Nine years later.
Only a scant few buildings peeked out of the barren snowfields like peculiar ice sculptures.
A wolfdog-sized rabbit mutant with scarlet red eyes and the incisors of a predator crept through the snow.
The mutant species looked around vigilantly. Then, as if suddenly sensing something, it hopped behind a frozen wall and hid.
A well-built black lion with a layer of frost covering its mane slowly emerged from the blizzard.
It was carrying a person bundled up in thick pelts, a scarf and a hat on its back. The only thing peeking out were his clear eyes.
Those eyes were big and bright, like two lakes that could never freeze over. His long, curly eyelashes stained white with frost and snow were like two fluttering butterfly wings.
The mutant behind the frozen wall lay motionlessly in wait. Its scarlet eyes stared at the person on the lion’s back with greed and a promise of violence.
The black lion trotted forward casually, gently swinging its tail as it traversed through the snow.
The person on its back casually swung his feet, completely oblivious to the danger he was in.
His feet were also wrapped in thick pelts secured tightly by ropes. It made them chubby in a diminutive but cute way.
Although the mutant species feared the black lion, hunger eventually won over fear. The moment the black lion passed by a certain frozen wall, it shot out like a missile at the person on its back.
It opened its mouth in the air to reveal its sharp incisors. Its target was the neck beneath that thick scarf. It could already imagine the warmth of fresh blood streaming down its throat as it crushed its prey’s neck.
The person on the lion’s back seemed defenseless. He continued to sit leisurely, but seemed to slip a bit to the side just before the mutant’s fangs touched the back of his neck.
Just enough for the mutant to sail past his head.
The only thing streaming down the mutant’s throat at this point was ice cold air, but it corrected course as soon as it landed and prepared to pounce again.
However, its powerful hind legs didn’t respond for some reason as strength rapidly sapped from its body. It stumbled forward a few paces before faceplanting in the snow.
–There was an extra knife wound on its abdomen covered with light gray fur. The blood coagulated before it even dripped out.
The black lion seemed more than accustomed to all this. It picked up the corpse of the rabbit mutant in its mouth and continued to forward in no hurry.
A few moments later, it stopped in front of a building that appeared to be five stories tall.
The person slipped off of its back. His motions seemed a bit clumsy due to how thickly he was bundled up. Snow crunched underfeet as he jogged to the window and tapped on the keypad. He flipped inside through the opened window.
The black lion remained outside, skillfully skinning and cleaning the rabbit mutant before burying the innards somewhere far away from the building.
The person inside took off his thick pelt jacket and pants to reveal a light gray turtleneck sweater and flannel pants. He shook off the ice on his outerwear.
The sweater was obviously handmade based on the uneven thickness of the wool. Rather than machine produced, the wool seemed to be wound from animal fur by hand.
It was a bit too wide, serving to highlight how small in stature he was. After he took off his scarf and hat, he appeared to be a very beautiful teenager.
A head of curly hair covered his ears and his fair forehead.
The teenager squatted down to untie the pelts wrapped around his feet before walking briskly towards the stairs in just a pair of woolen socks.
As he passed the fifth floor living room, he glanced at the large round things laying on the sofa. “Binunu, are those the new pants Big Brother made you? They look good on you.”
The completely wooden sofa was covered with teethmarks. Binunu, in a pair of yellow plaid suspenders, was lazing about on it. It didn’t even spare the teen a look before turning over away from him.
“Are you in a bad mood?” The teen asked Binunu while holding the railing of the stairs. Then he murmured, “Forget it. You’re often in a bad mood anyway.”
Dong dong dong.
The youth flew up the stairs like a gust of wind. Binunu turned over again to continue lazing about like a sprouted big potato.
“Big Brother, Big Brother!” The youth called out with no response. He turned right around and darted down to the fourth floor, pushing open the closed door in the stairwell.
The instant the door opened, a symphony of sound rushed out, instantly breaking through the silence in the building.
