Amidst the clamor and commotion, by the time it was Huai Yu’s turn, dusk had already begun to settle.
After the beep of the zero-point Contribution Card, those around who noticed couldn’t help but fall silent.
Yet Huai Yu seemed to feel no shame at all, simply waiting quietly and obediently.
She had nothing to be ashamed of. She had forgotten everything from before, unsure whether she had died and come back to life or suddenly mutated. In any case, when she opened her eyes today, she was already wrapped in tree roots like a cocoon.
After crawling out of the cocoon, aside from her name and some faintly remembered common sense, everything else was gone. Family, friends—not a single memory remained.
In short.
She was kind-hearted, so she probably hadn’t done anything wrong. The zero-point Contribution Card wasn’t her fault; surely, it was this world that had wronged her.
With this thought, her mental state remained remarkably stable, and her smile was open and unburdened, leaving those around who were ready to gossip speechless.
A moment later, after the registration was completed, she was handed only 30 bottles of Nutrient Solution and a pound of soybeans.
“From now on, your life is your own. Without the state to back you up, you’ll starve if you keep this up.”
Holding the pile of items, Huai Yu curved her eyes at the person:
“I understand.”
After a moment’s thought, she added, “I’ll live well. Thank you, ma’am.”
…
Stepping out of the hall, the distant sky was already woven with the dark blue and orange-red hues of dusk.
The dilapidated bus at the entrance was already packed with people, the loudspeaker still blaring:
【To facilitate everyone’s registration, bus rides are free this month—】
【Final stop: Rose Corridor—】
Huai Yu paused for a moment before quickly jogging over. The driver kept honking the horn, shouting hoarsely:
【Move further inside, everyone at the back—】
“It’s full, it’s full! Driver, let’s go already!”
“Yeah, I live in Jinyuan. If we don’t leave soon, it’ll be dark!”
The next moment, everyone felt a sudden squeeze around them, their feet involuntarily pressing closer to the sides.
“Damn! Who’s pushing?!”
“Stop pushing, for fuck’s sake! There’s no room! My feet are off the ground!”
“Hey, hey, hey—don’t crush my Nutrient Solution—”
The door finally closed. Huai Yu gripped the handrail tightly, offering an innocent smile to the people packed around her like sardines.
Through the cracked glass, she watched the city transition from order to ruins, then gradually to desolation, strikingly similar to the scenes in her dreams.
But what else was in her dreams?
“Rose…”
She murmured, unable to recall anything more.
The bus swayed and jolted along, struggling to make its way from the broken roads toward the outskirts of the city.
The passengers gradually thinned out. After a few more people got off at Jinyuan Residential Area, only Huai Yu and the driver remained in the bus.
The two exchanged glances from the driver’s seat. Huai Yu curved her eyes and said, “I’ll get off at Rose Corridor.”
The driver sighed and started the engine. Just because the final stop was Rose Corridor didn’t mean anyone actually lived there… How could someone really be staying there?!
Muttering to himself, he couldn’t resist asking, “Miss, you didn’t even get a spot in Jinyuan Residential Area… Did you… did you get a huge deduction in points?”
“No,” Huai Yu shook her head honestly. “I probably just didn’t make any contributions.”
The driver: …
…
The bus didn’t stop at Rose Corridor. It seemed the place was truly dangerous, as the bus had to turn back.
Dusk had already enveloped the surroundings, leaving only faint outlines of the distant mountain ranges.
The night breeze carried a refreshing chill. Huai Yu crouched down, touching the tender green sprouts on the ground, recalling the hazy morning broadcast she had heard earlier. She vaguely remembered it was March.
She felt a bit hungry, but the soybeans were still dry and hard, so she casually grabbed a packet of Nutrient Solution.
The packaging wasn’t overly flashy; it looked like a jelly pouch. On it was simply written 【Basic Nutrient Solution】. The ingredient list was too blurry to read in the dim light, though she could vaguely make out something about vitamins.
Curious, she twisted open the cap and took a sip—
Hmm, sour, with a faint sweetness and a hint of saltiness. As for the texture… it was like wood pulp soaked in water with a thickening agent added.
Not tasty.
But that didn’t matter. Too much had happened today, and she needed to figure out who she really was and why she had formed a tree-root cocoon on Sanqing Shan.
Could it be… the root nodules had mutated?
Yikes! That’s too gross to think about!
Huai Yu quickly looked around and decided to start by considering her past and present life.
For example, where would she sleep tonight?
It was pitch dark all around, and in the distance, faint lights flickered in tall buildings before quickly extinguishing.
Huai Yu tugged at her tattered clothes, pacing back and forth on the barren, treated ground, then suddenly realized—
No one was watching her, so she didn’t necessarily have to stay here at night! She could go back to the mountain! Her cocoon was still there!
Hmm, that sounded a bit strange, but that oval-shaped structure formed by twisted tree roots, stuffed with pine needles and dried leaves, would surely be more comfortable to sleep in than here, right?
The fragrance of the Rose Corridor grew stronger in the deep night, with its fierce thorns hidden beneath green leaves. In this early spring of March, it seemed to be blooming a bit too eagerly.
Huai Yu couldn’t quite remember which direction she had entered from during the day, but as her fingers brushed against the soft, fragrant petals once more, a tall, previously unnoticed pillar nearby suddenly lit up with an alarm:
【Mutation Value in Rose Corridor Zone 37 rapidly rising, suspected anomaly detected—】
【Mutation Value in Rose Corridor Zone 37 rapidly rising, suspected anomaly detected—】
【Mutation Value in Rose Corridor Zone 37 rapidly rising, suspected anomaly detected—】
She instantly withdrew her hand, then calmly looked at a recessed area ahead and decisively slipped inside.
Three minutes later, the roar of an engine echoed through the silent night.
Two minutes after that, Huai Yu, huddled inside the cold brick structure, heard the faint thud of military boots stepping on the ground above.
“Come out!”
Someone shouted loudly.
Slowly, she peeked out, like an innocent bud growing beneath layers of lotus leaves, meek and fragile:
“I didn’t touch anything…”
A cold, gleaming gun slowly rose. The surrounding people relaxed slightly but remained stern:
“What are you doing here so late? No lingering is allowed in the Rose Corridor area at night.”
Huai Yu looked bewildered: “But this place… is mine now.”
She slowly crawled out of the brick structure, like a helpless stray dog driven here, her clothes tattered and her long hair messy from crawling in and out.
Then he pointed at the pile of scattered ruins: “Look, this is Qiangwei Gongguan’s territory, and it’s been assigned to me today.”
The surrounding crowd was instantly stunned.
“You… assigned to you?” The soldier at the front, who wore a rose emblem on his chest, finally reacted:
“You mean the registration and assignment today? Why would you, alone, be assigned to this place? Did someone tamper with your Contribution Points?”
Beneath his helmet, his expression gradually turned cold and stern.