The Last 299 Days of Humanity

Chapter 112 Hedonism
Unable to resist Yao Dan and the others' encouragement, and also because of the little fox's curious pleading, Yu Qing decided to go into Xie Mountain for a stroll before leaving.

The place was filled with makeshift houses, haphazardly built as if they were meant to be abandoned at any moment. As Yu Qing and his group passed by, the people lying haphazardly in the courtyard didn't even glance at them.

Hearing someone singing a very beautiful song, the little fox pulled Yu Qing towards it. They thought there was some kind of concert, but when they got there, they saw two young men tapping on a shoe, shaking their heads and improvising.

To Yu Qing and his companions' astonishment, a woman with long legs was sitting in front of the door, licking her own toes. Not far away, perhaps her husband, was pricking his finger with a needle, shouting and jumping around, looking completely absorbed in the moment.

Yao Dan asked softly, "Husband, has he gone mad?"

"I don't think so; it's probably one of their forms of entertainment."

Seeing the incredulous expressions on Yao Dan and the others' faces, Yu Qing warned them, "Don't make a fuss. You can't use conventional logic to reason and calculate, or you'll come to the wrong conclusion."

No sooner had he finished speaking than Yao Dan suddenly sprinted forward. Yu Qing, fearing she would cause trouble, followed her, carrying the little fox on his back.

Under a tree ahead, several people were watching a winged man hang himself! Yao Dan ran over, grabbed his legs, and lifted his body up.

The winged man removed the rope from his neck, pointed at Yao Dan's nose, and cursed, "Whose iron lump is this, acting so presumptuously here!"

The onlookers all laughed.

Yu Qing hurriedly stepped forward to apologize, saying, "I'm so sorry, she thought you were trying to commit suicide, so she came to save you. You know her logic is fixed..."

The winged man frowned and said, "How ignorant. We're experiencing the ultimate pleasure of being on the verge of death, what does she know!"

Someone in the crowd said, "Forget it, they're just busybodies passing by. They have no idea how fun it is."

At this moment, the winged man did something that shocked Yu Qing: he suddenly put a rope around Yu Qing's neck, preparing to hang Yu Qing up so that Yu Qing could also experience the ultimate pleasure.

Seeing that Yu Qing's life was in danger, E Ying rushed over and snapped the winged man's hand that was pulling the rope with a crack.

Just as Eying was about to snap the winged man's neck, Yu Qing hurriedly shouted, "Eying, stop! You mustn't!"

Yu Qing inwardly groaned; he was in trouble again and probably wouldn't be able to leave anytime soon. He quickly took down the rope to check on the winged man's injuries, repeatedly apologizing to him.

The winged man ignored him, clutching the wound on his severed hand with his other hand, standing there trembling and making incoherent "hoarse" noises. At this moment, someone summoned a humanoid female doctor who went forward to treat him.

Unexpectedly, the winged man roared, "Get out of here! I've never felt so good before. I'll call you when I can't take it anymore."

The winged man even smiled at Eying and said, "This alloy sister has excellent skills, thank you."

Yu Qing was both amused and exasperated by the scene. Somewhat embarrassed, he said to the onlookers, "I'm sorry, we know nothing about the lifestyle here and have spoiled everyone's fun."

Someone replied, "It's alright. Everyone who comes here for the first time is like this. After living with us fellow music lovers for a few days, they become so happy they don't want to leave."

Yu Qing asked, "How should I compensate this person..."

The winged man said, "Forget it, a bandage will heal it in half a month. But you have to treat us all to a meal!"

Yu Qing asked, puzzled, "What is 'fall'?"

The winged man laughed and said, "It's not 'luo' (落), but 'luo' (泺) with the water radical (氵) and the character for 'joy' (樂). This is a drink that Xie Shan just invented. It's more intoxicating than wine; it's practically the water of joy, so we named it 'luo' (泺)."

Yu Qing said, "I see. Then I'll treat you all to some Luo (a type of rice noodle soup)."

"Almost everything here is free, except for this pond, which has a very low yield, so we charge for it. You won't regret it, will you?"

Yu Qing laughed and said, "There's an old poem that says: 'Why does the host say he has little money? Just buy some wine and we'll drink together.' No problem!"

The crowd stomped their feet and shouted, "Good! Good! Good!"

