Chapter 16: The City Shrouded in Mist
After bidding farewell to Ji Lin, Xia Zhuyi hurried toward the subway station.
Despite the devastation and the civilization being forced into isolation within a solitary city, decades of recovery had restored the city’s former appearance. Modes of transportation like the subway still operated.
However, compared to the endless darkness of underground travel, the sleek white trains circling the inner city better suited certain people’s aesthetic preferences.
She boarded the subway and disembarked at a station in the Jiang District. Glancing at the trains still speeding across the elevated tracks in the distance, she continued onward toward the studio apartment she had just rented for six months after paying the deposit.
“Oh?”
In her mind, the clown’s voice sharpened noticeably.
She didn’t need to close her eyes; focusing her mind was enough.
About three meters ahead and to the right, a faint, translucent apparition appeared. It was about her height, wearing a clown mask and loose clown attire, happily tossing a ball in front of her.
“Is that enough?”
“Not going to chat with him a bit longer?”
Xia Zhuyi was already standing before her apartment door. She glanced at the clown, then calmly turned the key. Inside, the atmosphere immediately grew cooler.
Heavy curtains shut out all light, and when she turned on the lights, the first things she saw in the small one-bedroom apartment were an easel in the corner and paint scattered on the floor, along with a wooden board on the wall covered by a white cloth.
She approached and whipped the cloth away.
It was a blackboard.
On it were drawn circles connected by lines. A large circle sat at the bottom, labeled “Winter City.”
Several curved short lines connected smaller circles below, while two thick branches extended upward—one diagonally up to the right and one straight up—snaking through various circles. Along with Winter City, they linked the five largest circles.
To ordinary people, the wasteland beyond was a forbidden zone of death; but for the authorities, it was a territory to continually explore and reclaim. Many staff of the monster patrol wandered the wasteland, battling creatures. Memorizing the ever-updating maps and routes was basic and essential.
This was also how she assessed any gaps in her memory.
Xia Zhuyi picked up a piece of chalk and glanced beside the map, where her own handwriting was recorded.
“Xu Mingsong.”
“……”
She held the chalk, staring blankly at the sparse information. The tip touched the blackboard several times but no new words appeared.
“Zhuyi~”
From the corner of her vision, the clown’s hat slipped in. The clown woman seemed weightless as she lightly perched on the edge of the blackboard, the tips of her clown shoes swinging.
In a sing-song voice, she said, “This city feels so wrong~”
“I know,” Xia Zhuyi replied without looking up. “But now you’re actually caring about these things? Not going to just watch the show anymore?”
“That’s just how you talk…” The clown woman shook her head, tossing off her hat and flicking it lightly onto Xia Zhuyi’s head. “We’ve lived in harmony for seven years—oh wait, six years—we’ve been partners for six years. Why do you still speak with barbs?”
The clown sighed, “I’ve helped you plenty. If I hadn’t put in the effort, you’d have been eaten by ‘Huo Dou’ down to the last bone fragment long ago. How can you forget your old love once you have a new one? I’m your original good partner~”
Xia Zhuyi didn’t look at her but murmured softly, “I forgot.”
The clown’s masked mouth cracked into a grin stretching to her ear. “What a coincidence—I forgot too.”
Xia Zhuyi paused, reached into her coat pocket, and pulled out a piece of paper.
“Revelation Year 56, August 26.”
“Xu Mingsong.”
“686.”
The paper in her hand held fragmented notes. Above, vast blocks had been blacked out completely, once bearing words now swallowed by a deep darkness that seemed to consume even light.
---
Xia Zhuyi could tell from the handwriting that she had written these things, but she had no memory of when.
Nor did she know—
“What exactly is my mission in Winter City?”
“Ha, who knows?”
The clown smiled, grabbed Xia Zhuyi’s hand, and yanked open the curtains abruptly.
Outside the apartment, dusk.
The twilight rolled in like a tide, spreading from the outer suburbs into the inner city.
The last rays of the setting sun struggled through thick clouds, painting the sky in a tapestry of blood red and deep purple. The city blurred in the fading light; skyscrapers’ silhouettes disappeared into the darkness like the spines of great beasts crawling across the earth, silent and imposing.
Xia Zhuyi drew her gaze from the distance to the slanting rays on the windowsill.
Magnificent, yet suffocating.
“Do you feel it? This city is like… a nest.”
The clown cupped her face with both hands, trembling uncontrollably. Though her voice quivered, she seemed excited. The wild emotion leaked from the twitching corners of her mouth as her crimson eyes fixed on the full moon hanging over Winter City, narrowing.
