“Yu-ge.”
Suddenly, Fu Yucheng’s eyes flew open. The room was dark and silent, and he was alone.
He hadn’t dreamed in a long time. Just now, he had been dreaming of when he and Bai Mo first entered Fort Hurricane two years ago.
That kid had been gone for the last three months after being tasked with wind turbine maintenance work.
Fu Yucheng lay on the lower bunk, staring gloomily at the bunk bed above.
Suddenly, his computer’s ear-piercing voice rang out. “Beep beep beep, it is now 6:30 in the morning. There are 30 minutes left before the start of the shift. Please wash up and prepare as soon as possible. Beep beep beep, it is now-”
“Listen, Noob, I’ve been awake for a while, so shut the fuck up.” Fu Yucheng couldn’t bear to sit up. “Turn on the light.”
‘Phst’ with a slight electrical noise, an old incandescent lightbulb on the ceiling flickered twice before turning on.
An extremely cramped two-people dormitory became visible under the dim light.
In the cramped room, there was a bunk bed with a rusty metal frame pushed against the wall. There were two rickety chairs by the bed. In the corner of the room was a set of drawers with a leg missing that Bai Mo had put a brick underneath to balance it out.
There was nothing else besides that, not even a window.
Fu Yucheng sat on the hard mattress, lingering for a while. Then, he ruffled his messy hair, put on slippers, and, picking up a basin and a towel from underneath the bed, he slowly walked out of the room.
When he stepped out, a long circular corridor extended in front of him. There were iron doors on both walls, and the dim light stretched the shadows so long, they almost looked like a prison cell’s bars
At the far end of the corridor there was a large public washroom and toilets.
Since it was time to get up, the bathroom was very lively, and the long sink area was crowded with big men washing their faces and brushing their teeth.
“Let me through, let me through.” Fu Yucheng squeezed in between them. While holding the washbasin to get hot water, he looked at himself in the mirror in a daze. His hair was a complete bird’s nest, and his face looked like a zombie’s.
“A-Cheng, make room for me.” A big guy pressed against him suddenly.
Fu Yucheng’s bad mood hadn’t subsided yet. Lifting his eyes, he glanced at the other, feeling extremely uncomfortable. “Aaron, don’t fucking crush me.”
The big guy turned out to be the baldie, Aaron.
Two years ago, this idiot Aaron tried to steal water from Fu Yucheng, but got a load of something else instead and so, inevitably, they didn’t get along. Later, Aaron’s boss, He Lei, had an accident, and everyone ended up in the underground factory together. They became brothers in arms, and they ended up being in good terms with each other.
“I heard that your Bai Mo is coming back soon,” Aaron commented while wiping his bright bald head with a towel.
Fu Yucheng hummed noncommittally. He glanced at Aaron, tugging at a knot in his hair. Maybe shaving his head might not be a bad idea.
“Hey, before we knew it, that boy, Bai Mo, must be already sixteen or seventeen, right? He’s almost gotten as tall as you, A-Cheng,” Aaron muttered as he wiped his face. “How long will it take until we can leave this fucking cursed place?”
Fu Yucheng squeezed out some toothpaste expressionlessly. “Let’s just deal with it, we still got a year left to go.”
Aaron was aghast, then dropped his hand to grab the toothpaste, staring at Fu Yucheng in shock. “Fu Yucheng, why the hell are you using my toothpaste again?! I only have a little left!”
“Well, what do you want me to do? I used up all of the toothpaste that little Mo bought last time.” Fu Yucheng put the toothbrush into his mouth, muffling his words.
“Why don’t you buy some yourself? Why do you gotta use mine?”
“Don’t be so stingy. You stole water from my tank before, too. Why don’t you buy water yourself?” Fu Yucheng lowered his head and spit out a mouthful of white foam, then shrugged. “Or is the water at my place particularly tasty? Haha.”
Aaron wasn’t able to answer. Remembering the embarrassment he suffered that year, his face went red in anger, and in the end he was only able to curse him out. “It seems that you don’t even know how to fucking take care of yourself when Bai Mo isn’t around. How are you supposed to be raising him? He’s the one raising you! Raising you to be a useless brat.”
Fu Yucheng picked up the blade next to him to shave his face and lazily said, “Eh, I think you are jealous.”
“Fuck you!” Aaron pushed him hard with his elbow. “Next time, don’t think I will bring you buns. If you don’t have your Bai Mo, don’t ask me, I won’t bother to care about you.”
Fu Yucheng laughed, picked up the basin and left.
He returned to the dormitory, took off his tank top and shorts, and put on blue overalls. The rough cloth rubbed against his cheek, and he felt a sudden sharp pain.
Fu Yucheng let out a soft hiss and reached out to touch it. His fingertips got some blood on them. It turned out that, when he was shaving and Aaron pushed him, he’d gotten a small cut on his face.
