Two or Three Events in the Last Days 001
Chapter 1 The Power Fails
At 5:30 pm, the office colleagues left work one after another. After finishing his last tasks, Jing Lin also turned off his computer and left for the day. He still had to go to the daycare center in the nearby residential area where he rented to pick up his little nephew, Le Le.
Le Le was five years old this year and was the child of his deceased older sister.
Last August, an earthquake occurred in X Province. Of his sister’s family, who lived there, only Le Le was rescued. The siblings’ parents had died early, and when Jing Lin was in college, their elderly grandfather had also passed away. In addition, there were no relatives on Le Le’s father’s side either, so Le Le’s guardianship fell to Jing Lin. The two of them were each other’s only remaining family.
At this time, it was the scorching heat of July, and students were on summer vacation. The kindergarten Le Le attended was also on break. But Jing Lin still had to go to work every day, so in the mornings, he could only take Le Le to a nearby daycare and then pick him up again after work in the evening.
When he arrived at the daycare, the teacher was already waiting at the entrance with Le Le.
Le Le, carrying a little duck backpack, immediately lit up when he saw his uncle. After turning to say goodbye to the teacher, he rushed toward Jing Lin like a little cannonball, threw himself against him, hugged his leg, and looked up at him. “Uncle!”
Jing Lin smiled and gently patted his head. Then he took his small hand, said goodbye to the teacher as well, and walked toward the bus stop.
Le Le had been trapped under a collapsed building for more than three days back then. He had never been very lively to begin with, but afterward he became even more silent. At first, he cried for his parents, and when he finally understood that they would never come back, he became even more dependent on Jing Lin. However, because Jing Lin had to work, he couldn’t stay with him all the time, which made him feel deeply guilty toward Le Le.
The two took a bus to the vegetable market not far from their home and bought some fresh vegetables before heading home.
Jing Lin was now twenty-seven years old and had already been working for several years. He had also been saving money to buy a house, but even after saving several years of salary, it still wasn’t enough for a down payment in the city where he lived. So he had always rented a place himself, and now Le Le had been added to his household.
Two or Three Events in the Last Days (TELD) is translated by Betwixted Translations. The site you’re reading this chapter on stole our translation.
The residential complex was an elevator apartment building constructed only a few years ago. The unit Jing Lin rented was on the sixth floor. He took Le Le’s hand and prepared to take the elevator, but when he saw a sign in front of it that said “Under Maintenance,” he had no choice but to take Le Le to climb the stairs.
The sun had sunk in the west. Although the temperature had dropped by evening, it was still hot. By the time the two of them climbed to the sixth floor, they were already drenched in sweat. After opening the door and entering the apartment, Jing Lin first turned on the air conditioner, then went into the kitchen to take out the leftover meat from the refrigerator to thaw. After that, he gave Le Le a bath, changed his clothes, turned on the television, and set it to a cartoon channel. Only then did he turn around and go back to the kitchen to prepare dinner for the two of them.
Although he was a young, single man, Jing Lin’s culinary skills were quite good. He took out the tender corn he had bought at the market earlier and husked half of it. After washing the rice, he put it into the pot and started cooking it. At the same time, he sliced open an eggplant and placed it on the steamer rack to steam. He also smashed a cucumber and set it aside to marinate. Finally, he sliced the thawed lean meat, took out a few green peppers, and prepared to make a simple stir-fried green pepper with pork.
Dinner that evening was corn porridge, steamed eggplant, cold cucumber salad, and a small dish of stir-fried pork with green peppers.
After eating dinner and cleaning up the kitchen, Jing Lin went to the bathroom to wash away the fatigue of the day. After washing both his and Le Le’s clothes, he went into the room, opened his laptop, and enjoyed the small amount of leisure time he had each day.
In truth, Jing Lin’s life in the past had been very plain and monotonous. Aside from going to work, at most he would occasionally go out for a meal with colleagues after work, then return home to browse Weibo or watch a movie. Now, the only difference was the added responsibility of raising Le Le; there had not been any major change.
When Jing Lin entered the room, Le Le turned off the TV and climbed up the bed behind him. While Jing Lin leaned against the headboard playing on his computer, Le Le sat beside him playing with his little duck toy. When he grew tired from playing, he would fall asleep on his own.
Jing Lin was browsing Weibo when he saw a post saying that there had been aftershocks in X Province that afternoon. His eyes darkened slightly. In his twenty-seven years of life, because his parents had died early, the people who had accompanied him the most were his grandfather and his sister. Now, both of them were gone, and his sister had left him in such a tragic way.
Two or Three Events in the Last Days (TELD) is translated by Betwixted Translations. The site you’re reading this chapter on stole our translation.
No longer in the mood to browse Weibo, Jing Lin prepared to shut down the computer and go to sleep.
However, just before he turned off the computer, the lights in the room suddenly dimmed. Lele, who had been playing with the little duck beside him, softly cried out in surprise. Then he clutched the duck and moved closer to Jing Lin, grabbing the corner of his pajamas and calling out to him fearfully, “Uncle!”
