Sounds of Nature 8 (Bonus Half Chapter)

Chapter 59

Before returning to the concert venue, Shen Wang saw Lan sitting on a bench, legs crossed, flipping through his foresight book while The Hound, with great arrogance, stood on a chair and was saying something to him.

Lan didn’t even glance at him, not a single reaction, and The Hound didn’t care at all. After finishing what he had to say, he even started laughing for no reason, the complete opposite of his earlier listlessness—now he was overly manic.

Shen Wang walked over. Lan didn’t look up and just spoke in an ordinary tone.

'Watch what you eat.'

Shen Wang looked at him.

Lan put down his book and met Shen Wang’s eyes. 'Food can fill your stomach, but different ingredients provide different nutrition, and some will give you diarrhea after you eat them. High-grade ingredients require even more caution.'

'Don’t do any intense exercise right after eating.'

Zhou Xiangzhe walked over. 'What intense exercise?'

'Probably some kind of beneficial physical activity.' The Hound said this, and then was smacked hard by Lan from the side, almost face-planting onto the ground.

The Hound jumped off the bench and immediately started arguing with Lan, who remained unmoved as always, completely unaffected by The Hound’s insults.

But Shen Wang didn’t think Lan would just say something like that to him casually.

Lan wasn’t just his older brother—he was an S-grade Mutant with Talent: Foresight, and someone who had experienced the 'strange illness' before Shen Wang. He had gotten rid of the illness at the Science Academy, but he’d also come into contact with a lot of Contaminants. To people like them, food meant Contaminants, and intense exercise was like using a Contamination Talent.

This was Lan reminding him that the Moon Thief he’d just eaten might cause a bit of trouble.

Hm… Shen Wang had only ever eaten Grade A Contaminants before; this was his first time eating a pseudo-Grade S. He knew that A-grade and S-grade were worlds apart, but he hadn’t expected that eating a pseudo-S-grade would also cause anomalies.

Looks like he couldn’t just use his talent freely for now.

'Now that you’re back, let’s go.' Lan stood up. 'Into the concert.'

Shen Wang stood at the back, with Zhou Xiangzhe walking beside him. Ever since they’d come back from behind the wall, Zhou Xiangzhe had been staring at him, those golden eyes always filled with his reflection. Every time Shen Wang asked why he was staring, Zhou Xiangzhe always said it was because he liked him, and because he liked him, he could never get enough of looking.

It wasn’t really necessary, though.

But Shen Wang wasn’t the type to spoil the mood. Since his boyfriend liked him so much, he’d let him look all he wanted.

Lan glanced back at them, sighed softly, and then looked toward the small room by the concert entrance.

'Hello, please present your tickets.' A dried, decayed arm reached out from the room again.

Lan took the tickets out of the envelope and handed them to the arm. After taking them, the arm withdrew, and a few seconds later it extended again, its fingers holding four tickets with the admission stubs already torn off.

'Thank you for coming to the concert. Enjoy your trip.'

Unexpectedly, they actually gave us four...

Lan took back the tickets and then distributed them to everyone.

At the same time, the dilapidated concert venue’s door creaked open. The venue was huge, but looking in from the steps, all you could see was a grey, hazy sky. Without going inside, you wouldn’t know what was in there.

Taking the ticket from Lan’s hand, Shen Wang looked at its contents.

The bloodstains on the ticket had disappeared, but much of the writing was still blurry. Shen Wang could only make out one clear date.

[May 27, 2037].

'Before we go in, let me say this: it’s complicated inside the concert, and we’ll get separated,' Lan said calmly. 'Because ours are random tickets—you get assigned wherever there’s a seat. The seating will be all over the place.'

'Can’t we pick our seats?'

'No.' Lan said. 'Based on the ticket purchase process, we’re basically cutting in line, buying tickets from scalpers. Her concerts were always packed, selling out in seconds.'

Shen Wang frowned at the seat number on his ticket. 'Pretty... period-appropriate?'

After looking at his own, Shen Wang then checked the seat on Zhou Xiangzhe’s ticket, and realized they were placed extremely far apart—practically the easternmost and westernmost seats.