He frowned and rummaged around, searching. “Band-aids, I clearly remember I had some-”
Fu Yucheng searched for a while, but he couldn’t find any. Suddenly, his eyes lit up when he remembered something, and he hurried to the door.
" "On the door, there was an A4 sheet of paper that said in clear caps:
Instant coffee sachets, first drawer of the cabinet. Betadine, second drawer of the cabinet.1 Band-aids, second drawer of the cabinet.Fu Yucheng opened the second drawer and found the band-aid.
While putting it on, he thought to himself that Bai Mo, the perfectionist clean-freak, was very reliable, even if he was a little troublesome. Speaking of, he’d been away for two or three months already. Fu Yucheng felt a bit anxious about that.
Shit, was Aaron right about him getting raised into a useless brat?
Fu Yucheng, thinking about nonsense, shook his head in amusement and looked up at the empty upper bunk.
The brat’s coat was by the bed.
Recently, Fort Hurricane had been short on manpower. Although Bai Mo was still young, he was a very reliable worker. A while ago, he was sent to do wind turbine maintenance for three months. Maintenance crew was an annoying position that required a lot of constantly climbing up and down. Generally, young people with no background would be sent to do it.
Suddenly, Fu Yucheng remembered something. He reached out and turned over the perpetual calendar on the head of the bed.2 This week’s Saturday was marked with a red circle. Next to it, a line of tiny even letters said: “Turbine generators maintenance work. Projected completion date, September 14th.”
That brat, Bai Mo, had already counted the days until his return when he left. He was telling Fu Yucheng to get ready to pick him up.
As it turned out, the day after the boy came back would be September 15, his sixteenth birthday.
Last year, on Bai Mo’s fifteenth birthday, Fu Yucheng got locked up in solitary confinement for a whole week because he had gone to the wrong working area, so he had missed it. This year, no matter what, he had to give the kid a decent birthday.
After pondering for a while, Fu Yucheng fished out a palm-sized wooden box from the bottom drawer of the cabinet.
He opened the box, which contained a dozen transaction coins.
“One, two, three,” Fu Yucheng counted the coins, a little worried.
Cakes were a rare thing to come by in Fort Hurricane’s trading area. Thirty transaction coins could buy a small six-inch cake with a pack of low-quality candles.
“Forget it, let’s think about it when the time comes,” Fu Yucheng murmured. Then, he carefully pulled at the foam bottom of the wooden box, revealing a set of folded drawings underneath.
They were a crumpled hand-drawn map that seemed to have been perused regularly.
It was a multi level map of Fort Hurricane.
Although the drawings were very simple, the structures of the twelve outer fortresses were clearly defined, and even the mysterious central fortress, the Mo family’s fort, had its general outline.
There were even some comments in red pen at key locations, such as ‘CCTV in the corner’ ‘hourly guard change’ and ‘patrol every fifteen minutes’.
Fu Yucheng stroked the map he himself had drawn and sighed, somewhat disappointed.
For almost two years, he had secretly turned the entire Fort Hurricane upside down, yet he still hadn’t been able to find ‘that thing’. ‘That thing’ was the real reason why he had come to Earth altogether.
His former best friend, now the noble Prince Regent in the White Rose Palace, would have never imagined that, when he left on his own accord, he wasn’t giving up the struggle, but that, instead, he was determined to survive against all odds.
Rong Yuan.
Fu Yucheng closed his eyes and countlessly recited a name in his heart, the name that he couldn’t possibly be any more familiar with.
Rong Yuan, I will make you pay for all the things you have done.
A heavy price.
Fu Yucheng picked up a red pen and drew a thick circle on the northeast corner of the central fortress. According to the various sources he had gathered over the past two years, ‘that thing’ should be in that extremely well guarded place.
The private study of the Fort’s owner, Mo Ziwei.
No one, except Mo Ziwei, was allowed to enter. People said that, even when his beloved late wife went there to bring him some supplements, he became furious.
Fu Yucheng glanced at the calendar again.
Bai Mo’s birthday was on September 15th and, not long after, on the eve of September 30th the traditional lantern festival would take place.
The day was a rare time to relax, and the defense of the central fortress should be at its weakest.
What’s more, the calendar clearly stated that September 30th was auspicious for traveling and entering houses.3
“Good day to travel, good day to enter a house.” Fu Yucheng looked at the yellowed sheet of the calendar and raised his eyebrows, helplessly. “Old ancestors, I really believe in your words. Don’t betray me.”
Suddenly, with a loud “bang”, the door was kicked open.
Startled,Fu Yucheng quickly stuffed the map under his pillow.
Let’s all agree and act like the chapter titles have always been here and like the translator didn’t forget to add them until now.
Chapter 22 will be posted tomorrow as ko-fi rewards!
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