Chapter 151 was told to Yan Yue, but also to Xiao He.

While waiting, I would talk to them about what the future holds and what our country will be like, and they were always eager to listen. They had spent so long waiting that even simple words about the country and the life outside were enough to hold their attention.

However, no more survivors came in after that. I waited for a year, and to be honest, I didn’t want to wait any longer. The waiting became difficult, and I slowly realized that continuing to wait was becoming something I could no longer bear.

They were all waiting with me, and I felt embarrassed. They had stayed beside me during that long period, patiently waiting even though there was no certainty that anyone else would come. Their patience made me feel uncomfortable about wanting to stop.

Yao Niang is a torturous person. Although Zhang Xiaochuan is by her side providing us with information, there are some things he can’t do too obviously.

How could I bear to see the girls suffering? I couldn’t simply stand by and watch them continue to endure that treatment when I knew there was something I could do.

Clearly, I have a way to free them.

I told them I didn’t want to wait anymore, but they said it was okay, since so many years had already passed and they were used to how Aunt Yao treated them. They did not blame me for wanting to stop waiting. Instead, they accepted it calmly, as though they had already become accustomed to enduring things that should never have become normal to them.

Although they are long dead and no one would erect a cenotaph for a courtesan, I can, I still have a chance. Even if others would not remember them or think they deserved such a memorial, I could still do something for them.

So I selfishly waited, and now it’s come to this, because I want... I want to beg you, please build a cenotaph for them too.

I know my request is somewhat selfish, since no one knows whether they will be able to return to China alive, but I still sincerely hope that you can come home alive.

When we met you, we all knew it was time to say goodbye to this world.

I never expected Xiaohe to come looking for me, but thankfully Xiaohe didn’t do anything wrong. Her appearance was unexpected, and I was relieved that she had not done anything wrong.

Oh dear, I wonder if our plan will succeed. Even after everything had been arranged, there was still uncertainty.

Oh, I forgot to mention, I actually found that fire in the dry well. It was because of this discovery that I came up with this plan. It can burn anything, including ghosts. It was something I had discovered in the dry well, and its ability to burn even ghosts made it different from an ordinary fire.

I don’t know if it was because of divine mercy, but because so many people had died in that dry well, that’s why that blue flame appeared. I could not explain why it had appeared there. Perhaps it was divine mercy, or perhaps the deaths in the dry well were connected to it. I simply knew that the blue flame existed.

Alright, alright, that’s about it. I think I’ve explained everything clearly, right?

I was a bit rushed while writing this letter, and I’m a little incompetent. There are some parts that I haven’t expressed well, so I hope you don’t mind. I had tried to explain everything as clearly as I could, but I knew some of my words might not be perfect.

Oh right, after I died, some of the things in my backpack were left behind. I secretly moved them out of the dry well and hid them. Now I’m giving them all to you. I had kept those things hidden after moving them out, and now I was leaving them in your hands instead.

After all, I don’t need it anymore.

Oh right, there are some other things inside that other survivors died in the dry well. I fished them out. Can you share them with the other people? Those things did not belong only to me, so I wanted them to be shared with the others who needed them.

You’re not allowed to share my portion with anyone else! We’re from the same hometown, and I’d like to ask you to help us build a cenotaph. My own portion was different. I wanted you to keep it for yourself because we were from the same hometown, and I was asking you to do this important thing for us.

Okay, I’ll stop here.

Goodbye, Lin Yunyou, it’s nice to see you again.

I was also very happy to see my compatriots and family members again. Thank you for letting me see you again. I am very happy.

goodbye.

There were two more sheets of paper, one listing the girls’ names. Yan Yue wrote their names stroke by stroke, carefully recording each one. The girls wrote their goodbyes and thanks with crooked strokes under her guidance. Their writing was not neat, but each name and every farewell had been written down.

Another picture showed activities from those ten days and some rules. Lin Yun looked at the picture and the rules, then reflected on how Hongxiulou survived. She realized that they were pushing things from behind the scenes. What she had seen before now connected with what Yan Yue had written, making Lin Yun understand that there had been things happening quietly behind everything.

Lin Yun promised Yan Yue and Xiaohe that she would build cenotaphs if she returned to China. She had received their words, their names, and their request, so she would remember them.

The Xiaohe doll’s eyes twitched, but it didn’t move. Lin Yun noticed the tiny movement, yet the doll remained completely still, without making any other response.

Lin Yun examined Yan Yue’s gift. It was a wrapped box marked "Lin." Inside were two layers. The first contained Yan Yue’s props and items, while the second contained gifts from the girls of Red Sleeve Pavilion. The gifts included jewelry and handkerchiefs. Lin Yun looked through them and intended to use something to build the cenotaphs.

She kept the letter inside the box and removed the rule sheet. The letter was something she wanted to preserve, while the rule sheet was separate and could be taken out for her to keep with the other information.

Yan Yue had left behind a lot of knowledge and cards: one-time skill cards, water cards, electricity cards, and storage cards. Lin Yun examined the cards one by one.

The water card contained fifty tons, with thirty-seven tons remaining. The electricity card contained one thousand kilowatt-hours, with six hundred and nineteen kilowatt-hours remaining.

The System said that the points had already been deducted from the recent days, so there were no more points. Lin Yun decided that if she found a water source, she would handle the water card. Tonight, she would upgrade the shelter and the solar panel, then insert the card.

There were six storage cards. The largest held ten cubic meters, while the smallest held one cubic meter. Lin Yun put them into the vine basket.

She decided to ask the others about them.

Lin Yun read the letter again. The words were casual in some places, as though Yan Yue were speaking directly to her rather than writing a letter. There were apologies, requests, explanations, and farewells mixed together. Yet none of them felt unnecessary. Every part had been left because Yan Yue had wanted to make sure that Lin Yun understood what she meant.

The request concerning the girls was especially difficult to ignore. Their names were now written down, and their own crooked goodbyes were preserved on the paper. Lin Yun knew that those names were the reason Yan Yue had asked her to build cenotaphs. Even though the girls were already dead, Yan Yue still wanted someone to remember them. That was the only thing she could ask Lin Yun to do for them.

The gifts in the box also carried that same feeling. They were ordinary things compared with the strange cards and other items, but they had been left behind deliberately. Lin Yun did not treat them carelessly. She looked at the jewelry and handkerchiefs again before placing them with the rest of the gifts. The box itself remained closed around the letter, keeping everything together.

The cards were another matter. Lin Yun needed to think about how to use them properly. The water card alone represented a large amount of water, while the electricity card could provide a significant amount of electricity. The storage cards were useful as well, and having six of them gave her more options when deciding how to handle the things she had received.

Still, none of those calculations could completely push Yan Yue’s words out of her mind. The letter had changed the way Lin Yun looked at everything inside the box. They were no longer simply items left behind after someone died. They were things that had been entrusted to her, along with a request she had already decided to fulfill if she returned to China.

She put the cards away and considered asking the others about them. There was no need to decide everything immediately. For now, she had recorded what she needed to know, and she could deal with each matter according to what happened next.

Song Xizheng then messaged her. Several survivors had been captured and held down in front of the float. They had been caught because they were looking at the parade instead of leaving.

Song Xizheng believed the black vests likely only appeared at night, but they could act during the parade. When the floats started, survivors needed to return to their shelters.

Lin Yun felt that Song Xizheng might be right. They indeed couldn’t see the black vests during the daytime.