novelraw Chapter 67 : The World
Chapter 67 : The World
Chapter 67: The World
The delicious sweet potatoes, paired with some cucumbers and tomatoes rinsed clean with creek water, tasted truly delightful.
Song Jianguo and the cats were eating without a care in the world, but at that moment, neither Aunt Flo nor Zhang Wenda was in any mood.
“Say, do you think those people who disappeared... were they in the same situation as us now?”
Holding a sweet potato, Aunt Flo spoke toward Song Jianguo. “Could it be that they just ended up living in this empty world for the rest of their lives until they died of old age?”
“No way, there’s definitely a way out. Don’t overthink it.” Zhang Wenda shoved a half-green, half-red tomato into his mouth and took a big bite.
“But if there really was a way out, then why hasn’t a single person who went through the paradox ever managed to come back?” Aunt Flo’s words weighed heavily on Zhang Wenda's mood.
Just as their heavy lunch was halfway through, Zhang Wenda suddenly looked down at his forearm. The Yellow Core, which had recovered considerably, suddenly made his eyes light up. Maybe there was still a chance.
He tossed the last small piece of sweet potato into his mouth. “Wait here, maybe there really is a way. I’ll go check the Adult World!”
As he spoke, Zhang Wenda reached out and forcefully pressed down on the Yellow Core on his hand. With a flash of yellow light, the surrounding environment quickly receded.
Once everything settled down, what greeted him was an unexpected sight. The surroundings were still farmland, unchanged from before.
If it weren’t for the digital pocket watch on his wrist, Zhang Wenda would have thought the Yellow Core had malfunctioned from being overused the day before.
Zhang Wenda glanced at the watch and saw that the Yellow Core had 12 minutes remaining. It seemed that as the total amount increased, the daily recovery rate also rose.
But even so, it was still only 12 minutes. He had to make it quick.
He reached out and patted the head of the meowing kitten. “You and Aunt Flo wait here for me a bit. I’ll go take a look around.”
With that, he stepped out of the farmland and onto the concrete road. As he looked around for the city that had once been built by Prefabricated Humans, he discovered that the city had vanished.
The skyscrapers and elevated roads that once stood were all gone. Only a small cluster of concrete buildings nestled against a hill remained not far from the fields.
Everything here was eerily silent, like an old photograph—just like the place they were staying in.
“Even the Adult World has changed? What on earth is going on?” Zhang Wenda felt a wave of despair upon seeing the scene.
But just as he thought there was no way back, he suddenly saw something. In the distance among the buildings, he seemed to spot a human silhouette!
“Hey! Hey!!” Zhang Wenda immediately ran toward it, excitement surging.
As the distance closed, Zhang Wenda saw more clearly—it really was a person. Great! He hadn’t seen wrong! They weren’t alone in this world!
And just as Zhang Wenda saw that person, the person also seemed to spot him. He raised his slender hand and waved at Zhang Wenda.
“They can respond! It’s a real person!” Zhang Wenda was thrilled. But before he could get any closer, a gunshot rang out. Zhang Wenda’s body jolted and froze on the spot.
He looked down at his right shoulder and saw his jacket sleeve on the forearm rapidly soaking through with red liquid.
In that instant, every muscle in Zhang Wenda’s body tensed. Before the next shot, he leapt into the nearby field.
Almost immediately afterward, bullets struck the spot he had just stood. Looking at the cracked concrete where the bullets landed, Zhang Wenda felt a chill surge through him.
The pain in his shoulder told him that if he had been a moment slower, he would have really died there!
As Zhang Wenda carefully parted the corn leaves, he saw that the enemy wasn’t just one person. Five individuals with guns were approaching!
Pressing down on his wound, Zhang Wenda’s face twisted in pain. He knew that if he didn’t flee now, he’d be walking straight into death.
He didn’t dare leave the Adult World just yet—if these people turned out to be terrifying giants in the other world, they might endanger Song Jianguo and Aunt Flo too.
Thankfully, things hadn’t deteriorated to that point yet. Clutching his shoulder to stop the bleeding, Zhang Wenda quickly slipped deeper into the fields.
Though injured, the adrenaline coursing through his body dulled the pain. He kept running, trying to get as far away from that place as possible.
But gradually, as the adrenaline waned, the pain intensified. The exertion made it harder to breathe.
“I’ve run this far... they probably won’t find me, right?” Zhang Wenda thought to himself.
He lay on his side in a bush, trying to take off his jacket to check the wound. But just as he removed one sleeve, an aged voice rang out beside him. “Who’s there?”
That voice made Zhang Wenda feel as if he had plunged into an ice pit. He hadn’t expected that even after fleeing so far, he would still be found.
The other side had guns and numbers. Zhang Wenda knew that running now would be pointless.
“Don’t shoot! I’m coming out now.” He spoke as he parted the bush leaves to sneak a glance.
Zhang Wenda’s pupils shrank—an old man with white hair stood before him.
The man wasn’t holding a gun but a hoe. He wore earth-green clothing, a half-yellow towel draped around his neck—completely the image of an old farmer.
“Hey there, young man, you’re bleeding! Hurry up and come over here, I’ll bandage you up.”
Seeing Zhang Wenda’s condition, the old man quickly and nervously helped him up and led him along a path between the fields.
“You... uncle? You’re not with them?” Zhang Wenda asked.
“Who? Who else? There shouldn’t be anyone else around here.” The old man seemed surprised by Zhang Wenda’s question.
“There’s no one else here?” Zhang Wenda couldn’t quite understand. “Uncle, do you know where this place is?”
The old man smiled. “Didn’t you come here? If you don’t even know where this place is, then how did you get here?”
“I came through an accident. Uncle, seriously, where is this place?” Sensing the old man meant no harm, Zhang Wenda quickly asked again.
The old man smiled and answered, “This is the past.”
“The past?” Zhang Wenda was momentarily stunned.
The old man raised his wrinkled hand and pointed toward the distant concrete buildings, then to the nearby fields. “Everything here is the world of the past.”
As he said that, he looked with a complicated expression at the nearby fields and a low wooden hut not far away. “There’s no place for an old man like me anymore. I just want to return to the old days... even if I know no one is left here.”