It felt like stepping back into his university days. In an eight-person dormitory with bunk beds, only Li Haojun and two other roommates remained. The previous exams had left his mind foggy; he'd done a lot of Chinese, math, and physics practice papers—a lot of questions, some he hadn't even finished.
Just then, military personnel from the armed forces department pushed open the door to select recruits. The personnel disqualified Li Haojun with just one glance—he wasn't tall enough. He secretly rejoiced. The other two were selected; one left the dormitory, presumably for a physical examination.
The other roommate was a tough character. He sat on the second bunk, his hands clenched together. Li Haojun looked closely and saw that, in an attempt to avoid drafting, he'd bitten off a piece of his index finger. Li Haojun gestured for him to come closer, then whispered in his ear,
"This won't do. The severed finger has to be removed, otherwise I can't reattach it with surgery now."
The other person agreed with Li Haojun's suggestion, reaching out to present the severed finger.
"Help me destroy it,"
"Huh?" Li Haojun reached out to take it, but his hand trembled, and he dropped it on the ground. He stared wide-eyed, searching the floor, then opened his eyes. What a strange dream.
It must have been before dawn, but it was still dark, and the room was a bit chilly. The desert nights drop in temperature quite drastically; he must have been woken up by the cold.
He went to run the water and came back to check on Maria. She had changed position and was now sleeping on her side, so she probably wasn't meditating. He touched her feet; they were also a bit cold. He folded the only blanket he had into a double layer and lay down on his side, wrapping both of them up.
It was warmer this time, and when Li Haojun opened his eyes again, it was already broad daylight. Maria was sitting on the edge of the bed, looking at him. Her hair was disheveled and damp, probably from a recent wash. Li Haojun stared blankly into Maria's eyes, recalling the tall woman pulling a suitcase in his dream, who had invited him to board the plane.
"Who is she?" Maria asked.
"I don't know. In the dream, she was my former colleague, but I don't remember any former colleagues,"
"Do you like her?"
"Heh, I don't know either. I don't even know her, how can I talk about liking or disliking her?"
"Hmph, isn't she my sister?"
"No, she seems even taller..." Li Haojun compared his dream memories, but before he could finish answering, he noticed Maria staring at him intently. He then realized that Maria might be implying something, or that she knew something.
"Then? Was it the dream you projected onto me?" Li Haojun asked tentatively.
"No," Maria replied briefly and playfully, then stood up, turned, and tossed her long hair away. A strand of hair brushed against Li Haojun's face, carrying a faint fragrance, leaving him puzzled, unable to fathom the woman's true nature.
After breakfast, Li Haojun's new work instructions had been relayed. He would continue attending the exhibition today, but the company's testing equipment he had installed had been damaged and recalled. A new one would be sent here, and he would need to install it upon arrival.
Li Haojun was still a little confused. A liquid nitrogen leak shouldn't have damaged the equipment in the high-rise building, right? It was just a coincidence that the hazardous materials trailer had crashed into the plaza in front of that building.
After checking out of the small, secluded suburban hotel, he and Maria took a taxi to the exhibition venue. The city seemed to have returned to normal. Checking the local news, yesterday's accident was all over the place. Li Haojun tried to let Qin Wenjing and Kathy know he was safe, but found they had no idea what had happened. Strange, was local news really limited to the local area?
At the trade show, at his company's booth, Li Haojun lost interest in talking to visitors. He kept searching for local information on his device. He couldn't understand why news of such a serious local hazardous material leak hadn't spread elsewhere. He was also curious why the people in the city center looked young, beautiful, and elegant, while the residents of the suburbs seemed to be barely surviving.
Although the US federal government was gone, the state governments should still maintain their administrative functions. Li Haojun found state-level public news organizations, but their condition was worrying. Some had limited resources and almost no reach or influence; others, supported by various local sponsors, seemed to have strayed from public welfare and credibility; and the remaining independent media only circulated within local circles, their attention focused more on their own lives, showing no interest in what was happening in the wealthy downtown area.
So what was the reaction of the wealthy class? Li Haojun didn't know any of the affected wealthy people, and they hadn't posted any survivor's reflections on social media. Li Haojun then tried to contact the government's security and rescue departments to inquire about casualties, but they refused, citing privacy concerns. He then tried to find out the registration details of the semi-trailer truck involved in the accident, but was told that the incident was under investigation and couldn't be disclosed.
Ah, what perfect bureaucratic jargon! Yet, this evasion of the public's right to know didn't elicit any protests from locals; it was only a visitor from out of town who was concerned about the details.
Feeling utterly rebuffed, Li Haojun thought about the excited performances of the young people on and off the stage at the game awards ceremony yesterday noon, and he felt resigned. How could one expect a decadent generation, raised on electronic drugs, to supervise their government and defend their rights? Perhaps they don't even remember their ancestors' Declaration of Independence.
He sadly looked up at the window; in the distance, the desert stretched out with its unchanging earth, blue sky, and white clouds. Li Haojun got up and walked to the window, opening it a crack. Although the summer wind was a bit hot, he still wanted to breathe some fresh air. Turning around to return to his seat, he noticed Maria was smiling at him.
"What's wrong, Ethan? Are you unhappy?"
"Hehe," Li Haojun chuckled self-deprecatingly, shrugging.
"I...hehe, I'm overthinking it." He knew Maria sometimes knew what he was thinking; she probably sensed his earlier gloom.
"No, I think you're just curious about the locals' lives. Actually, it's a continuation of your judgment of those old men who observed us during our walk before dinner last night. You want to understand their lives so you can better assess their behavior and the level of potential threat they pose to me."
"Oh," Li Haojun replied, gazing into Maria's large, ethereal eyes. The emptiness in her eyes made him feel both close and distant from her. Seeing Li Haojun's confusion, Maria smiled and explained, "I checked the company's data. The poor population in the Las Vegas area isn't very aggressive. The data seems to suggest they've been domesticated. It's just unclear whether this is through the use of drugs, gene editing, or artificial selection."
ns216.73.216.23da2
and then Add to home screen.