Love Code at the End of the World

The people in Noah City surrounded us heavily. Those who couldn’t see went upstairs so as to have a better look. The higher floors on both sides were crowded and people’s eyes were full of desire to the point of causing some to even drool.

“This is a green apple, one of the many varieties of apple…” Elder Alufa started an introduction as if conducting a biology class. “This apple is crunchy, sour, and sweet. It promotes the secretion of saliva and could even quench your thirst…”

“Grandpa Alufa, can you stop…” Da Li’s height had yet to reach the table’s height, but she was strong enough to support herself on the table with her arms, and was hanging by the edge of the table. Elder Alufa’s “nagging” was making her pout, “We just want to eat…”

Elder Alufa chuckled, “Alright. Okay! We shall let you eat now…” Elder Alufa picked up the apple that I took a bite of. His eyes were moist with tears, “It has been quite a while…”

Arsenal looked at Sis Ceci and said, “Let’s begin.”

“Mm,” Sis Ceci picked up an apple and took out a sharp, black dagger. The children’s eyes were full of anticipation. But when Sis Ceci put the blade against the apple, Raffles became anxious, “Be careful of the seeds. Don’t break the seeds inside! Do you know the structure of an apple? Do you know the position of the apple seeds? Sis Ceci, be extremely careful!” Raffles exhorted anxiously next to her.

Sis Ceci raised her eyebrows and suddenly… *Swoosh!* The dagger in her hands flew at Raffles. *Ding!* It stabbed at the table’s edge in front of him. I suddenly understood why the table was bumpy and hollow…

Sis Ceci’s action shocked Raffles and he instantly became quiet like a frightened bunny.

“I’ll do it, I’ll do it,” Harry pulled out the dagger in front of Raffles, then he picked up an apple and threw it in the air. Why do I find Harry even more unreliable?

The green apple spun as it fell while Harry wielded the dagger. He stroked the dagger smoothly and crunching sounds could be heard from the apple.

At the same time, Uncle Mason picked up a plate and pushed it saying, “Harry!” The plate swooshed to Harry along the table. Next, the apple pieces landed on the plate!

Harry extended his left hand and the core of the apple was perfectly intact!

I was stunned. Such accurate and swift skills. The skills of such a high level would only be seen on TV or in an anime. It is extremely difficult to have such skills in real life. One should know that the object is free-falling and is constantly falling down at a high speed!

My dad and I had conducted some experiments before. When we got bored, we used to take a cabbage to practice our skills. If the blade was sharp enough, we could cut the cabbage into a few chunks. However, we only ever managed to cut a few pieces and the size of those pieces was hard to grasp.

An apple was much smaller than a cabbage! If one intended to cut the sides of the apple and maintain the core, it was so difficult. One’s vision and skills were important. I couldn’t help but think of a person with great vision and skills— He Lei. I wonder how he is doing now.

As I was stunned, Harry had already cut the other two apples as well. He put the part that I bit earlier in front of me and smiled, “Thank you, the children are very happy.”

I came back to reality, then looked at the children. Every child got a piece of apple each and they were eating the apple by then.

“Wow! What is this? It is so juicy! It’s so, so delicious!”

“So yummy!”

“This is too delicious! It’s a little sour!”

“Princess, I want more, I want more!”

Princess Arsenal looked at them gently, “You can’t. Don’t be greedy.”

“Princess, you haven’t eaten any yourself. Here, for you.” A little girl passed the apple in her hand to Arsenal but she was tearing up as she offered it.

Princess Arsenal smiled and touched her head, “You eat it yourself. Once Brother Raffles takes out the seeds and puts them into the cultivation cabin, all of us can have apples next autumn.”

“Yay!”

“Woo!” All the adults and children cheered. I thought to myself that it was absolutely impossible to see a crowd of people cheering for an apple in my world and in my era. 

Harry suddenly leaped up and stepped onto the table. He shouted, “Let us thank Luo Bing, who brought us apple seeds!” He looked at me thankfully and his amber eyes were glowing.

“Luo Bing! Luo Bing! Luo Bing!” The entire square was cheering my name. I looked at them and my emotions grew complicated. In their cheer, I became excited too. To them, I was a stranger as well. But the way they treated me was different from Xing Chuan.

The night sky fell upon this barren land again. Nighttime in this world is destined to be long for me.

I carried my backpack and sat next to Second Sis above the underground city’s gate. Behind the gate of the underground city, there was a huge slope. It was my first time seeing grass on a gate.

Second Sis was quiet. Her white eyes were staring in one direction—to the southeast. She would wail occasionally.

“Are you calling for your family?” I asked her but she didn’t answer. She continued to stare in the same direction. I touched her arm, “I can’t even call for mine…” I don’t even know a direction to look at. “Oh yeah, I have some food. Do you want some?”

When I went to pick Second Sis up from Raffles’, he was removing the seeds from the apple core. He was so careful that I thought he was conducting a meticulous surgery. This was so unlike us where we just threw the apple core into the dustbin.

After he took out the seeds, he put them into a green container like the one Xing Chuan stored the sunflower seed in. He said that he would put them into the cultivation cabin later. Then, I saw him swallowing his saliva as he looked at the apple core. As Second Sis and I turned to leave, I heard the crunch of an apple. At that moment, Raffles seemed more like a lab rat to me.

I took out a can of yogurt and opened it for Second Sis, “You need some milk now.”

She lowered her face to smell the yogurt but she made an annoyed expression. 

“Hey! This is more expensive than milk, okay? It’s very healthy! Look, high calcium!”

Second Sis still looked rather disappointed. She made an expression like I had just offered her something rotten.

“Then, have this.” I took out a sausage and opened it. She smelled and immediately grabbed it. See! Junk food is always the tastiest.

“Princess, it is cold outside.” I could hear Sis Ceci from inside the gate.

“I want to take a walk alone.”

I looked down and saw Arsenal.

“Alright. Don’t walk too far away. I will tell Qian Li to keep a watch on you,” Sis Ceci looked at her for a while. Then, she let out a sigh and turned to enter Noah City again.

Who is Qian Li? I have heard this name twice now, but… I have never seen him before. This Qian Li is very mysterious.