It was never in Lin Sanjiu’s wildest dream that she would get a chance to see humans’ art from the past again after so many years had passed since the doomsday arrived.
The theater was immersed in darkness, leaving only the center of the stage brightly lit by several beams of light. It looked like an island floating in the dark. There was a curvaceous woman wearing a floor-length gown standing amidst the pool of dazzling light, her eyelashes white. She held her head high and kept her eyes shut as she sent the last note spiraling up into the air. The melody rushed out of the sea of light and reverberated off the dome as if sea waves were crashing onto the cliff.
Putting on performances such as musicals, solos, or other forms of art before the auction’s start seemed to have become a norm in the Twelve Worlds. If one were to see this scene now, he or she might mistake this for a world that hadn’t been destroyed by the doomsday yet. However, when the singer’s powerful voice flushed through her soul like a sea tide, only then did Lin Sanjiu snap out of her reverie and accept the fact that the singer was indeed a posthuman.
After all, there was no way a normal person’s voice could be this impactful.
Like a spear, the singing from the other realm pierced through their bodies and into the depth of their psyches, stirring at their nerves again and again and again with each high note she reached. It caused them to tremble uncontrollably, and some of them even cried.
The singing was the singer’s evolving ability. It would amplify the power of her voice by a thousandfold. After she’d finished singing, a great round of applause erupted from the silent theater.
Humans. No matter how well they evolved, some things just couldn’t change. As long as they still stayed as human beings, they would react violently towards something that touched their souls.
Even Lin Sanjiu, who wasn’t in a very good condition right now, was infected by the atmosphere. She followed their example and clapped her hands. All the boxes on her left and right were flickering nonstop, casting light on their faces again and again. Pressing forward, Silvan whispered into her ear, “That’s how they acknowledge the singer and performers. I think we should do the same. After all, it was quite a show, don’t you think?”
His breath tickled Lin Sanjiu’s ears. Just as she turned her head, she saw him push a button on the baluster. A beam of light shot out and illuminated the entire box. Nevertheless, unlike the other boxes, their light stayed on even after a long time. A murmur ensued and began to spread across the crowd of audiences below. Piqued by curiosity, the singer spun around, and when she saw Silvan, a startled expression, though swift, dawned upon her face. She soon nodded slightly as a sign to express her gratitude.
Once the singer left the stage, only then did Lin Sanjiu return to her seat. She asked, “The performance was awesome, but… you still have three chances left, right? Have you found your target?”
“Don’t worry. I have it all planned out.”
Silvan snuggled down in an armchair and stretched his legs straight. The faint light from the outside illuminated half of his face, drawing a silvery line across his hair, nose, lips, and neck.
Lin Sanjiu nodded. She seemed rather unconvinced. Before she could voice her doubt, Silvan spoke up first, his face calm like a placid lake and his eyes shining bright like two emeralds. “But I don’t like other people kissing me.”
“Huh?” Lin Sanjiu became dazed for a moment. Then her brows scrunched up. “But how are you going to spread it if you don’t like people touching your lips? No, you have to… No, you must let people kiss you. Otherwise, we will…”
“Hey, hey, hey, calm down. Listen to me first,” Silvan chimed in, his voice warm and soft as if he was murmuring beside her ear. “You don’t necessarily need to kiss somebody to spread it.”
Then, it was at this moment that Mrs. Manas’s voice came again, vague and weak. Mrs. Manas had switched tactics. She gave up screaming and just kept repeating the same sentence again and again, “…Think carefully… What… are you… spreading…”
It was a good question, but unfortunately, just like how the wind did not leave any signs when it blew across the water’s surface, her words did not leave any impression on Lin Sanjiu’s mind. She soon forgot about them. She gave Silvan a disapproving stare and said, “So what are you going to…”
Her sentence was interrupted by a series of approaching footsteps. She knew it wasn’t Yu Yuan because the sound the person was making when walking suggested that she was wearing stilettos. Lin Sanjiu raised her head, and then the singer appeared at the door to their box.
When she walked, her gown swirled and flickered like a river of stars. On closer inspection, Lin Sanjiu found out that the singer had a sweet face, which did not go very well with her powerful voice. She knocked on the door and smiled at them.
“I am here to express my deepest gratitude for your kindness. It is rare to meet someone as generous as you. Please accept my deepest thanks.” Surprisingly, her voice was smooth and calm, unlike when she was singing on the stage.
Lin Sanjiu did not know why the girl would say Silvan was being very generous. ‘Didn’t he only switch on some light?’ Lin Sanjiu thought inwardly. Apparently, the singer knew from a single glance that Lin Sanjiu was just fooling around, though she still retained her courtesy and manner. She looked over to Silvan, and then suddenly, her face flushed pink. “Are… are you really a captain from the Munition Factory?”
