Little Mushroom 小蘑菇-Chapter 52: Roses

FIRST ROSE - YEAR 2103

"We have no other alternatives."

"Everything in the world is devouring humankind, and our numbers are decreasing day after day."

"Child." Madam Lu removed the golden rose badge from her chest, placing it in the palm of her hand, then slowly curled her fingers around it so that she could feel the soft raised lines of the petals, as if she were touching a real rose.

"Everyone must take up the weapons that they can so they may confront this age. Everyone." Her voice was gentle like a ripple of water.

"But you won't receive anything, Mom."

"No single individual besides me will benefit, either. It is the entirety of humankind that will benefit. It is only when the entirety of humankind gradually escapes this awful plight that we as individuals will see improvement, although it may be hundreds of years into the future. But the truth is, it is only when you've saved everyone that you yourself will be saved."

"But we cannot rule out the possibility that our salvation will come far later than everyone else's," she continued. "That is when we take up weapons to protect ourselves."

"Will that day come, Mom?"

"It will." Her voice was startlingly resolute. "Unless— unless we have all perished before we could be saved. But remember, child. No matter what, humans love each other."

"Child, do you love them?"

"I do."

She handed over the badge to her young daughter.

———

SECOND ROSE - YEAR 2105

There was a loud thump.

Something heavy landed on the ground, and the world spun. Her mother had used that object to hit her on the back of the neck, and she fell to the floor.

Then came the sound of the bedroom door slamming shut.

With a click, the door was locked.

She should have fallen unconscious, but at the last second, a glimmering golden object fell from her coat pocket, and its color called back the remaining scrap of her consciousness. With a ringing in her ears that was like the roar of airplanes, amidst a terrible pain that seemed to split her head open and a numbness that felt like she had lost all her limbs, she reached out, gripped the golden rose badge, and hurriedly panted for breath.

She would not allow herself to fall unconscious. Her temperament was mild, but her will was strong, far exceeding that of ordinary people, which was also something her mother acknowledged.

And her mother was a distinguished and outstanding woman. Auntie Lin Shan had said, Your mother had shown an extraordinary gift for leadership since she was a young girl and was even the initiator of the Rose Manifesto and one of the drafters of the birth law, which saved humankind from disaster. Until now, when the oppression that women were suffering became heavier and heavier, exceeding the agreed-upon upper limit, she and her compatriots took up weapons and defended the freedom and dignity, just as they were supposed to.

It seemed as though a long time passed. Half an hour, one hour, or perhaps two hours. Through the bedroom door, she heard rough knocks come from the nearby entryway. Then came the rhythmic tapping of high heels. That was her mother, Madam Lu. There was not a single person who did not know that Madam Lu had been self-possessed and elegant all her life. When she was not with child, she always wore a long crimson dress girdled at the waist with modest black high heels, and she carried herself with a grace that did not change with the passage of time.

The door opened, and the visitors entered. Their footsteps were very heavy, as those were the sounds of military boots striking the floor. She felt a sense of danger, but of late, these sorts of things happened often.

Then came the sound of endless chatter, which seemed to have been deliberately lowered, and she vaguely heard a few words like "modify," "cease," and "centralize." Her mother had often conversed with some people over the last three months, and although she avoided her daughter, the keywords she had unintentionally heard were the same.

She knew more or less what had happened. For the past half a year, the anti-oppression "Roses" posters could be seen everywhere, and the base had attempted to reach a compromise with them.

"I do not agree," her mother said in a raised voice.

"I'm afraid you need to come with us."

"We have already come with you many times."

"It's different this time, Madam."

"Are there others?"

"Only you, Madam. The Marshal wishes to personally

negotiate with you. You may also choose to bring others."

"I demand that Lieutenant General Lin Shan and her armed escort come along."

"Of course, Madam," the officer said after a short silence.

It seemed as though the officer dialed a number, while her mother walked over to the filing cabinet near the bedroom door.

The officer hung up.

A long while later, Madam Lu said, "I'll prepare the materials. When Lieutenant General Lin Shan arrives, I will go." Then came the sounds of the file cabinet opening.

Everyone in the living room was very quiet.

A long time passed, so long that she nearly lost consciousness.

But she was still thinking, why would her own mother knock her out?

Why?

Why?

Because...

Because—

She continued thinking such thoughts until she was right on the cusp of losing consciousness.

Until a gunshot rang out.

She trembled all over. Her hands dripped with cold sweat, and the golden badge slipped from her hand. In thevery next moment, it was going to hit the floor and make a clear sound.

And her unsteady beliefs would be just like this badge.

