The three of them looked at the majestic, splendid bridge on the 3D map, and they all remained quiet for a while.
After a long time, Francis finally said hesitatingly, “This… would indeed be a good route. But how many years have gone by? Fu, are you sure that the bridge is still there?”
Fu Yucheng lightly touched the light blue transparent bridge, but, of course, his hand went straight through the phantom image. “In the dry desert environment, there’s no reason for it to not have remained preserved intact.”
Bai Mo stretched out his hand as well and traced his slender, cold fingers along the bridge. “The data on the map shows that the bridge is 55 kilometers long. According to the latitude and longitude, it just crosses the neck of the quicksand stripe.”
He looked at Fu Yucheng as he spoke.
The two silently glanced at the other, and both nodded lightly.
Next to them, Francis was shocked for a while, then frowned again. “But Fu, Bai, there’s too many unknown factors in this plan. You might not find the bridge, or encounter sandworms or mutant lizards along the way, or your enemy might catch up to you…”
“There’s a good ancient saying from the 21st century that applies with so many maybes: don’t think, just do it.”1 Fu Yucheng shrugged casually. “Moreover, this is the best way at the moment, isn’t it? Can’t let this kid go back to assassinate Mo Ziwei like little Mo said earlier, right?”
Bai Mo couldn’t help but interject. “Actually, it wouldn’t be impossible…”
“Shut up. If I let a minor go assassinate someone alone, I might as well die.” Fu Yucheng glared at him.
Bai Mo pursed his lips and stopped speaking.
Francis felt puzzled. “Speaking of this, why do you have to go to the Devil’s Antarctic? You could also stay here. You can eat and drink with me, and it’s fun to play with the hamsters when you have nothing else to do. I think we also hit it off…”
“Stay underground, play with the hamsters? Let’s not.” Fu Yucheng’s lips twitched, and he muttered drily, “Besides, I’m not a hobo, I’m busy.”
Francis cried out loud, “Hey, don’t think I can’t hear you! Fu, are you suggesting that I’m a hobo? I told you, I’m a zoologist! A zoologist! And I’m not playing with hamsters, I’m researching the ecology of mutant hamsters!”
Fu Yucheng perfunctorily said, “Yes, yes, a great zoologist.”
Francis shook his head, looking helpless. “Oh, you two… Forget it, I thought I would finally have some company. It seems that the road of a scholar is always lonely.”
After Fu Yucheng and Bai Mo finished their meal, they didn’t delay matters any longer and quickly got ready.
With the assistance of Francis, Fu Yucheng found a set of tools in the subway station’s supermarket. It took several hours to finally repair the water tank and control system of the vehicle. He also found a piece of iron sheet and managed to somehow close up the damaged parts of the front and rear of the car.
“Baby, you’ve been wronged. Don’t worry. One day, I will avenge you.” Fu Yucheng stroked the devastated vehicle with distress, gritting his teeth.
Bai Mo took a pipe from the central water tank of the subway station and, with the help of a small negative pressure machine, soon the water tank of the vehicle was full to the brim. Then, he carried a few boxes full of food into the car.
Finally, Francis stretched out his hand to Fu Yucheng. “Fu, Bai, I wish you all the best!”
Fu Yucheng said sincerely, “Thank you.”
The two smiled at each other and firmly shook hands.
Francis offered his hand to Bai Mo next. The young man hesitated a little, then glanced at Fu Yucheng. Finally, he stretched out his fingertips reluctantly, and shook the other’s hand very faintly.
Francis, a very laid back man,2 didn’t mind it much, and sighed again. “It’s a shame, we probably won’t meet ever again.”
Fu Yucheng smiled and said, “Who knows? Maybe there’ll be a chance in the future. You can establish a mutant animal observation center in the Twilight Belt, and then recruit some young people among the residents of the parking lots to serve as student assistants or something. Then, I’ll definitely have to visit.”
Francis shook his head. “Fort Hurricane always rejects outsiders, and I know how the Fort’s Lord Mo operates. To be honest, I’m a little scared of him… I don’t expect anything as nice as what you said.”
Fu Yucheng smiled, said nothing, and looked up at the sky.
On the distant horizon, large swaths of crimson, fire-like clouds enveloped the setting sun, and its afterglow lit them up bright, the color of hot blood.