“Yes, I am, and no sweat, it was the least I could do for you since you gave us such a remarkable performance.” Silvan looked straight into the singer’s eyes as he offered her a perfect smile. “Actually, you didn’t have to come up here yourself.”
“No, it’s okay. I’ve heard a lot about you.” The singer, who was very comfortable facing a thousand people, now looked flustered as she kept her head low. “To be honest, I… actually… erm, anyway, I am very happy to hear that you liked my performance.”
It seemed that her disconcertment had gotten in her way, as she was having a hard time articulating her thoughts into words.
“Come, take a seat.” Silvan stood up and gestured her over to a seat. The singer fidgeted nervously as she took the seat. Picking up a glass of wine in front of him, Silvan shook it as he grinned. “Do you want some wine?”
The singer nodded. When Silvan handed her the glass of wine, both Lin Sanjiu and the singer were stunned. However, the singer soon came around and took it. Throughout the entire process, she did not even raise her head. She held the glass of wine in her hand but did not take a sip. She kept her eyes focused on a spot on the ground, her body pulled tautly.
Since her head was lowered, she did not see it. The two people next to her were staring at the glass in her hand. They only averted their gaze after a long time.
After exchanging glances with Lin Sanjiu, Silvan leaned forward and said something to the singer.
While they were talking, Lin Sanjiu just sat beside idly and did nothing. Like a shadow, she melted into the darkness. After a short while, Silvan suddenly raised his head up and glanced at her.
Lin Sanjiu’s eyes glowed.
‘Is he finally ready to get to the real business?’
“I hurt my finger just now,” Silvan muttered softly, an affectionate smile playing across his lips as he put his finger into his mouth. “It’s so painful. Do you want to see it?”
The singer looked at him, fully petrified. It was only when he placed his finger next to her lips that she realized what he wanted her to do. Her face flushed red with embarrassment. After a short burst of hesitation, she opened her mouth and held his finger in between her lips.
“That’s better,” Silvan laughed. “How do you feel right now?”
Sitting in a trance, the singer’s face began to return back to normal. Her embarrassment evaporated as she understood everything. She darted a glance between Lin Sanjiu and Silvan and then nodded calmly. “I understand.”
Lin Sanjiu let out a sigh. It seemed that Silvan still managed to spread it to the singer even though she did not touch his lips.
“I know you have a lot of fans and admirers in the Twelve Worlds,” Silvan continued gently. “That’s the reason I came for you.”
“I have three chances, right?” The singer smiled at them after a short pause. “Alright, I can finish all three chances in less than one hour.”
“I believe you can do it,” Silvan said softly. “Oh yeah, can you help me find two more girls here…”
“Lin Sanjiu!”
While they were talking, Mrs. Manas suddenly shouted. This time her voice was clear and Lin Sanjiu obviously heard it. However, her voice soon turned weak again and Lin Sanjiu could not hear it anymore. “Think… Spread… Not good…”
‘What the hell is she trying to say? Can’t she wait until I finish my stuff?’
Lin Sanjiu sighed frustratedly. She tilted her head up and realized the singer was gone. Silvan returned to his armchair and nestled himself comfortably into the soft fabric. He took a sip of his wine, and when he noticed her gaze, he returned it with a smile. “Maybe the next girl will drink from my wine glass. That will save me a lot of trouble.”
With furrowed brows, she looked at him without speaking.
“What’s wrong? We still have at least four hours left before the auction ends. Each person has three chances, and three people make it nine. Soon enough, everyone in this theater will be…” Then Silvan suddenly frowned as well. He couldn’t find the word to finish his sentence. “Will be…”
“I have a feeling that there is something wrong with us,” Lin Sanjiu said. “Do you feel the same way?”
“Now that you mention it, I do feel as if something inside of me is changing.” In the gloom, the emerald greens eyes that stared at her resembled lakes in a deep ancient forest. “But I am not sure if it counts as ‘not right’.”
Lin Sanjiu bit her lower lips as her brain cluttered with many questions. After a few minutes, another series of footsteps rang out from outside. Silvan was quite popular in the Twelve Worlds, and many girls liked him a lot. This mission was like a piece of cake for him, for, after all, a beautiful man or woman had a high chance of successfully kissing others. Very soon, a beautiful face appeared as a girl pushed the door open.
Everything happened according to Silvan’s plan.
After two hours, Lin Sanjiu began to see changes in the theater. More and more people were beginning to ignore the auction and moved around, looking for their prey. When the auction was halfway through, a woman who won a bid kissed the host when she was going up the stage to claim her belonging. Her action thrust the entire theater into silence.
At that moment, everyone seemed to have understood something.
There was a serene expression on everyone’s face. They measured up each other, and no one spoke. Nobody urged the host to continue the auction, and the host, as if he had forgotten his given role as well, did nothing to resume the session as well.
The auction had ended.