Shen Wang fell silent for a moment.

Could this really not be intentional on Lan’s part?

Intentional or not, there was nothing to be done. The tickets were found by Lan, and he had the right to distribute them. Zhou Xiangzhe had also seen his own seat.

'Once we get inside, I’ll come find you,' Zhou Xiangzhe said.

'No.' Lan refused before Shen Wang could. 'Our mission is to get to Heavenly Melody City. And we’re in the four corners of the venue—each of us needs to find the way to Heavenly Melody City.'

Zhou Xiangzhe looked at Lan oddly. 'I’m moving with my boyfriend. What’s it to you?'

Lan sneered. 'Keep talking, and I can make sure Shen Wang ends up without a boyfriend.'

'You’re that confident you can take me out?'

Shen Wang: ...

He stepped in between Zhou Xiangzhe and Lan. 'Now, let’s go to the concert first.'

Lan gave a cold snort, turned around, and walked into the concert entrance. Having had his fill of the drama, The Hound followed, satisfied.

'Don’t keep opposing him like that.' Shen Wang smiled and said to Zhou Xiangzhe, 'Aren’t we still together?'

Zhou Xiangzhe looked at Shen Wang, and after a moment he spoke. 'Do you need a hair clip?'

'A hair clip?' Shen Wang looked at Zhou Xiangzhe in surprise. 'You carry clips on you?'

'Yeah, long hair is a hassle.' Zhou Xiangzhe found a clip in his pocket and showed it to Shen Wang. 'I carry hair ties too.'

Shen Wang: ...

That’s what a meticulous person is like.

'I don’t need a hair clip. I mean—why would you think I need one?'

Zhou Xiangzhe looked at him and only answered after a few seconds. 'I feel like your hair’s gotten longer than before.'

'Really?' Shen Wang tugged at his own hair. 'But it’s not necessary, it’s not blocking my vision yet.'

Zhou Xiangzhe nodded and didn’t insist. They both looked ahead at the concert venue.

A gust of wind blew, and the dilapidated door creaked and groaned, the air filled with the smell of decay. Shen Wang recalled the shadow he’d seen at Blood Moon Manor, the faint floral scent in the alley. He sighed softly and stepped through the door.

The moment he stepped inside, Shen Wang heard intense sounds.

He looked around and found himself standing in front of a chair, an unopened glow stick still resting on it. Colorful lights illuminated the entire venue, especially the spotlighted stage up ahead. Dense crowds of people all around were cheering, happily chatting about something, their eyes shining with light.

'This many people?' Shen Wang was a bit surprised.

Shen Wang pulled his phone out of his pocket, thinking about whether he should contact Lan and ask what he’d meant earlier, only to find that the time on his phone had changed too.

He stared at the date—May 27, 2037—and sank into thought.

After a few seconds of silence, Shen Wang took out his ticket from his pocket, and the ticket’s contents revealed a bit more.

[*** Concert, Performance Time: May 27, 2037, 8 p.m., Venue: Heavenly Melody City Grand Hall, Setlist: ***]

Shen Wang looked up at the time on the big screen ahead: 7:50 p.m., only ten minutes left.

After thinking for a moment, Shen Wang sat down and set the glow stick aside, waiting for the concert to start.

He really wanted to hear her voice.

He’d loved listening to music since he was a kid. When he was in the orphanage, whenever he had nothing to do he’d go to the director’s office and listen to the director’s music tapes over and over. The director was from before the Doomsday Era—during the apocalypse, he had been an aspiring youth. He told Little Fifteen during their chats that the old era had been such an interesting world.

Almost every day there’d be new music released, professional musicians, artists and stars who specialized in acting in TV dramas.

In a peaceful era, they could survive on their good looks alone, even live better than most people.

Lan had said: she was the most renowned musical genius of the old era, the Public Sweetheart on screen. Her songs could have been passed down for half a century. But after she became a Mutant during the Doomsday Era, everything was erased, even sealed away here without a trace.

