Chapter 2: The Corner Coffee Shop

Even during the day, the office was illuminated by pale white lights.

Partition after partition divided the majority of the office into small boxes; in each box, there was an unconnected desktop computer and a telephone.

Everyone was busy, walking back and forth—some were typing, some were making phone calls, and some were exchanging documents.

Lu Xin’s workstation was right in the middle, with a banner for the best employee award hanging on the partition.

The busy work of the morning had been handled all around; Lu Xin straightened up and rubbed his temples.

Staying too long in this environment always felt stifling and suffocating, especially with so many complicated things to deal with.

“Is Brother Lu busy now?”

A voice sounded at Lu Xin’s side; Lu Xin looked up and saw it was the new young guy in the office, Lv Cheng, who dressed appropriately, had a neat short haircut, exuded a sunny disposition, but now he wore a troubled expression, saying: “The Director assigned me to organize this batch of documents, but I keep reorganizing them and can’t get them straight; it’s almost time—Brother Lu, could you… could you teach me?”

“Sure.”

Lu Xin smiled as he agreed: “I happen to have nothing to do right now.”

“Thank you, Brother Lu! You’re such a great person!”

The sunny young man looked grateful, quickly coming to Lu Xin’s computer desk; one taught, the other learned.

From the surrounding partitions, many displeased glances shot over, along with some very low whispers kept almost silent.

“My own job is exhausting enough; I still have to teach others.”

“We all have the same work; aren’t you afraid that after teaching someone else, you’ll get kicked out yourself?”

“……”

Amidst many displeased gazes, Lu Xin helped Lv Cheng organize the documents, waving his hand in response to the thanks.

Though in this oppressive office atmosphere, everyone was tense, Lu Xin always had his own principles: if he could help someone out, he would; the Crimson Moon Incident had changed the world, but ethical character still mattered.

“Lu Xin, come over here, the Director is calling you!”

Someone called out from a distance.

“Coming!”

Lu Xin put down his coffee, stood up, and walked to the Director’s office; there, he saw the Director, so fat his jowls almost hung down, and on the sofa opposite sat a short-haired woman wearing sunglasses and dressed in a well-fitting suit.

“Little Lu, here’s a document; take it to the corner coffee shop on Qingjiang Road for me right now!”

The Director wasted no words, pointing to a documents pouch on the table.

Delivering documents should have been handled by the administration or logistics teams, not someone like him.

But Lu Xin did not refuse, nodding: “Okay.”

Then he picked up the documents, nodded toward the Director and the short-haired woman on the sofa, and walked out.

As soon as he left the room, the Director immediately changed to a smiling face, fawning toward the short-haired woman: “Team Leader Chen, what you mentioned has been done; rest assured, I won’t ask questions or dwell on it, only that project you brought up earlier…”

“Don’t worry, this project will not go to you!”

The short-haired woman stood up, gently pulled her sunglasses down, and said in a very soft voice.

The Director froze, thinking he had misheard, and then at that moment, he saw this woman’s pupils.

Her pupils seemed to be rotating, faintly reddening, as if transforming into two crimson moons.

“Do not remember I came, and do not remember you arranged for him to do anything!”

The short-haired woman said quietly, her voice gentle, then she put her sunglasses on, turned around, and left through the door.

The Director slipped into a brief daze; after a few seconds, he snapped back to consciousness as if nothing had happened, continuing to busy himself.

……

Lu Xin was in the ring rail line train carriage, holding a handrail and feeling drowsy; originally, since he had boarded near the starting station, there had been a seat, but he saw a pregnant woman get on the train, so he gave his seat to her and stood for half an hour.

The lights in the carriage flickered slightly; Little Sister, clutching a tattered teddy bear, crawled along the carriage ceiling toward him.

She flipped upside down in front of Lu Xin, swaying back and forth like a pendulum.

Lu Xin stared intently, pretending to concentrate on looking at the lovely legs of a well-dressed girl next to him who wore hip-hugging shorts.

Little Sister played even more happily by herself, swaying stronger and stronger, and the carriage emitted faint creaking sounds.

Fortunately, the train moved swiftly and wobbled, masking this slight creaking.

“Big Brother, big brother, look quick, that fatty is really stupid…”

Little Sister played wildly and suddenly pointed to a not-too-faraway man standing asleep and drooling, laughing toward Lu Xin.

“Do not talk to me…”

Lu Xin still forced himself to focus on the girl’s legs, squeezing out a barely audible whisper between his teeth.

“I cannot look at you outside, nor talk to you, as people would think I am crazy…”

“Tch, boring!”

Little Sister deliberately teased Lu Xin, and seeing he would not take the bait, felt a bit bored.

“Then you be careful yourself; that place you are heading to this time has problems!”

