Invasion - Chapter 7
Chapter 7
After leaving the military administration office and saying goodbye to Roy, Lin Yuan got on the public bus home.
She leaned against the window, tilting her head, and watched the scenery outside the window recede.
The window glass reflected a delicate, indifferent, and listless little face.
The public bus had a strange shape, like a strange doll that had been sewn and patched up with all sorts of random materials.
It swayed and creaked along the road, making all sorts of straining noises.
In this era, the level of human technological production had severely declined, and to obtain most of the mechanical parts, one had to dig through the old ruins. It was impossible to find them complete. Piecing things together had become the norm.
The sun hung in the sky, like a salted egg yolk about to melt. It dyed the bloated and gigantic capital of the empire in a light shade of orange.
Even this far out in the suburbs, one could still see the White Tower in the distance.
It stood in the center of the city, a symbol of the entire empire.
It was all white, and it reached high into the clouds.
“Mommy. Look, it’s the White Tower.” On the bus, a young boy excitedly pointed out the window.
He flipped open a large picture book he was holding, and he began to compare it with the White Tower in the book.
“Mommy, this book says that hundreds of years ago, it was the White Tower and the king who saved mankind during the Great Cataclysm.”
The mother sitting next to him perfunctorily patted him on the head.
The tired mother didn't care about the king and the White Tower. She only worried about dinner today and life tomorrow.
“This book says that the clouds in the sky used to be white. As white as the color of white sugar.”
“The book says that in the beginning, the number of sentinels and guides was the same. They went to the battlefield hand in hand.”
“The book says…”
The childish voice rang out in the carriage.
The passengers in the carriage all smiled indulgently.
The child was naive and ignorant, and the things he said were very funny.
How could the clouds in the sky be white? Everyone knew that the clouds were either purple or green.
And how could the delicate guides go to fight? That was simply a fantasy.
The public bus picked up and dropped off passengers all the way, and it took a long time. The areas on both sides of the road went from being filled with crowded and messy mud houses, shacks, and wooden houses to gradually becoming more orderly, grand, and luxurious.
The White Tower also became larger, more sacred, and impossible to ignore in the field of vision.
The White Tower was the center of this capital city, and the closer one was to the White Tower, the more affluent and aristocratic the living areas were.
Lin Yuan got off the bus here, and slowly walked upwards along the clean and tidy stone road.
It was already very late, and the street lights were dimly lit, sprinkling light on the sparsely populated streets.
In a corner by the road, there was a couple with a young daughter, guarding a small fruit stall.
There were only three green apples left on the old handcart. The apples were listless and gathered together, their appearance not very good.
Even so, the family selling the apples was still reluctant to pack up and go home.
Fruits were very expensive these days. They were waiting for customers in the sparsely populated night, hoping that they could sell even just one more.
Lin Yuan had no interest in apples, so she walked forward, taking small, standard steps, lifting her skirt.
【This must be the most delicious apple in the world】 This voice suddenly appeared in her mind.
It was not a sentence made up of specific language. It was just an emotion from the superficial consciousness.
But because it was expressed so strongly and purely, even though the tentacles had not deliberately captured it, this voice was still clearly transmitted to Lin Yuan’s mind.
Lin Yuan looked in that direction and discovered that the voice in her mind was coming from the skinny little girl behind the apple stall.
The four or five-year-old girl was staring intently at the green apple in front of her, her eyes shining.
It was as if she could transform the dry apple into some kind of unmatched delicacy just by looking at it.
Lin Yuan glanced at the girl, then at the apples, and continued to walk forward.
【If I could bite into it, the sweet and sour juice would burst out, flowing through the gaps in my teeth, over my tongue】
【It would be both thirst-quenching and satisfying.】
Lin Yuan’s footsteps paused.
【It can fill your belly】
【And it can also make your heart feel sweet】
【I really want to take a bite】
【I really, really want to eat it】
...
One sentence after another, clear and loud.
The tentacles raised their heads one after another, looking towards the apples.
Really, were they that delicious?
Lin Yuan stopped walking and turned back.
She stood in front of the stall, looking at the three green and unripe apples for a long time. Finally, she took out a few imperial coins and put the three apples in a bag.
