Chapter 59: Her Final Phone Call

"Why are you going to Green Island City alone? Why?"

Not only Jack, but even the Sheriff could not understand Shi Rang's decision.

Shi Rang tried to explain that his new job required him to visit the place, and fabricated a lie about a friend there who needed his assistance. Finally, under the gaze of more than three hundred eyes of all sizes, he had to reveal a tiny bit of the truth.

"The Bureau might be conducting some operations there; that's what the Alliance member who gave me the job told me. Perhaps I can find news about your other companions. Since there might be danger, I have to go alone—"

"If you leave, even going downstairs will be a problem for us," the Sheriff argued vigorously right in his ear. "We might starve to death in this room, and this is the tenth floor!"

"I'll go and come back quickly, probably in two or three days..."

"What if you get caught? The Bureau will definitely come to search your home." The Sheriff stood at the edge of his ear, arguing tenaciously.

As for the clusters of miniature people down in the tiny town, one could vaguely discern that they were protesting as well.

"Just bring everyone along; we can help you out."

... But I also have secrets I want to keep from you guys.

Shi Rang muttered inwardly.

Yet he could find no further reason to object, and finally had to nod in agreement.

"Alright, but you'll have to take my orders when the time comes."

"No problem, I'll make sure everyone listens to your arrangements." The Sheriff rustled something against his ear. "I've already sorted out the roster. According to each person's function, I've divided everyone into combat, medical, production, and logistics teams—which means odd-job workers."

Shi Rang: "We also have to assign a decurion for every ten people, plus three centurions responsible for relaying information to you, and finally consolidating it to inform Jack. That way, we won't have a situation where everyone shouts together and ends up interfering with Jack..."

When Shi Rang finished his work and returned home, it was already afternoon. While cooking dinner, he discussed tactics with the miniature people and received representatives from each team while holding a magnifyingglass. Among the more than three hundred miniature people, a full hundred were newborns. All of them were combat members, and among them was also the very first of the initial batch of miniature newborns—Robby, who was already a month and a half old.

This adolescent looked no different from anyone else, which set Shi Rang's mind quite a bit at ease.

Today had been peaceful and quiet. The mysterious third party had not come looking for him, no one had come to make arrests, and there was even some rare good news.

The first day of resignation was not a bad day.

At dinner, watching the stir-fried greens in his plate disappear at a visible rate, Shi Rang used his chopsticks to add a few more portions to the miniature people's dedicated plate. Yet their stomachs seemed like bottomless pits. Halfway through his own meal, the miniature people had also polished off half of it.

He seemed to have underestimated the miniature people's appetite...

It wasn't that they hadn't eaten much last night; it was just that Shi Rang had wolfed down his food, leaving only a few strands of noodles for them.

Fortunately, his job was already secured, otherwise after a little while he really would be reduced to eating dirt.

I'm sorry, Bureau. Although we don't have any direct grudges between us aside from standing on opposite sides, I really am short on money.

After washing the dishes, Shi Rang began to tidy up the housework he had fallen behind on recently, moving back and forth around the house. As he passed the coffee table for the second time with the mop, he noticed Jack waving half a tissue at him from the edge of the table.

"Some of the little ones asked me to pass a message to you!"

"What do they want to say?"

"They asked when the other person in your house is coming back, and whether we need to hide."

Shi Rang glanced toward Yin Shang's bedroom. The door was open to let the moisture on the floor evaporate, and the quilt on the bed was neatly made. "If she comes back, she definitely won't mind you guys."

"Who is she?"

"My wife."

This really got the miniature people excited.

Human nature inclined toward gossip, to say nothing of the miniature people who had been disconnected from society for so long.

The little people, still digesting their dinner, flared up with curiosity. Colorful fine sand grains quickly gathered at the edge of the coffee table, jumping and hopping energetically to catch his attention. They all spoke at once, trying to get Jack to convey their questions first, which utterly confused Jack as he repeatedly shouted, "One at a time!"

Since some of them spoke in a hard-to-distinguish Third District dialect variant of the Common Tongue, the miniature Sheriff came to Shi Rang's ear, taking charge of correcting certain words.

"You're married? I really couldn't tell!"

"Is she pretty?"

"How nostalgic. It's been who knows how many years since I got married. Are there any photos? I really haven't seen modern young people's wedding portraits."

Shi Rang tried to use a slightly melancholic and lost expression, coupled with silence, to gloss it over, but the miniature people's enthusiasm didn't wane. He had nothing to do but stop, leaning on the mop handle to try and brush the topic aside.