Yu Qing and his companions were ushered to a small square. The setting sun shone on the ground, making it look like a crimson carpet.

Yu Qing had initially thought they were going to a place like a lounge, but it turned out they only needed an open space. Everyone sat down on the ground as they pleased. Before long, a human-like woman came over and handed out an empty bowl to each person.

Yu Qing thought someone would come and pour them that drink called Luo, but instead, a group of humanoid beauties danced in front of them. Just as he was wondering what was going on, he realized that his empty bowl had somehow been filled with liquid.

The little fox thought it was water, grabbed Yu Qing's hand and took a sip, immediately jumping up and down in tears. Yu Qing quickly took a sip too, and it was sour, spicy, and numbing, making him shiver.

Yu Qing hurriedly picked up the little fox and tried to comfort her. But she kept crying. Yu Qing stood up and said to everyone, "I'm sorry, I have to take her to find some water to rinse her mouth."

At this moment, someone stood up, grabbed him, and said, "What in life is more important than happiness? You're not thinking of backing out and running away, are you?"

Yu Qing said to Chang'e, "Go and settle all the fees here."

Then he turned to the person who had grabbed him and said, "Is that okay now?"

The man said angrily, "Do you think we're begging you for drinks? We just wanted to get together and have some fun! What a spoilsport!"

Yu Qing was speechless for a moment. At this moment, E Ying asked the humanoid girl for a bowl of water and handed it to the little fox to rinse its mouth. The little fox spat the water onto the ground at its feet.

Suddenly someone shouted, "What a waste! Get rid of that little worm!"

Yu Qing was furious upon hearing this and roared, "Who's the little scoundrel! Whoever spoke, step forward!"

The person next to Yu Qing quickly said to him, "It's a misunderstanding. We call people from outside Xieshan 'luchong' here, it's not meant as an insult."

Yu Qing snorted and said sarcastically, "Is that so? What a coincidence, people outside call Xie Shan's people fleas."

This ignited the entire scene. Xie Shan's men all stood up, smashed the bowls in their hands, and rushed towards Yu Qing and his group.

Eying and the others rushed to help, pushing those who lunged at them to the ground. Yu Qing quickly picked up the little fox and ran towards the parking lot.

He was furious when he heard a cacophony of laughter behind him. He stopped and yelled at them, “Fleas! Clowns! I’ll tell you about a much happier place: the Western Paradise.”

To everyone's surprise, the people laughed even harder and shouted, "Thank you, passerby! You've given us a lot of laughs. We haven't been this happy in a long time."

Yu Qing was speechless and could only stumble and slink back to his car.

Chang'e and the others returned one after another. However, Yao Dan circled the carriage several times without getting in. She called out, "Husband, have you noticed anything different about the carriage compared to before?"

Yu Qing said, "Hong Hong, turn on all the lights."

After saying that, he got out of the car to check and said, "I also feel like something's not right..."

Suddenly Yao Dan shouted, "Husband, someone has removed a panel from the right wing!"

Yu Qing looked at the left and right sides of the car and said, "It really is. Damn it, what's the use of taking a panel off!"

Eying also ran over to take a look and said, "Was it done by those people just now?" "No, they never left our sight and were not at the crime scene."

Chang'e said, "Now the left and right sides are asymmetrical, and the lift will likely be unbalanced once we're in space. We can't move now unless we only travel by land."

"You should split up and search. If you go by land, it'll take forever!"

Eying said, "I will stay here to protect you. Let them go find it."

"Alright, this is a good opportunity for you to teach the little fox a few more words."

The little fox stuck its head out of the car window and said, "Okay."

Yu Qing laughed and said, "Our little fox has learned another word."

Taking advantage of the momentum, Eying began teaching the little fox vocabulary for expressing opinions, such as yes, no, object, support, and so on.

Looking at the little fox's earnest expression, Yu Qing felt gratified and couldn't help but pat her head, saying, "Little fox, you are our beacon of hope. You must study hard."

The little fox tilted its head back and said seriously, "No!"

Yu Qing was taken aback and asked, "Why not?"

Eying smiled and said, "She meant that you shouldn't disturb her."

Yu Qing quickly withdrew his hand and said, "It was my narrow-mindedness, Your Majesty, please continue."

So Yu Qing turned his face away, leaned back in his chair, and closed his eyes to rest.