In this difficult-to-measure span of time, she strenuously gathered her fingers together, securely clenching the badge in her palm once more, and put her fist to her chest.

After a long while, blood slowly trickled through the gap beneath the door like an octopus's tentacle.

She turned her gaze away from it and quietly looked at the comfortable room. Whether her gaze contained sorrow, hatred, pity, or perhaps nothing at all was a mystery.

In the following moment, she completely lost consciousness.

———

THIRD ROSE - YEAR 2105

She was brought to a place where she stayed in a few small rooms along with some other girls of a similar age. Every day, people would deliver food and water to them. She knew that many things happened outside, lasting for at least three months, because her new lifestyle lasted for three months.

She kept thinking, if her mother had not known that danger was coming, why did she knock her out that far in advance? If she had known that danger was coming, why had she not taken precautions before it was too late?

If shooting Madam Lu could have solved the problem, why did the chaos last for three months? If it was predicted that it would lead to three months of chaos, why did they choose to kill her?

Sometimes, she suspected that her mother had intentionally allowed herself to be killed. And knocking out her daughter was to allow her to live.

Her mother had even said that apart from the women closely connected to the Manifesto, the other members of the base were indifferent to the opposition activities. Of course there existed a way to make them care, which was to make them see how massive the thing oppressing thewomen was, and there would eventually come a day when it crushed everyone.

Or perhaps she would never know the truth of that time.

No matter what had happened, her mother, Madam Lu, and Madam Lu's companions had been defeated.

Because she and her companions had been brought to the entrance of a massive, silvery-white hexagonal building. This building, which she could see every day as soon as she pulled open the curtains, was called the Garden of Eden.

In the main hall was an older woman she did not know, pulling her along by the hand.

"Child," the Madam asked, "do you love humankind?"

"No matter what," the girl said softly, looking into her eyes. "Humans love each other."

She walked in.

And she knew that, many years later, she would be called Madam Lu as well.

As if her mother still lived.

———

FOURTH ROSE - PRESENT

It was a deep green monster.

An Zhe crouched down and examined it.

It was nearly dead. In its abdomen were three bloodyholes, each the size of a bowl's rim, from which thick blackliquid was flowing. Its skin, which consisted of fine scales along with protruding spines and lumps, feebly rose andfell. Four of its five eyes were compound eyes, and they were shrouded over with an ominous layer of white. The fifth eye was tightly shut, and the dozen-or-so fist-sized compound eyes on the backside were dimmed.

In the Abyss, it was rare to see mortally wounded monsters like this one. This meant that it had just eked out victory in a struggle and that the aroma of its blood had not yet been noticed by other hunters.

It was not large, about the length of a newborn human baby. Of course, that did not mean it had always been that length, because the polymorphic-class monsters of the Abyss could freely change between many forms and sizes. Pauli had said that this would be inconceivable under the previous theoretical framework because some substances would vanish into thin air and other substances would appear out of thin air, but if it was explained using waves and frequencies, the changing of forms was merely an alteration in frequency, which was easy to achieve and understand.

Now, the reason why it looked like this on its deathbed may have been because it wished to die in this form. Perhaps it was its original form, or perhaps it was its favorite form.

An Zhe gently touched its head with his hyphae, but there was no reaction whatsoever.

"It's almost dead." He frowned slightly as he looked at the monster.

Next to him, Lu Feng only said, "It's raining."

An Zhe tilted his head back and saw that dark clouds had gathered overhead. With a "plop," a raindrop fell between the layered branches and leaves of the trees and vines and splattered on the ground. In the following second, yet another drop landed on the monster's wound. It spasmed, seemingly feeling pain from it.

The summer rain came so swiftly that in just a fewseconds, white raindrops came pelting down thick and fast, sounding like drumbeats as they struck the leaves. Lu Feng covered An Zhe's shoulders and head with his uniform coat.

An Zhe said, "When we came, there seemed to be a cave nearby. "

He grabbed Lu Feng's hand and stood up, then hesitated for a few seconds. In the end, though, he picked up the small and trembling monster, and the two of them walked toward the nearby mountains.

"The shape isn't quite right," Lu Feng said.

But An Zhe did not feel anything in particular, for the Abyss had never been short of strangely shaped landforms.

The cave mouth was right there, a quiet opening between tangled vines.

The monster in An Zhe's arms was still trembling. Manyyears ago, he had dragged the severely-wounded An Ze back to his cave in a similar manner. Although he knew in his heart that the cave before him now was definitely not the cave from back then, he had the strange feeling that time and destiny were overlapping and that he was traveling the path from back then once more.

However, when he stood at the so-called cave mouth, he finally believed Lu Feng's assessment.

