"Okay, you're the class leader, you have the final say."
Thangka muttered and went to look for medicine and a heater.
In the end, they didn't leave Zhou Xiuyun and her mother in the cold storage, mainly because the environment there was too bad. The air was stinky and dirty to the extreme. If the two or three years old girl continued to stay in there, she might really fall sick the next day.
It was the first time in half a month that the little girl breathed in the fresh air outside and was able to crawl and run freely in the aisles of the supermarket. She was so happy that she was like a happy puppy. The only thing that was missing was her wagging tail and her giggles echoing throughout the supermarket.
Although Thangka and Chu Zhiyun had seen the innocent appearance of the Empire's children in Dazzling Light Mirage, a "real", "flesh and blood" child appeared in front of them, the feeling was very different.
The two of them felt as if they had seen a creature that was completely different from themselves. They were very curious about this little girl called "Little Tiantian".
After Little Tiantian drank the milk powder that Chu Zhiyun personally made for her, she became more and more affectionate towards these two "big brothers and big sister". She kept climbing on Chu Zhiyun's body and wriggling in her arms.
Chu Zhiyun looked as if she was holding a crystal that could easily break. Her expression was awkward and confused, but she smiled from the bottom of her heart.
"Don't climb, be good, be careful!"
She naturally lowered her voice and somewhat clumsily coaxed the little girl.
There was originally a large children's area in the supermarket. Not only did it sell a variety of dazzling toys, there was also a small ocean ball pool and a plastic castle, which became Little Tiantian's playground. She threw a colorful ocean ball to Thangka, and then she handed a toy apple to Chu Zhiyun with both hands. She even pretended to take a deep breath under her nose and said, "Smells good, smells good!"
Thangka and Chu Zhiyun were completely fascinated by this little elf.
Zhou Xiuyun had been looking at them timidly from the side, as if she was at their mercy. This poor woman indeed had no way out.
The two older children and the little girl played for half a day until the sun set in the west and dusk was about to arrive. Only then did the cruel reality rise in their hearts along with the cold air.
"Class Rep, it's time to decide."
Thangka looked at Tiantian, who had finally fallen asleep in her mother's arms, and said hesitantly, "What … what should we do?"
"Tomorrow is the last day of the 'ultimate test'."
Chu Zhiyun said distractedly, "Let's talk about it tomorrow."
This was definitely not a good answer.
It was even a meaningless method of deceiving oneself and others.
However, Thangka understood Chu Zhiyun's state of mind very well, because this was also what he wanted to say.
The more time he spent with Tiantian, the more he was unwilling to take this ignorant little guy who was like a meatball to the Holy Palace and turn him into … someone like them.
Thangka thought of the people he had seen in the dazzling movies, TV series, and various promotional videos of the Imperium these days. Those people looked healthy, strong, refreshed, and happy. They were either laughing out loud or focused. Even when they were in pain and sorrow, they could roar and cry without restraint to vent their emotions.
They seemed to live more "real" and "vivid" than the people in the Holy League. Thangka gradually lost himself in these tempting illusions, not knowing whether he wanted to become a "Purger" or longed to become these objects that needed to be purified.
"Tonight, all of you will stay here. Try your best to prepare more food and water purification chips. Do you understand?"
Chu Zhiyun squatted and touched Tiantian's head while he said to Zhou Xiuyun, "Tomorrow. We'll decide what to do tomorrow!"
Zhou Xiuyun nodded quickly. Dirty tears flowed out again. She said softly, "Thank you. Thank you. I know that you are all … good people!"
Good people?
Thangka did not know.
According to the rules of the Holy League, they should be considered sinners who had been tempted by the extraterrestrial devils and fallen into the abyss without knowing it.
The two of them left the supermarket with complicated feelings and returned to the rendezvous point again.
After six days of the 'ultimate test', half of the students had been eliminated. The rest of them were scattered and squatting on the side, as if they were unwilling to have any contact with other people.
Every student seemed to have a lot on their minds. Their faces and eyes seemed to be shrouded in a layer of fog, as if … everyone had a secret.
"In only six days, all the students seem to have been reborn and become new people."
Thangka thought to herself. "I wonder what they encountered in their purging missions. Is it possible that they ran into their own 'Zhou Xiuyun' but are unwilling to tell other people?"
Such a large town had only been occupied for half a month. It was perfectly normal that a few fish had escaped. Thangka felt that her speculation was very reasonable.
Liao Meng, the deputy monitor, was the only one who was still staring at Thangka fiercely like a mad dog that was about to bite someone.
It was rather strange that the guy had persisted without being eliminated until now after losing control of his emotions twice in a row.
On their way back to the camp, everybody was particularly silent, including Li Yao, who was lurking deep inside Thangka's brain.
