whispered to Lin Duozhi, “My big brother will beat him up for me later.”
Lin Duozhi blinked in bewilderment. “You have a big brother?”
“Yes!” Shen Quanquan declared with absolute certainty. “He fights super hard! Even one, two, three big kids couldn’t beat him! Wang Zhusheng’s brother wouldn’t stand a chance!”
“I didn’t know you had a brother.”
Shen Quanquan almost blurted out that he was the big kid from Cloud Peak who had given them the black balls, but swallowed the words before they could slip past his lips. His fingers continued to rub the necktie hidden inside his pocket, and after several seconds of silence, he nodded firmly: “My brother is up on Cloud Peak. He’s coming to find me later.”
Lin Duozhi didn’t doubt him for a second. “Will he beat up Wang Zhusheng’s brother for you?”
“Yeah! He’ll pin Wang Zhusheng’s brother to the floor and beat him to smithereens! And Wang Zhusheng’s brother will go, Ah… ah…” Shen Quanquan raised his hands, flapping his arms to mimic someone thrashing helplessly on the ground. “He’ll try to get up, but my brother will have already beaten him to smithereens!” Glaring fiercely down at the floor, he hissed, “My brother will say: You hit my little brother again, and I’ll kill you!”
Lin Duozhi giggled behind pressed lips, and Shen Quanquan’s mood instantly brightened. Peeking toward Wang Zhusheng’s brother, and seeing that the older boy wasn’t looking, Shen Quanquan secretly flashed finger guns: “Mental attack!”
Lin Duozhi mimicked him from behind cover: “Mental attack!”
“He’s gonna tumble headfirst into the bucket in a minute.”
“Dead.”
“Yep. Dead.”
“Hehehe…”
In the neighboring line, the older girl with the shaved head had been watching them with cold detachment. Rolling her eyes, she scoffed under her breath: “Childish, smelly boys.”
