Dragon Clan: Thought So Far

There were no staff on duty on the platform. When the high-temperature water vapor came into contact with the air at dozens of degrees below zero and instantly condensed into ice crystals, the only thing on the entire platform that could confirm that it was still in operation was the dim signal lights flashing in the depths of the thick fog.

Bunin and his friends were indeed frequent visitors here. Just when Lu Mingfei was about to get off the train in his Moscow-era attire, the waiter was already waiting outside the compartment door with new winter clothes and hiking boots.

The boots rolled over the thin layer of ice on the platform. The ice immediately cracked and shattered when more than a dozen guys who were wrapped tightly like brown bears stepped on it. The crackling sound echoed on the dome-like platform, creating fine ripples. Those ripples were the concrete manifestation of sound waves in the condensed steam. Only Her Royal Highness the Princess with mirror pupils could see through it all.

Lu Mingfei's nose twitched. In addition to the biting cold, there was also a subtle smell of rust in the air, which was like the smell of decaying pig iron and blood.

He looked up at the peeling gilded sunflower reliefs on the platform pillars. The once-splendid flower disks had grown bronze rust after decades of ice, like medals soaked in saline water.

"This place was built before I was born. I don't remember if I told Your Highness and Mr. Lu that City 023 is actually my hometown." Bunin stroked the reliefs with a bewildered look on his face. "Many years ago, when I was a child, my parents brought me here. The platform was the first part of City 023 to be built, followed by storage warehouses and simple circular houses. It was an era of raging fire and boiling oil. Many people froze to death in Siberia, and many people grew into towering trees in Siberia."

The Russian signboard of "City 023" was hung at an angle at the exit of the platform in front, with red paint mottled like coagulated blood. Lu Mingfei took off the bearskin tactical gloves that were deliberately padded for warmth. When his fingertips touched the raised five-pointed star on the cast iron railing, the minus 30-degree metal stuck to his skin like needles.

The slight stinging pain reminded Lu Mingfei of some bad memories, but he didn't know whether those memories belonged to him or Lu Mingze, because what flashed before his eyes was a dark cage with a narrow window in the corner and iron bars inserted in the window. In his memory, he could also feel pain when he touched those bars with his fingers.

"Did you grow up here?" he asked.

Bunin smiled and said nothing.

At this time, the entire platform dome was filled with the hissing sound of steam pipes bursting.

Lu Mingfei's golden eyes lit up behind his mask, and then the military searchlight in his hand swept across the dome covered with icy spikes.

Densely packed copper wires were frozen in those hanging icicles, and every few meters there was a bronze chandelier suspended in a thin layer of ice. Now those electronic devices had actually started to work, the filaments were ignited and glowed, and the huge amount of heat caused the hammer and sickle emblem on the lampshade to slowly drip icy water.

"It's Xie Miao." Ling held Lu Mingfei's wrist and looked towards a corner. Susie was also looking at that corner. Like Lu Mingfei, the vice president of the Lionheart Club also lit up his golden eyes.

Everything in City 023 is unknown, and they may be faced with a fierce battle, so they have to be vigilant.

In the corner, a man named Xie Miao was pulling down a frozen switch, and the crackling electricity was being carried to every lamp through the copper wires.

"There are no more tracks ahead, and the train cannot enter the city. The managers will not leave such a loophole. We can only walk from now on." Bunin said. After leaving the platform, he actually led everyone through a forest. In today's climate, the entire northern Siberia is covered in snow, but this forest seems to be in some relatively warm subarctic region, and the snow on the ground is not as thick as imagined.

But until now, Lu Mingfei has not even heard a bird singing.

There was only one explanation: either the place they were walking through was the lair of a powerful predator, or there was a group of dangerous beasts that regularly cleared out other unnecessary visitors in this forest.

If the boss Bunin mentioned was indeed the one who developed the dragon serum in City 023, then some genetic fragments must have been lost during the work, and the unfrozen river surrounding the city would eventually flow in the direction of this forest.