“A hunting ground? A territory? A ritual?”
“Which great monster dwells here?”
“Haha, I can’t comprehend it. Besides, it’s not my business!”
“But I know—it breathes, it writhes, as if alive.” She spread her arms dramatically. “It wants our souls, so greedy, fierce, and merciless; it will swallow our souls whole!”
“We’ve trespassed somewhere dangerous, Zhuyi.”
Xia Zhuyi listened to the shrill cries but did not fully agree. She stared at the paper in her palm, then tucked it back into her coat pocket. She covered the blackboard again and sat before the easel in the corner.
She had no mood.
After a while, the clown jumped down from the windowsill and slowly approached Xia Zhuyi, who was bent over the desk, her brush pausing now and then—she was painting.
She didn’t look up.
“Protect him for now.”
The clown laughed. “For official reasons? Or personal?”
“For official.”
“Won’t you explain things to him clearly?” The clown blinked and pouted cutely. “Maybe protecting him quietly is simpler~”
“I don’t know if he’s trustworthy.”
“Ah, trust, no one’s trustworthy~ How cold and heartless~”
The clown’s laughter grew increasingly eerie.
Xia Zhuyi said, “He carries many secrets. The path he walks is the Path of Monster Blood… Few know of it, fewer still have truly walked it. He couldn’t have done it alone; someone or some force we don’t know must be behind him.”
“And that ‘Zhu Ming’.”
“I originally thought that, given his monster blood’s instability, even if he was a contaminator, he wouldn’t pass the evaluation and would likely be executed… That seemed the most reasonable outcome.”
The clown laughed. “You want to kill him?”
“I want to save him,” Xia Zhuyi said calmly. “Because it’s dangerous, I’ve stayed in the interrogation room. I have the authority to be his guarantor. If he’s classified as a ‘high-risk contaminator,’ he’ll be safe.”
“But the team leader stepped up first—that surprised me… They know each other. Why would he know Zhu Ming? And why would Zhu Ming protect him? Does she know the path he must walk…”
“Too many coincidences cease to be coincidences. Now, I can’t quite understand this Winter City.”
---
Xia Zhuyi’s brush stopped. She said, “I’ve forgotten why I came to Winter City, but there’s no doubt it’s related to the city’s safety. Winter City is too important—we must prepare for the worst…”
She frowned, trying to dig deep into her memory but found nothing.
She only remembered one thing: a snap of fingers.
—a snap in the darkness.
When she came to, she was already in this apartment. She had forgotten her mission, forgotten how she entered Winter City. Only the school uniform hanging on the rack and the Winter City No. 4 Middle School student ID on the desk remained.
The clown said nothing more.
Her outline blurred and shifted. Suddenly, she said, “That team leader... that guy called ‘Zhu Ming.’”
In the blurry form, her pupils trembled slightly. Xia Zhuyi looked and saw the clown’s eyes blazing with fire; cracks like molten lava split across her irises, emitting a piercing light.
The clown’s voice quivered with terrifying pain: “I just stole a glance at her… ah, that one is a true monster.”
Xia Zhuyi was startled. “You were discovered?”
The clown grinned: “I almost died.”
The cracks in her pupils widened, bursting with flames. Following came a shrill scream, blood evaporating into vapor, swallowed by the emerging lava flow.
Molten lava streamed from her pupils.
The firelight was blinding.
“Zhuyi,” she whispered, as if sobbing.
“Stay away from her.”
…
Xu Mingsong endured the cat’s teasing as he arrived at Linjiang Road. He glanced at the residential complex named “Fengren” and braced himself for a scolding from Old Xu before boldly stepping into the elevator.
To be honest, his strength had increased.
Carrying such a heavy bag, he could still complain without getting tired…
Ming still sat on his shoulder, scratching his hair with his paw. Xu flicked Ming’s ear softly and whispered, “Don’t bother me later.”
“Ew~ Crybaby, heartless man~!”
Naughty kitty! Gross!
“You’re so greasy, Xiao Songzi.”
“Heh, six of one, half a dozen of the other.”
Xu Mingsong sneered arrogantly as he pushed open the door. Inside, Old Xu sat in the middle of the living room, facing a balding middle-aged man of similar age. The two were chatting happily with drinks and a small plate of peanuts nearby.
“?”
Your son has been missing for a whole day! And you’re here drinking and snacking like life is good?!
Old Xu, do you still have a son?!
“Oh, Mingsong’s back.”
Old Xu waved at him and introduced the man opposite.
“Come over, this is your Uncle Wei. Call him Uncle.”