Although this cave was spacious, it was still crowded after accommodating so many people. Bedding was even set up on some of the small platforms on the walls of the cave.
For the time being, food was the soybeans retrieved from the supplies depot and drink was filtered and boiled rainwater. The washroom issue was not so easy to solve.
There was a large platform a few metres below the north cave entrance, on which the soldiers built a temporary washroom and then put a soft ladder to the entrance of the cave to facilitate going up and down.
Feng Chen took out a plastic sheet from the bag and spread it on the floor, then he put the bedding and fleece blanket on top. Finally, he took out two changes of clothes. Looking around, he spotted a curtain hanging not far away specifically for people to change, so he took Yan Bubu there.
Yan Bubu still praised his new clothes relentlessly, but he didn’t like the style of these overalls.
“Why is there no chest pocket and only two straps?”
Feng Chen: “I wasn’t paying much attention to anything but the length and thickness. Make do for now.”
“So where do I put my hands?” Yan Bubu usually loved to stick his just thumb in his chest pocket, with the other four fingers hanging out.
“Aren’t there two pockets on the side? Put your thumbs in there.” Feng Chen also changed and put his wet clothes in a plastic bag.
Yan Bubu muttered, “But that doesn’t look cool at all.”
“Don’t be picky, ah.” Feng Chen warned.
So Yan Bubu fell silent.
Night came. Yan Bubu was kind of fidgety, frequently going to look down at the cave entrance before coming back.
“What are you doing?” Feng Chen asked him as he sat on the makeshift bed, leaning against the cave wall.
Yan Bubu: “I’m looking for my lion. I don’t know where he went. Why haven’t I seen him yet?”
Feng Chen suddenly became playful. “Do you want to see my magic?”
“What kind of magic?” Yan Bubu asked.
“Lion ex nihilo.”
“Lion ex…what is that?”
Feng Chen: “I’m going to make a lion appear from thin air.”
Yan Bubu was kind of suspicious. “Really? Is it my lion? I don’t want any other lion.”
Feng Chen: “Of course it’s real. And it’s your lion.”
Yan Bubu’s eyes lit up. “Okay, do it quickly then.”
As soon as Yan Bubu’s words fell, Feng Chen sensed the black lion in his mental domain start to get excited too and wanted to leap out. However, the area around them was filled with people. Even if they couldn’t see the lion, the lion had nowhere to land. Thus, he took Yan Bubu to the entrance of the cave.
The two sat down at the entrance of the cave, with their feet dangling over the wall. After a moment of silence, Feng Chen suddenly reached out in front of Yan Bubu and snapped his fingers, “Come out!”
Yan Bubu stared at him unblinkingly until a sudden moist touch came from his left cheek, as if it had been licked by a tongue. Then he turned sharply and exclaimed in surprise, “Lion!”
A few people who were chattering quietly near the entrance immediately jumped up. “Lions? Mutant species? Where’s the lion?”
They looked around until they found that there was no lion, just a child’s overactive imagination. Only then did they sit down again to continue talking.
Yan Bubu asked the black lion, “Where did you go? Why did you run away without saying anything? I’ve been looking all for you, but I didn’t see you…”
The black lion gave Feng Chen a somewhat aggrieved look before nuzzling the top of Yan Bubu’s head again with its nose.
Yan Bubu stroked the lion’s mane and whispered intimately to it for a while before asking Feng Chen, “Big Brother, how did you make it appear?”
“My magic, ah.” Feng Chen smiled as he looked at the rain in the distance.
“You’re so awesome, Big Brother.” Yan Bubu’s eyes were full of adoration. “I haven’t seen you do it before.”
Feng Chen nodded. “Actually, this is my quantum beast. I can recall it here or release it.”
“But I’m your–”
“You’re not.” Feng Chen interrupted him, “Each sentinel and guide has their own quantum beast that can normally be stowed in their mental domain. You are also a guide and will soon magically get a quantum beast of your own.”
“Really? I’ll have a quantum beast too?”
“Yes, then you can also be like me and make a….”
