How to Feed an Abyss!

Chapter 33.1 – Peak Period

“How many audiences are here today?” Qin Luoluo lay on the table, her makeup had not yet been removed, her false eyelashes looked like fluttering butterflies, and her four-leaf clover earrings were shining.

“37,” Xia Fang answered her. “It seems that the posters are effective.”

“Not bad, not bad.” Qin Luoluo was very satisfied. “The leaflets sent by Shi Yuan must be useful too—it was the right decision for me to recruit him. Look at his face, who can refuse? Sending leaflets is fast and good.”

Shi Yuan: ?

He was arranging the stage props. Hearing this, he looked up and saw Qin Luoluo smiling at him like a fox.

Cheng Youwen lowered his head to read the book, and interjected: “I’m afraid that the warning will come again and it will make people panic, no one will appreciate my masterpiece.”

“Stop your crow’s mouth.” Qin Luoluo stretched. “I’m going to save money for Isabella.”

She took out 20 yuan and held it between her fingers, and went upstairs humming a song. Cheng Youwen also stood up, limping on crutches and following her: “Walk slowly, I’m going upstairs too.”

They left one after the other.

Tracy went to bed early, and Wolfgang disappeared as soon as the show was over. The group performers also left, leaving only Shi Yuan and Xia Fang in the empty backstage.

“Tsk tsk.” Xia Fang sighed. “So, I said Cheng Youwen likes her, you see it now?”

“Well, I can see it.” Shi Yuan thought for a while. “I told Cheng Youwen that I knew at the time of the Level I warning.”

“…” Xia Fang widened his eyes slightly. “Shi Yuan, you really are a straight ball player.”

Shi Yuan explained: “I’m not good at sports, I can’t play ball.”

Xia Fang smiled.

They were busy with their work, and after a while, Xia Fang said again: “I don’t understand why they want to save money or give money to others.”

Xia Fang loved money, which he never concealed.

He couldn’t be called a penny-pincher either, when he was in a good mood, he also invited Shi Yuan to eat a dessert, the kind of ten yuan a cup of rice pudding, but he was the only person in the troupe who did not save money for Isabella, and he was very firm on this issue.

Of course, he was not obligated to do this.

After all, donating money was a matter of affection.

Shi Yuan asked, “Why do you like money so much?”

Xia Fang showed a subtle smile when he heard the words, and asked, “Who doesn’t like it?”

“I don’t like it very much,” Shi Yuan said.

“Then what do you like?”

Shi Yuan thought for a while: “I like my tail, humans, and monsters.”

Xia Fang: “…Then you have quite a variety of tastes, universal love, ah!” He rubbed his face. “Shi Yuan, I haven’t told you about my family, have I?”

Shi Yuan shook his head.

Xia Fang: “My parents are both in Fengyang City, my mother is a mutant, her sequelae are very serious, and she also runs to the hospital every day. It was a bottomless pit of burning money, and my dad and I couldn’t fill it out. Of course, we didn’t give up, we gritted our teeth to hold on, and we can still last for a few years. But if you ask whether it can be cured? Who knows. If you say that there is no hope, forget it, there are a few miracles, it’s like a carrot hanging in front of a donkey, giving people hope and leading them forward, this is the most torturous.”

He smiled bitterly again: “Many people have sequelae, and they have to be treated. I have encountered the most serious ones. However, even if you know it can’t be cured, you can’t leave her alone, right?”

“Ah.” Shi Yuan opened his eyes wide and asked hesitantly, “Does anyone else know about this?”

“More or less.” Xia Fang hung up the costume in his hand. “They asked me in private if I needed help, but I refused. Compared with Tracy, our family can still hold on.”

“Tracey’s operation costs a lot of money?” Shi Yuan asked. “I asked Mr. Wolfgang, and he said he can handle it.”

Xia Fang smiled subtly again: “He can handle it? Is that what he told you?”

“That’s right.” Shi Yuan thought for a while. “They can still save money for Ms. Isabella.”

“Uh…” Xia Fang paused for a moment, he seemed to be struggling with something, his fingertips unconsciously pinched the wooden hanger until they all turned white, and he hesitated to speak, “Shi Yuan, you don’t understand…that, that is…”

He didn’t go on, shaking his head: “Forget it, they are a group of very kind people, and they are also a group of very stupid people. You can’t rely on art to make money these days. Sometimes, I feel that I am being taken advantage of, the salary is not high and it’s time-consuming. Now there are always alarms, there is not a single outpost, we will not last long, we will all die.”