Just as she was about to leave, the sound of someone swallowing their saliva loudly appeared in her mind.
It was too clear, too intense.
So much so that Lin Yuan had to pick out an apple by its stem and put it in the little girl’s hand.
Lin Yuan, who was walking down the road, was urged on by the sounds of gulping saliva. She pulled an apple out, wiped it on her clothes, and took a bite, full of anticipation, as she walked.
It was sour, extremely sour.
...
Lin Yuan's house was very large, with a blue brick and white wall and a carved gate.
The vegetation in the yard was lush and verdant. Flowers and vines intertwined, growing vigorously over the wall. In the distance, one could see a triangular retro-style roof peeking out from behind the trees.
No one opened the door. Lin Yuan took out a key and opened it herself.
The sound of the door opening with a creak rang out abruptly in the silent and deserted night.
She closed the heavy door and walked inside. The plants and trees in the yard were looming in the dark night. They were growing too lushly, and there was almost no place to put one's feet. One could only walk inward along a small path that had been barely cleared in the middle.
The main building was five stories tall, and at the top was an attic with a pointed roof. All the windows of the rooms were dark and still in the depths of the garden, like an old mansion that had been abandoned for a long time.
Only the entrance hall on the first floor was lit with a dim, yellow light, breaking the intense and silent darkness.
Lin Yuan walked into the entrance hall, and in the dim light, she took off her cumbersome ivory-colored coat.
From a corner of the ceiling, where the light did not shine, a pale, female arm stretched out and took Lin Yuan's coat.
“Was everything smooth?” a voice, which seemed to come from nowhere, said.
“Yeah, very smooth. All the procedures are done.” Lin Yuan didn't look up and bent down to untie the laces on her boots. “I can live at home from now on.”
“I’m sorry,” the voice said timidly. “I wasn’t careful today, and I think the cleaning lady saw me. She screamed and ran away. She probably won’t come again.”
“It’s okay, I’ll ask her again. If she doesn’t come, we can just hire another one. Maybe the house also needs a gardener.”
Lin Yuan finally untied her bothersome shoes and threw them away haphazardly. A pair of white arms picked up her shoes.
She took off her heavy outfit, wearing only a thin silk slip, and barefooted, ran up the oak staircase.
Halfway up, as if she remembered something, she threw down an apple. “Here’s an apple for you. I bought it on the way.”
The arm that had stretched out from the shadows caught the apple deftly.
A white apron from a maid’s uniform flashed in the air.
“Thank you, Miss,” the voice, which was hiding in the dark, said.
“Ah, so sour.”
Lin Yuan's bedroom was in the attic on the top floor.
The room was not big. By the window was a soft bed.
The head of the bed and all the cabinets were piled high with all sorts of large and small, strange things, which filled the small bedroom to the brim.
There were wind chimes made from energy stones, neon signs from the old ruins, the heads of broken simulation robots,
and all sorts of different-sized dolls and plush toys.
It looked like the bedroom of a child with a strange collecting habit.
The window on the wall was very large, and through the glass, one could see the White Tower in the night, the houses with different heights, and the streets lit by streetlights.
On that stone road, the family of three who had been selling apples were walking home.
The mother was carrying their daughter, and the father was pushing the cart. The three of them were sharing the apple Lin Yuan had left behind, taking bites here and there.
They were eating very sweetly, as if the apple in their hands was not the same thing as the one Lin Yuan had had.
Lin Yuan’s fingers pressed against the cold glass as she stood behind the glass window, watching the small three figures from the high attic.
A drop of rain hit the glass in front of her fingertips. Without her realizing it, a drizzle had begun to fall.
The father took off his coat and put it over the heads of his daughter and wife.
The small figures of three people huddled together in the rain, quickly pushing their cart forward.
Lin Yuan stood behind the glass window and continued watching.
Until their figures were covered by the rain and were no longer visible.
Why did those three look so happy?
Lin Yuan felt that the people in the White Tower were right. She had the problem of lacking emotions. Most of the time, she didn’t have many emotions. She couldn't experience anything that was particularly happy or feel any sadness.
