Thirty

30. Spatial Separation

Feeling the space, Zhu Anfu blinked. “Still in the room, I can sense it. Look…” Zhu Anfu took a tomato from the space and placed it in front of Yuchi Ankang.

Yuchi Ankang frowned, scanning the room again. Since it was still in the room, where could they have missed? Turning to Zhu Anfu, he saw him gnawing diligently on the tomato. “You’re eating again? You only eat this, and can you eat it alone?” Staring at Zhu Anfu’s clothing, Yuchi Ankang suddenly had a thought: could it have fallen into his clothes? In the cave, they’d been wearing quite a lot. He voiced his suspicion.

Zhu Anfu found it reasonable and took off his shoes, climbed onto the bed, and began removing his clothes piece by piece. When he was down to the last item, he immediately wrapped himself in the quilt. “Is it there?” Watching Yuchi Ankang shake out his clothes one by one without hearing a crisp sound, Zhu Anfu grew anxious.

Yuchi Ankang looked up at Zhu Anfu, eyebrows knitted, and shook his head helplessly. Zhu Anfu felt heartbroken, turning away from Yuchi Ankang, sulking like a child throwing a tantrum.

“Anfu, when did you get a half-winged butterfly mark behind your ear?” Yuchi Ankang sat beside Zhu Anfu, intending to comfort him, but as he parted his hair, he noticed the half-winged butterfly at the base of his ear. It was called a half-wing, not a side view of a butterfly in flight, for a simple reason: the color and shape of the butterfly resembled the jade Zhu Anfu wore, only much smaller and split cleanly in half, one whole and one neatly sliced. Yuchi Ankang touched the mark and, as if sensing something, reached to his own ear.

“What mark? From head to toe, I barely have even a mole, let alone a birthmark.” Zhu Anfu couldn’t help but touch behind his ear. The moment he did, a tingling sensation ran through him. Waiting for Yuchi Ankang’s reply but hearing nothing, he turned to see Yuchi Ankang with a hand behind his own ear and the other behind Zhu Anfu’s. Zhu Anfu suddenly realized something, wrapped in the quilt, he turned to face Yuchi Ankang and, a bit forcefully, turned Yuchi Ankang’s head. Behind his ear was another half-winged butterfly. “You take a picture of mine, I’ll take one of yours.” Zhu Anfu hurriedly grabbed his phone, urgency in his tone.

Yuchi Ankang complied instantly. They took photos of each other’s marks, placed them together, and enlarged the images. A complete jade butterfly appeared.

Both inhaled sharply. Yuchi Ankang’s heart stirred—could this mean he could freely enter and exit the space? He tried to enter, and he vanished. Zhu Anfu blinked, sensing a change in the space. After Yuchi Ankang entered, it seemed to grow larger. “Come out quickly, I hear footsteps.” Zhu Anfu urgently called out in his mind, unsure if Yuchi Ankang could hear him inside, but to his surprise, he immediately reappeared. “Can you hear me?”

Yuchi Ankang nodded. Before he could say anything, the door was knocked. “Anfu, I brought you food, has Yuchi woken up?” Jin She pushed the door, which swung open. Entering, she saw the two on the bed and immediately retreated. She’d thought Yuchi Ankang was still unconscious, which emboldened her to enter, but she hadn’t expected such a scene. Jin She was excited; she daydreamed daily about two men together, but had never seen such a bold scene—a bare torso, clothes scattered on the floor, one sitting beside the other. What had they done… Wait, wasn’t Yuchi Ankang the one who fainted? Why was silly Anfu undressed? Jin She glanced back at the closed door in confusion. “Since you’re both fine, hurry up and come out to eat in the kitchen.”

Inside, Zhu Anfu hurriedly dressed. Yuchi Ankang communicated with Zhu Anfu mentally, initially just to test it, but it worked—they could converse without speaking, though they didn’t know if there was a distance limit.

Yuchi Ankang and Zhu Anfu appeared together in the kitchen. Wang Fei joked that Yuchi Ankang was pretending to faint to avoid cooking today. Zhu Anfu shot him a glare and took a bite of a fried meatball—it wasn’t as tasty as Yuchi Ankang’s cooking, and there was no staple food on the table. Was the meatball supposed to be the main dish? Could anyone fill up on that?

Yuchi Ankang endured everyone’s scrutiny. He didn’t care about others’ gazes, only what Zhu Anfu thought. “If you don’t like it, there’s bread and cake in the space—but I’m not sure if it’s still good.” He soothed Zhu Anfu, who didn’t want to eat, communicating with his mind. “Eat some anyway, it’s all from the space, the taste shouldn’t be too different.”

“It’s just not good! Didn’t you see everyone looking at you with fiery eyes?” Zhu Anfu rolled his eyes, feeling he’d lost out. Yuchi Ankang used to cook only for him, but now he cooked for a whole group. Hmph!

“How many years has the apocalypse lasted?” Yuchi Ankang changed the subject, wanting to escape their current situation. There were only two options: either they managed mass production of mechas, or they’d be sent for research, and even after death, their bodies would be sold to the state. The country now was beset from all sides—not that he didn’t care for it or hope for its strength, but… he was disappointed. He had no great spirit of sacrifice—call him selfish or shameless, he didn’t care. He studied mechas not to save the world, but simply to avoid early death, to survive, and to protect Zhu Anfu.

“If you count from before the outbreak, it’s been thirty-six years. By then, we’ll probably be old men.” Zhu Anfu frowned. Strictly speaking, they were still in the prelude to the outbreak—no zombies yet, just people attacking and biting each other, mostly from eating contaminated meat. When people died, they simply died—no aftereffects. If, at this stage, things could be controlled, maybe zombies would never appear. But… Zhu Anfu felt that control was unlikely. People’s hearts were already chaotic, and some still sought power—truly, “misfortune for the people.”

“Yuchi, why don’t you take a day off?” Zhou Zhi tossed two meatballs into his mouth, reluctantly offering Yuchi Ankang a rest. Though Jin She’s cooking wasn’t bad, it just didn’t fill them up.

“No need. We have to pick up the pace. Today, Jin She and Anfu are coming to the factory too—you two will be responsible for recording the data.” Yuchi Ankang refused Zhou Zhi’s suggestion. He didn’t know if they could change history, end the apocalypse early. Thirty-plus years—he didn’t want to waste the best part of his life here.

Author’s note: Yesterday, I intended to write and update, but honestly, I was so mad I nearly spat blood. I even considered that after closing this pit, I’d never open another. In my rage, I posted a notice, but after a night’s sleep, I realized what a softie I am—letting a troll with a nonsense username chase away loyal readers with a few careless words. Truly foolish.

I’m calm about negative reviews now, but please, no verbal attacks. What do you mean, “cheating for money”? First, there are no explicit chapters, it’s all clean. Second, I never told anyone, “Buy it, and I’ll do this and that!” At most, I mentioned sending long reviews and giving points.

The novel will soon be VIP, you know how it is. I’ll try to update continuously before VIP. PS: I’m not cheating for money. If you like it, subscribe; if not, that’s fine. Just please don’t read pirated chapters, then comment under the official posts about what’s wrong. Also, dear pirates, could you not synchronize? Please lag two chapters behind me.

That’s all, I’m off to sleep. Thanks to Shi Meizhu and Jinxi Hexi Xi for the grenades, everyone—have sweet dreams tonight!