Chapter 6: “home”
The place where Jiang He lived belonged to the rich area, full of standalone villas everywhere, with many windows still lit up, and uniformed patrol guards occasionally visible, with slender metal sticks hanging from their waists.
Every time they encountered a guard team, Su Chen could feel clear scrutinizing gazes, filled with suspicion.
But his expression remained calm throughout, without showing any fear, and the clothes he wore also fit the atmosphere here, so no one came up to question him.
Coming out of this rich area, the streets became much wider.
And increasingly dim, with the yellow glow of streetlights flickering unsteadily, the areas between them abnormally spacious, and shadows in some places almost like darkness.
His gaze fell on a car parked by the roadside.
Su Chen walked up and knocked on the window. The driver glanced at him, seeming somewhat puzzled, “Su Chen?”
“It’s me.” He nodded.
The driver looked at the clothes on his body, as if recognizing them, hesitated to speak, and secretly sighed that the female master was getting better at playing.
“Let’s go.”
The car door opened, Su Chen sat in the back row, looking around, not much different from a car’s structure.
The driver’s hand brushed over the dashboard, accompanied by a humming sound, the car body trembled slightly, the scenes on both sides rapidly dropped, and it took off into the air.
“…Hmm, to the outer district, take C-7 airway, it’s very smooth now…” The driver murmured. Su Chen looked down through the window but couldn’t see clearly, while the light sources overhead were much brighter.
Whoosh–
The push-back sensation made Su Chen lean back a bit, his gaze sweeping outside the window, finally seeing clearly that those continuous light bands were really steel tracks, which should have some kind of transport running on them during the day.
“Outside the city is an endless mist, and anything could be in the mist: mutated monsters, machinery…”
He tried hard to recall some related information about this world. The original body didn’t know much either; those inexplicable mists seemed to isolate everything.
Had this world undergone some catastrophe to become like this, or had it always been this way from the beginning?
There was no such information in the original body’s memories either, only knowing that it had been like this since his birth.
“However…” Su Chen frowned slightly. In the original body’s memories, he was not a native resident of South Wind City, but had come from another place at five or six years old, and the memories in his mind were already very vague.
“In other words, the outside world is not absolutely dangerous, but it’s not something I can touch either.”
He didn’t know how much time had passed, but he felt the car body shake slightly, and it had already landed.
“We’re here.” The driver’s attitude was very polite.
“Thanks.” Su Chen got out of the car, cool air rushing into his lungs.
This place was far from artificial light sources and even dimmer, only barely able to make out the surrounding environment. On both sides were densely packed gray shacks piled together, with vague human figures, and the roads were pitted and uneven.
This was the place where he lived, on the edge of the outer city, commonly known as the slum area.
Following his memories, Su Chen found a few familiar landmarks and headed toward his home.
In the special environment outside, almost no idlers who ate and waited to die were allowed to exist in the city.
Whether family or individual, they all had to have usable value. Allowing unconditional support until adulthood was already the greatest mercy of South Wind City.
After adulthood, either serve as cannon fodder to probe in the mist, and if lucky enough to return, they could scrape by for half a year.
“Su, Su Chen?” A somewhat familiar voice came from the shadows.
Su Chen stopped, his “home” seemed to have arrived.
“Why are you dressed like this?”
Seemingly confirming his identity, a few ragged figures popped out from nearby, all looking young.
Huang Peng… Hei Gou… names surged in his mind one by one.
“You… got into South Wind Academy?” One of them asked cautiously.
Thoughts flashed in Su Chen’s mind. Although the original body had lived here since childhood, due to environmental factors, he could only be said to have “fake friends” with most people.
Seeing him silent, there were vaguely relieved sounds, and one of them teased:
“I said before, it’s not impossible to trade your body for a future, but after all, you’re a man. A place like South Wind Academy isn’t for us.”
“Even if you didn’t get in, it’s fine. Didn’t you say that woman is pretty hot too? Not a loss.”
“Yeah, and you got these clothes, they should be pretty valuable. Lend me one to wear…”
As he spoke, someone reached out, tugging at his jacket, seemingly wanting to pull it off.
Su Chen frowned, his arm shook slightly, and the person reaching out staggered back, tumbling crookedly to the ground, letting out an “ouch,” then angrily shouted: “What are you doing?”
The sudden commotion made the surroundings go quiet.
“Heh, slept with that slut once, and you really think you’re a somebody now?”
“Enough, he didn’t get what he wanted, he’s in a bad mood, don’t provoke him, let’s go back to sleep.”
“…”
The crowd dispersed, the sounds around gradually fell silent, Su Chen’s face indifferent as he accurately found his “home” in the darkness and pulled aside the tattered cloth on top.
Following his memory, he felt for a lamp. After the weak light came on, it at least made him feel much more comfortable.
Called a “home,” it was just a few pieces of sheet metal put together, with extremely cramped space, even sleeping required curling up.
There was solidified white porridge in the small pot on the ground.
He shook his head, not minding it, just half-squatting there.
“Brother Su Chen…” The tattered cloth was lifted, and a small figure walked in, belly bulging, face covered in black grime.
Seeing Su Chen, she seemed stunned and stood there without speaking.
“…Little Pigeon?” Su Chen called out tentatively.
“Ah…” She was startled, “Brother Su Chen, you… you look… pretty good…”
She muttered, then carefully glanced left and right, pulling out a package from under her relatively neat clothes and stuffing it to Su Chen.
“These are for you.” She said in a low voice.
“Where did you get food?” Su Chen looked at the canned food in the package. South Wind City only distributed two meals a day to them, barely enough to fill the stomach.
And the ones in the package were canned food with fairly exquisite packaging, very valuable to them.
“I have a secret to tell you, don’t tell others…” Little Pigeon leaned over, eyes sparkling, whispering: “I’m leaving here soon…”
“Where to?” Su Chen couldn’t help but frown.
“…Sister Xiao Xi… will take me away…” She lowered her head, seeming somewhat guilty, hesitating: “But she can only take me for now…”
Sister Xiao Xi?
A figure emerged in Su Chen’s mind: a guy with a dirty face, dry and withered hair, unsmiling.
Also a member of the slum, but now, she should be called Bai Fengxi.
This guy didn’t know what dogshit luck she had, seemingly favored by some big shot in the city, sent to South Wind Academy, and renamed Bai Fengxi.
This matter was a secret, almost no one here knew.
He wasn’t too familiar with her, their interactions mostly through Little Pigeon; these things were told to him by Little Pigeon.
Although the original body kept his mouth shut, he was still quite stimulated by it, which led to him ending up in Jiang He’s bed.
“That’s good.” Su Chen felt slightly relieved.
“Don’t worry, when I figure out a way, I’ll take you with me.” Little Pigeon hurriedly added.
“No need to worry about me, just take care of yourself.” Su Chen said mildly. Little Pigeon had also wandered here with a large group of people in previous years, and the original body had taken good care of her.
She made a serious expression, indicating she wasn’t joking, then turned and left.
Su Chen smiled wryly, put the things aside, and opened the panel.
