How to Feed an Abyss!

Chapter 64.2 – Ordinary People

They went to the city walls again. The night sky was clear, and the soldiers hung lantern-shaped lights by the city wall. Circles of warm furry light illuminated the night, while jellyfish floated in the sky far away.

They hadn’t gone home yet.

Shi Yuan looked at the jellyfish fixedly, thinking of Iron City, and without noticing, Lu Tinghan was already several steps ahead of him.

Lu Tinghan shouted, “Shi Yuan, come here.” He held out his hand.

Shi Yuan accelerated his steps and stepped forward to hold Lu Tinghan’s hand. Lu Tinghan’s hands were warmer and larger than his, his fingers were slender and powerful, and there was a thin layer of gun calluses between the index finger and the thumb.

They just held hands and walked in the cool night breeze.

“Why did you suddenly come here for a walk?” Shi Yuan asked.

“Because I want to chat with you,” Lu Tinghan said, “I told you last night that I am not so firm. As long as there is no evidence, I will live in the illusion like everyone else.”

Shi Yuan nodded, and quickly added: “None of this matters, you are still the most powerful person I have ever seen!”

“…” Lu Tinghan seemed to smile, “I also told you that my family was not very harmonious. Yu Qingmei gave birth to me just to fulfill the responsibility of reproduction and let the city have more people; and Lu Zhun didn’t want children at all. Iron City’s affairs were so busy that we couldn’t see each other a few times a year. What I know about him comes more from other people’s mouths. For example, the radio has praised his achievements many times, and the newspapers have also published his deeds. The logisticians and military cadets I know occasionally mention the impressive ‘Colonel Lu’.”

He continued: “The rank of ‘Colonel’ was more distant than the sky to me when I was a child, and the ‘Deputy Academician of the Academy of Sciences’ was even more unfamiliar. I don’t have much affection for the two of them, but in terms of merit and dedication, I admire them very much. When I was a child, I stood on the energy tower, looking at the wasteland and the city, and watching the sporadic lights in the northern city when the wind was blowing, thinking that one day I would be like them and make a name for myself.”

Shi Yuan said, “You have already done it, everyone knows your name.”

“That happened later,” Lu Tinghan explained, “For me at the time, this was incredible. Just a list of Lu Zhun’s achievements can intimidate a lot of people.”

He used his thumb to gently rub Shi Yuan’s hand. The touch was delicate and reassuring.

He said: “My feelings for Lu Zhun are more admiration for a colonel. However, once, Lu Zhun took me out of the city and taught me to dissect mutant lizards. This incident… made me change my mind a bit about him.”

Shi Yuan listened intently.

Lu Tinghan: “He personally led the team outside the city. I got into his car and sat in the back seat with him. When we arrived at the place, the convoy began to hunt the lizards, and with the air support of the aircraft, the lizards were soon defeated. Next, we had to wait in place for 8 hours and then continue hunting the next group.”

“In these 8 hours, he asked me if I wanted to dissect a lizard to see. I said yes, so he asked someone to bring the complete lizard corpse, put it on the blue plastic cloth by the car, and taught me to dissect with a knife.”

Lu Tinghan looked out of the city, as if he had passed through more than ten years, and recalled that moment: “When he said ‘dissecting’, he was actually holding a saber, far from the delicacy of a real dissection. But it was enough for a child’s little study, and as he sliced through the skin and muscles, he explained to me how it mutated the pheromones and how the whole colony coordinated its actions. He spoke very professionally, and combined it with his combat experience over the last ten years or so, something I couldn’t learn at home, and I listened intently, thinking to myself that he was worthy of a colonel, and that I was still too far away from such a man.”

Shi Yuan: “Oh…”

He was imagining the cub version of Lu Tinghan, squatting in front of the lizard corpse with his father and concentrating on it.

“However, after that operation was over, the convoy began to return. The road back was very long. I still sat in the back seat with him. From the rearview mirror, I could see him looking at me again and again, as if studying my expression. Obviously, he was talking and laughing in the face of the infected group before, and he was so confident, then later he was looking at me hesitantly, even nervous.”

Shi Yuan was a little confused: “Why was he nervous? Did he tell you anything?”

Lu Tinghan replied: “I then quietly paid attention to the rearview mirror and saw him hesitate several times before coughing and pretending not to care and asking me ‘By the way, what do you usually do at home? Is there any place you need help from dad?'”

“I replied to him that I have been staying with military cadets recently and following their courses. The courses are very simple and there is no need for his help. He just said ‘oh’, and we returned to the city in silence all the way. When he said goodbye, he took out five hundred yuan, and wanted to stuff it into my hand, saying, ‘take this to buy what you like. You can buy whatever you want. Snacks are okay. Beauty magazines are also okay. Remember not to tell your mother.’”

“It was only at that point that I realized that his nervousness and hesitation were because he simply didn’t know what to say to me. He didn’t know how to maintain the emotions between father and son, and he didn’t know what his child was usually doing and thinking. In addition to dissecting monsters, he could only dryly take out five hundred yuan and let his son use it as pocket money.”