Feng Chen’s words stalled. Although he knew that Yan Bubu was about to evolve into a guide and that a cocoon should’ve appeared in his mental domain already, he had no idea what kind of quantum beast it would be.
“Make a what?” Yan Bubu asked, his eyes glittering brightly like crystals.
Feng Chen propped his hands on the stone floor behind him and let out a long breath. “I don’t know yet, but we’ll find out soon.”
“Is my quantum beast pretty?”
“Yes.”
“Wow…then I won’t think of a name for the lion for now. When my quantum beast come, we’ll think of names together.” Yan Bubu was joyful and expectant.
Two people and a lion sat at the cave’s entrance. Feng Chen picked a strand of wild grass from the side of the mountain and squinted a bit at the rain in the distance. Yan Bubu leaned on him and from time to time touched the black lion lying next to him.
“So you’re my big brother’s quantum beast, huh. How come I haven’t seen you before then? Did you just come to him…”
Feng Chen listened to Yan Bubu’s ramblings. Although there was floodwater in front of him and mutant species hiding in the grass and trees below, he felt incredibly at peace and grounded.
The first night in the cave was not a peaceful one. A constant stream of mutant species tried to climb in on the mountain walls. Soldiers guarded each of the four cave entrances, and shots rang out from time to time.
People lying on the ground supposedly to sleep just stared at the cave ceiling. No one spoke. They just all silently waited for dawn to come.
Yan Bubu, however, slept soundly, wrapping his arms around one of Feng Chen’s. One of his legs was also on top of him.
Feng Chen was only half asleep. His eyes immediately snapped open after hearing the quiet footsteps approaching.
The northeast corner where Military HQ was was lit with gas lamps. The dim light outlined the tall figure in front of him, which was Lin Fen patrolling the cave.
Feng Chen lay unmoving. He saw Lin Fen stop in front of their spot and bow down to look at Yan Bubu for a moment. Then the man suddenly reached out and pinched his nose.
Feng Chen: “……”
Yan Bubu couldn’t breathe well through his nose, so he started breathing through his mouth. Lin Fen chuckled softly before letting go.
A medical officer hurried over and whispered, “Major General Lin, three people are running a fever. I don’t know if they just caught a cold from soaking in the rain or if they are mutating. There’s no place to quarantine them now, so what should we do?”
Lin Fen: “Everyone in this cave, no matter why they have a fever, must be quarantined.”
Yu Yuan also came over from where Military HQ was located and listened in quietly.
“But where should we quarantine them? We can’t just throw them out of the cave, ah. There are mutant species everywhere.” The medical officer fretted.
Lin Fen’s voice was calm and cold, “In this situation, they must be quarantined even if we have to throw them out.”
The medical officer balked. “But–”
“I have an idea. How about this?” Yu Yuan suddenly spoke, “Look at these platforms on the cave walls. If you nail wooden strips around the outside of the platforms, they can be used as rough quarantine rooms. If someone turns into a zombie, the wooden strips can’t stop them, but they will buy us time to deal with it.”
Lin Fen and the medical officer glanced at one of the cave walls. Feng Chen, who was lying on his back, also looked to the side.
There was a small platform on that wall, about one floor off the ground. It wasn’t too big or small, just enough to allow a person to lie down. There were a lot of platforms like it around the cave.
“That could work, but will the families of the feverish people agree to this? Locking people up like that and nailing wooden bars around them……” The medical officer muttered quietly.
Lin Fen’s voice sank, “Then tell those families this: either their relatives live on a platform or they leave the cave. Choose.”
Soldiers soon found wooden planks and closed off those platforms, leaving only a small door for going in and out of.
Presented with the choice for their relatives to leave the cave or be kept quarantined here, the families of the fever patients quickly made a reluctant choice due to the military. The three feverish patients were carried into the platforms.
The platform had bedding and a bucket to act as a washroom of sorts. The soldiers locked the wooden doors and put away the keys. Before the patient’s fever symptoms improved, food would be sent in between the wooden planks. The medical officers could only consult and prescribe medicine to the patients from outside.
After all this busy work, it was well past midnight. At least those mutant species figured out that this place wasn’t going to be easy to get into or tired or something. Anyways, they no longer tried to climb the mountain walls. Finally, there was peace.