The cave mouth was not the commonly seen irregular opening, but an approximation of an arch. It was an abandoned building, squeezed by the raised ground into itscurrent appearance. Within the Abyss, there really were some of humankind's ruined cities scattered around, and the sites had various buildings with different functions. In the span of a hundred years, the creatures of the Abyss grew upon and infested them.

Once inside, the surroundings were pitch-black with the occasional fluorescent glow from plants. An Zhe put the monster down, then placed the flashlight in an appropriate spot. The flashlight lit up a limited area. This place was a spacious hall, its furnishings long since decayed. It seemed to be a church. The walls were mottled with signs that monsters lived within, but they seemed to be from a very long time ago.

There was a sound of carapace scraping against stone as the dying monster moved five centimeters toward them. An Zhe reached out and touched the fluff on its limbs, and the monster's head turned. Unlike mammals, insects' eyes lacked pupils, so it was difficult to make out what their vision was focusing on, but An Zhe knew that it was looking at him.

Why was it looking at him? What was it thinking? What kind of feelings would a five-eyed monster have when it was on its deathbed? An Zhe did not know. Strands of white hyphae climbed up the monster's body and gently covered its deepest wound.

Its limbs twitched, as though the monster wanted to come to An Zhe, but in the following moment, all movement ceased.

It was about to die.

An Zhe looked at it without retracting his hyphae. It felt like there were eyes on him, and when he turned, he discovered that Lu Feng was leaning against one of the church's crumbling pillars with arms crossed and gaze cast in his direction, as though he were observing An Zhe's every movement.

"Did you do this often?" Lu Feng asked.

"Sometimes," An Zhe replied.

He knew what Lu Feng was asking. If he encountered a wounded creature in the Abyss, he would drag it back. Occasionally, a seriously wounded creature would live due to recovering in the safe cave, but the vast majority of the time, it would die.

It had been the same with An Ze.

Lu Feng was still looking at him.

"At that time, did you already have a human's consciousness?"

An Zhe thought back for a moment, then shook his head. He was just a mushroom at that time, and furthermore, he did not know how to describe a mushroom's living state in human language.

He pursed his lips, then continued. "If my hyphae broke, I would feel pain, and I was afraid of dying. So when I saw them about to die, I would think of ways to help."

After a long time, he saw Lu Feng smile. "That is something you would do."

The coat had gotten wet from the rain, and this place was particularly dark and damp. Fortunately, the backpack they always carried around contained a few blocks of charcoal. They set up a stand, made a fire, and turned the flashlight off.

"Are you cold?" Lu Feng asked An Zhe.

An Zhe shook his head, but he still moved closer to Lu Feng, and Lu Feng draped an arm around his shoulder.

Neither of them spoke. An Zhe leaned against Lu Feng's shoulder and watched the dancing flames.

"Will I be able to find An Ze?" he asked after a long while.

He and Lu Feng had agreed to stay in the Abyss for one month and at the base for one month.

Lu Feng did not dislike the Abyss. An Zhe even felt that the Colonel preferred the Abyss to the base. The Colonel knew many aspects of the Abyss like the back of his own hand. In this month, he could also collect many samples for the research institute. But no matter how skillful Lu Feng was or how much the scope was narrowed, the Abyss was still very big.

"So long as that cave still exists, yes." Lu Feng said.

An Zhe thought back on everything about the Abyss. "The cave entrance may have been covered up by mushrooms, flooded with water, or collapsed by large monsters fighting... And sometimes the caves themselves are alive. They'll wake up and then leave."

He continued, "But I still want to search."

"This is something I promised to An Ze."

"Although he didn't know."

"Then let it be a promise I made to myself."

He spoke to himself, while Lu Feng just repeatedly stroked his hair. In the end, he said to An Zhe, "He won't be angry because you were late in finding him."

An Zhe nodded. An Ze was a very good person.

He cut off his fanciful thoughts, and while continuing towatch the flames, he slowly spoke of the Abyss. Lu Feng simply listened.

At some point, it suddenly occurred to An Zhe that he had already recounted the entirety of his life as a mushroom to Lu Feng. Lu Feng knew of the rainy season and the grass, as well as An Ze and Josh. He knew of all the people he knew, and he knew of all the things he encountered.

On the other hand, he knew nothing about Lu Feng's past.

"Have... have you ever made a promise to someone that you couldn't keep?" he asked.

An Zhe already thought of his answer. He imagined that a person like Lu Feng would not lightly make promises or have unrealistic fantasies.

But contrary to his expectations, after a brief silence, Lu Feng said, "I have."

