The Last 299 Days of Humanity

Chapter 37 A Beauty That Could Topple Kingdoms
Yu Qing and Chang'e were just arguing to pass the time in the suffocating darkness. He didn't know how long this situation would last. He desperately wanted to find the person who had trapped him and fight them to the death.

Sometimes, enemies aren't scary; what's scary is not even knowing who your enemy is.

Is this some kind of cross-border punishment from the turtle people? Unlikely. After all, this is Fuping's territory. If the turtle people catch up with them, they'll at most capture them and take them back, not waste time here.

The most likely explanation is that it was Fuping's people who did it. But he knows nothing about Fuping and has no grudge against them, so why would they make things difficult for him? Could it be that the dark cloud is some kind of taboo for them, and that he caused the trouble by forcibly entering?

Yu Qing's mindset gradually changed; he became somewhat impatient and experienced uncontrollable anxiety.

He told Yao Dan to pry open the car door with a dagger, but Yao Dan struggled for a long time without making any progress.

Chang'e said, "Since we have two cars anyway, why don't I smash the window of this one?"

Yu Qing said angrily, "Smash it as hard as you can!"

But to his surprise, neither his dagger nor Chang'e's light blade could penetrate the car's so-called glass.

He never imagined that the car was so incredibly sturdy that even if it crashed into an indestructible wall at 500 kilometers per hour, not a single part of it would break.

This is a difficult situation. If an automated device captures them, and they don't find a way to escape on their own, they might be trapped for ten years or even half a month.

After a while, a light drizzle could be heard outside. Was it raining? Yu Qing said, "Listen, I think it's raining outside."

Chang'e listened intently through the car window and replied, "It's raining."

Yao Dan pressed her face against the windshield and called out, "Husband, it's raining, but there are no raindrops on the glass!"

Yu Qing pondered for a moment and said, "This shows that we are not trapped by the dark clouds, but trapped in some space. The rain is falling outside this space."

"My lord, what kind of space could be hidden in the dark clouds? This is too strange."

Yu Qing sighed, "I have no idea either. Heaven wants to destroy me, so it built a cage here to wait for me."

As they chatted back and forth, a sliver of light began to appear outside. Within an hour or two, they could vaguely make out each other's faces.

"It's dawn!" Yao Dan shouted.

Chang'e laughed and said, "It's already dawn. The dark clouds have gradually disappeared after the rain, and the light is shining through. It seems this space is transparent!"

Yu Qing stared ahead for a long time, vaguely seeing traces of rainwater sliding down the facade. He nodded and said, "That's right, there's a transparent wall ahead! Second Sister must have held on to it so hard that she managed to stall the engine."

"Husband, how can we restart Second Sister?"

"I don't know either, I haven't had time to fully understand all the skills required to operate it."

It was getting brighter outside, and the rain gradually stopped. Through the traces left by the rain, they finally realized where they were trapped.

It turned out that the entire area above Fuping was covered by a huge cone, and beneath the cone was a circular ditch about five meters wide, with water flowing along it towards some destination. Their car was tilted, its front end resting against the cone, and its rear end resting on the ditch.

At that moment, all the warning lights in the car suddenly went out. Yu Qing asked in confusion, "Second Sister, have you restarted it?"

The second sister replied, "Yes, Master, I am standing by."

"Why didn't you restart it yesterday, no, I should say the day before yesterday?"

"Master, after I turn off the engine, it can only be restarted by your fingerprint or facial recognition. You didn't give me your fingerprint, and there's no light for me to recognize you, so it can't be restarted."

"This is really troublesome!"

"No trouble at all, Master. I'm usually always on standby, no need to turn off the engine."

"Okay, enough talk. Now take off again, but don't crash into this transparent cone. Fly around this circular groove a few meters away, and I'll see what this thing is for."

"Yes, Master, please sit down."

The second sister hugged the cone and spun it around twice.

Only now did Yu Qing understand the purpose of this cone. The entire Fuping was also surrounded by a circular moat, which corresponded to the circular ditch below the cone in the sky.

The rainwater, having been collected in a circular ditch, was then channeled into the moat through four transparent pipes. What was the purpose of this?
"What a grand gesture!" Yu Qing exclaimed.

"Second sister, fly lower, fly under the cone to Fuping... No, no, wait... wait. Let's find a path on the ground first and land on the ground."