Shen Wang thought: I want to hear your songs. I long for your voice this much.

Time ticked away second by second; ten minutes were far too short, vanishing in the blink of an eye. Shen Wang watched the clock on the screen turn to eight o’clock sharp, the stage lights flared on, and the people at the concert began to cheer.

But no one appeared on stage.

'Where is she?' Shen Wang heard people around him talking.

'It’s already eight o’clock, why hasn’t it started?'

'Probably just some prep issues. Being a few minutes late is normal, with this many people and such a huge venue. She wouldn’t stand us up.'

'How much longer do we have to wait?'

Shen Wang sighed softly and took his phone out of his pocket. Just then, he raised an eyebrow slightly.

Under the lights, Shen Wang slowly rolled up his sleeve, then looked at his wrist.

There was a thin red mark, like a fine red line, spreading upward from his palm and gradually reaching his elbow.

'What?'

Shen Wang pressed the red line with his other hand, his finger pad digging in, but there was no pain. It seemed like just a mark on his body. He released the pressure and flexed his wrist.

The next instant, a red thread shot straight out of his palm, and upon contact with the air it turned black. Startled, Shen Wang hurriedly pushed the black line back in.

The person next to him noticed something strange about Shen Wang, turning his head and seeing the red line left behind after he’d rolled up his sleeve.

'Yo, dude, you’re pretty trendy,' the guy said. 'You got a red line tattooed?'

Tattoo? What tattoo?

After the Doomsday Era, the tattoo industry no longer existed. Shen Wang didn’t really understand what he was saying.

'Don’t you think it’s unique?' Shen Wang finally said. 'Something different.'

'It really is unique,' the guy nodded. 'When I get a chance, I’ll go get a black one tattooed too.'

Shen Wang pressed down hard on his wrist, shoving back all the writhing red threads that were trying to squirm out.

He finally understood why Lan had warned him.

The Moon Thief’s power was inherently out of control. You could even say it had died after being torn apart while trying to ambush Mother, leaving behind nothing but a mass of Contamination power. This meant eating it was like swallowing some unstable element—it could still be used, but it wasn’t very obedient.

Especially inside her concert, the Moon Thief’s lingering attachment to her made it want to come out and take a look.

Yes, it actually wanted to 'come out and take a look.'

The person beside him struck up a conversation again—surprisingly chatty, jumping straight into a new topic the moment the last one ended.

'It’s already 8:10, why hasn’t she come out yet? Is something going to go wrong with this concert?'

Shen Wang looked at him. 'What do you think might go wrong?'

'I don’t know, but it just hasn’t started, right? I’m just saying.'

Shen Wang thought: If there really is a problem, you’re the ones with the problem.

The old era was now over thirty years gone. People like Shen Wang, born after the Doomsday Era, had only seen pre-apocalyptic life in textbooks. But right here in this concert, this huge venue was packed with people, tens of thousands of them, all acting like ordinary, normal humans, without any of the eeriness of Contaminants.

If Shen Wang hadn’t known there were no living people here, he might have truly believed he’d time-traveled, ended up at a concert before the Doomsday Era.

How vividly alive they seemed.

'Can I ask you a question?' Shen Wang spoke after some thought.

The person blinked. 'What question?'

'Whose concert are we here for?'

'Hey, what’s wrong with you? You came to a concert and you don’t even know who’s performing?' The man burst out laughing. 'We’re here for...'

His laughter stopped abruptly.

His mouth slowly fell open, and he stared blankly ahead. 'We... whose concert are we here for again?'

'Who are we waiting to see here again?'

'She... who was she again?'

Alright, even these people didn’t know whose concert it was. It looked like this concert wasn’t going to happen.

Shen Wang stood up and turned to walk out.

'Where are you going?' The person next to him called out to Shen Wang. The earlier chatty confusion had vanished from his eyes, leaving only a dark, gloomy resentment, as if leaving was a taboo—he wouldn’t allow anyone to walk out of this concert.

He said, 'The concert’s about to start, where are you going?'

