The Last 299 Days of Humanity

Chapter 36 Escape

After listening to Yu Zhu's explanation, Yu Qing felt that this was a golden opportunity to escape. Of course, he also wondered if there was a trap involved, but Yu Zhu's reasons for urging him to leave were impeccable.

However, the safest method was to have Yuzhu escort them out of Maluo. Yu Qing tentatively asked Yuzhu, "We know very little about Maluo. Could you take us out? If we don't get out and are brought back, it would be a huge problem..."

Yu Zhu shook her head and said, "No, that would make me even more troubled!"

Yu Qing sighed, "That's true. If I really can't escape, I'll have no choice but to marry you. Although we can't be together, you're as beautiful as a flower, and you're pleasing to the eye, so it's not too bad."

But let me make this clear first, I'll only be being affectionate with Chang'e and the others..."

Wang Zhu bit her lip and said, "This is so annoying!"

"You just need to tell us how to get there..."

"Even a fly flying in or out of a horse can't escape their surveillance!"

"Isn't that just a waste of time? Why are you telling us to run away?"

At this moment, Chang'e and the others returned and nodded to Yu Qing. This indicates that there was indeed a cable at the bottom of the lake.

Yu Qing reached for the particle listening device from Chang'e and showed it to Yu Zhu, gesturing for her not to speak. He then said, "Yu Zhu, you're so beautiful. These pastries are delicious. It's too stuffy in the room, could you take us for a walk around Maluo?"

Wang Zhu rolled her eyes at Yu Qing and said, "Then I'll make you pastries every day from now on, okay?"

"I could not have it. With a beautiful woman by my side, what more could I ask for?"

"Well... I'll take you for a walk..."

Yu Qing gestured to Chang'e and the others to cut the cable. Chang'e understood and turned to leave.

Yu Qing continued to deceive him, saying, "I'll drink some more water and then I'll go in a bit."

"I'll take you somewhere a bit further away today. I heard yesterday that a hot spring was discovered in the north, it's really relaxing..."

"Okay! Let's go there and take a bath!"

A moment later, Chang'e and her companions succeeded, but then the building suddenly lost power, causing chaos everywhere. Yu Qing, pulling Yu Zhu along, shouted as they walked outside, "What the hell is going on? It's so noisy. Let's go for a walk and come back later."

At this time, no one outside cared about Yu Qing's affairs. Not long after he went out, he ran into Chang'e and the others who had returned to report, and he signaled them to follow him.

He led the group hurriedly toward his car and his second sister. Yu Zhu had short legs and couldn't walk fast at all, so Yao Dan carried her in his arms like a child.

Upon reaching the car, Yu Qing opened the door, intending to let Yu Zhu get in first. But Yu Zhu blinked and said, "How about we have a race to see who's faster?"

"Let's compete! Who's afraid of who!"

So they each got into their own cars. Yu Zhu's car quickly took to the sky. Yu Qing hurriedly ordered his second sister, "Keep a close eye on that car in front and find a way to overtake it!"

Yu Qing and Yu Zhu began a game of cat and mouse in the sky. Ma Luo was busy restoring power to their surveillance system, so no one paid attention to Yu Qing's whereabouts.

In just over ten minutes, Yu Qing and his group had flown to a place not far from the border of Maluo. Yu Zhu found a road and parked there, and Yu Qing told his second sister to park there as well.

Yu Zhu got out of the car and drew lines on the ground for a while, intending to tell Yu Qing how to proceed. Yao Dan reached out and took the listening device from Yu Qing, then held it tightly in her mouth.

Chang'e explained, "If this thing is in her mouth, she won't be able to detect signals from outside. Just tell her what you need to say. Writing and drawing is too much trouble for her!"

Yu Zhu took a pistol from the car and handed it to Yu Qing, saying, "Twelve kilometers ahead along this road, you'll be completely out of Maluo's territory. Another five hundred kilometers will take you to Fuping."

Yu Qing took the gun and asked, "So what do you mean by giving me this thing? Do I still have to go through the trials?"

Yu Zhu said, "Normally, no one cares when you go missing, but if they find out you're missing, they might try to stop you from all sides. At that point, you'll have no choice but to force your way in."

After saying that, Yuzhu got into the car and returned home on her own.

After Yuzhu left for a while, Yuqing threw the gun into the woods by the roadside.

Chang'e asked, "Why did you throw it away? If a fight breaks out, you'll be left empty-handed."

Yu Qing laughed and said, "If we really fight, who can I beat? Yu Zhu has no good intentions. She's leading me to my death. If there's any resistance, I'll only die in a fight. If we don't fight, at most I'll fall off my horse."