This might be an area where biological community mutations are frequent, so it wouldn't be excessive to send dragon-blood dogs or even the army to conduct regular sweeps.

The question now is whether predators are spying on this audience, which is greedy for time, in the shadows unlit by the street lights.

After walking for less than twenty minutes, a distance of about two kilometers, the aisle lined with street lights finally extended to a trench made of densely packed barbed wire.

There was an old wooden sign hanging on the barbed wire, with crooked Russian words written on it in red paint, which meant that no passage was allowed ahead.

"Besides you, who else would come to this place? Is it necessary to hang this kind of sign?" Lu Mingfei asked.

Okinez, who was holding a long-barreled hunting rifle blatantly, turned his head and looked at Lu Mingfei. He smiled and said, "In 2003, an expedition team from Norway came here. They were all young people who thought that Siberia was hiding the secrets of the empire and wanted to gain wealth and fame through these secrets." Okinez shrugged. "Unfortunately, it was during the auction, and the security of City 023 was at its strictest during the period of the year... As soon as they crossed the barbed wire, they encountered a minefield laid in advance by the city administrators. The serial explosion of anti-personnel mines completely wiped out the expedition team from this world."

Christina glared at him.

"Please don't look at me like that, dear Christina. We don't want this to happen, so we later added a no-entry sign on the barbed wire." Okinez said in a relaxed tone.

By this time Bunin had already taken out the key and unlocked the wire mesh.

After walking about a hundred meters along the cobblestone path, they saw in front of them an asphalt road that was comparable to the main roads in Moscow. It was straight and wide, leading directly to the circular city in the distance.

After hearing from Okinez that an expedition team was wiped out by the mines here in 2003, Lu Mingfei took every step carefully after crossing the barbed wire, trying his best to follow Bunin's footsteps.

When you reach the edge of this small town, a strong sense of the times immediately hits you.

They took the main road into the city. On the mottled red brick walls of the brick-concrete houses facing the forest, they could see a huge sickle and hammer relief that was peeling off, revealing the grayish-white base underneath.

Ling stretched out his hand and held Lu Mingfei's arm, and his slender black boots left tiny footprints on the snow.

"Look over there." Bunin suddenly became quite high-spirited when he arrived here, as if he was not a spokesperson at all but the real master of this place.

He waved his hands and pointed in the direction of the end of the street. Everyone looked in the direction he pointed.

A building that seems to be from the Tsarist era stands tall. The red five-pointed star on the spire has rusted, and the glass windows under the arched doorway are filled with goods.

Lu Mingfei took two steps and put his face close to it. The lights were on in the window, and the goods included vodka with Gagarin's portrait printed on it, Red Star chocolate, and a Kremlin clock with the second hand still ticking.

Ling stood beside Lu Mingfei and looked down at the goods, his platinum pupils flashing a faint cold light.

"This used to be an officers' club in 1985." Bunin traced the outlines of the merchandise through the glass with his fingers, his voice as soft as if he was reciting a poem, "There was a dance every night, and the most beautiful girls in Belarus wore braids and danced waltz with the officers. That was when I met Kristina's mother. She was the most popular star in Moscow, and everyone wanted to hold her hand and spin on the dance floor, but in the end she chose me."

"Hey, Mr. Bunin, can you tell me a newer story? We've heard about your romantic date with your wife so many times!" The man named Alexei shouted with a smile, and everyone else laughed, as if the elders in the family were laughing at a boy who was showing off his girlfriend.

Bunin was not angry either. He shrugged and spread his hands.

Lu Mingfei also smiled.

But soon a certain doubt filled his chest.

Everything in this city looked desolate and sad. The architectural style was like Moscow before the October Revolution, filled with decaying metal and withered reliefs. However, the streets were clean and tidy, and even the lights were on in the shop windows.