'Aren’t you here for the concert? Are you trying to run away?!'

'No,' Shen Wang said, looking at the time on his phone. 'I’m going to the restroom so I can last through the whole show later.'

The man’s gaze cleared in an instant. The resentment in his eyes vanished, and he returned to his cheerful self.

'Oh, so you’re just going to the restroom.'

He eagerly pointed in a direction. 'The restroom’s over there. Make sure to hurry back. Who knows when the concert will start.'

'But I feel like it’s about to start soon. She wouldn’t keep us waiting long.'

Shen Wang gave the man one last look, then turned and headed off towards the restroom.

There weren’t many people in the restroom; most were waiting for the concert to begin. Shen Wang stood in front of the sink, first raising his hand to look at the line on his wrist. Besides refusing to disappear, it was actually quite stable. Since it wouldn’t cause any accidents, he let it be.

He had other things to do now.

Shen Wang made a phone call.

Soon the other side picked up. Through the phone, Shen Wang could hear intense arguing and cheering.

'What?' Shen Wang, who’d always hated noise, felt his ears being assaulted.

Lan answered calmly: 'One group is questioning why she hasn’t started the concert yet, and the other is defending her, so they’re arguing. Where are you?'

'I’m in the restroom.' Shen Wang looked at his reflection in the mirror. 'What do we do now? Where do we go to find her? Is this her concert? What are those people outside?'

'They’re her fans. This is her last concert—a concert that ended before it even began because of a Contamination Burst.'

Lan said, 'The seat I gave you is closest to her. You go find her.'

'Then where is she?'

“Only you could find it,” Lan said. “You’re the one who truly obtained the Invitation Letter through talent. Mom will definitely like you.”

'As for how to find her, maybe you can think about whether there’s anything special on you. My foresight book only shows the conclusion: you found her.'

Shen Wang raised an eyebrow. 'Something special?'

Something special that could find 'her' besides the invitation?

Suddenly, Shen Wang remembered something.

'The shadow.' Shen Wang exhaled lightly. 'Back at Blood Moon Manor, I collected the shadow that Moon Thief stole into a painting. I now have a shadow of hers.'

'That’s it then,' Lan said. 'Try to see if you can follow that shadow to find her.'

'Okay.'

Without hanging up the phone, Shen Wang took out that painting. The woman in the painting was still facing away from him, delicate flowers in bloom. The painting melted in his palm into a golden dust, then coalesced before him.

Shen Wang looked at this shadow.

'Take me to see her,' Shen Wang said. 'Thank you.'

The shadow, still with its back to Shen Wang, nodded its head. It stepped forward, and Shen Wang followed.

Its movements weren’t fast or slow, as if walking, yet also floating. Shen Wang kept close, and soon they left the concert hall, passed through a narrow doorway into the backstage area, and went through several more doors before the shadow finally stopped in front of one.

It nodded again, then at last completely disappeared into the air.

Shen Wang exhaled softly and walked up to the door. The door wasn’t closed—it was just ajar and could be opened with a light push.

Pushing the door open, he saw the woman sitting in front of the vanity.

She was tall and fair-skinned, wearing a beautiful yellow dress adorned with shimmering gemstones. Her light brown hair was pinned up, looking neat and polished. No one could see her without gasping in awe, because she was so beautiful that even without seeing her face, her beauty remained undimmed.

As if hearing a sound, the woman turned her head. Her features were blurred, so much so that even her eyebrows and eyes couldn’t be made out.

'You’re here,' she said, gentle and elegant. 'I’ve been waiting for you for a long time.'

Shen Wang looked at her. 'You were waiting for me?'

'Invitations are only given to those who can understand my music. I firmly believe that someone who shares my thoughts can definitely help me.' The woman’s voice was so clear, like a mountain stream, pure and sweet. 'I’m in trouble now and I need help. Will you help me?'

'...What can I help you with?'

'This concert was all ready, but then something strange happened. Everyone suddenly became weird. Men and women alike were recklessly confessing their love to me. I got a bit scared, so I temporarily stopped working with everyone. But the concert has to start.'