"Husband, why don't we just fly in?"

"Silly boy, the fact that there's a moat here means that the people who have been pacified have separated the inside from the outside of the city. Who knows if they have any backup plans to stop anyone from just flying in?"

"My husband, you humans are so full of twists and turns."

At this moment, the second sister stopped on a road outside the moat. Not far ahead was a bridge spanning the river. After crossing the bridge, they would enter Fuping.

At first glance, there were no obstructions on the bridge, nor could any people or humanoid figures be seen on duty. It seemed that free passage was permitted.

Yu Qing waved to Daji and the other two of his sisters, signaling the second sister to cross the bridge and enter Fuping. Everything went smoothly, and the second sister entered Fuping without any hindrance.

But then Chang'e called out, "My lord, Daji and the others' carriage has been blocked at the bridgehead."

Yu Qing quickly told his second sister to stop so he could check what was going on. Sure enough, his third sister was blocked on the other side of the bridge. "Why is that? I didn't stop my car, so why are they the ones being blocked?" Yu Qing was puzzled.

But you won't find a place to reason here, because it's an automatic recognition device; it only has rules and conditions, no emotions or reasons. Yu Qing gestured for Daji and the others to get out of the car and come over, but Daji was knocked back by an object.

Yu Qing stood there for a moment, then walked straight back across the bridge to his third sister. He let Daji and the others squeeze into one seat while he sat in another. He instructed his third sister, "Drive in through the bridge!"

The obstacle that had been blocking Third Sister's way had vanished, and it slowly crossed the bridge and entered Fuping. Yu Qing laughed, "That's like taking off your pants to fart."

When Yu Qing sat down in his second sister's car, Chang'e asked, "What's wrong? Does that thing only recognize you?"

Yu Qing joked, "I wiggled my butt when I crossed the bridge just now, and that thing mistook it for my face. Seeing that it's so big, it had no choice but to let me in."

Yao Dan said, "Sir, you're talking nonsense again. This place is probably just for people to come and go."

Yu Qing said, "Do you think it's possible that there's a genetic testing device on the bridge, and that creatures like the turtle-man that don't meet human standards aren't allowed to enter Fuping?"

Chang'e said, "I think that's probably the case. It seems that humanity on Earth is severely divided right now, otherwise the turtle people wouldn't be so eager for you to give them a proper name."

Yu Qing nodded, overjoyed. It seemed the people who had been appeased weren't monsters; they valued the purity of human genes.

Of course, this is just speculation. Now that we're in Fuping, we should take a look around. If things look good, we can stay a couple more days; if things don't look good, we can always make a quick getaway.

Shortly after the car entered Fuping, Yu Qing concluded that the situation there was "very optimistic," because he saw a stunningly beautiful human woman walk past him and enter a building. Yao Dan exclaimed dramatically, "She's a real human, ninety-two percent pure human genes!"

Chang'e muttered to herself, "How beautiful! My husband is in trouble again."

Yu Qing chuckled and said, "What do you mean I'm in trouble again? You're all very beautiful, and I don't look dizzy at all."

Yao Dan said, "I agree with Chang'e's statement. This time she's a great beauty among humans. It would be strange if my husband didn't go crazy for her. We're in trouble too. My husband will never look at us again."

"How about we have my second sister find a hotel for us to stay for the night?" Yu Qing asked.

"That's for sure. Are you willing to leave, my husband?"

"My lord, I'm starting to worry that you're not going to the Second Paradise anymore and want to settle down in Fuping instead."

"Trying to outsmart me again, huh? Second Sister, let's go to the best hotel around here!"

Before long, they arrived in front of a building.

This is the best hotel in Fuping. However, there don't seem to be many guests, but there are quite a few humanoid female staff members. They were led to the elevator, and their room was a deluxe suite on the tenth floor.

However, Chang'e and her companions were stopped outside the elevator by a waiter who said, "This is for human use only. Please take another elevator."

Yu Qing gestured to Chang'e and the others to follow local customs and meet up in their room.

He rode the elevator up alone, and stopped on the fourth floor. To his surprise, a stunningly beautiful woman stepped up. She paused for a moment upon seeing Yu Qing, then nodded and said, "Hello!"

Yu Qing felt like he'd been electrocuted, and stammered, "You... hello..."

He had a lot to say, but the elevator suddenly stopped, and the beautiful woman stepped out briskly. Soon, the elevator resumed its ascent to the tenth floor.

