How To Feed An Abyss! Chapter 77.1

Published at 6th of March 2023 09:58:47 AM

Chapter 77.1 – The Rain of Butterflies

For some time thereafter, just like Gleaning City back then, Fengyang City fell into a little chaos. People were anxious to organize their things and leave with their families, and the vicinity of the energy tower was full of people and machines. They took out the precious energy core and sent it to the transport ship along with other chips and instruments.

The research center was also packing up.

Shi Yuan helped Professor Guan clean up, carrying a microscope, a pollution tester, a centrifuge, a drying oven, and a bunch of machines he didn't know, to the transport truck downstairs.

Other researchers and a dozen small robots were helping to transport, but there were too many things, endless, and they couldn't be packed up.

Professor Guan made a difficult decision to leave.

He circled back and forth in the office, packing out a pile of miscellaneous items, mostly books and notes. He muttered again and again, saying that 'this one can't be discarded, and that one can't be discarded'. After struggling for a long time, he only threw away one-third of the things.

“I really can't take it away,” Professor Guan said, “Well, I'll go home and pack my suitcase. I won't bring those personal belongings. I'll leave all the space for my notes.” He looked at Shi Yuan, “Shi Yuan, do you have time to help me pack?”

“Yeah,” Shi Yuan agreed.

Everyone else was busy, and no one had any time to spare. Shi Yuan followed Professor Guan out of the research center and walked for ten minutes to his residence.

It was a very old and shabby building. Just looking at the appearance, it was absolutely impossible to see that this was the place where Fengyang City's, or even the Alliance's, top professor lived. Professor Guan lived on the 6th floor. After climbing up, he gasped slightly, took out the key, held on to his reading glasses to find the keyhole, and then opened the door.

“Squeak–” The door opened.

The structure of one room and one living room had little space. There was a sofa, a dining table, chairs and bookshelves in the living room, and there was a piano in the far corner. There were two 20-inch suitcases spread out on the ground, half of which contained personal belongings.

Shi Yuan said, “Is your family not here?”

Recently, almost everyone had been busy cleaning up at home.

Professor Guan smiled: “I don't have a family. I was busy with research, so I was not in the mood to fall in love… I used to have a cousin but I don't remember much. He also lived in the city. Later, he passed away because of the sequelae of the infection. It happened many years ago.”

Shi Yuan: “Oh…”

“It's easy to be alone. You don't have many things. You can bring whatever you want when you move.” Professor Guan put his hands on the sofa for support and squatted beside the suitcase with difficulty. “I don't want any of these messy things. They're useless.”

He took out a few sets of clothes in the suitcase and threw them on the ground. Then he took out five or six books, two sets of beautifully packaged pens and ink, and a harmonica with a dark gold background.

Shi Yuan hadn't seen the harmonica before, so he picked it up and looked at it a few more times.

The harmonica was very new, with exquisite lines, a rare good at first glance.

“I haven't played it for a long time,” Professor Guan said, “I can play a lot of songs. When I was young, I relied on this harmonica to capture the hearts of girls up and down the school.”

Seeing that Shi Yuan was still studying it, he said, “Do you like it? This is a collectible 24-hole polyphonic harmonica. I haven't used it yet. If you like it, you can take it away. You can blow it or not. I don't plan to bring it anymore.”

“Really?” Shi Yuan was surprised, “But I don't know how to play the harmonica.”

“Hmm.” Professor Guan said, “It's very simple. You can play casually first and get to know the high and low notes. Remember to use your abdomen to exert force.”

He handed Shi Yuan a few more scores: “You can study it slowly.”

Professor Guan continued to pack his luggage, and Shi Yuan sat next to him and carefully blew at the harmonica.

“Beeeep—”

A very unique tone sounded. In the same hole position, when blown differently, the tone was also different.

He played for a while, until the professor finally couldn't help but say, “Shi Yuan, why don't you go home and play it.”

Shi Yuan asked, “Is it unpleasant to the ears?”

Professor Guan said politely, “I can only say that there is still very much room for improvement.”

That meant it was very unpleasant.

Shi Yuan didn't accept the professor's suggestion, and blew for another two minutes, waiting until Professor Guan emptied the suitcases, put them up, and closed them.

Professor Guan said, “Let's go, let's go back to the research center.”

The empty suitcases were not heavy, but it was still too much of a stretch for an elderly person to carry down the steps. Shi Yuan held one side of the suitcase and walked in front, while the professor helped hold it in the back, and the two went downstairs like this. They returned to the research center and packed the documents that the transport truck could not take away.

“These are all my babies,” the professor patted the suitcase and said, “A baby that can't be bought with any money can't just become waste paper like this.”

After such a busy job, it was almost 9 o'clock when Shi Yuan went home that day. He brought back a harmonica and a box of broad bean cakes – Professor Guan swore that this was really his last box of snacks.

After half an hour, Lu Tinghan also got home.

As soon as he opened the door, he heard the intermittent sound of harmonica. The light in the living room was on, and Shi Yuan sat on the sofa with his tail coiled, holding a harmonica and playing.

Lu Tinghan sat next to him, picking up a broad bean cake on the table to eat, and after listening to him play for a while, he asked, “Where did you find the harmonica?”

“Professor Guan gave it to me,” Shi Yuan replied, “I just started learning, do you think it sounds good?”

Under the warm yellow light, Lu Tinghan's eyebrows were soft: “It sounds good.”

“Oh,” Shi Yuan said, “Then that's it.”

Lu Tinghan: ?

If you get the praise of the tone-deaf Lu Tinghan, it meant that it was really unpleasant.

Shi Yuan put down the harmonica and asked Lu Tinghan again: “When are you going to pack up your stuff?”

“Pack up what?”

“The things at home, we are going to the main city soon, right?”

Lu Tinghan: “Not planning to pack up, these are not important.”

“How can that be!” Shi Yuan said, “Isn't this your former home? There are so many things, so let's take some away.”

Lu Tinghan wanted to say that he really didn't need to, but before the words came to his lips, he saw Shi Yuan's eyes, and still agreed: “Okay.”

There was an empty suitcase at home. When Lu Tinghan packed up his things, Shi Yuan sat on the sofa and played the harmonica.

Lu Tinghan put clothes, sketchbooks, and specimen collections that he liked as a child in the suitcase, and also put Shi Yuan's planet model and astronomical telescope in it. The suitcase was very small and quickly filled up.

Shi Yuan was a little regretful: “There are still so many things that haven't been taken away.”

“It's okay,” Lu Tinghan said, “When we go to a new place, there will always be new memories.”

“That's true,” Shi Yuan hugged his tail, “What about the fish and bird we raise?”

“Take them to the main city too.”

“Can we bring them over?”

“Hmm.”

Generals always had a little privilege.

Chapter end