Chapter 154: The Century Frontline

Darkness seems to be innate. From the womb to death, born from darkness and finally stepping into it, everyone struggles throughout their lives to shatter the darkness, yet in the end, they still cannot escape its shackles.

If the Creator said, "Let there be light," and so there was light, then where did the Creator dwell before speaking those words? Or was He the first to break the darkness and create light?

"Grandpa, what's wrong with the big brother? He's been sleeping ever since we got home." A little girl leaned over the edge of the brick-bed (kang), resting her pigtail-bound head on her hands, her round eyes filled with a yearning for the unknown.

She could not comprehend why someone would sleep in the sand, why a person's body would be wrapped in a thin white film, or why a big brother like him had his neck and limbs bound with red ropes—just like hers, only even more.

The old man sat in a chair, taking drag after drag from a long-stemmed dried tobacco pipe. With every puff of smoke he exhaled, he glanced at the person on the kang. His eyes held an unfathomable depth of worldly vicissitudes and the weariness burdened by survival. Finally, when he looked back at the girl leaning on the edge of the kang, a smile and a trace of hope finally appeared.

"Bao'er, don't disturb the big brother's rest. The big brother is tired, he will be fine soon."

With that, the old man knocked out the remaining ash of the tobacco against the leg of the chair, then stood up and squatted by the doorway.

He didn't know whether saving this person today was right or wrong. When the old man first saw the brother Bao'er spoke of, he had been genuinely startled. His arms, legs, and head were covered in dark red marks, looking as if they were tied with red ropes—though that was just what one might tell a child; the old man could tell those looked like wounds from being dismembered by chariots, and his entire body's muscles were dense with fractures.

The old man had originally thought he was dead, but the white film rising and falling continuously across his body kept telling the old man that he was still alive. On the second to last day of every month, the grandfather and granddaughter would go to the edge of the desert to search for sand-lotus.

Because tomorrow Bao'er's father would return, they would celebrate, celebrating everyone's safety amidst a precarious life. Although arduous, it was fulfilling. The old man had experienced too much turmoil; he no longer wished to move. His wife and daughter-in-law had already departed ahead of him. If not for the fact that Bao'er was still young, the old man would have long wished to accompany his wife.

The old man's cloudy eyes watched the setting sun, retrieved a Mo-armor beetle's eyeball from the adjoining room, returned to the room where Ye Bai lay unconscious, and ignited it.

"Bao'er, come outside with Grandpa. It's getting dark. Once the temperature drops later, don't run around."

The old man cast one last glance at Ye Bai. The white film wrapping around his body had grown fainter and fainter. He then sealed the door shut; after all, the desert temperature dropped drastically at night, and the Mo-armor beetle's eyeball was used to ward off the cold and provide light.

The night passed in silence, save for the sound of the wind blowing from the depths of the desert. The next morning, the old man opened the door, faced the desert, took a deep breath, and began a new day of life.

After being swept by the night wind, the desert landscape had changed from yesterday, but the old man showed no surprise, seemingly long accustomed to it.

Opening the room where Ye Bai lay, as expected, the white film had vanished, and the marks on his neck were now barely visible. The old man retrieved a set of clothes from the cabinet, placed them before the kang, and walked back out.

Although the sand-lotus had been found yesterday, because they had to carry Ye Bai back, they hadn't brought much. Using a small blade, the old man sliced off the bottoms of each sand-lotus, and dark yellow water flowed out, which the old man collected in a clay jar.

Only those who understood the desert could survive in it. Although the sand-lotus contained an abundance of water, it was highly toxic; the water had to be distilled and re-collected before it could be drunk directly. The lotus pores had to be excised because they contained filtering venom-thorns, and occasionally one or two insects could be seen inside.

By the time the old man finished all this, the sun was beginning to blaze fiercely. Bao'er also emerged from her room at this time, rubbing her eyes. Without a clock, and with no one knowing the time, they could only feel that it was hot, and perhaps a long time had already passed.

"Bao'er, what are we eating today?" The old man placed the last clay jar into the distillation room.

"Grandpa," Bao'er greeted first, then immediately scurried over to Ye Bai's room, "Anything is fine."

The old man looked at the various dried goods on the rack, momentarily unsure of what to make. Meanwhile, the appearance of a fourth person successfully piqued Bao'er's interest; growing up, Bao'er had only ever seen herself, her grandfather, and her father.

"Grandpa!" Bao'er hadn't been inside for long before she shouted, "The big brother's hand just moved! Is he waking up?"

Bao'er's voice was filled with excitement, but the old man felt a mixture of joy and apprehension, his palms even damp with sweat. After all, he didn't know whether the person he had saved was a good person or a bad one.

The red marks on his body had already vanished. Looking at the fair and handsome young man on the kang, the old man felt he didn't look like someone from the desert, but rather someone from *there*.

For a moment, the grandfather and granddaughter stared intently at the unconscious Ye Bai, not daring to blink even once, afraid they might miss something.

Finally, the eyes of the person on the bed stirred. Though they didn't open, he muttered continuously, his Adam's apple moving up and down with increasing amplitude. Finally, under their expectant gazes, Ye Bai opened his eyes.

Ye Bai and the old man exchanged a gaze; neither spoke, but Bao'er was different.