It was not until all the lights in the camp were turned off that Thangka closed her eyes and finally could not help but call Li Yao. "Grandpa Yao, are you still there? Why have you been silent all the way? Also, I sensed that your soul waves were very intense. You seemed to be … very angry. Was it my illusion?"
"No, it was not your illusion. I was indeed very angry, and I had to try my best to control myself so that my fury would not spurt out of your pores."
Li Yao said coldly, one word after another, "In case the entire camp was razed to the ground."
"Well —"
Thangka was rather surprised. "Why?"
Although she did not have much contact with the mysterious' Grandpa Yao ', after six or seven days, Thangka felt that' Grandpa Yao 'had been smiling all the time, as if he would not care even if the sky was falling and could make up for it with a sneeze.
"Because at four o 'clock."
Sharp grinding noises echoed deep inside Li Yao's soul. "Firstly, I didn't sense anybody in the freezer of the supermarket for the past five days. Although my senses were weakened to the minimum when I attached myself to you, the woman who called herself Zhou Xiuyun was not an Immortal Cultivator who could control her breath and heartbeat freely. As an ordinary person, I should've been able to hear her heartbeat even if it was on the other side of the thick wall and the gate of the freezer.
"Therefore, one of the possibilities was that my senses were too weakened, and the other was that she hid in the freezer the day before yesterday."
"Well —"
Thangka bulged her eyes and breathed fast. "What do you mean? There was nobody in the freezer before, and she — she hid in it yesterday?"
"Secondly —"
Ignoring Thangka, Li Yao continued his analysis. "Did you notice that the first thing Tiantian drank after she came out was the milk powder that your monitor made for her? I don't know if the people of the Holy League can understand the subtle feelings between a mother and her daughter, but all in all, in the Imperium or anywhere else, as long as she is a real mother, she would've made the food for her daughter herself instead of asking other people to do it for her.
"Thirdly, there's something else that is very odd. Do you remember what you were doing when Zhou Xiuyun knocked over the shelves at the beginning? At that time, you and your monitor were walking in the supermarket in the colorful clothes of the people of the Imperium, and you did not carry out the so-called 'purge'.
"Think about it from another perspective. If you were Zhou Xiuyun, an ordinary woman who had been hiding in the freezer for half a month, and you couldn't help but sneak out to look for hot water and medicine for your child, what would you think when you accidentally saw two big kids who were dressed like the people of the Imperium?
"Would you think that the two kids were civilians hiding in the supermarket like you, or would you guess that the people of the Imperium would have an 'ultimate test' here, and the two kids suddenly had the idea to become 'Lurkers'?
"Don't forget that, according to the setting of the woman who called herself 'Zhou Xiuyun', she was a family member of the garrison of the Thick Soil Sector, so she must've received the relevant colonization training. There's no way that she knows nothing about the people of the Holy League. She knows what a typical person of the Holy League looks like.
"However, what was the first thing she said when she saw you? 'Don't kill me, please'. In other words, even if you were not wearing the standard anti-epidemic clothes of the Holy League and showed obvious emotions, she would've known that you were not civilians of the Imperium. Why? "
Thangka's heart was frozen first and then shattered, before it was sucked into a bottomless black hole.
"What … What's the meaning of this?"
The young man was about to cry. "That … That's just your speculation, isn't it? You don't have any proof. What if … What if she was too nervous?"
"Fourthly, and most importantly, real proof —"
Li Yao sighed and said, "The so-called 'special shelter for military family members' on the map that she presented was an illusion. It was a place that did not exist. She deliberately tricked you."
"How did you know?"
Thangka blurted out, "How did you know that the map was fake?"
"Because I have the coordinates of all the real military shelters on Black Castle."
Li Yao said casually, "The shelters that 'Zhou Xiuyun' talked about are not within the range of my knowledge."
Li Yao had the entire Imperium of True Human Beings behind him. It was not difficult for him to get a list and detailed introduction of the military bases and shelters on Black Castle through General Lei Chenghu, Empress Dowager Li Linghai, or the emperor himself.
-----
Thank you for your concern. Many of my friends were anxious when they heard that I was hospitalized. They even asked about my situation on QQ and WeChat. My stamina is limited, and I was on a drip most of the time. Therefore, I could not reply to all of them. Please forgive me!
Many of my friends asked me to take care of my body first and stop writing for a few days until I recovered.
Well, I'm not pretending to be a daredevil on purpose. It's just that I'm still in good spirits. It's fine even if I lie in bed all day. If I can write, I'd rather write. It's a way of killing time.
"Forty Thousand Years of Cultivation" is almost finished. After three years and almost ten million words, writing has become a habit. If I don't write for a day, I'll feel uncomfortable, and my hands will itch. It's not very tiring. If I don't have enough stamina, I won't force myself. Please rest assured.
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