There were a variety of instruments and tools stacked inside, along with blocks of wood, iron, and sculptures. This appeared to be a cluttered workshop.
In front of the wooden frame at the centre of the room was a tall young man. His back was too the door as he whittled down a long strip of wood secured to the frame.
His somewhat long hair was casually tied up in a bun behind his head. There was a pencil tucked over his ear. The muscles under his gray T-shirt were firm but not exaggerated, faintly outlining perfection with every movement.
The teenager leaned against the door frame and did not enter, but a trace of mental power quietly slipped into the young man’s mental domain like a mischievous little fish. They tickled the other party’s mental power that quietly flowed like silk.
Then they were pounced on by the other mental power and thoroughly tickled.
The teen laughed, withdrew his mental power and trotted inside, hugging the man’s waist from behind. “Whatcha doing?”
The young man mumbled something through the tape measure he held in his mouth, but the youth couldn’t hear him due to the music.
“What?” He poked his head out of the man’s arms and looked up at his face.
From his point of view, the young man’s smooth jaw was a beautiful work of art. His features were exquisite almost to a blinding degree.
Traces of the teen he had once been could still be spotted, but youthful immaturity had been replaced by the charisma of a recently matured man. The aloof indifference that used to surround him was gone, replaced by a bit of laid back leisureness.
Feng Chen removed the tape measure he was holding in his mouth. “I told you to step back, Yan Bubu. You’re blocking me.”
As soon as those words fell, there was a series of forceful knocks overhead that even drowned out the music.
Then with a loud clatter, a piece of wood was angrily thrown down the stairs, smashing into the doorway.
“Binunu’s getting angry.”
“Go turn it off already.”
Yan Bubu went to turn off the music, instantly restoring peace and quiet to the world. The knocks on the ceiling stopped.
Feng Chen squinted at the piece of wood and whittled down an uneven spot. “Did you finish today’s homework before running out?”
There was a pleasant rumble in his deep voice, but Yan Bubu pretended not to hear. He came over to inspect that piece of wood and changed the subject, “What are you making now?”
“So you didn’t finish.” Feng Chen nodded. “No more going out this afternoon until you do.”
“Sure.” Yan Bubu responded obediently. He stood next to the man and continued watching him work while scratching his thigh.
Feng Chen kept his eyes on the wood as he asked, “Did you put fleece pants over your wool pants before you went out? Frostbite again?”
“Yeah. It’s so itchy.”
“Serves you right.”
Yan Bubu sprawled over the wood and shot him a sideways glance. “There are a lot of people in the movies who wear wool sweaters, but I’ve never seen anyone wear wool pants.”
“So?”
“Don’t you understand fashion, Big Brother? Wool pants aren’t fashionable at all.”
Feng Chen took the pencil behind his ear. “Those movies are at least ten years old. Are you really going to take fashion advice from them?”
“Isn’t there a saying about how things eventually cycle back into style? I’ve never seen a comeback on wool pants even in movies from decades ago…”
Feng Chen turned to look at him and saw that he was still scratching, “Go put on some frostbite cream. The one you used last time. It’s in that cabinet.”
Feng Chen cleared out this floor. Less than half was used as a workshop while the rest was used as a training room. The original contents were piled up in the corners of the workshop. Yan Bubu went to the small cabinet here and took out Feng Chen’s homemade frostbite cream.
Feng Chen marked the wood with his pencil before glancing over at Yan Bubu.
“Read the room before you take off your pants.”
Yan Bubu’s pants were already down by his knees. He was applying cream to his fair, slender thighs.
“There’s no one around anyway…” Yan Bubu sniffed the frostbite cream and wrinkled his nose. “It stinks.”
“So I don’t count as a person?” Feng Chen asked.
“You’re my big brother so you don’t count.”
Yan Bubu applied frostbite cream to the red patches on both legs before pulling his pants up again. He walked over and held the frostbite cream beneath Feng Chen’s nose. “Smell that? Isn’t it stinky?”
