I wasn’t sure how long I sat there, but the entire underground city gradually became quiet. The lights were switched off one after another. The entire world was in total darkness. However, the street lamps had lit up. These street lamps weren’t lightbulbs, but more like a fluorescent substance that lights up in the dark after absorbing light. Their fluorescent yellow lights looked dim in the underground city, but they were warm.

I gradually stood up and somehow started running in total madness. There was only the sound of my running footsteps reverberating in the quiet underground city.

I ran downstairs and stood on the spacious square, which was far bigger than what I had seen from above. I looked up at the world, which was in total darkness. This dimly lit world looked blurry. It was as unrealistic as if I had barged into a monotone photo.

I was running like a headless fly, and it was only running that could make me feel safe instead of being afraid. I kept running in madness, alone in this quiet world. I didn’t know where I ran but it seemed like I was seeing crops. I ran along the route and both sides of the road became narrower. It began to incline and I ran upwards. I kept running and finally, I saw a huge door. I ran to the door and pushed it, and it opened!

Immediately, a strong wind blew in from outside. It was just like a cutting blade. The dark world was boundless.

If you were thrown in a strange city, you would at least know the direction of your home…

If you were thrown in a boundless ocean, your dead body would at least know to float to the shore…

If you were thrown in the Sahara Desert, you would at least die on the earth…

But then, I was thrown into an unknown barren world, how could I return home?

“Ah…” I finally screamed my lungs out, and tears instantly flowed down my cheeks. I shouted at the unknown world, “Ah! Ah!” Until my throat ached and I couldn’t shout anymore. I knelt before the world and embraced my own body. After I let my tense nerves loose, I collapsed…

What should I do, what should I do, what should I do….

*Howl… Howl…* There was a long howl next to me. I looked to my side as I cried. It was a monster. She was chained by the side of the door. She was also crying just like me. It seemed like her wings had been treated and were tied with a wooden stick.

I walked to her and she lowered her head. There were tears in her white eyes.

“We… are the same… Are we… not going home anymore…?” I asked her as I choked on my tears. She lowered her face and looked at me. Then, she lifted her face and howled again. *Howl… Howl…*

“I really… can’t go home anymore…” I fell and sat in front of her. I didn’t know how dangerous she was but at that very moment, I felt that she was as heartbroken as I was. We became a couple in distress. It was as though the spacetime door would open after hearing my cries. The seal on my chest broke open. All of the built-up fear, insecurity, and confusion since I had arrived in this unknown world flooded out of me and became my cries and tears.

*Howl… Howl…*

“I want to go home. I swear I will never hate my teacher, never hate the nine years of compulsory education, never hate entrance examinations. Please, let me go home.”

*Howl… Howl…*

“Let me go home. Ah!” I cried as she howled. In the silent night, my cries were louder than her howls…

I fell on the ground as I cried. I hugged my body and let the breeze blow against my face, as my tears turned cold. In my wet vision, there were two moons. They were telling me coldly, Luo Bing, you are no longer in your own world. You can only try to survive in this broken world.

*Howl… Howl…* She leaned opposite to me and embraced her body with her wings. We were crying opposite to one another. She looked at me and then covered me with her wings, which brought me some warmth.

Maybe I was tired of crying, or maybe I was done venting my emotions, but I fell asleep next to this unknown monster. By this time the sky had started to light up in my blurry vision, and I was soon going to be greeted by another day in this world…

If there wasn’t any jabbering noise, I wouldn’t have woken up.

“It is September now. The sun shines roughly from nine in the morning to four in the evening… The sun shines at our crops at an angle of forty-four point eight degrees. I need to add a few more mirrors and the angle of this mirror is…”

I woke up from the jabbering noise and I realized that I was sleeping in the monster’s embrace. The monster sat straight with its legs crossed to form a nest, while I curled up in the nest. That very moment, she stared straight ahead. She wasn’t on high alert, as though she knew the owner of that voice.

I rubbed my eyes and sat up in her embrace. She didn’t look at me but kept staring in front of her. It was as though she was not on high alert, but at the same time, she was still guarding against him.

At that moment I saw a vast flatland. This flatland didn’t seem as infertile and barren as the places I had seen before because there was grass here.

The grass grew in patches, similar to a dog that was shedding. I could see patches of soil as the grass swayed in the wind.

I lifted my head to look at the sky. The sky was unusually pale and the sunlight was blocked by thick clouds. The entire world became greenish-white, while there was a faint crescent moon among the clouds.

“So, the number of mirrors that I need to add would be…”

I heard a jabbering noise and I lowered my head to look in the direction of the source of this voice. I saw that there was a guy sitting two meters away from us. He was sitting on the ground. He had a head full of greyish blue long hair. He had casually tied up his long hair, while a few strands were left hanging by the side of his face. They flew in the wind and brushed against his lips. This scene made him look delicate.

He was wearing a hemp robe similar to Ming You and had a belt tied around his waist. There was also a huge hood behind his back, and a huge bag was slung across his body. He was dressed just like a Jedi from the Star Wars movie, but also looked like a European missionary.

That very moment, he was scribbling in the air with his right hand, while he continued uttering statistics. It seemed like he was calculating something. He suddenly lifted a booklet that had yellowed due to aging, in his left hand. On one of the pages, he wrote, “You woke up?”

I was stunned. Was he talking to me while doing the calculations?