A guide who lacked emotion.
Lin Yuan was dazed for a while. Then, remembering something, she climbed onto the bed and reached into the toy cabinet by her head, rummaging around for a long time.
She took out a palm-sized, worn-out plush orca.
“I knew it. I seem to have seen this thing somewhere before,” Lin Yuan felt a little happy. She lay on her back, holding the round doll and playing with it.
She couldn’t remember when she had gotten this toy. There were countless things like this in this room that she couldn't remember.
Lin Yuan had no memories of her childhood.
Those people had told her that when she was very young, she and her family had experienced a big fire.
Her parents had both burned to death in that fire, and they had only managed to protect her.
But no matter how hard Lin Yuan tried to recall it, she couldn't remember that fire or anything about her childhood.
That period of time was blank.
It was as if a layer of white fog had covered those years. When she tried to look at it, it was always a blurry and hazy mess, and she couldn’t see it clearly no matter how hard she tried.
She only knew that she had been taken into the White Tower and raised. From a young age, the results of her mental power test were very high, and she had been matched to a fiancé from a prestigious family early on.
Only recently was she finally allowed to return to this abandoned home.
Lin Yuan played with the small plush orca. There was a place where the threads on the tail had come undone, and a bit of white cotton had poked out. She reached out and poked the cotton back in.
The orca doll was chubby and very cute, with a black back, a white belly, and white eye spots on the sides of its head that made it look like it was smiling. It was as if it could let out a soft orca call at any time. It was very springy when you poked it with your finger.
It was not quite the same as the orca she had seen in that mental sea today.
Lin Yuan opened her palm and made a grasping gesture, recalling the feeling that her tentacles had transmitted to her at that time.
That fish was too skinny. When she had grabbed it, it had felt bony, and its skin was covered with criss-crossing scars.
It wasn’t very good to touch.
Lying on the bed, fiddling with the soft doll in her hand, and thinking about what had happened during the day, Lin Yuan gradually fell asleep.
In her dream, she seemed to have returned to that seabed.
She was wearing a white dress, standing in a strange room. Outside the window was the deep seawater, and huge whales were swimming by.
The whales let out soft calls, as if they were reminding her of something, and as if they were singing a sad song.
“Xiao Yuan, Xiao Yuan,” someone was calling her.
Lin Yuan turned her head, and a couple with indistinguishable faces rushed into the room and hugged her.
“At least we have to send Xiao Yuan out.” She heard someone say.
The surroundings were on fire. The fire was burning very fiercely.
Lin Yuan was protected by two arms, tightly held in a warm embrace.
It turned out that they were her father and mother.
Her mother was a powerful sentinel, and her father was a gentle guide.
The fire was burning very intensely all around her. Her mother held her in her arms, stepped through the sea of fire, and ran quickly with her long legs.
The little Lin Yuan curled up in her mother's arms, but she didn’t feel afraid at all.
She could neither feel the heat nor the pain. She only felt a sense of peace in her heart.
Her father, as a guide, shielded her senses and reduced her perception.
Making her unable to feel pain or perceive terror.
In the hot sea of fire, her mother protected her body, and her father guarded her mental landscape.
Time seemed to pass very slowly. It felt as if they had been running in the fire forever.
Lin Yuan heard her father’s gentle voice, “Xiao Yuan, come here, Daddy will teach you how to control the world of sentinels.”
She couldn’t see her father’s face, but that gentle voice directly echoed in her mind.
“Xiao Yuan, you’re a genius. You can definitely do it.”
“The rest of the journey, you and Mommy will walk together.”
No!
Lin Yuan opened her eyes all of a sudden.
The dream was gone, and most of the memories in the dream had also disappeared.
She was lying on the bed, and she only felt her heart pounding.
The sound of the rain outside the window had become very loud without her realizing it. The night was as thick as ink.
The cold rain was beating against the glass, and countless meandering water trails flowed across the glass.
Lin Yuan blankly sat up, looked out at the dark and rainy night, and was in a daze for a long time.
Suddenly, she thought blankly.
That fish,
No, was that sentinel still sitting in that alley?
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