Fu Yucheng was silent for a long time, then suddenly whispered, “In such a time and place, who could be able to tell the future?”
Francis also looked at the beautiful burning clouds. He sighed and said vaguely, “Yeah. Who would have thought that the Earth would end up this way hundreds of years ago?”
Bai Mo didn’t look at the beautiful clouds. Instead, he stared at Fu Yucheng quietly. The man’s face reflected the vibrant, rebellious crimson shades of the burning clouds.
The boy looked at the other, feeling as if there was a flame in those eyes.
A flame that seemed to burn everything, extremely dazzling.
Bai Mo couldn’t help thinking, down below, what is this man… really thinking about?
It took a long time for Fu Yucheng to come back to his senses. He rubbed the boy’s hair smoothly. “Little Mo, what are you staring at? We should get going now.”
Bai Mo tilted his head slightly, rubbing back against the palm of the man subtly. “Yeah, let’s go.”
Francis stared at the billowing smoke and dust the off-road vehicle lifted, and couldn’t help but curl the corners of his lips. “I really don’t understand the eastern physical contact culture… What brother behaves like that? Tsk.”
Fu Yucheng floored the accelerator and the off-road vehicle rushed under the vast expanse of burning clouds. Groups of huge, unending sand dunes, like mountains and seas, kept approaching and quickly disappearing in the rearview mirror.
After an undetermined amount of time, an impossibly majestic structure appeared far in the distance before them.
Bai Mo looked at the blurry outline of the structure and opened his mouth, doubtful. “Yu-ge, is that…”
Fu Yucheng let out a sigh without thinking. “The HKZM Bridge.”
As the off-road vehicle gradually approached, this splendid structure, which had been buried in the desert for hundreds of years, finally revealed its true form.
At that moment, the famous, centuries old sea-crossing bridge hovered over the vast New Sahara desert like an ancient dragon, lonely and magnificent.
The main body of the mighty bridge deck was already dilapidated, like a tall old giant, showing various traces of erosion produced by the passage of time. All over the surface of the huge bridge piers, large sections of the cement could be seen peeling off, and the thick steel bars underneath were exposed in many spots.
Many cables that held up the bridge’s deck had broken, but the extremely sophisticated engineering allowed the behemoth to stand upright until that day.
Although it was very old, the ancient bridge was still spectacular, and one could almost imagine its infinite glory when it was first completed.
The off-road vehicle sped up, and, after a short while, with a small jump, it got on the bridge.
Unlike the soft yellow sand, the firm surface felt pleasant to drive on. Fu Yucheng couldn’t help but step on the gas fiercely, and the vehicle suddenly accelerated, almost about to spout a pair of wings3 and take flight.
Gusts of wind rushed into the cabin, and Fu Yucheng’s eyes shone bright. “This is great!”
Bai Mo frowned. “Yu-ge, you’re driving too fast!”
“What did you say? The wind is too strong, I can’t hear you!” Fu Yucheng said loudly.
“I said, you’re driving…”
Before the boy finished speaking, Fu Yucheng suddenly stepped on the brakes.
The tires screeched violently against the bridge’s deck, making a horrible noise. The off-road vehicle spun several times on the wide bridge, and finally came to a stop, dangerously close to the edge.
Bai Mo came back to his senses and looked forward, his face twitching slightly.
Fu Yucheng also stared at the front blankly, muttering, “No way…”
The slope of the bridge directly in front of them dropped rapidly, and sank into the slowly flowing yellow sand.
“What’s the issue?” Bai Mo stared ahead, and managed to faintly see a section of the winding bridge far in the distance. “Is there a section underneath?”
Fu Yucheng was silent for a moment, wanting to cry. “The bridge and the piers are all intact, they don’t seem to have collapsed… I forgot earlier, but there was a very famous deep-water port in a coastal city nearby. It’s common sense that, in order to prevent the bridge from affecting the access for heavy freighters, there must have been a section in the middle of the bridge that would instead be turned into an undersea tunnel…”
He scratched his scalp, extremely annoyed. “Why didn’t I think of this before…? What can I do now?”
“Beep beep beep – the submarine tunnel is intact, without any collapse or damage…” Noob uttered a crisp electronic sound.
