The Underground Abyss in the Doomsday: The Collapse of Humanity

Chapter 3 A Quiet Afternoon in the Library

Mr. Yu carefully cut off a branch of a rose that had grown in the wrong direction, and tied the branch that had already formed a flower bud to a wire to fix it in place. He patted the dust off his hands, picked up the kettle and poured water again, then sat down on the recliner beside the flower bed and smoked. The artificial sunlight in the afternoon poured down from the glass cover on the ceiling of the library, shining on the five-square-meter flower bed. On the surface of the wet black soil, crystal clear water droplets slowly seeped into the soil layer, as if being sucked in by a living big mouth.

It may be difficult for ordinary people to imagine how precious soil is in underground artificial space, because they may have never seen pure natural soil without radiation in their entire lives. The value of Mr. Yu's five-square-meter flower bed is no less than that of a villa of a junior rich man on the 500th floor in District 148, but for Mr. Yu himself, it is just a small piece of land for planting flowers.

The District Library stands in the center of District 148, covering an area of 500 square kilometers. However, in this era of popularization of intelligent computers, how many people would come to the library to read ancient paper books? The District Library is just a part of the district government project that focuses more on image projects, and the position of Director Yu is only honorary.

After finishing his cigarette, Mr. Yu waved his hand to call the cleaning robot, and threw the cigarette butt into its "big mouth" to be decomposed into various primitive components. Suddenly, he heard slightly impatient footsteps above his head. Mr. Yu smiled slightly, picked up the book at hand, lay down and began to read. After reading a few pages of the book, his mind could not help but turn to the little girl. How long would it take her to find the book she liked today?

The quiet library was a bit monotonous for the childless Mr. Yu, but the series of small footprints that appeared almost every day were one of the few things that changed his monotonous life. Mr. Yu never deliberately looked at the girl, but he liked the way she sneaked into the library: she always took off her shoes, as if she was afraid of dirtying the floor, but she still left a series of clear marks on the smooth nano-floor.

The light lead-gray footprints were like a timid little mouse, always sneaking in from a dark place. Mr. Yu’s greatest pleasure every day was to follow the footprints when the library closed in the evening and put the half-read books of the girl in a new place. Sometimes he would determine the new location by sorting them in a certain sequence, and sometimes he would use a series of clues left by different types of books. Anyway, if the girl wanted to continue reading the next day, she had to solve the puzzle left by the old curator first.

If you want to read books for free, you have to pay a price. Old Yu thought with a bad taste that if you can't learn these mathematical sequences and don't finish reading the books he prescribed, you can't read the books you want to read. The girl seemed to stick to the rules of the game set by the old man. Even if it took a long time to find it, she would never give up the half-read book she chose the day before, and she would not appear in front of the old man to ask anything.

The footsteps upstairs sounded for a moment and then disappeared. Old Yu nodded and secretly agreed. It took him less than an hour to solve the puzzle of the polynomial sequence today. It seems that he will have to figure out a new sequence tomorrow. After turning a few more pages, the old man lay down and put the book on his face to prepare for a nap. When he wakes up, the "little mouse" will probably be gone. By then, he can also see what kind of reading material the child has chosen today.

But he was awakened by a knock on the door before he had slept for long. Old Yu frowned and paused for a moment before slowly getting up. "Who's at the door?" the old man asked.

"It's me, a student. I hope I didn't disturb your rest." A middle-aged man's voice came from outside the door.

"No, you know I'm very free," the old man smiled, "Come in, don't stand at the door."

The door of the director's lounge opened and a man walked into the room carrying a package. He humbly moved a stool over and sat down next to the old man's recliner. He smiled and said to the old man, "Teacher, look what good things I brought you." Then he opened the package and proudly showed it to Mr. Yu.

The package contained black soil, and the old man smiled. "Last time you said you wanted to expand the flower bed, and yesterday I happened to meet a friend who was in charge of planting on the upper floor, so I asked him for some soil and sent it to you."

The middle-aged man said it lightly, but Old Yu knew that "asking for it" was full of other meanings. As the head of District 148, his student had a lot of power. But since the student wanted to thank him, Old Yu would not ask too much. The old man happily took the soil, put it on the edge of the flower bed, and started chatting with his favorite student.

While chatting, Mr. Yu shook out the package and carefully shoveled out the soil bit by bit to fill the empty space on the edge of the flower bed. Can I add a few more roses, or maybe consider planting some sunflowers this time?

"...Teacher, have you ever thought about growing something else? If you like, I can get you non-radiation vegetable seeds, or fruits and vegetables, so you can grow some yourself." The district chief looked at the row of roses blooming in the sun, and felt a pang in his heart. These days, the price of pure natural fruits and vegetables is shocking, and even the middle class can't afford it. The teacher's position as a curator doesn't pay much, so he must have eaten synthetic meals on weekdays. Now using outrageously expensive soil to grow flowers, it feels a bit wasteful.

Old Yu put down his shovel, turned around and scolded with a smile: "You young people are too materialistic. You care about whether everything is worth it. Do you think it's a waste for me to grow flowers? That's why you will never understand what spiritual food is."

"We are just ordinary people," the district chief smiled and touched his head, "I just said that. Isn't it up to you to plant whatever you want?"

The teacher and the student chatted for a while, and the busy district chief stood up to say goodbye. Old Yu personally sent him to the entrance of the museum and watched him get on the hovercraft. The old man stood at the entrance for a few minutes before returning to the room to work on his precious flower bed. The students brought a lot of soil this time, enough to expand the five-square-meter flower bed to eight square meters, so the old man was very happy.

As he was filling the package, Mr. Yu suddenly discovered a handful of green sprouts in it. The tender leaves with roots and stems were very thin. They were clearly potato seedlings. He didn't know if the district chief's friend had deliberately sneaked in.

Mr. Yu was inevitably in a dilemma. His flower bed was specially used for growing flowers. The old man did not care much about food and did not want to mix any potato vines into the colorful flower bed. However, pure natural potatoes were very expensive after all, and it would be unacceptable to throw them away casually.

He looked up and saw the artificial sun outside the French window setting in the west. The simulated sunset glow filled the sky and was very colorful. It was almost time to close the museum. Mr. Yu suddenly remembered the little "rat" and felt a little moved. So he scooped up the mud wrapped with potato sprouts and threw it into his pocket, then carried it to the entrance of the museum.

Just consider it as a reward for solving the problem quickly today, the old man thought to himself with a smile.