When the elevator reached the tenth floor, the doors opened, and Chang'e and Yaodan were waiting outside. Seeing Yu Qing still standing motionless in the elevator, they reached in and pulled him out. They then escorted him into the room, one on each side.

Yu Qing, as if possessed, sighed: "In the north there is a beautiful woman, peerless and independent. One glance could topple a city, a second glance could topple a nation. How could one not know that such beauty could topple cities and nations, yet such a woman is hard to find again?"

Yao Dan smiled and said, "Husband, you're still thinking about it. Let's rest for a bit and then go find her."

"She's downstairs..."

Chang'e patted Yu Qing's head and laughed, "She doesn't have a fever. She clearly went to that building we passed by, and it was only a short while ago. How could she be downstairs here already?"

"Really, I just ran into her in the elevator."

"Husband, are you sure you didn't see wrong? Did she deliberately fly here so you could meet her?"

"I really feel like it's someone else; there can't possibly be another woman as beautiful as her..."

Chang'e asked, "Then tell me where she is downstairs. I absolutely must go and meet her."

"The elevator downstairs...to the sixth or seventh floor..."

Chang'e said she would go take a look and then left.

Yao Dan found synthetic food and water in the room and exclaimed in surprise, "Husband, come and have some! You haven't eaten in a long time!"

Yu Qing no longer had the same passion he used to have for food; he mechanically took what Yao Dan handed him and put it in his mouth. Later, when Yao Dan handed him a glass of water, he even tried to put the glass in his mouth as well.

"Water, that's water!"

Hearing Yao Dan's shout, Yu Qing stopped himself from shoving the cup into his mouth and instead gulped down the water.

Yao Dan patted Yu Qing on the back and said, "Don't choke. We're not in a hurry. Didn't Chang'e go down to find her for you?"

Yu Qing grabbed Yao Dan's hand and said, "You won't be jealous, will you? You must help me find her."

Yao Dan said, "Our third rule of proper conduct is that we cannot compete with humans for affection. Don't worry, we will do our best to help you find her... Oh, my husband, come to the window quickly!"

Yu Qing said lazily, "What? I'm not interested."

"It's her! The stunning beauty you've been longing for!"

Upon hearing this, Yu Qing almost lunged forward, pressing his face against the glass to look downstairs and yelling, "Yao Dan, you're playing tricks on me again! Where are you?"

"My lord, she's not upstairs, she's on the balcony of the building across the street!"

Yu Qing looked up and his heart pounded. Sure enough, she was standing on the balcony about twenty meters away, looking up at the sky.

Yu Qing hurriedly tried to open the window, but by then she had left the balcony and gone back inside. Yu Qing slammed the window shut and cursed, "What a piece of trash!"

Just then, Chang'e ran in and exclaimed, "My lord, I see her!"

Yao Dan said, "We saw her too; she just went inside."

Chang'e said, puzzled, "What do you mean 'just came inside'? She was clearly playing in the swimming pool on the 7th floor!"

Yao Dan exclaimed, "Really? That means it can't be the same beautiful woman. Husband, was that beautiful woman across the street the same person you met in the elevator?"

Yu Qing said, "They are definitely the same person! Or are they twins?"

"Then they should be quadruplets," Yao Dan muttered.

Chang'e chuckled and held Yu Qing's head, saying, "Well, my husband, didn't I tell you you were in trouble? One of them could take your soul, and now there are four of them. I'm afraid your life is in danger."

Yao Dan said angrily, "Stop teasing your husband! Didn't you say there's a swimming pool on the 7th floor? Hurry up and take him to see it, or he'll really go crazy!"

"Yeah!"

Chang'e and Yao Dan carried Yu Qing on either side and ran up to the 7th floor, fearing that if they were even a second late, they would miss seeing the person they cherished most.

Just as they arrived at the poolside, the stunningly beautiful woman who had captivated Yu Qing was walking out of the pool.

She was wearing a swimsuit, and her beautiful figure, perfect curves, and unparalleled beauty left Yu Qing speechless.

But she didn't give Yu Qing any time; seeing someone coming, she had already disappeared through another door.

When Yu Qing came to his senses and couldn't see anyone, he panicked and shouted to Chang'e and Yao Dan, "I want you to bring her back!"

(End of this chapter)