Lu Tinghan said lightly: “I can say that the five hundred yuan broke my illusion about him, and reminded me that we have a father-son relationship. In that moment he changed from being an admirable colonel back to a father who was simply not good enough. I hated him a little bit at that moment, hated him for becoming ordinary.”

They stopped at a sentry post on the city wall.

Lu Tinghan sat down, took out a cigarette, and asked Shi Yuan, “Do you mind?”

Shi Yuan shook his head.

Lu Tinghan took out a lighter and lit it, sandwiching it between his fingers.

He looked at the group of jellyfish outside the city wall and continued: “I rejected the five hundred yuan. Since then, I never felt that Lu Zhun was far away from me anymore, because he had a great image in front of outsiders, and he was just an ordinary man in front of me.”

He smiled: “What is an ordinary man like? A father and husband who has failed in his duties, who hesitates and feels guilty, who will carefully please his child who has been neglected for many years, and will be at a loss after being rejected.”

“Later, I found out that everyone is like this, parents, elders, teachers… The more I grew up, the more I realized their ordinariness. Some of them are jealous, some are arrogant, and some are conformists. I saw their shortcomings and weaknesses, and they also walked down from the ‘altar’, stripped of their halo, and became mediocre. Later, I stood on the energy tower again, thinking that I would surpass them one day. Unlike them, I would never want this mediocrity.”

Lu Tinghan rubbed Shi Yuan’s head: “After that is the story you know. I became a general and everyone knows my name.” The orange cigarette butts flickered, he said, “Then I met you, and I realized that I was a person who didn’t have the courage to say goodbye and was comfortable with the illusion. I was the same as them in the end.”

Shi Yuan: “Ah.” He was a little confused, “…I’m sorry?”

“It’s not your fault, it’s definitely not your fault.” Lu Tinghan said, “After all, I’m just an ordinary person. When I hated Lu Zhun and vowed to surpass everyone, I had already shown my ordinariness.”

There was fog in the distance, and the ‘Deer Outside the High Forest’ stepped out slowly and gracefully.

Lu Tinghan looked at the strange infected creature and said, “I have never told anyone that it is Lu Zhun, or that part of it is Lu Zhun. I knew it the first time I saw it.”

No matter how much he tried to deny it, there was something in the bloodline that was common. They were equally talented and proud and didn’t like to express emotions, but at this glance, Lu Tinghan recognized him.

Maybe this was because they were father and son.

Shi Yuan thought for a while: “But, in my opinion, you have never been a perfect general.”

Shi Yuan said again: “You are very good. You will help me untie knots, take me shopping, invite me to eat delicious beef noodles, accompany me to practice my lines, and watch my performances. You will also pretend to be Lu Tingting, tell me about your family history, teach me to play cards, and draw, and… you are tone deaf and low quality, and even more low quality in bed.” He looked at Lu Tinghan, the tip of his tail swaying happily. “I don’t know what an ‘ordinary person’ is, and I don’t care about the halo and mediocrity, you have always been you.”

He was the one who had been with him for ten years, the one who awakened him from a long dark dream.

In Shi Yuan’s eyes, Lu Tinghan was equally brave, but he also knew the other side of him.

Others saw Lu Tinghan high above, and when Shi Yuan saw him, he would only think that this was his human, and he must get his touch.

Nothing more.

On the distant wasteland, the

‘Deer Outside the High Forest’ wandered in the white mist, with the jellyfish floating and dancing.

They gradually disappeared into the mist.

Lu Tinghan smiled, and said after a long time: “Yes, I have never been a general in front of you.”

The smoke in his hand was half burned, he crushed it out, and said with a smile: “This is the best thing in the world.”

“Right, this is the best thing!” Shi Yuan turned his head and smiled and kissed Lu Tinghan’s side face.

They returned to the car.

The black car moved forward silently, they snuggled in the back seat, and each other’s body temperature dispelled the cold just now. Lu Tinghan put his arms around Shi Yuan and said in his ear: “I want to say one more thing, sometimes ordinary people can’t help themselves.”

“What do you mean they can’t help themselves?” Shi Yuan asked.

Lu Tinghan did not answer.

In the month that followed, the situation became increasingly tense.

On October 16, the battle situation in the main city was critical, and the outpost Colonel Suliang was in was surrounded by the infected swarm.

“Mobilize all nearby squads for support!” Su Enqi strode to the command room. “The outpost cannot be lost, absolutely not!”

The officers in the command room were silent.

A major general said slowly: “General Su, I’m afraid this situation is not conducive to rescue. We have to pay too much. We already… can’t give that much.”

Su Enqi glanced at them, his gaze like a knife: “I have my judgment, I said mobilize all nearby squads for support! Didn’t you guys hear me, what are you doing standing still? Go!”

There was still silence.

The officers stood in place, in a suffocating, seemingly frozen silence.

Su Enqi suddenly realized something: “Why are you…!”

The words stuck to his mouth, and a chill climbed up his spine. He stood still and looked forward intuitively.

The lights were bright, and Lu Tinghan stood in the middle of the command room, dressed in a black military uniform, with five-star epaulettes shining.

He looked at him in silence.