What did she mean by that?
Shu frowned, staring at the girl for several seconds, but said nothing.
The two just looked at each other, watching the other do nothing.
Actually, Shu really wanted to say "Huh?" to express his confusion.
He might not have heard clearly what she said just now. Trying to recall her exact words, all he got was a blurry, indistinct accent.
The girl looked at Shu's silent, stern face and sighed. "It's nothing... I just hope you and your companions leave here quickly..."
"...Is there anything here that could threaten us?" As Shu spoke these words, he himself felt a strange sense of familiarity.
It felt similar to before, but he couldn't pinpoint exactly what felt familiar.
Had he not slept for too long... Was his mind getting fuzzy?
Shu silently applied a mind-refreshing buff to himself, trying to become clearer.
His spirit instantly lifted. The slight drowsiness he felt vanished without a trace. Shu's current state was even somewhat hyper.
He looked intently at the girl before him, but saw her sigh again...
Wait, why did he think "again"? She didn't seem to have made this gesture before, right?
"It's too late..." The girl's voice was tinged with sorrow, making Shu feel genuinely uncomfortable deep down.
What does she mean...
Shu was truly baffled now, watching this strange "earthbound spirit" inexplicably talking to herself.
After glancing at Shu with pitying eyes, the girl turned her head towards the huge stone monument in the distance.
"The history of Depascal began in the fifties [1950s]. It's been about sixty-some years now..." The girl's gaze seemed to pierce through time in the darkness, seeing scenes from long ago.
Shu listened silently as the girl abruptly began her narrative, his gaze following hers to the massive white stone.
"Everywhere here was dark earth, fertile land capable of growing large amounts of food. Boundless mineral deposits lay hidden beneath the soil..."
"In that era, how many people, driven by passion, braved the severe cold and various hardships, crossing mountains and ridges to come here, reclaiming this land, turning it into the fertile place of their ideals."
"Depascal was established at that time. Because of its unique whiteness, it attracted many people to settle here..."
"Wait," Shu interrupted the girl. "Since people from that era came here, why is it called [Depascal]? Isn't the naming style wrong?"
Depascal... The style of this name didn't resemble Shenzhou's naming conventions at all, but rather seemed more like the naming style of the USSR...
"Because Depascal is not within Shenzhou's territory," the girl said, pointing towards the winding river that encircled the village.
"When planning Shenzhou's map, the planners from both sides didn't draw a circle around this village, but drew a straight line right through the river bend."
"Only after the map was finalized did both sides remember this piece of land extending out, this exclave. From that time, this place was temporarily named [Depascal] by the USSR."
"Meaning 'The Blank Land'."
"Such a major oversight, was it just left like that after being discovered?" Shu looked at the river surrounding the entire village, turning back puzzledly to ask.
"Both sides once held talks regarding this place. At that time, it even made the newspapers in both countries," the girl replied, gazing into the distance.
"The matter of redrawing the border caused quite a stir back then. Many people from both Shenzhou and the Siberia Region came here because of the news, curious to see what kind of exclave could cause the map to be redrawn."
"Because of the whiteness here, people were unwilling to let such a place be polluted by industrial revolution. So those heavy industrial development zones invariably avoided this area..."
"Just like that river, enclosing this place in the middle. And thus, this place became the primary choice for countless people to retire after getting old and unable to work anymore."
"Only old people?" Shu recalled his observations in the village today. The entire village had only some elderly and young children; not a single young person, or even middle-aged person, could be seen.
A trace of unconcealable sorrow appeared in the girl's eyes.
"The young people..." she murmured, her gaze drifting far away again, crossing the river, looking towards a very distant place.
"They all went out... How could young people endure a place like this, where water and electricity were just recently connected, lacking even internet cables or communication base stations?"
"Here, phones don't work well. You have to find an open space to make the simplest call, to send the simplest text message..."
"So... they all left... They said there were no opportunities here for a lifetime. They wanted to go to wider worlds. They went to Shenzhou, to the Siberia Region, they crossed that river..."
"And then... they never came back..."
...
A gust of wind happened to blow by at this moment, yet it brought no news from afar.
The wind's temperature was the temperature here, only a slight coolness telling him there was nothing he hoped for.
"On the other side of the river, these children all made names for themselves, one by one. They earned money, bought houses and cars outside, found their other halves in life, happily formed families, and had their own children..."
"Perhaps some didn't fare so well outside... so they sent their children back, left them here, while they continued to strive outside."
"So those children are all..." Shu's voice sounded somewhat hoarse.
The girl nodded with heartfelt regret.
"The elderly here understand that seeing their grandchildren... means their own children aren't doing well outside..."
The tips of the Xuanyuan Swords floating beside Shu drooped slightly. He looked down at the houses below, at those still lit, or those that had extinguished their lights early.
Tonight's sky was so silent, silent to the point of unbearable loneliness.
"...Has anyone ever come back?" Shu asked after a moment of silence, putting down the replica Xuanyuan Swords beside him and turning back.
The girl's gaze was distant, with no visible end, nor could he tell where exactly she was looking.
She shook her head numbly. "Perhaps there were some before... but later, fewer and fewer came back..."