"Grandpa, the big brother's eyes are so pretty! They have several colors!" The moment Ye Bai opened his eyes, Bao'er saw five colors appear in his pupils: white, yellow, green, red, and blue, with white enveloping the other four.

"Did you save me?" Finally, Ye Bai spoke first, though his voice was somewhat hoarse.

The old man poured some water for Ye Bai and said, "I wouldn't call it saving, more like I couldn't bear to leave you. You can see our poor settlement; it's hard enough just feeding the two of us."

Ye Bai took the cup of water. As he reached out his hand, he realized his clothes were gone and had to pull the quilt up higher. After drinking the water, his voice slowly recovered, and he glanced around the room.

The entire room appeared to be crafted from mud, and the place where he had slept seemed to be a raised platform of packed earth. Even though it was not yet eight o'clock, the temperature was already very high.

"Where is this?" Ye Bai asked, looking at architecture he had never seen in the Green Forest Main City.

"The edge of the desert," the old man replied truthfully.

"The desert?" Ye Bai wore a look of utter disbelief. "Could I be outside the Green Forest territory?"

"Which region is this place?" Ye Bai harbored a faint suspicion in his heart, but he dared not believe he could have crossed territories.

"The Raging Sand territory," the old man said calmly.

"Just as I thought." Ye Bai closed his eyes and lay back down on the kang.

"Bao'er, come outside with Grandpa first. Put your clothes on first, and whatever the matter is, we'll talk after eating." The old man pulled his granddaughter outside, leaving the space to Ye Bai, as he could see a trace of disappointment in Ye Bai's eyes.

"But..." Bao'er wanted to say something, but the old man dragged her away forcefully.

Before long, Ye Bai emerged from the room and came before the old man.

"Thank you." Ye Bai wanted to say more, but found he could say nothing else.

"No need." The old man lifted the pot lid and tossed in some things Ye Bai didn't recognize. "I can tell you don't belong here. People like you should live in the main cities; our place is too impoverished."

Bao'er poked her large head out from the doorway, her bright, sparkling eyes blinking continuously as she looked at the person wearing her father's clothes, her eyes filled with curiosity.

The old man turned around, looking at the extraordinary man before him. He looked even fairer than the most unforgettable person the old man had ever seen. Among the people the old man had encountered, the most noble were the Centurions, yet even they were suffused with a murderous aura.

"What's your name? If you don't mind, you can call me Old Man Sha. My son is coming back today, and I can have him take you out." In his heart, the old man was reluctant to keep Ye Bai. For one thing, the conditions were too harsh, and Ye Bai looked like a young master of noble birth. On top of that, regardless of who Ye Bai was, his appearance would inevitably stir up trouble.

An awkward expression appeared on Ye Bai's face. He suddenly felt like the boy-next-door—was he really that dazed that he hadn't even told the old man his name yet? "Old Man Sha, my name is Ye Bai. I want to stay here. If that's really not possible, I..."

Ye Bai could hear the reluctance in Old Man Sha's words, but having suddenly arrived in the Raging Sand territory from Green Forest, he was a stranger in a strange land, surrounded entirely by desert. He wanted to get familiar with the environment first.

Ye Bai could see that the old man was clearly stunned for a moment, but he himself had no other choice.

"Let's eat first. You can stay here for half a month at most, after which you'll have to rely on yourself." The old man now somewhat doubted whether his initial judgment had been right.

"Bao'er, stop looking and come eat." The old man had long since noticed the little figure outside the door.

"Then what about washing up..."

Looking at the plates of strictly black and white food on the table, Bao'er sat straight down on the stool, ready to eat.

The old man glanced at Ye Bai and said, "This place is unlike anywhere else. Water is the scarcest resource; we don't even have enough to drink every day."

"Big brother, sit here, sit here!" Bao'er pointed to the chair beside her, gesturing for Ye Bai to sit down. "My name is Sha Bao, what's yours, Big Brother?"

Sha Bao popped a white piece of food into her mouth, chewing with great relish.

Ye Bai smiled and said, "Bao'er, can Big Brother call you that? You can call me Brother Ye or Brother Bai."

Ye Bai also tried eating a piece of the white food. His mouth was filled with bitterness, and as for the taste—needless to say, by now he felt as though he had lost his tongue entirely. The texture against his teeth was part-meat and part-plant.

Putting on a strong, expressionless face, Ye Bai swallowed the food. Looking at the grandfather and granddaughter who showed no discomfort whatsoever, he suddenly felt as though his previous meals had been gourmet delicacies. "What does Bao'er's father do?"

Ye Bai picked up the cup of water at his side and took a sip, not daring to try the food on the table again.

"Him?" The old man looked through the window toward the depths of the desert and said, "He's at the battlefront. It's been a hundred years. Most of our desert men remain there."

There was a hint of pride in the old man's words, yet also a trace of sorrow.

"Bao'er knows about this! Daddy is fighting bugs. The things we eat are the meat of those bugs. This time when Daddy comes back, he'll be able to bring some more back."

"Bugs?" A wave of discomfort washed over Ye Bai. Mutant beasts, or something else?

The grandfather and granddaughter ate their meal with great relish, while Ye Bai could only fill his stomach with air and water.