“Not at all. Weasel mutants are hard to catch, but their fat is extremely effective for frostbite.” Feng Chen warned, “Don’t you dare wash that cream off your legs.”
“But it obviously stinks.” Yan Bubu stared at him with big, wide eyes.
“No, it’s just an acquired taste.” Feng Chen said without blinking.
Yan Bubu: “It stinks like ass.”
“It’s an acquired taste.”
“Stinks like ass.”
Feng Chen ignored him and continued marking the wood. Yan Bubu, on the other hand, scooped up some cream and dabbed it under Feng Chen’s nose before running out like the wind again.
“If you like it so much, then smell your fill!”
Feng Chen didn’t even glance back as the rapid footsteps faded away. He simply got a length of paper towel from the side and carefully wiped his nose before continuing to draw lines on the wood.
Yan Bubu ran all the way to the sixth floor. As he passed by the fifth, Binunu lifted its head to bare its teeth at him. Yan Bubu quickly lightened his footsteps.
The sixth floor was not like it used to be. There were several more pieces of furniture up here.
The sofa was covered in a handmade blanket, and there was a lounge chair by the window padded with thick pelts. Several books and a toolbox filled with tools and half-finished handicrafts were on the windowsill.
There was a big bookshelf by the window. The upper three shelves was filled with various military literature, but the middle three were all printed and bound workbooks.
Those bound books had thick white paper serving as covers. Titles were neatly pinned on their spines: Elementary Mathematics, Elementary Language, Middle School Mathematics, Middle School Language, High school Mathematics…
Workbooks for various subjects arranged by grade covered two whole shelves.
The contents of these workbooks were quite in depth and professional. The font was also neat and elegant. Questions done wrong had the correct answer written in with red pen.
The math workbooks covered everything from counting ducks in elementary school to high school calculus. The answers gradually went from being in a childish scrawl to rounded, chubby strokes.
Although the person doing the questions obviously put a lot of thought into their answers judging by their length, there were many big red X’s everywhere.
This living room was no longer empty. It was filled with everyday items and full of life. The hole in the centre was left uncovered now with a metal pole installed in the middle.
Yan Bubu hopped onto the sofa and ordered the robot Mini: “Mini, put on a movie for me.” He lowered his voice, “…The one called ‘Secret Love’.”
“This mini device will immediately play ‘Secret Love’.” The robot responded loudly as it rolled over from the corner and turned on the projector.
“Shh!” Yan Bubu peeked at the stairs before quickly changing his mind, “Forget it. Play…’Mounting Crisis’ instead.”
“This mini device will immediately play ‘Mounting Crisis’.”
Yan Bubu sat cross-legged on the sofa and grabbed the doll renamed to Bench nearby.
Bench’s metal skin was worn down until it shone. One of its ears was a slightly different colour as well, like the original one fell off and was replaced.
When the intro music started playing, Yan Bubu dove to the other side of the sofa and picked up the walkie-talkie on the little table there. He pointed it towards the audio source.
The same music could be heard immediately from the fifth floor, but Binunu didn’t knock angrily on the wall or the ceiling this time.
After Yan Bubu put the walkie-talkie back, he spotted Binunu climbing up the pole in the centre of the room.
“’Mounting Crisis’, your favourite.” Yan Bubu patted the spot next to him.
Binunu walked straight over without sparing him a glance and hopped on the sofa. It remained aloof and arrogant.
The opening scene ended and the movie began for real.
Yan Bubu kept his eyes on the screen as he picked up the plate on the coffee table in front of him. He offered a piece of wood to Binunu with his other hand.
While he slowly chewed on a plate of jerky, Binunu chewed on wood.
The black lion silently came over, its paws not making a single sound. It had finished taking care of that rabbit mutant and even wiped its paws completely clean on the snow.
It trotted over to lie on the carpet in front of Binunu. Spotting the wood shavings on its little paws, it couldn’t help but want to lick them off.