Shi Yuan remembered what Lu Tinghan said in the wheat field yesterday.

So, he told Xia Fang that the fourth dimension may be time, “being here” is the most important thing, and one moment is eternal.

“This is what Lu Tingting told you?” Xia Fang asked after listening.

“En.” Shi Yuan nodded.

Xia Fang said: “If every moment is eternal, then we are too miserable. We can only clean up the backstage here forever. Aren’t we too pitiful?” He hung up the last costume. “Maybe your man is right, but he can’t convince me.”

“I’m not trying to convince you. Lu Tingting said that there is no standard answer to this question,” Shi Yuan said. “I just want you to know that the wheat field is really beautiful.”

“I’m short of money.” Xia Fang smiled. “If you let me see the wheat field, I can only think that wheat is very valuable.” He patted Shi Yuan on the shoulder. “But thank you for telling me.”

After that, they played five or six more scenes.

After that, small warnings continued, and people went back and forth between their homes and shelters. When it was serious, Shi Yuan began to work at the food distribution office again. Lu Tinghan seldom went home, and even when he did, he would come in late at night and leave early in the morning, and he couldn’t stay for long.

Shi Yuan purred less often, and he could only sleep alone with his tail in his arms every night.

He often heard Lu Tinghan’s name on the radio.

They talked on the phone several times, and just like before, it was Shi Yuan talking about what happened, while Lu Tinghan listened, the short time was two or three minutes, and the long time was ten or twenty minutes.

Lu Tinghan was very busy, and he was not someone who could talk on the phone – it was unprecedented for him to make this kind of private phone call.

He didn’t deliberately avoid his subordinates.

Occasionally, the adjutant saw the general on the phone with a serious face, no emotion could be seen in his gray-blue eyes, and he would say “um” from time to time, without giving orders, as if he was very serious.

He had never seen this side of the general before, nor did he expect that the battle situation would reach the point where Lu Tinghan could only listen silently, unable to make a decision for a long time. He never dared to disturb, abided by his duties, and said nothing.

Until one time he heard Lu Tinghan say: “No.”

Adjutant: ?

Lu Tinghan said: “No, a rose can’t cost more than 50 yuan, don’t buy it.”

Adjutant: ???

The person on the other side of the phone seemed to say something, Lu Tinghan smiled a little, and said, “Wait for me to bring it to you.”

“The one I gave you last time was red.”

“Shi Yuan, there are no rainbow-colored roses in this world… yes, if there is none, there is none, even I can’t find them.”

“…the unopened pepper is under the cabinet, it’s hard to find, just ask Broken Iron to get it for you.”

“I really don’t know if the chicken or the egg came first.”

“Well, there are no multicolored roses either.”

The adjutant was struck by lightning.

General, you have been possessed!

Are you listening to these kinds of flower and plants talk with a serious face??! What the hell is Broken Iron? It can’t be the most advanced T0 guard robot in your home, right?! What’s with this weird topic about chickens and eggs?!

His three views were completely broken, and the corners of his mouth twitched. He remembered that he had met Shi Yuan before, and was deeply impressed by that good face that could attract both men and women.

When Lu Tinghan hung up the phone, he was the usual him again, his face was as deep as water, and he looked at the adjutant with a strange expression: “What’s wrong?”

“No, nothing, nothing,” the adjutant stammered, quickly restrained his expression, and followed behind Lu Tinghan.

He thought in his heart that it was only a quick romance and it would fade after a few days, but he didn’t expect that he went straight to the main palace, and even the roses were prepared.

…F*cking rainbow-colored ones!

Demon concubine!

*

After Shi Yuan worked at the food distribution place for a week, he started acting again.

Invisible clouds gathered over the city, and smiling faces could rarely be seen on crowded buses. People looked out of the window with anxiety.

The troupe’s passenger flow finally recovered for a month, and then fell like a precipice, and it was impossible to save it.

The Grand Theater has been renting performance halls to bands in the city. Recently, the band broke the contract and disbanded directly.

The violinist hid his cherished instrument and brought it home.