"Of course, she is the prettiest."

"It's already ten o'clock. Is she working overtime today? Aren't you going to pick her up?"

"She... isn't coming back today, temporarily."

"Did you guys have a fight? Did we affect anything?"

"No, it's not because of you guys."

No matter what, he couldn't bring himself to say the words "missing." It seemed as though as long as he didn't utter the truth, Yin Shang would eventually walk through the front door someday in the future.

"Why do you have two bedrooms? Do you sleep in separate rooms? That's no good for a young couple; your affection will fade."

Shi Rang couldn't help but curve the corners of his lips: "Because she likes staying up late and always paints until very late before resting. Back when we only had one bedroom, so as not to disturb my sleep, she would work in the living room with a small lamp on, and then quietly go to bed when she finished. But I'm a light sleeper and would wake up every time, knowing exactly what time she stayed up until, which ended up making us both toss and turn so neither of us could sleep well. Fearing she'd ruin her eyes, I cleared out a room to serve as a studio for her to paint in, but it still wasn't convenient. So we made up our minds that once we bought a house, we would each prepare a place where we could stay up late without disturbing one another—and as it turned out, I stayed up late playing tabletop RPGs, and she stayed up late binge-watching TV shows. Sometimes we'd bump into each other running out for snacks at one or two in the morning. Whenever one of us wanted to supervise the other and stop them from staying up late, we'd proactively go over and share a bed. Actually, both sides were comfortable to sleep in, but the mattress on her side is softer than mine, and she was still thinking about... Anyway, that's just how it is."

He sat down on the sofa, reminiscing about the past with the miniature people.

Although there were many of them, Shi Rang didn't feel the oppression of being stared at by a crowd, and was able to relax and tell the story in a smooth narrative.

That saturated feeling deep within his mind appeared once more, making him feel as refreshed as if recovering entirely from an old ailment, while also pulling him back from a happy past into the present.

Shi Rang shook the mop and glanced at the alarm clock.

"Time for bed. Shall I take you guys back on the way?"

The miniature people voiced complaints, much like children unwilling to rest, but Shi Rang didn't negotiate with them.

After delivering the passengers to the miniature town, he hurried to tidy up and went to bed, guarding the sense of happiness in his heart as he lay down, looking forward to dreaming of that phone call again tonight and seeing his beloved's figure once more.

The dream arrived right on schedule.

Her final phone call before she went missing rang out once again.

"Honey, have you gotten home yet?"

She sighed on the other end of the line.

"I'm sorry. Did you come to pick me up? I wasn't in the studio this afternoon, I took a leave of absence and only just finished dealing with things now."

"It's good you didn't come, saving you a wasted trip. I was even afraid you wouldn't be able to find me and would worry... Well, I'm heading back now. You haven't eaten yet? Then why don't we go out tonight—wait for me a moment."

Yin Shang seemed to have moved the phone away from her ear.

Shi Rang on this end of the phone also fell silent, worried about disturbing her affairs.

Perhaps there were still subsequent procedures to go through for her previous subsidy grant?

"Is there a problem? Didn't you guys say I could leave—hey, give that back!"

Her voice suddenly receded from the phone, and the panic in her tone made Shi Rang, far away at home, rush out the door.

He called out to her, but it happened to drown out the stern voice of some stranger on the other end. When he grabbed his phone again, desperately willing himself to calm down and listen closely, he heard a terrifying commotion—

Tables and chairs were being kicked over on the other end of the line, and something crashed to the floor.

A man was letting out strange cries, sounding utterly painful yet full of frenzy, howling like a beast.

"Unknown armed forces have appeared in the lockdown zone, we've encountered—we need backup!"

Amidst the stranger's shouts, many other people were screaming and fleeing in panic.

"Yin Shang?"

"Where are you, Yin Shang?!"

"Get away from her!"

The elevator was still in use, so Shi Rang dashed into the fire escape, leaping down the stairs three steps at a time like flying.

By the time he rushed down to the third floor, Yin Shang's phone had dropped to the ground.

Following two heavy thuds of the phone hitting the ground, a sharp shout rang out from afar.

"Drop your weapons!"

"I said, drop your weapons!"

Yin Shang tried to say something to this end of the phone amidst the chaos, but that shout drowned out her voice.

Then, a gunshot.

Before the call cut off, she was screaming.