It was as if long before they entered here, a service team had cleaned every building, checked every line for damage, and awakened the city from its slumber.

Furthermore, if the auctions that delivered the purification drugs to the immortals were indeed held in this city, why hadn't the auction owner sent his assistants or the army to greet them until now?

"Don't ask too many questions. Every word you say here is listened to." Bunin said suddenly. He looked at Lu Mingfei. Lu Mingfei was silent for a moment and nodded.

They walked along the street towards the city center. Most people remained restrained, but Christina showed her curiosity unscrupulously.

Lu Mingfei watched the girl running from one end to the other, asking Bunin to take out various gifts from the window and hand them to her.

"You're still like a child." Ling said, "Because every day could be the last day of your life, so you're trying your best to live, right? Try to live, try to smile..."

Her body temperature came through her coat, reminding Lu Mingfei of the time when they walked side by side on the boulevard at Kassel College.

But the sunshine back then was warm and bright, unlike now when even breathing would freeze you.

The buildings on both sides of the street are like giants forgotten by time, with Gothic spires and Byzantine domes interlaced, and every brick and stone bearing the mark of the times.

Bunin seemed very proud of this, because he once lived here, and he felt proud when he saw Lu Mingfei's shock.

They passed a theatre before finally arriving at the huge circular building in the centre of the city.

The faded poster still retains the performance information of "Swan Lake", and the date is December 31, 1991.

It seems that the performance team at that time had originally planned to use a swan dance to celebrate the New Year's Eve for the workers and scientists in this city on the last day of 1991, but they did not expect that their motherland could not survive that winter.

Lu Mingfei suddenly stopped. He stared at the poster that was well preserved because of the protection of glass. Something in his heart shattered.

He would never make a mistake. Even if one only looked at her figure, temperament and facial features, he would never make a mistake.

The woman in the poster who was spinning on tiptoe surrounded by girls...

It's Joveni!

It's his mother!

"Mr. Lu is interested in ballet?" Bunin asked with a smile.

"No, I have no interest in ballet." Lu Mingfei calmed down in an instant. He adjusted his collar and put the cold-proof mask close to his chest through the open collar.

"I'm just a girl who likes ballet." Lu Mingfei winked playfully.

Bunin glanced at Zero and laughed.

"Would you like to go in and take a look?"

Without waiting for Lu Mingfei to answer, Bunin pushed open the heavy oak door.

Motes of dust swirling for years danced in the beams of light, red velvet chairs were arranged neatly, and the curtains on the stage were half-drawn, as if a ballerina would emerge from behind the scenes at any moment.

"It still looks the same as in 1991..." Bunin said softly, but Ling suddenly let go of Lu Mingfei's arm.

She leapt lightly onto the stage, her black coat drawing a graceful arc in the dim light, like a black swan flapping its wings ready to fly.

The immortals looked at the girl's back with eyes of scrutiny, awe or greed, watching her dancing on the stage. Only Lu Mingfei knew that Her Royal Highness the Princess had never had such a strong desire to perform.

Finally, Zero spun around on the stage, the hem of her coat lifted up, revealing her slender ankles. Everyone applauded.

A moment later she jumped off the stage, breathing slightly, and held Lu Mingfei's arm again.

"The most perfect Swan Lake was once performed here," Zero lowered her voice, her eyes flickering in the shadows, "and the dance skirt was made of dragon's tail feathers," she said.

Lu Mingfei was horrified, he knew that Ling’s Word Spirit was Mirror Pupil, but he didn’t know that this Word Spirit could also perform profiling-like abilities.

"I found a piece of fluff, among the dust flying in the beams of light, like another piece of dust." Ling said, she let go of Lu Mingfei.

Lu Mingfei lowered his head and saw a feather like an eyelash appearing in his palm.

"This is a very precious alchemical creation. There was once a powerful mixed-race dancer active in this city. What did she... do?" Ling looked into Lu Mingfei's eyes. (End of this chapter)