Embers Ad Infinitum

495th floor, Zone C, Room 11—this was the ‘large room’ that Long Yuehong had switched his parents to.

Compared to the previous ones, there were two additional small bedrooms here, allowing Long Yuehong’s younger brother and sister to finally have their own space.

Long Yuehong had just pushed open the door when he saw his mother—Gu Hong—knitting a sweater with a knitting needle while listening to the radio. His father, Long Dayong, sat beside her and gently clapped along with the music that echoed in the room.

The current radio program’s music was of the relaxing genre before lights out.

After Long Dayong and Gu Hong sensed the rotation of the lock, they cast their gazes at the door at the same time. One prepared to curse, and the other prepared to cooperate.

When they saw that it was Long Yuehong at the door, the two of them immediately stood up.

Gu Hong put down the knitting needle in her hand and couldn’t help but smile. “You’re back? This trip has been really long. For the past few months, I’ve been afraid that the Security Department would come looking for me. One never visits unless there’s something…”

As she spoke, Gu Hong fell silent, and her eyes reddened.

She was a fair and clean middle-aged woman. She had previously permed her hair for the new year and looked rather western.

Long Dayong quickly said, “What are you talking about? Isn’t he back safe and sound?” He was about 1.7 meters tall and was considered relatively muscular.

Gu Hong quickly composed herself and walked to the cabinet as she said, “I exchanged for some yarn during the Lunar New Year and knitted a shirt for you. Try it and see if it fits.”

Long Yuehong closed his eyes and smiled. “It’s already spring.”

“It’s thin; it can be worn even in spring. Besides, how can we distinguish spring, summer, autumn, and winter in our company?” Gu Hong rambled as she opened the cabinet’s door.

Long Yuehong pulled a chair over and sat down. He looked around and said, “Where are they?”

He was asking about his brother and sister.

“At this age, they no longer love their home now that their wings have hardened. You won’t be able to see any of them until lights out!” Gu Hong grumbled.

Long Yuehong had nothing to say about this because he didn’t like staying at home at that age either. He would rather squat in a corner of the street with Shang Jianyao, Yang Zhenyuan, and the others to listen to a radio program and randomly talk about topics.

He smiled and said, “That’s a good thing; they might end up in a relationship.”

Gu Hong—who had just taken out the new sweater—was stunned for a moment before hesitantly saying, “Ah, right. The Zhangs’ daughter used to like you. She kept asking when you would return before the New Year, but your father and I couldn’t say for sure. It seems she has a partner.”

Although Long Yuehong was already mentally prepared, he couldn’t help but sigh.

He smiled and sighed. “Let nature take its course when it comes to such matters.”

He was now very certain that the Old Task Force’s missions were very dangerous. He felt that he was bringing the girl harm if he dated her before he completely quit. However, he felt indignant when he thought about how he could accidentally die during a mission while still not having had a first love.

“Let nature take its course…” Gu Hong repeated this phrase and sized up Long Yuehong suspiciously. “Did you suffer a blow outside?”

Long Yuehong fell silent and raised his hand to show the muscles on his arm. “This is called being mature after experiencing plenty.”

Gu Hong glanced at him and threw the thin sweater at him. “You’re better at rhetoric than before…”

Long Yuehong didn’t retort. He took off his coat with a smile and tried on the sweater under his parents’ gazes.

…

In the Sea of Origins, Shang Jianyao swam for a long time. There was still nothing but an ocean ahead.

Not only was he not disappointed, but he also smiled. This meant that he had finally cleared the third island.

Previously, he would return to the original island after swimming for a distance. Now, he had already left its corresponding range.

With a thought, the green night pearl appeared above Shang Jianyao’s head. At the same time, he split into nine again and produced loudspeakers and other items to test the changes in his abilities directly.