It was never in Lin Sanjiu’s wildest dream that she would get a chance to see humans’ art from the past again after so many years had passed since the doomsday arrived.
The theater was immersed in darkness, leaving only the center of the stage brightly lit by several beams of light. It looked like an island floating in the dark. There was a curvaceous woman wearing a floor-length gown standing amidst the pool of dazzling light, her eyelashes white. She held her head high and kept her eyes shut as she sent the last note spiraling up into the air. The melody rushed out of the sea of light and reverberated off the dome as if sea waves were crashing onto the cliff.
Putting on performances such as musicals, solos, or other forms of art before the auction’s start seemed to have become a norm in the Twelve Worlds. If one were to see this scene now, he or she might mistake this for a world that hadn’t been destroyed by the doomsday yet. However, when the singer’s powerful voice flushed through her soul like a sea tide, only then did Lin Sanjiu snap out of her reverie and accept the fact that the singer was indeed a posthuman.
After all, there was no way a normal person’s voice could be this impactful.
Like a spear, the singing from the other realm pierced through their bodies and into the depth of their psyches, stirring at their nerves again and again and again with each high note she reached. It caused them to tremble uncontrollably, and some of them even cried.
The singing was the singer’s evolving ability. It would amplify the power of her voice by a thousandfold. After she’d finished singing, a great round of applause erupted from the silent theater.
Humans. No matter how well they evolved, some things just couldn’t change. As long as they still stayed as human beings, they would react violently towards something that touched their souls.
Even Lin Sanjiu, who wasn’t in a very good condition right now, was infected by the atmosphere. She followed their example and clapped her hands. All the boxes on her left and right were flickering nonstop, casting light on their faces again and again. Pressing forward, Silvan whispered into her ear, “That’s how they acknowledge the singer and performers. I think we should do the same. After all, it was quite a show, don’t you think?”
His breath tickled Lin Sanjiu’s ears. Just as she turned her head, she saw him push a button on the baluster. A beam of light shot out and illuminated the entire box. Nevertheless, unlike the other boxes, their light stayed on even after a long time. A murmur ensued and began to spread across the crowd of audiences below. Piqued by curiosity, the singer spun around, and when she saw Silvan, a startled expression, though swift, dawned upon her face. She soon nodded slightly as a sign to express her gratitude.
Once the singer left the stage, only then did Lin Sanjiu return to her seat. She asked, “The performance was awesome, but… you still have three chances left, right? Have you found your target?”
“Don’t worry. I have it all planned out.”
Silvan snuggled down in an armchair and stretched his legs straight. The faint light from the outside illuminated half of his face, drawing a silvery line across his hair, nose, lips, and neck.
Lin Sanjiu nodded. She seemed rather unconvinced. Before she could voice her doubt, Silvan spoke up first, his face calm like a placid lake and his eyes shining bright like two emeralds. “But I don’t like other people kissing me.”
“Huh?” Lin Sanjiu became dazed for a moment. Then her brows scrunched up. “But how are you going to spread it if you don’t like people touching your lips? No, you have to… No, you must let people kiss you. Otherwise, we will…”
“Hey, hey, hey, calm down. Listen to me first,” Silvan chimed in, his voice warm and soft as if he was murmuring beside her ear. “You don’t necessarily need to kiss somebody to spread it.”
Then, it was at this moment that Mrs. Manas’s voice came again, vague and weak. Mrs. Manas had switched tactics. She gave up screaming and just kept repeating the same sentence again and again, “…Think carefully… What… are you… spreading…”
It was a good question, but unfortunately, just like how the wind did not leave any signs when it blew across the water’s surface, her words did not leave any impression on Lin Sanjiu’s mind. She soon forgot about them. She gave Silvan a disapproving stare and said, “So what are you going to…”
Her sentence was interrupted by a series of approaching footsteps. She knew it wasn’t Yu Yuan because the sound the person was making when walking suggested that she was wearing stilettos. Lin Sanjiu raised her head, and then the singer appeared at the door to their box.
When she walked, her gown swirled and flickered like a river of stars. On closer inspection, Lin Sanjiu found out that the singer had a sweet face, which did not go very well with her powerful voice. She knocked on the door and smiled at them.
“I am here to express my deepest gratitude for your kindness. It is rare to meet someone as generous as you. Please accept my deepest thanks.” Surprisingly, her voice was smooth and calm, unlike when she was singing on the stage.
Lin Sanjiu did not know why the girl would say Silvan was being very generous. ‘Didn’t he only switch on some light?’ Lin Sanjiu thought inwardly. Apparently, the singer knew from a single glance that Lin Sanjiu was just fooling around, though she still retained her courtesy and manner. She looked over to Silvan, and then suddenly, her face flushed pink. “Are… are you really a captain from the Munition Factory?”