Two or three hours had passed, and Chang'e and Yaodan still hadn't returned. Indeed, finding an alloy plate late at night was no easy task; if someone had taken it home or used it somewhere else, it would be even more difficult to retrieve.

The little fox had already started yawning and was now asleep in Eying's arms.

Eying pointed at the little fox and whispered, "I only learned twenty words today."

Yu Qing laughed and said, "For humans, this is already quite good. You can't look at her from the perspective of humanoids. Unlike you, who can fill your brains with all the knowledge in the world in two seconds."

"Master, there are actually places where knowledge can be uploaded to humans. Are you unaware of this or have you forgotten?"

"It seems there really is such a thing. But they need to perform brain surgery first. I want the little fox to grow step by step according to its own pace. It's not necessarily a good thing for an eight- or nine-year-old to know everything, right?"

"If Master says so, then so be it. There's something else I've been wondering whether I should say..."

"Go ahead and say it. There's no such thing as 'should' or 'shouldn't'."

"It's just... Master... I think Chang'e might be a spy..."

Yu Qing chuckled and said, "Hehe, how did you know? She's been with me all this way and has done a lot for me."

"Of course. But she might have been sent by someone from the Shengtian Group, just to stop you from getting involved in the group's affairs, not to kill you... They wouldn't dare..."

Yu Qing remained silent for a moment, then said, "What evidence do you have?"

"No... it's just a feeling. Lately, she's been sitting there a lot, shaking her head."

"What kind of feeling is this? It doesn't make sense."

"That's not how it is. When I was gathering intelligence for my former master, I would feel uncomfortable if I couldn't contact him for a long time, and I would unconsciously shake my head and try to shake off the sound of the tsunami inside."

Yu Qing stared at E Ying for a while, then sighed, "I hope you will never stand against me."

"I'm here to protect you, and this will never happen again."

By then it was already broad daylight, but Chang'e and the others still hadn't returned. Yu Qing tried to contact them several times using the telepathic connection, but received no response.

"Big brother, wash your face and eat." The little fox also woke up.

Yu Qing laughed and said, "Alright, let's begin with the human three-piece suit."

The little fox said, "Ah, I understand. Sister Ying, I need to go to the toilet."

Chang'e and Yaodan didn't return until Yu Qing and the others had finished breakfast. Fortunately, they returned carrying the plank.

"I thought you guys had been demolished too! Why didn't you respond to my calls?"

Yao Dan said, "Husband, don't even mention it, it's so embarrassing. We were electrocuted and knocked unconscious."

Yu Qing said angrily, "You're all useless. How can I expect you to protect me? You can't even protect yourselves!"

"Don't scold us yet, my husband. It's all because you people have too many new tricks up your sleeves; we can't guard against them all!"

Chang'e chimed in, "Even the greatest mathematician cannot deduce the logic of human behavior."

"Stop giving me that logic. Tell me how you found this board."

"It's both funny and infuriating. Do you know what they did with the boards? They took them to the wedding venue to bake potato chips!"

"So you were also inexplicably electrocuted at the wedding, right?"

"My lord, nothing can escape your discerning eyes."

Yu Qing laughed and said, "I'm not an old man. Why are you getting involved in someone else's wedding? Are you perhaps feeling romantic too?"

Chang'e said, "It wasn't really a wedding, more like a celebration. We saw the board there and were going to just take it and leave, but they told us to wait and they'd return it after the ceremony. So we..."

What kind of ceremony makes you unable to move?

“Husband, we were just a little curious. After all, we’ve never seen such a ceremony before. Who knew it would be such an eye-opener! We thought there would be some exciting program, but guess what? They were just slapping each other.”

One said menacingly, "I didn't slap you yesterday, but if I don't slap you to death today, I'll slap you again tomorrow." The other replied, "I didn't practice on you yesterday, but I'll practice on you today, and I'll practice on you again tomorrow!"

Yu Qing laughed and said, "Yao Dan, come here and let me practice my skills. What do you have to do with how they want to mess around? How did you get electrocuted?"

Chang'e said, "They poked each of us in the waist with a small stick, and we were all laughing and jumping around happily, thinking it was something fun, so we didn't pay attention and let them poke us too. Who knew it was actually an electric shock..."

"When we woke up, everyone had left, and this plank was just sitting next to us..."

(End of this chapter)