The woman said softly, 'Being here all alone, I feel afraid. I don’t dare go out and face so many fans, afraid they might also have problems.'

'And I’ve discovered that I’ve forgotten many things.'

'I seem to have forgotten my own name, and what I look like.'

The woman gently raised a hand to caress her reflection in the mirror. 'Even the mirror can’t reflect my appearance.'

'Can you help me?' The woman faced Shen Wang again, earnestly imploring him. 'Please help me find my name and my appearance.'

'Of course.'

Shen Wang thought: Of course, because you are my mother, the reason I came here.

'Of course I will help you.'

...

'The Anti-Contamination Center changed the calendar to Doomsday Era in 2038, but that doesn’t mean Contamination appeared in an instant. As early as 2037, or even before, there were already signs of Contamination. It’s just that people back then treated it as a strange infectious disease.'

Lan’s flat voice came through the phone.

'She awakened as a Mutant on the eve of the concert. In fact, she was the world’s first S-grade Mutant since the Doomsday Era began. The moment she awakened, it caused everyone around her to develop a strong possessiveness toward her.'

'But she valued her concert highly. She only took it as ordinary admiration. After dealing with those people, she went to the concert venue as usual.'

However...

The moment she appeared on stage, the whole world fell into chaos.

The one hundred thousand people at the venue erupted in intense adoration for her. Everyone fought and scrambled to touch her. The security guards on site couldn’t control the rioting crowd at all—in fact, the guards were part of the riot too. People climbed onto the stage and reached out to her; just a momentary touch could drive them into blissful madness.

This chaos continued until she fled the concert. Police responded to the call and arrived at the scene with a large number of personnel.

In the end, out of the one hundred thousand concertgoers, over several thousand died from the stampede. Most of the rest had gone mad, constantly professing their love and trying to get to her. The police had to sedate them one by one, but even so, once they woke up they’d still recklessly try to run out as before.

Society paid enormous attention to this horrifying incident. Her name kept appearing in the news, and she was constantly being summoned by the police and experts.

It wasn’t until the Contamination fully erupted and Contaminants truly entered the public eye that people finally linked this incident to Contamination. But she was human, not a Contaminant. Only after further investigation was the existence of Mutants confirmed, and she was classified as an S-grade Mutant.

Her ability grew stronger and stronger. At first it only drove the concert crowd mad, but later, even hearing her name became contaminating, let alone seeing her face.

The Anti-Contamination Center decided to place her in Isolation Barrier, processing her files to make her a true ‘non-existent person’.

On the day all her files were deleted, the staff responsible for transferring her were attracted to her. Just to get her to look at them, they actually released her, affecting nearly half of the Anti-Contamination Center. But she seized the opportunity to escape and quickly vanished from everyone’s sight.

'In that case, how do we find her name and appearance?'

Shen Wang returned to the front of the concert stage. By now, it was extremely noisy inside.

More than half an hour had passed since the scheduled start, but there was still no sign of her appearing. The fans finally ran out of patience; they began to riot and demand to know when the concert would begin.

'These fans at the concert don’t know her name at all. I asked earlier—they’re just like the name 'Walking Corpse Village': dead bodies, puppets created by Mother’s obsession.'

'But there will always be something left out,' Lan said. 'This is the Maze City—everything here was born under her influence, but there must be something that didn’t originate from her.'

Shen Wang was silent for a few seconds, slightly frowning.

A moment later he spoke. 'Ge, do you think Moon Thief counts?'

'Moon Thief?'

'An A-grade Contaminant that wasn’t her fan from the start, but appeared here to steal her power. Guess—before it stole that shadow and was torn apart, did it see her face?'

Lan instantly stood up, his book flipping open rapidly in front of him.

After flipping for a while, Lan looked at one line on a certain page.

'It saw her,' Lan said. 'It saw her appearance and her name. The A-grade Contaminant Moon Thief is the only breakthrough.'

Shen Wang breathed a sigh of relief.

'Good thing I didn’t just eat it directly back then but sealed it in a painting instead. Now its body has been eaten by me, but the painting is still here.'