The crackling of the firewood gradually softened, and the hot flames turned into a red glow on the pitch-black charcoal. The surroundings dimmed, and the aroma of dust wafted over.

The stairwell on the twenty-second floor of the Garden of Eden had also been a dark and dusty place.

"When the day comes," a gentle female voice suddenly spoke into Lu Feng's ear, "when the day that we are all freed comes, I will no longer need to meet my children in secret like this."

Jibran was not Madam Lu's child, but he often came to the twenty-second floor as well. As he sat on the railing of the emergency stairs, his little legs swinging, he said, "Madam, you'll definitely be able to see that day."

The Madam patted his head. "Our great scientist is here."

Jibran tilted his head back and whistled. "Lu Feng and I will see that day too."

The Madam's gaze moved away from Jibran and settled on Lu Feng. "Do you also want to go to the Lighthouse?"

Lu Feng shook his head.

"Then you're just like your father." The Madam kissed his forehead. "When you grow up, you must protect the base."

Then the Madam took one of his hands and one of Jibran's hands, put them together, and placed her own hand on top.

"We will all see that day, and when that day comes—" Upon her young face was a gentle joy. "When that day comes, we'll be together, along with your father. Promise me, you two."

"Promise me, you two."

"I promise, Madam."

"I promise, too."

Lu Feng's story was very short, but while An Zhe was watching him, his attention wandered.

This time, it was Lu Feng who watched the dying fire.

An Zhe reached out.

He straightened up and attempted to hold Lu Feng in the same way that Lu Feng had held him earlier. The Colonel, seeming to understand, adjusted his angle and moved closer to An Zhe. An Zhe put an arm around his shoulder, and although he was a bit unaccustomed to it, it wasn't bad.

"You once told me that she turned into a bee because of a rose from many years ago," Lu Feng said. "I've been constantly thinking about who it was that gave it to her."

An Zhe was taken aback.

On a day when the ultrasonic disperser had not yet been invented or when it had briefly stopped working, a bee that had mistakenly entered the city was enticed by the flower and stung Madam Lu on her finger.

The bee's weak frequency concealed itself in her body, to be awakened one day in the future by the vast and unknown wave from the universe.

Within this base, only Madam Lu had roses because she loved such things and other people loved her. Lu Feng's

father and later Lu Feng himself would give her seeds that the Lighthouse collected and confirmed to be safe—only those two people.

An Zhe gently held Lu Feng's hand.

The pile of firewood burned out, and the dim red was receding as well. The wind echoed inside the church. It seemed to be another windy night.

"I hope you can go to the United Front Center," Madam Lu had said.

That was the last time Lu Feng spoke with her before he officially joined the military. Back then, he was at a small field site on one side of the base, a distance that the base's civilian communications could barely get through to.

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"That place suits you the best. They also go into the wilderness the least often, so it's also the safest," she had said. "In all my years serving the base, this is the only time I've been selfish. I want you to live. I hope that all my children can live, but I only know you."

Lu Feng said nothing.

"If it's someplace else, I won't stop you either, but don't go to the Trial Court. I'm afraid of that place," she murmured. "Last year, there was even a shooting incident at the Trial Court. Many of the base's drastic changes began from bloodshed, and the Trial Court sheds blood like water every day. There is too much suffering there."

"Were you listening?" she asked after a stretch of silence.

"I was," he replied.

She smiled. "Then promise me."

"You must promise—"

The rustle of static suddenly started up.

"Bzz—"

It was immediately followed by soothing music, a relaxing frequency, and a gentle female voice. "I'm sorry, but due to the effects of the solar wind or the ionosphere, the base's signal has been interrupted. This is normal.Please refrain from panicking and carry out all activities as usual. The communication signal will recover at some point. At that time, the public broadcasts will be sent to you, so please stay tuned."

"... Please stay tuned."

When all the wood burned into loose pale debris that would fall apart with just a touch, the church fell into darkness and lonely quietude.

Right at that moment, however, countless faint green lights lit up, for the insect monster they picked up had died.

An Zhe looked over. Its body gradually fell apart and dissipated into a scattering of tiny green lights, resembling a cloud of glowing green smoke or a swarm of fireflies.

The lights first enveloped them, dream-like, then rose and illuminated the entire derelict church along with the mottled painting of the Virgin Mary on the left wall and the massive painting of the crucifixion of Jesus in front. Withered vines hung on the Virgin Mary's shoulders and her cheeks were scored by animal claws, while Jesus's body was covered with mold. Only their eyes were clear. From behind the vines, mold, and dust, they silently observed the mortal world.

The stream of lights dissipated.

Destiny dispersed in the mortal world.