But the drummer directly found someone who sold scraps, and sold a set of drums for 45 Alliance coins, he took the money with one hand and delivered it with the other. Shi Yuan witnessed the whole process: the man walked toward the end of the street with the money, and when he turned the corner, he wiped his eyes with his cuff.

For Friday night’s performance, the audience was sparse and the applause was sporadic.

Standing under the bright light, Shi Yuan bent over to take the curtain call, looked at the empty auditorium, and suddenly thought: after today, will anyone still come to watch?

The rest of the troupe was not in a good mood either.

While sorting out the manuscript, Cheng Youwen told Shi Yuan a story.

He said: “Theatrical troupes are not always able to perform. 20 years ago, during the peak period of infection, all cultural and entertainment activities were suspended. Most of the troupes in Gleaning City were disbanded in this way. You’d think that the peak would have lasted at most ten years. Ten years have passed since the lifting of the ban, not to mention whether the actors have aged, it’s not easy to contact everyone, not to mention that they don’t want to do it either.”

He sighed: “The Wild Rose Troupe ended up in the same way, but the Garcia family has great influence. Ms. Isabella recruited people everywhere, so she barely got the number of people together and started acting again. Think about it again, there are only 6 people in our troupe who are not part-time actors. In case the peak period comes again, wait a few years and the troupe may really be gone.”

Shi Yuan: “Oh…”

Ten years is a very long time for human beings.

He could afford to wait but they couldn’t afford to wait.

Cheng Youwen put the manuscripts away one by one, and limped on a chair with a crutch: “However, whether we can survive the peak period is unknown.”

“Is the peak period terrible?” Shi Yuan asked.

“Of course.” Cheng Youwen explained, “Let me just tell you that 90% of the cities and bases that have been destroyed were destroyed during the peak period. If there is another peak period, even if we have that surnamed Lu, I guess it will be two or three more years.”

For more than half a year, there have been rumors in the city that the peak season is approaching.

It is forever the sword of Damocles hanging over the city.

—In ancient times, King Dionysius invited his courtier, Damocles, to try to sit on the throne. Above his head was a sharp sword hanging in the air, held at the pommel only by a single hair of a horse’s tail, shining silver and ready to fall at any time, which meant an ever-present threat. Now people knew that this sword would eventually fall and judge fate.

After 20 years of peace, perhaps, the time for the final battle still came.

Shi Yuan didn’t know the definition of the peak period.

However, he did feel the monster’s restlessness.

Every late at night, their blood and souls would come from all directions, one by one like veins on leaves, meeting, merging, and returning to the sea.

When Shi Yuan first entered the city, the dark tide of the long river was surging, and the surface seemed to be fairly stable, but recently it was magnificent, and the monsters whispered between the tides.

Cheng Youwen touched the manuscript and said in a daze: “Fortunately, I have written a lot of scripts, even…even if something happens, this life is not meaningless. It’s a pity that no more people can see my masterpiece.”

Shi Yuan thought for a while: “You can carve a QR code on your tombstone, and others can see your script with a scan. You can also put a video on it to replay the newspaper’s interview with you.”

Cheng Youwen: “……”

Cheng Youwen said: “When the time comes when all human beings are dead, who will watch it? Can’t be a monster family standing in front of my grave to see the stage play, right? To be honest, that would be quite a family gathering.”

“I can watch it,” Shi Yuan said seriously. “I can also help you get likes.”

Cheng Youwen: “…then I want to say thank you…”

He took a deep breath and said, “What about you? If you die, what will you put on the grave?”

“I’ve thought about this issue,” Shi Yuan said. “What I want to write most now is “advertising space for rent, 300 yuan per month”. “

Cheng Youwen: “……”

Shi Yuan was really weird!! And it was not a joke, Cheng Youwen was 10,000% sure that Shi Yuan would really do this!

Cheng Youwen tentatively asked: “Does your Lu Tingting know that you want to put up an advertising space?”

Shi Yuan replied: “He knows.”

Cheng Youwen had a glimmer of hope: “What did he say?”

Shi Yuan: “He said three hundred is too expensive, after burying me, he would only charge two hundred.”

Cheng Youwen was shocked.

Does this count as ‘birds of the same kind live together’?

I didn’t expect you to be such a person, Lu Tinghan!!