Chapter 641: Campus Culture Festival

Jiangdu? Shen Zexi asked, his tone a bit uncertain; to him, this was a classmate he had only met a few times back at the Academy long ago, and being able to recall him was already not bad.

It's me, Jiangdu said, standing at the doorway. The authorities want me to be your guide, saying there are a few guests coming from Tianmian City... I didn't expect it to be you.

Qi Hengyu also hadn't expected it; the visitor really was an acquaintance of theirs—turns out Jiangdu is also an Undead?

You're doing pretty well here.

Not bad, thanks to others looking after me...

Shen Zexi originally wanted to learn more about this world from Jiangdu, but Jiangdu's knowledge was also limited; when they heard him say he had accidentally fallen into this world from a spacetime turbulence, not that he was an Undead, everyone was quite surprised.

Although none of them had personally experienced it, the only one who had did not remember, yet they also deeply understood the danger of spacetime turbulence.

It's hard to imagine how far Jiangdu drifted inside before ending up in another world.

Jiangdu also had many things he wanted to ask them, so they went together to a resting room, chatting until late before parting and each going to rest.

The night rain began falling in the evening.

The girl stumbled out from the depths of a narrow alley, stepping into pooled water that splashed mud onto her calves.

Her red shawl was already soaked through, the heavy fabric draped over her shoulders, its edges smeared with mud and dead leaves; the hood had a tear, rain leaking in and trickling down from her hair ends.

Her hair had originally been braided into two pigtails, now half-loose, the other side twisted and tangled, mixed with rainwater and dust, obscuring its original color.

When she reached the alley's entrance she suddenly stopped, then stumbled back, pressing herself against the wall base and curling into a recessed shadow.

Rain slid down her chin; she turned her head to glance toward the direction she'd come from—far off only a single streetlamp provided light, but she could see a flashlight beam sweeping repeatedly nearby.

She drew herself deeper into the shadow; beside her was a garbage heap whose foul odor fortunately masked the bloody smell on her body.

A sound came from afar, muffled by the rain.

... Which way did she run?

... Spread out to look for her, she can't have gone far...

... I don't know what the guards are thinking... that's something we painstakingly obtained from the Dome...

Footsteps passed by the alley entrance, gradually moving in another direction, growing fainter until they were completely swallowed by the rain curtain.

She did not move right away.

After a long while, she slowly pulled herself out of the crack, one hand bracing against the wall, the other gathering her already-soaked cloak, especially pressing the tear.

She kept close to the wall, walking briskly along the road opposite the direction the footsteps had gone, passing two or three narrow alleys and stopping before a row of stalls that had already closed for the day.

She bent down and felt out a wrinkled, half-dry bundle of cloth from the shadow beneath a stall—probably an old jacket someone had left behind.

She threw on the jacket, barely covering her sorry state, and found a small street that still had some people about.

The shops along the street glowed with warm yellow light; some people sheltered under eaves from the rain, others were packing up—because of tonight's downpour, they had to leave much earlier than usual.

Even so, the disheveled, staggering girl appearing in the rainy night still attracted considerable attention.

Good heavens! What happened? an elderly woman hurried forward to check the girl's condition.

Meanwhile, in the distance, a youth in a linen-colored coat stood in the alley where Hong Ling had hidden, holding a black umbrella.

... He ran pretty fast.

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The next day, at noon.

Sun Yu sat down opposite Yang Yixie with a tray of freshly served food, saying, "The arrival of the Floating City was truly timely; if it hadn't appeared out of nowhere, we would have had to start military training."

Yang Yixie lowered his head and took a bite of rice, "You said yesterday that it might rain today, so there wouldn't be military training."

That's different, Sun Yu said confidently, I said 'possible,' the authorities said 'confirmed'; they surely issued a statement earlier, but the school insists on announcing it only today.

Yang Yixie couldn't be bothered to respond; on the main road leading to the teaching building in the distance, a few students wearing club activity promotional shirts were hanging banners on the roadside trees.

Some time had passed since the start of school; today is the Campus Culture and Arts Festival, and the school's clubs will organize various activities today to promote themselves.

The arrival of the Floating City, along with the subsequent policies, caused considerable panic among the capital's populace for a time, but since nothing major happened, people calmed down and returned to their lives.

Aside from the daytime being somewhat dim, with insufficient light reaching the ground causing some inconveniences and drawing complaints from many residents, nothing significant has actually occurred so far.

With the rain falling so frequently lately, we might as well be doing military training now; if we make it up later, there won't be many chances to slack off.

Yang Yixie sighed, but this laziness isn't easy to indulge—who made the rain choose to fall only at night, leaving the days dry?

The two chatted for a while; the school cafeteria's food is really not good—at best it just fills you up, vividly demonstrating what it means to be both expensive and awful.

By comparison, the meals in high school used to be deserving of the word "delicious."

By the way, Old Yang, do you have anything this afternoon? Let's go check out the comic expo; I heard the mall where we ate last time is hosting one.

Doesn't the school's Anime Club have an event? If you're curious, just go take a look there.

Geez, there are only a few cosplayers at the school...

I have to go out with my mom this afternoon.

Then forget it... Sun Yu lowered his head and kept eating, turning his chopsticks over in the tray, picking up something that looked like meat but wasn't, frowning at it before shoving it into his mouth anyway.

Ah, is that Yang Xuesheng?

Nearby, a girl who had just finished her meal placed her tray at the uniform recycling point and then made a phone call.

... It's me.

Bai Mu Yun was still holed up in his apartment drawing designs when he unexpectedly received this call, almost failing to react.

He seemed to have left this number only in the Design Club.

It's like this: we considered that you're not a design major, so we had others help turn your submitted design into an actual garment; this afternoon, other club members will wear it for display—would you like to come to the Academy to have a look?