'Alright, wait for me there. I’ll come to you right away.'

Lan and Shen Wang could communicate, so they quickly set a meeting place. As for Zhou Xiangzhe and The Hound, well, this was a matter between brothers. It didn’t matter if they were around or not. Once they knew her name, they could all enter Heavenly Melody City together.

After they regrouped, Shen Wang brought out the Moon Thief’s Paintings, and Lan stood beside him, staring at the pile of paintings in silence.

After a long while, he spoke. 'Seven paintings?'

'Hundred Eyes is, after all, only Grade A. Moon Thief is a pseudo-Grade S Contaminant. If I didn’t split it into several pieces, I was worried something might go wrong.'

And even so, didn’t a problem still happen? It almost squirmed out before we entered the concert venue.

'Out of these seven paintings, we don’t know which one holds her image,' Lan said. 'The Hound isn’t here. If he were, he could sense the subtle differences.'

Shen Wang looked at the paintings. 'Then do you want to listen to me? After all, I’m the owner of these paintings now.'

Lan looked at Shen Wang. 'Which one?'

Shen Wang hesitated for a second, then pointed at one of the paintings. 'I think it’s in this one.'

'Okay,' Lan said. 'I’ll go in and take a look. You wait here for The Hound. His sensory ability is strong—he’ll probably find us here quickly. When he arrives, have him identify again. If his conclusion differs from this painting, go check the painting he points out.'

Shen Wang nodded. 'Got it.'

Lan gently ruffled his hair, then turned and entered the painting.

Watching Lan go in, Shen Wang exhaled softly.

'I hope everything goes smoothly.'

Shen Wang had a hunch: once they found her name and her face, this concert would proceed as scheduled, and that would be the ritual to awaken her.

Their mother was longing to hold a concert that belonged solely to her once again.

On the other side, The Hound, who was at the concert venue, walked out while covering his ears, his single deep-blue eye filled with displeasure. After walking for a while and getting out of the chaotic crowd, he finally sensed the others' positions.

'Tsk, three people in the same place?' The Hound clicked his tongue. 'I’m the only one who got lost? How boring...'

/

Actually, before Zhou Qing’s mental abnormality made him put on the monk’s robes, he’d spoken with Zhou Xiangzhe.

He said: Mental abnormality is a breakthrough—it amplifies the desires inside a person. Not a single Mutant’s mental abnormality comes without reason.

Zhou Xiangzhe knew he wasn’t wrong, because he understood better than anyone where his own mental abnormality came from.

All that 'self-sacrifice,' that 'right choice'—it was all just his cover.

In the end, he just wanted to die.

When he’d lost the orphanage and Shen Wang, he wanted to die. After finding Shen Wang again, he didn’t want to die anymore. He liked that Shen Wang worried about him, liked that Shen Wang said he would 'save him.' He hoped Shen Wang could stay with him forever to change this bad habit, and they could always be together.

His life was just that boring and meaningless.

So, he couldn’t be without Shen Wang.

Not far from where Shen Wang and Lan met up, the silver-haired, golden-eyed figure leaned against the wall behind him. He was extremely quiet, as if even his breathing was nonexistent.

There was no emotion in those golden eyes, as if he had simply walked over and was taking a rest.

After a few seconds, Zhou Xiangzhe lifted his head to look at the ceiling. The concert dome was covered in incandescent lights, so dazzling it felt like they could blind you. Zhou Xiangzhe didn’t care, just stared for a long while before withdrawing his gaze.

He glanced behind him, a subtle look in his eyes, but he still didn’t come out.

A moment later, Zhou Xiangzhe raised his hand. Earlier he’d clenched his fist so tightly, his short, rounded nails seeming to dig into his flesh, and his wound had split open again.

Blood soaked the bandage on his hand. Zhou Xiangzhe frowned and pressed the wound with his other hand, but the pressure was off—instead of stopping the bleeding, it forced out even more blood.

He was going to get scolded again in a bit.

Zhou Xiangzhe thought lazily.