Lin Sanjiu felt worse after eating that meal. She couldn't finish that small bowl of rice because she was getting a headache from being too cold. She only ate a few mouthfuls and pushed the bowl to aside. Douglas didn't seem to mind. He poured her portion into his own bowl and gulped it down. This dispelled her slight suspicion toward him. Even though she watched from a side as Douglas cooked, and didn't see him doing anything weird with the food, seeing him eat her portion finally convinced her that it was alright. She even felt a little guilty for suspecting him.
After she stopped eating, her body gradually stopped trembling. Wearing a thick jacket did help a bit.
"You don't look that well. Do you want to rest more?" Douglas wiped his mouth and burped after he finished his food.
"No... I want to take a look around. Maybe, I will even meet a few survivors." Unfortunately, after she said that, she started shivering again. She jumped on the spot trying to generate more heat to keep her body warm.
"Okay," Douglas answered, and he didn't seem to mind. "I already searched a few times. There isn't anyone around. But you can go ahead, I am going back to my room to play some video games."
Supposedly, the first stop he saw when he was on the train wasn't Mausoleum Elementary Station. Instead, it was some Electronics Street. Since he was bored, Douglas filled a bag with all sorts of games, so he could spend his whole 14 months playing them.
Lin Sanjiu was quite impressed by his carefree attitude. She nodded and walked out of the hotel.
"Ah, wait!" the man suddenly called her from behind.
She saw him standing on the stairs leading to the second floor, with half his face covered by the shadow.
"Don't go to the Bamboo Grove Mountains," he said sternly.
Lin Sanjiu questioned him but he only answered, "It is too far. It takes more than two days for you to go there and come back... If anything happens, I can't even find you."
That was true. If Bamboo Groves Mountains wasn't that far, there wouldn't be these hostels and hotels here. She agreed and thanked him before she walked out of the hotel. According to Douglas, she slept for only four to five hours, so it was now about two o'clock in the afternoon. However, the sky was dark and overcast. There wasn't a single glimpse of sunlight. It was as if she was seeing everything through a gray filter. It was more like the moment before a storm or evening time.
Even though Lin Sanjiu did not plan to go to the Bamboo Grove Mountains, she took the same path toward it. There were many shops at the sides of this street. Almost half the convenience stores, snack kiosks and souvenirs stalls must be on this street. As such, it retained some of its liveliness.
To keep herself warm, Lin Sanjiu exercised while she walked. She leaped and bounced along the road. Someone who didn't know better would definitely think that she was very happy if they saw her. After bouncing past two stalls which sold almost the same souvenirs, she stopped in front of a convenience store.
Standing on the street and looking in from its windows, Lin Sanjiu could see that the store has been ransacked, as there were only a few remaining items, lying in a mess. Things like tobacco, alcohol, food, and lighters had all been taken. Even the door to the staff room was opened. This destruction was probably left behind by the survivors who came before Douglas.
There was a life-sized standee of a beautiful air stewardess standing outside the convenience store. There was a bright smile on her oval face and the position of her eyes just happen to face the train station. A crooked signboard in the shop read, "We help you book your tickets, rent your car and organize your trip." The words were still clear and readable. Apparently, the convenience store also provided services like a travel agency.
After looking around casually, Lin Sanjiu saw a row of items that were untouched. Lin Sanjiu's heart raced as she walked over. It was a magazine rack. The people who had focused all their attention on looking for survival supplies naturally weren't interested in newspapers or magazines. On the other hand, this was different from Lin Sanjiu. Ever since she read that article which featured that scientist, Le Bon, the words "dark matter" had been on her mind. She just couldn't get over it.
"Perhaps, I can find some relevant information from these newspapers or magazines... " She thought to herself and randomly threw the few of the entertainment magazines on the top-most shelf on the ground.
"Isn't there a newspaper around..." she grumbled. She threw all the useless magazines on the ground first. Information from a newspaper would be to-the-point and comprehensive, so that was the most ideal. Unfortunately, all the newspaper here were entertainment tabloids, which were not helpful at all.
Lin Sanjiu finally found a magazine at the very bottom of the entire shelf. Its front page was a little old. Compared to the magazines which were mostly the May and June issues, this magazine was from December of the previous year. Its name was "Science and Technology Frontier".
"No wonder they couldn't sell it even half a year later."
But this magazine was the very thing Lin Sanjiu needed. She flipped to the content page urgently and tried to search for topics regarding dark matter or Le Bon.
Surprisingly, she really found something on it.
Furthermore, she got more information that she expected. This magazine was published when Le Bon's theory was losing credence, therefore it devoted a large section describing Le Bon's published works with the objective of presenting criticism against it by other scholars. Even though there were still many terminologies specific to this world, and other jargons which Lin Sanjiu didn't know, she finally had a general idea.
In Lin Sanjiu's world, no one really knew what dark matter was. But, in this world, though it can't be seen, they have already found its composition and formation process after multiple experiments. The scientists here had even started researching about its uses. Despite being one of the leading researchers in this field, Le Bon announced that he had found an alarming characteristic of dark matter a few years before the apocalyptic event.
Dark matter was corrosive.
Furthermore, the corrosive nature of dark matter had only became active in the recent years. Before this, it seemed that it had been latent. Different materials reacted differently to high levels of dark matter exposure and displayed different speeds of corrosion. This process was very slow, but Le Bon asserted that the materials would all be assimilated, and 98% of the object would become dark matter.
Lin Sanjiu skipped the long paragraphs of complicated theoretical explanation and then looked up while she contemplated about the matter. Evidently, this world had been corroded by dark matter. In these few years, everything here had already been converted to dark matter.
"But, what is dark matter? What harm can it cause..."
Lin Sanjiu's gaze fell on the refrigerator which once held beverages. As she had been thinking hard, she was staring in a daze at her own blurred reflection that was on the refrigerator door.
While Lin Sanjiu contemplated, she suddenly froze. The hairs on her back stood on end.
From the refrigerator door, she could see a vague human outline standing behind her. Lin Sanjiu turned around slowly and came face-to-face with the air stewardess' beautiful pair of eyes.
"Wasn't that thing at the front door just now?"