“Yes, I am, and no sweat, it was the least I could do for you since you gave us such a remarkable performance.” Silvan looked straight into the singer’s eyes as he offered her a perfect smile. “Actually, you didn’t have to come up here yourself.”
“No, it’s okay. I’ve heard a lot about you.” The singer, who was very comfortable facing a thousand people, now looked flustered as she kept her head low. “To be honest, I… actually… erm, anyway, I am very happy to hear that you liked my performance.”
It seemed that her disconcertment had gotten in her way, as she was having a hard time articulating her thoughts into words.
“Come, take a seat.” Silvan stood up and gestured her over to a seat. The singer fidgeted nervously as she took the seat. Picking up a glass of wine in front of him, Silvan shook it as he grinned. “Do you want some wine?”
The singer nodded. When Silvan handed her the glass of wine, both Lin Sanjiu and the singer were stunned. However, the singer soon came around and took it. Throughout the entire process, she did not even raise her head. She held the glass of wine in her hand but did not take a sip. She kept her eyes focused on a spot on the ground, her body pulled tautly.
Since her head was lowered, she did not see it. The two people next to her were staring at the glass in her hand. They only averted their gaze after a long time.
After exchanging glances with Lin Sanjiu, Silvan leaned forward and said something to the singer.
While they were talking, Lin Sanjiu just sat beside idly and did nothing. Like a shadow, she melted into the darkness. After a short while, Silvan suddenly raised his head up and glanced at her.
Lin Sanjiu’s eyes glowed.
‘Is he finally ready to get to the real business?’
“I hurt my finger just now,” Silvan muttered softly, an affectionate smile playing across his lips as he put his finger into his mouth. “It’s so painful. Do you want to see it?”
The singer looked at him, fully petrified. It was only when he placed his finger next to her lips that she realized what he wanted her to do. Her face flushed red with embarrassment. After a short burst of hesitation, she opened her mouth and held his finger in between her lips.
“That’s better,” Silvan laughed. “How do you feel right now?”
Sitting in a trance, the singer’s face began to return back to normal. Her embarrassment evaporated as she understood everything. She darted a glance between Lin Sanjiu and Silvan and then nodded calmly. “I understand.”
Lin Sanjiu let out a sigh. It seemed that Silvan still managed to spread it to the singer even though she did not touch his lips.
“I know you have a lot of fans and admirers in the Twelve Worlds,” Silvan continued gently. “That’s the reason I came for you.”
“I have three chances, right?” The singer smiled at them after a short pause. “Alright, I can finish all three chances in less than one hour.”
“I believe you can do it,” Silvan said softly. “Oh yeah, can you help me find two more girls here…”
“Lin Sanjiu!”
While they were talking, Mrs. Manas suddenly shouted. This time her voice was clear and Lin Sanjiu obviously heard it. However, her voice soon turned weak again and Lin Sanjiu could not hear it anymore. “Think… Spread… Not good…”
‘What the hell is she trying to say? Can’t she wait until I finish my stuff?’
Lin Sanjiu sighed frustratedly. She tilted her head up and realized the singer was gone. Silvan returned to his armchair and nestled himself comfortably into the soft fabric. He took a sip of his wine, and when he noticed her gaze, he returned it with a smile. “Maybe the next girl will drink from my wine glass. That will save me a lot of trouble.”
With furrowed brows, she looked at him without speaking.
“What’s wrong? We still have at least four hours left before the auction ends. Each person has three chances, and three people make it nine. Soon enough, everyone in this theater will be…” Then Silvan suddenly frowned as well. He couldn’t find the word to finish his sentence. “Will be…”
“I have a feeling that there is something wrong with us,” Lin Sanjiu said. “Do you feel the same way?”
“Now that you mention it, I do feel as if something inside of me is changing.” In the gloom, the emerald greens eyes that stared at her resembled lakes in a deep ancient forest. “But I am not sure if it counts as ‘not right’.”
Lin Sanjiu bit her lower lips as her brain cluttered with many questions. After a few minutes, another series of footsteps rang out from outside. Silvan was quite popular in the Twelve Worlds, and many girls liked him a lot. This mission was like a piece of cake for him, for, after all, a beautiful man or woman had a high chance of successfully kissing others. Very soon, a beautiful face appeared as a girl pushed the door open.
Everything happened according to Silvan’s plan.
After two hours, Lin Sanjiu began to see changes in the theater. More and more people were beginning to ignore the auction and moved around, looking for their prey. When the auction was halfway through, a woman who won a bid kissed the host when she was going up the stage to claim her belonging. Her action thrust the entire theater into silence.
At that moment, everyone seemed to have understood something.
There was a serene expression on everyone’s face. They measured up each other, and no one spoke. Nobody urged the host to continue the auction, and the host, as if he had forgotten his given role as well, did nothing to resume the session as well.
The auction had ended.