Jing Lin quickly reached out and gently patted his back to comfort him. Le Le had been buried under the rubble for three days back then, and after being rescued, he became very afraid of the dark. Because of this, Jing Lin had specially bought a floor lamp for the room and never turned it off at night.
The power had gone out, and the computer had lost its internet connection. Jing Lin left the computer on the bedside table and picked up the phone beside him to call the property management office. However, after dialing several times, it always showed that the line was busy—presumably other residents were also calling to ask about the situation. Jing Lin then opened Weibo on his phone. When he refreshed his page, he found that several cat and pet bloggers he followed were also saying their places were experiencing power outages and that it was extremely hot.
Jing Lin thought to himself that it couldn’t be such a coincidence. Could it be that everyone lived in the same residential complex?
Thinking this, Jing Lin got down from the bed and looked out the window. The moment he did, he froze on the spot.
Although this area was not exactly the city center, and the night would not be as bright as day, it still should not have been this dark. As far as he could see, aside from the occasional flash of passing car headlights, there were no other lights at all—not even the streetlights were on.
Could the entire city’s power system have collapsed?
Whether it was because the air conditioner had stopped or for some other reason, when Jing Lin came back to his senses, he realized he was already drenched in sweat, so he hurriedly opened the window.
Fortunately, although the power was out, there was still a bit of wind blowing at night, so the heat was not unbearable. Jing Lin took out a coil of mosquito-repellent incense from the drawer and lit it. He originally wanted to check Weibo again to see what was happening, but when he looked at his phone he saw it only had one bar of battery left. Since he needed it for the alarm in the morning, he shut the phone off.
Jing Lin did not plan to shut down the computer. Without some light, even with someone beside him, Le Le would still feel afraid.
Two or Three Events in the Last Days (TELD) is translated by Betwixted Translations. The site you’re reading this chapter on stole our translation.
In the middle of the night, Jing Lin woke up drenched in sweat. The laptop had already run out of power and shut off, leaving the room pitch black. He felt around for the phone on the bedside, turned it on, and checked the time—it was only a little past two in the morning. He shone the phone’s light toward Le Le and saw that Le Le was also covered in sweat, his small brows slightly furrowed as he slept uncomfortably.
Using the light from his phone, Jing Lin found a magazine and held it in his hand as a fan. Leaning against the headboard, he gently fanned Le Le while he himself gradually drifted back into a hazy sleep.
Because of the heat, Jing Lin slept poorly the entire night, waking and falling asleep repeatedly until dawn finally arrived. He pressed the bedside lamp and discovered the power still had not returned. Since he had turned off his alarm ahead of time, he got up wearily and went to wash up.
By the time he finished washing, Le Le had also woken up. The hair on his forehead was damp with sweat as he sat on the bed, rubbing his eyes.
Jing Lin picked up his phone, which did not have much battery left, and called the property management office, wanting to ask when the power might return today. At the same time, he opened the wardrobe to find the clothes Le Le would wear today and led the still half-asleep child into the bathroom to fill the tub and wash his hair.
The call was not connecting at all. When Jing Lin pulled the phone away to check, he saw that it had automatically hung up. He dialed again and only then realized there was no signal.
Jing Lin frowned, walked to the window, and opened his contacts to call a coworker from the company. The result was the same—the call disconnected after less than two seconds.
At that moment, Jing Lin’s heart pounded like a drum, and he felt an inexplicable sense of unease. He glanced at Le Le in the bathtub and decided not to send him to the daycare today.
After drying Le Le’s hair, Jing Lin picked up his briefcase and took Le Le’s hand as they left the apartment.
Words from the Translation Crew
Miiya:
Thank you for reading the pilot chapter of this story. If you have come from reading CLWP, HI! It’s me again. If you’re coming in here new, from the wild, welcome 🙂 I am just an avid BL reader, who just wants to help share more awesome stories.
I cannot guarantee complete accuracy of the translations, but will do my best, along with much-appreciated efforts from the editing and proofreading folks, to offer coherence for this next story. Please note, I am translating this as I read it for the first time, but I’m looking forward to reading it and sharing it with everyone.
I’m pretty active on Discord, so feel free to drop by to say hi, or leave comments here or on Discord if there are any inaccuracies, questions, or confusion. Constructive criticism welcomed.
This project is being arranged on a 1 or 2 chapter per weekend release schedule (it’ll probably start with one as we get back into a rhythm), with possible extra releases from the stockpile, when there is one (see Kofi notes).
Also, please note that some chapters have chapter names, and some don’t.
Translator: Miiya
Editor: MushroomKnight73
Proofreader: Yume
Avid BL reader, editor, and translator with 1 story completed (CLWP) and 1 story in progress (TELD). Support this translation with a Ko-fi. Three Ko-fis will add an extra chapter from the stockpile to the next weekly release.