Except for the soldiers on shift, everyone else began to sleep. Feng Chen adjusted Yan Bubu’s sleeping position and fell into a deep sleep listening to those snores that sounded like a big cat.
By dawn the next day, the floodwaters had receded and the waterline dropped to where it was before the tsunami.
Lin Fen led soldiers to check the situation at the pier. Considering that they might have to dive, and the sentinels were out cleaning up the mutant species, there was a serious shortage of manpower. Thus, Feng Chen came along.
The two slaps yesterday still had an effect. Although Yan Bubu said it didn’t hurt, he didn’t dare to whine about coming with the teen. He just looked at Feng Chen with watery eyes.
Feng Chen got down on one knee in front of him. “I’ll be back soon. Do you want to go to Uncle Wu’s?”
He didn’t know if Yan Bubu would resist being with Wu You, but Yan Bubu just nodded. “Okay, I’ll go to Uncle Wu’s.”
Yan Bubu was escorted to Wu You. Only after Feng Chen disappeared at the entrance of the cave, did he reluctantly look away.
“Jingjing.” Wu You fumbled around his makeshift bed and retrieved a pile of grass grasshoppers, seven or eight of them, from next to his pillow.
“Uncle Wu made these for you.” Wu You’s voice carried a cautious, appeasing tone.
Yan Bubu took all the grasshoppers. “Thank you, Uncle Wu.”
“Hey, no need for thanks. As long as you like it.”
Feng Chen followed Lin Fen to the big ships that were washed to the middle of the city. Lin Fen climbed on those big ships. After a careful inspection, his expression became very ugly.
After the water receded, the large ships’ whole body was revealed. They had collided many times in the water with the surrounding buildings thanks to the tsunami, and the main engine and other machines inside have been damaged beyond repair according to existing conditions.
“Major General, what now?” A soldier who was following asked.
Lin Fen replied after a moment of silence, “We’ll go to the shipyard and take a look.”
Feng Chen knew he wanted to go to the shipyard to find parts that could be used, but it was a slim hope.
He went on salvage runs there everyday in hopes of getting to the Capital quicker. He knew there weren’t many parts in the water that could still be used. After this tsunami, even the original parts that could be salvaged were probably washed away to who knew where.
But in hopes of maybe finding something, anything, he still followed Lin Fen to the shipyard.
Lin Fen changed into a pressure-resistant diving suit and went down by himself. Feng Chen and several soldiers waited on the boat.
About ten minutes later, Lin Fen emerged from the water. He took off the huge hood, panting as he asked Feng Chen, “You used to come here often?”
“Yes.” Feng Chen nodded.
Lin Fen pointed down below. “Only here?”
Feng Chen thought for a moment. “Only here.”
Lin Fen didn’t say anything else. He picked up another set of pressure-resistant diving suit and tossed it to Feng Chen. “Come into the water with me.”
Feng Chen didn’t understand, but he changed into the diving suit regardless and followed Lin Fen into the water.
He was familiar with this warehouse in the shipyard. After diving straight down about 100m, he entered the warehouse door. There would be some unusable parts scattered on the floor. Anything useful was in the big containers nearby.
At that time, all they had to do was to go into those containers one by one to find needed parts according to the diagrams they memorized in advance.
Now, unsurprisingly, all those parts have been washed away by the water. Even the containers were empty. But there were somehow new things inside too, such as an umbrella, a single sofa or something, all washed here from afar by the sea.
Lin Fen didn’t stop. He kept swimming into the warehouse, Feng Chen following behind him.
Swimming past a few cargo containers, Lin Fen suddenly stopped. His voice came from Feng Chen’s headset, “You guys didn’t check out what’s past here?”
Past here? Isn’t there just a wall?
Feng Chen thought until he saw that the wall in front of him had collapsed at some point. There was an extra container on the ground.
Their headlights illuminated the area next to the container, revealing the space behind. Dark steel could be see at times in the water, like a section of the hull of a ship.
Lin Fen didn’t continue to ask. He swam directly past the container to continue forward. Feng Chen also followed.