"Then why would she want to harm you? And if she wanted to harm you, why would she help you escape?"

"The best option is for me to run away, the second best option is to use someone else to do the dirty work, and the worst option is to take matters into my own hands."

"I still don't understand."

“If you don’t understand, then you don’t understand. I’ll go ask my second sister if she can contact my third sister and have her bring Furong and the others here as well.”

To Yu Qing's great delight, his second and third sisters could communicate with each other within a 500-kilometer radius!

Yu Qing then instructed Yao Dan to throw the listening device in her mouth far away. A short while later, Third Sister arrived with Furong and the others to join them.

Yu Qing, Chang'e, and Yao Dan were still in the same car, traveling rapidly towards Fuping using land-based transportation.

Yu Qing instructed Chang'e and the others not to act rashly if they encountered any obstacles later, but to follow his instructions.

It's a twelve-kilometer journey, but it only takes a few minutes.

There was no one in front of them, but there was a wall-like obstacle.

Chang'e said, "Why don't we fly over there?"

Yu Qing shook his head and said, "Don't be so naive. If you try to force your way in from the sky, you'll probably be captured or even shot down by the automatic devices."

"Now what?"

Yu Qing laughed and said, "Look, isn't someone coming over there? We'll act accordingly later."

Just then, a turtle-man walked over, raised his hands, and called out, "Hello, Mr. Yu!"

Yu Qing was startled, realizing that the turtle-man had already recognized him and had received orders to intercept him. The black-faced man had at least twenty humanoid assistants behind him; it seemed that a direct approach wouldn't work here.

Yu Qing feigned composure and said, "Hello! What, do you know me?"

The turtle-man said happily, "Everyone in Malu knows you. You are the first primitive human to be willing to call us brothers."

Yu Qing was secretly delighted, which meant that the people of Ma Luo had not yet realized that he had disappeared. So he said, "Of course you are my brothers! I'm going to go and reassure the people of Ma Luo that they are genuine human beings."

The turtle-man hurriedly raised his hand to open the roadblock and said, "Mr. Yu, we sincerely hope you will return soon."

Yu Qing replied, "Of course, I haven't had enough of Ma Luo's wine yet! I drank all your wine by myself the other day, you must still be laughing at me, right?"

The turtle man replied, "No, Mr. Yu. Everyone praises your generosity."

Yu Qing smiled and waved, signaling his second sister to quickly drive away from Ma Luo.

However, they were stopped by a roadblock just minutes after leaving Maluo.

"What's going on? Has Earth entered the Warring States period again? Everyone's vying for territory and becoming king."

Just as they were about to go down to investigate, the roadblock opened automatically again. It seemed to be just an automatic registration system; as long as it detected no danger, they could pass.

They sped past the roadblocks. Yu Qing figured they were now in Fuping territory, though still far from Fuping City. He ordered his second sister to switch to flight mode to reach Fuping as quickly as possible. Once there, they would resupply quickly and then head to their next destination, Changlin.

They encountered nothing unusual along the way, and their anxiety finally subsided. However, all they passed through were barren mountains and overgrown forests, suggesting that Fuping was also a sparsely populated city, with no signs of agriculture or animal husbandry.

Yu Qing thought this might be a good thing. It meant that their food might still be synthetic, just like in the First Paradise.

If the people here have evolved into other strange species, the synthetic foods originally designed for humans will become obsolete, and they will need to return to some kind of traditional food, just like the people of Maluo.

Therefore, judging from their diet, the people who were pacified should not have undergone significant genetic changes. Yu Qing was genuinely afraid of becoming a unique individual on Earth, even if it meant encountering a few others similar to himself. He didn't believe that turtle people could be his brothers; at most, they could only be friends.

He's now starting to think about how to interact with people who have been appeased. If they are basically the same kind of people, or have only a few minor differences, such as having particularly large ears or long hands, he should treat them with normalcy rather than making a fuss.

He even fantasized about inviting them to join him on a journey to the Second Paradise to find their own kind and expand the human race. After all, the actual number of humans on Earth right now is far too small.

"My lord, there is a dark cloud ahead!" Chang'e called out.

Yu Qing snapped out of his reverie, looked ahead, and said, "Those must be rain clouds, Second Sister. Can we go through them? Or go around them?"

The second sister replied, "We've always been flying in the clouds; it's just a little darker."

Yu Qing laughed and said, "Wife, look how witty Second Sister's words are."

But to their surprise, the area of ​​dark clouds was very long, and the surrounding light was getting dimmer and dimmer until it was pitch black.

