Each of you possess both human and dragon sides, with white and black, good and evil, love and hate, peace and slaughter flowing simultaneously in your veins. We are neither purely good nor purely evil. We have the ability to kill but must not have the desire to kill. Please remember that we stand on the side of humanity. Only when the goodness of humanity overcomes the evil of dragons are you truly our allies. If anyone cannot restrain that evil, allowing their soul to be consumed by a thirst for power, they will become our enemy.
Lu Mingfei squinted his eyes open slightly, warm sunlight pouring over him.
He awoke from his hangover, reeking of alcohol, naked except for a blanket thrown over him. Taking a few deep breaths of fresh air, his head cleared a little, and he patted the side of the bed. “Senior, what time is it? You didn’t close the curtains again, did you?”
“Sun’s so high—it’s probably noon? Get up and have lunch!” said Finger from the top bunk.
The wooden bunk bed creaked and groaned as if Finger was getting up and ready to climb down.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!” Finger suddenly screamed.
“What the hell are you screaming for? Think you’re a rooster? Even if you were, it’s not morning anymore,” Lu Mingfei propped himself up on his hands, stretching. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!”
“Sounding like a hen while you’re saying that about me…” Finger muttered, but Lu Mingfei was too stunned to respond.
Their bunk bed was stuck amidst a pile of rubble, one of the legs broken off and replaced by a piece of concrete that happened to keep the bed balanced.
A Red Cross flag was planted in the center of the rubble, with dozens of white tents set up around it. Doctors were conducting health checks on injured students in the tents. Occasionally, a blood pressure cuff would burst since some hybrids had much higher blood pressure than normal humans. Other than that, everything was calm. Chefs lined up food carts by the rubble, serving breakfast. The smell of Munich white sausages and onion-grilled bread wafted through the air. Long lines had formed in front of both the medical point and the breakfast stand, and their bed happened to be wedged between the two lines.
“Good morning.” Someone in the line came up to shake Lu Mingfei’s hand—it was Kiran, the former president of the Freshman Mixer.
“Hey! Awake?” Lancelot, vice president of the Lionheart Society, waved from afar.
“We thought you’d sleep until noon!” Xia Mi stood in front of the bed, smiling, holding a cup of milk with cereal.
“You drank this kind of table wine? Don’t you think it’s too harsh?” Caesar picked up the bottle by the bedside, glanced at the label, and shook his head disdainfully.
“Really so calm in the face of disaster? I’d like to invite you to participate in some neurological tests…” Toyama Masashi, the psychology instructor, said very seriously.
Lu Mingfei and Finger could only silently wrap the sheet around themselves more tightly, waving blankly, trying to convey, “I’m fine,” “Don’t worry about us,” “Please leave now,” and many other complicated emotions.
Two brothers had a few drinks, talked about life and ideals—nothing shady! How did they wake up to this mess? What’s there to watch? Haven’t you ever seen a naked guy? Sleeping well is a good thing—are you jealous?
“There was an accident in the Ice Cellar last night, cause still unknown. The college announced it might have been an earthquake.” Chu Zihang walked up to the bed. “Some people were injured, but no one died.”
Lu Mingfei and Finger scratched their heads, wearing expressions that said, “Oh, so that’s what happened. I’m relieved to hear it.”
Chu Zihang turned to leave.
“Hey, hey…” Lu Mingfei and Finger called out simultaneously.
“Do you need my help?” Chu Zihang turned his head.
“Could you… bring me some clothes?” Lu Mingfei stammered.
“Could you… get me some orange juice and a white sausage?” Finger said awkwardly. “I’m not wearing clothes, can’t get off the bed…”
After a few seconds of silence, Lu Mingfei grabbed the wine bottle from the bedside and threw it at the top bunk. “Hey! Have some dignity, will you? Now’s not the time to just think about food!”
“There’s no dignity to speak of when starving!” Finger declared righteously.
Chu Zihang didn’t bother listening to the two jokers argue and turned his head to look toward the Valhalla building. The huge rooster statue had fallen, crushing the foundation well. At the wellhead, an intense explosion had burned a black patch dozens of meters wide. If this could be explained as an “earthquake phenomenon,” the so-called elites at Cassell College were a joke. Whoever had issued that announcement was clearly lying through their teeth. During the time when the Principal was ill and the Vice Principal was in charge, truthful school announcements were indeed rare.
The Principal’s elevator sank into the seawater, which wasn’t the familiar blue but a murky red. The corpses of hammerhead sharks, sea turtles, and bluefin tuna floated outside the glass enclosure, all severed cleanly in half, as if sliced by an extremely long blade. Organs spilled from their bodies, and entire digestive tracts floated like alien sea serpents in the water—it was a hellish scene.
“My aquarium!” Anjou said hoarsely, the muscles in his face twitching.
“See, I told you, you need to stay calm and face things with a composed heart. It’s like when your house burns down, and you’re walking around the ruins screaming, ‘Oh no! My TV!’ ‘Oh no! My painting!’ What’s the point? It only adds to the frustration. Instead, you should look for anything salvageable in the wreckage—those are the surprises, like suddenly finding the seashells you collected with the neighbor’s little girl when you were young. You smile with joy…” The Vice Principal patted his old friend’s shoulder.
“Don’t lower my IQ to your level! A madman always tries to make others mad and then defeat them, because in the realm of madness, they have experience,” Anjou growled.
“Don’t worry, there’s worse…” The Vice Principal spoke soothingly.
The elevator moved along the cable into a wide cavern.
“My garden…” Anjou was almost groaning.