A Young Woman's Heart

Whenever someone dies, songs of gratitude will be sung in some unknown corner of the city.

They appear and disappear, as if from another world. You can't hear them clearly if you listen carefully, but they go straight into the depths of your mind if you don't listen.

I couldn't make out what they were singing.

But you can still sense that it must be a song of gratitude.

Serene and tranquil.

Even from beyond the distant Milky Way, it will surely be heard—

Everyone who hears this will have this profound feeling.

Perhaps.

Mo Xueyao didn't actually want to listen.

She sat on the bay window: "What happens to the dead?"

"Their room's supply will be completely cut off, and then they will be plunged into darkness?"

"Huh... what about our room...?"

Hua Yinyin curled her lips: "That guy, his obsession probably hasn't died yet."

"Doesn't he want to embrace the light?"

“He doesn’t believe there has ever been light, not in the past, not now, and not in the future.” Hua Yinyin took out a diary with some messy writing on it. “This is his diary, which I found by chance.”

Why would those people give up their lives?

"I guess she went to pursue some kind of belief." Hua Yinyin shrugged. "I heard that when enough light is gathered, the sun will truly rise from this world."

Mo Xueyao nodded, but she clearly saw those lights drifting and scattering into the streetlights, neon lights, even into the flowers, trees, or dark, shady ditches...

Most of them didn't float upwards at all; they just sank downwards.

The large screen suspended in the air continued to play images of those who voluntarily died.

A woman looked up at the sky, staring blankly at the streetlight, saying nothing, yet it was as if she had said everything.

She lowered her head again and suddenly burst into tears.

Amidst the sobs, they transformed into specks of light, scattering into the darkness.

Just as Mo Xueyao was about to ask something, she saw an old man with white hair rush onto the execution platform on the huge screen outside the window.

"Give us back our light!"

"What is he doing?" Mo Xueyao asked, puzzled.

Hua Yinyin pouted: "It's like... rebelling?"

"Does he resist death? Then he wouldn't need to come here, would he?"

"I don't know..."

His body was completely black even in the light.

All that could be seen were pale hair and the outline of facial features.

Compared to his jet-black hair, his white hair appeared somewhat brighter.

Mo Xueyao suddenly remembered something and couldn't help but ask, "What if all these people chose to die, and everyone in the world died?"

"Hmm... His diary says that at that time, he will be plunged into a light where there is absolutely no darkness."

"What a strange wording."

“Yes, trapped in…” Hua Yinyin tilted her head and chewed on the two words several times, “There is absolutely no light in the darkness.”

"absolute?"

"Yes, absolutely."

"That's way too bright." Mo Xueyao was just teasing.

Hua Yinyin seemed to be deep in thought.

The man in that scene, illuminated by light, turned into dark ashes and vanished.

"The light..." These were his last words.

His death did not cause the slightest emotional reaction from anyone else.

Another person stood on the execution platform.

He then spoke his last words:

"I've had enough of this bright world. Let me become light too."

"What is he talking about? In a world where everything is lit by lamps, where is the light?" Mo Xueyao pressed her face against the French windows, her small face distorted by the pressure. Outside, the buildings towered into the clouds, neon lights shone brightly, and hovercars moved fast and orderly.

"I don't know what he meant, but there's something that man wrote in the diary that sounds very similar." Hua Yinyin quickly flipped through the tattered diary. In this high-tech world, using such a paper book seemed rather strange. "He said, 'Let me also merge into the darkness, become a part of the darkness, if that day ever comes.'"

Mo Xueyao couldn't help but look up at the ceiling: "If that man is still living on his obsession, he should be watching us, right?"

"Perhaps he was killed by us on purpose."

"...If you want to die, why don't you just go under that tall streetlamp?"

“He didn’t want to go there. His diary says that the wrong things should be hanging there.”

Mo Xueyao was puzzled.

Hua Yinyin had no way to explain it to her.

This is a wondrous futuristic city that feels like a magical world.

Everything uses technology, yet it doesn't give people any sense of rigorous scientific logic.

"Will we be alright?"

"It's okay. Every time I take you back to our own world, I turn off the lights and draw the curtains. The darkness will protect us, just like how people don't always go to the cemetery."

"Tsk, why do we have to lock away our memories of this place every time we go back? Do we have to live like ordinary people in that manufactured world?"

"Hmph... I think it's better if we don't remember the things that happen in this world." Hua Yinyin muttered and pouted. "Ideally, one day, even I will forget all of this and stop coming here. Every time I come here, these absurd scenes make me feel depressed."

As they were talking, one of the many screens outside the window suddenly turned around and faced them.

What was displayed on the screen wasn't a video, but a deep, dark eye.

Mo Xueyao felt as if her heart was being squeezed by a giant hand, making it difficult for her to breathe.

Hua Yinyin coughed forcefully a few times before suddenly breaking free.

"Why...why is it suddenly looking at us?"

She didn't answer Mo Xueyao's question, but quickly drew the curtains.

"The dead are not entitled to use light."

"Huh?"

“I guessed, but there was a sentence in that man’s diary that said something like that.” Hua Yinyin paused, tilted her head and drew the curtains even tighter, and turned off the remaining lamps completely. “He said that he himself was not worthy of using light at all.”

"It would be more appropriate to say 'electricity'."

He was talking about light.

Hua Yinyin was about to say something when her body suddenly stiffened.

Mo Xueyao felt a chill run down her spine.

The two moved with difficulty, carefully lifting a corner of the curtain.

Then I saw that the huge screen had somehow ended up almost touching the outside of the floor-to-ceiling window.

That enormous eye stared straight in.

The two of them covered their mouths at the same time, turned around in a panic, and rushed to the computer with its flashing lights.

"Hurry up!" Hua Yinyin whispered, "One day we won't even be able to go back to that fictional world we created!"

"why?"

"How should I know why! It's probably best not to come here again in the future... We should close that entrance and exit passage forever, otherwise they'll definitely be traced! The creator is in an infinite state of death, but everything is still functioning normally. It's probably really strange..."

Are they extinguishing the darkness?

"Probably."

Mo Xueyao and Hua Yinyin jumped into the computer screen together and disappeared from this world.

The pale blue computer screen lit up for a few seconds before automatically turning off, plunging the entire room into complete darkness.

……

Chapter Twenty-Nine Monthly Exam

(One)

Friday, July 28, 2001.

Normally, today would be the last day of the school week.

However, in order to make it easier to have a long holiday for National Day, classes will still be held for the next two days.

But the established plan remained unchanged, and on this day, Yukong High School held a unified monthly exam.

The fifth floor, where Class 2 of Senior Three was located, was quiet. For monthly exams, the exam rooms were usually not reassigned; everyone took the exam in their own classrooms, with the only difference being that the desks were symbolically pulled apart.

If someone really wants to cheat, you can't stop them; it all depends on the students' self-discipline.

The first exam in the morning was Chinese. For students in the humanities class, this must be their forte. Even Liu Xiaowei did not scratch his head or look around, but instead buried himself in writing.

Although it's not too difficult for everyone, there are still a lot of words to write. If you don't hurry, you won't be able to finish the essay.

I don't know who came up with the essay topic for this monthly exam; at first glance, it seems a bit abstract.

Because this topic is too broad and abstract, it seems like there's a lot to talk about, but in reality, there's not much to talk about.

Do you think the world will achieve lasting peace?