Book 3: Chapter 6 - Reproduction In Spring

Love Code At the End of The World

We had brought back a huge warehouse full of clothes to Noah City from Kro. It had enough clothes for everyone to pick ten different outfits, and Noah City had suddenly been filled with colors overnight. It was no longer plain white shirts and tattered long pants.

Men were dressed in handsome jackets, while women were wearing beautiful dresses.

Da Li and the other children had their own beautiful clothing. Sis Meizi’s daughter Hope was dressed in cute toddler clothes. She looked as beautiful as a Princess.

The most beautiful gown in Kro was embellished with crystals and it belonged to Arsenal. She was our Princess and we had all wanted her to look beautiful.

Elder Alufa also wore an exquisite formal attire, which resembled the Roman Pope’s attire. We had also found him a white staff embellished with a gemstone.

Once, there had used to be operas in Kro. Hence, there had been various kinds of props; the staff might have belonged to a person playing the character of a magician back then.

Now, that staff belonged to Elder Alufa.

I cleaned the gemstones and put them out at the square for the others to pick whichever piece of jewelry they liked. These were the perks for girls and women.

In Noah City, they practiced true communism. Goods were allocated according to needs and labor. All resources were shared, and no one fought over them, nor would anyone greedily take anything more than was necessary. Everyone gave precedence to one another and collected goods according to their needs.

I didn’t take any jewelry, and returned to my bedroom directly. I wanted to be alone.

I sat on the bed that was covered with a pink sheet on a soft mattress. The blue ribbon was on my bed, and had dried long before. When I had woken up, I had felt my dry and rough skin from the dried tears. My skin had a similar texture to the blue ribbon in my hand—it had become a little stiff from the dried tears.

I had killed everyone in Kro and was feeling very heavy-hearted because of it. This pain and guilt was going to haunt me for the rest of my life.

Little Carl stood by my bed and looked at me with concern. He had a doll casing over his body, instead of the old milk powder tin. His round head was encased in a downy blue cloth, while long bunny ears hung on both sides. 

“Master, what’s wrong with you? Are you sad? Do you want Little Carl to sing for you? Father has upgraded Little Carl, and Little Carl can sing many songs now.”

I forced a smile and rubbed his downy head. “I just want to be alone.” I wanted to cry, but I couldn’t cry anymore as I had no more tears left for crying.

Kro had taken away all my tears.

I leaned forward to tie the blue ribbon around Carl’s neck. Although they had left, the blue ribbon was a proof and symbol of their existence. And they would continue to live on in my heart.

“Cough...Cough, people of Noah City…” Elder Alufa’s old voice resounded from the speakers. Elder Alufa was now enjoying giving more and more speeches, as Noah City’s resources had grown significantly. There were times when he would recall the sorrows of the past and praise the joy of the present. He would make sensational remarks and express his heartfelt feelings.

This might have been because of his older age, which had been making him sentimental recently.

“Today, I have learned that the things we are all eating and using are not only the contributions of the scouting troop and the DR team, but also the selfless dedication of the previous generations in Kro. They gave everything to us selflessly and helped us through a difficult time. Today, they have left this world... They left after giving us everything. We must be extremely grateful when we eat every mouthful of rice from Kro, and when we wear every piece of clothing from there. It was their kindness, contribution and selflessness that has brought us this happiness in our lives. We must carry on their spirit. Now, let’s grieve and pray for them, and thank them for everything that they have done for us.”

The entire city suddenly became quiet, and Little Carl lowered his head to mourn their deaths.

“Dear child,” Elder Alufa spoke with his gentle and kind voice again, “I know you are very sad, and experiencing great pain, but your hands didn’t kill them. Instead, they opened the door for them to enter heaven. They were smiling at you from heaven's door, and they would feel guilty if they saw you like this.”

I took a deep breath and lay down on the soft bed. I closed my eyes. I’m so tired. I wish spring will come sooner.

“Hey, hey. Hello!” Early next morning, Elder Alufa’s voice was booming through the speakers again. I woke up with a start, and could still feel my head swimming. I had really seen everyone from Kro smiling at me from Heaven’s door the night before.

I quivered in shock when an ear-piercing music started playing through the speakers.

*Hong! Hong! Hong! Hong!*

I was stunned and looked at the time. It’s half past four at dawn!

What’s going on with Elder Alufa today?

“My dearest people in Noah City! Spring is here!” Elder Alufa’s bright and clear voice resounded through the speakers, “Hahahaha… Children, you can go and play in the snow now! Ladies in Noah City, Noah City has abundant resources now, you can give birth to as many children as you want! Hahaha…”

Give birth?!

Elder Alufa woke all of us up early in the morning to encourage us to give birth to more children?!

Although reproduction was very important, Noah City had practiced family planning and birth control due to limited resources up until now.

But now, more resources were available, and we had all the basic necessities. This was going to allow a better chance for the people of Noah City to reproduce and multiply their population

No wonder Elder Alufa had distributed all of the milk powder from Kro to the women in Noah City. At first, I had thought that it was an exclusive benefit for being a woman, but now it was clear that he wanted us to drink more milk and prepare us to get pregnant in spring. 

I touched my boobs.They had grown a little after winter. I had been undernourished and it had affected my development. But recently, they’d been growing speedily. If this were to continue, it would get difficult to dress up as a man during our missions in the future. 

“Oh!!!”

*Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!* The children were cheering and playing outside, and as long as there were children, it was going to be noisy.

There was cheerful music playing through the speakers, and Elder Alufa was obviously having fun in the broadcasting studio.

“Snow! Snow! Little Carl wants to play with snow too!” Little Carl ran in circles excitedly, before running to the door. He turned around and looked at me impatiently.

I smiled and went to open the door for him, and he dashed outside like a child through the half open door.

Someone was at the door when I opened it. I couldn’t see who it was, but they extended their hand from behind the door to offer me two square black crystal boxes; one box was bigger than the other. I couldn’t tell what was inside them, but I recognized these boxes. They were the jewelry boxes from Kro.

“You left yesterday. So, I picked them for you,” said Harry. There were people rushing around in the square below. Regardless of whether they were adults or children, they were running excitedly to go play in snow, and greet spring.