As she finished speaking, before Lu Xin could even continue his inquiry, she “giggled” and abruptly darted forward along the train carriage. When she passed the plump man standing asleep, she suddenly pinched his cheek with her hand, then crawled away into the distance and vanished.

The fat man jolted awake with a start, shouting, “Who touched me?”

The people around stared at the man, who had no one within a meter of him, with strange expressions.

Lu Xin joined the circle of onlookers, casting a look at the man as though observing someone mentally ill.

…

As he disembarked the train, Lu Xin noticed the area was close to the outer wall.

The buildings here had become somewhat dilapidated. The enormous city wall, standing over ten meters tall, cast deep shadows over the structures below. Though thirty years had passed since the Red Moon Cataclysm, and most of the roaming Maniacs Outside the City had been cleared away, those living inside the city walls still dared not be careless. Each year, the municipal work focused on constantly reinforcing and repairing these towering walls.

Arriving at the street-corner café, he found the atmosphere dark and oppressive.

The surrounding Old Buildings and bungalows seemed completely deserted, not a single Shadow in sight.

A significant amount of trash lay scattered before the door, likely blown there by the wind, hinting it had been untended for some time.

Approaching this place, an inexplicable feeling of oppression hung in the air.

Lu Xin instinctively disliked it, but having already promised the Director, he walked in carrying the file.

…

“Subject Thirteen has entered the target area!”

Not far from the location, positioned atop a tall building, over a dozen observation personnel had set up various instruments. Around the building, armed, fully geared soldiers lurked in the shadows, nervously vigilant against anything in the surroundings.

The short-haired woman was among the personnel. She held a document bearing text in dark font:

“Target Codename: The Street Corner Café.

Objective: Assess Subject Thirteen’s potential to become a Spiritual Master and identify their specific capabilities.

Identified Risk: The café has been confirmed as a Level One Spiritual Contamination Zone.

Manifestations:

Individuals near the café are drawn inside involuntarily.

Anyone who enters the café dies within three to five days, primarily through suicide.

Analysis indicates exposure to Contamination within the café induces severe depression.”

…

…She lowered the document and asked someone nearby, “Is the backup support prepped?”

The staff member nodded, gesturing towards the adjacent room.

Through a glass partition separating the rooms, they could see a girl dressed in a lacy dress, looking like an exquisitely crafted Articulated Doll, sitting motionlessly in there.

…

The moment Lu Xin stepped into the café, he was struck by a feeling of warmth and bustling activity.

Outside, the street, and even the café building itself, had appeared deserted and cold, utterly desolate.

Yet here inside the café, every seat was packed, with people crammed in, creating an overwhelming sense of crowdedness.

Every face bore a smile. Some leaned close together, whispering intimately. Others sat alone by the window, sipping coffee while reading a book. Some squinted their eyes, fully absorbed in savoring a delicious sandwich. Soft, classical music drifted through the shop. Sunlight streamed in through the windows, creating a strange moment of disorientation – it felt as though he’d slipped back into the world before the Red Moon Cataclysm…

Lu Xin navigated through the throng, approaching the counter. He nodded at the waiter behind it, who was dressed in a fine apron. “Someone asked me to deliver this document.”

The Director hadn’t specified who exactly to give it to, so handing it over at the counter should suffice.

“Thank you,” the waiter replied easily and cheerfully. He poured a cup of coffee and pushed it across the countertop towards Lu Xin.

“This…” Lu Xin intended to say he hadn’t planned on having coffee.

But… the aroma wafting from it was unexpectedly fragrant, utterly unlike the cheap coffee he drank at the office.

“It’s tiring making this trip; this is on the house,” the waiter offered kindly, his face radiating a genuinely comfortable warmth.

Lu Xin felt a slight easing inside him, momentarily losing the words to refuse.

Just then, his gaze froze.

From behind the waiter’s neat apron appeared a coarse, unsightly tentacle. Extending unhurriedly towards Lu Xin, the tip of the tentacle slowly split open. Then, a blob of dark, soft tissue, roughly the size of a large coin, slipped from within and fell into the coffee cup below. Peering down, Lu Xin saw the blob resembled either an egg or an eye. Within the cup, a black pupil stared directly up at him.

Instantly, the coffee became overwhelmingly aromatic, each wisp of steam carrying an astonishing allure.

The waiter’s smile deepened, warm and inviting. He gently nudged the cup closer to Lu Xin, gesturing for him to please enjoy.

“No, thank you,” Lu Xin declined politely, as if noticing nothing unusual, and turned to walk out.

Reaching the door, he glanced back over his shoulder.

He saw every single person in the shop had halted their action. In unison, blankly, dully, they all stared at him, transfixed.

He hurriedly snapped his head forward, his body tensing. His steps quickened, becoming faster and faster as he walked away.