Yet as soon as its tongue came out, Binunu scratched it on the face.
The black lion turned its head away like nothing happened and started quietly watching the movie as well.
“…Don’t go into that alley, lady. Don’t go in there…”
This movie was Binunu’s favourite. Yan Bubu has watched it with Binunu countless times.
Binunu’s expression was filled with tension. Its black eyes stared unblinkingly at the screen as its claws clutched the wood with an iron grip.
It wasn’t until the lady turned away from the allwy and walked to the grass on the left that one person and two quantum beasts breathed a sigh of relief.
Footsteps came from the stairs. A tall figure soon appeared. Feng Chen pulled up his T-shirt’s sleeves as he asked the person on the sofa, “What do you want for lunch?”
“Anything’s fine.” Yan Bubu continued to stare unblinkingly at the screen.
Feng Chen shot him a cold look by the stairs, “Then go and make me ‘anything’.”
“Er…then how about roast rabbit and potatoes?” Yan Bubu shook his head, his somewhat long curls bouncing about.
Feng Chen walked to the kitchen. “Dig up the potatoes yourself.”
“Okay, as soon as I finish watching this part with Binunu. This is the best part. I’ll go after she escapes from the water dungeon.” Yan Bubu said.
Feng Chen paused and turned. “If you procrastinate–”
“No, no. I won’t.” Yan Bubu assured, holding up his fingers. “Three minutes.”
The sound of the microwave thawing, boiling water and chopping meat soon came from the kitchen. As he promised, Yan Bubu slowly got up after watching the protagonist escape the water dungeon and slowly went to the stairs.
“…You cunning Ketela man. You speak only lies.” Yan Bubu recited the protagonist’s lines with her. He paused in the middle of the room and turned to the intently watching Binunu. “Why don’t I watch this part with you too?”
“Yan Bubu.” Feng Chen warned from the kitchen.
“I’m off to dig potatoes…” Yan Bubu quickly went up to the seventh floor.
The seventh floor was originally a laboratory. Feng Chen dismantled the instruments, dug up soil from beneath the ice, and found some vegetable seeds from the supply depot. He converted the main hall and several rooms into vegetable gardens.
The main hall was divided into two parts for corn and potatoes respectively. The sunlight coming through the windows was not enough, so several high-pressure sodium lamps hanging from the ceiling picked up the slack.
Yan Bubu picked up the small hoe stored on the wall and dug up a few potatoes. He made a pit stop at one of the rooms and picked up two cucumbers ready for harvest as well.
By the time he brought the vegetables back to the sixth floor’s kitchen, Feng Chen was already stirring the boiling pot of rabbit meat with practised motions. He had an apron made of old clothes on. A few strands of hair too short to bun were strewn over his cheeks and shifted as he moved about.
Yan Bubu crouched at his feet and peeled the potatoes. He heard the interlude song in the movie and sang along.
“…Your lips are like rose petals, quenched with the sweetest poison…”
Feng Chen paused. He interrupted his singing. “Leave the potatoes there. I’ll peel them.”
But Yan Bubu said, “Let me help you. I can peel them… Your gaze is like an unsheathed dagger, the sharpest glint concealed within…”
Feng Chen: “No thanks. Stop singing and go watch the movie with Binunu.”
Yan Bubu stopped singing and looked up at Feng Chen. “You don’t want me keeping you company?”
“Nope.” Feng Chen decisively stated.
“You don’t want to hear me sing either?”
“Nope.”
Yan Bubu smiled slyly. “But I do! Your lips are like rose petals, quenched with the sweetest poison…”
Boom!
There was a loud thunk from the door frame as a piece of wood hit it. It fell to the floor and rolled to Yan Bubu’s feet.
Yan Bubu poked his head out and saw Binunu glaring darkly at him. He hurriedly said, “Fine, fine, fine. I’ll stop singing.”
Feng Chen slowly breathed a sigh of relief as Yan Bubu shut up and continued peeling the potatoes.