Fu Yucheng cursed out. “So what if the structure is intact? There are all quicksands below. How the hell am I supposed to get through? Noob, Noob, you’re a quantum computer, how come you didn’t even know this section was a tunnel before? You just say ‘the data is missing, the data is missing’… so useless, I shouldn’t have fixed you…”
Seeing that its master was mad, the computer flashed a green light in grievance and stopped speaking.
Bai Mo wasn’t in a hurry. He waited for Fu Yucheng to calm down before comforting him softly. “Yu-ge, don’t worry, there is always a way.”
“Don’t comfort me, your surname is Bai!4 You are in the same gang with that waste computer! How can there be any way?” Fu Yucheng, irritated, simply lashed out.
Bai Mo was dumbfounded by his unreasonable chatter, so he shut up.
Fu Yucheng sat there for a while, and suddenly, he fished out a box of flattened cigarettes from the storage compartment. Then, he opened the door and jumped down, lit the cigarette, and took a deep breath while leaning against the door.
He frowned and looked at the large area of sand in the distance.
Bai Mo also got out of the car. He looked at Fu Yucheng and couldn’t help but raise his eyebrows. “Yu-ge, you didn’t smoke before.”
“You brat, haven’t you only known me for a few years?” Fu Yucheng said impatiently, “Of course I smoke, it’s just that I haven’t smoked much in these past two years.”
“Smoking is bad for your health, it’s a bad habit.” Bai Mo restrained himself, but, in the end, he couldn’t help himself and reached out to take the cigarette from the man’s mouth.
" "Fu Yucheng tilted his head slightly, and Bai Mo just grabbed the air. The young man pursed his lips in displeasure, stubbornly continuing to try and grab the cigarette.
Fu Yucheng almost laughed in anger. “Hey, what’s your problem?!”
He leaned forward to dodge the young man, took hold of his elbow and pressed Bai Mo firmly against the vehicle’s door.
Bai Mo rested against the door without much struggle, instead just whispering, “We can’t cross the bridge, but we can think of something. Don’t smoke.”
This brat, the older he got, the more annoying… Fu Yucheng suddenly felt a malicious impulse. He leaned in very slowly and gently puffed a mouthful of thick smoke into the boy’s ear. “It feels good, don’t you want to give it a try?”
“Ahem…” Surprised, Bai Mo coughed violently. After a while, he came back to his senses, only to realize that his ears were burning.
Fu Yucheng couldn’t help but chuckle. “Wimpy boy.”
The young man felt ashamed and anxious. He turned over forcefully and pressed Fu Yucheng against the vehicle’s door with a smooth movement.
His dark eyes stared at the other fiercely, his delicate nostrils shaking slightly. He didn’t know what to do with this man.
This man… he’s just, he’s just-!
Bai Mo couldn’t describe him.
Fu Yucheng had been distracted for a moment, and now, he found himself firmly pressed against the car’s door.
He leaned against the surface and looked at the young and doubtful face before him. He couldn’t believe it for a moment—this kid, was he really rebelling?!
He quickly recovered, narrowed his eyes slightly, and pressed back against the boy, not showing any weakness.
Bai Mo reflexively took a step back.
Fu Yucheng knew that, although this kid was courageous, he was easily embarrassed, and he laughed inwardly.
He looked at the young man provocatively from a very close distance. Seeing that snow-white face gradually turn pink, he slowly spit out a faint ring of smoke towards the other’s mouth and nose. “You brat.”
“Yu-ge, you… stop that.” The boy lowered his eyes, avoiding him, and his voice was very soft, with some inconspicuous hoarseness to it.
“It’s just a puff of cigarette smoke. You can’t stand it anymore? Such a fussy, clean freak of a brat. All right, let go, I won’t smoke this anymore.” Fu Yucheng shrugged and tried to push the other away. His arm was held tightly, and he wasn’t let go.
Fu Yucheng felt a little weird, and couldn’t help but raise his eyelids and glance at the other. “Come on, I just smoked a cigarette. You shouldn’t be so angry, alright? What else do you want?”
Bai Mo lowered his eyes and said nothing.
He thought to himself, I want to press you hard against this car door and kiss you so hard that you can’t breathe… that you can only tremble and beg me for mercy.
Poor Bai Mo, I feel you.
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