There was a truly gigantic space here. This should be the shipyard’s ship-crafting workshop. A huge, brand spanking new cargo ship was parked there, not a single scratch on its paint.
This should be a ship that was just manufactured by the shipyard and had yet to be delivered to the owner when that earthquake hit.
This ship manufacturing workshop and the parts warehouse next door were just separated by a single wall. Because there was no map of the shipyard and the door of the manufacturing workshop was hidden, they searched for parts next door this long without realizing such a big ship was parked just one wall away.
The two swam up to the deck of the cargo ship and then into the engine room.
Lin Fen checked around inside. After repeatedly inspecting the key machines over and over again, he raised his head to look at Feng Chen.
“Guess if this ship can start?”
Feng Chen hesitated. Lin Fen added, “If you guess wrong, give Fan Renjing to Yu Yuan.”
Feng Chen’s expression sank. “I’m not guessing then.”
Lin Fen chuckled quietly and stopped teasing Feng Chen. He directly stated the answer, “Although the ship was submerged, it didn’t go through high temperatures and was not damaged. All the key machines are intact. We just need to load limestones in and adjust certain instruments.”
Feng Chen’s volume instantly increased, “You’re saying that…”
“Yes. We’ll be able to head to the Capital in a few days.” Lin Fen’s voice also became a bit cheery. His eyes under his mask shone with a pleased light.
“Wonderful!” Feng Chen suddenly did a series of back flips through the water.
He rarely behaved like the child he was like right now. Lin Fen didn’t make any snarky remarks. He patted his shoulder as he swam past. “Come on. Let’s take a stroll.”
Although Feng Chen didn’t think there was anything to stroll about in this manufacturing workshop, he still followed. Lin Fen slowly swam forward as explained to Feng Chen each large machine they passed.
“This kind of transmission device is what transmits the power from the main engine to the thrusters. It can also decelerate, dampen, and change the rotation of the thrusters. The T5 warships of our Western Union Army and the 6CD warships of the Eastern Union Army both use this type of transmission device. Come and take a look…”
Feng Chen was kind of wondering why he was telling him all this, but he gradually became fascinated.
Lin Fen spoke about everything from warship development all the way to military information technology and biotechnology, encompassing a lot of information about the current state of the Eastern and Western Union Armies. When it came to the biotechnology of the Eastern Union Army, there were some things that even Feng Chen wasn’t sure about.
Only when Lin Fen finished speaking and declared they were heading back did Feng Chen realize that he had already listened for a full half hour.
He swam behind Lin Fen and watched that athletic back, knowing that the man used this ‘stroll’ through the manufacturing workshop to actually teach him about military matters. He didn’t know how to describe the complicated mess of emotions he was feeling right now.
When Feng Chen surfaced, the two soldiers waiting on the boat pulled him and Lin Fen out separately.
“M-Major General Lin. Did, did you find anything in the water?” A soldier asked in a trembling voice.
Feng Chen looked at him and found him hunched over even in his raincoat, holding himself and shivering.
Lin Fen took off his oxygen mask. “Why are you shaking like that?”
“I-i-it’s cold, ah. It’s so cold.” The other soldier was also shivering.
A gust of wind blew by, no longer gentle like before. Feng Chen felt a bone-chilling cold envelop him, suddenly causing every pore on his body to contract.
Lin Fen also felt the drop in temperature and frowned up at the sky. It was still a gloomy and dreary day with heavy rain pouring down, just like before.
One soldier tried his best to speak clearly, but he still shivered uncontrollably, “Just, just a while after you two went into the water, the temperature suddenly dropped, at, at least 20 degrees.”
“N-no. More than that. I, I think it’s even colder than, than winter.” The other soldier shook his head and added.
Feng Chen took off his pressure-resistant diving suit and glanced at his watch, which displayed a temperature of 5 degrees.
Rain
Bruh I’m crying right now. Lin Fen is like the dad Feng Chen deserves and Yu Yuan is like a mother hen that clucks over them (remember how he keeps sending them care packages???). I wish the four of them (and Uncle Wu) could live happily together in the Capital or something, but we’re less than half way through the novel… Bruh.