Through the relentless efforts of the nine Shang Jianyaos as experimental subjects, they came to a preliminary conclusion: Inference Clowning’s range had expanded to eight to ten meters. The number of targets that could be affected simultaneously had increased to nine. However, due to the large differences in the targets, the effects wouldn’t be ideal if one chose to extract certain collective conditions without targeting them and formulating an explanation in a one-on-one or one-on-two scenario.

Likewise, after using a loudspeaker to enhance his effective range, he could also affect nine targets. However, the targets had to be concentrated in an area with a three-meter radius. The corresponding effects would also decrease sharply beyond that.

The effective range of Corny Person was almost 15 meters. Other than also being able to target nine people at the same time, there weren’t many changes.

The range for Hands Immobility increased to 30 meters. Furthermore, it could make different targets lose the ability to complete different actions without any need for uniformity.

These were the results of Shang Jianyao’s test in the mind world; it was definitely different from the situation in the real world. After all, he could achieve whatever he wanted here, but the fundamentals wouldn’t change.

After finishing this matter, Shang Jianyao felt exhausted, so he left the Sea of Origins.

…

After opening his eyes, Shang Jianyao saw that the corridor lamps outside the room were still lit and hadn’t been extinguished.

He picked up a brass key and left Room 196 amidst the soft music coming from the radio. He placed his hands in his pockets and slowly walked to Zone C’s Rec Center.

At this moment, it wasn’t long before lights out. There weren’t that many employees in the Rec Center; there were only two tables of people playing cards while teenagers gathered in the corner to chat.

Shang Jianyao found an empty spot, pulled out a chair, and sat down. He quietly watched everything.

Debates and laughter sounded in his ears. What he saw were faces with different expressions and clothes of similar styles.

Everything was so lively.

Shang Jianyao watched silently. His expression didn’t change at all; it was calm and gentle.

After a minute or two, the Rec Center’s supervisor—Chen Xianyu—discovered his existence and hobbled over.

“I thought you guys died outside,” teased the grizzled old man.

Shang Jianyao glanced at him and smiled. “I saw Chen Xufeng.”

Chen Xufeng was planted in Weed City as an intelligence agent by Pangu Biology, and he was also Chen Xianyu’s youngest son.

Chen Xianyu’s eyes suddenly widened. “Huh? That darn kid is still alive, right?”

Shang Jianyao’s expression turned serious as he slowly shook his head.

Chen Xianyu’s eyes immediately lost their luster.

“Gotcha.” Shang Jianyao smiled again.

“…” Chen Xianyu was first stunned before he grunted. “I knew it. Wouldn’t the Security Department inform me if he were to die outside?”

Without giving Shang Jianyao a chance to speak, he pretended to ask casually, “How’s he now?”

His question was very vague because he knew that his youngest son’s mission was confidential. There were many details that the other party couldn’t reveal even if he wanted to.

“Pretty good. He’s about to be promoted again.” Shang Jianyao also gave an ambiguous answer.

Chen Xianyu clearly relaxed a lot and sat beside Shang Jianyao with a smile. “It seems like you’ve been to many places all these months out there.”

Shang Jianyao looked at the group of card-playing employees and smiled. “They are all very interesting places.”

Chen Xianyu glanced at the teenagers in the corner and chuckled. “Is that so? The nomad settlements I went to back then were each worse than the last.”

Shang Jianyao sincerely replied, “You have to have a pair of eyes that are good at discovering beauty.”

“Where… Where did you learn that from?” Chen Xianyu was peeved and amused.

Shang Jianyao thought for a moment and said, “My superior, Madam Jiang Baimian.”

The two of them chatted for a while before the card game came to an end. The employees took advantage of the fact that the corridor lamps remained lit and rushed home or to the different public bathrooms amidst laughter.

The entire Rec Center soon became empty and quiet like the coming night.

Shang Jianyao slowly stood up, waved goodbye to Old Chen, and returned to Zone B.

Upon seeing Room 196 approaching, he suddenly looked up at the surveillance camera on the ceiling.

There was no movement there except for the iconic red light.

Shang Jianyao then made a face at it.