Pristine Darkness

Chapter 107

Please stay home and stay safe, everyone! Thank you to all of you who are battling 'out there' to keep the rest of us safe.

In which Bo Jinyan and Jian Yao come across a small town stuck in a bygone era, a childlike young woman, a gentle doctor, and an ominous watcher . . . Oh, and they also share a quiet moment in a run-down building. Read on to find out . . .

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Translator: shl

Editor/ Proofreader: Anks

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The rain fell delicately and silently. This was an ancient stone road; even in the daytime, not a single person was in sight. On both sides of the road stood grey, dilapidated buildings with nary a sign of life. On some walls, yellowed and torn pages from illustrated pictorials were still plastered on, and one could vaguely make out slogans like 'The productivity of the land depends on the boldness of the people' and 'Long Live the Proletarian Cultural Revolution!'.

Most of the buildings had fallen into disuse, and looked as if no one had lived in them for a long time. Occasionally, a glimpse of a figure could be seen briefly in one or two of the buildings, just like a ghost. Jian Yao almost thought that she was dreaming as she walked down such a road while supporting Bo Jinyan. She could never in a million years have imagined that they would be stranded in such a peculiar place.

Bo Jinyan listened to her describing the landscape along the route, but his expression remained calm and collected. "The world is so large, it is full of extraordinary things. Besides, the Buddha's Hand organisation is hiding here, so maybe everything we see is simply an illusion."

Those words caused the chill in Jian Yao's heart to intensify.

However, they finally saw a living, breathing person.

At the corner, a small shop had just opened for business. The lights were on, and the shelves held cheap candies, cigarettes, noodles, toilet paper, and other such items.

Jian Yao squeezed Bo Jinyan's hand, then walked forward and asked, "Is anyone there?"

The sound of footsteps came from within. Jian Yao quickly took stock of the surroundings. This appeared to be a simple shop, there was a bowl behind the counter which someone had recently finished eating from, and a red plastic stool. On the half-closed wooden door, someone had used a coloured marker to write, crudely and crookedly, numbers and English letters: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J . . . as well as a few rudimentary Chinese characters. It looked like a child had been learning to write.

A girl walked out.

It wasn't clear if she was 15 to 16 years old, or 18 to 19 years old. She was not tall and her pretty face was somewhat childish. However, she dressed very maturely - a dacron blouse popular in the 70s and 80s, black sweatpants, a pair of cloth shoes. She really looked like a young girl wearing an old woman's clothes, but what she was wearing matched well with the surroundings, with that air of being many years out of date. However, her eyes shone with intelligence and vitality. She stared at them and asked, "Where did you come from?"

In this brief interval, Jian Yao had already swiftly assessed her. Her hair was combed back in a ponytail, there was nothing out of the ordinary about her hands, her skin was a healthy light tan colour, the sign of someone who had spent time in the sun. There were mud stains around both her ankles, as well as light scars, very likely a result of long-term manual labour in the fields. There seemed to be nothing out of the ordinary about her. So, she smiled and said, "Hello, we were engaging in outdoor activities when the boat we were on met an accident and sank. We were lost and wandered to this town. Can you please tell us where we are?"