"What the hell is going on? Second Sister, hurry up and get out of here right now!" Yu Qing shouted.

After a long time, it seemed even darker all around.

Yao Dan suddenly exclaimed, "Husband, it seems that Second Sister is stuck in the dark clouds!"

Yu Qing was shocked and said, "That's impossible. If it had stopped, it should have fallen to the ground, not been hanging here."

However, Yu Qing immediately realized that Yao Dan was right. All the warning lights on Er Mei's instrument panel were on; it had completely stopped working.

At that moment, those few small malfunction indicator lights became the only light in the darkness.

"Does anyone know what happened?" Yu Qing asked.

There was no reply; everyone remained silent.

This continued for half an hour, and they remained stuck there, neither advancing nor retreating. Chang'e and her team racked their brains but couldn't find any explanation or record of this phenomenon.

Yu Qing muttered to himself, "This is truly a heavenly prison! Damn it, we're locked up in the dark clouds."

"Husband, what should we do now?"

"My lord, the carriage door won't open either..."

Yu Qing shouted, "Second Sister, unfold this into a bed!"

But at this moment, the second sister really stopped and didn't react at all.

Yu Qing thought that from a physics perspective, this was definitely not a natural phenomenon; they must have been imprisoned here by someone's facilities. If that person wanted to kill them, it would be a piece of cake, but for now, they were just trapped here, and he would show himself sooner or later.

This calmed him down from his anxiety. He leaned back in his chair, lay down, and said to Chang'e and the others, "Since we're here, let's make the best of it. I'm going to get a good night's sleep first. This has been a really unlucky period; not a single day of peace has helped!"

"My dear husband, get some sleep. You haven't had a single full night's sleep lately."

The chair was so comfortable that Yu Qing quickly drifted off to sleep.

When he woke up, it was still dark all around, with only a few faulty lights that looked like the glowing eyes of a few wolves in the night.

He asked, "Wife, how long have I been asleep?"

At this moment, Yao Dan said softly, "Your wife is currently in hibernation, and it's my turn to be on duty now. Would you like me to wake her up, my husband?"

"Stop talking nonsense. I was just asking how long I slept, it was just a casual question. Can't you just answer me?"

"My lord, I'm afraid my answer won't be as accurate as your wife's..."

"If you keep nagging, I'll punch you. How long have I been asleep?"

"My husband slept for 27 hours, 9 minutes and 37 seconds."

Yu Qing exclaimed in surprise, "Has it really been that long?"

"Is it absolutely true?"

"Absolutely true? Nothing happened during that time?"

"Nothing happened except you rolled over and let out two loud farts."

Yu Qing laughed and said, "You two aren't even responding? One is calling you, and the other is calling Chang'e."

Yao Dan handed him something in the darkness and said, "My lord has not eaten for a day and a night. Have something to eat."

Yu Qing was already starving, so he took the food from Yao Dan and started eating. However, the food didn't taste very good, and it had a muddy, fishy smell.

He finished his food with smacking sounds, and only then did he remember to ask Yao Dan what he had just eaten.

Yao Dan suppressed a laugh and replied, "It was found when we were cutting cables at the bottom of the lake. Chang'e said it was turtle poop."

Yu Qing laughed and said, "My dear, you're getting more and more mischievous. That thing is clearly a plant; you can't fool me."

Yao Dan finally burst out laughing and said, "It is a section of lotus root. But I really can't guarantee it's clean. There might be turtle droppings on it."

Yu Qing forcibly pulled Yao Dan to his seat and said, "You're so mean, I'll spit them all into your mouth."

At this moment, Chang'e ended her hibernation and, seeing him and Yao Dan making a fuss, shouted, "My lord, are you pretending I don't exist?"

Yu Qing quickly said, "She played a trick on me, so I punished her. What, do you want me to punish you too?"

"Okay. You can punish him as you see fit."

"You really should be punished severely. Yao Dan may be naughty, but at least she remembers to bring me food. What did you bring me?"

Chang'e fumbled around for a while and said, "I've brought you some food too. Open your mouth and I'll feed you."

Yu Qing opened his mouth, and Chang'e stuffed something into it. He took a few bites and swallowed, saying, "It looks like the pastries from Yuzhu's plate."

"Oh, you still remember the taste of jade beads so well!"

"Isn't that right? When did you take it? Have you been holding it in your hand the whole time?"

"I took it when you weren't looking, and I hid it under my right foot."

Yu Qing cursed, "Wife, you're even worse than Yao Dan! You trampled the food I was given under your feet!"

(End of this chapter)